Me and two other interns were in the editing room along with the lead animators and sound editors for the final cut. We received the copy that was supposed to be âFear of a Krabby Pattyâ and gathered around the screen to watch. Now, given that it isnât final yet animators often put up a mock title card, sort of an inside joke for us, with phony, often times lewd titles, such as âHow sex doesnât workâ instead of âRock-a-bye-Bivalveâ when SpongeBob and Patrick adopt a sea scallop. Nothing particularly funny but work related chuckles. So when we saw the title card âSquidwardâs Suicideâ we didnât think it more than a morbid joke.
One of the interns did a small throat laugh at it. The happy-go-lucky music plays as is normal. The story began with Squidward practicing his clarinet, hitting a few sour notes like normal. We hear SpongeBob laughing outside and Squidward stops, yelling at him to keep it down as he has a concert that night and needs to practice. SpongeBob says okay and goes to see Sandy with Patrick. The bubbles splash screen comes up and we see the ending of Squidwardâs concert. This is when things began to seem off.
While playing, a few frames repeat themselves, but the sound doesnât (at this point sound is synced up with animation, so, yes, thatâs not common) but when he stops playing, the sound finishes as if the skip never happened. There is slight murmuring in the crowd before they begin to boo him. Not normal cartoon booing that is common in the show, but you could very clearly hear malice in it. Squidwardâs in full frame and looks visibly afraid. The shot goes to the crowd, with SpongeBob in center frame, and he too is booing, very much unlike him. That isnât the oddest thing, though. What is odd is everyone had hyper realistic eyes. Very detailed. Clearly not shots of real peopleâs eyes, but something a bit more real than CGI. The pupils were red. Some of us looked at each other, obviously confused, but since we werenât the writers, we didnât question its appeal to children yet.
The shot goes to Squidward sitting on the edge of his bed, looking very forlorn. The view out of his porthole window is of a night sky so it isnât very long after the concert. The unsettling part is at this point there is no sound. Literally no sound. Not even the feedback from the speakers in the room. Itâs as if the speakers were turned off, though their status showed them working perfectly. He just sat there, blinking, in this silence for about 30 seconds, then