SpongeBob SquarePants/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Animation Age Ghetto: Mostly averted. In fact, this is one of the few, if not the only, still-running children's cartoons you will hear people openly obsess about without being mocked.
  • Anvilicious: The educational short "The Endless Summer" (originally released during Season 4 as part of Earth to America). Oddly, it's less grating than the average episode, as at least Mr. Krabs gets his just desserts.
  • Ass Pull:
    • The Patty Vault in "Just One Bite". Though this is likely Played for Laughs.
    • The tugboat at the end of "Nautical Novice".
  • Author's Saving Throw: "Plankton's Regular", where Plankton gets one single costumer, but Mr. Krabs is so greedy that he doesn't want to let Plankton have one single customer and uses unethical methods to get the same customer and the same customer hated Plankton's food in the first place and Mr. Krabs laughed at Plankton's misery, is considered one of the worst episodes of the series. But after that episode debuted episodes "Chum Bucket Supreme", "Chum Caverns" and "Greasy Buffoons", where Plankton gets a lot of costumers and Mr. Krabs is not evil as he was in "Plankton's Regular". Although episodes end with Plankton losing, he lost because of his own mistakes (In "Chum Bucket Supreme" he called his customers fools) and in "Greasy Buffons" his business was closed due to Spongebob (who was disgusted that Plankton and Mr. Krabs were selling greasy and poisonous food to the customers). While Plankton still loses, the fact remains that he got a lot of customers in those episodes and that Krabs competed ethically against Plankton, not sabotaging his chance of success like in "Plankton's Regular".
    • And speaking of Spongebob being disgusted by Mr. Krabs' actions, in "Plankton's Regular" Spongebob fully supported Mr. Krabs and was just as bad as him, but after that episode came episode "The Krabby Kronicle", where Spongebob was disgusted at Mr. Krabs, due to the latter forcing him to write lies about his friends and working him to death on the newspaper under a threat that he will lose his job, but Spongebob wrote and article about Mr. Krabs' torture and in later episodes where Mr. Krabs is the villain, Spongebob is disgusted at his actions and is not as big a doormat as he was in previous episodes, or not being a doormat at all. In "No Hat For Pat" he was furious at Mr. Krabs for exploiting Patrick and making him injure himself for profit, in "Greasy Buffons" he objected to Mr. Krabs selling greasy food and became absolutely furious when Patrick was poisoned, in "One Coarse Meal" he was disgusted by Mr. Krabs' Moral Event Horizon (dressing as Pearl, scaring Plankton, driving him to suicide and laughing at Plankton's misery) and in "The Cent Of Money" he was absolutely furious at Mr. Krabs for exploiting Gary just to get money. "The Cent Of Money" is another possible Author's Saving Throw since Spongebob was extremely caring of Gary, while in "A Pal For Gary" he was a big jerk to him.
  • Badass Decay:
    • Plankton in the later seasons.
    • Sandy Cheeks. In Seasons 1-3 she was the squirrel version of Chuck Norris, and did things such as lift buildings and throw them. During the Seasonal Rot, they started focusing more on her Gadgeteer Genius side. She was dropped after the Seasonal Rot. However, they are bringing back her strength.
    • Designated Villain: He used to be an ordinary and fairly competent villain, but now that Mr. Krabs has been Flanderized into a Jerkass, one can't help but side with Plankton.
    • Villain Decay
      • However Plankton seems to be threatening and menacing again by Season 7 ("Frozen Face-Off" and "The Great Patty Caper" proved that he was still capable of being a big threat, particulary during "Frozen Face-Off" where he organized the entire race just because he could steal the Krabby Patty formula without trouble and the Plankton who was in the race was actually his robot doppelganger and it took all the main characters to stop him). He was also very threatening in "Spongebob's Last Stand" where he built a superhighway and it drove away all the jellyfish from their fields and took over the entire town and almost all of Bikini Bottom's population supported him and Krabs was even going to give him the secret formula willingly.
  • Base Breaker: Spongebob, especially from season 5 onwards.
  • Non Sequitur Scene:
    • Plenty. For example, the Davy Jones and Nosferatu cameos.
    • The old folk from a soda commercial gag. Done in a similar style to a Family Guy Cutaway Gag.
    • The werewolf scene from "The Great Patty Caper". Came out of nowhere? Check! Added nothing to the plot? Check! Was never mentioned again? Check!
  • Broken Base: Over whether post-movie episodes are even worth watching.
  • Cargo Ship: Technically, Plankton and Karen could count as a canon example of this.
  • Crazy Awesome: The battle in Sandcastles in the Sand.
  • Creepy Awesome: Puffy Fluffy in "A Pal For Gary".
