SBC's Top 50 Worst Episodes Ever 2018 Edition

[Steel Sponge]

Alright fellas, seeing Truth or Square ranked pretty high up on the list is something that I came to see. I can understand why Truth or Square would end up on the bottom 50 and I know it’s going to be in other, future bottom 50 lists. A while ago, I’ve made a bit of a long piece whereas I defended my stance on Truth or Square. I’ll do it again, but you all better listen up, because I’m only going to say all of this once and I'm willing to accept any kind of criticism towards my newer, longer piece:

Spoiler

 

Right now, you’re all begging for an answer to these questions from me: what is it about Truth or Square that I find so significant when it never was anything significant? Why do I care so much about the random tidbits that show up over the course of the entire special? Why would I go as far to call it a ‘special’ wholeheartedly? Most of you guys may call it disappointing, aimless, godly boring…you can call the episode whatever, but from my point of view, this special feels like a love letter to the fans that have been around and loving the show after 10 years of being shown on its respective network, not just because that’s what the staff intended for it to be. “Oh, but the special actually feels more like a ratings trap. The so-called special was still disappointing since Nickelodeon still lied about a lot of things centering on it.” I DON’T CARE. I feel like I should find this disappointing since the episode doesn’t have everything to make everyone completely satisfied, but come on: what kind of person would I be if I wanted for the special to be literally everything that I would want for it to be?

The special doesn’t have to reveal the secret formula to be an excellent one. The special doesn’t have to incredibly story-driven in order for it to be excellent. The special doesn’t even have to be massive to be excellent. This special is all that I could ever ask for and expect for it to be: nothing much, but it would still at least leave me with some things to make me feel very satisfied with. Sure, the special does have a fair share of cockteases and does tries so hard to feel massive, but still, I really managed to like all that it had to offer.

So, anyways, the first counterargument that I have to make against the backlash for the special is centered on “Truth or Square” being a jumbled mess that doesn’t have a real, specific identity. Crazy for me to say, throwing around so many different gimmicks is the very point of “Truth or Square.” The special’s main identity is that it’s a milestone celebration for SpongeBob’s 10 year anniversary. I’ll admit it that the Patchy segments are weak, that some of the celebrity cameos are incredibly phoned in, and that the celebrity cameos in general are only purposeful to the special’s intended identity, but I can’t even bring myself to hating the Patchy segments that take up a sizeable chunk of the special’s time. It’s usually because I’ve always thought that Patchy was an overhated character, but it’s also because when his storyline came midway, I began to find something of worth from it.

While I can’t help but agree that some bits of the Patchy segments were a complete waste of time, the least I could say is that I got something from the rest of his subplot. We all know how Patchy’s character is established to be some guy dressed like a pirate who is completely obsessed with a cartoon character, right? Patchy’s subplot centers on the distinction that he is so obsessed with SpongeBob and he is so convinced that he’s real, he expects him to show up for his show before becoming disillusioned by his non-presence and by the fact he’s never responded to his fan letters and charity luncheon invitations that he decides to go to Bikini Atoll to look for him by himself. From my perspective, these segments are trying to deconstruct Patchy’s obsession with SpongeBob and they send it off in a pleasing fashion in which Patchy’s random guest members wake him up from a dream whereas he met SpongeBob and convince him that he SpongeBob may not be real, but he is real in the sense that SpongeBob can be seen anywhere. I can somewhat resonate with this, having watched this show as a child, seeing the live-action segments of the cartoon and making me feel convinced that SpongeBob could somehow be real for a while.

My next counterargument is on the contention that “Truth or Square” is nothing more than a Bottle Episode. As far as I’m concerned, a Bottle Episode uses the same, few characters within a limited number of backgrounds, with the intent to save a show’s budget. The episode does spend a lot of time inside of the Krusty Krab, but we then have flashbacks that take place in some settings besides the Krusty Krab and establish some things about the characters and the universe. To me, this is more than just a Bottle Episode as it provides scenes that are something of worth. Oh, and because something is a Bottle Episode doesn’t mean it’s destined to end up as a complete disappointment. “The Secret Box” only uses three backgrounds on top of three characters, and it’s yet another one of Season’s greatest offerings. “The Paper:” two settings, three characters, but an amusing episode all the way through. I know most of you don’t feel the same way about “Truth or Square” and would already argue that the two episodes I’ve name-checked are a lot more significant than “Truth or Square,” but that’s where I further establish on why I think the special is significant despite being a Bottle Episode.

