SBC's Top 50 Worst Episodes Ever 2018 Edition

[Amphibia]

Big Sister Sam: this episode sucks, it's just Patrick's sister acting unlikeable whanever she feels angry, and she destoryed their neighbours' housees. I don't like it because it made her like "SISTER SAM MAD, SISTER SMASH" gimmick made me think it's one of worst one-off characters in SB to me. I feel like it's just there for trying to make it seems good, but it didn't made me feel entertain myself nothing.

Trenchbillies :....oh boy, i don't like where this is going. it's just so bad that they making sterotype in SpongeBob? this isn't FG or Simpsons. i agree with jjs' point how this ep feels dry and all that. I do feel bad for Mr Krabs at the end.

Also, SB & Patrick jumping each other..and do stuff that's weird...what am i even looking at?

Overall, it's...plain weird to say the least.

[President Squidward]

I'm kind of entertained by Big Sister Sam. I don't know why. It isn't a good episode to me or anything, but I don't really hate it.

Trench-Billies is awful though and it was #10 on my list.

[Honest Slug]

Honestly The Main Drain is still my most hated LOBB episode. Sad that it seems like it isn't making the list.

[Dragonball Z]

Believe it or not, if you know WHERE to look, you can actually FIND prototype designs for Sam from "Big Sister Sam", where she was SUPPOSED to look EVEN uglier, but SOMEONE thankfully had the decency to stop it from coming to fruition!  Even so, the episode didn't make my list, and I don't think it ever will. I just don't dislike it as much as I do other episodes. "Trenchbillies" is another episode segment that doesn't belong in a show like "Spongebob Squarepants." I don't know WHY the episode segment didn't make my list this year; although I can personally take it or leave it, I can understand why other people would have such a strong distaste towards it. Enough said, for now.

[101 Dalmatian Street]

9 hours ago, Larry the Krab said:

Same can be said for the rest of them.

To be fair, the rest of the episodes had a type of character to identify it as a "Legend of Bikini Bottom." The respective episodes had an unidentifiable monster, mermaids, an urban legend about a drain plug, a magical hagfish, a dolphin warrior, and a legend about a volcano whereas the most miserable person's house has to be used a sacrifice. These things don't make Legends of Bikini Bottom completely live up to its title, but I can at least see some sense in them. The point I was trying to make is that I just don't see how "Trenchbillies" could connect with the theme that Legends of Bikini Bottom was trying to go for. The episode just had straight-up, stereotypical portrayals of hillbillies.
 

Oh, and was The Main Drain really as bad than I remembered? The end of the episode was a huge cop-out, but there wasn't so much else that I hated from that segment.

[Shark Tale]

8. Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom

184 points. 11 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: 2 #2's - @Larry the Krab & @ACS

Summary:

Spoiler

This episode starts at the Krusty Krab in the evening, where Squidward is listening to Kelpy G's smooth jazz on the radio. The radio announces that there is a concert tonight, but the tickets are sold out. Squidward notices that he has tickets, so he could go to the concert, but Patrick swallows them. They use the phones for a chance to win more tickets, but they keep on losing. SpongeBob finally figures it out and they both can go backstage to meet Kelpy G. SpongeBob and Squidward go on a bus to go to Kelpy G's concert. When they get there, SpongeBob's immature behavior makes Squidward feel embarrassed, so Squidward tries to give SpongeBob the slip, by having him get lemonade in the long line, but he shows up and said there was a second lemonade stand. They both go to the concert together and Kelpy G comes down from a large clarinet and plays jazz.

Patrick comes along and said he wanted the nachos. Squidward gets angrier. Patrick eats Squidward's backstage pass, so SpongeBob compassionately gives Squidward his backstage pass, but Patrick eats his too. Patrick wants more nachos. He interrupts Kelpy G's performance, which makes him stop playing, and says what he wants to eat through the microphone and then when he sees his guards try to hurt him, he jumps off the stage and is then carried away by the fans. SpongeBob and Squidward sneak away, but the guards tell them to go back to their seats. When the two get there, they find that some other people took them. Squidward angrily yells at them, which makes Kelpy G stop playing again.

The guards kick them out. The duo manages to sneak backstage, but Kelpy G's manager tells them that they need to leave because they don't have any backstage passes. They both attempt to impress Kelpy G. Squidward begins to play the clarinet, while SpongeBob plays the ukulele. Kelpy G is impressed with SpongeBob's ukulele playing. The fans wait for Kelpy G to come and he does, but there is a partner with him, who happens to be SpongeBob. Squidward comes out on the stage to prove that he is better. However, the guards carry him out and the episode ends.

Jjs: I'm surprised Smoothe Jazz finally cracked the bottom 10, but it's not undeserved. While I never had a burning hatred for this one, there's no denying it is one of the weakest S8 entries to me. The concept of this one could've been good, but unfortunately it goes to waste. Squidward wanted to have a relaxing concert, and his day gets ruined for no real reason again. Patrick really had no reason to be in this one at all, and the way he acts is a reasonable reason to ruin the episode for many. Like, why did he need to be here? I didn't find any of his antics funny. SpongeBob is also pretty annoying and oblivious here too. If you cannot stand Patrick and SpongeBob in this one at all, then this episode will certainly suck for you. When it's not being annoying, the rest of the episode is lacking substance. I will admit that I haven't seen this one since like 2012, so if I rewatched it I could probably dislike it a lot more someday. 

Homie: Complaining about 'annoy Squidward' episodes is about as overstated now as harping on gross-out in The Splinter, and with 42 entries already done on this list and more to go it can get repetitive talking about why these episodes specifically are so horrible. Yet, when an episode so uniquely awful plays upon horrific tropes of the past, it goes beyond complaining about Squidward being abused for no good reason or Patrick displaying some of his worst character assassination in season eight. The episode goes above and beyond to be excruciating, including showing Squidward in an unprecedentedly positive state of mind while listening to Kelpy G, only for things to go immediately awry. In this beginning scene alone, there are a number of issues that lead into bigger problems as the episode progresses.

