Dang, two Plankton episodes in a row? Sure, why not. I actually don’t remember very much about “Plankton’s Old Chum”. Thinking of this episode prior to rewatching, I keep thinking of “The Hankering”. I don’t think that means this episode is forgettable necessarily. I am now reviewing a season I’m less familiar with, even if I have watched all the episodes within.
It’s always good when an episode begins by setting off the
gorgeous background alert. The actual plot of the episode begins with Plankton and Karen watching the chum go bad right on time. Karen tells Plankton to get rid of the old chum, and from here is where I remember the details of this episode. Just needed a little help to get there. It’s also at this point that the general plot of the episode becomes clear, and it’s easy to predict that we might get something similar to “Greasy Buffoons”, “Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful”, or “Sanitation Insanity”.
Plankton goes to dump his chum, but he finds that his normal spot is full. This is when we get the first of many great jokes in this episode, the evil painting lessons. Yeah, this episode’s got some really great humor going on. It reminds me of what I said about “The Ballad of Filthy Muck”. Kind of. It’s true that this episode has that scaled-back vibe, but the jokes in this one were wittier and more of the type where you have to wait a second for the punchline. Particularly with my absolute favorite joke of the episode, Gary
stealing the car. That’s legit one of my favorite jokes in this show period.
Anyway, Plankton keeps finding that all of his normal spots are full. So he decides to try dumping in the snail park, which is how he gets entangled with SpongeBob (and Gary for a moment). Plankton tricks SpongeBob into thinking the chum he’s dumping is “new chum”, and that he has to wait to eat it until “Chum Day”, which he’ll tell SpongeBob about as long as he helps Plankton hide all the “gifts”. SpongeBob’s gullibility is adorable. Because SpongeBob is under the impression these are gifts and not, you know, a health hazard, SpongeBob first takes the chum to Mr. Krabs’ house, and Plankton is all to eager to pump the chum into his place. I love the Nutcracker music playing in this part. Maybe I should start acting like this episode is a Christmas episode…better than “Goons on the Moon”. SpongeBob and Plankton take the chum all around town. And when morning comes, SpongeBob and Plankton only have one last little bit of chum to hide, which SpongeBob says is for Plankton, so he goes off to hide it while Plankton heads back to the Chum Bucket.
With us being only 6 minutes into the episode, I just have to wonder where the episode will go next. Plankton thinks he’s gotten away with this scot-free, which as we all know, are famous last words. But comeuppance (or chum-uppance) won’t happen for a little bit. First, we’ve got SpongeBob literally causing Chum Day, with old chum getting all over Bikini Bottom like snow. And the townspeople ain’t happy. I like how Patrick is randomly a part of this angry mob, and the joke about his smarts was pretty funny. SpongeBob comes just in time to stop Plankton from getting severely beat up, spreading good tidings as he conflates Chum Day and Christmas again. But I guess Bikini Bottom has decided to embrace the holiday, as the mayor announces Chum Day is real.
After a hilarious reference to (I think)
A Christmas Carol, Squidward realizes that chum is literally falling from the sky. Cuz yeah, he’s in this episode now. At least for a funny joke. Because then we’re back to Plankton, who decides to declare loudly that he invented Chum Day, since everyone seems to love it. As you might imagine, this backfires on him spectacularly when the health inspector shows up and fines him 1 billion dollars…unless he eats all the chum. And then I love how SpongeBob shows up and starts spouting philosophical nonsense, just to get pelted with chum. Several days later, poor Plankton has eaten every last dollop of old chum in Bikini Bottom. Well, guess he won’t be engaging in illegal dumping again, huh?
“Plankton’s Old Chum” was another perfectly fine and enjoyable episode. I think that some of the Chum Day stuff did end up detracting from the episode slightly, which kinda made the episode lose some points with me…but not enough to lose the “wow” factor! I don’t know, there’s something about this episode that feels more…mature? Than other episodes of this show. I don’t know what other word to use to describe it.
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.1/10
