This episode was pretty bad. Let me start with: PATRICK PATRICK PATRICK! Why do you even exist in this ep? This really exemplifies what post-movie-haters say is wrong about Patrick: he's oxygen-suckingly dumb and (deliberately) mean-spirited.
It starts out okay, with SB getting ready in the bathroom, then drying himself with a wringer (we've never actually seen this thing before, but I let it slide; new ideas are scarce). Suddenly, he slips on soap, rockets around the room and gets "Stuck in the Wringer". Next, Patrick barges in to collect his rubber duck, oblivious to SB's plight. When SB screams that he's stuck loud enough to penetrate Patrick's squeaky brain, Patrick takes out "Forever Glue", GLUES Spongebob to the wringer, and cheerfully says, "There you go buddy; now you're stuck forever!"
What the ::dolphin noise::? How could even Patrick be this stupid and oblivious? It wasn't funny, didn't make any sense, and felt like an incredibly cheap way to jump-start the plot.
What exactly is this plot? Well, Spongebob tries to get through work with him stuck in his wringer, using his tongue to maneuver his spatula and his holes to add the mustard. Then when Squidward pops his head in to mock his new outfit, the mustard squirts him in the face, burning off his eyes. Then SB jumps on top of him in panic. As much as I like SquidBob, that was gross and unnecessary.
Finally after nearly destroying the Krusty Krab, Mr. Krabs kicks him out (which I did appreciate as an act of mercy, since he did force head-injury baby Squidward to man the register) telling him he's helped enough already. SB sobs, so Patrick tries to cheer him up, telling him crying doesn't solve anyone's problems and inviting him to go have ice cream with him.
Now THIS is the part of the episode that makes me angry. After finding he's unable to even eat ice cream due to the wringer (uh, maybe ice cream is different underwater, but wouldn't it melt in his mouth before it got to his stomach?), Spongebob gets taken to the carnival by Patrick. They go through sequence of carnival games/rides (ie, arrows knocking over the can) that Spongebob can't do because his arms are pinned (Patrick is oblivious to his injuries and enjoys himself). Spongebob rightfully yells at him for ruining his day, but Patrick protests he was only trying to help. Well, if you buy his moment of reality-warping idiocy that was the Forever Glue scene, it could be plausible (with the ice cream), but it came off as incredibly mean-spirited considering Spongebob was obviously not enjoying himself. We get a nice callback to the scene at the Krusty Krab with Spongebob telling Patrick he's helped him enough already, but the townspeople surround the injured SB and scold him for being a jerk to Patrick.
WHAT? So SB has been put through the wringer (badumtish) the whole day; he got injured in his bathroom, stuck to something that won't let him use his arms, do the job he loves, or even eat solid food while Patrick plays the ignorant douchebag, and when he finally blows his top, he's the one that gets reprimanded by the townspeople? That's not fair.
I like coming up with wacky theories, so I'm going to say that sometime during Season 6 Plankton tried invent a radio frequency device to mind-control everyone in Bikini Bottom, but he's only found out the wavelengths for "Heartless Jerks" and "Angry Mob", since those were the two predominant frames of mind they'd been in for 1.5 seasons. Weird theories aside, that gag got old fast.
So anyway, Patrick grows a heart by recognizing that he shouldn't stay away from his friend who he hasn't seen in two days. He breaks down the door only to find an insane, washed-up Spongebob by the TV hearing voices. He cries and somehow the apparently permanent Forever Glue washes off with tears (so it comes off with sadness? That's the only explanation I can think of, considering they're already surrounded by saltwater.) The two of them cry off the convenient plot device...uh, glue, and Spongebob delivers the "heartwarming" moral that's the rotten cherry on top of a poor episode:
"I guess crying really /does/ solve your problems after all. DAHAHAHA!"
Okay, so I wasn't as offended by this as some people seemed to be, and it was a continuity nod to Patrick's pep-talk midway through. I understand that it's a spoof Aesop; some other episodes tell us things that aren't necessarily good life lessons; Chocolate with Nuts has the rather nasty message that if you make ridiculous claims to people desperate enough to believe them, you can be a success. It's all in the sake of comedy. But not only was this incredibly blatant, it opened up a huge plot hole (it's not like they believed Squidward, who invented Forever Glue as a way to leave him alone), and the humor in the episode did not make up for it. It came off as more ridiculous than funny to me, although I assume absurdist humor was what the writers was going for.
I'll admit to laughing at Funny Pants and Squid Baby a few times, but Stuck in the Wringer just got worse as the episode went on (although not at the extreme level of Squid Baby). 1.75/10 for the okay beginning and sense of continuity, but Patrick and the townspeople (plus the gross put with Squidward) kept this from being a consistently "meh" episode. Try again, Zeus the Guitar Lord!