The flashbacks with Squidward sleeping on the job, Plankton being launched into the Chum Bucket, and SpongeBob decorating the Krusty Krab aren’t anything noteworthy, but they are brief enough to not make me care so much about them. We have a flashback that shows how SpongeBob came to love Krabby Patties…while inside his mother’s stomach. It’s not a pretty spectacle, but it was still an interesting one. The old timey Krusty Krab commercial was amusing to watch, especially to baby SpongeBob being adorable. We get to learn how SpongeBob met Squidward and was able to be closer with Patrick and his new neighbor. Having a live-action scene where a pineapple just drops into the ocean was a lazy way of establishing why SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea and it didn’t need to be explained, but that’s at least something for the kind of people that would always question the logic of the show. We also have a flashback where SpongeBob and Sandy get married, which is only a cocktease towards the Spandy shippers as it only turns out to be a play, but that’s at least something for the kind of people that strongly supports the pairing. Also, the priest says that he didn’t know that it was a play, so it would then be safe to say that SpongeBob wasn’t busting some chops. We also have a flashback where the revelation of the secret formula is once again teased, but even flashback!Mr. Krabs is not willing to blurt out the details to Plankton. That in particular was very predictable, but I found it to be pretty funny regardless. Most of all, if almost all of those particular bits weren’t good enough ways to establish the SpongeBob universe and characters, then I honestly don’t know what is.

Even I thought that the scenes with the SpongeBob characters interacting inside the air ducts were something of worth. Just seeing them bonding by recounting some points of their lives was interesting to see. “But Steel, what about the golden opportunity that the special could’ve had by using clips from older SpongeBob episodes as the flashbacks?” Yeah, what about that? If Truth or Square was a clip show, the special would still have some contempt because a clip show episode is also a notorious money-saving technique. If you even ask me about how I feel about clip show episodes, they’re usually very worthless and skippable IMO, so I’d still prefer to have “Truth or Square” the way that it is. Or what about the simple fact that eleventy-seven is not a real number? I don’t care about that either. SpongeBob has always been a very silly cartoon and if it wants to make ‘eleventy-seven’ seem like a real number, it can.

Besides some of the random tidbits from the central episode, I also thought that the SB-related clips shown during the Patchy segments were amusing to watch. Namely the theme song opening parodies and the golden age inspired, black & white SpongeBob segment, especially the latter. (I’ll also admit that I did like some of the celebrity cameos, namely Craig Ferguson’s and Will Ferrell’s. P!nk’s “Scurvy” performance was also amusing too.) Back on topic of the central episode, I can’t bring myself to hate this episode since there were barely any moments that I thought were remotely bad. We don’t see Squidward getting any unwarranted torture. We don’t see Patrick being an unfunny jerk. We don’t see Mr. Krabs taking his greed to over-exaggerated levels. On top of that, the special had some jokes that I thought were genuinely funny.

My consensus on the episode can easily be summed up like this: Most others don’t find the episode to be anything special, but it’s special to me. It may not be as massive as the staff and Nickelodeon promised for it to be, but “Truth or Square” still did quite enough to satisfy me. I did overwhelm my appreciation towards the special before, but I still love it enough to still put it on my top 25. I can’t say exactly where I would rank it now, but it’s not too high. The special has its flaws, but it’s still one of my favorite episodes and I’m willing to defend it to death whatever chance I get. It’s said best that people either love the episode, hate it, are neutral about it, or unsure how to exactly feel about it, but from my point of view, I see a lot of contempt being made towards “Truth or Square,” and this novel-sized rambling goes to show how much I’m willing to defend it.

Also, directed to those who hate this special so much to have it as their #1 or close to that position, I am curious to know how an episode that suffers from being disappointing and not on top of being immorally bad is worse than episodes like “A Pal for Gary,” “Yours, Mine, and Mine,” “Waiting.” “Stuck in the Wringer,” and so forth, all of which have several things wrong with them – and exclude the “bad is the absence of good” argument, because I’d like to know if there is anything seriously bad beneath the surface of “Truth of Square” so I could fully understand why some you would consider the episode to be deserving of so much hate.

 

That just about ends my rant. I'll definitely get to the other revealed episodes later.

[Wumbo]

I was never exposed to all the hype that Truth or Square got, so that was never part of my reasoning for why I disliked it. I can see that they were going for some sort of variety show-retrospective style, but for me it just falls flat because they still have a lot of wasted potential with the celebrity cameos (though I will concede that Will Ferrell's is the only one I enjoy) and the whole thing is dragged down by a not-very-interesting plot. They either needed to go all out on the variety show aspect, like, screw a plot of any kind, or dial back on all the random flashbacks that, I'm sorry, still don't add anything for me, to make the plot a bit meatier. As is, you get a half-baked attempt at this kind of thing, with neither side satisfied.

But hey, kudos for the long defense you gave. You and others of course are free to like the special as you wish. Heck, I don't even think it's all bad! I just see it as massively disappointing, and something that could have been done so much better had more thought been put into it.

