SpongeBob and Patrick board a bus to get home from Glove World!, a glove-themed amusement park that they enjoy. They accidentally board the wrong bus, which takes them down a cliff. The cliff leads to a sort of aphotic zone called Rock Bottom, inhabited by multiple unusual and strange deep-sea animals. SpongeBob tells Patrick to wait while he goes to try and find a bus schedule. While SpongeBob is gone searching, Patrick gets on the bus to go home but accidentally leaves SpongeBob behind. SpongeBob tries to find a bus that will take him home but nothing happens.
After various unsuccessful attempts to get on a bus, SpongeBob heads to the bus station and waits in a very long line. By the time he gets to the front, after finding they blow raspberries in between words and must talk that way, he finds out that the last bus to Bikini Bottom will leave in a few seconds, but before he has time to react, it pulls away from the station.
The Ticketmaster tells SpongeBob that it was the last bus until morning and leaves for the night, shutting off the lights in the process. SpongeBob, who is starting to show fear and anxiety, takes out his glove flashlight, but the battery shorts out, leaving him in "advanced darkness." As he stands alone in the station giving himself a pep-talk, he hears the familiar raspberry sound echoing and makes a mad dash back to the cliff. The raspberry sound is getting closer, and SpongeBob cowers in fear, yelling out a weak threat. As the creature closes in, a bright light engulfs SpongeBob, and he lets out a scream. He is relieved when he noticed the light is coming from a friendly-looking anglerfish creature who found SpongeBob's lost glove balloon. SpongeBob sarcastically thanks him for solving the balloon problem but begins rambling about his other problem: trying to get home. The anglerfish blows up the balloon and ties it to SpongeBob's wrist. SpongeBob makes another sarcastic comment about how the balloon already has enough air while closing his eyes and blowing raspberries. He opens his eyes to see he is floating in the air and understands the anglerfish was helping him using the unorthodox method of balloon travel. He thanks the anglerfish for his help, who replies with a polite "you're welcome" and waves goodbye.
SpongeBob travels back to Bikini Bottom using the balloon and lands in front of his house before the balloon pops. Patrick rides on a bus back to Rock Bottom, thinking that SpongeBob is still stuck there.
On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Rock Bottom."[3]
‣Moon Walk - John Fox [Title card] ‣Roll Up Waltz [#11.05] - Andrew J J Hall [Opening at Glove World!] •Closing Theme 2 - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob and Patrick on the bus] ‣Missile Disaster - John Fox [Bikini Bottom City Limits] ‣On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz [Bus drives down a cliff] ‣Moon Walk - John Fox [SpongeBob and Patrick in Rock Bottom] ‣Mavericks - The Woodies [SpongeBob chasing the bus] ‣Hawaiian Link (B) - Richard Myhill [Waiting for next bus] ‣Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["Uh-oh, shoe's untied."] ‣Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill [SpongeBob still waiting] •Grass Skirt Chase - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [The wind blows SpongeBob's balloon away] •Hawaiian Adventures aka SpongeBob Theme - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Someone chases SpongeBob's balloon.] ‣Kamakani B - Kapono Beamer ["Well, there goes another one."] ‣Orchestral Effect (F) - Dick Stephen Walter [Glove candy dispenser] •Gator - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob sees a candy machine] ‣Pell-Mell - Sam Spence [Pushing buttons on machine] •Tension Bit - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob reaches toward the candy bar] ‣Deadline - Sam Spence [SpongeBob goes to the bus station] ‣Hawaiian Cocktail - Richard Myhill [329th in line] ‣On The Beach - Kapono Beamer [Clock ticking] ‣Menace from the Deep - Robert Cornford [Lights turned off] ‣Death Trap [#25] - Gregor F. Narholz [Someone approaching] ‣Royal Hawaiian Hula - Kapono Beamer [SpongeBob's balloon travel home] ‣Honolulu March - Hans Haider [The ending.]
*On The Complete 1st Season and The First 100 Episodes DVDs, "Mavericks" is replaced with "El Dementia" by The Surfdusters while on the Amazon Prime Video, iTunes and Paramount+ versions of this episode has the "Mavericks."
The first episode where the storyboard artists are not credited.
The first mentioning of Grandpa SquarePants when SpongeBob imitates him. However, his first actual appearance is in "The Sponge Who Could Fly," albeit in a thought bubble.
This and its sister episode make the first half-hour episode to not feature Squidward, though his house is briefly seen in both episodes.
The first episode to use the production music track "Missile Disaster."
Residents of Rock Bottom all speak by blowing a raspberry in between words. When SpongeBob tries to speak normal to the fish at the bus station, the fish could not understand his "accent" until SpongeBob starts to blow his tongue to speak.
Rock Bottom's other areas are never shown in this episode. SpongeBob only stays near the bus stop, the bus station, and the entrance road, not going any further. However, in some video games, such as Employee of the Month and SpongeBob's Boating Bash, Rock Bottom's other locations and sights are shown.
In the console version of the Lights, Camera, Pants! video game, there is an art gallery with a painting that is based on this episode.
