SBC's Top 50 Worst Episodes Ever 2018 Edition

[RD Rockruff]

Welp, time for 2 unpopular opinions this time! I find both of these episodes bad BUT... at the same time, I don't find either of them as bad as everyone says they are.

Starting off with All That Glitters, this one is definitely and uncontroversially bad... although, as I said earlier, it's in that area where it's just not as bad as they say. In fact, I'd even go as far as saying it's overhated. Sure, it's annoying. Sure, it's filled with, well, filler. Sure, Le Spatula is a useless character who is basically just a French stereotype. Even then, however, I can't see this being so bad it deserves to be in the bottom 25. It didn't make my list at all.

The same can be said for Boating Buddies, although that one was even further from making my list. It's not a very good episode, no, but at the same time I just don't find it as insulting as most others seem to.
now you can attack me all you wish, i've probably just upset the majority of the people here

[SpongeOddFan]

All That Gitters: I feel like this episode is least bad which is #25 on my list,  but i don't really see the people what everyone hated the most in s4. SB cried many times in the beginning is just annoying. I can see that he lost his spatula as his "friend. Then agaiin it was ok episode, the joke aren't great. Granted, i don't like when it comes to this. Howeve,r, this is not that bad, so it can be some part is...disguesting (coughnakedspongecough).Overall, it was still bad, and annoying episode IMO

Boating Buddies: Ehh this is awful and boring shit. I don't hate that much, but it's super annoying the gag goes overly long (like SB 's explaination on chalkboard, the crash course scene like Roadrunner cartoon (...yeah no thx) and the ending puts me much pissed off so much that SB's behaviour downright bad. I don't need to say it about it. It's like not helpong at all. However, Teacher's Pests has much better version than this pathetic (sp?) episode IMO.

[CyanideFishbone]

All That Glitters is up there with the show's worst. I have no idea what they were going for with the crying scene. Everything about it just seems so.... out of place. I remember the plot meandering a ton, too.

 

Boating Buddies is just infuriating. It's one of those episodes. Granted I haven't seen that episode in years, this is going off of memory. Man, I need to get back into watching these episodes.

Edited May 24, 2018 by CyanideFishbone

[4EverGreen]

Anybody who knows me, probably knows that in the past, I REALLY used to LOVE the episode segment "All That Glitters"...a LOT!!!! Enough to put it on the FIRST Top 25 lists I ever sent to be INCLUDED for a best of episode LIST!!!!  While I no longer feel as strongly about the episode segment as I used to ("Feral Friends" has now taken it's place as my PERSONAL go to episode), I still CAN'T bring myself to hate "All That Glitters", so SUE me!  And I can't BELIEVE that I forgot all about "Boating Buddies!"  It actually MADE #1 the FIRST time I made a Top 25 list I ever sent to be included for a worst of episode list! I guess I was so busy trying to keep track of all the other episodes I wanted to send in, that one somehow eluded my memory. But in any case, it is REALLY bad! And in my personal opinion, it's probably one of the WORST "Squidward Gets Abused for No Good Reason" episodes EVER, still ranking SLIGHTLY above (or worse) than "Ink Lemonade!"  Enough said, true believers! 

[Jjs Goodman]

20. Rodeo Daze

130 points. 9 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: 2 #1's - @BeachBob95 & @Wendy the Witch

Summary:

Spoiler

It starts in a plain where the narrator is trying to find someone, then he sees SpongeBob, who is having a staring contest with Patrick. SpongeBob tells Patrick he is a great starer, to which Patrick responds, "I thought we were having a blinking contest and I was losing." A bottle then falls from above and gets stuck in SpongeBob's forehead. It is addressed to Sandy, so they go to her house, but SpongeBob can't get Sandy's door open, so Patrick gets out a book titled How to Open Things. He looks through it and finds Sandy's door. It says to open to the left. SpongeBob says he was opening to the right. Patrick goes to open the door but then Sandy karate-chops it open, and starts hitting SpongeBob and Patrick until her chops knock the letter out of the bottle.

Sandy reads the letter and says it is from her twin brother, Randy and that the rodeo is in town and she has to go to Texas  to defend her title. SpongeBob asks, "Your title for what?" Sandy asks if he has cotton in his ears. Patrick states that it is actually an old moldy piece of a Krabby Patty which he then eats. They then start guessing what her title was for, like: "Jellyfishing," "Kah-rah-tay," "The science fair." She responds "no" to all of these and tells them it is the rodeo. SpongeBob asks what a rodeo is, and then Sandy breaks into a song explaining it.

As she sings, SpongeBob and Patrick thought it was dangerous to fight that rodeo. She ends by telling them about rodeo clowns that make you laugh when you're feeling sad, and SpongeBob is horrified by this. SpongeBob tries to stop her from dangerous rodeos, but Sandy must go. Sandy's suit transforms into a rocket somehow, and she goes to Texas. SpongeBob talks to Patrick about how they can't let her go alone, but Patrick was playing another annoying game. SpongeBob then tells Patrick that she will find out she really needs them, but Patrick ran saying "No more tight jeans!"

SpongeBob tries to tell everyone that they must help her, but they refuse, so he captures them in Superb Bubbles while they're sleeping. When they wake up, they're in SpongeBob's house. Squidward gets upset and walks out the door, but falls as the pineapple is in a bubble. Everyone else walks out too and falls. They arrive in Texas to see Sandy riding a bullfrog. SpongeBob says hi to her, and she falls off losing the rodeo. The bullfrog jumps at the bubble and it pops, then Sandy has to save SpongeBob from the frog. Although Sandy does so, she is also extremely angry at SpongeBob for ruining her winning streak and tells him to leave the rodeo to her next time, with SpongeBob replying, "Aw, nuts!"

