Imitation Krabs

"Imitation Krabs" is the second segment of the 24th episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
==Synopsis==
Plankton shows up at the Krusty Krab, disguised as a robot fish resembling a salesman. He tells SpongeBob that he will win $1,000,000 if he answers "what is the Krabby Patty secret formula?", but SpongeBob says that it can only be discussed with Mr. Krabs in private. Plankton furiously jumps out of his robot, demanding SpongeBob tell him the formula, but Mr. Krabs catches him and shoots him back to the Chum Bucket.
Later that day, Plankton returns in a robotic version of Mr. Krabs. Squidward isn't fooled by the disguise, but he plays along when "Krabs" lets him take the day off. He then tries to get SpongeBob, who is working in the supply room, to tell him the secret formula, but the real Mr. Krabs keeps coming into the room, forcing him to hide each time. Eventually, Plankton throws out a penny and gets Mr. Krabs to run after it, completely distracting him.
Afterwards, Plankton comes up to SpongeBob to discuss the Krabby Patty formula, soon finding out that in order to do so, he must first do a ridiculously long and complicated ritual (including standing on one leg and singing the Bikini Bottom national anthem while balancing chocolate milk on their heads, shooting themselves out of a cannon and through a ring of fire, eating a plate of spaghetti and 105 black licorice jellybeans through a straw, among other things), which takes him six-and-a-half hours to accomplish. When SpongeBob is about to give him the bottle the recipe is kept in, the real Mr. Krabs suddenly comes into the kitchen, still in pursuit of the penny Plankton threw earlier. After both Krabs argued over which of them was real (the fake Krabs even claimed that the other was a robot), SpongeBob gives them both a quiz about the Krusty Krab, threatening to blast the fake one with a hose of tartar sauce. The fake Krabs gets all the answers to the quiz correctly (obviously via its technology) while Mr. Krabs keeps answering wrong until SpongeBob squirts him with tarter sauce and rolls him out the door in a giant plate of food. SpongeBob then gives "Mr. Krabs" the penny that he "dropped", putting it in the robot's coin-operated self-destruct mechanism. This blows Plankton into the sky right after he makes a frantic run for the Chum Bucket with the formula still in his possession. As the secret formula bottle rolls back towards SpongeBob, he then realizes that he just threw out the real Mr. Krabs. He promptly saves Mr. Krabs, who is being attacked by a hungry Hans, and rolls him back into the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob apologizes, and Mr. Krabs forgives him, but tells SpongeBob that the penny is coming out of his paycheck.
==Home video releases==
;VHS
* SpongeBob SquarePants: Halloween
;DVD
* SpongeBob SquarePants: Halloween
* SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete 2nd Season
* SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes
==Trivia==
*The title of the episode is a play on "imitation crab", fake crab meat used in salads and California rolls.
*After SpongeBob tells Mr. Krabs that he was going to ask a question, the clipper on SpongeBob's nose disappears.
*When Spongebob is about to take out the garbage, Plankton uses the robots heat to disintegrate it. However, later on, the garbage is still seen in the corner.
*In this episode, Mr. Krabs says that he doesn't know the meaning of "day off". However, in "Bubble Buddy", SpongeBob had the day off. Mr. Krabs even insists to let SpongeBob be excused from work until he can think straight again in "Pickles". Also, the Krusty Krab is closed in some episodes.
*The prices of the Krabby Patty as mentioned in the question below are the same prices used at : $2.99 for a burger, 99¢ on Wednesday.
*When Squidward is doing the inspection, there is a bag that says "Kelp Meal", but in a later scene, the bag says "Keep Meal".
*Mr. Krabs would again be accused of being a robot imposter in "Krab Borg".
*In "New Leaf", the robot Mr. Krabs is seen again in a pile of Plankton's old experiments. Also, in "Spy Buddies", when Mr. Krabs and Plankton change positions, Plankton uses the Krabs robot again. The Krabs robot also appears in Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy.
*Mr. Krabs would later get eaten at the end of "Wishing You Well".
*Although "tartar sauce" is commonly used as a minced oath in the series, this is the first episode to actually show the sauce. Tartar sauce is a kind of sauce eaten with seafood.
*When SpongeBob asks the question "If we're discussing the secret formula on the third Wednesday in January, and it's not raining outside, after we gargle with vanilla pudding, what do we do?", the word "vanilla" is excluded from the captions.
*The captions were extensively modified for when SpongeBob told about the disclaimer for the Krabby Patty secret formula.
*At the beginning of the episode SpongeBob's nose is slightly larger than usual. It's longer again when plankton jumps on Spongebob's nose.
*In Bahasa Indonesia, the narrator says "2½ Hours Later".
*In the Hebrew version, the card saying "6½ hours later" is written in words instead of numbers, and moreover, the word "half" is misspelled "חציא" instead of "חצי", similar to writing "halfe" instead of "half".
*Considering SpongeBob asked questions that Mr. Krabs was unable to answer, it's possible he knows more about the Krusty Krab (and probably the rules) than his employer. However, it's also possible that Mr. Krabs was under pressure and forgot the rules.
*Robot Krabs' transformation into a toaster may be a reference to the Transformers toy line.
==External links==
*Encyclopedia SpongeBob: Imitation Krabs