[President Squidward]

Triumph had a better cameo in Ass Like That than in Truth or Square

[4EverGreen]

I forgot all about "Squid's Visit." I haven't seen it in forever, but I do remember not really liking it. Not enough to put it on my top 25 list though. And to everyone who put "Truth or Square" on this list, the Ghost of Robin Williams would like to have a LONG, rant-filled TALK with you!  Enough said!

[Wumbo]

33 minutes ago, 4EverGreen said:

I forgot all about "Squid's Visit." I haven't seen it in forever, but I do remember not really liking it. Not enough to put it on my top 25 list though. And to everyone who put "Truth or Square" on this list, the Ghost of Robin Williams would like to have a LONG, rant-filled TALK with you!  Enough said!

"Hey Robin Williams! I can't believe they used your cameo spot so poorly in that Spongebob episode. Also, I can't believe that an SBC user is trying to imply that people who disliked this episode don't like you, while simultaneously reducing your entire career to a two-minute cameo where they give you nothing funny to do or say!"

(unless you were just kidding in which case i retract the second half of my statement. this episode, man...)

[PatBack]

Truth or Square is an episode whose much-hurled flak I could never wrap my head around. I never deplored it as much as Atlantis Squarepantis because, as pointless and ridiculous as the cutaways were, they weren't actively corrosive to my senses (and I do think those songs were ghastly in their cheesiness, and it doesn't help that boiling down the episode to their exclusion would amount to about ten minutes of substance). The flashbacks were tolerable, even though their preponderance was not warranted. My biggest gripe with the special is that, as everyone else has painstakingly mentioned and parsed, it's a bottle episode, which means any intrigue the episode delivers is predicated on the dynamics of the characters. Their interactions are okay, but so vapid and not fleshed out that they come across as dawdling. There wasn't any effort by the staff to spice up the formula. What follows is a bloated mess that operates like an 11 minute episode, yet is stretched out so thinly that you could tie a knot around the concept's grave. Or maybe do some parlor tricks.

And for something that was billed as a TV movie, there were absolutely no stakes anywhere, which is just pitiful for its caliber. I loath Atlantis Squarepantis, and The Clash of Triton, and all those other horrible specials, but there was some semblance of danger afoot. Truth or Square barely evokes anything, except boredom and mild amusement at a couple of sporadic gags. That, is sad. What little insight about the characters or the nature of the show is inundated by fluff that, while harmless on its own, cumulatively aggregate to my disappointed chagrin. After some reconsideration, I think it would have made my list, albeit on the lower scale.

Edited May 27, 2018 by PatBack
dumb perfectionism

[Jjs Goodman]

16. Fungus Among Us

144 points. 8 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #1 - @Sammy The Scallop

Summary:

Spoiler

SpongeBob is asleep, and Gary has no food, so Gary wakes up SpongeBob. SpongeBob attempts to feed Gary some All Organic Nature's Science Snail Food, but the food is disgusting to Gary. Instead, Gary would rather eat some contagious sea fungus on the floor, which SpongeBob considers very rude. SpongeBob tries to clean up the ick, but gets it on himself. He tries to clean it off, but it only spreads. He also tries not to scratch it because it is itchy, yet he still itches. At the Krusty Krab, he flicks off some contagious sea fungus on his nose, but it grows on the wall and grows back and bigger on him. He tries scraping it off his arm into the trash, but the same thing happens. Squidward sees SpongeBob in his state and calls the SWAT team. It is claimed that SpongeBob has the most severe case of ick yet. When the team is carrying SpongeBob away in a cage, some contagious sea fungus flies off of him and lands on Squidward's head. After Squidward itches it, when giving a Krabby Patty to Old Man Jenkins, it gets onto him. Meanwhile, the SWAT team has SpongeBob quarantined in his house with a bubble around him with the contagious sea fungus having taken a turn for the worse. Patrick comes in and pops SpongeBob's bubble in a game of Pirate Wrestling. Afterwards, Patrick blows another bubble around SpongeBob. Back at the Krusty Krab, the contagious sea fungus is spreading like crazy. It is all over the food, and the customers get infected. SpongeBob arrives in his bubble, having taken another turn for the worse. The health inspector snaps at Mr. Krabs for thinking everyone was healthy, and everyone prepares to attack SpongeBob for spreading the contagious sea fungus. SpongeBob cries icky tears that get on everybody in the Krusty Krab when the bubble pops, releasing a huge amount of fungus, covering many areas of the Krusty Krab. Gary then arrives licking the contagious sea fungus off of Mr. Krabs. The episode ends with Gary "de-icking" the Bikini Bottomites, by simply eating all the ick off their bodies, for $5.00 to Mr. Krabs' profit.

