Neptune's Spatula (Episode)

Neptune's Spatula
© Viacom
Episode No.:	40b
Season:	1
Airdate:	April 1, 2000
Previous Episode:	Fools in April
Next Episode:	Hooky
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Mr. Krabs	Clancy Brown
SpongeBob and the Golden Spatula © Paramount Global

Neptune's Spatula is an episode from Season 1. In the episode, SpongeBob pulls out a legendary spatula and is challenged by King Neptune to an "Ultimate Cook-Off."

Info

Characters

SpongeBob SquarePants
Patrick Star
King Neptune (physical debut)
Larry the Lobster
Ice-cream vendor (Lou)
Everyone else at Fry Cook museum
Mr. Krabs
Audience at Poseidome
Guy in shower (cameo)
Sadie Rechid
Nancy
Old Lady
Frank
Fred
Tina
Scooter
Tom
Evelyn
Gary the Snail (rough storyboard)

Places

Plot

Neptune's Palace in Atlantis

At the fry cook museum, SpongeBob and Patrick are amazed by everything. They see a greasy griddle with a golden spatula embedded in the grease. On it is a plaque, which says "Many have tried to pull this spatula out of this ancient grease, but all have failed. Only a fry cook worthy of King Neptune himself can wield the Golden Spatula". While SpongeBob is posing for a picture with the spatula, an old lady asks him "Do you know where the menu section is?" SpongeBob replies "It's over that way." But when he is pointing to where the menu section is, he unexpectedly pulls the spatula out. Shortly afterwards, King Neptune appears from a cloud of smoke. He asks who pulled out the spatula, and SpongeBob takes credit. King Neptune however sees SpongeBob as "unsignificant" and does not want to believe SB is his fry cook. Neptune asks people such as Patrick, a hot dog seller, Larry the Lobster etcetera if they pulled the spatula but they tell the fact that SpongeBob did it.

Neptune laughs all these witnesses off but eventually gets impatient and tries to make up several fake excuses on why SpongeBob should not be a royal fry cook. Eventually when Patrick gets into the argument between SpongeBob and Neptune, the king loses his temper and blasts Patrick with his magic. Neptune finally realizes that SpongeBob is not kidding on pulling the spatula and asks SpongeBob if he wants to take a burger-making competition to prove he is worthy. Patrick however foolishly argues with the king about how great SpongeBob is and in return Neptune repeatedly blasts Patrick until he is a smear of ash and smoke. SpongeBob agrees to the challenge under the condition that Neptune repairs Patrick (Neptune agrees but his magic ends up putting Patrick's face on Patrick's rear side). Neptune then tells Patrick and SpongeBob that if SpongeBob wins he goes to live with Neptune in his faraway kingdom; Atlantis as a royal fry cook and if he loses SpongeBob must resign his career as a fry cook permanently and unconditionally.

At the Atlantis stadium the Poseidome, Mr. Krabs is hired as the director/announcer of the competition and makes Neptune and SB agree that the winner must make 1000 patties before the other. Neptune uses his magic to make burger fixings, his cooking supplies etcetera while SpongeBob makes a Krabby Patty at a normal pace. Eventually Neptune makes 1000 patties by the time SB makes his first one causing Neptune to win. Neptune however is disqualified because when giving the audience his burgers they chew them and instantly find them disgusting; Neptune did not show love onto the patties before giving them which makes them taste awful. Everyone then turns against Neptune and wants to give him a taste of his own medicine. Neptune finally accepts his loss and decides to try SpongeBob's patty which is proven delicious. King Neptune hires SpongeBob as his fry cook, apologizes for his disbelief but tells SpongeBob that the only cost for living in Atlantis as a god is that he must leave his friends, possessions and home behind him as he lives in comfort at the palace. SpongeBob however later decides that he does not want to leave and when Neptune's attempts to make SpongeBob into a god like him, fail, SpongeBob offers Neptune a compromise where SpongeBob will teach Neptune how to make his own good Krabby Patties to be his own fry cook but under the condition that SpongeBob will be allowed to remain in Bikini Bottom and only visit Atlantis on occasion.

Cultural References

The Poseidome is taken from Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Neptune is the Roman god of the sea.
The whole spatula in the "ancient grease" is a reference to the Arthurian legend of Excalibur, or the sword in the stone in which whoever pulls the sword from the stone would become the King of England. Also, the fact that it's called "ancient grease" can be seen as a play on Ancient Greece (the Ancient Roman god Neptune, and his Greek counterpart, Poseidon, do not seem to be distinguished in this episode).

Trivia/Goofs

The man taking a shower is actually Tom Kenny (SpongeBob's voice actor and additional voices (e.g., French Narrator, Patchy the Pirate, Gary)). This scene is also seen in the episode Suds.
This is Neptune's first appearance. His second was in the episode Party Pooper Pants in the Patchy segments as a real life person. His third appearance was in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, his fourth was in SpongeBob vs. The Patty Gadget, when he was mentioned very briefly. He also appeared in the video game Battle for Bikini Bottom along with the Poseidome. His next appearance was The Clash of Triton.
When Patrick takes the picture of SpongeBob just before Neptune appeared, SpongeBob is standing casually. However when Patrick shows the picture to Neptune, SpongeBob is seen as he was when he pulled the spatula out of the grease.
Patrick wore the same outfit in the SpongeBob game Employee of the Month.
In this episode, the Krusty Krab kitchen's walls are blue, but when SpongeBob said, "What did I tell you about using your powers, trainee?" the walls are green, a normal color.
This episode is an obvious reference to the "Sword and the Stone" from "The Legend of Camelot."
The likely explanation of why King Neptune's patties were awful may be because he didn't wash his hands recently or that magic does not taste good since the supplies were made of magic not real supplies.
The way Neptune loses the challenge by the fact that he did not perform perfect may be a reference to how in 1989 in the NASCAR Cup series, Rusty Wallace won the Sprint All-Star Race with the prize of $200,000 (over a million dollars in today's money) but his win was unpopular when the racing fans and officials discovered that he won by wrecking rival driver Darrell Waltrip on the final lap. Although Wallace kept the victory, as a result he lost nearly all his popularity.