SBC's Top 50 Worst Episodes Ever! (20 Years Edition)

[President Squidward]

Little Yellow Book: I was originally asked by OWM if I wanted to do a commentary on it, and I was willing to, but turned down last minute as I was busy with music stuff last night. Anyway, I fuckin hate this episode to death. Everyone is just an asshole in here. I hate Squidward for teasing SpongeBob for having a diary. I hate the Bottommites for joining Squidward by laughing at SpongeBob then fucking going to ridiculous lengths to punish Squidward when it’d be fair for them punished too for finding it funny at first, then acting like they didn’t do shit and support SpongeBob because he rightfully cried about it. Patrick can be applied to this awfulness in the episode too. I honestly forget how the episode ended too which is not a good sign. Eh, shit ep. waste of my time, and frustrated me during my time wasted.

Are You Happy Now: I used to like this episode for some reason, thought it had some entertaining bits here and there, but now I do realize this episode is just mean and a bit disturbing, with a shitty ending with Squidward just destroying paper mache SpongeBobs like a maniac and SpongeBob’s dumbass “He’s so handsome!” alone. Very bad

25.

24.

23.

22.

21.

20. 

19.

18.

17. Sponge-Cano (#28)

16.

15. Squidward's School For Grown-Ups (#47)

14.

13.

12.

11.

10.

9.

8.

7. Little Yellow Book (#20)

6. Sportz? (#33)

5. The Googly Artiste (#46)

4.

3.

2.

1.

[Clappy]

So I don’t mind Fungus Among Us dropping as far as it has.  Still my least favorite episode of all time and I’ve talked about that far too much if you want to know why so go back to multiple of these threads if you want to know why.

But I don’t think I’ll ever get the deep hatred for Little Yellow Book.  Yeah I’ve read all of the posts about it for the years it has shown up on these lists.  To me, Little Yellow Book is just wasted potential more than anything else.  I remember all the ads were talking about SpongeBob’s deepest secrets to be revealed, to only be utter nonsense that I don’t even remember except for the SpongeBob chicken meme that I see far too often.  Squidward gets punished accordingly throughout the episode for being a jerk, one of the few times where what he gets is absolutely warranted.  And I see a lot of you complaining about the townspeople not getting punished for pulling a 180 about the diary...but when aren’t the townspeople walking moral contradictions in the latter years of this show?  Oh and Patrick is also an ass, but I’ve grown numb to his behavior at this point.

I don’t think it’s a bad episode persay.  I do think it’s stupid and one of the biggest examples of dropping the ball on a great premise.  But Top 20 worst of all time?  Sorry fam, I just don’t see it.

[OWM]

18. "This garbage compress should help that go down."

The Splinter, 209 points

19 out of 41 lists (Highest Rank #5 @Trainman2002) (-3)

Carotte: The Splinter is an episode that is honestly hard to watch. It's not just about gross-out, but there are other flaws that really ruin the episode for me. But first, I want to admit that the beginning was decent (before SpongeBob got the splinter), but after that...nope, nothing good. To be honest, I don't think the plot itself is good. SpongeBob got the splinter in a dumb way (lol throwing his spatula to the ceiling, nice plot device) and that close up when he falls already is ew. Besides the gross-out scenes, there is that Patrick scene I hate so much. He doesn't even help SpongeBob, like he doesn't even try! The ending is one of the worst in the show, Squidward becomes a Patrick (in terms of stupidity) who takes the work compersation so seriously that he smashes his head so that he leaves work. I feel like I've said enough. Awful episode.

17. "SpongeBob and Squidward, best boating buddies, forever."

Boating Buddies, 220 points

15 out of 41 lists (Highest Rank 2 #2's @EmployeeAMillion @hippythehippo) (+4)

4EverGreen: Well, I knew we were probably going to get to this train-wreck of an episode sooner or later. For me, this represents the WORST aspects of "Squidward Abuse", and "Boating Episodes", rolled into one messed-up package! Now, the concept of Squidward going to Boating School with Spongebob, DID have the potential to be something unique and cool, but what the writers did instead, was turn up Spongebob's stalking tendencies ALL the way up to eleven, have Squidward get hit and abused ALL through the episode for no reason, have Squidward FINALLY tell Spongebob off, and seconds later, have to have him take it all BACK, because Squidward dropped his pencil, and can't pick it up because of his injuries, so he needs Spongebob's advice, only for Spongebob to reveal that he doesn't KNOW the answers anyway, even though PAST episodes have shown him to be SMART, meaning Squidward gets to go through all this torture/abuse AGAIN!