Jjs: Boy, at times, Richard Pursel sure could be an...interesting writer, for lack of better word. Fungus Among Us, his first episode, sure is not the way to start off your SB career lmao. However, this bad boy actually did not make the cut for my list this time around. I still think everyone has every reason to find this one awful, and believe me, I will not defend it. But the reason why this didn't make my personal bottom 25 is that now, I only find it dull more than anything. The ick stuff, as dumb as it is, doesn't really bother me, but that might be due to me being apathetic towards gross out gags nowadays. The gross out factor isn't my biggest problem with the episode. No, what bothers me is that the episode is so boring and stupid. The whole SWAT team stuff feels really out of left field and made me feel bad for SpongeBob, none of it is really entertaining. I will admit I did kind of like SpongeBob and Patrick's pirate wrestling, but only ironically. I'll give the episode credit for at least having Gary save the day and not needlessly shitting on him the entire episode, but it's still definitely not enough. Still bad, but not stupid and dull enough to make my own personal list. I am surprised though Fungus did not crack out bottom 10 this year, which is a first.

WhoBob: ah, Fungus Among Us, the episode that made me question the quality of this show as a kid. Not even likes of All That Glitters, Good Neighbours, Wigstruck and more infamous season 4 episodes were this bad. This was the first glimpse of the show using gross out humor as a joke and I'll just say I hate them with a passion. Gross out jokes only work if they are clever and tolerable to the audience. None of it was so cleveror tolerable here.  A virus or something else spreading Bikini Bottom (or Krusty Krab if you wanna call it that) is a neat concept. I love stories like this. Here was what the episode did wrong. It was not only so gross, it was just depressing. Seeing SpongeBob infected made me sad and it made the story so moody and uninteresting. Those stuff don't work for a colorful and lighthearted show like SpongeBob. Yes, SpongeBob did have dark stuff before but those were all used as comedy and it still kept it fun and compelling. It was not fun seeing SpongeBob crying over this and then being attacked by Bikini Bottomies for this. And my god, the episode's fungus was so disgusting and characters were just idiots. Patrick pops the bubble that keeps SpongeBob's fungus from going out because Patrick is so stupid or lets make Bikini Bottomies attack on SpongeBob's new bubble that has potential to be exploded. Just ugh. Speaking of that scene, SpongeBob looked just awful. Gary being cute was the only good thing? But Gary is always cute, so it doesn't matter. This episode had no redeeming qualities. It was just gross, stupid and depressing.

 

...Fittingly enough, we have two infamous gross-out coincidentally episodes back to back on the countdown. Now this is real dragon energy.

 

15. The Splinter

144 points. 12 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #3 - @4EverGreen

Summary:

Spoiler

The Krusty Krab opens on a seemingly average morning and SpongeBob is extremely happy. He gets the Krabby Patties ready and soon gets an order of two Krabby Patties plus an insult from Squidward, which is to no effect. His excitement eventually causes him to accidentally throw his spatula into the ceiling and when trying to get it out, he falls, nearly being injured by scissors and swords.

Upon landing, all is well but he trips on tartar sauce. His thumb drags across the wooden floor and rams into a small slab that breaks in half, giving him a splinter that immediately makes his thumb red and swollen. His weak arms keep him from getting it out and even biting it doesn't work. The customer that ordered earlier is turning impatient and the splinter keeps SpongeBob from holding the spatula needed to serve him. He decides to tie it on his nose and Squidward soon finds out about it and tricks SpongeBob.

Squidward then convinces SpongeBob that he will get sent home by Mr. Krabs if he sees the splinter and flushes his hat and spatula down the toilet. SpongeBob begs Squidward not to get him sent home but is unsuccessful. Squidward also hints that he'll tell Mr. Krabs about the splinter. After Squidward gets his full enjoyment about the situation, Mr. Krabs drives a customer away with his cheap behavior.

SpongeBob calls Patrick to get treated for it, who comes in a fake doctor's uniform to cure the splinter. Patrick's 'treatment' only ends up with the splinter further into SpongeBob's thumb, making it swell more and even infecting it. He then acts like as a fake doctor, saying that his 'shift' is over. SpongeBob soon runs into Mr. Krabs and Squidward and tries to hide the splinter from them. When he holds his thumb up, Squidward faints at the disgusting image. Mr. Krabs soon sees the splinter and takes it out easily, curing SpongeBob and causing confetti and a big eruption of pus from his thumb to impact Mr. Krabs, who holds up an umbrella to it.

Squidward then discovers that he could get sent home early and still get paid by getting injured, called worker's compensation. Accordingly, he injures himself with the cash register harshly, only to find out that his shift had ended two minutes ago.

