Club SpongeBob

"Club SpongeBob" is a *SpongeBob SquarePants* episode from season three. In this episode, SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward are flung into the Kelp Forest.

## Club SpongeBob

### Air date

March 22, 2002 (Nickelodeon)
March 25, 2002 (Nick Jr.)
April 7, 2003 (Noggin)

### Writer

Paul Winchell
Walt Dohrn
Noel MacNeal
Mark O'Hare

### Director

Paul Winchell
Stephen Hillenburg
Mr. Lawrence
Noel MacNeal (Noggin airings)

### Characters

* Squidward Tentacles
* SpongeBob SquarePants
* Patrick Star
* Incidental 7
* Incidental 42
* Magic Conch shell voice (debut)
* Dragon Bubble (Nick Jr. and Noggin airings only)
* Bug
* Scooter (Nickelodeon airings only)
* Incidental 119 (Nickelodeon airings only)
* Forest Ranger (debut)

## Synopsis

### Nickelodeon Airings

The episode begins with Squidward leaving his house and riding his bicycle. He then rides past a tall tree, at the top of which is a small box where SpongeBob and Patrick are sitting and giggling profusely. They see Squidward below and talk to each other about this, beginning certain words with "w." Squidward approaches the base of the tree and asks what they are doing, and SpongeBob tells Squidward that he cannot tell him because he is not a member of their club. Squidward mocks them, saying that he is more than qualified to join their club. SpongeBob tells Squidward he could not get in even if he tried. Squidward tells them that he is a member of the fanciest club there ever was: La Loge de Poulpe de Fantaisie, but SpongeBob and Patrick insist that he would not fit in because of that. Enraged, Squidward tells them they know nothing of fitting in before he proceeds to climb the tree. SpongeBob and Patrick frantically tell Squidward to stop, but he does not.

Squidward crawls into their tiny box house, and SpongeBob and Patrick explain that they meant that he would not "fit in," and that they don't understand French. SpongeBob and Patrick begin Squidward's initiation into their "club," but Squidward stops them, and attempts to get out by pulling on a smaller tree. He manages to make the tree double over and is about to crawl out when the second tree snaps, launching them into the sky. They fly over the Kelp Forest, where a couple sees them believing it to be a shooting star.

The trio crash in a small clearing in a distant section of the kelp forest. SpongeBob and Patrick begin to jump and joyfully shout while Squidward panics at his situation of being lost and stuck with SpongeBob and Patrick. SpongeBob and Patrick try to comfort Squidward by telling him it could be worse, and that they will survive as a club and as long as they have the "Magic Conch Shell," a Magic 8 ball-like device which SpongeBob and Patrick treat as prophetic and all-knowing. They believe the Magic Conch should never be questioned and should always be consulted before any action is taken. SpongeBob asks it what they must do to escape the kelp forest, and the conch says, "Nothing." SpongeBob and Patrick sit on the ground doing nothing, and Squidward is enraged at their stupidity. He announces that he intends to escape the forest and get back to sanity by himself, and walks away. As Squidward tries to find an exit, he becomes lost and afraid and eventually comes back to where SpongeBob and Patrick are.

Even more, time passes, and by now, Squidward has dismantled the box to build a shelter. He has a hat made out of some dried plant and is sitting by a small campfire. He is holding an empty frying pan over the fire. A small bug scurries past, and Squidward catches it and proceeds to cook it. He taunts SpongeBob and Patrick with his "food," saying that they could have sided with him and survived, but instead listened to a talking shell- that tells them nothing. He proceeds to say, "As if the answers to all your problems will fall right out of the sky! (laughs) Fall right out of the sky!"

Above the forest, a damaged plane *is* falling right out of the sky, and the pilots drop their load of picnic supplies and food to avoid crashing. The equipment lands around SpongeBob and Patrick, who emerge from their state of doing nothing and praise the magic conch. Squidward is extremely shocked and walks over to the two, who are devouring a table full of delicious food. Squidward says he was only kidding earlier and asks if he is still a member of the club, and SpongeBob tells him that he is still a member. Squidward cannot decide what to choose, and begrudgingly follows SpongeBob's suggestion of asking the conch shell. It tells him he cannot have either of the two items he asked for. He tries another one, and the conch says no. He repeatedly asks it if he can have anything to eat, with the shell responding "no" every time. When the conch says "Go jump off a cliff" with sass, Squidward becomes enraged and breaks the shell into millions of pieces, sending SpongeBob and Patrick into tears just as a Park Ranger enters the clearing.

