76b. Hocus Pocus

I really like it, but that's probably because this and The Thing were the first episodes I had ever seen.
 
Season: 4

Episode: Hocus Pocus

This episode was pretty good. The plot was decent. There were some funny jokes. 7.5/10
 
This is a weakish and cheesy episode, but I don't mind it too much.

7/10
 
This reminds me of "The Inmates of Summer" Because it's cheesy in the best way possible, the conflict and ending need work but it's solid otherwise.

7.5/10
 
This episode is great..but it has a really dark humour, peoplewith no humour will give it 0-3 ... But anyways, I liked this episode, it has plenty of funny quotes (or at least for me), my favourite moment was when SpongeBob put the cherry ice-cream right infont of ''Squidward'', the ending was funny as well...at least, Squidward did not regret it :P . 9/10
 
This episode is just okay. As a lot of people pointed out, this episode is pretty cheesy and nothing special, and I agree. However, there were some things I did like (Mainly the pistachio joke, though I feel like I liked mostly for reminding me of the Disney character Willie the Giant frequently mispronouncing pistachio instead of the actual scene itself), so I consider it okay.

6.5/10
 
This episode was fairly average in my opinion. It's not as bad as its sister episode, but it's not amazing either. And the plot of Squidward "transforming" into ice cream wasn't that interesting.

7/10
 
Meh, the episode is ok, the only thing i like is that SpongeBob believes that he turned into an Ice Cream, that shows how guilable or naive SpongeBob can be at times 7/10.
 
Next to "Wishing You Well", this episode is EASILY the most overrated Season 4 episode IMO. I don't get why so many people enjoy it. It's such a stupid one and pointless one, especially because we KNOW from the start that SpongeBob did not actually turn Squidward into an ice cream cone! Plus a lot of it is just SpongeBob worrying, Patrick also being stupid, and of course there's that annoying scene with the kid whining about his ice cream and tossing it out, which creates this stupid plot. This episode is my 6th worst of Season 4, and only just barely got beat out by "Rule of Dumb" for taking the 5th spot on my bottom 5. It is not the worst thing out there, nor is it even really that close, but it is still a bad episode that I personally don't believe deserves all the warm reception it gets.

3.4/10
 
This is a pretty weak episode. It's not the worst, but it's far from the best. The overall plot doesn't make much sense, and the twist ending was revealed too early. I would have liked it more if that wasn't the case.

Ranking so far:
1. Dunces and Dragons (A+)
2. Mrs. Puff, You're Fired (A+)
3. Krusty Towers (A+)
4. The Lost Mattress (A)
5. Fear of a Krabby Patty (A)
6. Bummer Vacation (A)
7. Skill Crane (A)
8. Wishing You Well (A)
9. Patrick SmartPants (A)
10. Have You Seen This Snail? (A)
11. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture (B)
12. Ghost Host (B)
13. Once Bitten (B)
14. Krabs vs. Plankton (B)
15. Chimps Ahoy (B)
16. Selling Out (B)
17. Squidtastic Voyage (B)
18. New Leaf (B)
19. That's No Lady (C)
20. Enemy In-Law (C)
21. Shell of a Man (C)
22. Whale of a Birthday (C)
23. SquidBob TentaclePants (C)
24. Hocus Pocus (D)
25. Funny Pants (D)
26. Karate Island (D)
27. Good Neighbors (E)
28. Wigstruck (E)
29. The Thing (F)
30. All That Glitters (F)
 
It's alright. There are some funny jokes and the plot is interesting, but I think Spongebob is just a bit too stupid here. Him being stupid is pretty much the driving force of the plot too, so, not a big fan of that. The episode is harmless overall, but I think some aspects could've been more finely tuned.

Average episode (6/10)

1. Dunces and Dragons (10)
2. Krusty Towers (10)
3. Have You Seen This Snail? (9)
4. Wishing You Well (9)
5. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture (8)
6. Fear of a Krabby Patty (8)
7. Krabs vs. Plankton (8)
8. Patrick Smartpants (8)
9. Selling Out (8)
10. Shell of a Man (7)
11. The Lost Mattress (7)
12. Mrs. Puff, You're Fired (7)
13. Squidtastic Voyage (7)
14. Karate Island (7)
15. Bummer Vacation (7)
16. Enemy-In-Law (7)
17. Skill Crane (7)
18. That's No Lady (7)
19. Chimps Ahoy (6)
20. Funny Pants (6)
21. Hocus Pocus (6)
22. Once Bitten (6)
23. Whale of a Birthday (6)
24. Squidbob Tentaclepants (5)
25. New Leaf (5)
26. Ghost Host (5)
27. Wigstruck (5)
28. Good Neighbors (4)
29. The Thing (4)
30. All That Glitters (3)
 
I've seen this plot better executed in other shows such as Playhouse Disney's "My Friends Tigger & Pooh"
 
This is a very average episode. Nothing much about it stands out as funny or interesting. I did enjoy the whole scene of Spongebob making popcorn, as well as the concept of Spongebob becoming a magician, but I think it could've been done way better.
 
Meh thats all i can say. This episode was just meh. Every joke in it wasnt very funny. But at least the plot was pretty interesting. And the ending was the right time where i actually managed to laugh.