Jjs: For whatever reason, since the day it aired, The Splinter has failed to make me strongly hate it. I know this one is never going to escape the hate it gets, and nearly 10 years later (holy shit I'm old) I've accepted that. The splinter itself in this one never bothered me for whatever reason. Maybe it's because of how over the top it is that I can't take it seriously, but it could also be because I've grown "whatever" to a lot of gross out on this show now. But I don't think this episode is necessarily "good", mind you. I get why people hate it outside of the splinter. When you break it down, the episode itself....is pretty dull, to be honest, much like its cousin Fungus Among Us. Some parts drag on and on, and the Doctor Patrick portion is tediously stupid. That entire section should have been removed from the episode, I will concede with people that Patrick is the worst part about this episode. He literally had no reason to be in this thing. Otherwise, I'm not bugged by much else in it but the dislike it gets is understandable. Honestly, I think The Splinter would've worked much better overall and maybe have less hate had it been a Season 5 short instead of a full fledged 11 minute episode. 

More: Ah, The Splinter. As usual, it just missed my Top 10 but that's not to underestimate how bad it is. It seems that over time it's been harder and harder to say anything noteworthy about it. Once you sit through all the veins, puss, and swelling that the animators carefully detailed into SpongeBob's splinter for no other reason but to gross the viewer out (which is a jarring contrast to the stiff and lifeless animation otherwise), you're left with a slow, shallow and boring episode. The comedy passes slowly so the timing is messed up. The scenes where Squidward instilled into SpongeBob he would get fired or when Patrick hammered it in more could have easily been cut in half without interfering with the story. It doesn't help that neither of the two are remotely helpful. There's just too much focus on making the Splinter worse that any decent ideas (like working at the Krusty Krab with just one hand) never had any time to develop into anything. The remainder of the episode only delayed the inevitable climax. I could say more but I think most of you know this is disgusting by now so let's save our rage for the Top 10.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Harold Claude

[So Sejima]

Oh wow, Fungus finally outside the bottom 5. I never got it being that bad so this is a nice change of pace. 

The Splinter is far from being the 15th worst in the show, would barely belong in the bottom 25 depending on how boring the middle segment is to people, and the grossout isn't even that bad after a re-watch or two to get used to it. It should not be this high, and I will say that forever. I'm fine with it making the bottom 50 but at least ten spots below this one.

[WinterArcanine]

Fungus Among Us: This episode wasn't on my list, but was pretty close to it. Gross episode, but not too horrificly gross, and pretty boring. I can barely seriously talk about this episode nowadays though, if you know why, you know why, if you don't know why, keep it that way lol.

The Splinter: Basically Fungus Among Us's biggest flaws, but much worse. Extremely gross and extremely boring and bland. Also, the Patrick scene was terrible too, seriously, what was the point of outting Spongebob's foot in your mouth for a whole minute?

Episodes on my bottom 50 to show up so far:

50: ??? 

49: Whatever Happened to Spongebob

48: The Play's the Thing

47: ???

46: ???

45: ???

44: ???

43: Face Freeze

42: ???

41: Plankton's Regular

40: Squid's Visit

39: Pet Sitter Pat

38: ???

37: ???

36: ???

35: ???

34: Sportz?

33: ???

32: ???

31: ???

30: Good Neighbors

29: ???

28: The Thing

27: Fungus Among Us

26: ???

25: ???

24: Sun Bleached

23: ???

22: Boating Buddies

21: ???

20: ???

19: ???

18: ???

17: Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful

16: ???

15: ???

14: Summer Job

13: To Love a Patty

12: ???

11: The Splinter

10: Cephalopod Lodge

9: ???

8: Shuffleboarding

7: ???

6: ???

5: ???

4: Yours, Mine, & Mine

3: ???

2: ???

1: ???

(I moved one episode further down since this started, so this list I'm using here is different than the one I submitted)

[Wumbo]

Ah, yes. Two episodes that forget that with gross-out humour, you actually need the humour. Fungus Among Us is more unsettling than The Splinter, and The Splinter is duller than Fungus Among Us, but they're both two sides of the same ugly coin, and they both made my list.

[Less_SpongeBob]

I don't really have much to say about most of these episodes but I'm relieved that, already, four episodes from 2016's top 10 didn't land on it this year. Especially relieved with Fungus Among Us as I've never found it to be anywhere close to the show's worst episodes, even within its own Season. It's actually hard to predict what the Top 10 will look like. 

1. ???

2. ???

 3. ???

4. ???

5. ???

6. Pet Sitter Pat (#41)

7. ???

 8. Squidward's School for Grown-Ups (#39)

9. ???

10. Atlantis SquarePantis (#36)

11. The Splinter (#15)

12. Summer Job (#26)

13. Rodeo Daze (#20)

14. ???

