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216b. The Clam Whisperer


Jinjo

Episode Rating  

14 members have voted

  1. 1. How would you rate this episode?

    • 5/5 Clams: I'm just checking out the beautiful clams!
      2
    • 4/5 Clams: Clams are so pretty...
      4
    • 3/5 Clams: I'm not perfect, but I am full.
      2
    • 2/5 Clams: SpongeBob, would you stop feeding those clams!?
      6
    • 1/5 Clams: WILL YOU CLAMS CLAM UP!?
      1


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Premieres: 

Saturday, September 23rd @ 10:15am ET/PT

Encores:

Saturday, September 23rd @ 4:15pm ET/PT

Sunday, September 24th @ 11:45am ET/PT

Plot:

When a flock of clams descend on Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob has to get them out before they ruin the whole town.

Clips:

N/A

Edited by jjsthekid
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18 hours ago, Sunshine Banjo Face said:

Sounds like Whelk Attack 2.0...I'm not excited to say the least.

pretty much.

I love Whelk Attack and it's one of my favorite episodes but doing another town is in danger plot is tiresome. 

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This one was okay. I didn't find the Squidward running gag all that funny, and I thought Patrick was kind of annoying in the beginning, but the rest was fine.  I do feel the plot has been a bit "been there, done that", and there weren't that many gags I found that amusing personally, although the online date mix-up was pretty funny, along with the World's Smallest Violin reference. The rest of the story was constructed just fine however, and it was pretty cute how SpongeBob bonded with the clams.

Grade: B-

Edited by jjsthekid
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In my opinion, this was the better episode out of today's segments. It's been awhile since we had episodes dedicated to clams. That's why I was so curious to see this one. It ended up being what I hoped for. Only flaw was the humor did dragged the episode down. Doesn't surprise that Ben Gruber wrote this one, cause it's clearly a season 10 episode in disguise. The characters are mostly out of character, aside from Krabs and SpongeBob. Not that it's a bad thing, although Squidward had been losing it very often in post-sequel era so far. Patrick was basically there, and he was very melodramatic in the beginning. Krabs still had his usual selves, but it surprises me that he wanted to use the clams for greed. Nevertheless, there's still funny moments, but it's just feel like too season 10, humor-wise. Plot is still great though, even for Gruber standards.

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Gruber be damned, I love me some clams. Them swimming in Patrick's drool was...something. Squidward is apparently an actor. A Squidward by any other name is still unclean. I totally get the thing with animals following you if you feed them. Not sure why the migration got attached to Spongebob if they were willing to steal left and right. It was very Mr. Krabs to get pearls through being an arse to them. Glad about all the physical abuse placed on him for it. Surprised they didn't have Pearl herself appear in the middle of it given this was what she was named after. The clam posing as someone's online date was hysterical. Let's hope he had the courtesy to call later. The clams were at least wild with each other too since they didn't have swing etiquette. The sad violin return and Larry the Snail cameo were worthwhile nods even if their placement/timing could've been more efficient. Spongebob shaping himself into a clam was ridiculous and I liked the gag that ended off the episode with his new nest bed and ability to shoot pearls at will.

Grade: B

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This episode, being written by Ben Gruber, does sort of FEEL like a "Breadwinners" episode segment cut and pasted over with "Spongebob Squarepants" characters; not that it's a BAD thing, just unusual! Although the plot of Spongebob finding a wild animal or animals and taking care of them has been done before, Ben Gruber DOES have the decency to have the episode written and animated in a way that makes it FEEL different enough from other episodes of this type to warrant a watch-through. Surprised to see Larry the Snail, some wild Sea Bears, and the fish who can fly (from "The Two Faces of Squidward"), making an appearance again! :D And while it's not too surprising to see Mr. Krabs try to utilize the clams for his own financial gain, it is refreshing to see that he at least got hurt for doing so! :hysterical: Overall, I'd give this episode a 9.5 out of 10! :cool:

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I thought the episode was good, though not as good as the last one. I guess my phobia of birds (which the clams are supposed to represent) prevented me from enjoying it even more, though I kinda got an Alfred Hitchcock "The Birds" vibe in some parts of the episode. But there were some amusing parts of the episode like Mr. Krabs taking pearls from the clams, the woman who mistakes a clam for an online date, SpongeBob enjoying life as a clam, and the cameos of Larry the snail, Mystery, and some sea bears.

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mediocre at best. Ben Gruber's episodes have been hit or miss for me, nothing bad but nothing great either, except for Unreal Estate, that one was fantastic. This episode felt a bit all over the place with no clear direction to the plot. It reminded me a bit of Jellyfish Jam, Bubble Buddy and House Worming when SpongeBob finds new friends and that annoys everyone. We've been there before and this episode didn't spice things up. SpongeBob being a clam and flying with the clams was adorable and the violin scene made me up. Mr. Krabs' greed was actually funny here since all he got was hit by so many pearls (oh wait). Other than those, this episode felt unfunny. Running gag with Squidward was just terrible, Squidward getting misery isn't funny anymore. This is season 11's weakest episode so far.

Grade: C

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On 6/26/2018 at 6:30 PM, Honest Slug said:

This was a great episode with some good jokes, and a nice plot.

