Imitation Krabs (Episode)

"Imitation Krabs" is an episode from season two. It premiered on December 28, 2000.

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Info

Takes place on the 3rd Wednesday of January

Time cards shown

6 1/2 hours later

Characters

Songs

Bikini Bottom National Anthem
The Spaghetti Song

Plot

A robotic fish designed to look like an ordinary customer walks into the Krusty Krab. It is a disguise used by Plankton to try and find out the Krabby Patty secret formula. But he doesn't ask for a Krabby Patty. He tells SpongeBob that he will win $1,000,000 if he tells him the Krabby Patty secret formula. Spongebob says that it can only be discussed with Mr. Krabs in private. Later, Plankton's robotic Mr. Krabs tells Squidward he can have the day off and tries to make SpongeBob tell him the secret formula. However, the real Mr. Krabs keeps on coming into the room they are in, so he has to hide and he emerges again when the real Mr. Krabs leaves. He throws a penny out the window and the real Mr. Krabs chases it. Afterwards, robot Krabs learns that for the secret recipe to be discussed, he must first do a secret handshake, a ridiculously long and complicated ceremony that takes around 7 hours to accomplish. SpongeBob is about to give him a bottle with the recipe inside, until the real Mr. Krabs comes in. SpongeBob gives them both a quiz about the Krusty Krab, threatening to blast the fake one with tartar sauce. The imitation Krab somehow guesses all the answers to the quiz correctly and Mr. Krabs somehow gets them all wrong. SpongeBob presumes that the robotic Mr. Krabs is the real one, and gives him a penny that he "dropped". The penny goes into the Robot's coin-operated self-destruct mechanism, blowing Plankton into the sky.

Trivia/Goofs

Plankton stated that he went to college again, the first was Plankton!.
The title of this episode is based off of imitation crab meat.
This is the fourth time Plankton tried to steal the formula (in the series). It's also the 3rd biggest episode about Plankton

trying to steal the formula.

In this episode, Mr. Krabs says that he doesn't know the meaning of day off. But in the episode, "Bubble Buddy", SpongeBob had the day off.
Running gag: Every time Plankton's robot Krabs says a lie, its engine backfires and smoke can be seen from the exhaust pipe.
Some music were also used for the shows: Count Duckula and DangerMouse.
The prices of the Krabby Patty as mentioned in the question below are the opposite prices used at McDonald's: $2.99 for burger, $0.99 on Wednesday.

SpongeBob: How much does a Krabby Patty cost?
Mr. Krabs: $2.99!
SpongeBob: On Wednesday.
Plankton: $0.99!
SpongeBob (to Mr. Krabs): RIGHT! That's one strike, Mr. Fake!

When SpongeBob asks the question only the really, real Mr. Krabs could answer, "If we're discussing the secret formula on the third Wednesday in January and it's not raining outside, after we gargle with vanilla pudding, what do we do?", the word "vanilla" is excluded in the captions.