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • The newer episodes are either this or Dude, Not Funny.
    • In "Graveyard Shift" (Season 2), Squidward tells SpongeBob a (false) story about a fry-cook who accidentally cuts his hand off while cutting patties:

Squidward: And then, he got hit by a bus! And then, at his funeral, they FIRED him!

Larry the Lobster: He called us fat!
Mr. Krabs: He owes me money!
Scooter: He made me experience high tide!
Tom: He poisoned our water supply, burned our crops, and delivered a plague unto our houses!
Crowd (astonished): He did?
Tom: NO! But are we just gonna wait around until he does???

    • DEAUUGH!
    • Smitty Werbenyagermanjensen: He was number one!
    • Scooter. Especially in "Bubble Buddies".
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: Quite a bit, if you really think about it. Like "Stuck In The Wringer". Also "Abrasive Side".
    • "Chocolate with Nuts". Patrick put it best: "Hooray for lying!"
  • Fountain of Memes:
    • As seen here.
    • As for individual characters, Patrick is the best example here.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment: One episode, SpongeBob shouts 'Holy Oil Spill!' as Mermaid Man's rivals appear.
    • In an earlier episode where Spongebob and Patrick steal a balloon, it pops and they panic. Patrick says this little gem right here:

Patrick: "We're not talking about some dumb mail fraud scheme or a hijacking! WE STOLE A BALLOON!"
(A few months after the episode aired, 9/11, the anthrax letters and hijacking of Flight 793 occurred. Coincidence or foreshadowing?)

Narrator: Welp, that's our story. Yes, they are all idiots aren't they?

  • Memetic Mutation: Enough to warrant a page all of its own.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Mr. Krabs is always a miserable cheapskate, but throughout the series he became much worse and has done many cruel actions to point where fans consider him a Complete Monster. For Mr. Krabs these actions are the potential candidates for his Moral Event Horizon:
      • In "Jellyfish Hunter" he tricks SpongeBob into catching all of the Jellyfish in Jellyfish Fields for him in order to make Jelly Patties for the customers, and proceeded to extract their jelly from them in cruel, painful ways. It is considered to be one of his most monstrous acts he has ever done.
      • In "One Coarse Meal" he started exploiting Plankton's fear of whales by dressing as his daughter, Pearl, and threatening to eat him. He harassed Plankton so much, he was suicidal afterwards and after he found out that Plankton was ready to commit suicide, he simply laughed at Plankton's misery and unlike in "Jellyfish Hunter" he doesn't receive any comeuppance for this. And all is this for fun. This is probably the most evil action done by Krabs.
      • In "Greasy Buffons" he intentionally began to feed his costumers pure grease, which lead his costumers to be poisoned, purely for profit. Throughout the episode Spongebob was having doubts about selling greasy food to customers, but it got personal for Spongebob when he saw that his best friend Patrick was poisoned too.
      • In "The Cent of Money" Krabs discovers that Gary has a "talent" for finding spare change, so he begins to take Gary around Bikini Bottom, stealing all the spare change he can find, continuously injuring Gary with the bombardment of magnetically attracted coins, all the while stealing from people and keeping Spongebob busy by doing work at the Krusty Krab.. Finally, when we saw how injured Gary had became, Krabs didn't care and said he looked fine and went to attract a wave of coins before Spongebob arrived. However, he receives his comeuppance for this.
      • In "Patty Caper" Mr. Krabs secretly steals the secret ingredient to the Krabby Patty formula to avoid paying for it (a whole $1.99), and attempts to frame SpongeBob to cover it up and before this he made Spongebob blame his friends, Gary and Plankton so he would take the fall for Krabs's actions. Fortunately, Mr. Krabs gets punished for it.
      • In "Le Big Switch" he sold Squidward to repo men.
    • Plankton brainwashing and enslaving Bikini Bottom in The Movie.
    • Squidward's treatment of Spongebob and Patrick in some post-movie episodes. While in seasons 1-3 episodes Squidward was a Jerkass, but he showed remorse for his actions and said that he always sort of liked Spongebob and in some post-movie episodes he is treated horribly for no reason and doesn't deserve that treatment in those episodes and is more sympathetic, but in some of episodes Squidward behaves so cruelly that he entered Moral Event Horizon territory. Watch episodes "I ♥ Dancing" or "Can You Spare A Dime" and few other episodes and you will see what kind of bastard Squidward can be. And in "No Hat For Pat" Squidward expressed the desire to hurt Spongebob and in "The Lost Mattress" he even threatened to murder Spongebob and Patrick.