Squidward tells him he has been stranded with SpongeBob, Patrick, and the magic conch shell for weeks, and his mention of the "magic conch shell" prompts the ranger who pulls out an identical conch, much to Squidward's enrage. SpongeBob and Patrick are delighted to meet a "club member," and the ranger tells them that his conch advised him to look for them. The three club members praise the magic conch before asking it how to get out of the kelp forest.

Before it can say anything, Squidward goes mad and crushes the shell just like he did to the last one, but this time, he declares that death will come upon anyone who dares exit the forest within the next 7 days. SpongeBob, Patrick, and the ranger, obliviously praising Squidward, do nothing and assume sitting positions on the ground. Squidward, at the end of his sanity, questions why he put a curse on the four of them and sits down, ending the episode.

### Nick Jr./Noggin Airings

The episode begins with Squidward leaving his house and riding his bicycle. He then rides past a tall tree, at the top of which is a small box where SpongeBob and Patrick are sitting and giggling profusely. They see Squidward below and talk to each other about this, beginning certain words with "w." Squidward approaches the base of the tree and asks what they are doing, and SpongeBob tells Squidward that he cannot tell him because he is not a member of their club. Squidward mocks them, saying that he is more than qualified to join their club. SpongeBob tells Squidward he could not get in even if he tried. Squidward tells them that he is "a member of over 20 different exclusive clubs all across the sea bottom.," but SpongeBob and Patrick insist that he would not fit in. Enraged, Squidward tells them they know nothing of fitting in before he proceeds to climb the tree. SpongeBob and Patrick frantically tell Squidward to stop, but he does not.

Squidward crawls into their tiny box house, and SpongeBob and Patrick explain that they meant that he would not "fit in," and that they have been stuck in the tree for three days. SpongeBob and Patrick begin Squidward's initiation into their "club," but Squidward stops them, and attempts to get out by pulling on a smaller tree. He manages to make the tree double over and is about to crawl out when the second tree snaps, launching them into the sky. They fly over the Kelp Forest, where a couple sees them believing it to be a shooting star.

The trio crash in a small clearing in a distant section of the kelp forest. SpongeBob and Patrick begin to jump and joyfully shout while Squidward panics at his situation of being lost and stuck with SpongeBob and Patrick. SpongeBob and Patrick try to comfort Squidward by telling him it could be worse, and that they will survive as a club and as long as they have the "Magic Conch Shell," a Magic 8 ball-like device which SpongeBob and Patrick treat as prophetic and all-knowing. They believe the Magic Conch should never be questioned and should always be consulted before any action is taken. SpongeBob asks it what they must do to escape the kelp forest, and the conch says, "Nothing." SpongeBob and Patrick sit on the ground doing nothing, and Squidward is enraged at their stupidity. He announces that he intends to escape the forest and get back to sanity by himself, and walks away. As Squidward tries to find an exit, he becomes lost and afraid, just as the Dragon Bubble, who tormented Squidward before, begins to chase him around a volcanic part of the forest. Squidward then escapes and eventually comes back to where SpongeBob and Patrick are.

Even more, time passes, and by now, Squidward has dismantled the box to build a shelter. He has a hat made out of some dried plant and is sitting by a small campfire. He is holding an empty frying pan over the fire. A small bug scurries past, and Squidward catches it and proceeds to cook it. He taunts SpongeBob and Patrick with his "food," saying that they could have sided with him and survived, but instead, they listened to a talking shell- that tells them nothing. He proceeds to say, "As if the answers to all your problems will fall right out of the sky! (laughs) Fall right out of the sky!"