15. Sun Bleached (#43)

 16. ???

 17. Demolition Doofus (#23)

18. Waiting (#24)

19. Are You Happy Now? (#32)

20. ???

21. ???

 22. ???

23. All That Glitters (#22)

24. ???

 25. Sportz? (#30)

[WhoBibbles]

The Spliner wasn't on my list because I found it more boring than anything else but it definitely had gross moments and Patrick was just unberable throughout. I liked the ending tho, Squidward got what he deserved for scaring SpongeBob.

[SpongeOddFan]

oh boy..

Fungus Among Us: *sighs* this episode made on my list at #5. I find it too gross, dull & boring. Everything was stupid, and this whole thing was huge mess which I have a problem i have. The only good part is Gary saves the day is at least kept me a close second before changing my mind. Overall, it's really just gross...

The Spliner : this didn't made my list. Whle i dislike it, but the worst part of the entire episode is Patrick's stupidity making a lot worse. Overall, a really disgusting episode.

now can we move on from 2 disguesting episodes? *runs away*

[Less_SpongeBob]

Then again, the remainder of the entries are fairly predictable by this point. The only real questions are 1) What point margin will "A Pal For Gary" win by, and 2) How high will "Ink Lemonade" end up?

[WhoBibbles]

4 minutes ago, More said:

The only real questions are 1) What point margin will "A Pal For Gary" win by, and 2) How high will "Ink Lemonade" end up?

we'll be right back after these messages!

[RD Rockruff]

Fungus Among Us was a bad episode, yes, but had I remembered its existence while making my list, it probably wouldn't have made my list anyways. It was one of those episodes that sucked but, at the same time, could've been worse.

...now, for an unpopular opinion. I seriously don't mind The Splinter. I actually think it's one of the less-bad episodes from Season 6. I'd actually give it a 6/10. The thing is, it doesn't gross me out that much. Some of the visuals are a bit gross to me but otherwise, it's far from being the most disgusting thing the show has to offer in my opinion; for instance, the closeups in To Love a Patty are far worse. What annoys me in this episode is Patrick, although thankfully he's only there for a short time and disappears for the rest of the episode.
NOW you can grab your torches and pitchforks to chase me out of here, as I have disgraced everyone by casually stating that I sort of like The Splinter, even though it's not one of the better episodes from Season 6.

[BeachBob95]

I actually never got the hate for Fungus Among Us. I always thought it was a cool episode, but okay.

The Splinter, however, is high on my list, mainly because it's boring and the story as well as the characters and dialogue are badly written.

[4EverGreen]

"Fungus Among Us" just barely missed making my list this time...SOMEHOW. It IS still too gross and unlikable to be a good "Spongebob Squarepants" episode segment, though. And the reason WHY I put "The Splinter" at number three on my list, is because it is horrible, gross, disgusting, vile, poorly-prepared, unappetizing, DISGUSTING excuse for an episode it has ever been my DISPLEASURE, to have slither into my eyeballs!  And to paraphrase Squidward: "And I curse this episode segment, and all who enjoy it, to an early, and well-deserved grave!"  But seriously, it stinks!  Enough said! 

[TJ]

Gaiz, I have a confession... I love Fungus Among Us. It's actually like one of my favorite episodes. I guess I can get the hate, but to me it's ridiculously funny. xD (emphasis on ridiculous).

[Jjs Goodman]

14. Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy

148 points. 12 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #2 - @More

Summary:

Spoiler

In the kitchen of the Krusty Krab, Plankton hides in one of the sesame seeds of a bun, attempting once again to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula. SpongeBob takes the bun Plankton is hiding in and makes a Krabby Patty with it, which he delivers to Sandy's table. Sandy partly unzips her suit and slips the patty into it. Then, Plankton jumps out of the sesame seed just before Sandy takes a bite. He faints shortly after since there is no water in Sandy's air helmet.

Later, Sandy returns to her treedome. She goes into her bathroom, where she takes off her spacesuit and glass helmet (with unconscious Plankton inside). Then, she gets in the shower, turns it on, and rips off her fur pelt and bikini. Sandy is almost completely bald and pink, and is wearing a bra and panties in the shower. She picks up her fur coat, sniffs it, and hangs it on a hook. She resumes her shower after she does this.

Drops of water from the shower fall into her helmet, thereby reviving Plankton. Then, Plankton notices Sandy's pelt hanging on the hook. He takes it, locks Sandy in her bathroom, and brings Sandy's pelt to the Chum Bucket. He motorizes the pelt and moves it to the Krusty Krab, pretending to be Sandy. SpongeBob is happy to see "Sandy" again, but notices that "she's" not wearing her space suit and helmet. "Sandy" replies that he can breathe underwater now. SpongeBob believes "her," of course. Plankton asks SpongeBob for Krabby Patty tips or information.