Mr. Lawrence stated that the idea for this episode came from his own moment of getting on the wrong bus as a kid and the bus driver going the entire route before he would let him and his friend off in the right place, which frightened them both.[8]
The opening credits for this episode are in light blue instead of the regular navy blue.
This is also the case for its sister episode, "Arrgh!"
The fish who works at the Rock Bottom bus station and gives schedules of when the buses are coming is the same fish who stole SpongeBob's Kelp Nougat Crunch candy bar from the vending machine.
The gag where SpongeBob and Patrick hit something and peel off together would later be repeated in the episode "Roller Cowards."
Coincidentally, both episodes feature Glove World!
In the level "Rock Bottom" from Battle for Bikini Bottom and Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated, when the player first starts this level and runs toward the Kandy Machine near the bus stop, a bus will drive up, stop at the bus stop for a second, and then continue driving. This is a reference to the incident in this episode; there was also a familiar reference in the video game The Cosmic Shake.
Certain signs have been misspelled, possibly deliberately. The bus stop sign reads "BUZ" with a "Z" at the end instead of an "S" at the end (or maybe a backwards "S"). The vending machine sign has a "K" replacing the "C," and the "N" is backwards.
The buttons that SpongeBob presses for a Kelp Nougat Crunch are A-B-E-F-A-C-F-E-C.
The citizens of Rock Bottom are based on deep-sea animals, and Rock Bottom is apparently a deep-sea trench.
This episode inspired the roller coaster SpongeBob SquarePants:Rock Bottom Plunge, at the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN which opened on March 15, 2008, exactly 8 years after the episode premiered.
SpongeBob saying, "advanced darkness" has become an internet meme.
This is the first and, so far, only episode to end with a bubble transition.
The audio of SpongeBob saying, "Hey!" after the bus passes the first time he goes to the vending machine is rather similar to the bus driver's line in "Help Wanted."
In the Spanish (Latin American) dub, after SpongeBob shouts 'Tartar sauce' (Salsa tartara), instead of speaking gibberish afterward, he shouts "...las percebes, tentaculos, medusas" ([the] barnacles, tentacles, jellyfish) then speaks gibberish.[20]
Cultural references
Rock bottom is a figure of speech that means at the lowest possible level, fitting the city's location.
Errors
At the beginning of this episode, when SpongeBob says, "Another fun-tastic day at Glove World!," his lips do not move when he says the "Glove World" part.
This error was fixed on The Complete 1st Season and The First 100 Episodes DVDs.
If the scene when SpongeBob and Patrick are boarding the bus is played frame-by-frame, SpongeBob's right arm is missing but appears for a brief moment.
The second time when SpongeBob checks for money in his pants, the pocket is fully brown.
When SpongeBob looks at the vending machine, it is facing him, but when he is choosing the candy he wants, it is facing the opposite side of the road at a 90-degree angle.
When Patrick asks SpongeBob where "Leaving Bikini Bottom" is, SpongeBob has one of the gloves that Patrick got for his glove action figure on his nose. When he looks out of the bus window to see where they are going and then gets out of said window, the glove on his nose is gone.
When SpongeBob yells at the man at the bus station, a sign that reads "Information" can be seen above the window, but when the lights shut off, the sign disappears.
When SpongeBob and Patrick arrive at Rock Bottom, there is no candy machine.
When SpongeBob and Patrick get on the bus, there is a fish sleeping on one of the seats, but when they arrive at Rock Bottom, he is gone.
When SpongeBob looks for a bus schedule, he has his balloon, but when he chases after the bus, the balloon is not in his hands. Then, in the next scene, he has his balloon again.
When SpongeBob is first seen dialing the letters on the candy machine, the sign titled "BUZ" disappears. It reappears in the next scene.
When SpongeBob chases the bus, his running animation shows him running forward. However, he actually runs to the side.
When the cardboard SpongeBob is at the candy machine, it does not smile, but it smiles when it falls.
File:Polish 20200125 131858038.pngThe cardboard cutout on the left is not smiling, but the one on the right is smiling when the cardboard cut out begins to fall.
When the bus stops in Rock Bottom, the bubbles behind it freeze in mid-air.
The distance between the bus stop and when the road goes up varies between scenes.
The storyboard artists are not credited in this episode. Only the storyboard directors are credited.
In the bus station, when the lights turn off, the !ИFθRNNA|-'iθИَ sign disappears, but a few scenes later, it reappears.
File:Rock Bottom 226.pngHis house is next to Bikini Bottom, Squidward's and Patrick's house are missing, and the pineapple is poorly edited.
There are a few errors during the scene in which SpongeBob flies above Bikini Bottom.
SpongeBob's house is shown in downtown Bikini Bottom, next to many townspeople's houses. When he gets to his house, his house is no longer surrounded by the townspeople's houses.
Patrick's and Squidward's houses are missing, but in the next scene, they reappear.
SpongeBob's pineapple is colored differently than the surrounding area, showing that the image was digitally inserted onto a pre-existing background.
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