Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Western Animation/SpongeBob SquarePants

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Being a Long Runner, SpongeBob SquarePants is bound to have moments we can't forget, moments we can't remember, and moments we wish we'd forget. Guess which of the three we're listing here.

Keep in mind:

  • Moments only, no "just everything he said," "The entire show," or "This entire season," entries.
  • No contesting entries. This is subjective, the entry is their opinion.
  • No natter. As above, anything contesting an entry will be cut, and anything that's just contributing more can be made its own entry.
  • Explain why it's a Dethroning Moment Of Suck.
  • No ASSCAPS, no bold, and no italics unless it's the title of a work. We are not yelling the DMoSs out loud.

Seasons 1-3

  • The Paper for an early example—The whole episode is essentially based around one unfunny gag that's stretched out to 11 minutes, the "gag" being that Spongebob can do amazing things with a piece of paper and Squidward for some unexplained reason can't do anything with it. The Rule of Funny excuse dosen't work here because the gag isn't "funny", so needless to say it gets tiresome REAL quick and the lousy predictable ending only made it worse.
  • Patrick's attitude in the episode Dumped where it seems that Gary left Spongebob for him is deplorable. He goes over to do laundry at Spongebob's house who's feeling depressed about Gary leaving him. Then when he starts crying, Patrick just scoffs at him and rubs it in his face how Gary doesn't want to be with him anymore. Finally, when Gary goes back to Spongebob, Patrick screams "I thought what we has was speciaaaal!"
  • To give an example from the early days, "I'm With Stupid" is an episode where Spongebob (the Nice Guy that he is) decided to help Patrick impress his parents by Playing Dumb to make Patrick seem bright by comparison. What does Patrick do? He runs with the act, fooling himself into believing that this isn't an act. Patrick and his parents go on to make a mockery of poor Spongebob (keep in mind that Spongebob and Patrick have been BFFs since they were children and Spongebob regularly volunteers to help Patrick with his daily troubles), sending the sponge away in a huffing rage. We then find out that those aren't even Patrick's parents. So, to recap: Patrick treated his best friend like garbage without apologizing. Without feeling bad afterward. And he gets away with this! How Spongebob let Patrick off the hook is beyond me.
  • For me, it was Party Pooper Pants. I absolutely despise it. This is the worst early-season episode I have ever watched. The Patchy part was terrible. So let's just skip it to the Spongebob part. It starts off Spongebob shopping at the Barg 'N Mart and he finds a party kit. He invites guests to his party. Of course, that includes people that wasn't his friends like Larry, Plankton and other background characters. And why did Squidward go to Spongebob's Party? Didn't Squidward hate him so much? It Got Worse when Spongebob got locked outside while picking up the newspapers. Spongebob used the public phone to tell his guests to open the door for him. Patrick then answered the call and hands it to the ice sculpture! Notice that Patrick wasn't The Ditz until Season 4. Spongebob also attempt to dig to his house, but failed. And for no reason at all, he's now wearing a bunny suit... and somehow gets arrested for not inviting the police. This episode is just painful to watch.
  • Not the entire episode, but "Pressure" definitely has a Dethroning Moment of Suck. Sandy takes off her helmet and suit, throwing them on the ground. Note, for a moment that she needs those to fucking breathe. What do her 'friends' do? They laugh at her.You can see her lungs shrivel up and they just laugh. She finds a pickle jar and puts it on just in time. And her friends continue to mock her for it! Dude, not funny! It doesn't even have the defense of being made after Season 3!
  • To prove that not everything pre-season 4 was an outstanding classic, this shows that all the character's Jerkass tendencies went as far as the first season, where after SpongeBob visits the character's dreams and ruins them, and Sandy, even showing that she's a Ted Baxter, even in the first season said to him: "Do us all a favor and stay out of our dreams", accompanied by Squidward's "Don't we get enough of you during the day, SpongeBob?!" and everyone, including his so-called "friends" yells at him for getting into their dreams. Alright, how did they know that SpongeBob snuck into their dreams where he could've just happened to be in them?! I can understand Squidward and all, but the rest of the characters, including Mr Krabs(who back then, cared about SpongeBob, despite obsession with money) and Sandy?! That is just the lowest of the low and one of the weaker bunch of the first three seasons!


