Graveyard Shift

Graveyard Shift is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season two. In this episode, SpongeBob and Squidward work the night shift.

Characters

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Squidward Tentacles
• Eugene H. Krabs
• Hervy ^(debut)
• Patrick Star ^(cameo)
• Bikini Bottomites
  • Tom
  • Harold "Bill" Reginald
• Hash Slinging Slasher ^(debut)
• Nosferatu ^(debut)

Plot

At 8:00 p.m., the Krusty Krab is closing, and Squidward is excited to leave. As he gets ready to quit for the day, Tom comes to the door and makes an order. Squidward tells him that they're closed, and the customer says "Well, fine! If you don't want my money!" Upon hearing this, Mr. Krabs jumps to the door and proclaims that the Krusty Krab is now open 24 hours a day. SpongeBob is excited at this, while Squidward is furious. SpongeBob had to go and take out the trash. This gave Squidward an idea. At around 10:30, the Krusty Krab still has customers. Squidward decides to scare SpongeBob with tales of the "Hash-Slinging Slasher." SpongeBob mistakes his name with different arrangements (such as "Cash-Ringing"), which annoys Squidward. Squidward then goes on to tell him that the "Hash-Slinging Slasher" worked at the Krusty Krab years ago as a fry-cook, just like SpongeBob, only clumsier. One night, when he was cutting the patties, he cut off his own hand and replaced the hand with a spatula. Then spongebob says you mean like this and pulls of his arm repetitively untill squidward says to spongebob that he wasn't a sponge. He was later hit by a bus and killed, and fired at his funeral. Every Tuesday (Squidward asked what day it was to come up with this) night, his ghost comes to the Krusty Krab to "wreak his horrible vengeance". There are three signs of his arrival, which are- 1. The lights will flicker on and off. 2. The phone will ring, and there will be nobody there, and 3. The "Hash-Slinging Slasher" will arrive in the ghost of the bus which ran him over, slowly approaches the counter, and "gets" you. SpongeBob is terrified by this, and begins screaming repeatedly while Squidward laughs. When SpongeBob does not stop screaming, the annoyed Squidward tells him that he was joking and that the story isn't true. SpongeBob then starts laughing continuously in the same manner as his screaming.

Later that night, at 3:00 AM, every customer is long gone. Squidward begins hearing strange noises and starts becoming afraid. He quickly tells himself that there is no "Hash-Slinging Slasher," but soon the lights start flickering and the phone rings with no answer. Soon, SpongeBob and Squidward see a bus appear outside, and comment that buses don't run this late. What they believe to be the "Hash-Slinging Slasher" appears from the bus and starts walking toward them. They begin panicking, believing that they will die, until the "Hash-Slinging Slasher" reaches them, and is revealed to be a normal person who wants a job application, and hung up on the phone because he was nervous (his nose actually represented the eyes in the dark, and the fish's sleeve dropped down to show that he was holding a spatula the whole time.

However, this still does not explain the lights flickering. Suddenly, they begin flickering again, and everybody looks around and see Nosferatu (in a doctored image) rapidly flipping the light switch. Everybody points at him with a friendly "Nosferatu!", after which Nosferatu (in another doctored image) smiles at them mischievously as the screen blacks out with the sound of a light going out as the episode ends.

