The Algae’s Always Greener (Episode)

The Algae’s Always Greener
© Paramount Global
Episode No.:	41a
Season:	3/2001
Airdate:	March 22, 2002
Previous Episode:	Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm
Next Episode:	SpongeGuard on Duty
Characters	Voice actors
Sheldon J. Plankton	Doug Lawrence
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Squidward Tentacles	Rodger Bumpass
Mr. Krabs	Clancy Brown
Holographic Meatloaf © Paramount Global

The Algae’s Always Greener is the first episode of season 3, featuring Plankton. In the episode, in another attempt to get the Krabby Patty formula, Plankton switches lives with Mr. Krabs.

[edit] Info

[edit] Characters

Sheldon J. Plankton
SpongeBob SquarePants
Karen
Old Man Walker
Mr. Krabs
Tom
Fred
Bikini Bottomites
Pearl Krabs (mentioned)
- Pearl Plankton (debut)
Nancy
Harold
Squidward Tentacles

[edit] Plot

At the Krusty Krab, Old Man Walker grabs a bottle of ketchup and heads to a table. Since he is old, he accidentally shoots it at a wall. Plankton is inside the ketchup bottle, and doesn’t expect this. He’s been fired through the wall and into the office of Mr. Krabs, who throws him back to the Chum Bucket. As Plankton tries to think of a new plan, Karen suggests he uses a ”Switch-Lives-Just-to-Know-What-It’s-Like-o-Mogrifier”, which he conveniently made last Tuesday. Plankton takes Karen’s advice and finds himself waking up in the Krusty Krab, wearing Krabs’ clothes. There’s also a nameplate reading "Mr. Plankton" instead of "Mr. Krabs", which means: Plankton’s successfully entered a universe where he owns the Krusty Krab instead of Krabs owning it. He then has SpongeBob (now his employee) present him with two Krabby Patties for a "bun inspection". As Mr. Plankton celebrates his newfound wealth, SpongeBob suddenly appears for his weekly performance review. Mr. Plankton dismissively tells his yellow subordinate that he’s fine the way he is, but SpongeBob begs for evaluation. Plankton makes up a critique that SpongeBob’s "using too much sauce", but rather than placating him, it sends SpongeBob into bizarrely manifested despair in spite of wanting to be criticized. Mr. Plankton resorts to promoting SpongeBob to "co-cashier", much to the disdain of Plankton’s other employee, Squidward Tentacles. Squidward enters Plankton’s office to raise a stink and ends up as SpongeBob’s fry-cooking replacement. Before Mr. Plankton can get back to his Krabby Patties, his new daughter, Pearl, arrives, asking for an advance on her allowance. He gives her one dollar, which she finds unacceptably small. As she cries, a customer complains about Squidward’s horrific attempt at kitchen work while SpongeBob dissolves over a slightly mistaken order. Plankton begs for all the complaining to stop, which happens because of a siren going off. The siren, as SpongeBob explains, is a warning for an imminent threat to the Krabby Patty formula, which turns out to be Eugene Krabs. Having life circumstances closer to those of Plankton at the beginning of the episode, he’s now simply known as "Krabs", out to steal the formula, and (just like Plankton used to be) completely naked. SpongeBob fights Krabs with a cannon launching clothes, and finally manages to clap him in an underwire bra. Krabs relinquishes his stolen burger to a baffled Mr. Plankton as everyone else gives a "victory screech". Krabs vows to Mr. Plankton that one day, he will manage to steal a Krabby Patty, even if he has to raid the place daily, which he repeats as he leaves. Plankton finally finds his nemesis’ life intolerable. He screams and disrobes before pushing a button, which turns everything back to normal. Plankton’s transported directly in front of his holographic meatloaf back at the Chum Bucket within his own universe. He has a newfound appetite for the meatloaf and scoops it up, "eating" it without hesitation as the episode ends.

[edit] Trivia/Goofs

The title is a parody of the sayings "the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill" or "the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence".
- Also, Plankton’s quote to Karen before switching lives with Mr. Krabs ("a rolling stone gathers no algae") is a parody of the saying: "a rolling stone gathers no moss".
A live shrimp is featured in this episode when Mr. Krabs says "So long, shrimp!" before launching Plankton.
The burger that Plankton takes a closer look at resembles the Nasty Patty from the episode: Nasty Patty.
It seems that although Plankton had switched lives with Mr. Krabs, the restaurant’s still called the Krusty Krab and the burger’s still called the Krabby Patty.
When SpongeBob says "he is around here somewhere", the captions read "he’s around here somewhere".
Plankton can afford holographs, but apparently not food.
This is the first time Mr. Krabs is completely naked. The second time would be in the episode Best Frenemies.
Several lines are deleted in the comic version:
- "Ouch."
- "No..."
- "Ahh."
- "Corporate casual!"
- "But I've never reviewed anything, except for those foreign exercise videos my cousin sent me."
- "Oh, please sir! I wanna make you so happy and proud!"
- "What?"
- "The sauce."
- "So have you two known each other or what?"
- "Hope you like gray."
- "In a cosmic sort of way, yes."
- "Well, Mr. Funny Man, is this how you get your sick kicks?"
- "I tried, Mr. Plankton, I really did."
- "Where’s the "off" button on this thing?"
- "I don’t understand. Is there a gas leak in here?"
There’s a deleted scene taking place after Plankton goes back to his regular life; the other universe characters remark that Mr. Plankton needs help and has become a nut job.
This is the first episode where the primary-universe SpongeBob doesn’t appear. However, his Mr. Plankton Universe counterpart appears instead.