Once Bitten (SpongeBob SquarePants)

This article is about the television episode. For other uses, see Once Bitten.

Template:SpongeBob episode "Once Bitten" is an episode from the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, season four. Template:Spoiler Brief summary: It's Sunday and Gary starts biting more than ever, and Patrick thinks Gary has a disease that Squidward (because Gary bit him) will pass on to other people in Bikini Bottom.

Time/Date:

• Sunday
  • 8:00 AM: Squidward walks out of his house
  • 8:10 AM: Gary walks into the city and bites people
  • 8:12 AM: News reports air, talking about the disease
  • 8:15 AM: SpongeBob runs to the Krusty Krab
  • 8:21 AM: Dr. Gill Gilliam appears, saying that the MAD SNAIL DISEASE doesn't exist

Main character(s):

• SpongeBob SquarePants
• Gary the Snail
• Patrick Star

Major character(s):

• Squidward Tentacles
• Dr. Gill Gilliam (Snail Disease Expert and Snail Expert)
• Eugene H. Krabs

Minor character(s):

• Bikini Bottomites
  • Fred
  • Tom
  • Nancy
  • Old Man Jenkins
  • Mary
  • Mrs. Smith/Nurse Smith

Plot

File:BBEvac.JPG

Bikini Bottomites evacuate the city.

One Sunday in Bikini Bottom, Squidward walks out of his home and slips on Gary's slime-trail. He gets mad and erects a fence of cheap splintery wood, and Gary bites him. Later, Squidward asks SpongeBob if Gary has had all of his shots. SpongeBob says that he has forgot to give him his "mad snail disease" shot, a disease Patrick had mentioned aforehand. Just then, Gary runs off and starts to bite everybody in sight. Patrick tells SpongeBob and Squidward about the symptoms of the disease, one of which is turning into a zombie. Bikini Bottom gets burned and wrecked as everybody scrambles to evacuate the city. Soon, almost everybody gets bitten and believe they have turned into zombies. Those who have not fled are trapped in the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob tries to get in, but they believe he is a zombie. He slips through the doors. The citizens believe that Patrick and SpongeBob are zombies. Just then Gary comes in, much to the frightening of the civilians. Gary bites SpongeBob.

File:DrGillGilliam.JPG

Dr. Gill Gilliam

A Bikini Bottom doctor, Gill Gilliam, comes inside and says that the disease is just an urban legend and Gary was just suffering from a tree-sized splinter in his foot, most likely from Squidward's large wooden fence. The episode ends with Gary biting Mr. Krabs.

Quotes

• Patrick: You mean your pet hasn't been vaccinated for MAD SNAIL DISEASE!?
• Patrick: (speaking to SpongeBob, thinking that he's a zombie) I've got my eye on you.

Old Man Jenkins: If you could take your eye out and put it on him, wouldn't that make you a zombie too?

Patrick: (hesitates) YOU'RE RIGHT! I'M A ZOMBIE!

Old Man Jenkins: Who's to say that we aren't all zombies?!?!? (Everyone runs around in panic)

Cultural references

• The episode may be a spoof of Cujo, due to the fact that Gary bites everyone and gives them the disease.
• The ending is similar to an Ed, Edd n Eddy episode Little Ed Blue where Johnny 2x4 pulls a rock out of Ed's shoe, curing Ed of his bad and destructive mood during the episode.
• The plot of this episode appears to be a parody of classic zombie movies such as 28 Days Later, Night of the Living Dead, and most notably, Shaun of the Dead, and Dawn of the Dead.
• Around the end, most people who weren't "infected" fled and locked themselves in the Krusty Krab. This is what happened in Dawn of the Dead.
• This episode is similar to the viral outbreak in the Resident Evil series, when Raccoon City is infected with a virus and all of the citizens became zombies. Also, when SpongeBob is first attacked by the zombies, some of the zombies are in police uniform, which is similar to the zombies in Resident Evil 2.
• Mad Snail Disease is a parody of Mad Cow Disease. The disease for snails is like rabies.
• The people evacuating Bikini Bottom could be references to numerous films notably Armageddon, Deep Impact, Independence Day, and War of the Worlds.
• The evacuation itself may be reference to the Houston, Texas evacuation of Hurricane Rita in 2005.
• SpongeBob's quote "Yep yep yep" is similar to what Ducky says in The Land Before Time.
• When the remaining "survivors" of the Mad Snail Disease lock themselves in the Krusty Krab, it resembles the gathering of survivors in the game Dead Rising

Trivia/Goofs

• Perch Perkin's original color was purple. He is orange in this episode.
• It is revealed that Bikini Bottom citizens are called "Bikini Bottomites."
• The Fry Cook Games re-aired with this episode when it originally aired.
• Music from Bubblestand and Jellyfishing is heard.
• Even though Squidward has tentacles, it is seen that he has both fingers and toes. (Fingers when he counts the snail diseases, Toes when Patrick says Squidward has "Severely untrimmed toenails.")
• When Perch Perkins was told that a ticklish ribcage was a symptom of Mad Snail Disease, another fish yelled that it spreads through the air. In this case, however, it does not spread through the air as they are all underwater.
• Symptoms of Mad Snail Disease:
  A rash
  Dry throat
  Bloodshot eyes
  Loss of balance
  Ticklish ribcage
  Messy pants
  Severely untrimmed toenails
  Become a zombie
• Dr. Gill Gilliam's name wasn't revealed until now, although he's orange instead of the usual purple. Same with Perch Perkins.
• Gill Gilliam, for some reason, has orange human arms instead of fins till he has fins in the next episode.
• There is an Ed, Edd and Eddy episode similar to this one and has a similar title (Once Bitten, Twice Ed) and a Big Fat Awesome House Party game(once bitten, twice shy)
• In the crowd of "zombies" you can see an elderly fish, but you can see the same fish in the Krusty Krab.
• Mary, from Chocolate With Nuts appears in this episode as one of the "zombies".
• Squidward has four pet rocks.
• The beginning of this episode is similar to the beginning of SpongeBob B.C. (excluding the Patchy the Pirate segment).