Particularly frustrating is the line Squidward delivers about how SpongeBob will "through some manner of foley destroy it," only for Patrick to eat it immediately after. This bit of, ahem, irony may certainly be funny to someone, but the fact that the writers choose to point out this extremely lazy storytelling device without actually doing anything to fix it is proof enough that they lack basic respect for the viewer. But it doesn't end there. 

SpongeBob himself is particularly obnoxious throughout, and while I'm well aware this was the intention of the episode to be annoying, that doesn't necessarily mean I have to enjoy it, nor does it make better the fact that his actions immediately ostracize Squidward from everyone else at the concert, thereby creating an extremely annoying juxtaposition of Squidward acting mellow while listening to jazz and SpongeBob yelling every five seconds. And boy are SpongeBob's more irritating personality traits played up in order to make for a more difficult viewing experience. I get that SpongeBob always has been annoying, but to intentionally put him at his worse for the purpose of serving this obnoxious Squidville wannabe plot is irritating at best. If this were the worst Smoothe Jazz had to offer, it probably wouldn't have made my list as high as it did, but the most frustrating scene remains to be seen. 

Through some matter of contrivance, Patrick appears at the concert and immediately eats Squidward's ticket, because the writers decided we needed another obnoxious character to ruin Squidward's day. It's almost as though they realized the plot they set up was going nowhere and a quick distraction was necessary. Of course, in the same twenty seconds Squidward tears his head open quite literally to show his brain and Patrick is rewarded for being braindead for no real reason. Ink Lemonade parallels, man. There is literally no reason why the audience was so enamored by Patrick ordering into the microphone, nor why someone was in Squidward's seat when he returned, nor why they got violently kicked out. Logic taking a backseat to humor is nothing new for SpongeBob, but this sort of joke only works when the humor is actually humorous and not apart of a bizarre contrivance to make Squidward's life difficult. Positive anecdote: the read my lips gag was kind of funny. Maybe it wasn't and I just had to laugh at something through the pain. I don't know. 

The only good thing I can add about the ending is that Patrick wasn't brought on stage, but this too is a problem of sorts because the episode introduces Patrick into it for literally no reason other than to mess with Squidward when the central plot has literally nothing to do with him, thus showing how he was literally shoehorned into this episode on absolutely no basis and his existence in this episode is given absolutely no resolution, culminating in an absolute mess.

Steel: I needed to rewatch this episode so I could remember very well why I've grown to hate this episode, but I have to rely on some sources for my commentary. However, I speak for anyone when I say that is one of the worst episodes from the show that narrowly missed my list. While I actually had "Good Ol' Whatshisname" as my original #25 until "Ink Lemonade" aired, I've since changed my mind as "Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom" currently bubbles under my list at the very top...but after writing up my commentary, I felt like I've could've ranked this episode fairly high on my bottom 25.

So, what could I say about the episode that hasn't been said? It's an episode centered on Squidward that I know is doomed from the mere fact that it's a Squidward episode, but it's already doomed straight from the 'Smoothe' typo in the title that's apparently left in. This is a special kind of Squid torture episode. The entire time, you just feel like rooting for Squidward because, all the way through, the episode feels like it's against Squidward while treating Patrick like he's a gift from Neptune above for no good reason.

The problems that the episode suffers from is not from just the abuse itself, but the problems mostly surface from Patrick's reality warping. Squidward gets his concert ticket swallowed up by Patrick, who just appeared all of a sudden. That's okay though, SpongeBob just won himself and Squidward two backstage passes to see Kelpy G, but then Patrick swallows those up, who of course, appeared at the concert all of a sudden. Then we get a riot whereas Squidward tries to get Patrick cough out the backstage passes until it results into Squidward and SpongeBob's front seats being taken.

It just doesn't stop there. After Squidward disputes about not having his front seat, he and SpongeBob get kicked out by security. Oh hey, guards, is there any good reason why Patrick still gets to stick around for the show when he clearly didn't pay for a ticket? Well, here's the writers' excuse: "SpongeBob and nachos." ...Sounds reasonable enough [!!!!!]. Finally, after Squidward and SpongeBob spend a good moment of the episode trying to get backstage with Kelpy G, the episode ends with Squidward getting evicted, as he finds Squidward's clarinet playing abysmal while SpongeBob's ukulele playing tickles his fancy.

...Yeah, that is just painful. In fact, this episode is worse than I remembered. Also, word of advice I should've given to the respective post-movie writers for this episode a long time ago: tell me how I'm supposed to find any part of Squidward's discipline FUNNY. If your goal is to torture Squidward for laughs, don't just assume that your audience will find it funny or that the jokes are funny. Most of what Squidward goes through in the episode was genuinely depressing and frustrating to sit through.

 

7. The Clash of Triton

185 points. 13 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #3 - @President Squidward

Summary:

Spoiler

On King Neptune's 5,000th birthday, his wife, Queen Amphitrite calls the Krusty Krab and sets reservations to celebrate King Neptune's birthday there. Mr. Krabs sets up a crowd of watchers for some extra money after Shubie wanted to watch the royal family eat through the window, and SpongeBob cooks 5,000 Krabby Patties for King Neptune just as he arrives.

However, King Neptune is overly depressed about his son, Triton, when SpongeBob mentions him. Neptune shows everyone a movie that he made about his sad separation with Triton, locking him in a cage in the Island in the Sky until he learns to become a proper god like his father. To ease King Neptune's pain, SpongeBob plans to go to the Island in the Sky and release Triton from his shrunken cage (according to Neptune, the cage only shrinks 7%). Unfortunately, the lock on the cage was impossible for SpongeBob to undo. So, he then asks Patrick to unlock it and succeeds.