There are so many things this episode could've done better, it's really NOT even funny! The only saving grace this episode has, is that it's no longer the WORST example of "Squidward Abuse" episodes out there, unfortunately. That dishonor falls to my personal #1 pick for the worst episode, which is bound to show up on this list sooner or later. Enough said, true believers!

[Sweat]

The Splinter was awful close to making my list. At the end of the day, the plot is okay enough that the only real problem with the episode is the splinter itself, unlike To Love a Patty where it's a double punch of godawful gross-out as WELL as a shitty plot and character performance by SpongeBob.

Boating Buddies has a decent chunk of episode where you can reasonably call it "So Bad It's Good," but the first third of the episode is legitimately awful. It's a mess, but it didn't make my list.

[SI-LLY]

24. Fungus Among Us: I think this episode has a creative idea, but the foreshadowing feels much to obvious and the plot points, SpongeBob also comes off as pretty stupid, with his behavior creating the poor foreshadowing, but... this episode is still enjoyable, the gross out, spongebob itching himself, and some other stuff, 7/10.

21. The Main Drain: Might as well die. This one is just very average, I like the character interactions a bit though its a pretty slow episode and with a plot hole, only resolved with a dumb twist ending, 6/10.

20. Little Yellow Book: This one oddly enjoyable, but it does not do much and eventually gets dull, 6.5/10.

Looking at the previous year's list, it seems like some certain episode I consider the show's worst (no, not FarmerBob or Don't Feed the Clowns) might've shot up really high.

Hint: it has a lot of tickets.

[WhoBibbles]

35 minutes ago, Clappy said:

So I don’t mind Fungus Among Us dropping as far as it has.  Still my least favorite episode of all time and I’ve talked about that far too much if you want to know why so go back to multiple of these threads if you want to know why.

But I don’t think I’ll ever get the deep hatred for Little Yellow Book.  Yeah I’ve read all of the posts about it for the years it has shown up on these lists.  To me, Little Yellow Book is just wasted potential more than anything else.  I remember all the ads were talking about SpongeBob’s deepest secrets to be revealed, to only be utter nonsense that I don’t even remember except for the SpongeBob chicken meme that I see far too often.  Squidward gets punished accordingly throughout the episode for being a jerk, one of the few times where what he gets is absolutely warranted.  And I see a lot of you complaining about the townspeople not getting punished for pulling a 180 about the diary...but when aren’t the townspeople walking moral contradictions in the latter years of this show?  Oh and Patrick is also an ass, but I’ve grown numb to his behavior at this point.

I don’t think it’s a bad episode persay.  I do think it’s stupid and one of the biggest examples of dropping the ball on a great premise.  But Top 20 worst of all time?  Sorry fam, I just don’t see it.

Honestly my issue with Bikini Bottomies is that they don't get punishment the way Squidward did. Laughing at diary read you listen is just as bad as reading the actual diary and yet they treat Squidward like some kind of monster that his house has to be taken away and he has to be in handcuffs. Squidward was a jerk but he didn't deserve that kind of treatment and If this was Bikini Bottomies' logic, they should get the same thing. Fools in April Squidward's prank was far worse than this, yet this one has worse punishment for Squidward.

 

Anyway The Splinter is such a boring af episode with awful gross out humor but It didn't crack my list. I feel more apathetic to it these days but it was still a lame ep.

Boating Buddies is just so bad so good for me to hate it. The whole boat sequence and SpongeBob writing on the chalkboard were the highlights but I hated the end too. It felt written in the most cruel way for Squidward and it was just unfunny af. So this episode had every right to be on this worst list.

[Clappy]

14 minutes ago, WhoBob said:

Honestly my issue with Bikini Bottomies is that they don't get punishment the way Squidward did. Laughing at diary read you listen is just as bad as reading the actual diary and yet they treat Squidward like some kind of monster that his house has to be taken away and he has to be in handcuffs. Squidward was a jerk but he didn't deserve that kind of treatment and If this was Bikini Bottomies' logic, they should get the same thing.

