Popeye's Top 30 Worst SpongeBob Episodes Ever (with some honorable mentions)

I hate The Play's The Thing for all the reasons you've mentioned but more. I hate it cause I have sentimental feelings towards Culture Shock.
 
Also a great point I forgot to bring up. This episode kinda does resemble "Culture Shock" in many ways but without any of the fun cel animation or wacky gags. Making something too serious in a show like this kills the comedy completely. The majority of the remakes in the post movie era seem to have the same problem for me.
 
I just gotta kill this piece of crap with fire, so here's the next episode on the countdown! Things are quickly getting much worse as I begin to delve into the Top 25, with the plots getting even stupider and yeah it's gonna be a bumpier ride from here on out.

24.
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Written by Aaron Springer and Steven Banks

Storyboards: Aaron Springer

SBMania Rating: 3.4

This episode makes me want to cry even a couple of seconds in. You know why? You'll never believe who wrote and storyboarded this highly lame and highly stupid idea for an episode. Aaron Springer of all ::dolphin noise::ing people!!!!!!!!! WHY?????????????????????? Out of everyone working on this show, he's one of those guys with the most amount of experience in animation and on the show itself as well as doing a lot of other cool stuff with his career (the other people would be Vincent Waller and Paul Tibbitt themselves and yeah, I get the same feeling I get when I see their names slapped onto this Saturday Morning cartoon kind of crap because they've also done much better before IMHO). Utter face palm already. I don't even know if I can even talk about this episode without wanting to smash my computer out of rage.

I just had to get that out of the way because it's only going to get even more mind boggling from here as to how someone like that could have really played a part in episodes like these at all. Anyway, this whole pointless episode is a non event. It starts out with SpongeBob getting out of bed and stubbing his toe and then crying over it. No wit, no clever gags, nothing because the plot itself is already really uninspired and lame and with a talent like Aaron on board, I don't think it's that surprising that even he couldn't really do much to make this plotline from hell entertaining or funny and personally, I doubt someone of his caliber would have enjoyed doing this. It feels like something out of a bad 70s or 80s Saturday morning cartoon in all honesty rather than something a cartoonist like him could come up with. Just look at his Perriwinkle shorts, Cal Arts student films, or his Korgoth of Barbaria pilot to see how much of an incredible talent he really is and you wouldn't believe the same guy also storyboarded this piece of garbage.

I also really HATE that noise that SpongeBob makes when he cries. It's so whiny, overdone and high pitched. I feel so bad for Tom Kenny because it must really put a strain on his vocal cords trying to make SpongeBob sound like that. I always figured it would be easier for him to have continued voicing the character with a lower pitched voice like in the earlier seasons. The biggest thing that bothers me is that they never explain why SpongeBob's crying so ::dolphin noise:: much. He usually doesn't cry this much at all and not even "SpongeBob You're Fired" had him cry like that. I know people really hate that episode but at least he didn't do it the entire episode. There's also a really missed opportunity during that scene where Squidward shows SpongeBob a video montage of all the times that he's cried before to have used clips from past episodes. Come on. I'm shaking my head here. It's no wonder a lot of people have made rants about SpongeBob on YouTube among other things. It's childish rubbish like this that made them stop watching the show.

The rest of the episode......ugh.....do I even have to go into how stupid this is? I really should just stop here but the episode becomes even more boring when it devotes all of its time to making the plot as emotional as possible and not in a good way. Completely devoid of any humor or substance and oh yeah, Squidward loses the bet he made and has to stay over at SpongeBob's house for a sleepover while crying too. What a waste. Really. It shouldn't even exist.
 
I Freaking Hate A Day Without Tears A Classic Season 7 Episode...
 
You should've killed A Day Without Tears with lightning.

Because tears are water.

Back to the point though. This episode is SERIOUSLY annoying and I never liked it. I think Aaron Springer did Band Geeks or something like that. There are plenty of other episodes that had Spongebob cry a little, but not too much. Kenny the Cat and Sand Castles in the Sand are examples. Plus he cries for a reason. In Kenny the Cat he cries because his hero turns out to be a fraud, and then makes up the crying for a funny moment - "I might get DEPRESSED." In SCITS, he cries because he thinks he's in the middle of nowhere and the Bottomites abandoned him. That's reasonable too. (Although then they realize they are on the beach which makes it a little less funny but whatever.) ADWT fails horribly at this and makes Spongebob cry for HALF THE *dolphin noise* EPISODE. I mean, he broke his butt in another episode (I Had an Accident) and didn't even cry, so why should he be crying about something stupid like that?
 
