The Secret Box (Episode)

The Secret Box
© Viacom
Episode No.:	35a
Season:	2
Airdate:	7 September 2001
Previous Episode:	Frankendoodle
Next Episode:	Band Geeks
Characters	Voice actors
SpongeBob SquarePants	Tom Kenny
Patrick Star	Bill Fagerbakke
Gary	Tom Kenny
Patrick pulls SpongeBob's tongue, mistaking it for the string in his box.

Info

Characters

Plot

SpongeBob is running towards Patrick's house, ready to go jellyfishing. Patrick says he'll go with him, and then says he has to put away his 'secret box' first. SpongeBob asks him what's inside the box, but Patrick refused to let SpongeBob show inside the box. Despite repeated attempts, SpongeBob is unable to trick Patrick into opening the box (unusual considering Patrick's low intelligence). Undeterred, SpongeBob tries to sneak a peek while Patrick sleeps. Patrick wakes up to catch him in the act (not due to the unintentional clamor created by the less than stealthy SpongeBob, but by the fairly quiet comment "Gee, Patrick sure is a heavy sleeper.") Nevertheless, Patrick forgives him and opens the box. Inside, there is just a piece of string ("A secret string!" as Patrick describes it). SpongeBob comments on how he "should've known", but when he leaves, Patrick reveals to the audience the real secret. If you pull the string, a secret compartment opens in the box, revealing an embarrassing photo of SpongeBob at "that Christmas party".

Cultural References

Clips from this episode appeared in the 2005 version of War of the Worlds while Rachel was channel surfing. These clips were either repeated or out of order. Also the clips are synched very badly as the audio is at least 30 seconds off from the animation. This has caused some anger to SpongeBob fans.

Trivia/Goofs

One time when this episode was aired, the picture Patrick had in the box was SpongeBob in his underwear.
When SpongeBob sneaks over to Patrick's house, Squidward's house is absent.
During the first few months after release, they revealed the embarrassing picture of SpongeBob before cutting to the credits. This picture wasn't the picture taken by Squidward in "Christmas Who?", it was a photo of SpongeBob with a lampshade over his head.
This is one of the few episodes when Gary speaks a word of English ("Hmmm... no").
When Patrick mistakes SpongeBob for his secret box, he pulls on SpongeBob’s tongue, hinting that you need to pull the secret string to reveal the embarrassing photo.
When SpongeBob crashes on Patrick's wall right before commenting on Patrick Star being a sound sleeper after tripping on his own shoelaces, a picture of SpongeBob and Patrick lands on SpongeBob’s head and divides into two pieces, with SpongeBob on one piece and Patrick on another piece. This could be interrupted as a literally foreshadowing of the moments following when Patrick wakes up, the distrust that SpongeBob envys onto his best friend.
Patrick makes a reference to peeping tom by saying "Hands off peeping bob!".
When Patrick says "its the Clamburglar!", it is a reference the the Hamburglar from the McDonalds franchise.
SpongeBob's shoelaces weren't untied when he was sneaking to Patrick.