Triton comes out and offers the two a "ride" after turning the cage into a car, which SpongeBob and Patrick accept. But Triton pulls over when they were halfway there and tells SpongeBob and Patrick he doesn't need them anymore, knocking them out of the car with one whip of his tail. He immediately goes to Bikini Bottom and destroys it to have revenge on his father for locking him up. Then SpongeBob and Patrick return to Bikini Bottom and see the destruction. They both realize this was the reason Triton was locked up. They sneak into the Krusty Krab using the secret entrance, which led to inside the grill. SpongeBob tells Patrick to be very quiet.

Patrick agrees, but unfortunately throws the top of the grill backward, making a loud clashing noise. The two peek from behind the cashier window and see that Triton has locked up Neptune and all the party goers in a cage. King Neptune apologizes to Triton and begs him to release everybody else and take him instead, but he ignores him. Then SpongeBob and Patrick unlock the cage staying hidden in the grill. Triton, in great dismay, says to his father that he was only kidding and tries to swim away. But an angry Neptune catches him by appearing in front of him. Triton tries to tell him that he did not mean to lock him in a cage, but his father thinks he has gone too far and is about to punish Triton for his actions.

Neptune then sees what Triton did to Bikini Bottom and angrily asks him if he was responsible for it. Triton begs Neptune not to send him back to the cage. But Neptune, instead of punishing him, says that he just gave him the best birthday present he has ever received. Triton learned to use his powers at long last, and that was what Neptune wanted all along. Neptune finally accepts Triton for who he is and the two hug with everyone cheering for them. Then, with Amphitrite, they return home. As they leave, Neptune says this was all because of SpongeBob. But everybody hears what he said and begins to hate SpongeBob. The episode ends with SpongeBob and Patrick running for their lives as the citizens of Bikini Bottom form a mob and chase them.

Jjs: Ah yes, The "Clash" of Triton. If there was ever an award for the SpongeBob episode with most wasted potential, it would go to this one. Honestly, I could just rewrite what Nuggets typed in his beautiful essay from 2015 as it took every word out of my mouth. This bad boy once again made my list at #6. They could've literally done anything else with this, and it probably would've been better than what we actually got. A special covering Neptune and his family had so much potential, but given it closes out S6, it goes as well as you'd expect. The pacing is horrible, with the first half being wasted on needless exposition, and the second half is badly rushed. Triton isn't even a good character, and the sappy ending they try to do with him and Neptune leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Yay, he almost destroyed a city, so his dad is proud of him! Okay. This show does not have the strong depth to tackle a father/son relationship meaningfully. And the "ending" with the Bikini Bottomites chasing SpongeBob away is a nice representation of S6 as a whole. This seriously should have been a tv movie instead of Truth or Square. There's no real clever jokes to make up for the poor story either. It's such a depressing waste of potential.

More: This was an episode that I found hard to talk about as Nugget's commentary from last year and Anim8ball's recent review of it are hard to top. But given I was invited to do this as I had this at my #4 slot, it's worth trying to muster how many ways this episode failed.

A show like SpongeBob could rarely raise the stakes or fill the runtime of an episode enough to make that many good specials, and this is a prime example. The relationship between Neptune and Triton could have shown the differences in moral worldview and conflicting relationships between the two, but instead they make them one-dimensional, with Neptune being a power-hungry, unsympathetic monster and Triton an altruist without any other qualities. It makes Neptune look even worse when he cages him up to turn him evil, which eliminates the opposing chemistry established, making the fight become one between a jerk and a tyrant. It's not until literally 20 minutes in when there's any sort of resolution between them, and when it happens, neither get any consequenses (no, that's dumped onto SpongeBob and Patrick) and the part where they reunite just nails into the coffin that the only thing Neptune's good at is making other people as uncivil as he is.

It seems like a bad use of time management that half of the episode was dedicated to a generic subplot of the "slow day at the Krusty Krab". It doesn't add anything new: we just see Mr. Krabs being cheap to try and scam customers, long drawn-out setup scenes and forced integrations with the Triton story (like the scene with Patrick hiding under the grill to unlock everyone) that did nothing to slow or stop his power. All this does is compete with the main story for runtime so that the actual "Clash" seems like an afterthought. Triton never bothered to do anything until a whopping 17 1/2 minutes in, and when it happens he's too dumb lazy to do anything intimidating but draw his name onto the city. When watching it on its premiere, the ending felt so half-baked that I was convinced there was another 11 minutes to shake it up--Nick@Nite coming on baffled me.

The episode doesn't provide any support for the wasted dynamic and each introduction to the next scene makes the episode more confusing that the last one. How do they introduce Triton? SpongeBob oblivion as he drags on and on about an empty seat with his name on it! How does Triton escape? With a puzzle so easy even Patrick could solve it! Everything about this is slap-dashed. There's no action scenes to make it exciting, no emotional connections to the characters we'd normally care about to make the interactions seem anything but a fake soap opera, there's not even a scrap of good animation or music so that the atmosphere fools you into thinking something's happening.

This isn't the worst special in the show. There are at least some quick jokes that were decent like when Mr. Krabs though Queen Amphitrite was prank calling him or that weird part about imported wood. But by all means, this is an utter mess through and through and I couldn't be bothered to watch the episode again without skimming at least half of it. It's disappointing. This episode seemed like one that could explore deeper themes in characters while still having a lot of Greek style fun. But with a result like this, its clear that its five writers really shouldn't have attempted to salvage it.

And that's my review of "The Crash of SpongeBob" for you! Wait...

Edited May 31, 2018 by Harold Claude

[RD Rockruff]

Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom: UGH. This is one of the most infuriating episodes in the whole show. While I myself do get a bit annoyed whenever someone complains about an episode being a "Squidward torture", here is where I'll make an exception. There is nothing redeemable in this episode, absolutely nothing. I threw this list together quickly because, you know, I was sort of lazy and made it at the last second but if I could edit it, then I'd have to say that A Pal for Gary would go somewhere under this episode. Yes, this one's THAT bad. It made my list at #5 but in retrospect it should've gone a bit higher.