I still don't understand how the writers could possibly think that such concept had any potential.
 
SpongeRoadie UK said:
I still don't understand how the writers could possibly think that such concept had any potential.
Click to expand...
What makes me feel a little bit better is that Aaron himself didn't write the outline for this story but even on paper, this was a bad idea from the get go. Almost like they wanted to pander more towards kids with this. Sort of feels like a network decision to me.

I recently saw some tweets from Casey Alexander and Dani Michaeli about "Atlantis SquarePantis" and they said publicly that Nick had always wanted a special where the characters went to Atlantis and originally Dani's premise for that one was just gonna be a simple SpongeBob and Patrick kind of story and we all know how watered down that episode turned out in the process (I'm gonna assume execs really had a lot to do with it). Maybe the same thing happened here.

I'm going to have the next episode up really soon. I'm still trying to decide which one I wanna do but I already have a good idea of what will make the cut for the Top 20. Also there are some episodes I've heard about that people really don't like that I wanna watch to see if I can tear those apart.
 
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Written by Casey Alexander, Chris Mitchell and Steven Banks

Storyboards: Casey Alexander and Chris Mitchell

SBMania Rating: 4.6

Oh boy! This episode is really really a mess in every sense of the word. It's like "Shuffleboarding's" ancestor and you'll see why when I explain what I mean by that. I almost thought this was a Season 6 episode rather than anything from Season 5. I mean this could have been a typical, standard plot where a character has trouble going to bed and they have to find ways to fall asleep. That would have been nice and simple though the premise has been done a lot in cartoons before. I think that's one of the reasons why I can actually enjoy a lot of "inSPONGEniac" despite how I didn't like the ending for that episode and I can see why some people really don't like nightmare sequences like the one that was used in that episode. At least that episode had a relatively more coherent story structure and creativity than this poor excuse for an episode ever had.

Already I see a major problem with this episode. I don't remember SpongeBob ever being afraid of lights so much like he is here. They didn't really set up this premise well enough or provide enough context for it to even make sense and on top of that, this episode gets really annoying and unfunny really quickly because SpongeBob won't shut up and he keeps screaming whenever the lights are turned off. It brings back memories of how I didn't like "Funny Pants" that much when it first came out. Repeating a joke like this only kills the comedy and really makes it annoying for the audience to bear. I would really hope that the people working on the show or who have worked on the show either already knew that and were forced to drag gags like these out too long for some reason.

This episode also has one of the earliest instances of one of those grotesque close ups of SpongeBob. The other cases I know about would be "Whatever Happened to SpongeBob" (haven't seen it in a long while) and "SpongeBob, You're Fired." If you really hate gross looking close ups, then you're probably not going to wanna watch this episode among many other reasons.


This episode becomes even more irritating when SpongeBob screams even louder that it's dark, even in of the pots! This is really overdoing and overplaying SpongeBob's fear of the dark and this episode is becoming worse and worse by the second though there is a cool effect where you can see some guy's head in the freezer that scares SpongeBob some more (apparently a lot of people hate this part the most because of how freaky it is). I'll give them that but it still doesn't change any of what I've said so far. I will stand by my opinion of this episode.

SpongeBob goes to the Barg N' Mart to buy a new night light thanks to Mr. Krabs's suggestion and the episode becomes even more stupid and ridiculous from here on out. He keeps rushing to the store to buy night lights because he keeps seeing dark places even though those are clearly places where he could easily turn the lights on in each of the rooms. Patrick notices that SpongeBob's pineapple has been lit and he goes over to see if he's throwing a party without him and moves his rock in literally. There's so much light that somehow some of it reflects right into Squidward's window and causes his eyes to catch fire and he angrily tells the two idiots off and rightfully so.