 

8.5/10

I originally didn't like this episode, but this well-written and greatly explained essay convinced me that this episode is in fact good!

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Originally written: September 23rd, 2017

imageforums.php?img=vRQ8D%2BR40R8wN3FYMW

 

I gotta review this episode...

So The Clam Whisperer is an episode I've actually been looking forward to. Honestly, there only 3 episodes I'm actually excited for (Feral Friends, Squid Noir, The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom, or however it's spelled...). But when I saw the title, "The Clam Whisperer", I thought this was actually going to be a pretty cool episode.

Boy, was I wrong.

Let me just get this off my chest, I can't stand Patrick in this episode. Episodes from the later half of Season 9 really established Patrick as much more gentle, and kinder character, who definitely wasn't the brightest out there, but could still be a pretty likable character. There's no better way to describe him in this episode. He is absolutely annoying, with hardly any redeeming qualities at all. It's not the way he's usually annoying, where his stupidity is at a maximum, or when he's acting like a complete jerk. Oh no, in this episode, he's constantly flailing his arms around, and screaming (As if he's a Bunsen is a Beast! character). The only thing Ben seems to do with Patrick's character in this episode is have him constantly over-react to everything, a trait we've been seeing with Squidward lately, though never really as aggravating as Patrick in this episode. Squidward is generally a lazy character, so seeing him have his crazy moments can actually be funny at times. But Patrick is intended as a much more silly character, but having him constantly, and I mean CONSTANTLY go nuts over every little thing, it gets to the point where it's not funny, it's just unnecessary.

Thank goodness he's not in this episode that much, otherwise this would become worthy of one of the worst episodes of the series.

The plot's unoriginal, being pretty much a rip-off of both Jellyfish Jam and SpongeHenge. SpongeBob offering his care and kindness towards the animals, in which he fed them parts of a Krabby Patty, is very similar to the setup of the conflict in Jellyfish Jam, in which SpongeBob offers his care and kindness towards a Jellyfish by adopting him as a pet. Not only do both species end up causing havoc after SpongeBob takes care of them, but the "stalking SpongeBob" element was the main conflict of SpongeHenge! In fact, the scene where SpongeBob goes to work feels like a watered-down, less exciting variation of SpongeHenge. Say what you want about SpongeHenge (One of my least favorite episodes of Season 5), but at least that episode managed to refrain from being an absolute bore. When this episode isn't annoying you with reactions pumped up to the max, you get plenty of boring scenes where the Clams are attacking people. I guess this is a metaphor for feeding Seagulls, and how they won't stop following you once you've given them food, but the execution of this metaphor is done in such a way that comes across as unfunny. It also is done in a similar manner to the two episodes I listed above.

If the entire episode focused on SpongeBob leading the Clams through nature, this probably could've become one of the better episodes of recent time. But no, the nature sequences only occur within the last minute of the episode. A majority of it is just these clams being a nuisance in Bikini Bottom, so much so that people team up to force SpongeBob to drive them out. Sounds familiar?

imageforums.php?img=7XxDJVwEs8HY7%2BnkbB

It's just so baffling to me how many elements of this episode are ripped from past episodes. Hardly anything in this episode feels original at all. Aside from the issues in the plot, the episode fails in...guess what? Comedy!

The only jokes I actually found funny were the ones centered on Squidward's house being covered in Clam poop (A situation I am all too familiar with  :sbx: ). The Nature scenes weren't really that funny, they were entertaining, but I didn't laugh at the gags that much, though I did find SpongeBob's clam design kind of funny. For the most part, a lot of the humor in this episode centers around the Clams attacking different people in town, and it's just not funny. Not even exciting really, it's similar to that of any chaos we've seen in this show, there's no creative edge that makes it stand out, like the opening scene in Pineapple Invasion. That was funny, because it had tons of clever and creative spins that made it a much more exciting, and funny sequence. This, is just boring. It's not memorable, nor is it funny. The only other common form of humor in this episode are the crazy reactions, which I have already expressed my personal hatred of.

Essentially, this is one of the worst episodes I've seen in years. Yeah, I somehow manage to hate this a little bit more than Sportz?, that's how much I loathe this episode. Who knows, maybe some parts will grow on me in the future, but what I do know is that right now, I consider this to be a 2.6/10. It's an Awful Episode.

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This episode just flat out screams MEH to me. It's kind of a weird one, and there wasn't really anything I found particularly funny or interesting. Though I can't say there was anything that I really loathed in this episode either. It's a pretty easy 5/10 for me, and I can't say I'd be arguing with anyone who considers this episode bad.

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This is my second least favorite episode of the season. It's extremely bland and boring and just an inferior version of its own sister episode. Additionally, the episode is very annoying; the episode tries to be as annoying as possible, is way too fast paced and zany, and Patick is annoying. And the humor is almost nonexistent here, it's unfunny and the only remotly funny thing is maybe the pearls gag at times.

3/10

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I went way to easy on this in my review back in April. Way too zany, pretty unfunny, and an unfocused mess. Gruber can do so much better, and did in his other Season 11 scripts. Pathetic episode, very inferior to Cave Dwelling Sponge.

3.5/10

Edited by hippythehippo
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