The Clash of Triton: Yet another boring special. While there's worse out there in my opinion, it goes without saying that this is one of the worst specials. When it wasn't being slower than a salted slug, it was totally unfunny. The episode just drags along. Nothing happens for much of the episode. The closest they came to telling a joke was the "imported wood" line and while it does sound like it would be funny, it was poorly delivered and only served otherwise to drag out this dull episode. It made my list.
heh, i guess he's named triton because "trite" describes this episode perfectly

[President Squidward]

Smoothe Jazz and Clash of Triton are both garbage episodes. One is infuriating to sit through, and the other is so boring and unfunny. My least favorite special ever.

[BoJack Horseman]

tbh I never thought SpongeBob was annoying in Smoothe. He had good intentions towards Squidward, at least up until the end but more on that later. Other than that, he was just whatever for me. Admittedly I liked this episode when it came out but after rewatching it more, I realized it was just another annoy Squidward episode with him not deserving this bad day. It's like writers really don't know how to make Squidward miserable for right reasons. For once, he was actually looking forward to something in his life. He wasn't sarcastic, jerkish or pessimistic. He should have had a good time but sadly what happened was Patrick. He was shoehorned into the story just to make Squidward's day worse. Writers forgot when to add an actual comedy in the episode, so they forced a comic relief down our throats. Patrick was just obnoxious and braindead once again and him actually enjoying his time was so unfair. I still stand by SpongeBob being mostly good here but that ending ruined him. So he can play music with Kelpy G but not Squidward because he sucks at playing clarinat haahahaha. Nothing new gag and it adds up more to Squidward's misery. It made my list because at first it was going just boring until Patrick made it mean-spirited and idiotic. Another episode that actually had potential to be a cool music type episode but nonono we can't have Squidward being happy. 

The Clash of Trition was another wasted potential to further my proof that the previous crew had nothing to do with specials, so they made them both unexciting and unfunny. Tirtion and Neptune were both assholes with no sympathy. Oh wait, Trition did have some sympathy until they ruined it with him becoming a jerk, thus making him exactly as horrid piece of shit like Neptune. We could have had a complex dynamic between Triton and Neptune and yeah, that's asking too much for a show meant to be comedic but If you really wanna go ballsy with a special, might as well try something. Don't start a plot near the end. Oh and SpongeBob and Patrick getting hunted doewn by Bikini Bottomies was so dumb since all they wanted was to do the right thing. Boo hoo. It's on my list and I'm glad it's this high woohoo.

[Amphibia]

Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom : Honestly, i dislike this episode because not onlt this wasted this episode entirely, but it's all Pactuck's stupidity that causes so much...ugh way to ruin it

Also, sB is annoying too that Squidward just wanted to relax, but nope these two were just being idiots.

The Clash of Triton : this made on my list at #8. This episode was slow, boring & padding to me tbh. It's like we wanted to see Triton acted as villain in this episode, and disobeying his father for no real reason...huh? and citizens of Bikini Bottom chasing after SB & Patrick at the end? nice way to end awful epidode, Nick.

the sole fact this episode conisdered as "special" is THERE'S NOTHING GOING ON LIKE NO BATTLE? NO CLEVER JOKES? and worst it all, their father/son realtionship makes no sense at all...how's that resolved?! ZERO!

I feel like Nick just misleading their promotion that were gonna be "epic" battle which in fact there isn't in there..holy crap, Nick!

Overall, it's waste of special, and it should be 11-minute rather 22 minutes or trv movie IMO.

[WinterArcanine]

Smoothe Jazz in Bikini Bottom: This episode was far in my list. Extremely frustrating, the squid abuse is terrible here, Patrick is also terrible, the plot is stupid, and I don't really find anything funny about this episode at all. 

Clash of Trition: Defitenly the worst special of the series. It's very boring, everyone in the royal family are jerks, and it fails to make the plot at all good or interesting. You can tell its bad when the comedy is the strongest part of the episode, when that was clearly the thing they were least focusing on. And it's not like the comedy is good either, there's just 2 or 3 good jokes in there. This didn't make my list, but in hindsight, it probably should have

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: Clash of Trition

28: The Thing

27: Fungus Among Us

26: ???

25: ???

24: Sun Bleached

23: Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy

22: Boating Buddies

21: ???

20: Choir Boys

19: Slide Whistle Stooges  

18: ???

17: Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful

16: ???

15: ???

14: Summer Job

13: To Love a Patty

12: ???

11: The Splinter

10: Cephalopod Lodge

9: Trenchbillies

8: Shuffleboarding

7: ???

6: Big Sister Sam

5: Smoothe Jazz in Bikini Bottom

4: Yours, Mine, & Mine

3: ???

2: Pet or Pests

1: ???

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

[kylie]

i could’ve sworn until writing that it was smoothe jazz IN bikini bottom, now i see that the title actually has two egregious errors 

[WinterArcanine]

16 minutes ago, ACS said:

i could’ve sworn until writing that it was smoothe jazz IN bikini bottom, now i see that the title actually has two egregious errors 

...oh my god

I only just noticed this now that you said that

[So Sejima]

Feel like I might've been too harsh on Smoothe Jazz but it was the shining example of dumb Patrick and shitting on Squidward....at least before Ink happened

I can't bring myself to hate Triton, it's always been harmless to me.

[Less_SpongeBob]

Big Sister Sam: This landing in the Top 10 baffled me but by all means this is an awful episode. It's depressing that it seems the only way that Patrick can be written as a straight man is when he's paired with someone even stupider than him. (A trope that's annoyed me with otherwise decent episodes like Patrick's Coupon and No Pictures, Please) Sam is easily the worst one-time character in the show and it's just despicable that Patrick seems to defend every destructive thing she does without question. I don't know, can you maybe utilize that interesting backstory Patrick stated in the beginning as motivation, or make a different character so that there's actually chemistry between the two? 

