This episode rarely gets any hate. Emphasis on the "rarely" this time. It gets about as much hate as The Inside Job, which I used to dislike but I've grown into. If you know where to look, it's at least there. And I'm fine with it, the show has had much, much, much worse. (My score of 37 Atrocity pts. is actually a bit misleading) And unlike Artist Unknown, it's not really "praised," per se (outside of SBM). I'm much more angered that it's not considered a rip-off, actually. At least the SpongeBob was theoretically in the same place, even though it was incredibly forced and I'd rather have SpongeBob get the fame, but it's better than having a part taken away from him. Well, it could, but it most likely isn't. And if SpongeBob was at the audition WHY didn't he ::dolphin noise::ing audition!? But still, he could have died from doing the same excercize for that long. And Squidward actually realized he got punished, and there's a little reasoning as to his behavior (though not enough), which is extremely selfish. And unlike AU, which opened on bragging, there was some okay humor in the beginning (my favorite being the pizza and knight falling on the table. However, that doesn't take away from the fact of how excessively cruel the episode is. SpongeBob did nothing wrong, besides breaking Squidward's treadmill, which was that little reasoning even though it was technically Squid's fault that he left SpongeBob doing it this long, and the "Who put you on the planet" thing (yes, I actually didn't like that, it was a rude comment and the expression was disturbing). It kind of looked like a Squidward torture ::dolphin noise::, but in this case it wasn't SpongeBob torturing him, he was only dancing to music. Any other wrong-doing he did to Squid were accidents. And SpongeBob was a great dancer. I mean great. He's just as talented at dancing as he was art, perhaps even better. The animation of the dance sequence compliments it. That's what makes it so hard to watch Squidward's criticisms. And it's unfortunate, since they actually made Squid unlikeable for once. However, it falls on the same path as Little Yellow Book, only worse. Another positive is the critic knew it was SpongeBob who was the one, despite SB still not getting the fame and fortune he deserves. By the way, Squidward is a horrible dancer. All he did was hop on one leg. The plot also came out as predictable. We knew what Squidward's plan was, and we knew SB would go against it somehow. And that predictability is enforced by how direct of a rip-off it is. Every element of it reminds me of Artist Unknown, which if not blantanly clear I really hate. Oh, and Squilliam was shoehorned in the end for fan service. Not cool, man, not cool.
