It's closing time at the Krusty Krab, and Squidward answers a last-minute phone call from a customer. Just as he is about to tell the customer the restaurant is closed, Mr. Krabs suddenly appears and snatches the phone from Squidward's hands and answers it himself. The customer tells Mr. Krabs that he wants to order a pizza and have it delivered, to which he happily agrees to knowing he'll make extra money out of it. Squidward protests this by saying that the restaurant doesn't serve pizza nor do they do deliveries, but Mr. Krabs spontaneously makes a pizza out of Krabby Patties and forces Squidward and SpongeBob to deliver it.
After SpongeBob does a "vehicle inspection" on a boatmobile, Squidward tells him to drive. However, SpongeBob says he cannot as he still in boating school and doesn't have a license, but Squidward says that he doesn't want to drive either and tells him "it's just around the corner" and to "just do what you do in school." As expected, SpongeBob becomes increasingly nervous when trying to shift the boat into reverse and, after an annoyed Squidward yells at him to "back it up," he finally panics and ends up reversing the boat for miles and miles until the boat stalls in the middle of a big desert. Thinking the boat has run out of gas, Squidward complains about their predicament and eventually kicks the boat out of frustration when SpongeBob says the pizza is getting cold. This causes the boat to suddenly start back up and drive off unoccupied, leaving the two stranded and forced to continue the delivery on foot.
Throughout the journey, the duo encounters numerous mishaps. First, SpongeBob tries a pioneer trick he claims to have seen in a movie where he listens to the ground and hears a truck coming. When SpongeBob tries to get the driver's attention by doing a strange dance in the middle of the road, the driver speeds up and Squidward pushes SpongeBob out of the way so he does not get mowed down. Later, the pizza box becomes caught in heavy winds and SpongeBob refuses to let go of it even after a tornado forms and sucks both him and Squidward into it. However, the pizza actually saves their lives when it turns into a parachute.
Upon landing on solid ground, Squidward panics when he notices the road they were following is nowhere in sight. SpongeBob notices a rock with moss on it and suggests they go in the direction where the moss is pointing, saying that "moss always points to civilisation" (another pioneer trick he learned). Refusing to follow SpongeBob's tip, Squidward goes in the opposite direction, unaware that the moss was actually directing them to a nearby city.
Much time passes, and the two become tired and hungry, so SpongeBob suggests eating coral like the pioneers did. But while SpongeBob tries to remember if it was actually sand or mud, an exasperated Squidward demands to eat the pizza, having given up hope on delivering it. The two then begin arguing over it with SpongeBob insisting it still be delivered, and after a brief chase, Squidward prepares to take the pizza by force. However, SpongeBob becomes overjoyed when he notices a giant rock nearby and, after exclaiming that the pioneers had driven them for miles, says that they can ride it out of the desert. Now finally fed up with the pioneer tricks, Squidward tells SpongeBob to forget about them as there are no pioneers left due to their unusual travelling methods and eating habits. But after SpongeBob runs him over with the rock (revealing they can be driven after all), Squidward changes his mind and the duo proceed to ride the rock all the way to customer's house.
Unfortunately, their journey doesn't pay off very well. The customer is happy for a brief moment when he receives his pizza and after realizing that he didn't receive the drink he asks where it is. SpongeBob, confused, checks his order and it looks as if he didn't order a drink. Angered by this, the customer abusively berates SpongeBob for not bringing his drink and his poor delivery service before throwing the pizza in his face and aggressively slamming the door on him.
Squidward, having watched the entire scene, is horrified and tries to console SpongeBob, but fails as he falls to the ground crying while absorbing his tears. Outraged at how the customer treated SpongeBob all because of a measly drink, Squidward furiously confronts the customer and violently slams the pizza in his face as payback for his rudeness towards SpongeBob.
Squidward then returns to SpongeBob and cheers him up by saying the customer changed his mind about taking the pizza and "ate the whole thing in one bite," even without the drink. With the delivery finally completed, Squidward asks to be taken home, but a cheerful SpongeBob says they still have time to make it back to work and drives back to the Krusty Krab, which is comically revealed to have been right across the street from the customer's house, meaning the whole journey could've easily been avoided. The episode ends as Squidward groans "Oh, my aching tentacles."