You basically just reinstated my point.  The Bikini Bottomites are walking moral contradictions in the latter seasons.  They constantly do whatever the opposite of the mood calls them to be just because they want the antagonist of the episode (this time Squidward) to feel like what he did was morally wrong, despite them being just as guilty.  It’s frustrating yes, but they constantly end up on the side of illogical reasoning.  That’s why it doesn’t bother me as much because why would I expect any less from them?

 

Oh and Boating Buddies is still one of the best episode of Season 6 despite me knowing it’s awful.  I know all of the problems with the episode and yes I acknowledge that Squidward doesn’t deserve the suffering he goes through and SpongeBob is in prime creepy stalker territory here, but a lot of the jokes just work for me.  There are a good portion of them that are pre-movie quality to me like Squidward and Mrs. Puff comparing SpongeBob to being the bane of their existence.  I guess this is more of an example as to how bad Season 6 is that Boating Buddies is one of my favorites from this season, but I don’t care.  I like it.

[WhoBibbles]

3 minutes ago, Clappy said:

You basically just reinstated my point.  The Bikini Bottomites are walking moral contradictions in the latter seasons.  They constantly do whatever the opposite of the mood calls them to be just because they want the antagonist of the episode (this time Squidward) to feel like what he did was morally wrong, despite them being just as guilty.  It’s furstrating yes, but they constantly end up on the side of illogical reasoning.  That’s why it doesn’t bother me as much because why would I expect any less from them?

 

Oh and Boating Buddies is still one of the best episode of Season 6 despite me knowing it’s awful.  I know all of the problems with the episode and yes I acknowledge that Squidward doesn’t deserve the suffering he goes through and SpongeBob is in prime creepy stalker territory here, but a lot of the jokes just work for me.  There are a good portion of them that are pre-movie quality to me like Squidward and Mrs. Puff comparing SpongeBob to being the bane of their existence.  I guess this is more of an example as to how bad Season 6 is that Boating Buddies is one of my favorites from this season, but I don’t care.  I like it.

It still frustrated me. I just think the whole writing's a mess so ye but I get what you mean. 

[SI-LLY]

18. The Splinter: Uhh..., booooring but with some good humor, Meh 5.5/10.

17. Boating Buddies: SpongeBob sucks but its funny, Meh 5.5/10.

Some random things to note, I feel like SpongeBob is the only character who worsened as the show continued, and I think its for the worst, he becomes just a happy maniac with not much emotion save for crying, its funny but admittedly very annoying, as for Patrick's stupidity, Krab's greed, and Squidward's egotistical nature, I do not mind.

Post-Movie may not be as good as I expected but I feel like it is able to keep itself together unlike say, Don't Feed the Clowns, FarmerBob, and Patnocchio.

 

 

I should just watch a better show

[BeachBob95]

These episodes have some funny jokes but are really not written well.

[Klu]

I don't hate either The Splinter. This episode just bores me. It isn't even the grossest episode of the show anymore. Only truly awful thing about this episode is Dr.Patrick scene, but that's about it. The rest is just mediocrity at it's finest.

Boating Buddies is oof. I kinda like some jokes from it, but it's so frustrating to watch. They botched perfectly good concept but never expanded on it. Mrs.Puff and Squidward barely have any interaction with each other, SpongeBob is turned into stalker creep and visuals are ugly thanks to Aaron Springer's storyboards. I don't hate it as much as I once did, but it more than deserves being on the list. 

[4EverGreen]

WOW!  Two personal picks of mine in one day!  I'm really knocking these picks out of the park!  Anyways, "The Splinter" goes on WAY too long, it's way too gross, it's WAY too stupid, and in a PERFECT world, if the episode NEEDED to be made, at ALL, it would've been one of the SHORT episode segments, like "Reef Blower" or "Rise & Shine". But, it's not, so it made my personal list. I said everything I wanted to say about "Boating Buddies", so let's just let this episode just go away and be GONE forever, like Roseanne Barr! 

 25. ? 24. ? 23. "The Cent of Money" (#26) 22. ? 21. ? 20. "Demolition Doofus" (#31) 19. "Face Freeze" (#40) 18. ? 17. ? 16. ? 15. ? 14. "Little Yellow Book" (#20) 13. ? 12. ? 11. ? 10. "The Splinter" (#18) 9. ? 8. ? 7. ? 6. ? 5. ? 4. "Atlantis Squarepantis" (#34) 3. "Boating Buddies" (#17) 2. ? 1. ?

Enough said, true believers! 