Season 4

  • I’m surprised nobody mentioned “Squid Wood" or as I call it “the episode where SpongeBob makes a rape-face through the window at Squidward, who’s trying to have his peace and quiet bath time"! What is wrong with you, SpongeBob!? I thought your heart goes to Sandy Cheeks, not Squidward Tentacles! Seriously, SpongeBob, what part of “Don't bother Squidward at all!" do you not understand!?
  • "Best Day Ever" was a huge DMOS if there ever was one. So much hype and a 24-hour marathon to accompany it, and finally we got to Best Day Ever. But it wasn't an hourly special. It wasn't even a 30-minute special. It was just another 15-minute episode, and it wasn't too great either. First of all, his supposed "Best Day Ever" was really just his daily schedule. The song at the end was annoying, and SpongeBob was out of character. But the fun didn't really begin until, right outta nowhere, he shouted at somebody who tried to leave during his rant—something blatantly out-of-character for him.
  • Karate Island. To summarize, SpongeBob is scammed to believe he's the Karate Master (hi-ya!) He and Sandy travel to Karate Island to get the reward, SpongeBob being a blatant asshole along the way. SpongeBob beats up a few obvious actors and is whisked away. Sandy leaves, only to have to rescue SpongeBob. "Sandy! I need you! I can't handle this myself!" Sandy fights a few foes in what was trying to be a Homage to Bruce Lee-esque action scenes but turns out to just be unnecessary and time consuming, and eventually defeats the scammer, trying to get SpongeBob to buy a condo. Granted, it gives the guy a tad of development, but of course it doesn't last. The worst part? In the above mentioned "Best Day Ever" marathon, it's the Number One voted spot, and it's now always played with "Best Day Ever".
  • I'd like to add the Season 4 episode Wigstruck to this increasingly long list of Spongebob-related DMOS. Long story short, the episode centers around Spongebob finding a rock star's 19th century-looking wig and decides to wear it. Throughout the episode, Spongebob acts like a complete arrogant moron acting like the wig makes him the coolest thing ever despite people telling him that he looks like an idiot and that the wig is nothing more than an annoyance. Even Patrick, who by now is too stupid to even know how to operate a can opener, points out that Spongebob is acting like an idiotic jerk with that wig. And, how does Spongebob react? He brags that everyone is jealous. ...Uh, Spongebob's friends tell him directly to his face that the wig is disgusting and he looks stupid in it, and he acts like they're just jealous of him!? No. Just...no. Oh, and to top it all off, the ending has Spongebob ditch the wig (finally) only to find out that now everyone is wearing one because the rock star is wearing it again and it's now trendy. So, yeah, Spongebob doesn't even get any commupance for being an arrogant jerk to his friends. Compare that to the earlier season episode Ripped Pants, where Spongebob does' realize his actions to become popular are annoying his friends and feels genuinely sorry about it, and you'll see just why this episode is horrible on so many levels.
  • Good Neighbors, which, for me (and a few others) marks the start of the show's downfall. The entire episode involved Spongebob and Patrick practically torture Squidward by making him "leader" of their cult. Despite Squidward telling them numerous times that he doesn't want to have them around him, they continue doing so. Worst of all, at the end of the episode, when Squidward's house goes on a rampage, Squidward is the one who gets most of the blame. The fact that the annoyance levels for Spongebob and Patrick were taken Up to Eleven was already bad, but the fact that it was like this for the entire episode made it worse.
    • It's not good for those who don't like Squidward, either. At first, he just tells SpongeBob and Patrick to not bother him, at one point giving them a task to distract them from bugging him. That's normal. But then it gets ugly when SpongeBob and Patrick unknowingly uses up his spa hour. Squidward outright screams at them, at a volume that has never been used before this episode, and tells them they're the worst neighbors ever. That scene gives me bad vibrations every time. So to make it up for it, SpongeBob and Patrick decided to give him an apology cake, as Squidward was installing a new security system to keep them out. What does Squidward do? He tries to alert the security system that they are intruders. Naturally, he only makes things worse and causes his house to rampage through the town. Squidward, I know you don't like them for ruining your Sunday, but they're trying to reach out to you! They baked you a goddamn cake! I try to avoid this episode as much as possible. It's just...too painful to watch no matter whose side you're on.
  • I have two moments that stand out, but since I can only list one I'm going to sacrifice Tunnel of Glove and confess something: I'm a minority among SB fans in the fact that I hate Squidward. I do feel sorry for him at several points and hate the way Krabbs treats him but Funny Pants was a new low for him. Basically, Squidward finds Spongebob's laugh so annoying that he lies to him and tells him that if he laughs any further he will burn out his "Laugh Box" and never be able to laugh again. Spongebob loves laughing, so he decides to stop laughing for a day. It doesn't work, and he wakes up unable to laugh. He goes to Mr. Krabbs and Sandy for help but neither of them help, and he's sent into complete depression. The poor boy spends the rest of the day sobbing and you end up wanting to hug him. How does Squidward react? "I sure hate to see him sad, but not as much as I hate to see him happy!" ...Okay, this isn't the worst part. That would be when the crying starts to annoy him. So, obviously he's going to confess to Sponge that it was a lie and apologize right? Nope. He decides to just sit there until Spongebob tires himself out crying. For the love of God, and all that is holy, what were the writers thinking!? Squidward suddenly takes delight in seeing Spongebob miserable just because he annoys him? And then refuses to help him for petty reasons? And suddenly has no conscience whatsoever? What happened to the guy who slammed a pizza in a guy's face for making Spongebob cry? What happened to the guy who awkwardly tried to apologize to Spongebob with a guilt-ridden conscience after playing a cruel April Fools joke on him? What happened to the guy who dressed up as Santa Claus and gave away almost all of his possessions to cheer Spongebob up after he made him cry? The writers need to recognize who they're writing: This is Squidward, not Izaya Orihara. He deserved to get stuck with Spongebob's laugh forever.


