SBC's Top 50 Worst Episodes Ever 2015 Edition

[BeachBob95]

Penny Foolish: I actually adore this episode. One of the funniest episodes of season six and creative writing.

 

SB, You're Fired: Very predictable and mostly unfunny. It could have better if the plot would not be so off. Mr. Krabs would NEVER fire his moneymaker for a penny -.-

 

TOS: Yeah a let down. Kind of entertaining, but way too much filler. The plot went NOWHERE.

 

Squid Baby: I like this one. The plot was bad, so I respect the writers for still making it watchable. I didn't like the fact that Squidward was injured though. It reminds me of old people acting like kids due to alzheimer's disease, which I find terribly sad.

[101 Dalmatian Street]

31. Atlantis SquarePantis - I recently changed my thoughts on this one. I originally considered this a weak terrible episode, but now it's just a bad episode, because really, my only problem with the episode is the songs, and considering the fact that those songs are the whole episode, you've made a pretty bad one, but the Patchy segments were also pretty funny.

 

I just have to counter-argue with this one. If you're writing off an episode because of the songs, then please open up your mind and tell me what makes the songs "god-awful" for you. Sorry, but I've seen enough complaints on the episode where people criticize the songs where they explaining very little on WHY they thought they were all horrible.

[Clappy]

I am simply AGHAST by how HIGH "Truth or Square" is in this countdown! Does Spongebob and Sandy getting MARRIED mean NOTHING to PEOPLE?!!!

 

 

Well, sure. If it actually happened.

 

Not only what Wumbo said....or how well Nuggets described how much Truth or Square has not aged well, but let me go a little more in depth with my thoughts on Truth or Square.

 

This is suppose to be a 10 year anniversary special.  Not only was that already putting huge expectations on this special to be something important for the SpongeBob fandom, but highly advertising so many marquee moments like revealing the secret formula, SpongeBob and Sandy getting married, why SpongeBob lives in a pineapple, etc. included even more importance.  What we got were a bunch of lies and an episode with no actual plot.  Like Nugs stated, it was just the main cast wandering around aimlessly with no clear direction.  It was Patchy dicking around for nearly half the episode trying to find SpongeBob and shoehorn in some of the most shamelessly wasted celebrity cameos I've ever seen.  It was like the writers didn't even properly plan for this special by not making it special.  Might as well as just called this Stuck in the Air Vent and condensed this because nothing happened.  It's astounding how well Nickelodeon fooled their fanbase with the promotion for a definitive 10th anniversary celebration by making an overproduced clip show.  

 

Add to the fact that this wasn't even a good clip show.  You had the perfect opportunity to utilize clips from past seasons in your montages, but instead try to take advantage of the fact that this is your first HD episode by creating new animated sequences.  Some of the animation isn't even that impressive to be honest.  I mean I guess the old style animation of SpongeBob was slightly, but all the new clips of Squidward sleeping, Plankton losing, etc....you guys had 10 years of footage at your disposal that was so much better than these forgettable cutaways.  If I'll give this episode anything redeeming, it's that the songs are better than past specials.  Granted, I've been told that they just reused songs from past SpongeBob soundtracks, which if that's the case, it's lazy but it's better than coming up with new songs altogether since around this time frame, new SB songs didn't have a good track record.  Although the songs really had no place in this special to begin with either, at least they were good.

 

Just a frustrating disappointment of a special that is now one of my ten least favorite episodes of all time.  Sure there are nine worse, but none of them get worse after repeat viewings like this one does.

[PatrickFan1]

22: One of the worst Mr. Krabs episodes. He acts too crazy, which is actually not the case. I don't like this, although some scenes are funny.

21: I can understand it, but I like the episode. I was taken from SpongeBob's situation, it felt like as if I had witnessed it. 

20: I don't understand that the episode is on #20. It's one of my favorites of the whole series.

19: I like this too. Squidward's baby design was strange, but the episode is funny and entertaining.

[Wumbo]

I still can't get over Pink singing a song about getting scurvy.

[SpongeyKid]

Truth Or Square: So much hate... And I feel sorry for this episode. I somewhat enjoyed the Patchy segemtns for once, the nice and catchy songs, and it also had some cool moments and secrets revealed. Unless the "secrets" that they told us weren't official

 

Squid Baby: I don't see how this episode is so down on this list, because honestly, IMO there are so many other episodes worst than this one. And I actually really liked this one. It's just funny and something a little odd but different in a good way.