Jjs: I am SO happy this episode made it much higher this year. I cannot hide how much I loathe this episode, enough to put it in my bottom 10 right at #9. Some might not care about this one as much or forget it exists, which to be fair, I don't blame you for either, but man this one sucks so bad. But at it's core, Rodeo Daze is a sad, and very disappointing, episode. When this episode's plot first got revealed, the premise of SpongeBob having to go to Texas to save Sandy honestly was a legit interesting idea for an episode, more than anything else in S7 at that time. We'd finally get to see the gang go Sandy's homeland, a key focal point of her character. Wow, that's actually creative and cool! Needless to say, a lot us were pretty interested in this one for the premise. It also had, by default, the best directing team at that point in the series. The stars were aligning for something actually possibly great at this point in S7. I thought to myself: what could possibly go wrong?

...Everything. The first warning sign this may have been "ehh" was that Richard Pursel did the outline, who has...quite the track record, to say the least. But I kept an open mind because he's done good things too. Unfortunately, the first actual sign this was probably going to suck was when the episode decided to start with...a pointless staring contest between SpongeBob and Patrick. It's boring, dull and pads out the episode when they could've used that time on literally anything else. Though that staring contest is very symbolic, because the episode itself past that is boring, dull and padding. So kudos there if intentional. The pacing is garbage in this episode, and it contributes to why the ending is so rushed and stupid. Literally 90% of the episode is buildup to something we barely get to see: the Texas rodeo itself. I don't understand how you have an episode about the gang going to Texas...only to have the actual "going to Texas part" be in the last two minutes. And the last minute is the actual hyped up rodeo, which is over in the blink of an eye. Yay. Another contender for one of the worst SpongeBob endings. Outside of pacing, I didn't even find any jokes in this episode funny either, to be quite honest. Most of it is wasted on padded out jokes, or mean-spirited "jokes" about people not caring about Sandy (which I'll get to). Even the aesthetic visuals for the on land portion felt really bad compared to their other work. I guess they didn't care since it was only going to be used at the last two minutes, but it's still pretty ehh. Also randomly mentioning that Sandy has a twin brother to set up the "plot" only to not show him at the rodeo is very strange. This episode as a whole is a strange mess, it's like they had to rush to finish this one to meet a deadline. It really feels like this should've been a half-hour special so it could've fleshed everything out more. Seriously, I feel the gang going to Texas is more special worthy than most specials nowadays, but whatever, I digress.

Oh yeah, and the way the main cast don't even care if Sandy never returns is insulting and horrible. It's a giant slap in the face to everything the episode Texas stood for. Haha, they don't care if Sandy returns, I'm not laughing. Where's the actual joke or the punchline? I know everyone shits on Someone's in the Kitchen With Sandy for her treatment there, but I'd argue Rodeo Daze honestly even has worse Sandy treatment than it, albeit a bit more subtle in how it's handled. In Kitchen, at least the people bugging Sandy were just random no name civilians, which you'd expect from the Bottomites at this point in the series. Ultimately, they're background fodder, so it's not like their stupidity matters that much when they're not the forefront. Here however...we have main cast members like Mr. Krabs, Squidward, Patrick and even Gary (seriously, what the hell dude?) who don't give a shit if Sandy never returns. It's depressing and insulting, especially after everything the town did for her in Texas so that she would stay. But who cares about that heartwarming episode, let's throw all of that out the window and waste a great premise just to make some stupid and mean-spirited jokes. Even ignoring all of that, there's nothing else of substance in the episode, and for an episode about going to Texas, that's sad. Ugh. I could keep ranting but I'll save some for BeachBob. Take it away buddy.

BeachBob: I never realized it before I made my top 25 for this contest, but Rodeo Daze is the single biggest disappointment in the entire show for me. I remember finding out there was a new episode online. My friend, who used to be a hard core fan of the show, and I watched it together and we didn’t laugh once. The part with song went on for so long that my friend actually began to sigh and cringe because it was so annoying to him. After the final scene of this episode I was like: well, I never expected to have so little fun with this. And my friend wanted to forget about it and just do something else. I don’t think he ever got back into the show like he was before, after this experience. We just hated it.

In a way, this episode is a big prank on the audience. You expect to watch an episode about Sandy, Texas and an exciting rodeo. But no. Sandy leaves, SpongeBob goofs around, all the characters barf on what they thought of Sandy at the end of season one’s ‘Texas’, and we get 30 seconds of the ugliest, stupidest, cringiest and most disappointing scenes of SpongeBob ever.

HOW CAN YOU SCREW UP A PREMISE LIKE THIS:

Rodeo Daze: SpongeBob tries so save Sandy from participating in a dangerous rodeo in Texas.

That’s actually one of the best concepts this show had around that point. Sandy is not often in the spotlight, so I was very excited for this episode. I could only imagine what the new backgrounds would look like, that we would get to see. I also thought that an episode idea like this should get the honor of being double length.

So let’s see. Imagine that you and your fanatic friend get to write and storyboard this episode. What would you come up with? Don’t tell me you can think of anything worse than what this episode did. If they had it take place in Texas, there would already have been so much more potential to make this episode at least memorable or pretty and exciting. Did they find out last minute that the new Texas background animation was too expensive?

Even if they had it not take place in Texas it could have been decent. They could have the rodeo take place in Bikini Bottom, or have Sandy not immediately leave and have SpongeBob begging her not to go, like we saw in ‘Sandy, SpongeBob and the Worm’ (which by the way is still the only real ‘rodeo’ episode to me). The writers even tease us with Sandy’s background story by mentioning she has a twin brother! How can they screw up by not even showing him?! This is an empty episode that gives us literally nothing of substance with such a GREAT premise. It’s such a shame! Not to mention the jokes are nothing compared to the joke that is on the audience which waits for the rodeo plot to never start.