Season 5

  • My first would have to be Atlantis SquarePantis. The idea: SpongeBob and friends hitch a ride to Atlantis and screw things up. What could possibly go wrong?! Lots, apparently: terribly-written and composed musical numbers, Flanderized personalities of nearly all characters, horridly unfunny jokes, and one of the crappiest endings I've seen in years. I hated that special.
    • I agree fully with you. This was the episode that convinced me SpongeBob had begun running out of ideas and was relying on annoyance to make an episode. The actors couldn't sing well with their character voices (and Tom Kenny can sing, as SpongeBob has been shown to sing well-enough), but that was one of everything about the episode that was annoying. I didn't like Lord Royal Highness as a character (David Bowie why did you agree to this), the songs were pointless despite playing a plot importance, the plot itself was poorly done, and it was just pointless filler altogether. The art and the animation styles they used to match up with the art were sadly wasted in this horrendous special. I'm ashamed to even own the DVD.
  • In Spy Buddies, where Mr. Krabs sends Spongebob and Patrick to spy on Plankton, Spongebob and Patrick go over to Sandy's for some spy equipment. Of course, after she shows them the stuff, she refuses to let them use it, apparently because they would just mess up, but then Patrick has to use the knock-out ray, Sandy's favorite, to knock her out just so they can use the equipment! What is that all about?!
  • The special What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?. Predictable plot, predicatable ending, and the special guest was only appearing for a couple of minutes! Besides all of that, the plot ended up making no sense, either way.
    • This is something I have to agree with. I've seen other bad episodes, but those didn't bother me too much. What makes this a DMoS, is that it puts the Sponge in a very cliched negative light towards his "Friends" when all he did was accidentally ruin their day. Also, why was he even trying with Squidward? He should have known by now that ol' Squidy hates him.
  • I have to agree with the sentiment about the post-movie episodes, although not all (Several Squidward episodes like Suction Cup Symphony gave him a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming), but 20,000 Patties Under the Sea really did it for me. While the premise was funny (along with the scene where Plankton insulted all of his potential customers), the Abyss sequence was idiotic and the monster was corpulent and annoying. Quite a few episodes sucked before this (notably the twofer Karate Island and Pearl's Birthday), 20,000 Patties Under the Sea marked an almost irredeemable downhill slope for the series.
  • While virtually everything on this page has earned it's spot as a DMoS, I would take the opportunity to add the episode Money Talks. Mr. Krabs sells his soul to the Flying Dutchman so....he can be able to talk to money. It pretty much cemented that the writers were not only just plain out of ideas at that point, but yet another prime example of the rampant Flanderization that's been plaguing the series.
  • "Boat Smarts" was the point were I gave up on watching SpongeBob. The episode itself was like an educational video of how to drive your boat, with Squidward as the smart driver and SpongeBob, as always, the haywire one (Why that moron never learns from his driving-mistakes is a mystery. And no, I don't take Rule of Fun as a legit answer. It might even lead someone to think Spongebob's drunk, like driving drunk while you're sober). Squidward does the right things, only with SpongeBob following and making a mistake, but with Squidward taking the pain. For instance, there's a lesson about how you always have to fasten your seatbelt. Guess what happens: SpongeBob crashes into Squidward's boat, the seat flies out of it. With Squidward still sitting on it, he tries to open his seatbelt, but failing and getting crushed by a vehicle with two spiked cylinders on its front, which solely seems to exist just to make Squidward miserable at this exact moment. Rule of Funny be damned, what is the reason for such a thing to exist? That makes me, a hobby-writer trying to write an entertaining and logical story, really cringe. The ending is even worse. SpongeBob causes a major car accident, with Squidward (who's by far the only character on this goddamn show I like, even though he is a jerk sometimes) and several other of the townspeople (who I absolutely despise, thanks to No Sympathy and What the Hell, Townspeople?) being the only victims, with SpongeBob getting away unscathed. And what does he do? He approaches Mrs. Puff, Squidward and the others and chastises them for not having the right boat smarts, then drives off laughing without any comeuppance! Not to mention that this episode apparently tells us the wonderful aesop: "Kids, regardless of what you do when you're in traffic, you will get caught up in an accident." That's not helpful for kids who always fear they will do something wrong when they're old enough to drive a car. Good thing it was only four minutes long.
  • I never thought season 4 and beyond was very funny, (except for Skill Crane and a few exceptions) but the worst one that made me actually cut the show was Good Ol' Whatshisname. It was basically yet another Squidward torment episode, with him and Spongebob trying to find out some guy's name before the contest Mr. Krabs sets up is over. Long dull story short, the episode carries on with Squidward going crazy and stealing the guy's wallet, only to find out the guy's name was actually Whatzittooya, the name the guy was yelling at him earlier on in the episode. The guy yells for the police and they proceed to arrest him, the guy calling him a wallet snatcher. Worse, the real prize wasn't a trip—it was just the fuckin' brochure. What the hell, writers? Oh, and the brochure part seemed like the worst part, tacked on to make Squidward's life even more miserable than it already was. Tell me why this show is still lurching like a zombie again?
    • Actually, he doesn't yell for the police. It's even worse. One of them starts chasing him for running a red light (on foot). His punishment for running a red light, resisting arrest and stealing a wallet? Ten years in prison. Not kidding.
    • It gets even worse. At the very end of the episode, when Squidward is in jail, he realizes that at least he will have some peace and quiet for those ten years. Considering the sheer amount of pain and annoyance he endured, its nice to think that Squidward would get a break from all that. NOPE! Instead, it turns out that Patrick "annoying, stupid, neighbor" Star is in the jail cell with him. It disgusted me to see Squidward's only Hope Spot of peace and quiet taken away from him like that. Especially since the cell was empty when Squidward was put in there and we never see Patrick get put in. It's like the writers hate Squidward so much, they ignored all rules of logic just to make his life even more miserable than it is now.
      • It's possible that they planned it in advance, since it didn't seem like enough of a punishment to begin with.
  • Originally, I posted Slide Whistle Stooges as my DMoS. Now, I remembered the episode that took this show off my must-watch list: To Love A Patty. SpongeBob falls in love with a Krabby Patty and decides to romance it. He dates a cheeseburger for 12 minutes, then breaks up with it when it gets moldy. Probably the lamest thing I've ever seen in my life. Besides that, there's a scene where SpongeBob tries to protect the burger from a flock of hungry scallops. He knocks most of them out, then grabs one and breaks it in half with his bare hands. The fuck? SpongeBob is a lot of things, but he's no killer. I just don't get how a show could fall off so hard, so quickly.