Trenchbillies: Yup, this was #20 for me. This is nonsensical and doesn't remotely seem legendary in any way. Just annoying stereotypes of hillbillies and a bunch of slow jokes. It seems its only purpose is to make fun of some nationality or group without adding any commentary, this seem more like a bad reality TV show than a SpongeBob episode.

Smoothe Jazz: This made my list right at the center at #14. Honestly it's one I could see getting higher on it over time as just about everything about it is annoying. Prior to Ink this was easily Patrick's worst appearance in the series, as at least Patrick's motivation for using a flamethrower in Pet Sitter Pat was thinking he was smart to control Gary. Here he's basically a food vacuum cleaner that was forced in whenever the plot was convenient for it. The other two characters are just as trite, with SpongeBob never making an attempt to understand Jazz and Squidward being unsympathetic the whole way through.

The Clash of Triton: Glad to see that this is the highest it's even been on one of these lists. Scroll up for my thoughts.

 

1. ???

2. Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy (#14)

 3. ???

4. The Clash of Triton (#7)

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. Smoothe Jazz in Bikini Bottom (#8)

15. Sun Bleached (#43)

 16. ???

 17. Demolition Doofus (#23)

18. Waiting (#24)

19. Are You Happy Now? (#32)

20. Trenchbillies (#9)

21. ???

 22. ???

23. All That Glitters (#22)

24. ???

 25. Sportz? (#30)

[101 Dalmatian Street]

I could imagine the bottom six looking like this:

Spoiler

6. Squid Baby
5. Ink Lemonade
4. SpongeBob, You're Fired!
3. One Coarse Meal
2. Stuck in the Wringer
1. A Pal for Gary

Whatever's left on the list is also my new #1. I haven't got my bottom 25 countdown written out yet, so I am going to spill the beans sooner than later.

[Dragonball Z]

"Smooth Jazz at Bikini Bottom" is just boring and bland from my perspective; not bad enough to make my Top 25 Worst List this year. Also, "Clash of Triton" definitely made MY list, all the way at #6! Talk about WASTED potential!  What they should have done instead of making all those sub-par season 6 episodes that appear on this list, is they should've SKIPPED making them at ALL, and instead focused all their time on writing a better story line for this 30 minute special, and they really could have HAD something! Only six more episodes to go; I wonder what the absolute WORST of the worst will be? Enough said, for now! 

[Shark Tale]

6. Squid Baby

210 points. 13 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: #1 - @Wintermelon43

Summary:

Spoiler

Squidward is relaxing in his bathtub when SpongeBob and Patrick, who are playing with SpongeBob's old baby toys, disturb Squidward. SpongeBob and Patrick continue to act like infants, so Squidward comes out and demands them to stop making noises and act mature. However, SpongeBob and Patrick do not listen. Squidward walks back to his house, but he slips on a toy along the way and hits his head. His injuries to the head cause him to act like an infant himself. SpongeBob and Patrick then bring him to the hospital.

At the hospital, a doctor tells them that Squidward has developed a mental disorder called "Head-Go-Boom-Boom-Itis" due to his head trauma. It means he is mentally and socially an infant despite being an adult. The doctor also says that his head must be protected from more injury, or else he will likely remain infantile.

However, later at SpongeBob's pineapple, when SpongeBob decides to feed Squidward, Patrick hurts Squidward's head by tossing him up into the ceiling. SpongeBob reminds him that they are supposed to protect Squidward's head, not hurt it more. SpongeBob tries to feed Squidward, but he does not like his food and spits it all over SpongeBob. Patrick licks the food off SpongeBob's face and thanks Squidward for sharing. Then, they try to entertain Squidward with some games. They start off with "Kelpy Cake" (parody of Patty Cake), but when Squidward does it, he ends up slapping SpongeBob and Patrick repeatedly, sending them flying into the air and out of the house into the street.

Squidward escapes, and SpongeBob and Patrick follow him as he crawls out to the street, where a truck is about to hit Squidward. The truck driver is asleep, but Patrick is able to protect Squidward and lift up the road to send the truck flying. However, when Patrick drops the road back into place, he accidentally smashes Squidward's head again. Then, SpongeBob and Patrick go back inside and put Squidward in a cage.

He cries for several days. Then, a few days later, SpongeBob goes to work with Patrick and asks him if he can watch Squidward while he works, but Patrick, tired from taking care of Squidward, falls asleep on a table.

SpongeBob informs an angry Mr. Krabs that Squidward has the mind of an infant and cannot work. Mr. Krabs does not care, since there are customers outside the door, literally begging to give Mr. Krabs their money. SpongeBob then gets an idea. He brings Squidward to the cash register and puts him in a high chair. When Squidward drops his head on the cash register, SpongeBob duct-tapes him to the seat so he cannot escape. When Mr. Krabs lets the customers in, Squidward sucks on a customer's hand and head and SpongeBob stops him.

SpongeBob then gives Squidward the order papers to write orders on, but Squidward instead doodles on them and throws them into the kitchen. SpongeBob asks him if it will be for there or to "goo." SpongeBob peeks out the order window and sees Squidward doodling on Nat Peterson's face. Nat screams and ends up running out of the restaurant. Pilar scolds Squidward for not taking an order. Squidward types in something then he bangs his jaw on the cash register and wails loudly.

SpongeBob thinks Squidward is crying because Pilar yelled at him and SpongeBob tells Pilar he should be ashamed. Squidward then dirties his diaper. The customers smell the horrible stench of Squidward's diaper and Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to change it. Everywhere he goes to change Squidward's diaper, people are sitting or getting condiments or walking. Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to take Squidward to the kitchen, where the food is prepared, and change it. This disgusts the customers, so they leave.

Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to get Squidward out of his restaurant. SpongeBob cries and tells Mr. Krabs that if Squidward is not welcome there, he is not staying either. However, on the way out, he ends up slipping on Squidward's baby rattle and slips into the kitchen, where he bangs Squidward's head on the frying pans and the fryer.