I was mad after watching this, and for me this marks the point where I never trust the writers with any good premise ever again.

 

19. Yours, Mine and Mine

130 points. 10 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #4 - @Wintermelon43

Summary:

Spoiler

One day at the Krusty Krab, Patrick orders a Krusty Kid's Meal, but since he does not have any money, SpongeBob has to pay for it. He agrees to share it with SpongeBob, but does not save any of the meal for him. Patrick then wants his money back because his meal did not come with a toy, again despite the fact that SpongeBob paid for it, not him. Mr. Krabs inserts some straws and googly eyes on a Krabby Patty and calls it a Krabby Patty-shaped toy. SpongeBob falls in love with it, naming it "Patty Pal." Patrick then reminds SpongeBob that they are sharing this meal, ignoring that he ate it all himself, and takes Patty Pal and tells SpongeBob he can have it back at the end of the day.

It is the end of the day, and Patrick still will not let SpongeBob play with Patty Pal. They both go home, and SpongeBob declares that Patrick will be asleep and not get to play with Patty Pal, but Patrick dances with the Patty Pal all night.

SpongeBob wakes up and goes over to get the toy, but Patrick makes excuses not to come out. SpongeBob pretends to walk away, but fails to get Patrick to give him Patty Pal. Patrick whines and thinks it's not fair that SpongeBob wants the toy. SpongeBob tries to be diplomatic and suggests that they each get a day with it, but Patrick refuses. He asks him if he can keep it for a shorter time, but Patrick refuses again, and continues to refuse to SpongeBob's continually decreasing offers until SpongeBob finally takes the toy deciding that they trade off every second. Unfortunately, even when they do that, Patrick still looks physically pained to part with the toy for even a second, so he takes the toy and runs away, which makes them begin to fight.

They run into Squidward's house and then Sandy's treedome without water helmets on. Sandy tries to help them, but they dry out and run out of her treedome gasping for water. When they feel better, they begin to fight again, and roll onto a bus, a subway, a taxi, and eventually back into the Krusty Krab. Patrick yells that if he cannot have it, then no one can and eats Patty Pal. SpongeBob and Patrick complain to Mr. Krabs, who stops their argument saying that they should be ashamed for letting a toy get in the way of their friendship.

After that, he lets them each have a toy, but they have to pay for it. Patrick replies that he will pay, but he pulls out SpongeBob's wallet. SpongeBob tells him that it is his wallet, and Patrick asks him if he has learned nothing about sharing.

Jjs: Much like Pet Sitter Pat, I must admit I am very apathetic towards this hated episode. It's also not helped that Nick rarely reran this episode (with good reason) and I haven't seen it at all since 2012. Patrick is a jerk in this episode yes, but to be honest, I've found him more irritating in more. At least SpongeBob stooped to his level which made them on some form of a fair playing field, I guess. That being said, SpongeBob and Patrick's childish fight in this one is pretty un-engaging compared to others they've had in the past. Their fight leading them through a bus, subway and taxi was kind of amusing, but that's the only part of this episode that really had any spice to it, and that's telling. Otherwise, I just can't bring myself to feel strongly towards it one way or another. Since I haven't seen the episode in full since 2012, I'm not the person to judge it. However, I will concur the ending is pretty dumb and a slap in the face.

WhoBob: I gotta admit that I may have put this episode a bit higher than I should have (#16, wut?) but nevertheless, this episode sucked ass. It was nothing but a pure boredom that didn't come up with any memorable jokes and an uninteresting premise. The show is usually good with simple premises but I didn't like this episode because once again Patrick was such a jerk that didn't learn any lesson from how he treated SpongeBob. I would be fine if SpongeBob was also a jerk but why make the dummy a jerk all the time? I'm just tired of them purposely making Patrick the villain but not getting any karma at the end. The ending was so insulting to the audience. We usually get the character changing from this experience. Instead we get this. "Have you learned nothing about sharing?" my ass! I disagree that was meant to be a stupid moral for kids, I don't see how kids can find this right but it was still a dumbass ending that makes me question this. Why do we have to root for this idiotic and selfish character? This proves that Patrick works better in small doses or we just need him to have a likeable/interesting personality to root for him. Or how about...WHERE THE HELL IS PATRICK THAT MAKES CLEVERLY STUPID JOKES, INSTEAD THE ONE THAT TALKS ALL DUMB OR ACTING SO DUMB? Episodes like this are the reason why Patrick is my least favorite character in the show and I just wanna see less and less from him. 

Edited May 25, 2018 by Harold Claude

[WinterArcanine]

Rodeo Daze: I'm shocked people actually hate it this much, it's biggest crimes are just being boring at times and not giving itself enough time for the ending. I honestly enjoy the episode and I don't agree with most of the supposed flaws people give it.

YM&M: Extremely annoying episode. Spongebob and Patrick are very annoying here, Patrick is a very big jerk in this episode, and this episode only has 2 good jokes. 

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: ???

39: Pet Sitter Pat

38: ???

37: ???

36: ???

35: ???

34: Sportz?

33: ???

32: ???

31: ???

30: Good Neighbors

29: ???

28: The Thing

27: ???

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: ???

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)

[SpongeOddFan]

Rodeo Daze : This honestly waste of my time...holy shit where do i begins? It starts off with boring staring contest (i almost sleep right way), but i suddenly woke up to see the pace pick it up midway where SB noticing Sandy leaves for go to Texas to do rodeo. SB worried and poke around the neighbourhood (even Gary) to save her. but nooo they don't give a shit about her...WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL is wrong with main cast?! ARE YOU BLIND! Sandy's most important character to care about, and none of them didn't care? Holy shit, this is insuiting to this show. Oh and you know what's stupid at the end? THEY FUCKUING RUSHED THE ENDING...jfc this is even worse Sandy treatment than SWTK did.

