ONE
Squidward steps out his door and admires his sparkly clean yard.
TWO
Aha! A rogue seashell mars the sand. It seems kind of pretty to me — an added feature like a lawn ornament — but clearly it’s considered a fallen leaf.
THREE
Squid, in a classic move, kicks the shell into Spongebob’s sparkly yard. Be careful what you set in motion at the Three, dear children.
FOUR
Immediately noticing the offending shell/leaf, Spongebob loads on his blower and starts it up. Squidward, relaxing in a hammock, frowns at the noise and puts in earplugs.
The shell, which has the aerodynamics of a leaf, won’t blow away. Chasing it, Spongebob ends up blowing sand all over Squidward’s lunch.
SWITCH
Blowing hasn’t worked, so Spongebob flips the machine to suck.
FIVE
As Spongebob sucks up the sand, the blower revolts and spits out the load. Spongebob puts it back in. He will not be defeated! Using a very long cord pull, Spongebob starts a monster-sized suck and vacuums up the entire ocean. Squidward gasps for “air” and the blower pulses with its huge load.
It pops. Back comes the ocean. Sand piles are dumped everywhere.
SIX
Except for Spongebob’s yard, which is again sparkly clean.
SEVEN
Spongebob dusts his hands and goes into his pineapple. He’s done and his mission is accomplished.
EIGHT
All the piled sand is in Squidward’s yard, burying him up to the head. Punchline one.
The shell floats down and lands on his nose. Punchline two.
NINE
I considered if the shell was the Nine — Squidward is back where he started and nothing in his world has changed for the better — but ultimately decided it was an Eight. The shell is the Two-Trouble, so it makes more sense for it to reoccur and reflect back at the Eight.
The implied Nine, though, is just as effective.