Squidward falls into the ice machine and ice pours out onto Squidward's head, curing his head trauma and returning him to his adult state. SpongeBob is relieved that Squidward is "grown up again" and a confused Squidward asks why he would not be grown up. He notices that he is wearing a diaper and that it is full.

When SpongeBob is about to tell Squidward that he was going to change him, a deadpanned Squidward tells SpongeBob to not say another word about that experience, ever. SpongeBob then replies, "Kids, they grow up so fast" as the episode ends.

Jjs: My feelings on this episode are very...conflicted. I went from not minding it, to finding it meh, to finding it bad, to putting it on my list in 2016, to being "whatever" towards this one. To be honest, I can't bring myself to vehemently despise Squid Baby. It still sucks and its place in the bottom 10 is deserved, but for me personally, I just feel all of its issues are done much worse in other episodes. That being said, if you aren't a fan of the "humor" in this episode at all, or Squidward abuse, then yeah this one absolutely is not for you. At the end of the day, it does feel like a forgotten S6 episode that they made HD and put into S9A. I did at least like how SpongeBob and Patrick tried to fix their mistake, and I did like the Coconut Man reference, but neither of those are enough to save it. For me though, I personally find much worse than this, but I totally understand why others despise it.

Wintermelon: For those who don't know (though you guys will probably know since my name will probably be listed as the highest ranking), this is my least favorite episode of the whole series. Out of all of them, this is my least favorite episode, for tons of reasons.

The biggest reason, of course, is the horrible idea of humor in this episode. Some stuff can just be painfully unfunny, like Ugandan Knuckles, and some stuff can be unfunny to the point of severe annoyance, like dabbing, but the idea of humor in Squid Baby is sickening, offensive, and morally wrong. The humor is offensive and morally wrong because it's trying to suggest that the stuff Squidward is going through, literally getting a mental illness that makes him basically a baby, is funny, and that it's funny for mentally harmed people to go through terrible things, which is the exact opposite of the truth. The truth is that these things are horrible. People mentally becoming babies is a real thing. This actually happens to people. And it's terrible that this happens. I don't have any actual experience of this, but I know it'd be terrible. This whole episode just makes fun of mental illnesses, when they can be seriously horrible, which is extremely unfunny and outright offensive. I have some mental problems myself (I have autism for example) and some people really do act like it's funny and treat me like a piece of crap for it, and think it's funny to do that. That's what this episode is doing. It's telling me that anything bad coming as a result of mental problems is funny, and something to laugh about, which is just horrible.

And it's not like anything else here isn't horrible either. Oh great, another unfunny squid abuse episode, really wanted that. Oh and it's even worse than normal, because it's Squidward suffering a major mental illness making him mentally a baby, which is already terrible enough, but then he gets his head constantly slammed into stuff for literally no reason!!! Seriously, that is THE worst running gag in the whole series! The doctor tells them to protect Squidward's head so he isn't permanently mentally damaged, and yet they just ignore it and let his head be slammed a billion times and act like it's so funny!!!!!!!! It's not!!! It's extremely unfunny and such a horrible gag, it's disgusting how they actually did that in the episode. The squid abuse in this episode makes even Ink Lemonade look "tame"! And then to make it worse, they make slamming his head bring Squidward back to normal! Not only is this a really stupid cop-out ending, but this also suggests to little kids watching that you can fix mental problems and so on by slamming their head, which is a horrible lesson to be teaching them, considering that could damage them even more! This episode is also extremely annoying too, even without the mental illnesses stuff there's stuff the running gag I mentioned, plus many other annoying things throughout the episode such as the beginning where Spongebob and Patrick play with baby toys! Not only is that OOC, but it's extremely annoying! In fact, I'd even say this episode is more annoying than YM&M, which is saying a lot since that episode is extremely annoying already! This episode is also extremely gross too, a lot of the things that happen here is very gross, and the animation makes it even grosser! Squidward's poopy diaper is so gross! And then there's also the characterization, where the only good characters are Squidward, who is only even mentally sane for like 2 minutes total here and is a baby the rest of the time, and the doctor who actually bothers to care about Squidward! Mr. Krabs is a horrible character here, Squidward is severely mentally harmed and can barely even function, and yet Mr Krabs still makes him work!!!! That's horrible! Babies shouldn't be working! It's basically abuse and is absolutely horrible. And then there's SpongeBob and Patrick, who at least "take care of Squidward"....... except they really don't care about him at all, since they let him just have his head be horribly damaged, thus basically allowing him to be stuck like this forever!!! They're not caring for him, they're abusing him themselves!

The plot and premise is also stupid too! I mean come on, it partially rip-offs rock-a-bye bivalve but also makes it way worse! I mean literally, it's about Squidward getting a horrible mental illness that basically turns him into a baby, gets his head constantly slammed due to lack of caring from Spongebob and Patrick, after being told to prevent that, then go into the krusty krab where Mr Krabs forces Squidward to work despite being like this, then Spongebob needs to change his diaper, and then a cop-out ending. It's such a stupid and horrible premise and I can't even believe it was even thought of, and then approved and became an episode!!! You'd think this would come from terrible people who finds mental illnesses funny, but I very highly doubt the creators of this were bad people, and there's still the fact that this had to be approves by Nickelodeon and it was, which is why I'm shocked it even exists and was created in the first place. And there's almost no good things about this episode either. I liked the title card, the my leg joke, and the weather changing as the mood changed, but that's the only good stuff, and there is so much horrible stuff throughout the episode.

So yeah, In conclusion, this is why this is my least favorite episode of the series. The worst running gag of the series, a horrible and offensive sense of humor, terrible premise and plot, horrible squid abuse, horrible characterization, very annoying, gross, cop-out and stupid ending, and so on....... There's even more bad things about this episode, but I haven't seen it in a while (I avoid this episode lol), so I forget some stuff. But yeah, this episode has an extremely huge amount of horrible things about it that makes me hate it so much. I admit I might not have explained why I hate it so much very good, I'm not good at explaining my thoughts, but I hope this was good enough.

