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What would you do if you had the chance to meet your favorite celebrity? It’s something that I’ve often dreamed about, but if truth be told, I think I would freak out, unable to utter a single word. So how does SpongeBob handle meeting his idol? Keep on reading this Kenny the Cat Guide to find out more!
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: There’s a new celebrity in Bikini Bottom: a mysterious cat named Kenny who can hold his breath for an incredibly long duration. SpongeBob idolizes Kenny and is very excited to meet him in person. He is soon left heartbroken when he discovers that Kenny the Cat is a fraud and uses an Oxygen tank hidden within his fur. Eventually, the entirety of Bikini Bottom finds out about Kenny’s truth, and he goes back to the land above.
Key Information
| Season | 9 |
| Episode No | 188a |
| Airdate | March 29, 2014 |
| Characters featured |
SpongeBob SquarePants Kenny the Cat Sandy Cheeks Eugene H. Krabs Patrick Star |
| Sister episode | Yeti Krabs |
| Reception | Mixed reviews with a rating of 6.7/10 on IMDB based on 290 votes. |
Who Is Kenny the Cat
Kenny the Cat is a well-known celebrity in Bikini Bottom as being the only land animal who can hold his breath underwater for unbelievably long periods of time. He has long limbs with grey and white fur. The tip of his tail, belly, and toes are white, and he has yellow pupils for his eyes. He is commonly seen giving his signature ‘A-Ok’ hand sign.
The Biggest Fanboy
The episode opens up inside the Krusty Krab with SpongeBob practicing holding his breath for as long as possible. It’s hilarious to me that an underwater sponge can practice holding its breath underwater! And yet, the brave young sponge sets a new personal best: 3 whole seconds. Motivated, he attempts to hold his breath for 5 seconds.
Squidward warns him that he might lose consciousness if he overdoes it. Visibly, Squidward is hoping that he does. 4 seconds later, SpongeBob passes out due to lack of Oxygen, his body blue and on the floor.
Mr. Krabs walks in and looks at SpongeBob passed out on the floor. He uncorks a secret bottle, and the smell instantly revives SpongeBob. He then explains that he was merely emulating his newest media obsession: Kenny the Cat. He then points to the wall of Kenny the Cat posters atop his cooking station.
SpongeBob explains that Kenny is an underwater athlete who can hold his breath for long durations of time. His obsession is reinforced as he shows Mr. Krabs the Kenny-shaped lettuce that he’s been putting in all the Krabby Patties and his giant stack of Kenny the Cat periodicals.
Mr. Krabs is uninterested in the new craze that has swept Bikini Bottom as he downplays all the commercials and the advertising surrounding Kenny the Cat. Finally, what intrigues Mr. Krabs is that Kenny’s face is on the 50 Dollar Bills in Bikini Bottom. This gets Mr. Krabs excited as he sees the opportunity of serving up Krabby Patties for Kenny and all his fans at the Krusty Krab.
Sandy’s Suspicion
SpongeBob then heads to visit his pal Sandy to share his excitement to meet his new idol. He enters Sandy’s Treedome with a swagger, holding his breath and an ‘A-Ok’ hand sign (Kenny’s signature). Sandy is alarmed that SpongeBob doesn’t want his water helmet inside the dry Treedome. SpongeBob tells him that he’s A-Ok.
Within seconds, however, SpongeBob starts panting and gasping for breath as he shrivels and starts disintegrating like a dry sponge left in the sun. Sandy helps him by pouring water all over him with a hose. A revived SpongeBob then asks Sandy whether she’s somewhat similar to a cat. Sandy absolutely loses it and says the only similarity that cats and squirrels share is that they’re both mammals. She loathes the seeming insult hurled at her and says she would never trust a cat.
It’s amusing that Sandy hates cats so much, despite her affection for all things that exist above on dry land. She even has a variety of land critters as pets in her Treedome. Yet, she visibly detests and mistrusts cats. This, of course, is a foreshadowing of things to come. Perhaps Sandy had an unfortunate encounter with a feline in her younger, above-water days. It’s clear that she isn’t nearly as enamored by this local celebrity as SpongeBob is.
Sandy tells SpongeBob that it is scientifically impossible for any land animal to hold its breath underwater for days at a time. SpongeBob is uninterested in her scientific jargon as he makes his way out of her Treedome, telling Sandy that perhaps she’s just jealous of Kenny.
The Arrival of Kenny the Cat
We then cut to Patrick and SpongeBob, ready with their Kenny fanboy gear, waiting near the bus stop late at night as they cheer “Kenny the Cat!”. A random passerby tells them that Kenny is arriving the following day. SpongeBob pays no heed and says that he’s probably cutting it too close by waiting a mere 14 hours before Kenny’s arrival.
SpongeBob tells Patrick that when Kenny is on land, he sometimes forgets to breathe. He then tells Patrick that he can see Kenny’s face when he looks up at the starry night. Patrick begins to question SpongeBob’s fanaticism for Kenny, thinking that perhaps SpongeBob has gone off the deep end.
SpongeBob then pulls out his paints and starts painting Patrick’s face and then his own. The face painting is so strange and spine-chilling that it’s sure to freak out any sane person! A creeped-out Patrick can no longer stand this insane obsessiveness as he bails quickly.