Suddenly, food falls from the sky and lands around SpongeBob and Patrick, who emerge from their state of doing nothing and praise the magic conch. Squidward is extremely shocked and walks over to the two, who are devouring a table full of delicious food. Squidward says he was only kidding earlier and asks if he is still a member of the club, and SpongeBob tells him that he is still a member. Squidward cannot decide what to choose, and begrudgingly follows SpongeBob's suggestion of asking the conch shell. It tells him he cannot have either of the two items he asked for. He tries another one, and the conch says no. He repeatedly asks it if he can have anything to eat, with the shell responding "no" every time. When the conch says "Maybe if you weren't such a jerk, you could have, like, some of the food!" with sass, Squidward becomes enraged and is about to go mad when a Park Ranger enters the clearing.

Squidward tells him he has been stranded with SpongeBob, Patrick, and the magic conch shell for weeks, and his mention of the "magic conch shell" prompts the ranger who pulls out an identical conch, much to Squidward's engrage as he says "YOU DARE TRUST THAT PIECE OF SCRAP IRON?!?!?!?! WHEN WILL THIS DAY END ALREADY?!?!?!" SpongeBob and Patrick are delighted to meet a "club member," and the ranger tells them that his conch advised him to look for them. The three club members praise the magic conch before asking it how to get out of the kelp forest.

It tells them, "Nothing." Following the conch's advice, they do nothing and assume sitting positions on the ground. Squidward, at the end of his sanity, praises the magic conch and sits down as well, ending the episode.

## Production

### Deleted Content

* According to Noel MacNeal, there was supposed to be a scene in which Patrick was to say "The shell is our wisdom!" instead of "The shell knows all!"
* The last four minutes of this episode was supposed to have Squidward voiced by Skip Hinnant or Jess Harnell, but Paul Winchell decided to have Frank Welker do the role because he thought Welker was "funny even when he's not trying to be".
	+ However, while Hinnant's audio still exists, Harnell's audio was lost in a fire.
		- The audio with Hinnant's voice can currently be heard at the Museum of Endangered Sounds. There, it also explains how Jess Harnell's audio was caught on fire. The info card reads:
			* "But even if the performance was deemed decent, [Paul Winchell, Stephen Hillenburg, and Mr. Lawrence] found the audio too revolting for the episode, so they decided to burn the audio track with fire so that it would never be heard [by] the public. [Skip] Hinnant's audio, however, was preserved for this website, where it has become the most popular sound at the museum."

* Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston recall animating a scene in which a giant blotched blue-tongued skink was supposed to appear. The scene was cut from the Nickelodeon version of this episode, and reworked into the chase sequence with the Dragon Bubble in the Nick Jr. and Noggin versions.

### Music

**‣** Hilo March - The Hawaiian Serenaders *[Title card]*

**‣** Me for You - George Callert *[opening]*

**‣** Silly Season A - David Bell, Otto Sieben *[Squidward refuses to join SpongeBob and Patrick's club]*

**‣** Danger Zone - Mike Sunderland *[they get stranded in a forest]*

**‣** Tympup A - Sammy Burdson, John Charles Fiddy *["Well, this is the end."]*

**‣** Bashful Eyes - Kapono Beamer *["Come on, guys, we're gonna be fine."]*

**‣** Harp Ding - Nicolas Carr *[magic conch shell]*

**‣** The Promised Land - David Farnon *[conch tells them to do nothing]*

**‣** Comic Walk - Sidney Torch *["I can't believe you two are gonna take advice from a toy!"]*

**‣** On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz *[Squidward gets lost]*

**‣** Heavenly Voices (b) - David Farnon *[choir; Squidward sees a light]*

**‣** Newsreel - Sam Fonteyn *["Take that, SpongeBob and Patrick!"]*

**‣** Hawaiian Link (b) - Richard Myhill *[Squidward realizes there is no way out]*

**‣** Hawaiian Breeze - Jon Jelmer *[Squidward cooking a bug]*

**‣** Dramatic Cue (g) - Ronald Hanmer *["Dude, we're falling right out of the sky!"]*

**‣** Hawaiian Link (a) - Richard Myhill *[bug hits Squidward]*

**‣** O Makalapua (b) - Kapono Beamer *[SpongeBob and Patrick eating/"Yeah, now, uh, if you'll excuse me..."]*

**‣** The Oracle - David Farnon *["The conch is the one who gave us this banquet."]*

**•** Steel Licks 1 - Jeremy Wakefield *["You guys have it all wrong."]*

**‣** Lonely Heart's Club (a) - David Bell, Otto Sieben *[conch tells Squidward he cannot have anything to eat/"Could I have this yummy, delicious, super-terrific sandwich?"]*