I'm sorry the way they hype it up all for Sandy's twin brother all for nothing..fuck this This could've been half-hour special rather than 11-minute segment IMO.

Oh yeah, there's a Sandy song to fill the 11 minute time frame good jok for wasting exatra  scene.

Yours, Mine & Mibe: This one is just lazy and it was stupid premise too personally. I don't reallyt like it, and it's the fact Patrick & SB act chlidish fighting over stupid toy..this kind of reminds me of The Card which is only different is that stupid trading card (really?). But we'll get to this episode right now. Everythibg they treated like shit was annoying. SB'sa jerk, Patrick's a jerk. none of them wouldn't learn to share

SB: it's mine

Patricl: no it's mine

^it's basically what's the entire episode with too man slapstick haha not funny But yeah, it's clid-ish episode to care, I really don't want to see another ep has nothing to do with sharing stuff episode.

[WhoBibbles]

Rodeo Daze didn't make my list because I don't remember fnding the episode to be that bad and a few gags like Plankton blowing himself up made me laugh. However, it was such a waste of bloody time and potential. It would have been awesome to see Texas but everything around it was so boring and everyone not caring for Sandy was insulting to Texas episode. If this was supposed to be a trolly episode, then try to make it funny bur nope. Even if it was a funny trolly epusode, it would still be a big clickbait episode that wasted the audience's investment.

[Clappy]

I barely remember Rodeo Daze, but what I recall of it was a rehash of like 60-70% of Texas minus that mind blowingly so out of left field last three or so minutes of the cast actually in Texas.

Yours, Mine, & Mine is insufferable.  Always happy to see it this high on these lists.  Patrick is such an unlikeable turd and whatever instances I do feel for SpongeBob in this, he becomes such a child that whatever I feel for him, disappears.

Oh and JCM.  Waiting is not four minutes.  It’s nearly double that in length.  God forbid if it was a full eleven minutes though.  Seven to eight minutes is long enough.

[Less_SpongeBob]

All That Glitters just made my list at #23. I didn't want to put it higher as I like the flashback montage, and I didn't want to put it in the top 10 again... but by god this dreck is easily the worst of Season 4. There are just too many elements that are so exaggerated like a soap opera that it's hard to get through it--the rudeness of Le Spatula, the long drawn-out crying and begging for the spatula, the saccharine ending, everything just feels so fake. It's probably the only episode I downright hated when I first got into SpongeBob.

To side with jjs, I'm so happy that Rodeo Daze surged this year (it landed at #13 for me). The two #1 votes helped a lot. It's such a waste of potential: this probably has the worst story structure of any episode, period. It drags on and on and on with an unfunny setup of the characters being rude. As such, the 30-second climax felt so crammed in. It seems as if the writers were having a slow day and collaged some repetitive storyboards, and when they woke up they tacked on a conflict so they could release it as an episode. Can't assume that sorry

While Boating Buddies and "Mine" didn't make the cut, I can safely call them honorable mentions at least in the upper-20 range. Both are examples of episodes bringing out the absolute worst qualities of SpongeBob and Patrick respectively.

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. ???

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)

[4EverGreen]

"Rodeo Daze" is more boring and pointless than bad!  And "Yours, Mine, and Mine" is even MORE forgettable! It didn't even make my list either!  Enough said, for now! 

[So Sejima]

Rodeo Daze is infuriating but completely unworthy of being bottom 20 and is almost as confusing as A Day Without Tears making it over Funny Pants

YM&M is one of Patrick's worst episodes but there's simply more that bothered me worse.

[RD Rockruff]

Rodeo Daze made my list. This episode is about as boring and slow as the episode it's paired with (The Play's the Thing). Even then, this episode also has a poorly-animated ending and it just ends out of nowhere at that. This wouldn't have been so low on the list had it not been this infuriatingly boring to sit through.

Yours, Mine and Mine also made my list. It has some especially bad characterisation, rivalling The Card in how annoying Patrick is here. In fact, I'd rather watch that annoying episode over this smouldering piece of trash. That's all I can say about this episode.

[Jjs Goodman]

18. Squid's Visit

137 points. 8 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #2 - @Sammy The Scallop

Summary:

Spoiler

The episode opens with the employees at the Krusty Krab doing nothing as the restaurant closes. Squidward says he has nothing to do tonight. SpongeBob really wants Squidward to visit his house, but Squidward does not want to. He says that he prefers the comfort of his own home over SpongeBob's "dirty little hovel." At the pinapple, Patrick suggests to SpongeBob to "borrow" something of Squidward's to make him come to the house to get it back. This gives SpongeBob an idea.

While Squidward is cooking, SpongeBob steals his vaccum cleaner in order for him come to the pineapple to get it back. Squidward puts his dinner in the oven and then comes to SpongeBob's house and sees, to his shock, that SpongeBob made an exact replica of his living room. 

Squidward is now getting very annoyed and demands his vacuum, but SpongeBob ignores him, trying to do everything he can to ensure Squidward stays. Squidward sits on the exact replica of his chair and sees his coffee table, his food, his Art of the Clarinet book, and his pillow SpongeBob was fluffing. It looks like the one Squidward's Mother made for him. Then Squidward sees his hallway, and he sees the chip in the painting from when he moved into his own house. Then he walks into his bathroom. He sees his medicine cabinet and his rash cream. But when SpongeBob shows up, Squidward screams and he slips on the rash cream too many times and his head falls into the toilet, knocking himself out.