Production
"Pizza Delivery" was written by Sherm Cohen, Aaron Springer, and outlined by Peter Burns, with Sean Dempsey serving as animation director. Cohen also functioned as storyboard director, and Springer worked as storyboard artist.[3] The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on August 14, 1999.[4]
Series creator Stephen Hillenburg's original idea for the series pitch was that the writers would write a storyboard for a possible episode and pitch it to Nickelodeon.[5] Hillenburg wanted to write an episode with SpongeBob and Squidward on a road trip, inspired by the 1989 film Powwow Highway.[5]Derek Drymon said, "It's a road trip movie starring Gary Farmer, who is an innocent, kid-like character who is traveling with a curmudgeon."[5] Eventually, the idea developed while they were working on it, but Hillenburg gave up the idea for the initial pitch.[5] This idea was later used for the season 12 episode, "Pineapple RV," although Patrick would tag-along. Instead, they used another idea for the pitch which was in the series pilot episode called "Help Wanted."[5] Writers Aaron Springer and Sherm Cohen resurrected the road trip idea during the first season and used a lot of the ideas for this episode.
Despite the episode having a later production code of 2515-107, it was actually the first episode to be worked on following the pilot episode, with storyboards for the episode being underway by May 1998, according to Sherm Cohen.[6]
On November 14, 2016, recording scripts for every episode from season 1 were publicly released, found on one of the asset discs for the PlayStation video game, SuperSponge. This included the recording script for "Pizza Delivery."[7]
Paintings
Title card background.
Unused shot of the Krusty Krab's clock
Unused shot of a "We're closed" neon sign
Unused shot of a "We're open" neon sign
Storyboards
Storyboard of the episode.
Model sheets
Cels
Music
( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music
•Nick's Conga Line - Nicolas Carr [Title card.] ‣The Tip Top Polka/The Cliff Polka - Chelmsford Folk Band [The opening.] ‣Captain Lenoe's - Michael Arthur, Colin Cater, Mick Graves, The Folk Players, Sarah Graves, Simon Ritchie [The customer orders pizza on phone.] •Seaweed 1 - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob inspects the vehicle.] ‣Death Trap [#25] - Gregor F. Narholz [SpongeBob backs up.] ‣Stand Boys Stand - Jerry Burnham, Tony Ellis, Stephen Wade ["It's an old pioneer trick."] ‣Hog Fever (a) - Graham Preskett [Squidward and SpongeBob hitchhike.] ‣On Fire - Gregor F. Narholz [A tornado is shown.] ‣Merlins Hill - Jennifer Jones [Harp music.] ‣Action Cut A - Gregor F. Narholz ["Where's the road?"] ‣Merlins Hill - Jennifer Jones [SpongeBob lands.] ‣Vibe Link (B) - Richard Myhill [Moss is shown on the rock.] ‣Hawaiian Link (B) - Richard Myhill ["I know where I'm going."] ‣Funeral March - Otto Sieben [SpongeBob and Squidward are exhausted.] ‣Cold Fear - Dick Stephen Walter [SpongeBob refuses to give Squidward the pizza.] ‣Love for Sale A - Peter Fallowell [Squidward tries to tempt SpongeBob.] ‣Death Trap [#25] - Gregor F. Narholz ["Wait a second!"] •Grass Skirt Chase - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Squidward chases SpongeBob.] •Nick's Conga Line - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob dances.] ‣Conga Real - Ronnie Hazzlehurst ["That's just a stupid boulder."] ‣Nostalgic Romance - Gregor F. Narholz ["It's not just a boulder, it's a rock."] ‣Moloka'i Nui A - Kapono Beamer [The pizza is delivered to customer.] ‣Stack of Leis - Kapono Beamer [Doleful delivery.] •War Blower (drums only) - The Blue Hawaiians [Squidward walks up to the customer's door.] ‣Grass Skirts Blowing (Hilo March) - Jan Rap, The Hawaiian Serenaders [The ending.]