Season 6

  • "Patty Caper", the episode when the secret ingredient of the formula was stolen while being shipped, then Krabs sends Spongebob to find who stole it. When he can't find who did it, he goes back to Krabs to report. Guess what? Out of nowhere Krabs blames Spongebob! The guy's about to be thrown in jail under bogus charges when we find out that Krabs actually stole the formula so he wouldn't have to pay shipping. ...What was the point of shipping it in the first place? Also, I think Krabs, right before Spongebob is thrown in jail, was about to fire the poor kid. He sends him on a search, blame him when there are no results, and almost fires him. Apparently he forgot that Spongebob is pretty much the only person keeping the Krusty Krab in business, Squidward and Krabs are horrible cooks! Ya know what this means? Mr, Krabs would destroy his own restaurant so he'd save money! I can't get behind this. I seriously can't.
  • The biggest one for me is the one in House Fancy, where Squidward gets his toenail (not joking) ripped out of one of his feet by a chair due to SpongeBob's tomfoolery. And just to make it even worse, Squidward ended up tripping on said toenail. Now for someone who didn't flinch when first seeing something like Pickle Surprise, seeing that actually made me want to close my eyes from that painful to watch scene.
  • The Clash of Triton is a fairly light example. It goes like this: Mr Krabs is holding a banquet for Neptune, who is sad due to Triton's absence and refuses to eat. Spongebob is sent to retrieve Triton, who was imprisoned by Neptune for being a hippy. Spongebob finds Triton and frees him with Patrick's assistance. Triton causes mayhem and destruction, and Neptune congratulates him for his tyranny. He leaves, still having not eaten the krabby patties or payed for them. An angry mob then chases Spongebob and Patrick. Now why did this one suck? For starters, there's Patrick's Smart Ball. Patrick, who after years of Flanderization is now Too Dumb to Live, shows surprising competency long enough to free Triton. After this point, he's stupid as usual. The reasoning behind Neptune's imprisonment of Triton defies all forms of logic, and the two deities act like assholes and get no comeuppance. It also has the hallmarks of an idiot plot: Neptune was too stupid to free Triton before going to the Krusty Krab, Spongebob was too stupid to solve a simple puzzle, and Patrick suddenly shows signs of intelligence when they've written themselves into a corner. While this isn't the worst part of the series, it's a good place to start.
    • The commercials also stated that Spongebob will battle Trition, heck, even the online games have him fight Trition! But we got a birthday party instead. When this happened, no-one spoke of it again.
  • Plankton's Regular was absolutely terrible, even by the recent standards. The episode starts with Plankton finally getting a customer that likes his food. Mr. Krabs sees this and decides to take the customer away from Plankton saying that "I can't let Plankton have even one [customer]" He then goes out of his way to drive this one customer away even going so far as to try to steal Plankton's secret formula for chum! After he fails at attempting to steal Plankton's secret formula Plankton gloats about how ironic it is for Krabs to try to steal his formula. Then it is revealed that the customer was being paid by Karen to eat at the Chum Bucket. Plankton cries about losing his only customer and Krabs just laughs at Plankton's misery.
      • That episode did actually seem to be trying hard to make the audience pity Plankton over Mr Krabs, even having Plankton call an end to their rivalry if he could keep his costumer. I think this was one of the key points the series was being converted into a Sadist Show and making the cast into a bunch of Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists (the punchline just seemed to be Plankton getting his chain yanked hard, no twist or complexity, just laughs over misery). If it's any consolation however, Krabs seemed more peeved by the fact that someone was turning down a Krabby Patty in favor of a competing foodline rather than the fact Plankton was gaining the slightest bit of success and happiness (even earlier episodes like "Just One Bite" shown how insistant he and Spongebob were that everyone adored Krabby Patties). This still makes their motive rather selfish and petty but at least not outright spiteful.
  • SpongeBob Vs The Big One is a DMOS for me. First of all, Depp's fish-character is so far in the Uncanny Valley that he's pretty much underground (Seriously, remember when the show had relatively "believable" cartoon fish that didn't have any hair?). Second, the plot just seemed nonsensical and was just dull. It was all too predictable as to what was going to happen (IE: "Ooh, there's a "mysterious figure" who's going to teach them how to surf. I wonder if he's going to give a seemingly nonsensical "lesson" that'll somehow help them in the end." "Ooh, there's a giant wave that comes only "X" amount of years. I wonder if they'll use it to get back home."). Third, it was promoted as this big special (especially due to Johnny Depp's guest-starring role) on Nickelodeon (yes, this is common practice with regards to Spongebob Squarepants), but it turned out to be nothing more than a full half-hour episode rather than the standard "two 15-minute short" formula of the series. About the only good part of the episode was the "Davy Jones Locker" gag with Mr. Krabs and, well, Davy Jones. Though, for the most part, the rest of the jokes in the episode were mainly forced and just plain unfunny.
  • The episode where Spongebob turns his house into an exact replica of Squidward's - "Squid's Visit". This isn't the first time Spongebob's obsession with Squidward as been Flanderized, but this one has him acting like some psycho straight out of Criminal Minds. You even have Sponge breathing heavily, looking at Squidward through the window while they're on the phone when Squid says he's coming over to get his vacuum cleaner back. Oh, and Squid's house burns down near the end, due to a casserole he left in the oven.