Squidward wakes up and thinks he had a dream about himself visiting SpongeBob, but much to his horror, he isn't dreaming. Squidward screams in anguish. He lies to SpongeBob that he has to go to the bathroom again, but instead, he runs upstairs, looking for his vacuum cleaner. When Squidward opens the door and turns on the light, he finds out he is in the gallery room and spots all 492 of his self-portraits hanging on the wall. Squidward becomes scared, but then he gets mad. He looks for the vacuum cleaner in the closet and finds it, but it is stuck in the closet. Squidward pulls it until his vacuum comes out. The vacuum hits Squidward and he crashes into the wall, tilting his self-portraits. He falls down the stairs, and he spits out the vacuum. He then walks out of SpongeBob's house, but when he goes outside, he realizes that his house had vaporized due to a fire. Squidward had forgotten to bring the casserole which was later on fire and caused Squidward's house to burn up. SpongeBob then tells Squidward to stay at his house. Squidward imagines what it would be like. He winds up staying at the pineapple with him indoors and SpongeBob and Gary sleeping outside.

Jjs: This is honestly the most creepy and screwed up episode in all of SpongeBob, making my list right at #5. Holy shit, in addition to being a creepy weirdo, SpongeBob also irritated the living crap out of me in this one. I'd argue this is one of his worst characterizations in the series. The premise of this episode is also not engaging in the slightest. SpongeBob wants Squidward to visit his house. Wow. Even though that also contradicts a lot of prior episodes, but again, that's not the issue. This episode does nothing interesting with the premise. There's no actual jokes, with 99% of the "comedy" coming from SpongeBob redecorating his house to be like Squidward's like some psychopath. The ending is so stupid too. Haha, Squidward's house gets burnt down and he has to stay with SpongeBob! What a dumb, creepy and unfunny episode. I'd write a massive novel but I've kind of burnt myself out today unfortunately. I'll let Trophy take the rest.

Trophy: SpongeBob has done dark humor splendidly before in episodes such as Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost, but in Squid's Visit it falls flat. The easiest thing to spot is that the buildup is rather annoying. SpongeBob always sees Squidward at work and at home, so him becoming a full on crybaby just because Squidward won't step inside of his house is a stretch, and then slowly I fear more for SpongeBob's sanity than Squidward's safety, in which he willingly commits theft of his vacuum, and then basically stalked his way into Squidward's house to recreate every nook and cranny. There are some ideas which just flat out don't work, and having SpongeBob do this in post-movie was an abhorrent choice. Alongside Squidward constantly getting hurt in this episode to the point of having his house burn down, there's a creep-factor. SpongeBob is capable of doing creepiness right and scaring Squidward in the process like in I Was a Teenage Gary, but for Squid's Visit it's done in such a way where I believe someone was legitimately trying to make a horror movie but instead got scripts mixed up and the SB crew tried to make it work due to tight deadlines not allowing for another script. The nervous laughter from Squidward cemented this as something that doesn't belong at all as a SpongeBob episode, and that's why it made my list at number 10.

 

Some of you may want to grab some pitchforks...

 

17. Truth or Square?

143 points. 8 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: 2 #1's - @Honest Slug & @Red Widow

Summary:

Spoiler

Patchy the Pirate is holding a TV Extravaganza and is waiting for SpongeBob to show up to it, but with no reply, he thinks back to all of the time that has passed without SpongeBob giving him a reply. He then sets out to find SpongeBob, and rides his boat to Bikini Atoll. 

The animated section of the episode then begins with SpongeBob waking up in the morning with the help of many alarm clocks lined up to the foghorn clock, only to blow out more clocks, thus waking SpongeBob up. He then reveals that it is the eleventy-seventh year anniversary since Mr. Krabs officially opened the Krusty Krab. He then remembered the first time he ate a Krabby Patty, and he apparently loved it, even though he was not born yet when he had it. He prepares himself by getting ready in various wacky ways. While we see SpongeBob's getting ready process, the song "A Day Like This" can be heard. After he finishes getting ready, SpongeBob rushes all the way to the Krusty Krab when he bumps into the customers waiting in line to get into the restaurant, and he knows that he cannot be late for this, so he jumps over the crowd's heads.

SpongeBob arrives at the Krusty Krab where Mr. Krabs reminds them to keep a close eye on all of the doors, and entrances, including the air vents, to make sure that Plankton does not sneak in during the eleventy-seventh year anniversaryfestivities. Meanwhile at the Chum Bucket, Plankton spoke with his computer wife, Karen, about how he has been a failure for 50 years of business, while Mr. Krabs has been nothing but successful. In order to redeem himself and finally get his hands on the Krabby Patty secret formula, Plankton decides that he will sneak into the Krusty Krab while the Employees and Mr. Krabs are distracted by the festivities, and steal the formula. 

Back at the live action segments, after Patchy ran off, P!nk and many other celebrities are sat down waiting around for their turn to perform in the extravaganza as promised. Pink and her band decide it would be a good idea to practice their performance while they wait. They then begin to play the song titled, We've Got Scurvy.

Returning to Bikini Bottom, Mr. Krabs decides to put SpongeBob in charge of decorating the Krusty Krab. Squidward reminds Mr. Krabs what had happened the other time SpongeBob got to decorate (which then cuts to a flash-back of SpongeBob's former decorating failure), but this time he was going to use the resources that he already had in the restaurant including napkins, ketchup, mustard, and inflatable Krabby patties as balloons. Meanwhile, Patrick had been hired by Mr. Krabs as security. They then went to the freezer to see the ice sculpture SpongeBob had made for the Krabby Patty. After entering the freezer the door accidentally gets locked behind them, thus trapping them in the freezer. The four of them (Including SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, and Squidward) decide to bust into the air ducts in an effort to escape.

