“There’s a Sponge in My Soup” is an episode that, looking back on it now, I think I’ve always regarded similarly to the ways I regard “The Incredible Shrinking Sponge” and “House Worming” now. In other words, I never much liked it. And considering the way I received those two episodes just last month, I don’t really think this is going to change very much. But who knows, perhaps this rewatch will do something for me.
We start off with a decent atmospheric shot of the Krusty Krab. Which reminds me, I haven’t had a gorgeous background alert in a while. This first shot doesn’t count as one of those for me, even if it is well-crafted, as all SpongeBob SquarePants backgrounds are (I continue to be of the opinion that the background art in this show is insanely underrated, possibly because crew members never post it anywhere lol. Like I remember when Steven Universe was still airing, they’d put those backgrounds everywhere). Anyway, on this cold winter day, Mr. Krabs decides that the Krusty Krab is gonna sell a Krabby Soup, with ingredients that give the Nasty Patty a run for its money. Also, since I already went on a tangent about art, I just wanted to point out that the are style in this scene is really good. Mr. Krabs’ response to SpongeBob’s allegations about getting the ingredients from the trash is really funny too, some clever humor utilizing Krabs’ skin-flintness.
This episode definitely stands out because of its focus on hippies. Because Mr. Krabs has something against hippies. Something big. Considering that Mr. Krabs is at times a pirate but at other times (such as this episode) a navyman, and hippies are, you know, the sanitized mascots of the 70s counterculture movements…yeah I can see where that animosity might come from. Mr. Krabs confronts the hippies, and predictably fails at getting them to leave his property. In fact, they go inside. I’m torn between finding the hippies annoying and liking what they represent—disdain for capitalist authority. Nah, but really I mostly find them annoying lol. Not to the level as the worms in “House Worming”, at least not yet. This episode has already improved upon that one though by making the hippies intelligible, and giving them at least visually interesting designs. Now if the episode can make them likable, we’ll be golden!
Well, the hippies decide to go into the soup for no reason. Yeah, I’m at a loss lol. Are they supposed to be stupid or…this feels extremely forced in my opinion, which brings us right back to the “House Worming” comparisons. As SpongeBob makes the soup, the hippies keep eating everything he puts in it. Which makes them annoying to me. Great. I really didn’t want us to have to go there, but okay. I feel like characters become annoying to me particularly when they have audacity. And these hippies have it in droves. At least SpongeBob arguing with the soup was funny. As customers try to enjoy their soup, they are interrupted by the surprise guests in their dishes.
Finally, Mr. Krabs realizes that the hippies are in the soup. However, we’re only 4 minutes into the episode, and I feel like 7 have passed. I am worried. The hippies continue to be annoying and they start co-opting protest language to protest leaving the soup. Oh I can feel the soapbox in me now, but I will refrain. Anyway, Mr. Krabs refuses to dump the soup out because he doesn’t want to lose money, so he decides to try a variety of ways to lure them out. None of them make me laugh for one reason and one reason only: I don’t find the hippies funny. And it’s sad, because this show has had obviously stoned characters that I liked before, such as Twitch and the gang from “SpongeBob vs. The Big One”. So why do these hippies fail so?
I get marginally interested again when SpongeBob gets converted into a flower child, and a little more so when Patrick suddenly appears in this episode for a little bit. But then I really get interested when SpongeBob exits the soup for a Krabby Patty, and finds an abandoned Krusty Krab. The atmosphere is great in this segment. He finds a hippie Mr. Krabs, which is very funny. Also, I must say I was shocked that the episode actually name dropped capitalism…that’s my gimmick! Anyway, SpongeBob is super bummed about the Krusty Krab being closed, which only makes the twist more obvious, which is that Mr. Krabs is acting. And it seems like he finally came up with a solution to the hippie problem…put them in Squidward’s bathtub! …wait what?
“There’s a Sponge in my Soup” was…alright. This episode’s got some really good jokes in it, despite all the things I don’t like here. Like the bit with Mr. Krabs just appearing in Squidward’s shirt, and Squidward asking if anyone else was in there, that was great and hilarious. And there’s the jokes I already detailed earlier too. But these jokes weren’t the whole episode, and they could not save the episode from some of its worse qualities, namely the dawdling middle and the unlikability of the hippies. But the episode isn’t as bad as previously thought either.
Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score: 6.2/10
