“Forgive me for making you wanna roam
And now my heart is beating like the saddest metronome
Somewhere I hope you’re reading
My latest three-word poem
Gary, come home”
These words, which I genuinely believe were strung together by some sort of higher power and not some guy named Stew, give me chills every time I hear them blasting from my car’s speakers. This moment builds up perfectly, in a way I have never experienced before, leading you into the beautifully written line, “Gary, come home”. After literally hundreds of times listening, this song never fails to entertain me. “Gary’s Song” will always have a special place in my heart.
For context, “Gary’s Song” aired for the first time in season 4, episode 3 of the revolutionary Spongebob Squarepants on November 11, 2005. Throughout the series, Spongebob and Gary, his pet snail, have had a very beautiful, close relationship. Spongebob is always there to love and care for Gary, while Gary is there to teach Spongebob unlikely lessons. The episode, “Have You Seen This Snail?” was truly heartbreaking for frequent and first-time viewers alike, especially because the episode was the full length of 22 minutes instead of being split into two stories like usual. In this special episode Spongebob, so concentrated on his game, neglects to feed Gary and gets angry at him for constantly asking for food, so Gary, heartbroken, leaves town. After a week, Spongebob finally goes to feed Gary but realizes soon after that Gary is gone. As he and his friend Patrick put up posters around town, Spongebob mournfully reflects on his loving memories with Gary. It was at this point, Gary’s Song began to play.
My fascination with “Gary’s Song” began much after I watched the episode for the first time. It started when my sister, who had just graduated high school at the time, played “Gary’s Song” on repeat for many hours on our drive back from Mount Rushmore. Ever since then, “Gary’s Song” has been in and out of my most loved playlists. This song goes beyond the surface-level meaning, exceeding the emotional intensity of many of my favorite songs. Gary doesn’t just represent a fictional pet snail, Gary represents the people in our lives we once held close to us, not realizing the time spent together would inevitably end. Gary represents the yearning for someone who is gone and may never come back. Gary represents the regret associated with someone leaving and the acknowledgment that you may never reach them again. Gary is someone in all of our lives and someone who may never leave our hearts.
“More than a pet, you’re my best friend
Too cool to forget
Come back ’cause we are family”
I currently have a seven-year-old dog named Elsa, who I spend almost all of my free time with and a lot of my not-free time with. I love her so much and she never fails to show me her love. With her being such a constant source of joy, love, and energy, I don’t know what I would do without seeing her every day. I used to have a pet bird named Singer, who passed away at fifteen years old in April 2020. He was older than me, living in my house from a time before I was born. I was so used to him being a part of my life, that I felt so confused without him. I know Singer won’t come back, but I still look back on the time we spent together. I often think about how my pets and I, without the ability to communicate through verbal language, can always seem to connect through nonverbal love.
“Gary, come home”
I always seem to think about my own Garys, without realizing that I could be a Gary to someone else. My mom and I spend hours together each day, unable to imagine what our lives will look like next year. A year from now, I don’t know where I’ll be. I don’t know what state I’ll be in, whether a journey home means a two-hour car ride or a five-hour flight, or how often my parents and I will talk, whether we can call or only text. All I know is that, between the stressful days, I’ll come home.
Hi Ria! For starters, I love how you begin your most recent blog post with a quote from the “Gary, won’t you come home?” song. It’s a great hook, and I love the image you used too! I’m not super familiar with Spongebob, but I love how you set the stage for the rest of your piece. I also really like how you take apart pieces of Gary’s Song to analyze it. I think the only time I’ve listened to it all the way through is the one time you played it in my car on the way to Portillo’s (which, for the record, was a great time). I like how in depth you get into it – finding pieces of the song that relate to losing loved ones, even when they are just pets, but also knowing the pain that will come when you move off to college, and dealing with and coping with that pain through this song. I love the way you write, too. Your writing style is really fun to read, and it feels like reading a conversation. It isn’t overly technical or wordy, it’s comfortable to read and is broken up really well with the images you chose to put in your piece. Thank you so much Ria, and I can’t wait to read more from you in the future!
Ria, I never thought I’d get sentimental over “Gary’s Song”, but alas, I have. Right when I read the beginning of your post, I immediately remembered that long special episode where Spongebob is looking for Gary, and I recall being so upset when I watched it. I listened to Gary’s song again just now so that I could remember it better, and it actually seems like it could play on the radio and not in a Spongebob episode.
I like how you talked about the “Garys” in our life that we may no longer see but will always have special places in our hearts. We all have these people. I think regret can play a big role when we think about the people we’ve lost. Regret is a pretty strong emotion, maybe even one of the strongest for certain people, and it does run through the song. But so does love, and I think that shows how we (and Spongebob) may regret losing people in our lives, but at the end, it’s love that makes us have the special connections with them and brings us home. I think it’s so interesting that you were able to make this connection and see a deeper meaning in “Gary’s Song”.
Hi Ria! I really enjoyed your post. Growing up, I was not much of a Spongebob watcher, so the context was super helpful! I think I may have to watch this episode now! Your piece is so well-written, and I love the way you made something that is typically deemed childish something deeper and relatable. The way you split up the lyrics of the song and related it to different aspects of your life was very impactful, making me also reflect on the lyrics of “Gary’s Song”. “More than a pet, you’re my best friend, too cool to forget, come back cause’ we are family” also made me a little bit sentimental. I wish I grew up with pets like you, but I guess my siblings are my equivalent. I have two siblings, Jonathan and Sarah, who respectively are a senior and junior at UIUC, and they are definitely my built-in best friends. I have been home alone while they are at school for the past three years, and I find myself missing them often, especially when big events happen because I wish they were there to celebrate with my parents and I. They sometimes come home, and the house always feels complete. So, minus the ‘more than a pet’ part, the song definitely applies to the relationship between my siblings and I.
Hi Ria! I really like how you added all those images. I was very much not a Spongebob fan when I was growing up, but I did like Gary the best. Originally with my apprehension towards this show, I thought I hadn’t heard this song before but as I’m listening to it as I type this, it sounds so familiar. I never connected the small snippets that always play on Tiktoks to a song from Spongebob. I’ve always been confused on why you always have random Spongebob songs playing but after reading how much of a connection this has to your family, I do understand now. I really enjoy your writing style and organization and how you used the lyrics as a transition.
I’ve never had a pet I’ve be able to bond to but in a sense I kind of did that with stuffed animals when I was younger. Although I don’t have any Garys of my own, I like to cherish the time I had with other people’s Garys. Even though I met Elsa once, she’s had a long lasting memory on me with her being super hyper and kind of resembled you. The picture I took of you two has to be one of my favorites.