While in the air ducts, Mr. Krabs finds a wrapper from an older Patty. Mr. Krabs then had a flashback of an old black and white Krusty Krab commercial. SpongeBob and the gang then go into another room where they discover many hidden cameras. On many monitors they see that SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward's houses were on camera. Mr. Krabs acts as though he doesn't know why there are hidden cameras, although it is heavily referred that he is responsible for them. At that very moment it is revealed that there are two men recording them from behind as they appear on one of the monitors. Mr. Krabs then suggests that they split up to find a way out. Mr. Krabs goes it alone while the other three stick together. Ultimately they just end up all together again a few moments later. Meanwhile, Plankton had reached the Krusty and was searching through the air ducts to find a way to the formula, but he was having no such luck. Plankton eventually falls right into the duct the gang is in.

Back on the surface, Patchy sailed through the sewers and on to the ocean. After sailing for a while he almost makes it to Bikini Bottom but is stopped short and eaten by a whale.

Back with the gang, SpongeBob remembers the time that Mr. Krabs had first told him the formula. Plankton leans in, in an attempt to find out what the formula is but the Mr. Krabs in the flashback grabs Plankton and throws him down an air duct. After moving further through the air ducts, Squidward remembers the days before SpongeBob lived in Bikini Bottom, but SpongeBob intterupts him to remind him how great it was when he first moved in (Cueing another flashback). Mr. Krabs' wallet then begins going crazy over all of the loose change he isn't earning from the customers waiting in line outside, so Mr. Krabs lets the wallet go so it can get to the money, only to be picked up by an unsuspecting man. Patrick then pulls out a radio transmitter he had taken from Sandy. They then attempt to call Sandy and have her come rescue them but Patrick destroys the transmitter after he thinks that Sandy is trapped inside it. SpongeBob then remembers the time that he and Sandy got married through a flash-back, only for it to be revealed that the whole thing was just a play.

We return to Patchy, now stuck in the belly of a whale, where he plays some supposed scenes of SpongeBob before it had first aired (including the Squidward, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs theme songs). His camera suddenly goes haywire which results in the whale sneezing him out, and launching him right back into the studio. He is knocked unconscious and starts dreaming that he is in Bikini Bottom by SpongeBob's Pineapple where he meets the titular sponge himself. He is then knocked out again, this time in his dream. He then wakes up to see the celebrities in the studio who tell him he can see SpongeBob everywhere, and they proceed to knock him unconscious once again.

Returning to the gang, at this point, SpongeBob had decided to use all of the gang as a battering ram to break through the air duct. After several tries the gang bust through only to discover that all of the customers were gone due to them waiting so long without getting any food. Mr. Krabs becomes heartbroken and believes the anniversary to be ruined, however SpongeBob begins to sing the Krusty Krab song, "Oh, Krusty krab" (A parody of Oh, Christmas Tree), which brings all of the customers back as they form a circle and start singing with SpongeBob. The Krusty Krab then returns to business and the celebration is ready to begin. Mr. Krabs also goes after the customer who had taken his wallet. Meanwhile, Plankton, on the other hand, was discovered by Mr. Krabs and was blown into a balloon after he pleads with him not to launch him.

The episode ends with SpongeBob wishing the Restaurant a happy eleventy-seventh anniversary.

Jjs: Oh boy, here we go. This is the highest Truth or Square has made it on a countdown. Apologies in advance to Steel, Wintermelon and others who like this tv movie.  In all of my years in the fandom, I would honestly say Truth or Square is the most divisive episode in SpongeBob history. This is the biggest "love it, hate it, or neutral to it" episode I've ever seen. I used to be willing to bat for this tv movie, calling it one of S6's best. Now, not so much. Much like Atlantis, I do think some of the flak and criticism Truth or Square gets is warranted. There are still things I like about Truth or Square. The animation is nice, there's a few nice gags, and I do think there is some genuinely sweet moments in here. However, as a whole, it is kind of a dry, not that great episode. When you boil it down, it's literally Bottle Episode: The TV Movie. There's your 10th anniversary special. And...alright. Bottle episodes aren't a bad thing in and of themselves, but I don't find myself all that invested in what's going on, unfortunately. And yay, it's another Krusty Krab episode. Also, Plankton appears for another tiresome steal the formula plot. Woohoo. Oh, and speaking of, just like Atlantis, Plankton literally had no business being in this episode at all. This was one of his most shoehorned-in appearances ever, and I legit forgot about his plot entirely until seeing him in the summary. I get they had to put him in due to the 10th anniversary and it being a Krusty Krab episode, but they could've done something a lot more interesting with him. As for the flashbacks themselves, I feel like they aren't that special or interesting, to be frank. If they wanted to dive deeper into actual origins, like how SpongeBob and Patrick met each other, that could've been cool, but the flashbacks we get instead feel...kind of lacking, and at times, dumb. Although I'm not bugged by it personally, the Spandy "wedding" was kind of a shitty way to bait people in. It was cute, but it was still pretty pointless. Not all of the flashbacks are bad though. I did enjoy a few things like the old-timey cartoon and baby SpongeBob in his mother's stomach. But they could've done so much more. And, that, at its core, is why Truth or Square is a bit disappointing: it feels like it could've gone the extra mile for a 10th anniversary special. I think The Clash of Triton should've been a tv movie over this one if you want me to be honest, but I think this still could've worked as a half-hour special. Oh and yeah, the Patchy segments are awful and tedious, although I personally find his bits in Atlantis much more of a snore. I don't judge Truth or Square by the Patchy bits alone though, so whatever. Although, I did like the character theme song changes when he was in the whale's stomach, especially Mr. Krabs'. I don't flat out dislike Truth or Square at all, as there are genuinely some heartwarming and decent parts I find in it. But when you remove any of the hype or Patchy stuff, the episode itself on its own is a bit disappointing and lacking. If you're not looking for more, Truth or Square might satisfy you as a decently relaxed, comfty episode that doesn't do anything too crazy. If you want a lot more though, you're not going to find it here. I respect why people still love this one, but I believe the flaws people find are reasonable. I'd keep going but we have three other commenters ready to bat.