 

5. SpongeBob, You're Fired!

213 points. 13 out of 25 lists. Highest Ranking: 2 #1's - @More & @Halibut

Summary:

Spoiler

SpongeBob is working at the Krusty Krab and is making a Krabby Patty while Squidward sleeps on the job. When he finishes making it, Mr. Krabs comes and tells him he is fired. Krabs says the reason why he is firing him is because he found out he can save a nickel if he cuts off SpongeBob's salary completely. Squidward asks if he can be fired but Mr. Krabs states he can't be fired as he has seniority, to his dismay. SpongeBob offers to work for free but Mr. Krabs stated he already thought of that, though he had found out he cannot because it is illegal and he would lose his vendor's license. As a result, SpongeBob starts crying and floods the Krusty Krab with his tears. Not sympathetic to this, Squidward tells him he should come back "as a customer," which makes him cry again before Squidward closes the blinds on a sulking SpongeBob. Then, he congratulates Mr. Krabs for his decision and asks him who is going to make the patties. Krabs tells him that he was a "golden spatula fry cook" in the navy, so he is going to be the new chef before the spatula spontaneously burst into flames as Squidward comments on the impending disaster.

SpongeBob then goes home, crying about his situation, as he is comforted by Gary who also wants to be fed. SpongeBob feeds him but continues to cry as he hears Patrick crying because he is doing so too. Feeling bad, SpongeBob invites him to come inside, before (at first unsuccessfully) telling him about his situation. However, Patrick tells him that being fired is the best gig that he knows and tells SpongeBob he is going to come back the next day to tell him the steps of glorious unemployment.

The next day, SpongeBob appears depressed and disheveled, as Patrick tells him the 3 steps of glorious unemployment, or as Patrick likes to call it, "fun-employment." The steps are breakfast with Squidward, taking a mid-morning siesta, and free lunch with friends. First, they go to Squidward's house and step on his plants. Angered, Squidward throws food at them to go away. That is how they get their breakfast. Next, Patrick and SpongeBob stick themselves to the rock, but SpongeBob falls down. Then, they go to Sandy's treedome, where she is handing out food which is toxic waste that gives off mutations such as a puffy face and extra forehead for Patrick.

Sandy then notices SpongeBob who tells her he lost his job and tries to eat the food she made but she quickly prevents him from eating the slop since she explains her real goal is doing a psychological test to determine how much stuff (she doesn't even know what this "stuff" is) they eat, for free. Sandy then tells SpongeBob that he needs to get a new job. Motivated by her words, SpongeBob tells Patrick that "funemployment" may be fun for him but he needs to get a new job. While Patrick's second head insults him, Patrick angrily hits the latter for insulting his friend and tells SpongeBob to go ahead with his decision. With that, he turns from a depressed sponge to back to a happy and joyful sponge again and he goes looking for a job.

The first job SpongeBob arrives at is the Weenie Hut, where he gets employed by Mr. Weiner. However, Weiner soon fires SpongeBob due to him making Weenie Patties instead of hot dogs. Next, SpongeBob goes to Pizza Piehole where he gets hired by Pizza Pete to make pizzas, but SpongeBob makes a Pizza Patty, much to Pizza Pete's disapproval, resulting in SpongeBob getting fired again. Next, SpongeBob goes to Taco Sombrero; he gets hired and makes a Burrito Patty, and Señor Taco asks a customer to taste it. Pilar volunteers, but when he takes a bite, the burrito meat gets into Billy and Frank's faces, so he gets fired once again. SpongeBob then cries an excuse to Señor Taco, but the latter just strictly fires him. Next and shortly, a crying SpongeBob goes to Wet Noodle, but he gets fired yet again, and Noodleman throws the Noodle Patty on SpongeBob, causing him to say he'll take his cooking home.

SpongeBob is crying about being fired several times in one day as he goes home. When he arrives home, Gary asks him for snail food, but he says he does not have any, so he makes a homemade can of snail food for Gary. SpongeBob tastes a bit of it, saying it tastes great. Gary eats the food, saying it is the best food he ever tasted. Patrick also eats the food.

Then, there is a knock on the door, which SpongeBob answers. The Hotdog Minions trap SpongeBob in a hot dog bun and take him away. It turns out Mr. Weiner kidnapped him and "promotes" him because of his idea of Weenie Patties while ignoring his mentioning of firing him. SpongeBob can't leave because he got chained until Pete comes along and frees him with Pizza Sauce, only for him to kidnap him with bread. Soon it is a war against all the owners of each restaurant until the Killer Krabby Patty defeats them and takes him back to the Krusty Krab, where angry customers are leaving because of Mr. Krabs' cooking. Krabs thanks Killer Krabby Patty, who is then revealed to be Squidward in disguise, for bringing SpongeBob back. Squidward admits that even though he hates SpongeBob, he hates the smell of burnt Krabby Patties even more. He begs SpongeBob to come back and become a fry cook again.

SpongeBob says he would if it was okay with Mr. Krabs, who apologizes to SpongeBob for firing him in the first place since the Krusty Krab is falling apart without him, and rehires SpongeBob. Ecstatic at being rehired, SpongeBob cleans the whole restaurant and gives Mr. Krabs and Squidward a new suit and dress.

SpongeBob later serves the customers patties again, even inviting his old bosses over for a meal to make amends. Mr. Krabs then says that to make up for the nickel he lost, he installed a pay toilet, which costs a nickel to use.