[PatBack]

Penny Foolish: I think this one dangerously treads the so-bad-it's-good territory. It's a ridiculous concept, and it knows it. But unfortunately it just isn't funny enough to cover what is a very monotonous script.

 

SpongeBob You're Fired: I feel mixed about this one. I mean, aside from the crying, I thought SpongeBob's characterization was spot-on. He was as optimistic as ever but showed actual snark instead of being mindlessly happy-go-lucky, and I guess Squidward's redepemtion at the end was a nice touch. But, as everyone here has mentioned, it has too much filler to be acceptable. The fact that every. single. scene. goes on for twice as long as it should, isn't a good sign. I think it symbolizes post-movie; it has some good aspects, but can you really call it good?

 

Truth or Square?: It's kinda sad that I keep forgetting the tenth anniversary special exists, because this might be one of the most forgettable and insipid episodes of the entire series. And it didn't have to be. Bottle episodes aren't an automatic ticket to failure. Some shows have fantastic bottle episodes. But they're also the trickiest plot types to toy with, and knowing these hack writers it didn't stand a chance. Half-baked and overhyped.

 

Squid Baby: This is the lowest of the lowest of the low. I have nothing nice to say about this. What can I say about it that hasn't been repeated? The set-up is contrived (even post-movie Krabs wouldn't be stupid enough to a baby man the register), its portrayal of head trauma is demeaning at best and tasteless at worst (especially because these incidents like this do occur in real life), and everything about the episode is cringe-inducingly repulsive in every literal definition. To make something this bad takes conscious effort, and for the life of me I cannot believe the same person who, at one point, wrote Graveyard Shift, is involved in this utter trainwreck. Just...gosh, merely thinking about it makes me feel filthy, like I've encountered someone's scatological fetish stash.

[MMM]

They were go. My #2 and a string of #1s. Dang.

[Young Nug]

I cannot believe the same person who, at one point, wrote Krusty Towers, is involved in this utter trainwreck.

Brookshier, Tom King, and Steven Banks were the writers for Krusty Towers, none of which were involved with Squid Baby

It's still pretty awful since Mr. Lawrence penned the outline and he's been responsible for some great stuff but that misinfo just bugged me sorry

On an unrelated note: Still can't really hate on SB,YF! too much since it provides an interesting look at the characters that's definitely different from the norm. The plot is still super flimsy, but the middle half of the episode, while filler, is just so interesting to me because it's just a day in the life of a jobless SpongeBob, and that's fascinating. YF poses a question: What would SpongeBob do without structure? He is a creature of habit, and without things arranged in such a way, how will he react? This is how you do a character story well, and the part of the episode that answers this question I find good. The parts of the episode that set up the question and resolve it are not, but I wouldn't put it on a worst list of mine. Even though we do get the same joke 3 different times.

[PatBack]

Brookshier, Tom King, and Steven Banks were the writers for Krusty Towers, none of which were involved with Squid Baby

For a second I could've sworn it was a Luke Brookshier episode. My bad.

[Less_SpongeBob]

Are you intentionally slowing this down for suspense or are you just having a rough weekend?

[Cha]

Are you intentionally slowing this down for suspense or are you just having a rough weekend?

I remember in xat he said something about having might delay it a while because of irl.

[Clappy]

Are you intentionally slowing this down for suspense or are you just having a rough weekend?

Lol I made a status saying that I was going to be out of town for a few days.  Sorry that you didn't see it, but in no way was delaying this intentional.  Real life ALWAYS comes before internet forums.

[Clappy]

Well to make up for my weekend away, I'll definitely share 18 and 17 right now and I could potentially do 16 and 15 too, but that's up to one user who I'm waiting on comments from on those two.

 

Spoiler

That means you Nuggets.

 

 

18. Little Yellow Book

 

 

100 points. 7 out of 23 lists. (#1 Butters)

 

It starts off at the Krusty Krab, where business is slow. As a result, Squidward decides to rest. Before he even gets a chance to start relaxing, a whole bunch of fishes come. Squidward freaks out when he realizes SpongeBob isn't making Krabby Patties. Squidward then finds SpongeBob in a barrel. He screams at him, resulting in SpongeBob melting out of the barrel. SpongeBob makes the food and serves everybody while Squidward finds a book in the barrel. Then, SpongeBob grabs it and puts it in between the two frying baskets. 

