Sandy and SpongeBob are peacefully watching the clouds. While they relax, they discuss hypothetically climbing the nearby Coral Cliff, until they each casually mention that they would obviously win anyway, due to their respective land and sea-based abilities. They decide to have a race and Sandy takes a head start. Despite his efforts to catch up, SpongeBob loses. He challenges Sandy to another race to the Krusty Krab, taking the same head start as Sandy and winning.
Upset at SpongeBob's victory, Sandy boasts of the superiority of land creatures to sea creatures, listing the many skills and abilities that she claims sea creatures lack. SpongeBob, joined by Patrick, Squidward and Mr. Krabs, point out things that Sandy cannot do, such as breathing underwater. She then decides to tear off her suit and shatter her helmet to prove it, but the strain proves too much, forcing her to use a pickle jar as a makeshift air helmet.
To settle the issue, Sandy challenges the group to the reverse: going up on dry land for one minute, which they declare an easy feat, but when reaching the shore of the local island, they lose confidence. Unwilling to let her win, they resolve to charge up to the surface and end up finding the land enjoyable. They even take the time to chat up a pair of native seagulls.
After the minute passes, Sandy lets go of her pride and heads up to congratulate the group, but, to her horror, finds them being chased and mauled by the seagulls and attacks the birds to save them.
Back on the ocean floor, the two sides come to the realization that everyone, sea and land creature alike, is good at something, even if no one is good at everything. SpongeBob and Sandy apologize to each other (SpongeBob for making Sandy a laughingstock, and Sandy for daring the others into going onto dry land), and the group gives a cheer in honor of feeling sorry for themselves. Meanwhile, the now defeated and plucked seagulls, in a sorry state of their own, halfheartedly join in the cheer.
Production
This episode was in production in 2000 and early 2001.
Art
Title card background.
Storyboard of a deleted scene that may be from this episode. Jay Lender commented that it was made "around 2000," and that "Pressure" is a "good guess." He added that there is a minor chance that it may also be from "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm."[4]
Music
( ‣ ) Production music
( • ) Original music
( ◦ ) SpongeBob music
‣Cha Cha Nova - Gerhard Narholz [Title card] ‣Holiday Dream - Max Mahlmann [SpongeBob and Sandy relaxing] ‣Banzai Rider - The Surfdusters [Climbing Coral Cliffs/SpongeBob and Sandy running to the Krusty Krab] ‣Tomfoolery - David Snell [Sandy thinks land creatures are best/"Give me that. They don't call me Cheeks for nothing."/"Admit it, Sandy, you can't do anything us sea creatures can do."] ‣Danger Zone - Mike Sunderland [Sandy takes off her suit] ‣Stepping into Danger - Mike Sunderland [Everyone teasing Sandy] ‣Tomfoolery - David Snell [Sandy challenges them to go above water] ‣Hawaiian Link (A) - Richard Myhill ["Well, so are you going or not?"] ‣Pomp and Circumstance No.4 A - Edward Elgar, John Fox ["We're sea creatures!"] •Tense Suspense - Nicolas Carr ["Make it last."/SpongeBob goes above water.] ‣Sunny Samoa - George de Fretes, Jan Rap [Everyone else goes above water] ‣Cha Cha Nova - Gerhard Narholz ["This is pretty easy!"] ‣Waikiki Queen - Hans Haider [Ending]
This episode was the first completed in 2001, making it the first episode made in the 21st century and 3rd millennium.
Technically, the sea creatures won since they were able to survive one minute on dry land while Sandy wasn't able to survive one minute underwater without a helmet.
Mr. Krabs says that everyone in his family can retract their eyes into their sockets. His family is made of two very different animals: crabs and sperm whales like Pearl.
His statement is still correct, as both crabs and sperm whales can retract and protrude their eyes, as shown in this video.
In the PlayStation 1 version of the video game SuperSponge, four scenes from this episode are used in the intro.
This is the last episode to be written by David Fain and the only season 2 episode written by him.
This is the first episode for a few things:
The first episode where Sandy takes off her air helmet while underwater.
This is also the first episode where Sandy uses something other than her space helmet to breathe underwater.
The first episode where Mr. Krabs appears as a normal crab.
It is revealed that Sandy is allergic to seawater breath, which her lungs break when her face turns red, as squirrels cannot breathe underwater.
SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs and Squidward's fish-like faces have become an internet meme. Also, it was spawned into merchandise clothing such as Sweatshirts and T-shirts.
The title card background for this episode is similar to that of "Bubble Buddy."