SpongeBob and Patrick then get the idea of getting even more night lights to fight off the "creepy creatures" that they are imagining in their heads. They even carry a whole lighthouse back to the pineapple and again, it SOMEHOW makes the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy signal. UGH. This episode just keeps making less and less sense as it goes on and not to mention that they are trying to do too many things at once with this episode. It almost feels like they just put like two or three episode premises and combined them into one possibly to meet a deadline. Who knows but it really makes this episode suck a lot for me. They didn't even bother to just give this episode a Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy title since before, they would usually do that if they had a major appearance in an episode. If you wanna know what the worst episodes with those two are, pretty much avoid most of the ones that don't have MM and BB in the title.

Here's another big slap in the face. One of Mermaid Man's enemies suddenly appears out of nowhere behind the signal. It turns out it's a bad guy that he's been searching for around 57 years for. Okay????????????? They never even established that character at all in the episode or anywhere else prior to this point so it just comes across like they are still trying to cram way too much in this episode making it as confusing as possible and what's worse is how lame the villain is! He's like a really small flying moth creature that's like half of Mermaid Man's size. WTF??????!!!!!! WHY?????????????????? Why couldn't it have been at least a cooler villain, especially when you have Mark Hamill as one of the guest stars in this episode. I mean really? That right there really really annoys me and it's the worst part about this.




The ending is just more stuff that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever even in the SpongeBob universe. Patrick somehow breaks all cartoon logic and runs towards the sun! I mean literally!!!!!! He RUNS towards the sun and its as if he's never seen it before. Wow........I have no words for that. You have a Season 1 guy credited for writing this episode and a guy who worked on writing for Jimmy Neutron. You'd think with that kind of experience, they would have been able to see all the organizational problems that this episode had and correct those kinds of story structure problems. Maybe the episode would have at least been a little bit better if they had taken the time to do that. Perhaps they were in a rush when they were making it. Either way, I really don't like this episode and I know a lot of other people don't either and I hope my explanation helped to emphasize why.
 
Night Light is a guilty pleasure to me. InSpongeiac completely ripped it off though. :v
 
Just because it's Easter Sunday doesn't mean I haven't forgotten about this Top 30 list. Here's another episode I really don't like. Since it's Easter Sunday, I'm gonna probably be doing two reviews today. It took me a while to come up with more episodes I can really talk about that are Top 30 worthy but I think I finally found them, so here's one of them!

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Written by Zeus Cervas, Erik Wiese, and Steven Banks

Storyboards by Zeus Cervas and Erik Wiese

SBMania Rating: 3.1

Tisk, tisk, Steven Banks. He's really not impressing me with some of these premises he came up with and letting me down big time with juvenile crap like this and "A Day Without Tears." I'm noticing a little trend here as to why some of these are so stupid. It's kind of a coincidence why SpongeBob doesn't stop screaming in "Night Light", cries repeatedly in this episode, and laughs repeatedly in another episode "Funny Pants" (unlike the other two, this one at least tries to be funny. I'm considering making this one an honorable mention) all of these written by completely different writers but yet all of them were stuff that he had involvement in writing. Not to mention that Steven Banks was the story editor between Seasons 4-8 and he was also the guy who wrote the book of which the episode "Waiting" was based on. Maybe he wasn't paying attention to all this stuff that was coming out and slipping through his hands (or watering them down in the process. I'm just speculating) and maybe why Season 9 doesn't have a story editor in contrast to previous seasons if you've been paying attention to the credits for basically some of the later Season 8 and Season 9 eps. It always puzzled me as to how you can have a completely different team of writers yet somehow make the same mistake that was made for "Night Light" but instead on the episode "Shuffleboarding" which tells me that something was affecting everyone's work on this show.

I really have a feeling that at least some of these ideas weren't being translated that well onto the screen for whatever reason. He's definitely a far cry from Merriwether Williams, who was the executive story editor in the first three seasons. Granted, I do still like his work on Jimmy Neutron prior to his tenure on SpongeBob. It's his 4th episode idea on my Top 30 list but let's examine why I really hate this episode and think it's probably one of the worst when it comes to Season 4, a season that I've come to really like in a lot of ways and find underrated, though I did include "Good Neighbors" a little while back on this list not because I hate it or anything but because of the implications that it would bring on the series as a whole.

Okay, this episode starts out fine enough. Someone orders a Monster Krabby Patty and SpongeBob has to make it. All fine and good and I even like that effect that was used with the hand there. I don't see anything wrong with this episode yet until SpongeBob breaks his spatula. He starts to cry over what happened and he just goes on.......and on and on and on and ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dear Neptune, will someone make him stop? Please!!!!!!!!! Now I know where the "inspiration" for "A Day without Tears" must have come from. Wow. I'm not kidding.






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(okay, I actually found the part with Patrick to be kinda funny, but dear Lord!!!!!!)

This is exactly what I was talking about earlier. I think anyone who understands comedy knows that if you drag out a joke this for too long, it kills any comedic potential. I really doubt that either Zeus Cervas and Erik Wiese would have wanted to purposefully make a scene like this go on and on to be honest, especially considering how they were already with the show to begin with. The latter especially has a lot of prior experience working in animation just like with Aaron Springer. I really have a feeling that someone told them to make this part as long as possible even though that if they had common sense, they would have cut these scene probably in half or greater than that.

The episode goes completely downhill from here. It quickly turns into a really annoying and insipid soap opera style kind of story though they did a better job with the montage here than they did with "A Day without Tears." And again, another joke is repeated over and over and run to the ground when SpongeBob keeps finding more money in his house to give to the guy selling Le Spatula. He gets so desperate that he sells his house and his clothes and walks around naked for the entirety of this episode!!!!! WHAT??????? How is this allowed in a kid's show of all things? I kinda find it disturbing how they were able to get away with that. And worst of all, there's another bad episode that's gonna be on this countdown that has a character walking around almost nude but I'm not gonna spoil the name of that one. It's coming up really soon.

SpongeBob tries Le Spatula out only to find out that he's a snooty French stereotype who wants nothing to do with his mediocrity. It runs out of the Krusty Krab and does this to SpongeBob.

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Completely uncalled for mean spiritedness on top of not making any sense. I mean SpongeBob barely even used it at all! I mean how can this episode possibly get any worse?

SpongeBob goes to visit his spatula in the hospital (don't ask. it's beyond idiotic) and finds it in the infirmary all recovered and then........

the spatula doesn't want to.......................................................................

I can't even defend this. It's too stupid. Really it is. I'll let the next few framegrabs speak for themselves.

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(having flashbacks of "Stuck in the Wringer" right now)

Did they really just do that??????? What was the point of shoehorning that part in? I mean it's fine to have some kind of moral to the story but don't you think it might have been much more suited towards the end when Spongebob gets his spatula back. It makes no sense to me to have SpongeBob out of nowhere say this. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy and stupid!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SpongeBob limps all the way back to the Krusty Krab still crying and all of a sudden, Spat is there and SpongeBob uses it to flip another Monster Krabby Patty and has his arms pop off in the process and we're done here. If there was any part that moral could have been used, it should have been here. I mean really? This episode is just really stupid and on top of that kind of mean spirited too. I will not be watching this again anytime soon. I'm just glad that this premise was done a lot better and funnier in "Evil Spatula" so I can pretend like this one never existed.
 
Getting this one out of the way now. This will be the last Season 4 episode to appear on this list because I don't feel that there's anything else too bad or heinous from that season that I'd want to include here. Just look at what's already made it onto the list. It's also the last episode I'm going to talk about until we really really start heading into the bottom 20. Gulp! I've actually talked about this episode before in another topic I made but I didn't feel like trying to find it and I wanted to talk about the episode again as I rewatch it to make sure my thoughts on it are as fresh as they can be.

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Written by Casey Alexander, Chris Mitchell, and Dani Michaeli

Storyboards by Casey Alexander and Chris Mitchell

SBMania Rating: 4.0

There is just so much wrong with this episode that I really felt that it was almost bad enough to make the cut for the Top 20. Really, I think "All That Glitters" and this episode are the two worst episodes from Season 4 period. Things are really starting to get more interesting as there becomes a lot more stuff for me to rant about. Pretty much this episode is the epitomy of what people refer to when they think of Squidward torture episodes and it's no wonder too.

The episode starts out with Squidward waking up and finding SpongeBob out of nowhere who has been waiting for Squidward the entire time to wake up. Holy crap!!!!!!!!! Are they trying to turn SpongeBob into a creepy stalker this early??????????????? WOW. This is behavior that I'd expect from him more in Season 6 than anything else. Only a couple of seconds in and I already hate this episode a lot because of how terrible SpongeBob's characterization is.


SpongeBob just won't leave Squidward alone. He even hides underneath the ground just to ask Squidward if he wants to play with him.



The episode only gets creepier from here. Again, I'll let these framegrabs do the talking.



(uh oh, "Squid's Visit" rearing it's ugly head in)

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(oh great, "Boating Buddies" makes an appearance in this episode too)

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(Can't the Sponge just take a hint? Squiddy just yelled at him from the top of his lungs and he still doesn't listen. It's like that scene in "Good Neighbors" but they made SpongeBob's characterization much worse in this episode than in "Good Neighbors" where he had good intentions at least. Poor Rodger Bumpass and his vocal cords)

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("Something tells me that Squidward doesn't want to play with me today." No ::dolphin noise:: sherlock. Took you long enough to figure that out)
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(ummmmmm......"Choir Boys" is in this episode too? Three later episodes referenced before they were even made. This episode is just too good with its predictive powers.)

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Ehhhhhhhhh.......yeah. Isn't this going a bit too far for you, SpongeBob? I mean harassing Squidward this much just to play with you??????? Come on dude. Seriously. Calm down.

SpongeBob then comes up with the idea to make a mini Squidward to play with and this is where the episode just becomes annoying, stupid and unfunny and understandably Patrick's dumb enough to think that Mini Squid is the real Squidward. When SpongeBob takes Mini Squid to the Krusty Krab, everyone starts thinking that it's the real Squidward too. WHAT????????????????!!!!!!!!!! This is just so incredibly dumb on top of all the stuff Squidward suffered in this episode earlier.

At least Mini Squid is doing Squidward's work so that he can relax and take the day off. Okay, maybe this episode isn't so bad after all. Review over.

Just kidding. There's still more to go here.

SpongeBob and Mini Squid make Krabby Patties and he sends Mini Squid out to serve them, telling Squidward's joke wrong and making the customers laugh. Makes no sense really. And then Mini Squid gets a 300 dollar tip??????? This is just getting too idiotic to talk about. I really hate this episode and I don't know if I can even finish watching this one without going insane.

Even Mr. Krabs prefers Mini Squid and the townspeople continue to act like jerks and ::dophin noises:: for no reason. I admit the dancing scene wasn't too bad. Probably one of the few saving graces in this lame excuse for an episode and then even that scene is ruined when another jerk tells Squidward that he has no talent and another ::dolphin noise:: tells Squidward that he should get sized reduction surgery so he'll dance better. Okay, this is also getting really mean spirited too that I don't know if I can take any more of this.

Mini Squid and the customers continue to dance and Squidward just snaps, attacking Mini Squid when out of nowhere, a music agent steps in just to tell him that he's offering Mini Squid a million dollar contract. The music agent also acts like a ::dolphin noise:: and tells Squidward that he won't be seeing him at the Clammy Awards and he does it in such a really mean way.

Squidward cries because his dreams have been crushed and again, out of nowhere SpongeBob tells Squidward that he has something "even better" and pulls out a mini wooden version of himself. I didn't see that coming. Groan.

This episode is full of stupidity, mean spirited jokes and characters, and a really poorly characterized SpongeBob. Don't watch it. Please. Thankfully "The Pink Purloiner" is a much much better episode so I recommend that you check that one out instead when it comes to this pairing of eps.

Tomorrow I'll be posting #20 on here. I told you things were going to start getting really bumpy quick on my countdown. Stay tuned for more rants and more bad episodes to talk about.
 
Squid Wood Is Bad But Worse Then All That Glitters? Okay I Respect Your Opininon.
 
Night Light is bad and an honorable mention on my list (and I'm growing in to more and more episodes). And All That Glitters is the Worst of S4, and Squid Wood is in second. However Squid Wood is Meh and ATG Im considering Meh.
 
Kerdem said:
Squid Wood Is Bad But Worse Then All That Glitters? Okay I Respect Your Opininon.
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I had really thought about putting "Squid Wood" before and then talking about "All That Glitters." They're both on the same level of badness but this episode has SpongeBob stalking Squidward for half the episode and then laughing as Squidward's crying so that for me made it a bit worse.
 
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