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The Idiot Box was an American sketch comedy television series created by Alex Winter, Tom Stern and Tim Burns, which ran on MTV in 1991. [1] After the success of Bill & Ted, MTV hired Winter, Stern, and Burns to develop a half-hour sketch comedy show for the network. [2] As the channel was still strictly music-oriented at the time, The Idiot ...
Idiot box is a slang term for television, often used derisively. Learn the origin, synonyms, examples, and related words of this expression from Merriam-Webster dictionary.
- Overview
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- References
"Idiot Box" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season 3. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick use their imagination to play with an empty box.
Squidward sees a large box being delivered to SpongeBob and Patrick. They open the box, which contains a giant television. However, Patrick and SpongeBob promptly throw the television away and keep the box. Squidward asks why they threw the television away, and SpongeBob responds with the above quote. Squidward, not wanting any part of this, asks for the television, and they let him have it. Once he takes the TV back inside his house, he realizes that the remote control is missing and he goes back outside for it. He hears SpongeBob and Patrick begin to - supposedly - climb a mountain inside the box and, annoyed by their stupidity, he gives the box a hard kick. A sound of an avalanche suddenly erupts from the box, shocking Squidward. Concerned, he taps the box, prompting another avalanche. Squidward hears a critically injured SpongeBob and Patrick saying that their limbs are frozen and that they have to cut them off, and rushes over to the box, opens it, and the noises immediately stop. He questions them about the noises, but they act oblivious and he leaves. Suddenly, the sound of a helicopter is heard and Squidward ducks. Realizing that it's coming from the box, he angrily opens the box and confronts them again. SpongeBob simply tells him that all of it is coming from their imagination. Squidward says that he has plenty of imagination, to which Patrick replies, "Good, now all you need is a box." Squidward gets a box, attempts to imitate SpongeBob and Patrick's experiences, and fails. After kicking his box in anger, he hears the sound of police sirens outside. Thinking that his kicking of the box is the cause, he goes outside with his box to apologize. He is quick to realize that the noises are coming from the box SpongeBob and Patrick are playing in. Furious, he kicks the box he was holding, which Patrick retrieves, saying, "Whoopee! Another box!"
Squidward begins watching TV to get his mind off the box, but all the shows that are on involve boxes. He then hears a space shuttle launch. As he tries to think of how they could possibly manage to make such realistic sound effects, he comes to the conclusion that they are using a tape recorder. Angered, he marches outside and demands the tape recorder from SpongeBob and Patrick. SpongeBob tells him that they don't have a tape recorder, which Squidward doesn't believe. He decides to join them in the box to see how they are managing to make the sound effects. After being asked where he wants to go, he asks to go to "Robot-Pirate Island." However, he sees nothing but SpongeBob and Patrick closing their eyes and saying stereotypical phrases of robots and pirates. Squidward returns to his house and soon hears the sounds of an epic robot-pirate battle. Having enough, Squidward decides to sneak in the box after SpongeBob and Patrick go to bed to find a device that could make the sound effects.
ArtStoryboardsMusic• You're Nice - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield ‣ Vergnügungspark - Gerhard Trede ‣ Awakening Memories - Paul Fenoulhet • Rainbow Harp - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr • Rainbow Harp - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr ‣ Full of Beans - Robert Schreier ‣ Dramatic Climax - Mike Sunderland ‣ Joust - Fredric Bayco • Rainbow Harp - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr ‣ Death In The City - Jack Beaver ‣ City Desk - Ronald Hanmer ‣ Once Upon a Dream - Clive Richardson ‣ Parallel Dimension - Gregor F. Narholz • Steel Licks 22 - Jeremy Wakefield ‣ Journey to the Magic Island - Gregor F. Narholz • Rainbow Harp - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr • Rainbow Harp - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr ‣ Comic Walk - Sidney Torch • Steel Licks 18 - Jeremy Wakefield ‣ Hawaiian Happiness - Jon Jelmer ‣ Finders Creepers - Paddy Kingsland • Idea Sting - Nicolas Carr • Vibe & Harp Hits - Nicolas Carr • You're Nice - Sage Guyton, Jeremy Wakefield ‣ Tympup A - Sammy Burdson, John Charles FiddyRelease•This episode is available on the Halloween, SpongeBob Goes Prehistoric (Russian only), Complete 3rd Season, Christmas Who? (South Korea version), The Tom Kenny Collection, Sponge in Service, First 100 Episodes, Holidays with SpongeBob 3-DVD Gift Set, The Ultimate SpongeBob Box Set, Nautical Nonsense and Sponge Buddies (Danish and Norwegian only), SpongeBob SquarePants Vol. 4, Complete Third Season, From the Beginning, Part 1, The SpongeBob SquarePants Collection, SpongeBob ScaryPants Collection, The SpongeBob SquarePants 8 Season DVD Collection, 2-Season TV Pack, The Third & Fourth Seasons, and The Best 200 Episodes Ever DVDs. •This episode is also available on VideoNow.General
