I’m both surprised and not that it took this long for a SpongeBob SquarePants episode to be about this specific topic. The topic in question being the lighthouse of Mrs. Puff’s Boating School. I’m surprised in that the lighthouse has, of course, been a part of the show since “Boating School”, and even in that episode SpongeBob specifically crashed a boat into it, so there’s always been some focus on this visually salient piece of the boating school atmosphere. However, I’m not surprised because of that very reason. It really is just recently that the show pays any attention to these kind of background details. It’s just one of the characteristics of the newer eras (though right now I do have 9B-11 being one era, with maybe season 12 being a part of it, depends on what I think when I’m done reviewing it. right now, though, I think season 12 is the beginning of a different era. But I’ll just keep it at that).
At this point, I feel like I’ve been trained like one of Pavlov’s dogs, because why is it that whenever I see SpongeBob driving a boat, I’m already primed to laugh? The show itself knows that there’s no point in even allowing us to believe SpongeBob will be able to pass his test for even a second, so we get to sit in jokes such as these where Mrs. Puff just knows they’re gonna crash. And of course, when Mrs. Puff is happy that they don’t crash, the boat moves forward just a smidge, causing a similar moment to “Teacher’s Pests”. Except instead of a huge explosion, what happens is that all the junk inside the boating school lighthouse comes careening out of the structure.
Mrs. Puff asks SpongeBob to clean up the lighthouse while she relaxes to some metal music…hey, she’s just like me! She would’ve been even more like me if she sat there calmly while the metal was blaring. God, that reminds me of (tangent alert) when I was working at this job last summer and I was washing dishes, playing my music on the speaker, and the music was of course some screamo stuff, and one of my coworkers was like “I’m concerned for you” LMAO. Ah good times, good times. Okay, tangent alert over. SpongeBob gets straight to work on cleaning the mess, which of course has a variety of easter eggs in it. Enough that I won’t be pointing them out. This section is very visually fun to watch, and I like that. People complain about exaggerated expressions too much, I truly don’t care as long as the episode is visually entertaining.
After getting through all the junk with no problem, SpongeBob works on actually cleaning the lighthouse so that it sparkles. It’s interesting seeing SpongeBob clean a place that isn’t his house or his job lol, now that I think about it. SpongeBob gets the entire lighthouse clean, except for the lantern. And what do you know, once he approaches the door, he starts hearing some “creepy” noises coming from inside (I adored the toaster cutaway gag by the way. I love when this show does cutaways, they’re rare enough that they’re typically a real treat)…oh what could it be? It couldn’t perhaps be the character named in the title, could it? Well, upon being scared by the character we still haven’t seen yet, SpongeBob ends up undoing all his progress with the trash. Well, that was a little unnecessary.
Finally, we meet the character who’s been scaring SpongeBob so…a very affectionate snail that SpongeBob names Louie. Louie ends up being a bit too clingy, distracting SpongeBob while he tries to clean. It’s funny seeing him being quite the little troublemaker. Also, what’s going on with the cutaway gags this episode? This one with the brain isn’t quite a cutaway gag, but it’s closer to one than we normally see from this show. It’s pretty fun watching SpongeBob go back and forth with this snail. It reminds me a lot of “Gary Takes A Bath”. Louie ends up attacking SpongeBob, which is kind of an unnecessary switch?? Why is Louie attacking SpongeBob now.
Anyway, while Louie and SpongeBob fight, they end up accidentally turning the lighthouse on, which projects their shadows onto various places in Bikini Bottom, causing people to start freaking out. Which, sidenote, I have got to know why Bubble Bass, Larry, and a random incidental are just hanging out on the side of the road. Are they waiting in line for the store? Or are they literally hanging out?? Anywho, SpongeBob and Louie’s fighting ends up causing the entire lighthouse to fall over and start rolling into Bikini Bottom. Bubble Bass, Larry, and the incidental run away, but seems Bubble Bass got his education in running from the Prometheus School of Running Away From Things (I don’t like CinemaSins, but that one joke has always been funny to me).
It’s been too long since we’ve seen Bikini Bottom get destroyed like this, so I’m pleased. Love a good chaotic episode. The lighthouse starts rolling towards the Krusty Krab, much to the dismay of both SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs. I love how Mr. Krabs tries to challenge the lighthouse for like two seconds before he gets scared. SpongeBob ends up getting the lighthouse to roll the other way, but it just ends up going up a hill and coming right back. Well…at least he tried. The speed with which the lighthouse comes back and destroys the Krusty Krab is funny to me. This episode has great comedic timing!
Eventually the lighthouse lands right back in Mrs. Puff’s Boating School, even being escorted by a boat. And Mrs. Puff is none the wiser. And then SpongeBob learns that Louie was actually trying to protect their little snail babies. Well, the sudden change in attitude makes a lot more sense now. I’ll retract my statement from earlier then. Anyway, Mrs. Puff is impressed that SpongeBob managed to clean the lighthouse with no problems…that she knows of. And she’ll get to knowing very quick, as as soon as SpongeBob leaves, some of the townspeople (not a whole mob, for once) show up at her door complaining. And why deal with them, when you can listen to metal music? I understand completely, Mrs. Puff, I do.
“Lighthouse Louie” was a pretty good episode. I think my only real “complaint” was that it took a bit long to get to the character who this episode is named after, but I’m perfectly fine with the pace of this episode as is. I don’t know, I’m trying to figure out if there’s anything I don’t like, because I just have this feeling sitting here reviewing this, that there was something I didn’t vibe with, but I’ve really got nothing for y’all. But I’ll honor my feeling by not putting this episode in Amazing. But it was quite good.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.9/10
