"Karen's Virus" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 11. In this episode, Karen gets a computer virus, and it's up to SpongeBob to get it out of her.
Characters[]
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Off Model SpongeBob (single appearance)
- Squidward Tentacles (cameo)
- Gnarly Squid (single appearance)
- Eugene H. Krabs
- Money Krabs (single appearance)
- Sheldon J. Plankton
- Ideal Plankton (single appearance)
- Karen Plankton
- Virus (single appearance)
- Female hick (single appearance)
- Hanna (single appearance)
- Robot SpongeBob (cameo)
- Plankton's cousins (cameo)
- Old Man Jenkins (cameo dressed similarly to Walter Haddock)
- Granny Plankton (cameo)
- King Neptune (mentioned)
- Incidentals
Synopsis[]
The episode starts with Karen obtaining a virus due to hanging out with a sick computer. Plankton sees this and needs someone stupid enough to want to fix her, and just at the right time, SpongeBob is next to the Chum Bucket. After deciding that the mission will be called "Operation: Save Karen," Plankton transports SpongeBob into Karen to defeat the virus.
Plankton gives SpongeBob directions on how to find the virus and soon after he starts looking for it, he falls down into a hole the virus made and sees it eat through Karen. Meanwhile, Karen becomes completely delusional and escapes the Chum Bucket into the Krusty Krab, where she causes chaos. SpongeBob flings back up onto the surface of the inside of Karen and continues searching for destruction caused by the virus, but accidentally activates the security button. Thankfully, before he gets shot by a laser, he is saved by Ideal Plankton, who is what Karen pictures Plankton as.
As the virus continues destroying parts of Karen, Ideal Plankton and SpongeBob confront different characters how Karen sees them, and gets into a battle with them. After they defeat them, the two see the virus on the other side of a trench. SpongeBob uses a rope to cross the trench, but when Ideal Plankton tries to cross, part of the ground breaks and he falls into the trench, forcing SpongeBob to have to save Karen by himself.
SpongeBob finds the virus.
Karen is shown driving a car to a party at Wagon Wheel due to how delusional she is. Inside Karen, the virus is shown to be eating Karen's memories, prompting SpongeBob to try and defeat it. After his attempts fail, he gets so scared he breaks into pieces. When he goes back into normal form, he winds up with one extra piece and throws it onto the ground. The virus eats this, telling SpongeBob that the virus is simply hungry. The episode ends with SpongeBob taking out the virus from Karen and letting him eat a Krabby Patty to satisfy how hungry it is before Plankton abandons it after SpongeBob confronts the virus. Ironically, Karen is still delirious due to the virus formerly being in her body but states she likes it.
Production[]
The episode was confirmed by Vincent Waller on March 29, 2018.[1]
According to Dave Cunningham, in a Q&A with Encyclopedia SpongeBobia, the episode took longer to produce than normal and he, Sherm Cohen and Adam Paloian asked colleagues to give more time if they felt they needed it - "it paid off."[2]
Art[]
Music[]
| ( ‣ ) Production music |
| ( • ) Original music |
| ( ◦ ) SpongeBob music |
‣ One Zero Zero - Harry Breuer, Jean-Jacques Perrey [Title card]
‣ Happy Links 6-9 - Remastered - Paul Fenoulhet [Karen and Hanna at the Chum Bucket]
‣ Happy Links 1-5 - Remastered - Paul Fenoulhet [Karen sneezes at Plankton]
• A Series of Unfortunate Events - Nicolas Carr [Karen malfunctions]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 4B - Jeremy Wakefield ["Uh-oh."]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 5C - Jeremy Wakefield ["My ones and zeroes look like 10, 10, 10, 10."]
• Mission Improbable - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony ["Someone's gonna have to get inside you and kill that virus."]
• Seaweed 2 - Steve Belfer [SpongeBob knocking Chum Bucket door]
• Bluesy Bender - Nicolas Carr [Plankton tells SpongeBob that Karen needs his help/Transition to next scene/♪Observant and yellow fellow is he♪"]
• Pedal to the Metal - Nicolas Carr ["Journey to the Center of Karen."]
‣ Arnold Is Back 2 - Gregor Narholz ["The Mainframe Mission."]
• Hgliss & Bell - Nicolas Carr ["Ooh, I know!"]
‣ Glory Road - Sam Fonteyn ["Operation: Save Karen!"]
• Toy Piano 2 - Nicolas Carr, Barry Anthony [SpongeBob holds up a drawing]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 7A - Jeremy Wakefield [Chum Bucket exploded]
• Very Funny - Nicolas Carr [Plankton blows the fire out on his antennae]
‣ Neutral Mood - Simon May [SpongeBob zapped and injected into Karen]
• That Hurts - Nicolas Carr [Plankton gets electrocuted]
‣ Space Trek - Philip Johnston, Norman Whittle [SpongeBob arrives at Karen's hard drive]
‣ Atoms And Particles - Nigel Bates, Chistopher Payne [SpongeBob arrives at Karen's hard drive]
• 8 Bit Bit - Nicolas Carr [A megaphone appears]
‣ Destination Unknown - Gregor Narholz [Plankton starts talking to SpongeBob via megaphone]
• Lighten Up a Little - Nicolas Carr ["Talk to me, you digitized doofus!"]
‣ Destination Unknown - Gregor Narholz [Plankton tells SpongeBob to look for destruction]
• Perilous Plunge - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob falls through a hole made by the virus]
‣ Monster Bug A - Gregor Narholz [Karen gets off the table]
• Melodramatic Moments - Michael Bolger, Nicolas Carr ["I need you to control your wife. Er, computer, or whatever."]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 40A - Jeremy Wakefield [Karen throws Squidward away]
• Melodramatic Moments - Michael Bolger, Nicolas Carr [Krabs grabs the cash register out of Karen]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 12C - Jeremy Wakefield ["Wow, I can never un-see that."]
