On March 9th, 2001, the official air date of the episode, Nickelodeon held a voting contest where the viewers could choose how the cartoon ended. Patchy the Pirate and Potty hosted the event, as they usually do their comedic routines, then Patchy would tell the viewers what to do. Then, as the Dutchman is about to choose who gets the last wish, Patchy interrupts and tells the viewers to vote for either Squidward, Patrick, or SpongeBob to get the last wish. After a commercial break, Patchy ran down the losers, Patrick and Squidward, and their endings, then show the winner, SpongeBob's ending. Nowadays, when Nickelodeon reruns the episode, the SpongeBob ending will be shown, along with the Patchy segments edited as Patchy's Pick, and the voting segments removed.
This episode is banned in the UK and Australia due to the "don't drop the soap" gag, which was deemed too inappropriate for a children's cartoon as "don't drop the soap" is a prison slang.
"Gary Takes A Bath" is the shortest segment paired with another in a two segment "SpongeBob" episode.
The perfume department footage was taken at a Macy's in the Burbank Town Center mall in Burbank California.
Aside from a brief cameo from Mr Krabs. SpongeBob and Gary are the only characters present in "Gary Takes a Bath".