After some short tips from SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs walks in through the door at the corner of the kitchen and declares that he is leaving the formula out in plain sight by setting it down on a table. Plankton cheers happily in Sandy's pelt, since stealing the formula is now much easier.

Meanwhile, Sandy finishes her shower. She wraps a towel around her body and walks over to dry her "stinky fur coat." However, her fur is gone. Finding herself locked in, she breaks down the door of the bathroom, fully aware that someone must have stolen it. She then flings the towel off herself, puts a coffee pot on her head in place of her helmet, and runs off to find the culprit, who's possibly wanting to sell her pelt on the Bikini Bottom black market. However, the Bikini Bottomites think she is naked, and make fun of her hairless pink skin, calling her a "hairless goat," a "nudist ferret," and a "naked chipmunk." Sandy makes a makeshift skirt out of seaweed to cover her "hind end," but it overheats, gets brittle, and shatters when she warms her hairless body by a vent.

At the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob is giving Plankton an irritating lesson where he has to put the bun on the exact spot of the patty, but he is always off by a random amount. He gives up, steals the formula, and tries to escape. The real Sandy enters the Krusty Krab and stops him in the nick of time. She then rolls up her fur pelt and puts Plankton in a jar of mustard. Unfortunately, the law catches up with her. When they announce that they will take the "sicko" away, Sandy thinks that they are trying to arrest Plankton for stealing her fur pelt, but the police arrest both for public nudity and for Plankton stealing her fur coat instead as the episode comes to an end.

Jjs: Season 7 for whatever reason decided to copy Imitation Krabs not one, not two, but three times. Out of those three attempts, this imitation (haha) was easily the worst of them. While this wasn't terrible enough to make it any higher than #19 on my list, it's still a pretty ass episode. One of Plankton's worst schemes yet to steal the formula. The treatment Sandy gets in her little subplot is irritating and not funny. The parts with SpongeBob and Plankton go on way too long, and are also not funny ("MMM TRY AGAIN!" shut up). The whole setup is extremely contrived, too: Plankton stole her fur but not her suit??? It's like they only did that so we'd have to see creepy Sandy's fur skin and find it "funny". This premise would've been a lot more believable and less janky had he bothered to steal both. Oh and both Sandy and Plankton getting arrested at the end was dumb too, way to punish Sandy for doing nothing wrong at all, episode! Great job! Just a stupid and mean-spirited episode overall, with no actual wit or jokes to back it up. 

RDSP: There are several episodes of Spongebob that manage to be annoying. There are some that come off as being insulting. This episode manages to combine those two qualities and create a terrible episode. While it starts off somewhat normally, it starts going downhill after Sandy's fur is stolen (...yes, that's the premise of this episode). What really kills this episode for me is how the townspeople treat Sandy. They call her a "naked goat" and such, when some of the townspeople laughing at her are also only wearing bikinis... Yep, it's confirmed that Bikini Bottom is full of hypocrites. The logic here's bad and this only serves to be one annoyance. What's the other problem? Oh yeah, while Sandy's being humiliated for something out of her control, Spongebob is being as annoying as possible, teaching "Sandy" (who is actually Plankton... gosh, those empty eye sockets are unsettling) how to make a Krabby Patty. This wouldn't be so bad, had Spongebob not been annoying as all hell. "Oh, try again!" is all I can say to this episode, which failed so much. What kills this episode even more is the ending, where the police arrest SANDY for "public nudity", when she's, again, furless due to Plankton. All of this episode's problems come together to make an especially tedious and insulting episode, one of the worst that the show has to offer.

 

13. Slide Whistle Stooges

157 points. 11 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #1 - @President Squidward

Summary:

Spoiler

SpongeBob and Patrick get new slide whistles and are constantly playing them, even outside of Squidward's house, much to the annoyance of Squidward. He becomes increasingly annoyed as they use the slide whistles as sound effects for everything he does. He eventually has enough of it and flees his house. This results in SpongeBob and Patrick following him, thinking that he is finally playing with them and ignoring his cries to leave him alone.

He has finally had enough of it and snaps. He forcefully grabs SpongeBob's slide whistle and uses it against the two. SpongeBob says that he has an equally better ear for music and soon buys one himself.

Squidward then becomes obsessive over it and proceeds to play it around town: first, he scares Dennis out of his wits as Dennis thinks he is being annoyed by ghosts. Soon after, Squidward impersonates a baby and scares Sadie out of her wits, making her see Squidward as a "baby assaulter," resulting in the annoyance of many people.