•This is the second episode for two things: •The second episode that involves a box as a main focus and namesake. The first was "The Secret Box." •When Squidward ends up in the dump, he lands face first in a pie. This is the second episode where Squidward gets hit in the face with a pie. The first was "Dying for Pie." •The title card is static. This is mostly seen when a channel is changed or no signal is received by an analog television. •This is the third episode for two things: •The third episode to have an animated title card, after "SB-129" and "Prehibernation Week." •The third episode to have a soundtrack almost bookend it. The first was "Wormy," and the second was "Squirrel Jokes." •Patrick’s laughing from "Bubblestand" is reused in this episode right after he says "What should we keep down?!" •Plots of this episode were later used in the first part of the LeapPad Interactive Book and Cartridge SpongeBob SquarePants: Salty Sea Stories, which was released in 2003 by LeapFrog Enterprises. •This is a list of things SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward thought of in the box: •Mountain Climbing •Police Chase •Space Shuttle Launch •Battle of Robot-Pirate Island •Race Car Driving •The "space shuttle launch" scene plays a soundbite from STS-51-L, on which the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred. •When SpongeBob is reading in bed, his pillow is nowhere to be seen. •This episode was reenacted in a live table read during the San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2015, and was the most voted for the episode to be reenacted. •The scene of SpongeBob making a rainbow and saying, "Imagination!" has become a popular internet meme. •This also happens in "SpongeBob on Parade" and this episode's sequel, "Squidiot Box." However, in "SpongeBob on Parade" the colors are flipped around to an actual rainbow. •This meme has been referenced in some video games such as one of the Nickverse icons as well as a picture frame furniture in Nickverse, Minecraft x SpongeBob DLC, a idle in The Cosmic Shake, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, and as an Imaginaaation Station in SpongeBob Simulator. •In the console versions of Battle for Bikini Bottom (Rehydrated), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie video game, and SpongeBob's Truth or Square boxes resembling the box from this episode can be used to teleport within levels. •The same happened to "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV" and "As Seen on TV." •On the August 9, 2010 airing, this episode was paired with "Your Shoe's Untied." •On the February 19, 2013 airing, after the line "No, Johnny! Don't do it!" it was interrupted by Nick Studio 10 (which ran from March to mid-June) for 30 seconds by showing a walrus roaring, and cut back to Patrick saying, "Whoopee! Another box." •This interruption also happened in several other SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, and Monsters vs. Aliens episodes. •There is also a sequel episode/25th anniversary special titled "Squidiot Box."
Dub facts
•In Indonesia, instead of saying, "Boxing Championship," the narrator says "Box Boxing Championship," because "box" and "boxing" have different meanings. •In the EBS version of the Korean dub, this episode has been permanently paired up with "Doing Time," due to its sister episode being banned. •The name of this episode in the French dub is "La Boîte à tout faire," meaning, "The box which does everything," likely a play on the word for handyman, "homme à tout faire."
Cultural references
•The title "Idiot Box" is a reference to a slang term for television. •One of the equations on the educational program, seen when Squidward is flipping channels, F = ma2, is a reference to Newton's Second Law, (F = ma) which means Force=mass times acceleration, and Einstein's Mass-Energy Equivalence formula, (E = mc2).
The Idiot Box was an American sketch comedy television series created by Alex Winter, Tom Stern and Tim Burns, which ran on MTV from 1990 to 1991. After the ...
Idiot Box (film), an Australian movie starring Ben Mendelsohn and Jeremy Sims. "Idiot Box" (Incubus song), from the 1997 album S.C.I.E.N.C.E. by Incubus. "Idiot Box" (The Damned song), a song by The Damned on their 1977 album Music for Pleasure. "Idiot Box", a song by GOGO13 from the 2001 compilation album Rice Capades. Covered by The Aquabats ...
SpongeBob and Patrick bought a TV, but only play in the box... Squidward lets his curiosity get the best of him and gets into the box too! Check out how Spon...
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Learn when and how the term "idiot box" was coined to refer to television or other devices. See examples from news, dictionaries, and personal anecdotes from the 1950s and earlier.