Jjs: Hard to believe that this episode turns 5 years old come November...and I still absolutely despise it. This is my #2, and I'm confident in it staying in that position, at least for now. SpongeBob getting fired is not a good premise for an episode (at least a full fledged one), and never will be. SpongeBob not being able to work at the Krusty Krab was done much better, cleverer and funnier in Karate Choppers, Welcome to the Chum Bucket, Squid on Strike and Bummer Vacation. Seriously, what are you even supposed to do after SpongeBob gets fired? Have him work at the Chum Bucket...oh. Oh. Whoops, already did it! There's no real good way to fire SpongeBob either without it coming off as a major ass pull. I'm not one to get mad at Mr. Krabs is cheap jokes, but the way he fires SpongeBob, just to save a nickel (haha), is moronic, not funny, and makes it impossible to take anything seriously. The rest of the special is a soulless, dull slog. SpongeBob's depression over being fired may have been interesting in other contexts, but given the bad reason he's fired, I find myself not caring about it at all. Then we get some padding with Sandy and Patrick which isn't entertaining or funny. Then we get SpongeBob making patties for restaurants not one, not two, but four times in a row ala Le Big Switch. It's repetitive, stale and pads out the special to fill that runtime. Honestly, I'd say this is one of the most soulless episodes in the entire series. I genuinely feel the crew was forced to make this one. Nothing about it screams they actually wanted this to be a thing. No actual passion or any attempt at comedy went into 99% of it. I would've said Squidward saving SpongeBob was touching, but that's kind of ruined when Squidward says "I hate you, but I hate the smell of burnt patties more!" Way to ruin the only good passable of the episode in less than a minute. Also, what was with the whole SpongeBob can make snail food thing, only to not do anything with it? Maybe they intended the special to go a different way, but had no time. SpongeBob working at some snail food company could've actually been more interesting than what we got, but I guess they didn't care, and I don't blame them. This special wastes so much time it's hard to even tell if anything was going to matter or not by the end, which is the saddest thing about this special, and why I hate it so much. It's a complete waste of time, mixed in with bad characterization on all fronts, dull padding, slow pacing, bad humor (if you want to call it that) and a complete lack of substance. Man what a terrible episode, the worst special for me, which is saying a lot given its stiff competition. 

Oh and the "food stamps controversy" this episode had was idiotic. Of all things to get mad about in this episode...

Wumbo: The worst thing about this episode is how meaningless and derivative it is. Maybe an episode where SpongeBob gets fired would have been a novel idea in the first or second season. Except, wait! It DID happen in the first AND second season, with "Karate Choppers" and "Squid on Strike". Both of which were far better at characterization, humour, and story. This episode throws all of those elements out of whack, and you're left with a very dull, very repetitive, and very callously characterized episode.

Let's start with the reason SpongeBob is fired. Mr. Krabs wants to save a nickel. No, I'm not kidding here. These are the kinds of episodes that just make me shake my head at Mr. Krabs' Flanderization. I do think Mr. Krabs' money-loving habits are a thing that gets harped on too much in the latter seasons; it's an easily identifiable trait and makes for some easy, admittedly cheap laughs. But that's the thing: this isn't even funny. It's just heartless and cruel. It's not even like we're supposed to see this as a bad choice or anything (well, not right away, anyway). IT JUST HAPPENS. This is less Flanderization for a joke and more the writers just not knowing what to do with Mr. Krabs anymore, or indeed the Krusty Krab setup in general. It also rips off Born Again Krabs, so add that to the redundancy pile.

So SpongeBob meets up with Patrick, who takes him through the life of unemployment, or as he calls it, "funemployment". And to be fair, this is by far the best moment in the episode. For a character that can veer so far into unlikeability in the later seasons, Patrick is written pretty well here and genuinely wants to be supportive and helpful of SpongeBob, in his own dumb way. Patrick is pretty much the only reason this isn't higher on my list (#17 for full disclosure).

Then we get to the most tedious part of the episode: SpongeBob trying to get a new job, and failing, four times in the exact same way. I mean the EXACT SAME WAY. He puts the owner's food between two buns, the owner doesn't like it, kicks him out. First of all, Le Big Switch, anyone? Geez, how many episodes is this one going to pinch from? At least the other episodes were good. Why steal from an episode that's already dull to make another dull one? Second, as I said, this is done four times in a row with nothing else in between. Did they just need to fill up space? Why not make this a regular-length episode if you don't have enough to put in? Why is this almost 30 minutes? Holy God, what a waste of time.

Then, once again, as pinched from Le Big Switch, the other restaurants looove SpongeBob's cooking and want him back in their restauraoh god why who even cares. The only funny moment is when the hot dog guy gets hit by a bus, and even then, you can see that joke coming from a mile away. SpongeBob goes back to the now-disheveled Krusty Krab, cleans it up, and everything is fine again. What a colossal waste of time. Of all the episodes that are full-length, this one by a country mile least deserves it. It is Filler: The Episode. Aside from Patrick's stuff, everything in this episode is completely disposable and lame, and I feel robbed every time I watch it. Such a pointless outing.

Edited June 1, 2018 by jjsthekid

[So Sejima]

Squid Baby is absolutely atrocious in every way, was close to my bottom 10 but barely escaped

SBYF is "Soulless: The Episode". I wouldn't have it this high but I can see that annoying others.

Also Ink in the bottom 4, we did it reddit!!!!!!!

[Less_SpongeBob]

I was planning on doing commentary for SpongeBob You’re Fired again but honestly any long, vitriolic rant I could write for the episode would be putting more thought and passion in than the actual writers did. Squid Baby also made my Top 10 for being repetitive and borderline offensive. 

1. SpongeBob You’re Fired (#5)

2. Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy (#14)

 3. ???

4. The Clash of Triton (#7)

5. ???

6. Pet Sitter Pat (#41)

7. ???

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

 9. Squid Baby (#6)

10. Atlantis SquarePantis (#36)

11. The Splinter (#15)

12. Summer Job (#26)

13. Rodeo Daze (#20)

14. Smoothe Jazz in Bikini Bottom (#8)

15. Sun Bleached (#43)

 16. ???

 17. Demolition Doofus (#23)

18. Waiting (#24)

19. Are You Happy Now? (#32)

20. Trenchbillies (#9)

21. ???

 22. ???

23. All That Glitters (#22)

24. ???

 25. Sportz? (#30)