Mermaid Man Begins (Episode)

Mermaid Man Begins
© Paramount Global
Episode No.:	163a
Season:	8/2011
Airdate:	September 23, 2011
Previous Episode:	Ghoul Fools
Next Episode:	Plankton’s Good Eye
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Squidward Tentacles	Rodger Bumpass
© Paramount Global

Mermaid Man Begins is an episode from Season 8 and the tenth in the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy miniseries of episodes. In the episode, we learn the origin story of the underwater superhero and his sidekick Barnacle Boy.

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When SpongeBob and Patrick are getting to watch the origins of their favorite superheros when a un-expecting storm ruins the fun they both must find a way to learn the stories of how their favorite superheroes became the legendary heroes they are today. Mermaid Man argues that the story is that he falls asleep on a beach, and gets washed up by the waves, and gets sucked into a whirlpool. While he was running out of oxygen, mermaids give him a starfish on his nose so he can breathe underwater. Then, as Barnacle Boy is cleaning the barnacles on his captain’s ship, he has to go underwater to get the ones on the bottom. While doing this, Mermaid Man makes Barnacle Boy’s lungs nothing but barnacles from the boat, making him breathe underwater as well. And thus, they teamed up. barnacle boy says that the only reason he teamed up was because he could no longer breath air. MM and BB start arguing about it when the TV comes back on and they see what really was their origin.

Tim and Ernie (a reference to their voice actors) were having a movie night in their apartment. Ernie started to cook the popcorn. Then their upstairs neighbor, who was a scientist specializing in radioactive ants, knocked over a jar of his latest expirement. One ant went through a crack in the ceiling and bit Ernie. He ran in pain and both he and Tim fell out the window and into an acid factory; the vat they fell into was knocked over by a UFO, causing them to be carried through town on a wave of acid during an eclipse on a leap year. They were struck by lighting bolts while radioactive ooze rained. Tim and Ernie returned to their apartment, but the popcorn was overcooked. This led to them becoming Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.

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This happens to be the strongest storm in town than the last one seen in SpongeHenge. It even took the homes of SpongeBob and Squidward away.
Barnacle Boy was called Tim and Mermaid Man was named Ernie before they were superheroes. This is a reference to the voice actors that play them.
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were exposed to tons of nuclear radiation, yet they became superheroes after eating overcooked popcorn.
The title is a reference to the 2005 movie Batman Begins, which started Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight film trilogy.
This is the last episode where Ernest Borgnine plays Mermaid Man while he was still alive, as he died on July 8, 2012.