  • Has anyone else seen "The Splinter?" Spongebob gets a splinter in his thumb, which proceeds to get infected to the point that his thumb is as big as half his head and issues forth a fountain of pus when the splinter is finally pulled. I get sick from even looking at screencaps. Oh, and keep in mind that - despite the progressed nature of the infection - Spongebob wants to keep working. Around fast food. With a pus-gushing thumb. But that's not even the worst part. It wasn't a larger-than-life pus initially- Spongebob consulted help from Patrick at first, who is obviously no doctor and becoming Too Dumb to Live by examining and even biting Spongebob's foot. And when Spongebob says that it's not helping, Patrick decides to ignore him completely and Spongebob ends up begging for his help! Normally I can tolerate Patrick but this put me off completely. And here's the worst part- when Patrick attempted to help [with as much medical knowledge as a preschooler] he hammers the damn splinter in! Now that's how it enlarged to such a horrendous size. This is just one of the key moments where Patrick "Finland!" Star deterioriated into a complete jerkass.
  • "Shuffleboarding". First, the episode had nary a thing to do with it. It was about SpongeBob and Patrick going around, pretending to be Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy. Well, they start arresting people for stupid reasons (i.e., a jail guard for throwing away a half-eaten Krabby Patty, some guy for his shoe being untied, and an old lady for being too old.) First of all, Why would you arrest people for doing something you can't change? Plus, everyone thinks they are the real Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, dispite the fact that the costumes are horrible. It wouldn't be too bad, but the jail guard mentioned above asks why MM and BB are doing there the first second they see them.
  • I just recently watched the episode "Boating Buddies", and I have to say that along with "Squid's Visit" and the infamous exchange in "20,000 Patties Under The Sea", this was the episode that really flanderized the ridiculous Ho Yay Spongebob gives to Squidward, possibly even worse than those examples. In this episode Spongebob, as always, annoys Squidward, this time to the point where he tries to get away from him and ends up in the same boating school with Spongebob. No, that's obviously not the sucky part, there are scenes in the boating school where he touches Squidward rather suggestively, fawns over him numerous times, and even wrote a note on the board where he proclaims his liking to Squidward with hearts all around the writing. Seriously, it seems as though the writers are trying to scare off the fans by turning their once beloved cartoon hero into a creepy gay stalker. Jesus Christ, people.
  • The episode The Krabby Kronicle. It starts out fair enough with Mr.Krabs getting an article in the newspaper to advertise the Krusty Krab, but no ones buying it because they're to busy reading a tabloid called The Bottom Feeder. So he makes Spongebob become a news reporter to find news stories so he can make off money of his own newspaper, but it quickly goes downhill when he tells Spongebob to make up stories which end up ruining all his friends lives in a way that is not only devoid of humor but downright painful to watch. Thankfully Spongebob starts to feel guilty, but when Spongebob tells Mr.Krabs he doesn't like what they're doing Mr.Krab acts like a complete jerk to him and ignores what he says and overworks him even though Spongebob is visibly depressed throughout the episode. Near the end Spongebob finally retaliates by printing a news story about Mr.Krabs abusing him and people are so angry they take their money back. So does this episode end with Mr. Krabs finally getting what he deserves? Of course not! It ends with Mr. Krabs using the press to produce counterfeit money... to the objection of nobody. This episode is the main reason I rarely watch new episodes of Spongebob anymore.
  • As my 1st entry on the wiki, it figures that I post about a show with which I was once obsessed. Anyway, the episode, Cephalopod Lodge, involves Squidward going to a meeting for a secret organization consisting entirely of squids. Spongebob and Patrick, curious as they are, follow him as he's going to said meeting. However, the organization finds out that they had found them, and Spongebob and Patrick reveal that they were following Squidward, causing him to be kicked out of the organization. Squidward acts appropriately miserable, having expressed that these meetings were the only thing that made his miserable life worth living. Spongebob and Patrick try to cheer him up by creating their own organization, but said organization seems to only exist to make Squidward even more miserable. They then come up with a plan to get him back in the organization by disguising themselves as a giant eel, scaring the organization, and having Squidward stop them. They carry out this plan, and Squidward ends up back in the club, and Squidward is happy. So all is well, right? Of course not. Spongebob and Patrick remove their disguise (a giant sock) and Squidward gets kicked out of the club again, now more miserable than ever. This episode always comes to my mind when thinking about how Squidward went from being miserable due to being a jerk to being miserable simply because someone finds it funny. In my opinion, it's more depressing than funny.
  • The 6th season episode, "Gullible Pants", was this troper's breaking point. Basically, Mr. Krabs puts SpongeBob in charge of the Krusty Krab for 15 minutes. While Squidward takes advantage of the situation, things get worse and worse until the end of the episode when Krabs gets back to see all the customers are cowering in the corner, there's a huge mess everywhere, and SpongeBob is dancing in a creepy fashion. That's how the episode ends, and there is no resolution at all! Way to leave us hanging, writers!
