" Sailor Mouth " is the first segment of the 18th episode of the second season , or the 38th overall episode of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants . The episode was directed by Andrew Overtoom , and was written by Walt Dohrn , Paul Tibbitt , and Merriwether Williams . Dohrn and Tibbitt also served as storyboard directors , and Carson Kugler , William Reiss , and Erik Wiese worked as storyboard artists . It originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 21 , 2001 .