On the island, filmed in live-action, SpongeBob is a square-cut sponge, Patrick is a real starfish, Mr. Krabs is a toy crab made to look like a real crab, Squidward is a puppet of an octopus with a big nose and his own eyes, and Sandy is a plush squirrel toy with a small plastic dome on her head.
In this episode, SpongeBob and Squidward appear in their regular colors above water, but in "Reef Blower," SpongeBob appears in paler colors and Squidward appears purple when SpongeBob's reef blower sucks up all the water.
Sandy dares SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs to go on the island of Bikini Atoll, an island that was destroyed by the first Hydrogen Bomb test by the United States, which is infamous for showering a Japanese fishing boat with radiation.
The clip of everyone jumping and saying "Hooray!" was used during "Up next" Nick bumpers in 2009-2011.[5]
The part where SpongeBob gasps and says, "Take that back!" was used in a 2001 promo for the Nick Jr. show Oswald.[6]
When Sandy mentions all the things that land creatures do, a few of them are common activities in the American southwest.
Realistically, Mr. Krabs and Squidward would have no problem being out of water, as crabs are amphibious and octopuses are able to survive on land for up to an hour.
For unknown reasons, this episode and its sister episode were rated 13+ on Amazon Prime Video in August 2020.[citation needed]
This has since been corrected as of October 2020, and the episode is back to being rated its original TV-Y7 rating on Amazon Prime Video, like most other episodes.
In this episode, only half of the main characters are present, with Sandy as the only female.
This episode is later reflected as the opposite in "A Cabin in the Kelp." In that episode, only half of the main characters are present, with SpongeBob as the only male.
"Pressure" was produced before there was a defined list of "main characters," and Plankton's voice actor, series co-writer Doug Lawrence, claimed that neither Plankton nor Karen were considered main characters until The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. This means every contemporary main character besides Gary, Pearl, and Mrs. Puff appear in this episode.
This episode was paired with different episodes in several marathons:
SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward have little difficulty being on dry land, despite the first two nearly dying of dehydration in "Tea at the Treedome" as well as SpongeBob alone in "Squirrel Jokes." This could be because of the humidity in the island air, as opposed to the air in Sandy's treedome, which she had previously described as being very dry.
According to The Art of SpongeBob on Twitter, the puppet used for Sandy (A Steiff squirrel hand puppet) was once listed on eBay.
The episode description on TV guides says, "SpongeBob and Sandy compete doing underwater sports," even though there are no sports taking place in this episode, nor are any of the things the male characters pressure her to do sports-related.
The figure used for Mr. Krabs on dry land has a smiley face on it. It can be seen on higher-quality copies of the episode.
Cultural references
Sandy's line, "That's the way the coral crumbles," is a play on the old saying, "That's the way the cookie crumbles."
The anchor on Mr. Krabs' office door is blue, but in the next scene, it is red like on the other doors.
When SpongeBob arrives at the Krusty Krab, a set of tables is shown. After the next scene, they are all gone.
When Sandy and SpongeBob race each other the second time to the Krusty Krab, the restaurant is facing the side, where the front door is to Sandy's right when she entered. However, when she goes in, the Krusty Krab goes back to facing the right way inside, and it makes it look like Sandy is coming in from the left, where there is no door.
Patrick holds a tray of Krabby Double Deluxes, but in the next scene after he eats one, he is not holding it.
Also, in the same scene, when Sandy says "Give me that," she grabs the burger from the wrong location. It's possible she took it from a customer who ordered one.
After Sandy disrobes and smashes her helmet, Patrick implies that he was previously unaware of Sandy's gender, despite referring to her using feminine pronouns roughly two minutes earlier.
When Sandy struggles to breathe, she pours the pickles out of the pickle jar and puts it on her head in order for her to breathe. However, the water would have filled up the jar, so when she put it on her head it would not have made a difference.
When SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs are cheering for sea creatures, Patrick's left arm disappears for a frame.
When SpongeBob says, "First one to the Krusty Krab is the winner," the Chum Bucket is missing from across the street.
The brick wall is also missing, but might have been hidden by the cliff.
Sandy is still wearing her air helmet and space suit when she is on dry land, which she did not need.
![Storyboard of a deleted scene that may be from this episode. Jay Lender commented that it was made "around 2000," and that "Pressure" is a "good guess." He added that there is a minor chance that it may also be from "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm."[4]](/spongebob/wiki/File:Pressure_storyboard_1.jpg "Pressure storyboard 1.jpg (90 KB)")
