SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout (SpongeBob SquarePants)

SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout is the thirteenth and fourteenth episode of the twelfth season of SpongeBob SquarePants, and serves as the show's 20th anniversary special. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick tour the surface world, while the rest of Bikini Bottom prepares a surprise party for SpongeBob.

Main characters

 * SpongeBob SquarePants
 * Patrick Star
 * Rube

Supporting characters

 * Patchy the Pirate
 * Potty the Parrot

Minor characters

 * French Narrator
 * David Hasselhoff

Production
The episode was confirmed on, by Vincent Waller and multiple other sources.

The episode was announced to be 44 minutes long. The first clip of the episode was shown during a commercial break of the on. The following day, an extended version of the clip was released to the official Twitter account.

It features the voice cast of Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Rodger Bumpass, Clancy Brown, Doug Lawrence, Jill Talley, Carolyn Lawrence, Mary Jo Catlett, and Lori Alan. With the exception of Mrs. Puff and Gary, live-action versions of the animated characters were played by their voice actors in the Surface Land sequence.

Tom Kenny noted, "I don't want to live in a live-action world. I want to live in the cartoon world." In the episode, he had to perform in character on a Krusty Krab set along with the rest of the voice cast, who were also dressed as their respective characters.

On, an article from Entertainment Weekly revealed images of the voice cast playing their human forms. Other images revealed that David Hasselhoff was going to be guest starring standing next to Patchy the Pirate.

On, an article from Den of Geek! revealed that Nickelodeon was going to hold SpongeBob's 20th birthday blowout at .

On, two more promos were released, confirming that Princess Mindy, Harold, Margaret, Zeus the Guitar Lord, Tattletale Strangler, Bubble Bass, glow fish, Hoopla fish, and Incidental 11 will be making appearances.

More promos were released during the following weeks. On, the SpongeBob SquarePants Official YouTube channel released a 5-minute preview of the episode.