[Steel Sponge]

30. The Nitwitting: Honestly, I've pretty much overlooked this one. Upon my first impressions of the episode, I just thought it was nothing more than an insult to my intelligence while it was trying so hard to be funny at the same time. Looking back on it, I can definitely see why it's worth more contempt. From what I originally thought that the story was just mediocre, I've realized how terrible it actually was and how much more it goes to show that not only is Patrick the clear favorite of Kaz, but it also kinda shows that making him funny and likable at the same time is his Achilles' heel. In other words, while "The Nitwitting" is absent from my bottom 25, it's lingering a lot closer to it now. I'm not yet willing to put it on my personal worst list as that depends on if Kaz will make the same, yet worse, mistake in writing Patrick's character later on.

26. The Cent of Money: The most of what I can say about this is that I would be on the same boat if it weren't for one, Mr. Krabs getting his comeuppance in the end and two, SpongeBob showing how much he does care for Gary, realizing Mr. Krabs' scheme near the end, and standing up against Mr. K for the way he treated his snail. I get hating this because of the mean-spiritedness and the lack of jokes (or the lack of good jokes to an extent). I can also agree that Mr. Krabs' characterization is terrible on here, but at the very least, "The Cent of Money" doesn't convince us that we should root for him.

25. Squid's Visit: For those who are saying that this is at least "an interestingly bad episode," and yet boosted "Boating Buddies" because of all that it stands for in starting the trend of making SB into an unlikable Squid stalker and heightening the trend of Squidward torture episodes, hear me out when I say that I think "Squid's Visit" is the worst of the two. IMO, compared to "Boating Buddies," I feel that "Squid's Visit" damages SB's character a lot more and due to the creepy undertones, the latter episode feels a lot less like a SB episode to me. While "Squid's Visit" is not actually on my bottom 25,  it is surely one of my dishonorable mentions.

22. Yours, Mine and Mine: While I can kinda understand that the episode is a little too childish to hate these days, the episode is still on my bottom 20 for a few good reasons. First of all, it's one of those episodes where I feel like Patrick's character is at its worst. Second, outside of the fact that the plot is mostly built around SB and Patrick fighting over a toy, the episode is largely forgettable. Lastly, while the episode has a clear moral, the ending merely suggests that the two haven't learned their lesson.

21. The Main Drain: Call me crazy, but I think the surge of vitriol for this episode feels a little too overwhelming to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of this episode, much like every other Legends segment outside of "Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle," but I still wouldn't consider this the worst of the anthology. For me, it ranks fourth above "The Curse of Hex," "Sponge-Cano," and "Trenchbillies." Even while I agree with most of the points that Coffee_Lover has made about "The Main Drain," like how very contrived that the plot was, I still can't imagine it being close to my bottom 25 because of how generally apathetic I am towards the Legends anthology.

19. Are You Happy Now?: I've been holding myself back from talking about this episode for a while because honestly, I've only seen this segment once and I forget so much about it outside of the episode's infamous suicide jokes. Now I'm more than willing to go back on this one after reading Jjs' commentary on it.

[President Squidward]

The Splinter: a gross ep but not too bothersome for me, still bad though. The first 30 seconds are blessed though 

Boating Buddies: I fuckin love this episode. One of my favorites off of Season 6. I found it to be a very entertaining and funny episode, and for some reason reminds me of something BenPaz would meme to death so I think that makes me find it even godlier.

14 hours ago, Steel Sponge said:

21. The Main Drain: Call me crazy, but I think the surge of vitriol for this episode feels a little too overwhelming to me. Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of this episode, much like every other Legends segment outside of "Welcome to the Bikini Bottom Triangle," but I still wouldn't consider this the worst of the anthology. For me, it ranks fourth above "The Curse of Hex," "Sponge-Cano," and "Trenchbillies." Even while I agree with most of the points that Coffee_Lover has made about "The Main Drain," like how very contrived that the plot was, I still can't imagine it being close to my bottom 25 because of how generally apathetic I am towards the Legends anthology.

Thank you!!!!! Same with your point @SI-LLY

and to think we could’ve gotten more deserving episodes on this list...

[Coffee_lover]

Daily reminder that Patrick the Game is better than The Main Drain 

[Patty Rose]

7 hours ago, Coffee_lover said:

Daily reminder that Patrick the Game is better than The Main Drain 

Of course it's better, you're comparing a Great episode with a good episode.

[OWM]

sorry no commentary today nobody submitted anything and im too tired Enjoy!