  • Moral Myopia: When making Plankton look good compared to Mr. Krabs, the fans tend to forget that Plankton was much, worse in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
    • In all fairness, the movie came out in 2004, so it's easy to forget that it's actually the finale for when the show ends.
    • A lot of fans say that Squidward became more symphathetic in post-movie episodes, yet they tend to forget that after the movie Squidward Took a Level in Jerkass and his treatment of Spongebob became much crueler and meaner, even bordering on the Moral Event Horizon, and lost all of empathy towards Spongebob he had in pre movie episodes. While in some episodes he is symphathetic and does nothing wrong, but in other episodes he is bigger jerk than he was in seasons 1-3.
  • Narm: "This Grill Is Not a Home" from the episode "Welcome to the Chum Bucket" is actually a really sad song, but it's broken by Mr. Krabs' bizarre Louis Armstrong singing voice.
  • Nausea Fuel: Quite a bit, what with close-up shots of bodies cut in odd and disturbing ways. Moreso in the recent episodes.
    • The fandom consider Squidward getting his toenail ripped off in "House Fancy" and the entire episode of "The Splinter" the biggest examples.
  • Never Live It Down: Mr. Krabs driving Plankton to suicide and poisoning people are this amongst the fandom.
  • Nightmare Fuel: A pageful!
  • No Problem With Licensed Games:
    • Battle For Bikini Bottom
    • The game of the movie got positive reviews as well.
  • Nostalgia Filter
  • Painful Rhyme: From "Party Pooper Pants"'s Framing Device: "Down, down, down to the bottom of the sea/Where we wait for SpongeBob and his snail Gary..."
  • Periphery Demographic: College students, even more so in recent years due to the teens/adults who grew up watching the show as kids. This led to SpongeBob and friends becoming prime memetic material.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: With a couple exceptions; see No Problem With Licensed Games above.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Sandy.
  • Ron the Death Eater: SpongeBob himself, especially with Squidward fans. Yes, SpongeBob was Flanderized. No, he doesn't make Squidward suffer on purpose.
  • The Scrappy:
    • As of season 5 and onward, Mr. Krabs, in spades. Many fans just want to see him suffer a truly horrible fate. Recent episodes have seen his rivalry with Plankton devolve into making his life hell just for fun, feeding poison or rotten food to his customers intentionally for the sake of an extra dollar, or extorting and abusing his employees. The fact that he gets away with these at least 80% of the time doesn't help.
    • Patrick has been getting a lot of hate in his more recent appearances. He will have no role in the entire episode, show up and act as a Diabolus Ex Machina to screw over some other character, like Squidward. His Flanderization didn't help matters: he want from being the tolerable if not lovable ditz taken Up to Eleven into Too Dumb to Live territory. Coupled with this and a major upgrade to Jerkass (where even Spongebob gets annoyed with him more lately), you can't help but sympathize with Squidward.
      • Patrick is also responsible for many of Spongebob's problems in recent episodes or makes them worse. For example in "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants" Patrick made Spongebob to listen to his funny sound, which he made for a lot of time and while Spongebob was listening his pants shortened and later didn't recognize Spongebob, because he was wearing new pants, thus setting episode's plot in motion. And in the "Stuck in the Wringer" he uses forever glue on Spongebob and made him stuck in the wringer and thus trapping him there pernamently (although crying melts the glue) and how Spongebob got into wringer in the first place: he accidently stepped on rubber ducky that Patrick left in his house.
      • Patrick is still popular enough with some fans due to his many memetic moments, making him a Base Breaker.
    • Pearl is incredibly annoying, loud... and generally disliked.
    • Patchy gets extra points for being a Scrappy since the early days.
    • A meta example with Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas, two writers credited with some of the worst episodes on the show.
  • Seasonal Rot: Season five is the peak of the Dork Age, especially with the Three Shorts formula which didn't pan out and was gone by the next season.
    • Season 7 has been considered the absolute nadir of the show in the more recent years. The main complaint seems to be that the show attempted darker, twisted and generally more black-comedy leaning humor... and it just didn't work. One Coarse Meal and A Pal for Gary are nowadays considered prime examples how not to write black humor. And the episodes that aren't attempting to do black humor aren't much better either - SpongeBob and Patrick act ridiculously out of character on a regular basis, coming off as Jerkasses rather than lovable doofuses, Squidward's Butt Monkey status feels like he's getting punishment for absolutely no reason (and without any funny slapstick to compensate) and Mr. Krabs is just way, way too greedy to be funny. The season very much caused a lot of the older fans to jump ship on the show, and although the show has maintained some level of success through its' second movie and (somewhat improved) later seasons, the show's yet to recover from the blow season 7 inflicted on the viewer base.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: (Yes, there's shipping in Spongebob; stop acting so surprised.) Spandy (Spongebob and Sandy) fans and all of the Spongebob slash-fans seem to constantly be at each other's throats whenever people start to discuss the pairings that they like and don't like. The slash-fans tend to ignore that Word of God said at one point that Spongebob had a platonic crush on Sandy, the Spandy fans often ignore all of the Ho Yay, and everybody seems to ignore the fact that Word of God has also stated that Spongebob's Asexual. It's so bad that usually the Spandy fans are generally assumed to be either homophobic or anti-gay and that the slash fans are similarly assumed to be heterophobic porn-addicts.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Mr. Krabs and Plankton in the later seasons.
