"Truth or Square" is an hour-length episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, made in commemoration of the show's tenth anniversary. It premiered on Friday, November 6, 2009, to an audience of 7.7 million viewers, making it Nickelodeon's third-highest viewed premiere of the year, after "iFight Shelby Marx" and "iQuit iCarly". Additionally, this is highest viewed non-iCarly program of the year. The episode lead to the series premiere of Fanboy & Chum Chum.
Patchy the Pirate is waiting on SpongeBob to show up at his TV Extravaganza, with no reply. Thinking back to all of the time SpongeBob gave him no reply, he goes off to find SpongeBob, and rides his boat to Bikini Atoll. After Patchy ran off, P!nk and the other celebrities where waiting for their turn in the extravaganza, so they sang a song titled "We've Got Scurvy".
SpongeBob wakes up in the morning, with the help of many alarm clocks lined up to the foghorn clock, only to blow out more clocks, this wakes SpongeBob up, he then reveals that it is the eleventy-seven year anniversary since Mr. Krabs opened the Krusty Krab, he then rushes the way of the restaurant when, he bumps into other fish in line to get to the restaurant, and he knows that he cannot be late for this, so he jumps over the crowd's heads. SpongeBob arrives at the Krusty Krab and Mr. Krabs reminds them to keep a close eye on all of the doors, and entrances, that includes the air vents, to make sure that Plankton does not sneak in. Meanwhile, Plankton was talking to his computer wife about how he was a failure for 50 years of business, so he decides to sneak in while the Employees and Krabs were distracted by the festivities. Krabs then allows SpongeBob to decorate, but Squidward reminds him what happened the other time SpongeBob got to decorate. This time, however, SpongeBob opts to use the resources that he already has in the restaurant, and made it look great. But when they go to see the ice sculpture that he had made for the Krabby Patty, the door locks them in the freezer, so they hire Patrick, who had been hired for security, were locked in the freezer, so they climbed into the duct system to escape, and make their way through a giant maze of air ducts. SpongeBob then remembered the first time he ate a Krabby Patty, and he apparently loved it, even though when he had it he wasn't born yet. Mr. Krabs found a wrapper, from an older Patty, Krabs then had a flashback from the old Krusty Krab commercial. SpongeBob and the gang then go into another room, and it has many cameras, and they saw that SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward's houses were on camera, Krabs doesn't know what to say, but there is also two men recording them at that very minute, Meanwhile, Plankton was having trouble trying to find the Krabby Patty Formula, and eventually he fell right to the duct the gang was in, while Krabs had split up to find another way. Patchy is almost to Bikini Bottom when he is eaten by a whale. He then remembers the time that Krabs told him the formula, and Plankton failed to find out what it is because the Krabs in the flashback threw Plankton down an air duct. Then they eventually came to the point where SpongeBob was being remembered by Squidward, the times before he moved in and the day that it happened. Krab's wallet was going crazy about all of the loose change, so Krabs let it go to get some money, only to be picked up by an unsuspecting man. After they failed an attempt to call her on a radio transmitter to come and rescue them when Patrick destroys it and all of Bikini Bottom came to the play. SpongeBob then remembered a play where him and Sandy are married. Now Patchy the Pirate was stuck in the belly of a whale, and he played the Scenes of SpongeBob before it aired (including the Squidward, Patrick & Mr. Krabs theme song), his camera goes haywire and the whale spits him out, right back into the studio, where he is knocked unconscious and he believed he was meeting SpongeBob, he then was knocked out again, and it was just a dream, the celebrities in the studio then told him he can see SpongeBob everywhere, and he is knocked unconscious again. At this point SpongeBob used all of the gang as a battering ram, and got them out, only to discover that all of the customers were gone, and then SpongeBob sang the Krusty Krabs song "Oh, Krusty Krab", which brought all of the customers back and they started singing in a circle, and then the Krusty Krab was in business, and everyone was happy. Plankton, on the other hand, was discovered by Krabs and was blown into a balloon after he pleads with him to not launch him. The episode ends with SpongeBob wishing the Restaurant happy eleventy seventh anniversary.
Home video releases[]
DVD
SpongeBob SquarePants: Truth or Square
SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 6, Volume 1
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Pilot, A Mini-Movie and the SquareShorts
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Next 100 Episodes
SpongeBob SquarePants: Bikini Bottom Bash
iTunes
SpongeBob SquarePants: Volume 9
Trivia[]
At the beginning, when Patchy arrives, a banner for Dora the Explorer can be seen outside of Nickelodeon Studios. Also, a banner of Aang can be seen, and even Cosmo is seen on a banner.
In Latin America and Spain, the title was called "Stuck in the Freezer."
It is revealed that Tina Fey is also a fan of SpongeBob when she said, "I'm not much of a singer, but I love SpongeBob."
This is the first time stop-motion was used in SpongeBob SquarePants.
This is the very first SpongeBob episode to be broadcast in widescreen (16:9 or 1:78:1) format to fit a HDTV. The show would use this format again for "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!" in season 8, before permanently switching to widescreen for the ninth season.
