"Rock Bottom" is the second segment of the 17th episode of the first season of the American animated television seriesSpongeBob SquarePants. It originally was produced in 1999 and aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 15, 2000. The series follows the adventures of the title character in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. In the episode, SpongeBob becomes stranded in an abyssopelagic zone that is a city called Rock Bottom. The episode was written by Paul Tibbitt, Ennio Torresan, Jr., and David Fain, and the animation was directed by Tom Yasumi. Upon release, "Rock Bottom" was viewed by two million households and received positive reviews from media critics.
Plot summary
and Patrick board a bus to go home from Glove World, which is a glove-themed amusement park. They accidentally board the wrong bus, which then takes them to a 90-degree cliff. The cliff leads to an abyssopelagic zone called Rock Bottom, which is inhabited by many strange deep-sea animals. Patrick gets on the busto go home but accidentally leaves SpongeBob behind. After several unsuccessful attempts to get on the bus, SpongeBob heads to a bus station and waits in a very long line. By the time he reaches the front, he finds out that the next bus leaves in 5 seconds; he misses it, then learns that it was the last one and he is stuck there until morning. He becomes frightened by a raspberry sound coming from off in the distance, and he dashes back to the cliff in terror. Finally, the raspberry sound's maker is revealed to be a friendly-looking anglerfish creature, who has retrieved SpongeBob's glove balloon. The creature blows up the balloon and ties it to SpongeBob's wrist, which allows him to rise up the cliff and float back to Bikini Bottom. The episode ends with Patrick on his way back to Rock Bottom, thinking SpongeBob is still there.
Production
"Rock Bottom" was written by Paul Tibbitt, Ennio Torresan, and David Fain, with Tom Yasumi serving as animation director. Tibbitt and Torresan also worked as storyboard directors. The episode originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 15, 2000, with a TV-Y7 parental rating. Series head writer of the first season Merriwether Williams said the episode's story is "so simple." She remarked "To me, it's one of the best episodes. It just stayed with one idea." The episode was about "how he keeps missing the bus and how that makes him feel." Williams said the episode was "so small that you could explore gags and opportunities for gags." The episode was an example of "a good outline" in the series where the storyboards and humor were done easily. Williams said "it was great for the board guys." She added "In many ways, my job was to create situations where the board guys could be funny, to create a situation that could be funny, and let them go for the actual, specific jokes." "Rock Bottom" was released on the DVD compilation called The Best of SpongeBob SquarePants on May 11, 2004. It was also included on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete 1st Season DVD, released on October 28, 2003. On September 22, 2009, the episode was released on the SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes DVD, alongside all the episodes of seasons one through five.
Reception
"Rock Bottom" was watched by 2.1 million viewers upon its release. It received very positive reviews from media critics. Nancy Basile of About.com gave the episode a positive response and ranked it 4 on her "Best SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes" list. Basile said "The raspberries and SpongeBob's increasing frustration make this an hilarious episode." She cited the episode as a "running up against Murphy's law over and over again" and said "so it's very relatable." Basile's favorite scene was "SpongeBob tries to extract a snack from the vending machine before the bus across the road drives away." Emily Estep of WeGotThisCovered.com ranked the episode 5 on her "Top 10 Episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants" list. She said "While 'Rock Bottom' is mostly a goofy episode, it's also one of the scarier episodes of SpongeBob." She also said the episode has "the ideal balance of cuteness and sheer terror – like SpongeBob running from a mysterious character, saying, 'Well, that place will be there tomorrow. I guess I'd better keep walking. Running. Better start running. Running. Sprinting! Yes, I just gotta keep sprinting!' " that made the episode "so well-remembered." Bill Treadway of DVD Talk gave the episode a 3 out of 5 rating.
Other media
"Rock Bottom" served as an inspiration for the SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge ride. The ride first opened on March 15, 2008 at the Mall of America's Nickelodeon theme park re-branded from the Mall of America's Park at MOA, formerly Camp Snoopy, to Nickelodeon Universe in the Minneapolis-St. Paul suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. The SpongeBob SquarePants Rock Bottom Plunge features vertical lifts and 90-degree turns providing the riders a 60-plus foot drop, a maximum speed of over 40 miles per hour and a 4.4 maximum G-force rating. The ride time is approximately two minutes and is the shortest Gerstlauer roller coaster built yet.