  • So Okay It's Average:
    • Season 7.
      • Kind of averages out. Some episodes, like "Mystery With a Twist-ery" and "Spongebob's Last Stand" are the best received episodes since at least Season 4. Some episodes, such as "Greasy Buffoons", "One Coarse Meal", and "A Pal for Gary" are considered the worst episodes of the series, even worse than Season 5 or 6.
    • Season 1 (before Growing the Beard) due to a lot of Early Installment Weirdness.
  • Tainted by the Preview: The preview commercials before the show came out made it look INCREDIBLY stupid. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case.
  • Tear Jerker: Got its own page.
  • That One Level: That goddamn ball puzzle in the Mermalair in Battle for Bikini Bottom. It requires ludicrous amounts of speed, precision and near-pinpoint accuracy with one of the most awkward techniques in the game.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: Some fans of the earlier seasons claim that seasons 4 and onwards are downright awful because the mood of the show changed considerably due to changes in the staff.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Bubble Bass could be a good Arch Enemy to SpongeBob, but he hasn't appeared since Season 1.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Truth or Square" were nothing but this. You get to see Sandy and Spongebob married (sorry, you just get a play), Plankton have the perfect chance to steal the Krabby Patty formula (he shows up for less then 5 minutes and doesn't even have a plan) AND learn the secret of the Krabby Patty formula (they cut it off). Everything that is not a wasted plot line is either an answer you wouldn't care about or a waste of time.
    • Also, in Spongebob vs. the Big One, they said in the episode and in the trailers that "one of you will not return." They all ended up returning safely.
    • In Whatever Happened To Spongebob, had a decent plot of Spongebob running away after the people got angry and called him "Idiot Boy". Plus, it had a decent Easy Amnesia plot device in Spongebob but it was rushed and half-assed throughout the whole thing. At least give Squidward a reason why he's happy that Spongebob's gone.
  • True Art Is Incomprehensible: Parodied loads of times.
    • "You must gain an appreciation of free-form Jazz!"
  • Ugly Cute: Baby Squidward in Goo Goo Gas, amongst many other things.
  • Uncanny Valley:
    • Handsome Squidward.
    • In some of the Season 1 episodes, Squidward was occasionally given a tall human-like appearance that looked a bit unsettling.
  • Unfortunate Implications:
    • Mr. Krabs and/or Squidward as negative Jewish stereotypes.
    • "Patrick Smartpants" seems to suggest that being intellectual will make you a miserable, lonely, Jerkass.
    • Pearl and her friends give the impression that all teenage girls are nothing more than whiny, boy-crazy, self-indulged brats who throw tantrums to get their way and use their age as an excuse for everything.
    • The episode "Suqidville" is seen in a much different life when you realize that Tentacle Acres is basically a segregated community.
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: Plankton and Squidward, although Plankton loses any sympathy when you see his Plan Z in The Movie.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Squidward.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The episode "Mooncation" as animation on par with that of The Movie.
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Where do we start? Not only is there a huge amount of gross violence and Nightmare Fuel, but there are all kinds of dirty references ("Patrick, your genius is showing!" Where?") and Ho Yay, including Spongebob and Patrick married and raising a child in one episode! (It Makes Sense in Context)
  • What the Hell Casting Agency: Specific to Norway, but irritating nonetheless. SpongeBob's Norwegian actor (the same who played Ickis from "AAHH!! Real Monsters!"), recognized for his typecasting with "unstable" characters, was for reasons unknown replaced by Trond Teigen (famous for his role as Aladdin, among other action roles). The latter actor's attempts at imitating the former actor's psychotic performance come across as forced and shoehorned into an already decaying series.
  • Win Back the Crowd: Season seven. Not great, but a noticable increase in quality.
    • A lot of people seem to think Season 8 has really increased the quality. It has been one of the most well-received seasons in a while.
  • The Woobie:
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/SpongeBob_SquarePants/YMMV?oldid=2021457"