"The classic setup: SpongeBob and Squidward are lost in the desert while delivering a pizza to a customer's home. Squidward just wants to get out of there, but SpongeBob sees his pizza delivery as a sacred oath between himself and the customer. I like when SpongeBob singing to himself - 'The Krusty Krab pizza is the pizza' …turns into a bizarre gospel jingle singer-'Krusty Kray -ya ya-yaa-aaab!'"
In 2009, "Pizza Delivery" was chosen by viewers on Nick.com as the number one episode of all time during the The Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash television marathon.
"Pizza Delivery" received very positive reviews. Nancy Basile of About.com ranked the episode number 2 on her "Best SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes" list. She said, "[It] is the perfect episode to depict SpongeBob's enthusiasm for all things Krusty Krab against Squidward's apathy and cynical nature." Basile cited her favorite scene in the episode where "After the customer slams his door in SpongeBob's face, Squidward makes sure he swallows the pizza 'in one bite.'"[8]
Giving the episode 5 out of 5 stars, Bill Treadway of DVD Verdict said the episode is his "personal favorite all the episodes,"[9] writing that "this one is loaded with enough unique twists and hilarious comedy to bear repeat viewings."[9]
Emily Estep of WeGotThisCovered.com ranked the episode Number 1 on her "Top 10 Episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants" list,[10] saying, "But – the pizza is for the customer, and flawless employee SpongeBob won't let Squidward eat any of it."[10] She wrote, "[The episode] has the undervalued nostalgia of being episode five of the entire series and it benefits from the aforementioned chemistry of SpongeBob and Squidward."[10] She also praised the episode as "an in-depth look at their SpongeBob and Squidward relationship, and it set the tone for just how strange the show could be."[10] Estep lauded the hitchhiking dances by SpongeBob, saying, "These moves are amusing and charming, while Squidward's bitterness is easy to relate to."[10]
The driver seat and steering wheel in the car SpongeBob and Squidward use is on the right instead of the left, suggesting that the car is from a country that uses left-hand traffic.
In the shot where the gears on the boat change, the words change to the Korean words for "forward" and "reverse:" 앞으로가 (apeuroga) and 뒤로가 (dwiroga).
Although the two words directly translate to "forward" and "reverse," they are not the Korean terms for automatic transmission settings. So they might be a bit quirky to Korean speakers.
If SpongeBob sees this in Korean though, he should still be able to tell which is forward and backward by just following the arrow marks.
"The Krusty Krab Pizza" song has become a popular internet meme on YouTube.
Fourth wall break: When SpongeBob and Squidward are in the storm, everything stops, and SpongeBob is in midair when he gasps and says, "Squidward!"
The part where Squidward chases SpongeBob and tries to take the pizza from him has become a popular internet meme in 2021. There's been edits featuring a different character replacing Squidward and another different character replacing SpongeBob.
When Squidward knocks on the door of the customer's house, his knocking syncs up with the background music.
When Mr. Krabs is ending the phone call, if listened closely the phone's gibberish starts to continue before he hangs up, suggesting the customer ordered his drink as Mr. Krabs put the phone down on purpose.
The bit where the fish said to SpongeBob that he forgot his drink was inspired by writer Aaron Springer during his time as a food delivery guy when this actually happened.[11]
This episode reveals that even though Squidward can be a jerk, he does have standards. In this case, he feels angry at the customer for making SpongeBob cry.
This is also a rare occasion where he is nice to SpongeBob, as he stands up for him.
In the episode "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture," during the scene where SpongeBob goes berserk over having no footage of the movie he and his friends worked hard on, Squidward watches SpongeBob and has a facial expression with a mixture of sadness, shock, and concern. This may be another instance where he has standards.
At the end of this episode, Squidward's line "Oh, my aching tentacles!" was cut in some countries due to the line being said at an inappropriate timing (causing the screen to go black when the line is said). It is also cut on the Nicktoons Collection Volume 1Game Boy Advance Video cartridge and current Nickelodeon USA/Nick@Nite airings. It is still left intact on Nicktoons USA airings, DVD releases, digital releases, and streaming services. The ending was originally cut in the UK and Ireland airings, but has since been reinstated.[12]
Frames from this episode were later used in "Friendiversary" when SpongeBob remembers Squidward.