**‣** Dramatic Cue (d) - Ronald Hanmer *[Squidward getting angry]*

**‣** V for Victory - Sam Fonteyn *[ranger appears]*

**‣** Hilo March - The Hawaiian Serenaders *[ending]*

\*On Noggin airings, Sea Stories, The Complete 3rd Season, and The First 100 Episodes, "Hilo March" is replaced with "Old Hilo March" for the title card, but is played during the end.

\*\*On Nick Jr. airings, Noggin Airings, Sea Stories, The Complete 3rd Season, and The First 100 Episodes, "Dramatic Cue (g)" is cut.

### Release

* This episode is available on Sea Stories, Absorbing Favorites, Complete 3rd Season, First 100 Episodes, Complete Third Season, The Third & Fourth Seasons, Movies and TV Collection, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs.

* This episode is available on the Undersea Antics Volume 1 VHS tape.
* This episode is also available on the Sea Stories and Movies and TV Collection Blu-rays.

## Trivia

### General

* This was the first episode to be released on video before airing on television. It was featured on the Sea Stories DVD, which was released on March 12, 2002, exactly ten days before it premiered on American television.
	+ To promote the Sea Stories DVD, Noggin aired this episode on March 8, 2002, exactly 4 days before the DVD was released and 2 weeks before this episode aired on Nickelodeon. It made its official premiere on the channel on April 7, 2003.

* This was the first episode to air on Noggin after Moose A. Moose and Zee D. Bird made their debut to the channel.

* This was the last episode to credit Walt Dohrn as a writer for the show since he served as a storyboard director for "Party Pooper Pants" before his departure.
	+ This is also Mark O'Hare's only episode as a storyboard director.

* The last four minutes of this episode is the only time in the entire Stephen Hillenburg/Paul Winchell Era (1999 - 2004) in which Squidward is not voiced by Wilfrid Hyde-White. Instead, he is voiced by Frank Welker, who used the voiced he did for Megatron in the original Transformers TV Series.

* Phrases that the Conch Shell says:
	+ "Maybe someday."
	+ "Nothing." (twice)
	+ "Neither."
	+ "I don't think so."
	+ "Yes."
	+ "No." (most commonly)
	+ "Try asking again."
	+ "*[in a mocking tone]* Go jump off a cliff!"
	+ "*[in a mocking teenager tone]* Maybe if you weren't such a jerk, you could have, like, some of the food!"
* Squidward breaks the fourth wall when he says "Why must every 11 minutes of my life be filled with misery?" in reference an episode's average length.
	+ This is the second episode to reference the 11-minute runtime, the first being "Nature Pants."
	+ SpongeBob also breaks the fourth wall by saying "This copyrighted conch is the cornerstone of our organization" as a reference to the fact that the Magic Conch was copyrighted by Stephen Hillenburg.
* The episode is dubbed in Spanish and French on Absorbing Favorites and the Complete Third Season DVDs.
* This is the second episode where Patrick uses his mouth like a vacuum cleaner to take in food. The first is "Grandma's Kisses."
* This is the first season 3 episode to be on a Blu-Ray disc.
* This is the only episode where the first half of "Hilo March" is played in the title card. In other episodes that use it in the title card, there is an abridged version of the second half play. Also, the episode begins and ends with the song, somewhat bookending the episode.
* There is an online game based on this episode called *Spitwad Showdown*.
* In the Polish dub, the episode's title is "Klub SpongeBoba," which translates to "SpongeBob's Club."
* In the German dub, the title card font is not changed.﻿
	+ This is the fourth episode to have a German dub version with the same name as the English version. The first is "Plankton!," the second is "F.U.N.," and the third is "Texas."

* In the Japanese dub, the episode's title is "昆布ジャングルの中心," which translates to "The Heart of the Kelp Jungle."

