The Worst of SpongeBob

[Mo Frackle]

Okay, there's probably already some sort of discussion similar to this on the forum, but I can't seem to find one. So I'll start another one (unless there isn't already one, then this'll be the first, blah blah blah).

Okay, so I found this video listing some awful SB episodes. Yeah, I think most people will agree that after the movie, the series really sped downhill. I stopped watching SB around seventh grade (mainly because the newer episodes weren't particularly good, and Nick insisted on only airing those instead of the classic ones). But I had no idea there were episodes as bad as these!

My gosh, the characters have become extremely annoying. Especially SpongeBob. No longer is he that squeakly clean (no pun intended) innocent that I grew up with. He's gone from a lovable childlike character to a dopey pain-in-the-neck. And I agree with whomever posted this, it's very hard to like the newer SpongeBob personality. Especially in the ones with Squidward. Rather than in older episodes where the misunderstood Squidward would get his just desserts for being mean to the innocent Sponge, in the newer episodes, Squidward gets constantly beat up for no reason by the extremely annoying Sponge.

And Patrick's stupidity just isn't funny in the later seasons. Back in Hillenberg's day, Patrick still displayed a certain degree of smarts, as well as a large degree of likability. Here, Patrick's just as annoying as SpongeBob. His general dialogue comes off as being more forced than funny.

Mr. Krabs, well yes, he's always been greedy, but in the earlier episodes, he at least likable. Same goes for all of the other characters. Usually, Krabs or another character would be misguided and would ultimately be taught a lesson (i.e. the squeaky boots episode, Hooky, etc.). And in older episodes, Krabs was sort of a surrogate uncle to the other characters. In later episodes, he's just too greedy, and therefore too unlikable.

And am I the only one who's getting kind of annoyed with Sandy's love for science? What happened to the old Texas Sandy? Am I also the only one thinking that the Krabs Vs. Plankton scenario is also getting old? Granted, these usually do prove to be the better episodes of the later seasons, but the only problem is that a lot of times, these Plankton episodes seem to be pretty much the same. And I'm not saying "the same" in the Pinky and the Brain sense. Rather, in SB it seems like the writers are repeating plots, jokes, etc.

Any other thoughts?

 

[charlietheowl]

I didn't watch the video, but my least favorite episode is one that I think is fairly new, where SpongeBob buys Gary a pet so he's not lonely, but the pet turns out to be some sort of monster. I didn't have a problem with the plot as much as the "monster" was disgusting to look at. I thought it was a cheap move by the showrunners to toss that in there.

 

[Mo Frackle]

That's another bad thing about a lot of the later episodes. Gross humor. And too much of it. The episode with Gary turing into a monster is disgusting, and so is the one where SpongeBob gets a splinter.

 

[charlietheowl]

The one where Squidward is trying to fix up his house with Spongebob's help starts off good, but is almost ruined by an instance of that gross humor when the couch lands on Squidward's toe. I think the creators must really think that gross-out humor is how they'll keep their audience hooked.

 

[Oscarfan]

I don't even bother with anything post-movie. Aside from the "Gary Come Home" song.

 

[ProboSowa]

I've only seen a few of the post-film episodes, during 2007 I believe. They were nothing particularly memorable, though thankfully I didn't see any of the "Squidward's-toenail" type episodes that were disgusting for the sake of being disgusting. I don't mind gross-out humor in itself but it doesn't fit in SpongeBob. But regardless of the quality, as they say...

So as long as SpongeBob rakes in the dough, which will be for a long while, it'll continue to linger on in the dry state it's now in. :/ I'll just focus on the classic episodes and pay no attention to what's out now.

 

[galagr]

I didn't watch the video, but my least favorite episode is one that I think is fairly new, where SpongeBob buys Gary a pet so he's not lonely, but the pet turns out to be some sort of monster. I didn't have a problem with the plot as much as the "monster" was disgusting to look at. I thought it was a cheap move by the showrunners to toss that in there.

Not only was it disgusting, but there's another part that I dislike. The fact that Spongebob is yelling throught the whole episode at Gary to leave the evil pet alone. When Gary tries to save him, Spongebob continues to do so, WHEN HE IS IN THE PETS MOUTH! Seriously? That episode made Spongebob look like a TOTAL Ignoramus.

 

[Drtooth]

My gosh, the characters have become extremely annoying. Especially SpongeBob. No longer is he that squeakly clean (no pun intended) innocent that I grew up with. He's gone from a lovable childlike character to a dopey pain-in-the-neck. And I agree with whomever posted this, it's very hard to like the newer SpongeBob personality. Especially in the ones with Squidward. Rather than in older episodes where the misunderstood Squidward would get his just desserts for being mean to the innocent Sponge, in the newer episodes, Squidward gets constantly beat up for no reason by the extremely annoying Sponge.

It's called Flanderization, and it happens to any show that lasts more than 5 years. It happens quite a bit when the writing staff changes, too.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah pretty typical jump the shark material. Subtlety goes out the window. Sometimes you just run out of ideas and a show shouldn't be kept on the air.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't see them replacing it with anything good if they cancelled it anyway. Maybe another flat prefab boy band series, or a Nicktoon they'll rush to cancellation so they can replace that with another flat prefab boy band series.

Seriously... Catscratched was screwed. And they better not pull that crap with Monster and Robot.