 

Whenever Squidward tries to see the book, SpongeBob snatches the book from him, which happens twice. A few minutes later, SpongeBob takes a break and Squidward finds the book in the barrel again. Now that he finds out the book was a diary, Squidward reads SpongeBob's diary to everyone at the Krusty Krab. The first secret he reads is that SpongeBob clucks like a chicken whenever he sees plaid. Squidward sees Mr. Krabs wearing plaid, so he calls SpongeBob back. SpongeBob sees Mr. Krabs plaid so he clucks like a chicken, making Squidward and a fish laugh.

 

The second secret is that SpongeBob named his spatula "Fifi" (Hola Jelly ). This amuses everyone and when SpongeBob comes back asking what's going on, Patrick teases him about him naming his spatula Fifi. Embarrassed, SpongeBob nervously excuses himself to the kitchen.The last secret is that whenever he hears the Bikini Bottom Municipal Anthem, he dances around in his underwear.

 

Later, SpongeBob finds out Squidward has been reading his diary and gets embarrassed about Squidward reading his diary, crying, "Squidward, how could you?" Then, he runs away from the Krusty Krab, and bumps into Mr. Krabs. Since Mr. Krabs is wearing plaid, the second SpongeBob sees him, he acts like a chicken. Then he continues crying and runs into town.

 

Mr. Krabs scolds at Squidward for reading SpongeBob's diary and demands that he apologize for what he did, but Squidward just scoffs at this saying that SpongeBob will get over it. Squidward then finds a newspaper that talks about "JERK READS DIARY! LOCAL FRY COOK DEVASTATED!" Squidward just laughs at the paper. Then he goes in a taxi but the taxi driver just drives away. Later on, he goes to his house, only to find out that his loan was taken away.

 

Now, when Squidward sleeps on a bench, a couple of police recognize him and lock him in the stocks. Then, Patrick throws tomatoes at him. Squidward then apologizes to SpongeBob and he learns that he only read SpongeBob's work diary, which got published. SpongeBob also tells him he never read his secret personal diary, which would be really embarrassing.

 

A crowd comes to throw tomatoes at Squidward when SpongeBob tells them he forgave Squidward. Nat tells SpongeBob that Squidward is reading the secret personal diary. SpongeBob gets upset again and runs away. The episode ends with tomatoes being thrown at Squidward by the disgusted crowd, laughing as he reads SpongeBob's diary, saying, "I don't care! This is so worth it!"

 

 

Clappy: I can't remember what my stance on this was originally, but rewatching this....ugh.  Just so much wasted potential with a good premise.  Kinda like Truth or Square before it, this episode overpromoted SpongeBob's biggest secrets being revealed when it ended up being just a bunch of stupid nonsense that will probably be forgotten five episodes down the line.  What will be remembered is Squidward actually deserving of some (Key Word: SOME) of his punishment for a change with the townspeople deserving of punishment but of course getting nothing as expected because it's a latter season episode where the townspeople are a walking path of moral contradictions.  What a waste and just not a good episode overall.  Stupid.

Wumbo: Wow, this episode sure did get its haterbase quickly. Do I think it's deserved? Well... yeah, it is one of the worst episodes in Season 9, definitely. It didn't make my list, but I can see why people hate it enough to place this high. Jerk characters all around, barely any funny jokes, just an unpleasant episode throughout. Ugh.

Fluttershy: You know, I really don't hate this episode. I kinda like it, actually. It really did a lot of things right. No filler was present as it cut straight to the plot, and I found Squidward's ways of getting to the diary pretty entertaining. Krab's hair was pretty unexpected. And I found the stories in the diary to be pretty funny, wacky, and creepy at the same time. The chicken from plad was absolutely out of nowhere. It also gave a very valid and explained reason for Squidward's further torment, and I liked that SpongeBob ended up fine in the end with a best-seller, also pretty unpredictable. The main problem was really the bottomite's and their hypocrisy: but here's the thing. How is anyone going to believe that someone would name a spatula Fifi? Yeah, I think most of them jumped in without awareness of what the book was and thought they were just funny stories. (Except Patrick, he was clearly doing it intentionally as if he was his enemy. >:-( ) Sure, they went really far, but it's just a cartoon. Noone would take one's house away on a helicopter.

 

 

17. Waiting

 

 

108 points. 8 out of 23 lists. (#3 Clappy)

 

SpongeBob and Gary are shopping at the Barg'N-Mart and SpongeBob sees a Kelpo cereal box that says there is a "free toy inside." SpongeBob then rushes home, eats the cereal, and sees that there is no toy inside. SpongeBob looks at the cereal box more closely and sees it says "offer inside!" Must send in 99 box tops. SpongeBob goes and buys even more cereal boxes. When SpongeBob puts cereal in Gary's food bowl, Gary reminds him to send in the box tops before eating all the cereal. SpongeBob then sends an envelope with the box tops. Now, SpongeBob must wait patiently for the toy to arrive. Patrick also comes nearby and waits with him.

