SB-129 (Episode)

SB-129
© Viacom
Episode No.:	41a
Season:	3
Airdate:	March 22, 2002
Previous Episode:	Neptune's Spatula
Next Episode:	Karate Choppers
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Squidward Tentacles	Rodger Bumpass
Primate Sponge © Viacom

SB-129 is an episode from Season 3.

Plot

The day (June 23, 2020) starts off quite well for Squidward. He is about to practice his Clarinet when SpongeBob's alarm clock (facing out the window) knocks the clarinet inside Squidward's mouth, and SpongeBob asks Squidward if he wants to go jellyfishing. Squidward tries to reply, but because his clarinet is in his mouth, anything he says is incomprehensible, and SpongeBob thinks he said "yes". After Squidward takes his clarinet out of his mouth, Squidward is constantly bothered in his house by SpongeBob and Patrick who want to go jellyfishing with him. Squidward, in an attempt to stop SpongeBob and Patrick bothering him, tells SpongeBob that he should be at work, but SpongeBob tells him that it is a Sunday, and the Krusty Krab is closed on Sundays.

Squidward tells SpongeBob and Patrick to stay where they are, and goes out the back door of his house and goes into the Krusty Krab. He sees SpongeBob and Patrick looking for him, and goes into the kitchen. SpongeBob and Patrick are still looking for him, so he goes into the freezer. After SpongeBob and Patrick go away, Squidward is frightened to find that the handle is jammed, and that he is stuck inside the freezer. He assures himself that someone will find him.

Unfortunately, this is not true and 2000 years later (on June 23, 4020) , the door falls down and a frozen Squidward is defrosted by 'SpongeTron', a descendant of SpongeBob. Squidward finds out that everything in the future (ecept for people) is made entirely of chrome, and all organic life forms that aren't people (such as seaweed or kelp) are simply spray-painted chrome. SpongeTron introduces Squidward to his clones; X, Y, and Z. SpongeTron informs Squidward that there are 486 SpongeTrons in response to the the question asked by Squidward "Are the other letters of the alphabet involved, here?", meaning that the English alphabet has been expanded, merged with another character set, or (most likely) it was hyperbole by the animators to make the future more complex. Squidward decides that he hates the future, so SpongeTron directs him to a time machine, which is actually a small room with a control panel. Squidward uses the time machine (shortly after meeting Patron, a two-headed descendant of Patrick) to travel to the prehistoric past, ripping the entire room out of the building in the process.

He meets Primitive Sponge and Prehistoric Starfish, whom are the ancestors of SpongeBob and Patrick. Squidward tells them about jellyfishing because they keep on torturing themselves with jellyfish. They seem to be interested, but are driven crazy by Squidward's clarinet, and chase after him. He goes into the time machine, but it malfunctions, and he goes to a very strange place with abstract shapes and no characters or setting (it is possibly an alternate universe, another dimension, or a time warp, but Squidward calls it 'nowhere'). After he finds the time machine, he begs it to return to the present, which it does, but Squidward finds out that in his travels, he invented jellyfishing. The episode ends when Squidward says "I'm going back."

Trivia/Goofs

This is the other episode in Season 1 in which Squidward is the main character.
The episode, which arises from Squidward time traveling and inventing the game of jellyfishing while seeking to avoid SpongeBob and Patrick as they want him to jellyfish with them, is an example of a time paradox known as a casual loop, in which a person is inspired or driven by an event to time travel and, whether or not intentionally, causes the event which will facilitate their initial time traveling trip.
This is the first (and only) episode in which the title was spoken when the title card was shown. This is also one of the ten episodes in which the title card has an animation. The others are Pre-Hibernation Week, One Krab's Trash, Idiot Box, SpongeBob Meets the Strangler, Skill Crane, Karate Island, All that Glitters, The Donut of Shame, and The Krabby Kronicle.
The episode parodies the black comedy Futurama, where the main character Fry was frozen in 2002 and was released in the future. The same thing happens to Squidward.
The calendar in the future says that the date is June 23, 4020 AD.
The words "past" and "future" switch places from when Squidward first enters the time machine and when he goes in from the past. Additionally, nothing is written on the lever when Squidward "falls" into the time machine towards the end.
When Squidward first arrives in the "Nowhere" zone, he has his clarinet. But when he begins running frantically, the clarinet disappears. When he falls through the roof of the time machine, the clarinet is back in his hand.
When Squidward said "Alone", other voices came. These voices were voiced by the entire crew of the show.
"SB-129" was originally going to be called "SpongeBob 3000".
The episode aired on December 31, 1999 and involved traveling to the future. This could be a note on the upcoming millenium and new century.
SB-129 was this episode's production code.
In SpongeBob SquarePants: SuperSponge, Chapter 3 takes place in the prehistoric Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob also uses a similar time machine to get there.
When Squidward goes into the can opener room, he is shown looking like a spring. When he goes into the time machine, he is normal.