The first episode and only episode in season 1 that does not feature any character laughing of some type besides the episode "Reef Blower" (which has no spoken dialogue).
The first episode that starts and ends at the Krusty Krab.
This is one of the few season 1 episodes where the Krabby Patty buns' sesame seeds are white. In most season 1 and early season 2 episodes, they are black.
You can see the customer's house when SpongeBob and Squidward spin out of control for a few frames.
Dub facts
In Greek, Polish, and Chinese airings, along with airings on some free-to-air channels in Latin America, the ending scene is cut for unknown reasons.
In Italian and Korean EBS airings, instead cutting to black, it still cuts to SpongeBob and Squidward arriving at the Krusty Krab with the rock, then it fades to black.
In the Serbian dub, Diet Dr. Kelp is instead called "Coca-Cola Light."[23]
Likewise, in the Malayalam dub that airs on ETV Bal Bharat, it is instead called "Diet Coca-Cola."[24]
Cultural references
SpongeBob is called "Jethro" twice by Squidward. This is a reference to Jethro Bodine, one of the main characters in the TV show The Beverly Hillbillies.
Diet Dr. Kelp is a parody of real-life Diet Dr Pepper.
Errors
When SpongeBob is shining a table at the Krusty Krab, the size of the anchor on his Krusty Krab employee hat is much bigger in the reflection than how it is on the actual hat.
Mr. Krabs' nose is the same shade of red as the rest of his skin in this episode, rather than darker red as in all other episodes.
When Mr. Krabs tells the customer that Squidward will deliver the pizza, he refers to Squidward as a squid when he is in fact an octopus.
The boat's antenna and sticker disappears after SpongeBob's "vehicle inspection."
When SpongeBob "checks" the tire pressure in one of the car's tires, the hubcap disappears.
In the European Spanish dub, when SpongeBob says, "That lucky is going to have the first Krabby Patty pizza ever," he says: "Ese cliente afortunado va a llevarse la primera cangreburger" ("That lucky customer is going to carry off/take the first Krabby Patty") when he should have said "Ese cliente afortunado va a llevarse la primera cangrepizza" ("That lucky customer is going to carry off/take the first Krabby Pizza").
When Squidward says, "Come on, SpongeBob. It's just around the corner," the wrinkles on his head are missing for a couple frames.
The boat's bumper sticker disappears once SpongeBob and Squidward start driving.
The delivery boat is white and purple on the sides and front, but the rear has a classic red stripe. It starts red, but when the boat is spinning down the road, it has a purple tint. It turns entirely purple when it breaks down.
When the swordfish truck driver realized that SpongeBob was in the middle of the road, his air horn lever was moving, but a couple of seconds before he honks the truck, it stays still.
When SpongeBob is blown around holding the pizza, the writing is towards him. When they are spat out, the writing is facing away from him.
Also during the wind scene, Squidward's eyelids are briefly colored light turquoise, the same color as his skin, instead of teal.
In one scene where Squidward is panicking for losing the way, one of his tentacles becomes translucent.
When SpongeBob grabs some coral, one of his holes disappears for one frame.
When Squidward "takes a look" at the pizza, the box opens to the east. However, when he fully opens it, it opens to the north.
When SpongeBob runs away from Squidward and then hits him and falls on the ground, SpongeBob sits on the ground, missing his Krusty Krab employee hat.
After Squidward is run over by SpongeBob's rock, his eyes just momentarily become the same color as his skin.
While the customer says, "You call yourself a delivery boy!?," for a brief second, his fin slightly comes off his body.
When SpongeBob falls to the ground after failing to serve the customer his pizza, his feet face sideways. But in the next shot, his feet face upright.
In this same scene, there is an overlay error Squidward's fourth foot as it is visible, while it should be hidden behind him.
In the end, it is shown that the customer's house is across the street from the Krusty Krab, whereas in other episodes, the Chum Bucket is supposed to be across the street.
There is more/less pepperoni on the pizza in different shots.
