137a. One Coarse Meal

I just re-watched this recently and I'll admit, the suicide jokes didn't really bother me a year ago, but they extremely bothered me now (especially since I was having suicidal thoughts for just the past few months). I don't know what was going through the writers minds as they wrote this but they clearly don't understand or have never had depression/suicidal thoughts at all as they passed off Plankton's suicide attempt as some sort of hilarious joke. What Mr. Krabs was doing to Plankton? Utterly disgusting. I want to throttle Mr. Krabs in this episode. I don't even know why an idea for an episode like this made it past Paul Tibbit's approval.
 
For SpongeBob, suicide jokes are considered as a red flag and everyone gets angry.

...For cartoons from last century, suicide jokes are fine and nobody gets angry.

what
 
President Squidward said:
For SpongeBob, suicide jokes are considered as a red flag and everyone gets angry.

...For cartoons from last century, suicide jokes are fine and nobody gets angry.

what
Click to expand...
Even with that said, this episode still had a ton of problems and just sloppy execution all around. That's what I was really mad at when I saw this episode twice and Mr. Krabs's and SpongeBob's terrible characterizations. Really if they had just made those parts better and made the ending better, I wouldn't have minded this episode so much. I'm also fully aware that there have been many other cartoons in the past that have had suicide jokes in them.

To sum it up, this episode makes the audience feel empathy towards the wrong character (Plankton).
 
ELTsterious rating: 1/10.

This episode leaves a very bad taste in my mouth...it is one coarse meal indeed. I've watched it a few times, and the only thing fathomable about this episode was the opening action sequence, which made me reminice on older Spongebob episodes. If it featured less Plankton abuse and if it did not show him being driven to suicide, with Plankton and Karen some how teaming up against Krabs, than this episode would have gone from horrific to decent. The suicide attempt and torment took it too far, because of how tormented Plankton was to get to that point.
 
I honestly like this episode. I laughed at some parts, like when Plankton walked into the freezer when he was trying to exit the kitchen. I thought Plankton getting scared was funny too. I will admit that Mr. Krabs was a jerk and went way too far by driving Plankton nearly to suicide. As for SpongeBob, he did not bother me in this episode. He did believe that Mr. Krabs was going too far. I also don't think that SpongeBob betrayed Plankton at the end. He was just getting him away from the Krusty Krab. I give this episode a 7/10. I respect your opinion if you disagree with me.
 
To add to my older post, people saying that they shouldn't out suicide or anything in a children's cartoon, I'd disagree. Not because I think suicide's funny (which is not AT ALL), but that doesn't mean they can't have an attempt at dark humor, and I appreciate them for that, even if the dark humor joke was a failed attempt. I still appreciate it how they ignored the people out there who want children's shows to be all kiddy in boring. Going for a darker setting is always interesting, no matter how terrible it is.

So... 5/10. Would still watch it.
 
President Squidward said:
To add to my older post, people saying that they shouldn't out suicide or anything in a children's cartoon, I'd disagree. Not because I think suicide's funny (which is not AT ALL), but that doesn't mean they can't have an attempt at dark humor, and I appreciate them for that, even if the dark humor joke was a failed attempt. I still appreciate it how they ignored the people out there who want children's shows to be all kiddy in boring. Going for a darker setting is always interesting, no matter how terrible it is.

So... 5/10. Would still watch it.
Click to expand...
I like where you're coming from and it's what I was saying before. That was the least of the episode's problems. Hate how they made Krabs really unlikable though and I don't care if not exactly a protagonist in SpongeBob and I think that's where the criticism of this episode should be focused on. That scene where he's laughing just still did not feel right. I don't have anything against shows wanting to do something different or have a darker gag thrown in once in a while.
 
Popeye Q. Krabs said:
I like where you're coming from and it's what I was saying before. That was the least of the episode's problems. Hate how they made Krabs really unlikable though and I don't care if not exactly a protagonist in SpongeBob and I think that's where the criticism of this episode should be focused on. That scene where he's laughing just still did not feel right. I don't have anything against shows wanting to do something different or have a darker gag thrown in once in a while.
Click to expand...
BTW, you do know that protagonists don't have to be good, right? I agree with your point but just making sure becuase I think a lot of people forget that. ;)

As for the suicide joke, it's not the fact that it was a suicide joke but the fact that it was done so awfully.. the ones in Are You Happy Now? are fine becuase they're short and clearly meant to be humurous
 
Popeye Q. Krabs said:
I like where you're coming from and it's what I was saying before. That was the least of the episode's problems. Hate how they made Krabs really unlikable though and I don't care if not exactly a protagonist in SpongeBob and I think that's where the criticism of this episode should be focused on. That scene where he's laughing just still did not feel right. I don't have anything against shows wanting to do something different or have a darker gag thrown in once in a while.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll admit Krabs was a huge jerk in here, and I think it made me lose all respect for him.
 
Wow, just wow. Let's compare this and Nasty Patty from season 3 and see what Nasty Patty did write with dark humor and this episode did wrong.

#1 In NP, Krabs and Spongebob didn't mean to KILL him. In OCM, Krabs was happy that Plankton was trying to kill himself.
#2 In NP, the Health Inspector didn't actually die in the end. In OCM, we know for sure Plankton wanted to kill himself and he even asked Spongebob to do it for him.
#3 Plankton has always been a comedic villain. We love to hate him. We don't want someone who we love to hate to kill himself! In NP, the health inspector was a new character and we didn't care about him. Not that I wanted him to die, but it was still funny.
#4 Plankton has never been a threat. Krabs is always able to thwart his plans with little effort. Why would he need to drive him to suicide? Besides, they were once best friends.

Score: 1/10
 
People clearly need to calm the heck down about dark humor in a kids show... if I had a kids show, would I be horrible if I wanted to add a suicide joke? :naughty: ::dolphin noise:: no, because even I know myself not to confuse a cartoon with real life, and I know while suicide is no laughing matter, I don't think it's wrong using a joke or two. Doesn't matter if it failed or not.

So again, stop with the kids show card, it's not working.
 
President Squidward said:
People clearly need to calm the heck down about dark humor in a kids show... if I had a kids show, would I be horrible if I wanted to add a suicide joke? :naughty: ::dolphin noise:: no, because even I know myself not to confuse a cartoon with real life, and I know while suicide is no laughing matter, I don't think it's wrong using a joke or two. Doesn't matter if it failed or not.

So again, stop with the kids show card, it's not working.
Click to expand...
This episode isn't awful because of a dark suicide joke but because of a pathetic, incorrectly placed, and annoying abusive suicide "joke".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top