Soon, the Bikini Bottomites form an angry mob and end on the warpath against Squidward. Squidward manages to take control over a gasoline tanker truck, destroys the Chum Bucket and the Krusty Krab all at once, jumps over a row of boatmobiles through a ring of fire, and drives away from the mob thinking he has escaped. Squidward says that he does not want to stop, but SpongeBob and Patrick appear and (driving a boat) ask if he is sure he does not want to.

Squidward quickly notices that SpongeBob was trying to warn him that a cliff was ahead but there is nothing Squidward can do now that he's closer to it. SpongeBob and Patrick stop just in time but the gasoline tanker truck keeps going and falls off the cliff, causing it to explode, much to the joy of the town as they see that Squidward is finally stopped. At the hospital, the whistle is stuck in his throat and since no one at the hospital has the technology to remove it and it is the only way he can communicate, so they leave it on Squidward. SpongeBob and Patrick then play around the hospital with the whistles, as the episode comes to an end.

Jjs: This idiotic episode barely missed my bottom 10, landing at #11. Honestly, sometimes I feel like Slide Whistle Stooges was supposed to be a Season 5 short, but got held over into Season 6 for some reason, and made it 11 minutes. I have no actual proof of course, it's just how this episode plays out that makes me feel that. This episode drags really badly, because it knows it has nothing else to offer other than slide whistles. If you're going to base an episode around thing, at least vary it up. Squidward going batshit crazy in the second half was extremely forced and not funny. Him bothering everyone in the town doesn't result in any funny gags, other than the town turning on him because yay, let's punish Squidward and have him...drive off a cliff in a gasoline tanker. Okay. If the episode was trying to paint Squidward as the bad guy, it did a poor job at making it clear. As Wumbo says below, who are we supposed to root for here? The ending also stinks. Way to mess around in a hospital with sick patients, SpongeBob and Patrick. Real nice. If this had been a short, while I doubt it would've been great or anything, at least it wouldn't have wasted 11 minutes of my life. 

Wumbo: For full disclosure, this was my new #1 worst episode before a certain other episode happened to come out just before this list was made. And after watching this train wreck (truck wreck?) of an episode again, I'm not convinced I made the right call pushing it to #2. Is there anyone, anywhere, who likes this crap? Every episode nowadays seems to have its defenders, but I have yet to hear any defense for this insulting, mean-spirited, badly written dumpster fire of an episode.

This is the only episode that is insulting to the audience's intelligence from beginning to end. Other episodes may have worse moments in them, but there is not a single part of this episode that doesn't make me want to bash my skull in. It's slide whistles. They built an episode around SLIDE WHISTLES. And it's like, "Oh, no, there must be something more to this," but NO. THERE ISN'T. IT'S JUST SLIDE WHISTLES.

It's like the writers of this episode just gave up and instead decided to jangle keys in front of our faces for 11 minutes instead. I'd say this episode would be entertaining to three-year-olds or younger, but it doesn't even have that in its wheelhouse. Why? Because on top of being a pointless, humour-free waste of time, it is also horrendously violent, creepy, and mean-spirited.

The episode "plot", if we can call it that, goes like this: SpongeBob and Patrick annoy Squidward with slide whistles. Squidward now likes slide whistles and is annoying the entire town. Squidward drives off a cliff in a gasoline truck, explodes, ends up in the hospital and SpongeBob and Patrick bother him with slide whistles again. The end. Help me out here: who am I supposed to like in this episode? Who am I siding with? SpongeBob and Patrick, the instigators? Squidward, who inexplicably takes slide whistling to a manic degree, annoying the entire town? The townsfolk, who openly cheer the serious injury of Squidward driving a truck off a cliff? No! There are no winners here.

And let's get back to the violence and creepiness. Not only would I keep this episode away from any three-year-olds, I would keep it away from my children for life. This episode features rabid worms attacking a police officer, a gasoline truck explosion off a cliff, an ending featuring Squidward lying fully bandaged in a hospital with the slide whistle stuck in his throat, and I would be remiss not to mention... this.

In case you're wondering what the hell this monstrosity is, let me help you out. This is right when Squidward is becoming obsessed with the slide whistle, so he... I don't know, pulls a prank (???) on this baby's mother by dressing up as a baby using the slide whistle. Where on earth this idea comes from, what it has to do even with the slide whistle's gimmick IN THE EPISODE, I have no idea. But it does lead to the mother calling Squidward a "baby assaulter".

...

...

Okay, let me explain the instances in my media where I want to hear the words "baby assaulter". The answer is none. I never want to hear that. To have a cartoon show I have been a fan of since childhood be the one to use these words together... it is unthinkable. This is an inconceivably ugly episode. It's got annoying characters, an incoherent storyline, and it uses the words "baby assaulter". And now that I'm finished writing this review, I am never watching this fucking garbage again. Die, Slide Whistle Stooges. Die a slow, painful death.