Have You Seen This Snail? (Episode)

Have You Seen This Snail?
© Viacom
Episode No.:	63
Season:	4
Airdate:	11 November 2005
Previous Episode:	Krabs vs. Plankton
Next Episode:	Skill Crane
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Squidward Tentacles	Rodger Bumpass
Gary	Tom Kenny
Mr. Krabs	Clancy Brown
Scented Pinecones © Viacom

"Have You seen This Snail?" is an episode from Season 4.

Plot

SpongeBob gets a new Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy Paddleball Set in the mail and decides to take the Dirty Bubble challenge by hitting the ball 29,998,559,671,349 times in a row. In doing this, he forgets to feed Gary for ten days. Gary then runs away from the pineapple, feeling neglected. However, when Patrick arrives, SpongeBob snaps out of it and cannot find Gary. Therefore, he searches his - and Squidward's - house to find him. However, in the mail he reads a letter from Gary (written in scribbles, somehow SpongeBob can understand it), saying that he has left in search of a new owner. SpongeBob starts to look everywhere, even Bass Vegas.

Meanwhile, a kind old grandma takes Gary in to her house and gives him a surname, "Miss Tuftsy". Love and food showered Gary while SpongeBob goes to work, depressed that Gary has not shown up. Mr. Krabs says, "Any problem you have can be solved with a little hard work," trying to encourage him to work. However, SpongeBob misunderstands him and takes the day off to look for Gary. He puts up posters and signs everywhere, in the hope of finding Gary.

Gary, at grandma's house, has been fed a lot and needs to go to the bathroom, so Grandma puts out fresh sheets, which are flyers given to her by Patrick. Gary reads them and knows that SpongeBob wants him back, but Grandma is making some meat loaf. Gary, looking for the exit, runs into a closet filled with dusty snail shells, which are empty. Grandma says that the meat loaf is not ready, so she offers Gary some cookies. Gary’s shell breaks and he gets fat because he ate too much. Because of this, the snails in the photo with grandma unanimously tell him to run! (suggesting that the grandma eats snails), and he does. As Gary runs for the exit, grandma says that if Gary does not want cookies, she will give him deviled eggs too. She chases him so she can "feed him up". However, Gary quickly finds a decoy; a snail on the street, which the grandma takes instead.

SpongeBob tries to forget Gary by taking a walk, but his memories of Gary upset him. The streets are filled with advertisements for Gary. SpongeBob then hears a meow - at first SpongeBob thinks he is imagining Gary's there, but when he turns round to find Gary at his side, he is overjoyed.

Cultural References

Grandma seems to be a parody of The Witch from "Hansel and Gretel", because She constantly overfed Gary, and planned to eat him.
When Gary and Grandma are driving in the car, Grandma says, "Set phasers to fun!". The Crimson Chin from The Fairly Odd Parents said the same thing in the episode "Boy Toy".
"Set phasers on fun" could also be a reference to "Set phasers to stun." from Star Trek.
Clips of this episode are shown in the 2007 film, Alvin and the Chipmunks.
"Set phasers to fun" is a rather common spoof of "Set phasers to stun" from Star Trek. "Set phasers to stun" is one of the top iconic lines of Star Trek, and has become a often spoofed meme.

Trivia/Goofs

Amy Poehler guest voices.
Originally, Sandy was going to be in this episode.
A clip of this episode can be seen in "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (also see Tim Hill).
When Patrick tells SpongeBob to "let it all out", SpongeBob states he cannot cry anymore, but when Patrick says "Earlier today at the craft store, I saw... these huge chunks of balsa wood, they were awesome!", SpongeBob starts to cry. This could be because SpongeBob was out of energy at that moment, but Patrick mentioning balsa wood, something Gary loves, shocked him and he had a burst of energy from it.
Originally, this episode was going to be a TV movie premiere, but it was later decided to be a 22-minute special.
Another name for this episode is "Where's Gary?".
If you look on the package SpongeBob receives, the manufacturer reads Nickelodeon Inc. under the picture of the paddleball where Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are in the box.
There is a brief Patchy the Pirate segment at the beginning, except it is entirely animated in "Flash Animation".
Around the time this episode aired, Cartoon Network had a snail resembling Gary in the bottom of the screen, and the joke was that Gary had run away from Nickelodeon to Cartoon Network.
When they are in the plane, SpongeBob says "Pat, no!", but captions say "Aah, no!".
Gary in this episode has a clock inside his shell that tells what time he eats. This is meant to represent a body clock that animals and people have.
Have You Seen This Snail? is voted as one of the most popular SpongeBob SquarePants episodes in the Best 10 Ever!, and also the most popular full-length special episode.
How could the Dirty Bubble achieve a world record in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy paddle ball if he is a bubble with no arms?
This is the third episode to have a Question Mark (?) on the title card, the first was Christmas Who?, the second was Can You Spare a Dime?, and the fourth was What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?
Bass Vegas refers to Las Vegas.
Patrick is revealed to love peanuts again. First time was in The Smoking Peanut. The 2nd time was in Pranks a Lot where Patrick is pranked by SpongeBob's gag Seanut Brittle can.
You can hear SpongeBob, instead of saying "Darn it, darn it" when Patrick is near Spongebob's bedroom, you can hear "Patrick, darn it."
Patrick saw Gary but he didn't tell SpongeBob.This is just one example to show how stupid he is.
This is one of the few episodes where a song is sung by someone other than a character in the show.