  • The ending of Gone was a good example for me. Instead of it being a horrible nightmare or something, it that everyone, even his friends have spent a week having a holiday called 'No SpongeBob Day,' doing things like burning him in effigy. Now while I can understand Plankton, Squidward, and Mrs. Puff, the others make no sense. This included Krabs, who makes a fortune off the guy, Sandy, who once married him, and Patrick, his best friend. And Patrick's excuse that everyone needs time away from Spongebob's laugh is a bit of a lame excuse.
  • The episode Ditchin'. It starts off with Spongebob and Patrick watching Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, seeing a commercial for comic book signing. It happens to take place when Spongebob is at boating school. They start thinking of ways to ditch school, and they realize having to go to the restroom is a good idea. However, they unnecessarily find ways to go to the restroom that day. He just needs to fake having to go just to get out, but noooo, they had to pad this segment to heck by making them come up with ways to legitimately go. When he finally gets out, they get their comic books signed. But Wait! There's More! He starts getting mixed into all sorts of unfunny crap, eventually landing into a tar pit. Ok, seriously? I can get past the fact that they have water and fires in the ocean, but a tar pit? Number one, why would Bikini Bottom have one of all places, and two, isn't tar something that easily pollutes the ocean? Maybe I'm questioning too much, but this really bothers me. When he escapes, he finds Mrs. Puff getting arrested (as usual) for ditching jury duty. She tells Spongebob to never ditch, only to be surprised that he was ditching too. Yes, all this time she never suspected Spongebob of ditching, even though he was gone for at least 20 minutes, if not a whole hour. What the heck, writers?
  • Penny Foolish, which was in my opinion one of the worst episodes in Spongebob history. Basically, it was just a worse version of One Krab's Trash, where Krabs (being the money obsessed Jerkass he is) sees Spongebob pick up a penny on the street. After several hallucinations of pennies that Krabs has, he decides that he really needs the penny. Mind you, it is a mere hundredth of a dollar, but for a money-obssessed person like Krabs this is excusable. He attempts to 'borrow a penny' from Spongebob but fails. That's fine. But from then on his obsession with money comes in full force- he decides to open a movie theather, with a ticket price of one penny (Now I'm not an economist but to build a theater itself costs millions of dollars... and he would be making a loss by selling those tickets at such a low price- just to get a stupid penny!), and hosting a 'charity night' to donate one penny for the cause of accompanying other coins (which, needless to say, is completely idiotic and besides, it costs more than just one cent to hold such an event...). In the end, nobody attends except for Spongebob, who is deeply excited/moved by Krabs' absurd claims, but he reveals he can't cough up a single cent each time, sending Krabs on a rampage (who is too dense to come to terms with the fact that Spongebob has no freaking penny!). In the end he has to stalk Spongebob down for the penny before getting spotted by Spongebob and is forced to say why he's so 'penny foolish'. This is where it gets too absurd- it had been evident Spongebob has picked up a reddish-copper disk from the floor, but guess what? He reveals it to be peppermint gum! And here's the surprise- Krabs is still too dense to realise that Spongebob has no penny and excavates the area surrounding his house! That's not even the worst part- when Gary's saliva falls onto the 'gum' it soaks the moisture up and reveals to be a 500 dollar bill (how the freak does this happen, anyway??)! Of which Spongebob so cleverly discards (because it isn't what he wants, apparently). Penny Foolish marked the all-time low for Spongebob besides 20,000, Wringer and Boating Buddies- it ruined One Krab's Trash forever.
  • While "Overbooked" was by no means a great episode, one moment in particular really stood out. SpongeBob has to go get a cake for Patrick's birthday party, but didn't reserve one in advance. He goes to the bakery and finds there's only one cake with a message already written on it. The message? "Sorry about the scabies." This isn't Getting Crap Past the Radar, this is nuking it. I was appalled that such a thing could be aired in a kid's show with no apparent outcry. This was the final nail in the coffin for me; I knew SpongeBob was past its former glory if it had to resort to this kind of adult joke.
  • The episode "Pets or Pests" had a huge one, there's a particular scene where Larry the Lobster claims that he doesn't know who SpongeBob is. Okay, so we're supposed to forget "Ripped Pants", "House Fancy", "Lifeguard on Duty".etc?! Granted, those were made years ago, but with Larry's position in those episodes, he can't forget who Spongebob is, he might not be one of his best friends, but SpongeBob goes to the beach alot, and with the amount of episodes he's been there, Larry is supposed to not forget who he is, he knows who SpongeBob is in the other episodes, so why not in this one?! Continuity errors are frequent, but with the times that Larry the Lobster has appeared, this is why this is a DMOS for me, Stephen Hillenburg(the show's creator) might not be involved with the newer episodes, but Paul Tibbitt(current showrunner) and the writers should at least try and put some more effort into it, instead of trying to deliberately piss off the show's fanbase.
  • The episode "Cephalopod Lodge" was in my opinion a huge downgrade in the series. The entire thing was a terrible plot. It starts with a normal day at work and Spongebob, seeing Squidward so happy decides to find out why. So they stalk him and find out he is part of a secret club and they somehow get in. how did they get in? Seriousy! Did anyone stop them? Anyway, Squidward gets kicked out as they trailed him but when they want to get him back in, they deny it being their fault which it was! Screw Rule of Funny! They decide to make things up which ultimately fails as they are torturing Squidward even more. So they come up with a good plan to get him bakc in which succeeds but they come out of their freaking disguise and blows his chances again! This was a Squidward torment episode which marked the downhill slope of Spongebob.