SpongeBob then wakes up to a crowd of people, all excited about the arrival of the biggest celebrity in town. Kenny strolls in, doing his signature walk, and everyone loses it! The entirety of Bikini Bottom is lined up to get an autograph from Kenny. SpongeBob goes up to him and holds out his official Kenny the Cat spatula for him to sign. Kenny motions towards his stomach, apparently hungry from all the posing he’s been doing.
SpongeBob suggests that they can move the autograph session to the Krusty Krab, to which Kenny gives the A-Ok hand sign. SpongeBob can’t contain his exuberance! Who can blame him? He was about to feed his biggest idol freshly made Krabby Patties. Life couldn’t get any better, right?
The Big Reveal
We then see a whole bunch of Bikini Bottomites, all lining up to see Kenny the Cat in front of the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs is minting money off of Kenny’s autograph session and, by way of compensation, offers some condiment packets as he welcomes him to the Krusty Krab family.
Soon though, the cracks start to appear in Kenny’s demeanor as we see him struggle a bit. A tiny little canister starts to poke its way out of Kenny’s back as he hurriedly puts it back behind his fur. SpongeBob asks him if everything is ok, and Kenny starts sweating furiously. A shaky Kenny draws the photo of a toilet on his notepad, and SpongeBob shows him to the Krusty Krab’s restrooms.
Kenny rushes in, and soon as the door behind him is shut, he pulls out his oxygen canister and mask and takes a deep breath of air. No more shortly that he does it, SpongeBob enters carrying a Krabby Patty and is shocked at the sight.
SpongeBob is so visibly upset upon knowing that his once-favorite idol is nothing but a sham that he starts squirming on the spot. We can see his tiny heart shattered into a million pieces in front of our eyes. He starts accusing Kenny of being a phony and making everyone believe his act. SpongeBob starts bawling his eyes out of sheer disappointment and rushes away from the cat he once looked up to.
SpongeBob goes back inside the kitchen and starts tearing up his Kenny the Cat merchandise, including his Fan club membership card and posters that he’d so lovingly put up on the wall. It’s so heart-breaking seeing poor SpongeBob deal with all that agony. He even looks up straight into the camera and says he should probably talk to someone about this lest he gets depressed.
Once Kenny realizes his jig is up, he hurries back to SpongeBob and begins to sell him some malarkey about how all he wants to do is make people happy. He says that above land, he’s a nobody, but he’s now someone special underwater through all this phoniness and that he gives hope to all these ordinary people around him. He starts groveling before SpongeBob not to tell anyone his secret.
Even though SpongeBob is devastated at Kenny’s deception, he still agrees. I think a part of him still admires Kenny and can’t let go of his inner fanboy. He would still do whatever it takes to help Kenny. But in his eyes, we no longer see the glee of being next to this crooked superstar. He sees Kenny for what he truly is.
The Jig Is Up
Upon hearing SpongeBob’s promise not to rat out his secret, Kenny waltzes out of the kitchen to sign some more autographs. There is absolutely no remorse in his eyes. Kids surround him and tell him that he’s their biggest inspiration yet. He tells the audience by way of writing in his notepad that he’s been holding his breath for over 20 years now without any problem.
We also see impressionable kids trying (and failing) to hold their breath for more than a few seconds around their idol as they fall onto the floor, suffocating.
We then see Sandy enter the building as she asks for an autograph from Kenny. She says it’s nice to finally see another air-breathing, warm-blooded mammal down in Bikini Bottom. She then enquires how he can hold his breath for so long. She says that it defies all scientific logic that a mammal could survive without Oxygen for more than 3 minutes.
Kenny is visibly nervous at this point. SpongeBob tries to intervene and tell Sandy to leave their guest alone. But Sandy is relentless. She keeps pushing scientific facts in front of the crowd, asking for an explanation that could never come.
After a few more prodding questions, Kenny breaks and yells out, “I need Oxygen!”.
He brings out his Oxygen cylinder from under his fur and starts breathing in through the mask. The crowd erupts and storms out of the Krusty Krab, calling Kenny out for being a liar. Sandy revels in the knowledge that her suspicion was correct all along. A disappointed Mr. Krabs calls Kenny a charlatan and takes back the condiment packets that he’d offered earlier.
Conclusion
At the end of the episode, we see Kenny in the same underwater suit that Sandy wears as he’s about to head back above water. SpongeBob reassures him that he can still be special since he’s a cat that lives underwater, even though cats hate water. This gives Kenny some reassurance as he rockets upwards towards dry land.
Overall, I really enjoyed this episode. It had its moments. The entire first half is devoted to SpongeBob’s obsession with his newfound idol, as his arrival gets hyped up to extravagant proportions. When Kenny finally arrives, we can instantly call out the elaborate hoax that Kenny is running to win the admiration of his fans.
I loved that Sandy was initially jealous when SpongeBob told her about Kenny. But she still goes ahead and meets him to give him a chance to explain his peculiar biological condition. Of course, that thread soon falls apart. Kenny is flawless in portraying a bit-part celebrity doing everything to prolong his 15 minutes of fame.
FAQs
Answer: Kenny the Cat makes his debut appearance on Episode 188a, Season 9 of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Answer: Biz Markie was the voice actor behind Kenny the Cat in SpongeBob SquarePants.
Answer: In the episode ‘Kenny the Cat’, it is revealed that Kenny was using an Oxygen tank hidden within his fur to trick Bikini Bottomites into believing that he can hold his breath underwater indefinitely.
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