Spongebob: Wormy's Predecessor

If you watch a lot of Spongebob, you may have come across an episode titled "Wormy".

This episode may be ridiculous and goofy like all the other ones, but it has a gruesome secret. When the final version was first aired on the 17th of February in 2001, you would first see the title card ("Wormy"), followed by the credits. The episode begins with Spongebob and Patrick inside the treedome, seeing Sandy the squirrel out the door. They start to play around with one of her pets, which was a common worm. After a few scenes of this, they decide that it's time to leave for the day. Spongebob and friend sadly walk to their homes, and retire for the night.

Next morning, they return to find that "Wormy" has undergone metamorphosis, and being gullible as they are, believed his butterfly form to have eaten Wormy. They manage to trap it in a bubble, but it escapes outside the treedome. They follow it to the Krusty Krab, where Mr. Krabs is posing for a shot. Afraid that it would eat Mr. Krabs and Squidward, Spongebob and Patrick tackle both of them, and they all topple into the cash-register's boat.

After explaining about the "monster", they peek over the rim of the boat. Squidward chastises them, and then grabs the bubble containing Wormy. He and Mr. Krabs look closer, only to see an up-close shot of what appears to be a fly's head. They scream in fright at the sight of the many eyes, and dash out of the building. Spongebob, previously cowering in the boat, sees that they left their underwear, and assumes that Wormy ate them.

They decide to warn the town about Wormy, and put up posters depicting a giant butterfly. Soon, the town is in chaos, and the background is blood red. Buildings have chunks torn out of them, and some are completely decimated.

Much later, Sandy returns from her trip. She discovers the town in ruins, and assumes that a tornado came through. Wormy, still in the bubble, flies up to her, and lands in her hand. She greets her pet, and proceeds to trap it in a jar. As if she had defeated a terrible monster, the citizens of Bikini Bottom pop out and cheer for her, with Spongebob saying "Sandy caught the monster!" The show ends with Sandy being carried away by a cheering crowd.

This is where the real story begins.

If you look closely at Patrick in that last shot, you can see that his face is poorly drawn at first, and a little distorted or stretched. Then, it disappears altogether. "Sure, it's just a slip-up by the artists. No big deal," you may say. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Before the final release of the episode, they reviewed it as they would every other. Everything was normal from the beginning to where Spongebob visits the Krusty Krab. At one point, his arm became deformed, and bent backwards on itself. After a few seconds, the screen twitched, and it was back to normal. A few minutes afterwards, when he thought Mr. Krabs and Squidward had been eaten, the blue in his eyes vanished, replaced by a black, tar-like color. His mouth moved as if he were continuing the frightened dialogue about Wormy, except there was no sound. Upon observing his lip-movements, you may notice that he appeared to say "I'll kill you."

Nothing else happened until Sandy arrived in a bus.

The same scenario plays, where she traps Wormy in a jar. Nothing happens for about 3 minutes after that, and Sandy just stands still, like a statue. The sky is still blood red. Then, slowly, heads belonging to the citizens emerge from behind the buildings. Instead of being delighted at the capture of Wormy, their faces reveal no emotion whatsoever. They stare blankly at Sandy, before stepping slowly toward her. They pause about 5 feet from her, and form a circle. Spongebob's eyes are black again.

Suddenly, one fish starts to scream. The rest follow, and soon all you can hear is screeching, much like razors on a chalkboard. They grab the jar containing Wormy, and smash it on the crater-ridden road. They proceed to stomp on him, and an unnatural amount of blood spurts out. A lone figure appears on the horizon, and begins to advance toward the mob. As it approaches, it is found to be a Patrick with no face.

He picks Sandy up, and shakes her above his head. He then throws her down, cracking her helmet. Water pours in, and she begins to suffocate. The rest of the mob follows Patrick, who carries her away. Her innards are being thrown like confetti as she disappears over the horizon.

The intersection now looks like a warzone: smoldering craters, fires destroying buildings, and that blood-red sky. Nobody is left in the smoking road, except a very distorted Spongebob.

The episode ends with him staring directly at the camera, and speaking in a raspy voice:

"This is your end."

The screen cuts to static, and goes black.

The team that watched this was horrified, and they did a half-baked job of fixing it before its release. They took the shot of Spongebob saying "I'll kill you", and instead left it as the painting of the underwear on the Krusty Krab's floor. They never showed Spongebob at that moment, instead using a sound clip of him saying "It ate them, and there it goes!"

As for the horrid finale, they changed the scene of sandy being carried away and mauled, and replaced the mob's faces to be joyful. They didn't follow the mob out of the shot. They tidied up, and quickly gave Patrick a face. (It was lacking in quality, being a little jiggly.) However, being distressed, they left a few frames of him without it.

If you don't believe me, just watch the video.