TJ: To say "Truth or Square" was a disappointment is putting it lightly. It's like the writers came up with a good concept, but failed to adequately go through with it. There was so much potential for this to be a memorable episode. Don't even get me started on how over-hyped it was by the network when it was first being promoted. A lot of stuff in it just seemed to bait as well without holding any true weight (i.e the "Spandy Wedding"). Furthermore, this episode's lack of any real substance was heightened by the obnoxious "Patchy the Pirate" segments. In general, I've never found Patchy that funny anyway. Overall, a disaster of a "special" that could of actually come out well had the writers made much different choices.

Wumbo: Trying to boil down the essence of why an hour-long episode doesn't work is difficult, to say the least. Naturally, there are going to be elements in the episode that do work. If there weren't, then an hour-long episode that completely wasted my time would be my #1, no question. This episode only mostly wasted my time, so it just misses out on my Bottom 10.

Put simply, this episode is a confused, jumbled mess. The parts that do work are overshadowed by the wonky storytelling, dumb flashbacks, repetitive jokes, and a Patchy sequence that just goes on waaaay too long. I want to pinpoint exactly what this episode was trying to do, so I could better tell you where it went wrong. But I really couldn't. There are so many directions the episode takes, and almost all of them feel like the less ambitious choice to me.

I can't even list all the weird, unfunny moments that don't work in the Patchy segments. There is a cameo from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog that goes on for almost two minutes, and if that alone doesn't make your skin crawl, then we have a whole bunch of actually funny people completely wasted with the same joke. Ha ha, they don't want to be on Patchy's show! Holy God, this takes up a good quarter of the episode and it is so lame. Why get celebrity cameos if you're not going to give them anything to do? They get Robin freaking Williams to cameo and they make him into an unfunny Patchy hostage who drops a reference to Hook and then leaves. What? And that's to say nothing of Pink's cameo, who admittedly has the most to do but is also the most embarrassing of the bunch. I don't think she was acting when she was talking about firing her agent.

All this wasted Patchy nonsense leads us to our undercooked SpongeBob plot, which, instead of anything actually interesting happening, features the Krusty Krab crew trapped in the ventilation system, basically treating the episode like a clip show without the old clips. We get to see SpongeBob meet Squidward for the first time! It's completely stale and boring. You're telling me Squidward never liked SpongeBob? Wow! My eyes are opened. Thank you for that totally necessary flashback. SpongeBob and Sandy got "married"? Hello, fanbase! Salivate to our pandering! And then there's all these montage clips. Mr. Krabs launching Plankton. Squidward sleeping. SpongeBob decorating (???). I almost would have preferred a clip show to this, at least it would have given these stupid, stupid flashback scenes a reason to exist.

Ugh. I suppose I should be charitable and list the things I do like, just so my head isn't on a pike tomorrow by this episode's fans. I really do love the old-timey cartoon style SpongeBob, it's easily the best and most inspired part of the episode. Patrick gets some funny lines in, the best probably being the college degree being the only way out of the Krusty Krab. And despite the Patchy moments being riddled with pointless celebrity cameos and going on far too long, he does get in some funny moments here and there. I do admire his dogged determination to make this anniversary special work and to meet his hero, SpongeBob. But those are mere flickers of brightness in the dark tunnel that is this episode. It didn't completely waste my time, but it wasted enough of it to make my list.

Clappy:  So here’s the thing about Truth or Square.  I’ve said my piece on it for many years now.  Yet somehow, I keep finding out new things to say about this turd of a special. Can’t say that about most episodes that make these countdowns over and over again. I’ve read my fair share of defenses from people on this site that say it’s better than I give it credit for.  Is it really now?  Because all these defenses I’ve read are the episodes problems to me.

This is a giant ratings trap if I’ve ever seen one.  Come see all these glorious cameos!  These series long moments we’ve been waiting for!  Patchy is back!  All reasons to tune in, right?  Well here’s the thing.  Nothing of note happens.  

It’s just another bottle episode.  And I would have zero problems if that was the case, but at least give me something worthy of making this episode one whole hour.  Why the hell should I care for “brand new clips” that provide absolutely nothing interesting?  Give me the old ones because that’s what made the series last as long as it has.

And you know what?  If this was only twenty two minutes along the likes of other bad specials like Clash of Triton, then it would be a 4/10 at best maybe.  But no.  We get a whole hour of nothing happening except SpongeBob and friends wandering around an air vent looking at clips that either didn’t happen, weren’t interesting, and especially not entertaining.  Even for a bottle episode’s sake, we deserve better for (at the time) ten years of dedicated fandom.

Okay I went without bringing it up long enough.  The Patchy segments were by far the worst part.  I know that Patchy isn’t the focal point of these specials but when you have the guy take up at least half the episode, he long overstays his welcome.  And he isn’t doing anything of substance here either.  From shamelessly shoehorning in cameos to acting incredibly unlikeable.  Patchy’s adventure to honor SpongeBob and finally meet him is just supremely annoying.  Those celebrity cameos don’t even mesh well with what this episode is about.  Do kids even know who Craig Ferguson is?  Outside of sports fanatics and people who watch those weird Sprite commercials, do the kids really get excited for LeBron James appearing?  And even the recognizable cameos just sound supremely forced.  The acting is that vapid and uninspired.