* The Cephalopod Lodge place is indirectly mentioned in the Nick Jr. and Noggin airings of this episode when Squidward mentions that he has a been member of over 20 different exclusive clubs all across the sea bottom.
* The Magic Conch shell was made into an app.
* When the ranger arrives and shows *his* magic conch shell, SpongeBob and Patrick's conch disappears.
	+ SpongeBob and Patrick most likely kept their conch shell.

* This is the first episode to have both entire and minor plot elements changed and/or removed for the Nick Jr. and Noggin airings. In this case:
	+ Squidwards says he is "a member of over 20 different exclusive clubs all across the sea bottom" instead of a member of La Loge de Poulpe de Fantaisie. Because of this, Patrick does not say that he and SpongeBob don't understand French.
	+ Patrick does not build coffins for the trio when they die. Instead, he was building a tent.
	+ The Dragon Bubble makes an appearance, with Frank Welker reprising his role.
	+ There is a volcanic part of the kelp forest, something that is not present in any other appearance of the forest except for both "Battle for Bikini Bottom" and its remastered version.
	+ Squidward draws on the ground why he thinks that SpongeBob and Patrick should've listened to him while explaining it.
	+ The entire plane scene is removed, and instead it cuts to the food falling from the sky and landing around SpongeBob and Patrick.
	+ The Magic Conch's last phrase is different.
	+ Squidward doesn't break either Magic Conch and send SpongeBob and Patrick into tears over the first.
	+ Squidward doesn't put a death curse on him, SpongeBob, Patrick, and the Park Ranger after he breaks the second Magic Conch, meaning that the latter three don't obliviously praise the curse.
	+ Squidward doesn't question why he put the curse over the four characters.

* Noel MacNeal was responsible for writing the script for the Noggin version of this episode, the Nick Jr. version of "Tea at the Treedome," and all three versions of "Christmas Who?"
	+ In the case of this episode, the Noggin version was made before the Nick Jr. version, which is almost the same as the Noggin one, but with the same title card music as the Nickelodeon version.

* This was the first episode to be done mostly by Paul Winchell and Noel MacNeal and to have little involvement from Ralph Bakshi. His only roles were producer, and the voice of the Park Ranger.
	+ However, he sketched out the chase sequence with the Dragon Bubble for the Noggin version of this episode and was considered for the title of lead animator, but got replaced with Andrew Overtoom due to "creative differences."

### Cultural References

* The Magic Conch Shell is a parody of the real-world toy the Magic 8-Ball.

### Errors

**[Please note that all of these errors were fixed on home media and digital releases as well as international airings unless otherwise noted]**

* At the beginning of the episode, the tree and clubhouse are facing the road, and there are many trees seen. But after SpongeBob and Patrick insult Squidward, the tree and clubhouse are turned 90º to the right, and there are barely any trees shown. When Squidward climbs the tree, it is facing back to the road, but when he tries to get out of the clubhouse, it rotated 90º to the right again.
	+ Also, when Squidward tries to get out of the clubhouse, there is another skinny, tall tree that he grabs on. It does not appear in any scene before Squidward climbs into the clubhouse.
* When Squidward rides on his bike, he left his door open, but as soon as he tries to get back down, the door is shut.
* When the camera zooms in to the Magic Conch Shell during its last "no" in response to Squidward's last question, his arm is accidentally colored yellow, matching the color of SpongeBob.

* When Patrick pours ketchup on his mouth, his pupil closes instead of his eyelids closing. Also, when Patrick eats a bone, the bottom of his eyelids are pink instead of purple.
	+ In the same scene, three burgers appear on the table, and the sandwich disappears.
* When SpongeBob is shown drinking a glass of orange juice, the juice in the glass stays at the same level instead of going down.
* The clubhouse is facing to the left while it is in the air after the tree breaks at the time Squidward is about to get out of it, but it is facing to the right when it lands in the kelp forest, and to the left again when Squidward returns to SpongeBob and Patrick when he finds out that there is no way out of Kelp Forest.
* During the opening credits, Erik Wiese's surname is misspelled as Erik Weise.

### Running gags

* Every time Squidward asks the Magic Conch Shell for food, it keeps saying "No."
* Characters victory screeching after something good happens.

## Transcript

You can view the Nickelodeon transcript for this episode here!

You can view the Nick Jr./Noggin transcript for this episode here!