Season 7

  • The episode A Pal for Gary, which had Spongebob adopting a new pet...despite the warning that it doesn't like snails or snail noises. Said pet terrifies Gary, and Spongebob is too stupid to see that Gary was about to be eaten and then the new pet starts eating him. Gary chases said pet out. Instead of thanking him? Spongebob scolds Gary for chasing him off! Not funny! Spongebob becomes even more Too Dumb to Live when he can't recognize he was going to be fucking eaten and Gary saved him.
  • For me, it was Stuck in the Wringer. SpongeBob gets stuck in his wringer and Patrick becomes even stupider than usual by thinking he wanted to be glued in! Just when you thought it was bad enough when SpongeBob is forced to take the day off from work, Patrick more or less tries to get him to cheer up at the amusement park, and it ends up with SpongeBob yelling at Patrick. The worst part? Everyone in the crowd gives No Sympathy towards SpongeBob, and said that what happened to him served him right. Pissed me right the hell off, that did.
    • And another moment from Stuck in the Wringer which shows perfectly how much these people care about their writing: Long story short, Patrick manages to nullify the effect of the super glue with his tears. The problem? Tears shed due to sadness are salt water, and the show takes place in an ocean. Remember when they actually lampshaded their setting? Yeah, me neither.
    • I remember, it's from the episode where Patrick and Spongebob steal a balloon. After leaving town and making a fire, Patrick asks, "How can there be a fire if we're under-" Then the fire goes out.
    • What makes it worse is that it wasn't just the crowd(Although that was just horrible enough for this section by itself.), it's that not one single person in any of their places thought of getting him out of that thing. I mean we all know Krabs is a jackass but hasn't his business been ruined by Squidward or Krabs himself trying to cook before? In fact I just learned about the ending here because I turned the TV off before it ended. That's how bad I hated it. But to add to Video Game Crack's comments above, Spongebob cried due to how horrible this situation is, why didn't that help. It's just 11 minutes of Cringe Comedy that makes you wonder how this episode got greenlit.
    • The wringer episode also ends with a Family-Unfriendly Aesop because remember kids, crying always solves your problems.
  • One Coarse Meal. Whenever Mr. Krabs learns that Plankton has a fear of whales, he tortures him to no end by dressing up as Pearl, stalking Plankton, and sending him into a suicidal depression. Spongebob comes to comfort Plankton, tells Plankton Krabs' secret fear, and asks Krabs to knock it off. Krabs then guilt trips Spongebob by reminding him that he was the one that told Plankton of the patty formula in the safe. Plankton arrives with a mime in order to get some much-needed vengence, only for Spongebob to have a projector with whales playing scare Plankton off, turning the Jerkass Krabs into a Karma Houdini. Why would anyone want to root for Krabs after this?!
  • I can put up with most of SpongeBob's highs and lows, but what really ticked me off was the "Mystery with a Twistery" special (known officially as "The Great Patty Caper") which specifically advertised three other people aside from Plankton who SpongeBob accused of stealing the Krabby Patty formula for about 2 weeks before the premiere. I could easily pick out Plankton because, well, everyone knows the history with him and the formula. What makes it even more predictable is that those extras that SpongeBob accused weren't even a central part of the whole plot, so all in all, it was another "Plankton attempt to steal the formula" episode which obviously made this a Dethroning Moment of Suck.
    • Let's not forget the fact that the mystery only lasts for the first half of the episode. The second half consists of mindless antics with the train. Meaning that this episode is dependent on filler to make it last a half hour.
    • Mine for this episode was the "butler is a werewolf" thing. Meaningless, as is the whole show after season 4. But what do I know? Most tropers are idiots, after all.
  • "Hide and Then What Happens?". It was an okay episode actually but the dethroning moment comes at the very beginning. Patrick doesn't even remember Spongebob's name. This goes boyond Flanderization. It's a new low for the writers in my book. However, it gets worse. Patrick thinks that hide and seek, a game pre-schoolers can figure out right off the bat, is too complicated for him to understand. By now I'm convinced the writers are just directly insulting the viewer's intelligence.
  • The episode "Yours, Mine and Mine" was the one that made this troper finally give up the series. Patrick can't afford a Krusty Krab meal, so Spongebob helps pay for it, the two agreeing to share. Naturally Patrick eats it all. When he complains that there's no toy, Mr. Krabs hastily puts one together out of a Patty and some straws, charging extra. Patrick's response? Much like the episode "Sing a Song of Patrick" he steals Spongebob's money to pay for it. When our young Sponge reminds his "best friend" that they agreed to share it, Patrick goes from being a colossal, selfish jerkass when it's his turn with the toy, to whiny and needy the few seconds Spongebob gets ahold of it. Finally Patrick ends up snatching it, and after a lengthy chase, eating it. But what luck, Mr. Krabs made more! Patrick then steals more of Spongebob's money, and when called on it, ends the episode with this gem. "Have you learned nothing about sharing?" The title sends an obvious message but there was room for at least an Aesop or comeuppance.
  • The episode Kracked Krabs. It has perhaps the Most Triumphant example of flanderization by having Mr.Krabs and Spongebob go to a competition in which a bunch of crabs see who can be the cheapest. What!? Oh, and it gets worse by having Mr.Krabs and Spongebob win by stealing an entire hotel room! Basically, they're teaching our kids to "Exaggerate" people's belongings into their suitcases, and get rewarded for it. If Mr. Krabs really wanted to be cheap, he should have stuffed his own room into his suitcase. He'd have a free room and he wouldn't be... you know, 'stealing'. When I saw the episode, I gave up on the show and now hope it gets axed.
  • The episode that did it for me was "The Play's the Thing". Squidward spends most of the episode indulging his already inflated ego in the form of a play at the Krusty Krab, forgetting that he is supposed to be taking the customers' orders at the same time. Eventually, the customers decide they've had enough of his arrogance and start throwing burnt Krabby Patties at him (they're burnt because Spongebob got carried away with the play, and Squidward served them anyway just to make himself feel big). Krabs sees this as a way to make money, so starts charging people for the patties. Spongebob urges them to stop, but Patrick says he likes throwing things, and soon everyone is pelting both Squidward and Spongebob, and are even paying Krabs to let them throw larger, harder objects like freaking anchors. Krabs makes a fortune and decides to make the play a regular thing, causing Squidward and Spongebob to go insane and laugh like lunatics.
    • I've got to say, isn't this just like Culture Shock?
    • Sounds like it, except this time, even poor Spongebob gets the short end of the stick. Mr. Krabs is such a great boss isn't he?
  • is in my opinion, the lowest point of the series, beating out other favourites like Plankton's Regular and Stuck in the Wringer. Watch as fond memories of Krusty Love are trashed for the sake of "laughs". This episode starts with Mrs. Puff avoiding Spongebob's note, and driving away, only to crash into the Krusty Krab's doors. What happens next is Mr. Krabs, making her work off the debt of the damage. Then, Spongebob is constantly tormenting Mrs. Puffs for the next nine minutes, ending with her fed up, ripping up Spongebob's note, and going to jail for seven years (Despite her saying four years) over littering. (Yes, they make many jokes over littering, but it's lost it's charm the 100th time it was used). She's locked up, relaxed, since she's away from Spongebob, only to find that the yellow sponge (Despite totally sucking at driving) will be teaching at the prison. The real sprinkle-on-sugar here is that the note was about teaching at prison. This episode was nothing but Kick The Blowfish over and over again.
    • Oh, but there's another cleverly hidden DMOS in this episode. When Mrs. Puff tries to bring up Krusty Love's date plotline again by asking if he'd like to go on a date, he cruelly shoots her down like a jackass. Wow, Krabs. This is a new low, even for you.
  • Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful is my ultimate DMOS. Squidward is stuck on litter patrol with Squilliam Fancyson because he threw gum on the sidewalk. Logical, but than it gets more annoying thanks to the police officer being a Jerkass. He later than tickets Squidward for being near trash while he was on cleanup control. But then, Squidward is beaten since he stole a wagon to help with the garbage, than have the garbage knocked over on him, and the police officer only tickets him instead of Spongebob who was in the garbage as well! And then, Spongebob than makes a house of garbage in place of Squidward's house because the dump is closed. Squidward obviously gets disgusted by this, than is ticketed for having his home turned into a garbage house!]] Hey police officer, there's a thing called recycling, maybe that's what he was doing. But then, Squidward is ticked again because his other ticket fell. What the hell police?!? Than Spongebob soaks the garbage up, than everytime a drop falls off, Squidward, instead of Spongebob who was made of garbage at the time, is ticketed since he stood in a 3 feet radius of dirt! Than he is ticketed for Spongebob stepping into his own trashcan as officer directly sees this happen! We get it guys, Squidward is equal to Charlie Brown. But nope, the real kicker in the teeth is when the ending have Spongebob and Squidward ticketed by the police who was right there when a single empty can rolls by them, not the statue of garbage in Squidward's image, but the empty can rolling past them with the police watching it! Squidward just dove into The Woobie territory and has every reason to be a Jerkass just by this episode alone! Nice job writers. I'm totally staying in for the conclusion!
  • In the episode Tentacle-Vision, Squidward buys a slot on a paid public service television. It starts out with the standard Squidward want to do something that he thinks will be good for Bikini Bottom and then Spongebob and Patrick start to mess things up. Then it slowly breaks down until every character, all the way to Pearl and Plankton, have shown up, and a mob of people mistake his show for a party. At the end, an executive from the TV station shows up saying he loves how the show is going except for Squidward. So the show he paid for, hosting in his home has been taken over and he has to sit outside while the show is going on....just why!? Basically, this proved to me that the show has become little more than "Let's see how the main character can fuck up the lives of everyone around him, except his idiot best friend."