‣ Code "Dead End" - Gregor Narholz [SpongeBob wandering through the hard drive]
‣ Odyssey - Sam Spence [Ideal Plankton appears and blasts the lasers with a laser gun]
• Bell Tree Gliss - Nicolas Carr
‣ Comedy Punctuations And Bridges 3 - Fredric Bayco [SpongeBob sighs and skips]
‣ Fun of the Fair - David Farnon [Amusement park in Karen's hard drive]
‣ Musique De L'Infini - Jean-Jacques Perrey [Virus destroys Karen's anger control center and love center]
‣ Odyssey - Sam Spence [Ideal Plankton climbs up a wall with SpongeBob]
• 8 Bit World 1 - Nicolas Carr [Money Krabs appears/Gnarly Squid appears]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 35 - Jeremy Wakefield ["Hmm? Uh, nothing like a little make-up couldn't fix."]
• 8 Bit World 2 - Nicolas Carr [Off Model SpongeBob appears]
‣ Armed Attack - Jean Clero [Ideal Plankton fights Money Krabs and Gnarly Squid]
• 8 Bit Bits & Pieces - Nicolas Carr [8-bit sounds overlay "Armed Attack"]
• 8 Bit World 2 - Nicolas Carr [Both SpongeBobs babbling]
‣ Code "Dead End" - Gregor Narholz ["Neptune's network! Which one of you is the real SpongeBob?"]
• 8 Bit Bits & Pieces 2 - Nicolas Carr
‣ Code "Dead End" - Gregor Narholz
• 8 Bit World 3 - Nicolas Carr [SpongeBob claps]
• 8 Bit Explosions - Nicolas Carr
‣ Musique De L'Infini - Jean-Jacques Perrey [Virus roars to SpongeBob and Ideal Plankton]
‣ Thrill Ride - Gregor Narholz [SpongeBob swings across a ravine]
‣ Tower of Evil - Magnum Opus [Ideal Plankton falls into the ravine]
‣ Odyssey - Sam Spence ["I mean, yes!"]
• 8 Bit Bits & Pieces 2 - Nicolas Carr [Transition to next scene.]
• Hawaiian Misadventures B - Nicolas Carr, Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Karen driving crazily a boat with Plankton]
• Hillbilly Party - Nicolas Carr, Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Karen crashes the boat into Wagon Wheel]
‣ On Fire - Gregor Narholz [Virus at Karen's memory bank]
• 8 Bit Bits & Pieces 2 - Nicolas Carr [8-bit sounds overlay "On Fire"]
• 8 Bit Bit - Nicolas Carr
‣ On Fire - Gregor Narholz
• 8 Bit Bits - Nicolas Carr ["I always wind up with one extra piece."]
‣ One Zero Zero - Harry Breuer, Jean-Jacques Perrey [Virus eats SpongeBob's extra piece]
• Hot Steel and Slide Licks 1 - Jeremy Wakefield [Karen is tired and shuts off]
• Earls Revenge - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield [Ending]
• 8 Bit Bits & Pieces 2 - Nicolas Carr
• 8 Bit End - Nicolas Carr
Release[]
- This episode is available on the SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 19, The Complete Eleventh Season, Another 100 Episodes, and The Best 300 Episodes Ever DVDs.
Trivia[]
General[]
- This and "Girls' Night Out" are the first episodes to premiere on a day that daylight saving time ends in the United States.
- This episode was paired up with "Girls' Night Out" during the original American airing, but has since been re-airing with "Appointment TV."
Binary on Karen's screen.
- On Karen's broken screen, it shows binary for "SpongeBob SquarePants."
- In the UK, Plankton's line, "It's probably a suicide mission" was removed due to "suicide" being an inappropriate word.[3]
- This episode was originally going to premiere on October 24, 2018, but it was delayed to November 4, 2018.[4]
- When SpongeBob gets mixed up after he is charred by the virus, he resembles how he does at one point in the theme song sequence.
- Granny Plankton makes a cameo in a picture.
- The fourth wall is broken twice in this episode:
- Karen throws a boat in the sky, hitting and knocking down one of the flower clouds.
- Karen sings a warped version of the theme song in her delusional state.
- This is the second SpongeBob SquarePants production that involves CGI. In this episode, it is inside Karen. The first production was The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
Dub facts[]
German title card.
- In the German dub, this episode is titled "Karens Virus," without the apostrophe, making the title card of the German dub almost identical to the original English version.
Episode references[]
- The flashbacks in Karen's memory include footage from "Plankton!," "F.U.N.," "Welcome to the Chum Bucket," "The Algae's Always Greener," "Plankton's Army," "Enemy In-Law," "Best Frenemies," "Komputer Overload," "Salsa Imbecilicus," and "Plankton Gets the Boot."
The memory from "Plankton."
The memory from "Welcome to the Chum Bucket."
The memory from "Plankton's Army."
Cultural references[]
- SpongeBob's line "Journey to the Center of Karen" is a pun on the 1864 novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Errors[]
- When SpongeBob asks Ideal Plankton if Karen has a version of him inside her, his left arm is incorrectly layered behind his body for a few seconds before reappearing again.
Videos[]
Names in other languages[]
| Language | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| German | Karens Virus | Karen's Virus |
| Russian | Вирус Карен Virus Karen |
Karen's Virus |