 

The Mailfish comes by and gives SpongeBob 3 envelopes but no toy. SpongeBob and Patrick must wait even longer now! SpongeBob and Patrick soon become hungry. Patrick suggests that he and SpongeBob go to the Krusty Krab for a Krabby Patty, but SpongeBob is afraid of the mailman coming with the toy when he's gone. So Patrick instead goes to Krusty Krab by himself. He gets frustrated when Sandy and Gary distract him with karate and feeding. Soon, Patrick comes back and tells SpongeBob he missed his surprise birthday party at the Krusty Krab. He also brought SpongeBob a present and some cake. While trying to find the fork, Patrick accidentally eats the cake. Patrick then realizes that the present was the fork. SpongeBob then whines about him being a big jerk. Eventually, the toy arrives and SpongeBob and Patrick become happy and open it. Patrick pushes the button on toy and springs comes out. SpongeBob thinks Patrick "ruined" the toy and furious and sad. Squidward comes home to see them crying.

 

Once he can't take it, he asks what wrong with them. SpongeBob explains to Squidward that he sent in box tops, waited mailman, and Patrick broke the toy. Squidward then shows him that its head, arms, and legs are supposed to spring off, and reattaches them. SpongeBob and Patrick then hug Squidward, asking if there is anything they could for him, and Squidward replies that they should move to another neighborhood.

 

Clappy: This episode really gets under my skin more than it should.  While most of these episodes are just naturally bad, this one has honestly no reason to exist.  It's just SpongeBob and Patrick standing outside...doing nothing...for like 85-90% of this episode.  Scratch that, they do some things.  They go completely out of character at random points, nonsensically cry, and act like the immature spoiled brats they end up becoming in latter seasons.  This episode may be a total of 7-8 minutes long, but I just loathe this and is a total waste of time.

Wumbo: Oh boy, do I wish this one was higher. This episode just... infuriates me. To me, it's as if the writers decided to take their collective middle fingers and rub them in my face for... 7? 8 minutes? This is one of the shorter episodes, isn't it? Well anyway, it's a plotless episode with absolutely nothing redeeming, managing to take a good chunk of everything wrong with bad SpongeBob episodes in the limited time span it has. Well done. Now try making something good.

Fluttershy:  I didn't even consider this for my list as I thought it was pretty "Meh." But I watched it again yesterday, and wow, I was going far too easy on it. The episode sits around doing absolutely nothing but wait around a mailbox with SpongeBob screaming, laughing and crying. He literally waits around happy-go-lucky, and then for no explained or justified reason, angrily snaps at everyone who even wants to add some variety. After the box tops are sent, it's only a matter of 20 minutes from starting to wait until it comes, and then it breaks for no reason, and its fixed by Squidward just because the crying tortures him. I think the main problem with Season 5 is that it geared more towards kids than adults, and while that did give stuff like Roller Cowards it's edge, it turned episodes like this into plotless excitement that felt really hard to bear with. While it's not the episode I most regret forgetting (that'd be Bubble Troubles), knowing what I know now, it would've gotten pretty darn high.

 

[Shark Tale]

20: I think I was way too nice on this episode in the past, or at least I remember considering it one of Season 6's best episodes. It... doesn't really hold up as the years go by. The tv movie just feels directionless the whole way through, and it doesn't even seem to know what it wants to be. Not an episode I hate, but it's not an episode that's making my Top 25 again, either.

19: This made my list at #14. It's like the writers had a leftover Squidward sabotage episode from Season 6, and made it in HD for Season 9. This whole episode is just... why. Not one of the worst Squidward sabotage episodes, but the plot was just a mess and it drags from start to finish.

18: This probably should've made my list in hindsight. I can't really feel bad for anyone in this episode, honestly. Squidward was a massive jerk who doesn't learn anything in the end, SpongeBob was probably at his most oblivious, and Patrick gets shoved in just to be a hypocrite. There were some scarce humorous moments (Afro Krabs and the newspaper fish returning), but otherwise, the whole episode is a waste of potential.

17: This made my list at #12. Just a waste of an episode, I think the three commentators above summed it up best.

