Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (Episode)

Revision as of 20:45, 5 November 2007

"Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season one. It premiered on August 21, 1999. Template:Spoiler Brief summary: When SpongeBob and Patrick learn that their retired heroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are living nearby, they try to convince the two to come out of retirement. Little do they know how difficult that proves to be.

Time/Date:

• 2:00 PM: SpongeBob and Patrick walk into Shady Shoals.

Time cards shown: None

Characters Present:

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Patrick Star
• Mermaid Man (debut)
• Barnacle Boy (debut)
• Squidward Tentacles
• Shady Shoals manager
• Shady Shoals staff and occupan
  • Old Man Jenkins

Plot

Whilst pestering Squidward, SpongeBob and Patrick learn that their heroes, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, are in fact living in the Shady Shoals underwater retirement home, and they try to bring the two out of retirement, much to the annoyance of the geriatric Bikini Bottom superheroes who only want their TV fixed. SpongeBob and Patrick go through all kinds of hilarious antics to reunite their superhero pals and eventually succeed, thereby creating Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy's new show: The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. Note: It's the first episode that involves the superheroes in a checkers match. When Mermaid Man sits down, a comic book bubble appears and dramatizes the word "SIT!!". This is an obvious pun on the old Batman Series. The phone gets broken, and when Mermaid Man hangs up the phone, the bubble appears again and says "HANG UP!". Will our heroes ever get their phone fixed? Tune in next week and find out. And when SpongeBob winks, a yellow bubble comes up and says "WINK!!!!" The ironic thing about this is that in most comic books, the dramatization of simple words usually comes in on action fighting scenes, but in this SpongeBob episode, it exaggerates the word dramatization.

Cultural References

• When Spongebob and Patrick devote themselves to help Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, music from Jurassic Park is heard in the background.
• Mermaid Man's outfit and super powers are both very similar to Aquaman.

DVD Recorder

Bikini Bottom Best Friends Collection

The Series

This episode is followed by a mini-series of sequels:

• Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy II
• Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy III (which do not incude Mermaid Man and Barnicle Boy)
• Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy IV
• Superfriends: Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy V
• Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy VI: The Motion Picture
• Mermaid Man & Barnicle Boy VII

Trivia/Goofs

Template:Trivia

• When Patrick takes the doughnut from the box its normal but when they "unite", it shows he has the chocolate one which was left in the box. After that scene it shows he has the normal doughnut again.
• Mermaid Man illegally moves one of his checkers into a red space before the screen switches to "King ME!"
• When Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy say "Dog paddle away!" and start dog paddling, you can clearly see Mermaid Man's socks are missing. After, they return.
• When Spongebob and Patrick are first asking the man at the front desk to see Mermaidman and Barnacleboy, an article on the inside of his newspaper reads, "School Drop Out Rate Increases."

Transscript

Episode Transscript: Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy