Jump to content
  • Advertisement

Do we prefer and ignore the negative traits certain episodes if it's generally good?


Cha

Recommended Posts

I've noticed that for episodes like Driven to Tears or I'm with Stupid I will let it pass for Patrick's negative behavior. But others like Yours, Mine and Mine or The Card I don't. Characters are important and how they act can really effect an episode. But if it keeps my attention in a good way, I won't mind it as much.Then again, time changes opinions as a lot of us grew accustomed to early pre-movie seasons. How about you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's honestly just become a thing about whether it's funny or not.

 

SpongeBob isn't Family Guy and by nature it is character driven, and characters won't change for the sake of a joke. In recent years though, this has worked to it's detriment because the writers seem to think that this means the characters cannot move outside of a comfort zone at all- so instead of most characters growing and evolving, they embraced their original character traits so hard that they became defined by them. That's why we've gotten the same 15 "ha mr. krabs likes money" "ha patrick is dumb" "ha squidward is put upon and hated jokes" for 15 years. The one time they did something different with a character as he moved on (Plankton) was the closest we've gotten to any sort of actual character development, and even the development didn't lead to anything particularly funnier than what we had before, and you can argue that Plankton's development into a pathetic anti-hero is for the worse. But regardless, the characters now are hard-line defined by specific boundaries at this point. 

 

So when the characters are sometimes touched with something a little different character-wise, it's a little strange at first. The jerk element added to Patrick's character has always been looked at negatively. The stalker/creeper element added to SpongeBob's character. Don't even get me started on that science garbage. These elements are all looked at as bad, but it's not really because they aren't "in-character" although that could easily be argued.

 

The problem is that it's not funny.

 

Comedies have this wonderful thing where nothing really has to matter, as long as they succeed at making the audience laugh. Episodes in the Scully era of The Simpsons featured the start of everyone acting like complete jackasses and dumbasses, but the reason the early Scully episodes are still occassionally lumped in with the classic seasons is because these episodes are still funny. Audience members are willing to overlook oversights in character, story, and even basic logic as long as your story is funny.This is why comedians can have entire careers by just spouting off racist jokes, this is why Family Guy gets away with paper-thin characters, horrendous animation, and having most of it's jokes have little to nothing to do with any semblance of story or plot - because it's funny. And it's the same thing for SpongeBob.

 

No one would mind Mr. Krabs being a money loving-bastard if that was actually funny. Penny Foolish wouldn't have been criticized for it's character fallacies if it wasn't such a painfully unfunny episode. Same goes for Squid's Visit, other episodes like it. The awful character problems in these episodes are noted because the lack of laughing makes us more critical to the fallacies we otherwise might not notice in an episode. The Fry Cook Games basically amounts to everybody being bitches to each other because competition, but it's regarded as a classic because it's funny, and it kinda redeems itself character-wise with that last scene. Flawed character-wise, but it's overlooked because it's just a funny and creative episode. The only Post-Movie to ever achieve a character destruction and be funny enough to overcome it is Boating Buddies, in my opinion. Ridiculous portrayal of SpongeBob and Mrs. Puff, but man, there's just so much annoyingly funny stuff in there that I cannot hate it. 

 

This basically comes down to one thing, at least for this show: If there is an episode where a character isn't acting like themselves, you can get that handwaved away by just making a hilarious episode. But that happens so rarely. And I think that's why the show's been so stale lately. They've fell into a groove, and it worked for a while, but they fell out of it again, and so it's back to "keep these characters the same and the show the same as it's been for 15 years yupyup". And that's not good.

 

So yeah I'd say we ignore character flaws if we like an episode enough. For me it just depends on humor :P

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends how it's received, too. In I'm With Stupid (Yes, I enjoy it) it's hilarious how Patrick's "parents" think SB is an actual idiot and Patrick tries to act all smug about it. That's good comedy. Like Nuggets said, it depends on humor. If the episode has a character acting negative, then it must have good jokes/gags to back it up. (No reference intended :P ) Comedy could save an episode of there was any bad character traits. It all depends how it was received by supporting roles, really. And even if the episode has a good plot and some nice details, then maybe it could be a good episode, despite the characters.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It doesn't really matter if that one particular bad scene ruined an otherwise an enjoyable episode. Hating episodes over one scene is stupid. I'll give positive plots for how good the humor, plots, characterization, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, it depends. Plot holes can be a major problem to the episode, but can be cover up with a good ending to prevent abominable ending. In the newer episodes, the plot itself is what causes horrible damage to the series, not just the unamusing humor being used. But this more of a question you should ask to yourself a lot more.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...