Rating: Okay Episode

Rankings:
Patrick SmartPants (Perfect)
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI The Motion Picture (Perfect)
Bummer Vacation (Amazing!)
Wishing You Well (Amazing!)
Krusty Towers (Amazing!)
Dunces and Dragons (Amazing!)
Once Bitten (Great)
Enemy In-Law (Great)
Wigstruck (Great)
Krabs Vs. Plankton (Great)
Have you Seen this Snail? (Great)
Shell of a Man (Great)
The Thing (Great)
Selling Out (Great)
That's No Lady (Great)
Squidtastic Voyage (Great)
Chimps Ahoy (Great)
Karate Island (Great)
SquidBob TentaclePants (Great)
Whale of a Birthday (Great)
Hocus Pocus (Okay)
The Lost Mattress (Okay)
Funny Pants (Meh)
Skill Crane (Meh)
Mrs. Puff Your'e Fired (Bad)
Fear of a Krabby Patty (bad)
New Leaf (Bad)
Ghost Host (Bad)
Good Neighbors (Terrible)
All That Glitters (Terrible)
 
Next up, we've got "Hocus Pocus"! This episode is very...unremarkable and quite forgettable. The only reason I remember this episode, other than the zone of my brain dedicated entirely to SpongeBob SquarePants (I'm vibrating in my seat trying not to explain what was wrong about what I just said...brains don't have zones like that ahhhhh I'm trying not to go on a tangent), is because of the Squidward "turning" into ice cream thing. And as it turns out, that's the majority of this episode, so that works nicely for me.

Okay, so, what's the issue with this episode? My answer: it's just boring.

The beginning of this episode begins perfectly fine. Nothing very funny, but I liked the bit with SpongeBob and the popcorn, and the extreme amount of popcorn was visually interesting. And my boy Gary was in there so you know I was a fan of that. I also thought the fact that there was a show called "Bikini Bottom Car Wash" was interesting and a nice little bit of worldbuilding. However, from here things start getting...bland. The commercial is just...fine. I did like the "platitudinous" bit. This is why researchers find more vocab words in this show lol. And the mail box part was a nice little visual gag.

See, here's how you know this episode is dull and had so little...zest put into it. The "4 to 6 weeks later" title card is literally probably the worst title card I've seen in this show. Definitely the worst at this point, but I can't think of any bad ones after this, so it could definitely be one of the worst in the show. Like just look at this thing. Where's the effort? Where's the visual interest? And that's just what this episode feels like.

SpongeBob getting the magic kit is done with no zeal. His banter with Squidward can hardly be called that because there's no cleverness, no wit, no energy. It's just boring. I did like that face Squidward made when he's forced to take part in SpongeBob's magic activities. But I feel as tired as Squidward at this point, and we're only a couple minutes into this episode. That's not good. Now we do get a bit of energy once Squidward gets the heck out of dodge, I liked his desperation to get out of there, and then later with Tom and his son with a great representation of what it's like to deal with little kids sometimes.

And then the real plot finally gets kickstarted with SpongeBob believing he turned Squidward into ice cream, and...it's boring. It's still boring. It's still so freaking boring. SpongeBob trying to change Squidward back is painfully uninteresting. And then the montage of SpongeBob spending time with ice cream Squidward...YAWN. And then of course the inevitable happens with the ice cream beginning to melt, and SpongeBob panicking and running it straight to the freezer. But even these dramatics feel uninspired. Thankfully, Patrick enters the episode at this point, and things start looking upwards for this episode. The part where he starts to lick the Squidward ice cream is preceded by a bit of a boring interaction, but once we get to the licking we finally see some energized and actually entertaining dramatics on the part of SpongeBob. I don't know what took so long, but I'm glad we're finally here. Honestly, this scene feels like a far less frustrating (considering it's not frustrating at all) version of what happens in "Wet Painters" with the dollar bill. Now of course in every other aspect that episode is superior, but I still think this is an apt comparison. I especially liked once SpongeBob starts freaking out for real, like this is what I've been waiting for!

From here, SpongeBob and Patrick seek out Mister Magic, which is probably what SpongeBob should have done in the first place, but I don't really have an issue with SpongeBob making a dumb decision like that. But anyway, this scene looks like it's gonna be entertaining...til it isn't. Like I just feel like the entire reveal that everything was a sham could've been done with far more zest and humor. As it is, the reveal was just far too casual and dull, like nearly everything else in this episode. Unremarkable. Now I will say that the ending of this scene is pretty decent, with SpongeBob doing my favorite thing getting upset and scolding the businessman, and I liked how it ended with SpongeBob and Patrick having security called on them. But that nice bit of entertainment is not enough to save this episode. I will say that from here, the episode ends nicely, particularly once Squidward returns. I thought it was funny (in the loosest sense of the word) that Squidward returned just to immediately run away again. And then SpongeBob turning Patrick into mayonnaise was nice.

I think you all have gathered how I feel about "Hocus Pocus" now. Boring, uninspired, dull. This episode could have been so much more. The plot was not that entertaining in itself, but with some real attempts at jokes and better visual gags, this episode could've at least been in my "Good" tier, if not higher depending on the quality of said jokes. I also think that even though Squidward and Patrick were in this episode, neither did much of any import, other than a decent joke from Patrick. Squidward's role is more understandable given this episode's plot, but Patrick's is not. All in all, this episode is just an uninteresting venture, one that I don't care enough to rewatch purposefully, but if it's already on the TV or something I won't turn away. It's good background noise, something an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants should never be, at least if it wants to be anywhere near my top 4 tiers. That's why this episode is going into "Mediocre". It just barely makes it out of (barely) "Tolerable" because it doesn't actually make me feel anything, so I can't justify putting it down there with episodes that make me feel annoyed or worse. But it similarly barely has any enjoyable aspects.

Episode Tier: Mediocre
Episode Score: 5/10
 
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