16. "Someone help! Baby assaulter!"

Slide Whistle Stooges, 238 points

16 out of 41 lists (Highest Rank 2 #1's @President Squidward @Wumbo) (-3)

OWM: You know, when you add no sense of emotion or depth to SpongeBob or Patrick they blend together into one character and become boring, lifeless husks. They’re not distinct from each other at all, and become the same person through the use of these dumb ass slide whistles. Them being annoying is the only semblance of a plot this episode has, and it’s not interesting or creative or hilarious at all. When Squidward joins in on their antics, you think they’d have some sort of improved or changed dynamic, huh? But no, it’s just the exact same harassment except with three people instead of two. Speaking of harassment, it’s another low point of this episode. Squidward or the Bottomites can yell and scream all they want, but it still won’t add anything at all to the humor or the episode overall. Squidward becoming an asshole comes out of nowhere and isn’t enjoyable in the slightest. Something about him causing a retiring police officer to get mutilated strikes me as being seriously wrong and OOC. The ending at the hospital is also a whole bunch of nothing. It’s not offensive or anything since the patients are clearly laughing, but it’s not related to the rest of the episode and overall feels confusing and inconclusive.

15. "Mr. Krabs, I know you and Plankton are both sworn enemies and all, but putting on a dress to frighten him? Isn't that taking it a little too far?"

One Coarse Meal, 249 points

15 out of 41 lists (Highest Rank 2 #1's @JCM @Night-Waker) (-12)

WhoBob: Sorry for late commentary folks. One Coarse Meal is such a shitty af episode with having no idea what to do with its story and it's edgy for sake of being edgy. I honestly never thought of rooting for Plankton to have a revenge against Mr. Krabs but here we are. This episode is a complete character assassination of Mr. Krabs. I get he hates Plankton so much, he is his arch enemy after all and I couldn't care less if he always throws Plannton to the Chum Bucket or flushed the toilet with him. But literally using his own fears against him just for amusement is wrong and he should know better. I feel like this episode desperately tried to make the conflict not so black and white but it failed miserably by painting Mr. Krabs as a sadistic person and Plankton is rather a petty criminal that didn't deserve to be driven to insanity. The whole dream sequence is very unfunny and edgy that I have no idea what the episode was thinking. To make things worse Karen, Plankton's wife, doesn't give a shit about his condition and I feel like that aspect is always overlooked in the movie. To make things worse Plankton wants to be run over by a bus. Idc if it was supposed to be a suicide joke or just Plankton wanting to hurt himself. It's just so uncomfortable. And when SpongeBob finds Plankton at his lowest, he wants to help Plankton and hell even before SpongeBob has a talk with Mr. Krabs about him going too far but in the end, SpongeBob backstabs Plankton by scaring him away. What kind of resolution is that? Am I supposed to believe that SpongeBob would be loyal to Mr. Krabs after what he has done? He always have a need to call out Mr. Krabs and give him a piece of his mind when he needs to be (Arrgh!, Can You Spare a Dime, Jellyfish Hunter), so his decision here feels so double cross and I hated that. And the episode ends on a note that doesn't feel like an ending at all. It's just so bizarrely finished story. To sum it up shortly, One Coarse Meal is a big ass mess that tries to be dark for no reason and when it comes to justifying character decisions, it does a hamfisted job with it. The episode has a good start, I'm not gonna lie. I liked the action sequence and "wacky bucks" is a good joke but rest of the episode is so horrendously written that I'm glad it's still appearing on the list, even if it keeps getting at lower spots in each list.

[Klu]

Slide Whistle Stooges is incredibly annoying, repetitive and boring episode. It took premise that could've worked only in 5 minutes runtime at best and made 11 minutes out of it, adding nothing to the actual substance. 

One Coarse Meal isn't episode I get the hate on. It's bad, but like. It's bad to me in purely technical things? Like writing is really bad and confusing for instance. But not like "omg plankton is almost commited suicide". Besides, this episode at least had entertaining first few minutes with great action and some not bad jokes (wacky bucks). So yeah, I can get why this episode is on the list, but I heavily disagree.

[Sweat]

Both of these episodes are bad, but I wouldn't consider them terrible, and I wouldn't be upset if they kept dropping like they currently are.

[Steel Sponge]

oh hey wow ToS is lower than OCM, good going ppl.

also something about the "Baby assaulter!" line