The original title of this special was "The Great Escape!", which was used for the storybook adaptation.
The German version premiered on the 7th of November, a day after it aired in the USA on the 6th.
On the first rerun, all the first Patchy scenes were removed and the episode started with the "extravaganza", and additional scenes were shown.
The old SpongeBob cartoon is similar to old Disney and Fleischer cartoons.
At the very beginning of the episode instead of playing his nose as a flute, SpongeBob plays it as a trombone.
In the U.S., this episode was originally going to air on November 9, but it was moved to November 6.
When Sandy was in her wedding dress, the patch of tan fur on her torso didn't extend to above her breasts, as it normally does.
During the credits for this episode, instead of the usual theme music, Squidward sings the song "Beautiful Dreamer", with some lyrics changed.
For some reason, this episode and the video game adaptation have different stories. In the episode, SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs get locked in the freezer and get lost in the vents. But in the video game, SpongeBob keeps the Krabby Patty formula somewhere safe but forgets where he kept it.
It is revealed that SpongeBob has 3 moles and a birthmark on his back.
In the beginning, when SpongeBob leaves his house after singing he bumps into Harold, who is in a line going all the way to the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob declares he cannot be late and jumps on the fish heads. If you listen and watch closely you can hear that the men fish have women voices and the women fish have men's voices.
The theme song was sung by Cee-Lo Green.
Krabs breaks the fourth wall twice by mentioning flashbacks.
For the parodies of the opening sequence with Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward replacing SpongeBob, the characters' respective voice actors took Stephen Hillenburg's place as Painty the Pirate.
"Oh-Krusty Krab" is a parody of the song "Oh Christmas Tree."
There are three different versions of this episode:
Version 1: The general version of the episode, that aired on Nick the day it premiered. This version used to be on Netflix but was eventually replaced with the second version.
Version 2: An alternate version of the episode, that is used in most syndicated versions. This version removes the Patchy scenes at the beginning, as well as celebrity cameos by Rosario Dawson, LeBron James, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, Craig Ferguson, and Robin Williams. This version starts with the extravaganza portion, and there are various lines that version 1 does not have.
Version 3: The extended version of the episode, which was only released on DVD. It is a combination of versions 1 and 2, and also contains various deleted scenes that are not found in the other versions. Deleted scenes include a cameo by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a scene with Robin Williams in the bathroom, and an extended epilogue, where the narrator compares Patchy to Blackbeard the Pirate.
When SpongeBob is talking about when he first moved in, you can also see a part where he says, "Hey Patrick! Guess who just moved in next door!" This is weird because SpongeBob actually knew Patrick's name even though he just moved in. However, according to "The Secret Box," he has been Patrick's best friend since they met in the hospital they were born in.
If a baby was able to pull out its umbilical cord in real-life, it will die because the cord is acting like an oxygen tube.
When SpongeBob laughs after saying "Yee-haw!" in a flashback, his laugh sounds gargled but on the next scene, his laugh is normal.
When they flashback to every time SpongeBob decorated, the two fish at the Krusty Krab are the same.
When Patchy was driving the boat past the studio, you can see a drawing of Squidward on the wall of the studio.
In the flashback of the time SpongeBob first visited the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob's mother is pregnant with SpongeBob, but in "Your Shoe's Untied," SpongeBob is shown to have been in an egg before he was born.
This is one of the few episode's Patrick's fighting ability is shown.
This is the longest SpongeBob episode, lasting 51 minutes.
Cultural references[]
The title is a spoof to the game and movie "Truth or Dare".
The "eleventy-seventh anniversary" gag was based on Lord of the Rings, where Bilbo says it is his eleventy-first birthday.
Errors[]
When Patchy yells "What?! What do you mean he is not coming!" his hook is on his left hand but when he leaves the studio, the hook is on his right hand
When Plankton falls down an air duct and lands in the one that SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward are in in their last scene in the duct system, that duct is underground, but later in the episode, when Mr. Krabs throws his wallet out through the peephole, and when they escape, the duct is above the ground.
SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward follow the underground map of the Krusty Krab. However, they appear to over ground the whole time, as they traveled through the air duct in the ceiling. They also appear to be over ground when Mr. Krabs looks out a hole in the roof to see the customers. It is possible they went underground when they fell through one of the air ducts and then traveled back up to the roof off-screen.
When SpongeBob's pineapple comes to life in the 30's-style segment, the pipe disappears.
Plankton said that he had been launched every time that he failed (excluding his failure in the end of this episode). However, in Plankton's Army it was shown that he was flushed down the toilet instead of being launched.
When Squidward points out that Patrick left his TV on, Patrick's mouth is red for a couple seconds. When he replies to Squidward with "Well, duh! I don't wanna miss my shows!", his mouth is black again.
During the wedding play when Sandy walked by an anchovy, his eyes are gone.
When SpongeBob got to lead Patrick and Squidward down the air vent, in the zoom-in he wore garders. When it pops out of the zoom, they are gone.
In the room of cameras, some cameras would be highly visible to people,such as the camera in Sandy's bathroom.