Season 8

  • "A Friendly Game". The whole episode was...not good...but one moment of notice is when Patrick is acting like a jerk to Spongebob about halfway through the episode just so he can win a game of indoor mini-golf. What.
  • I'd typically feel like arguing with these examples, but I have no honest way of defending Oral Report. Spongebob gets nervous when he has to give an oral report to his boating school, so he goes to Patrick for help. Turns out to be a mistake, since Patrick is an non-supportive asshole, making the situation even worse for Spongebob. The Fat Bastard.
  • "Smooth Jazz at Bikini Bottom" is pretty much a particularly cruel Kick the Dog episode for poor Squidward, with special mention going, once again, to Patrick. The bastard eats Squidward's ticket for the jazz show, and then he for no reason steals and eats both Spongebob's and Squidward's backstage passes. Why Spongebob is still friends with the guy, I'll never know.
    • Let's not forget when Patrick rudely interrupts the concert just to ask for more nachos! What the freakin' heck, Patrick? I've given up on Patrick after the movie, but this episode is when I started really giving up on this guy.
  • "Fiasco!" was actually a pleasant surprise for the most part, but one scene at the end absolutely ruined my whole enjoyment of the episode. At the very end of the episode Squidward remains in jail for no reason at all. It comes out of nowhere, and left a sour taste in my mouth. It's almost like they are obligated to add pointless Squidward abuse now.
    • I just think they're trying to make this show like Family Guy, notice how it follows a similar pattern: Unnecessary character changes , mean-spirited humour and repeats itself, with Squidward being the Meg Griffin of SpongeBob...
    • Actually, that ending didn't bother me in the slightest. What I didn't like about that episode was that Squidward called the police on Spongebob and Patrick who did nothing when it was Plankton they were after.
  • "Home Sweet Rubble". I absolutely hated this episode because everybody didn't even care about SpongeBob not liking the additions they added. Again, They Just Didn't Care about him! But I really liked Patrick's office scene, it was really funny though, and the ending, what a surprise! Gary gave SpongeBob a can of "Pineapple House in a Can".
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