Earworm

Earworm
Season 7, Episode 146b
Air date	November 27, 2010
Written by	Casey Alexander Zeus Cervas Derek Iversen
Episode guide
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Earworm is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season seven. In this episode, SpongeBob gets addicted to a song, and can't stop singing it.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Sandy Cheeks
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Patrick Star
• Squidward Tentacles
• Gary the Snail
• Earworm ^(debut)
• Bikini Bottomies
  • Martha
  • Lonnie
  • Frankie Billy
  • Harold "Bill" Reginald
  • Fred ^(blue)
  • Dennis (citizen)
  • Evelyn
  • Nat Peterson
  • Harv
  • Jimmy Gus
  • Thaddeus
  • Abigail Marge
  • Frank (red shirt)
  • Frank (lifeguard)
  • Gus ^(cameo)
  • Scooter ^(cameo)
  • Norma Rechid ^(cameo)
  • Paco ^(cameo)

Locations

• Krusty Krab
• SpongeBob's House
• Downtown Bikini Bottom

Songs

• Musical Doodle
• Life on the Prairie
• High Seas Shanty

DVD

• SpongeBob on Tour

Synopsis

SpongeBob is shown at the Krusty Krab during closing time (about 6:00: pm to 6:50 pm with Mr. Krabs andSquidward. He is in the kitchen and starts singing a song (later identified as "Musical Doodle"). Squidward gets annoyed because SpongeBob is singing that song. Mr. Krabs comes and says to mop the floor. Squidward tells SpongeBob again to stop singing that song. Squidward then puts on the radio, but is playing "Musical Doodle" - SpongeBob picks up the radio and starts dancing and singing to it. After it ends, SpongeBob sighs happily and says"Musical Doodle." Next, Mr. Krabs says it's closing time again and Squidward runs out saying "Freedom!". SpongeBob is sitting down on a table singing to the song. Mr. Krabs yells "SPONGEBOB!" SpongeBob floats out of the Krusty Krab and lands outside a record shop. He hears "Musical Doodle" playing. He then buys the record and goes home, opens up Gary's shell (revealing a record player), and plays the song until bed-time (Gary is asleep by then). Spongebob says "Come to bed when you feel like it". He goes to sleep but then starts whistling the song. He goes back downstairs to listen to the song again.

He is then shown at the Krusty Krab the next day, looking very tired. Mr. Krabswarns him to get to work. Mr Krabs hears SpongeBob singing the "Musical Doodle". He is warned to stop singing that song again, but finds it very hard to not sing the song. He hands out Krabby Patties while singing the song, annoying the customers. Mr. Krabs comes out of his office to see what's wrong. All the customers blame SpongeBob for annoying them. Mr. Krabswarns SpongeBob once again to stop singing that song, or he will send him home. In the kitchen, his eye lids form into mouths and start singing the song - the same thing happens with his back. In the next scene, the kitchen is shown absolutely wrecked, with "doodle" written on the walls and everything else is wrecked as well. Also, there is condiments and patty batter all over the wall. After Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to leave, SpongeBob seems that he has completely lost it. He goes home while singing the song - Sandy, Mr. Krabs,Patrick and Squidward follow him, tie him to a chair and gag him. Sandy explains that he has an "Earworm" - An infection in which the person is stuck on a catchy song and is unable to stop singing, the more the person sings the song, the more infected and stronger the infection gets and more crazier the person gets. Mr Krabs wanted to just pull the earworm out but Sandy says that they can't do that or else it will damage his brain and it can only be cured if another song gets stuck in their head. Mr. Krabs sings a sea-shanty and Sandy sings a Western song, but none succeed. Sandy says "someone with musical talent" can cure him (is this case, Squidward). Squidward starts playing his clarinet. The earworm gets annoyed and leaves. Squidward is then shown in bed, praising himself. The earworm comes and goes into Squidward, and now Squidward has the earworm (with his song, not SpongeBob's.)

Trivia

• This episode was originally going to air with Buried in Time as said from a brief meeting in August 2010, but was paired with The Abrasive Side instead.
• It is revealed that Sandy dosen't know what a clarinet is.
• The title card background is similar to those of "Bubblestand" and "Suds," except the letters are written in pink and there are no bubbles.
• This is the second time a record player is found in Gary's shell. The first was Your Shoe's Untied.
• This is the second time is shown that SpongeBob has dancing abilities. The first is in I Heart Dancing.
• This is the sixth time Sandy sings. The previous ones would be in Texas, Chimps Ahoy, Best Day Ever,Atlantis SquarePantis and Rodeo Daze.
• This is the 5th time there's an exposed harvest sunset involved in front of the Krusty Krab, the pasts are Big Pink Loser, Can You Spare a Dime?, Born Again Krabs, SquidBob TentaclePants.
• The song lyrics match what happens in the episode.
• The scene where SpongeBob writes letters on the wall is a reference to "Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen" where Sam had to write the images from that alspark piece seen in his head on the wall.
• The ending is similar to the movie "The Exorcism", like when Spongebob crawled like a spider around his house then inside the window.
• This is the last episode of 2010.
• "Earworm" is a real-life condition in which a song plays over and over in one's head. Like in the episode, a commonly used cure for earworm is to play another catchy song.
• A woman says she never got her pie, but the Krusty Krab isn't known to serve pie.
• This episode is similar to, and has the same premise as, the Dexter's Laboratory episode, Head Band. In it, Dee Dee has a song stuck in her head, thanks to a microscopic boy band in her ear. The song spreads to other members of the household, and finally ends when the band breaks up. Earworm is different, in that only Spongebob gets a song stuck in his head and the culprit is in his brain, not his ear.
• This is the second time SpongeBob is tied up, the first time was in Choir Boys.
• Although in Plankton! SpongeBob's brain is pink, this episode shows it his brain is blue.
• Earworm is a play on the disease ringworm.
• The fictional show Bubble Guppies features an episode called "The Musical Doodle", the title of the song stuck in SpongeBob's head.
• The plot of this episode is similar to the Regular Show episode,This Is My Jam.