Coming up next, we've got "The Krusty Sponge"! I’ve always liked this episode, and liked the idea of it too. SpongeBob becoming the face of the Krusty Krab makes perfect sense, especially in light of an episode like “Good Ol’ Whatshisname”, even though it's a horrendous business decision lol.
The beginning of this episode brings in some intrigue with SpongeBob being frozen in place. The thousand yard stare joke is so morbidly hilarious, especially because you can literally hear bombs in the background as Mr. Krabs explained how he had it once in his service days. I love how once it turns out to be a food critic that’s got SpongeBob all up in a twist, Mr. Krabs joins him. For some reason I get reminded a lot of “Nasty Patty” in the beginning of this episode. And then when the critic shows himself, I get reminded of “Pickles”. The way the critic literally does not give af is very…refreshing. I love how Squidward doesn’t care either, because honestly if I was in his shoes I’d probably not care either. Food critics are so pompous anyway. Food is absolutely subjective.
And then I love the move to the news report in this episode. I like when the Krusty Krab has a TV inside of it because it usually leads to some kind of communal viewing situation like in this episode, and for some reason that makes me feel warm inside lol, I don’t know what to tell you. The news report is very awkward at first. and it doesn’t really make it particularly funny, so that’s a bit of a low point. Also more than anything I just want to punch this Gene guy in the face so that’s a little bit irritating, but things are saved once he starts gushing about SpongeBob, as he should. Now I completely disagree with Gene, and later Mr. Krabs, that selling SpongeBob’s image in this way is the way to go, because the whole selling point of SpongeBob is that he’s the guy behind the grill, not the face of the restaurant lol. Not to mention it’s weird as hell to make your fry cook your restaurant image. But I digress. Well wait let me un-digress for a minute, because now that I’m thinking of it, is this episode a criticism of the commercialization of SpongeBob SquarePants? Not that this show was ever not commercialized (which I need certain parts of the fandom to understand very quickly, this show was always put on the network for purposes of making money lol, it wasn’t some indie project let’s be serious). But anyway, it kind of feels like that a little bit. Maybe not even of the commercialization of this show, but of any popular product? Okay, now I’ve digressed enough.
Then we move to Mr. Krabs starting to make big changes at the Krusty Krab…or should I say the Krusty Sponge. This episode reminds me a lot of “SpongeBob’s Place”, or I should really say the other way around, since that episode clearly took a lot of inspiration from this one. I also liked the mole joke, that was pretty unexpected. But in general at this point I haven’t really laughed much, which is to this episode’s detriment, but not unbearably so since I have been enjoying myself otherwise. Things do improve though, like the part between Squidward and that little kid was pretty funny. And as always I love the back and forth between Squidward and Mr. Krabs, I love Squidward’s deadpan “you need to see a doctor”, because yeah that’s probably true. And then everything about Squidward trying to grill patties in his suit is really funny, great slapstick. Honestly, I love that Squidward’s stuck in this costume for much of the episode, it makes his appearances all inherently hilarious. And again, I really like how much interaction we see between Mr. Krabs and Squidward in this episode, with Squidward at least trying to be the voice of reason to Mr. Krabs’ insanity. Their scenes together are really fun to watch, and clear highlights of this episode.
As for SpongeBob, poor guy doesn’t get to do the job he loves, and a-hole customers get mad at him when he is clearly being overworked. Bikini Bottomites, everyone! But I mean people in our society now are like this so…anyway, I love that we suddenly get a bit of a zombie moment as people walk around sick because of those tainted “sponge patties”. I love how Mr. Krabs is basically on a date with money, but thankfully this gets cut short because he gets arrested for poisoning people lol. The little court bit we get is pretty fun too, and I love Mr. Krabs’ punishment. Also, putting on my little “Pugs Education Moment” hat, but that jury would never fly because they’re all clearly biased. Okay taking off my hat now. I love that the judge ended up having SpongeBob merch too, because a SpongeBob gavel…what?? And how can I get one lmao. The ending of this episode is fun, but I think it would’ve been more satisfying if it was Mr. Krabs in the SpongeBob costume in the end, but the way this episode ends isn’t too bad as it is.
"The Krusty Sponge" is just a really fun episode that I feel pokes fun at the way the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise is treated, which means it's even more relevant today than when it came out, I feel. This episode is not particularly funny, but it is very entertaining and amusing, which means that I don't have too much that's bad to say about it. The food critic was pretentious and not in the best way, but luckily he barely talks so that helps things immensely. I also thought the ending wasn't as strong as it could've been. All things considered, I'd say this episode is a good fit for my "Great" tier.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.4/10