[Less_SpongeBob]

You know, there's one good thing about Waiting that I didn't bring up. I really find it funny thinking about how silly the recording session had to be to get all this repetition and forced emotion. But yeah, Pieguy's "Send it to Korea" thing explains the production perfectly: it had little reason to exist. (To be clear, when I said yesterday, I meant last week)

 

Going back a few choices, Truth or Square is probably the episode I keep going back to think about to see what I think. I've gone from loving it to hating it to finding it overhated to just "wasted potential," and I think Nugget's explanation was pretty spot-on for right now, although on it's own, minus the Patchy plot, it's okay. It's simple and sweet with the flashbacks being fairly interesting, even if they didn't mean much. As for Squid Baby, that cracked my list at #9. It's display of "Squidward's infancies" can literally translate to being offensive to those who actually know people who've got into these types of car accidents that caused permanent brain damage, and they treat it as a joke by just hitting his head more and dumbing it down to drool, crying and poop jokes that nobody but SpongeBob and Patrick'd give a damn about. It's really sad and tragic.

[Metal Snake]

Little Yellow Book: It's a shame, I wanted to like this one. I liked a few of the gags from early on in the episode but the latter half of the episode was awful for reasons that have already been gone over several times. Squidward is not that much of a jerk and his comeuppance for being so mean is not satisfying since the Bottomites were just as bad.

 

Waiting: When I first watched this one, I actually thought it was okay. Rewatching it, however, I caught on to why everyone hated it. Spongebob was annoying and the humor/plot quality was bland. I like entertaining filler episodes, thank you very much.

[Wumbo]

WE'RE WAITING WE'RE WAITING

[PatBack]

Little Yellow Book: Oh my god, where do I begin? This was #2 on my list (and even so, it was interchangeable with Squid Baby). While that one was worse overall, this one is the most flawed. I'll break my complaints down into three notes for simplicity.

 

1. This is the most destructive portrayal of Squidward I have ever seen. In the pre-movie era, he was designed to be the average everyman, in comical contrast to SpongeBob and Patrick's juvenile tendencies. He wasn't a bad person by any means or was explicitly out for SpongeBob. This is proven in Dying for Pie; yes, he finds him annoying, but he'd never want him dead. Here, it's the complete opposite. His complete lack of self-awareness towards his own social and physical necessities is distressing to watch on its own, but when you realize he's risking all of this for something as petty as SpongeBob's misery, it's on an different level entirely. And not to defend OCM, but in that episode, at least Krabs and Plankton are sworn enemies. Doesn't forgive the former's actions, but somewhat justifies it. Squidward and SpongeBob aren't enemies.

 

2. Aside from Squidward himself, everyone else was so unnecessarily harsh. I mean, house foreclosure and public humiliation over reading somebody's diary? It's a gross exaggeration, and not in a funny way mind you. Plus, it makes the entire city look like hypocrites. Sure, you can enjoy a good laugh at someone's expense, but when that person becomes upset? Oh no, now you must play a holier-than-thou attitude and blame a scapegoat (Squidward) instead of YOUR OWN VOLITION. The writers even have the audacity to mention this, but that doesn't redeem it. If anything, it makes them look like bigger jackasses.

 

3. But ignoring the characteristic detoriation of an entire city, what puts this episode at the bottom of the barrel is the structure. In this episode, everything is set up to make Squidward learn a lesson about empathy. In the end, he doesn't, and is back at square one. In any plot of anything (television, literature, movies, whatever), there has to be some sort of payoff within the story. Take Imitation Krabs. Not only is it a hilariously fun romp, but it showcases how SpongeBob's blind, almost lethal, devotion to Mr. Krabs. What do we get in LYB? Squidward is a jerk, that's it. There's no comedic twist, or any development whatsoever. Squidward's attitude doesn't budge an millimeter; sure, he "apologizes" to SpongeBob, but that was clearly to get him on his good side (and double-crosses him literally a second later). It makes the entire episode feel like a waste of time, rather than the enjoyable time-waster this series was designed for.

 

Gah, .:dolphin noise:. this episode.

 

Waiting: I don't have much to add to this one. It's dull and an even bigger waste of time than LYB. They say that the opposite of love isn't hate, but apathy. And that word sums up my thoughts on Waiting in general.

[Dragonball Z]

I don't HATE "Little Yellow Book;" in fact, when it first came out, I was actually defending it from people hating it TOO much!  I'm just sort of indifferent to all the hate.  "Waiting"...if it WASN'T on my list, it would surprise me. Nothing defines a "Bleh" episode like THAT one does! Enough said!