Last time I talked about this, the only thing I was willing to defend was the songs.  Little did I know over the years that these songs were from other soundtracks from the series.  If the best thing about your hour long special is unoriginal music, then that’s a telling sign as to how uneventful a ten year celebration movie really is.  At least you have Pink singing about scurvy, right?  Hah, Pink hasn’t tried in at least ten years and has been on autopilot ever since.

Bottom line, this special sucks.  It sucked then.  It sucked now.  It will continue to suck.  We as a fandom deserve something more special than this reminder that “eleventy seven” is not an actual number.  We deserve funny content from other episodes to honor such a huge milestone if you're going to give me nothing from this one.

Edited May 26, 2018 by Harold Claude

[WhoBibbles]

honestly part of the reason why I don't mind Truth or Square this much was that I found some gags that were funny to me. Some of flashbacks, the survaliance part, alternative theme songs, Patrick acting like a guard, Mr. Krabs' wallet; these scenes made laugh, even if some of them were so stupid. The songs of this movie were delightful to me and the mickey mouse style animation was so much fun. I totally understand the criticisms tho and I agree with most of them. To me, part 1 of the special was actually funny, whereas part 2 was so slow, unfunny and annoying. Patrick does stupid things to prevent our characters from escaping yay!!! not. My country never aired first half of Patchy segments and that was definitely a good move but I've seen latter half and I agree it was atrocious. The only criticism I don't agree is that people wanting clips to be the old episodes. Eh, I prefer clips to be new and add something to the show or be funny. I laughed at some of them but I agreed that they served no purpose, other than clickbait stuff and some same jokes we've seen before. The episode had so much potential to become a great 10th anniversary celebration but it wasted so much time on pipelines, rather than have an actual epic adventure or highlight our characters. The title is very accurate for a special that just lies to the audience.

Squid's Visit, oh boy. I just can't stand that one and I'm glad it made it to the list. The amount of Squidward torment was just bad and the creepy factor was used so poorly. I love creepy stuff but use it wisely for the story. Bummer Vacation was great because it had a build up to SpongeBob acting like a creep and those all turned out to be jokes. Here, SpongeBob stalks Squidward because he was never in his house. WTF. The show can be as inconsistent as it wants on continuity but don't ignore some basic shit. Squidward visited him before, therefore him wanting this to happen so badly made no sense. Not the mention, it was so creepy for sake of being creepy. Creepy factor is great if it helps the story to be move forward. It didn't here. All of it was "lets give Squidward a hellish day for no reason whatsoever", instead of getting a good story on Squidward doing something to piss someone off and as a result, he gets creeped on. And the creeper being SpongeBob is insulting. SpongeBob is kind and caring, not a sociopathic obsessed person. Him stealing his vaccum and then shaping his house to be exactly like Squidward's was borderline obsession and toxic. This is not SpongeBob! The ending was just a slap in the face. Lets make Squidward's house being on fire because he forgot to turn off the oven. Although part of blame goes to Squidward (and he refused to call the cops when SpongeBob was doing creepy shit), it was still messed up that this happened to him. Why bother when everything goes back to normal right? At least SpongeBob got to be outside while Squidward stayed in SpongeBob's house. But then again, Gary got to stay outside because of SpongeBob's mistakes. This episode pisses me off so much. It didn't understand how horror genre is used nor it understood how to make us laugh.

[RD Rockruff]

Squid's Visit didn't make my list. It's bad, yes, but it doesn't affect me too much. Key word: "too much", as it is still creepy. Even then, however, I found something in it funny (Squidward screaming after being woken up by Spongebob at one point; the line "I don't think I have a cream for that" wasn't bad either), so... I don't think it's as bad as everyone says but that doesn't save it from being bad.

As for Truth or Square, an episode that did make my list, all that I can say about that one is that it's boring as all hell. There's nothing else to it, really. It was just a barrage of useless filler that had no connection to anything else.

[WinterArcanine]

Squid's Visit: Not on my list, but still a bad episode. Spongebob is so ooc here and Squidward goes through so much crap for no reason. And having Squidward's house burnt down was so stupid.

Truth or Square: 8 people don't know quality content if it hit them in the face

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: ???

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: ???

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)

[SG19]

Being creepy and disturbing isn't necessarily bad, but Squid's Visit does it in all the wrong ways.

[SpongeOddFan]

Squid's Visit: this episode is just...creepy af, SB stalking Squidward at the wrong time. Like i get Squidward hasn't visited his house (...wat?). The fact the writers forgot to notice that Squidward did in fact visit his house BEFORE...really? I don't know it just went from here to there. Overall, it's just so creepy that I have to avoid the weordness IMO.

Truth or Squard: I think @Harold Claude @Red Widow @WumboJack Horseman & Clappy pretty much said everything about it. For me, i find to be neatural myself. Don't get me wrong, I liked the old cartoon style animation, and cute baby SB getting Krabby Patty is adorable .  The rest is shit even wasted celebrity cameoo didn't help during Patchy segment, too. the flashbacks were meh and that's pretty much it..

Overall, it's very mixed special that's best thing to describe IMO.

[Wumbo]

Well, I've said my long piece about Truth or Square already. I'll just add one more thing: I hate Ricky Gervais, and to hear that black hole of charisma take the place of the French narrator infuriated me. I would have honestly preferred Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to narrate the special.

I keep forgetting about Squid's Visit, but it truly is a wretched episode and deserves to make the list without a doubt. Never before or since has the SpongeBob/Squidward dynamic been played so unpleasant.