Trivia

• Being a VERY important fact, it should be made known that Mr Krabs breaks the law (yet again) by forcing Squidward and Spongebob work 24/7; to keep the Krusty Krab open longer, he should have hired more workers, which would have been LEGAL.
• The title card is similar to that of "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" and "Rock Bottom," though this one is recolored purple and it's upside down.
• In Bahasa Indonesia, there were lines that had been edited:
  • The line "But what was that third thing?" was changed to "Who changed the colors?".
  • Also, the line "Squidward, I use your clarinet to unclog my toilet!" was changed to "Squidward! Get rid of him!".
  • Near the end of episode, the line "Nosferatu!" was changed to "Don't be naughty it!".
• The sign about the telephone is a reference to Scream.
• The Hash Slinging Slasher also appears in Truth or Square: The Game.
• SpongeBob's "Night song" has the tune of a Baseball/Hockey Charge Stadium Organ song.
• This episode is number 10 on Tom Kenny's Top 20. His description says:
• "'Night, night, night, night.' Having Nosferatu, the vampire from the 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film appear in a Nicktoon is exactly the kind of 'what the?' moment that sets this series apart from more conventional animated shows!"
• This episode is later referenced in "Restraining SpongeBob", where Patrick uses Squidward's claranet to unclog the toilets at the Krusty Krab like SpongeBob said he does in this episode
• SpongeBob screams 27 times and laughs 8 times.
• When Squidward and SpongeBob reveal their secrets before the "Hash-Slinging Slasher gets them, SpongeBob reveals he unclogged his toilet with Squidward's clarinet.
• To "sling hash" means to work in a restaurant.
• An "Open Forever" neon sign is seen on the Krusty Krab in one shot. However, when the "Hash Slinging Slasher" approaches the Krusty Krab, the sign is gone.
• At the end of the episode, Count Orlock, the character from 1922 silent German Expressionist horror filmNosferatu, appears.
• Squidward said that the Hash-Slinging Slasher comes out every Tuesday night, his ghost returns to the Krusty Krab. However, when the person who was thought to be the Hash-Slinging Slasher came to apply for a job, it was 3:00 AM, meaning that it was early Wednesday morning. Or, it was midnight when Squidward told SpongeBob, and they had the sense to remember at midnight it turned Tuesday. Or it could've been Wednesday morning because the Hash-Slingling Slasher never really arrived.
• Caption Error: The captions say that Squidward says "Ah, the Krusty Krab...", but it is the French Narrator.
• The DVD box set called this episode (as seen by the episode names on the back of the box set or DVD) "The Graveyard Shift" instead of the normal "Graveyard Shift" name.
• SpongeBob will once again be afraid of the dark in "Night Light".
• The word "night" is mentioned 23 times.
• In the DVD Nautical Nonsense has a storyboard version and a deleted scene were SpongeBob does another thing at night he brings mail to floorboard Harry.
• "Graveyard Shift" means that your work shift is from mid-night to 8:00 a.m.
• This episode is also notorious for having frightened a lot of younger viewers.

Goofs

• Before Squidward says the three signs that signal the approach of the Hash-Slinging Slasher, the wrinkles on his forehead are gone.
• When Squidward tells SpongeBob "No" to "He didn't wash his hands", Squidward eyes overlap his eyebrows.
• When Squidward tries to stop SpongeBob's screaming session, his eyes aren't alined with his eyebrows.
• Squidward mentioned that the walls always ooze green slime but in future episodes they aren't seen with the slime of course he could have ment near sunset.
• The late-running bus mystery is never explained.
• The garbage bin outside the Krusty Krab is by the street in this episode, but it is in the back of the building in all other episodes.
• The cash register is missing for a majority of the episode. Near the end, it returns. The only time a phone is there is when it rings, However, there is nobody there.
• When Squidward says, "And he appears with the ghost of the bus," and "He opens the door, and approaches the counter!" the "Order Here" and "Galley Grub" signs are missing.
• In the picture shown in the background, there is a porthole window on the window.
• The Galley Grub sign reads "Gally Grub" at one point in the episode. At another point, the Order Here sign reads "Order Hear". This could possibly be for comedic effect, or it was intended to only be discovered by observant viewers (see picture).

Quotes

• Nosferatu! (Squidward, SpongeBob and fish)
• Ow! I burnt my hand! At night. (SpongeBob)
• Mr. Squidward, welcome to the nightshift. (Mr. Krabs)
• There was the lights, and the phone, and the walls will ooze green slime! Oh, wait, they always do that. But what was that third thing? (Squidward)
• AAAAAAH! The Slash- Pinging... Trash flinging! (Squidward)
• Can I get a job application? I bought my own spatula. I called earlier but hung up because I got nervous. (Fish)
• Oh, boy! 3am (takes a Krabby Patty and eats it.) (Patrick)
• (phone rings) What is it?! Hello? (Squidward)
• Squidward, I used your clarinet to unclog my toilet! (SpongeBob)
• Wait! If that was you on the phone and you on the bus, who was flickering the lights? (Squidward)
• For the Krusty Krab! (runs out of the Krusty Krab and throws the bin in the garbage bin and hyperventilates) Piece of cake! (clicks fingers). (SpongeBob)