252a. Mind the Gap

[Jjs Goodman]

Premieres: 

Saturday, September 14th @ 11:00am ET/PT

Encores:

Saturday, September 14th @ 3:30pm ET/PT

Sunday, September 14th @ 9:00pm ET/PT

Plot: Squidward closes the gap in SpongeBob's teeth, which causes a dramatic and unexpected change in his demeanor.

Clips:

N/A

Note: This episode was already leaked online from the UK.

[Old Man Jenkins]

Judging from the tv spots I've seen, it's like they made a TV-Y version of my old BadBob CoolPants spinoff lol

[EmployeeAMillion]

This was pretty good. I’ve seen my share of cartoon episodes about dorky characters becoming smooth-singers, but this injected some conflict with Squidward trying to use SpongeBob in consistently unique, funny ways. It’s one of the more nuanced episodes of Season 12 so far by subject matter alone, so it stands out from the pack in a great way.

[President Squidward]

Another nail in the coffin for best character isn’t it?

[WhoBibbles]

This was fine I suppose. I thought it was fairly enjoyable and it had some decent chuckles. I did like Tom Kenny's "cool" voice on SpongeBob, whenever he was talking, that was just pure entertaining. Even If I'm really tired of Squidward playing clarinet terribly, I liked the way this episode used him as an antagonist to SpongeBob. Squidward always tried so hard to be cool in front of people and that never worked because of his ego and him using SpongeBob to make people like him was definitely interesting to watch. In the end, SpongeBob's gap was back and he stopped being stereotypical cool and went back to his old self only to be cool in front of people, instead of Squidward. I think the message the episode presented was pretty decent here. My big problem with this episode was that it could have been funnier and like I said, Squidward being a terrible clarinet player has been overdone that it doesn't feel funny or good character trait anymore. In the end, there have been better episodes but I liked this episode just fine.

Grade: B

[NegiSpongie]

I enjoyed this episode. I definitely got a "Nutty Professor" vibe from it, especially when SpongeBob did a Jerry Lewis impression at one point. I did like how SpongeBob while still being smooth was his nice guy self and didn't turn into a jerk like how most people expect this formula to play out. While I wish there could've been more that happened in this episode, I still enjoyed it.

[4EverGreen]

This episode was pretty decent. Not sure if anyone else noticed this yet, but in a couple of the background shots, you can actually see Flats' Dad (who previously had only appeared in "The Bully"), making a non-speaking, cameo appearance. And I think it's actually perfectly IN character, for Squidward to want to try to USE Spongebob as a way to get himself IN with the Cool crowd, but only as LONG as it's convenient for Squidward to do so. When Spongebob's "Cool" persona becomes too cool for Squidward (not that Squidward could ever really HOPE to become that cool to begin with), Squidward tries to DESTROY Spongebob's coolness, only to fail!  And when the 'Cool' crowd decides that Spongebob's whistling is even cooler than his singing, Squidward decides that he doesn't even WANT to be 'Cool', by getting a whistling gap between his teeth, only to end up getting one anyways, as Squidward gets "Laser Guided Karma", by running RIGHT into the Club Manager, and being FORCED to repay for all the damages he did to the club. Overall, I'd give this episode an 8.8 out of 10. Enough said, true believers! 

[President Squidward]

I don’t even need to see the episode and I know it’s gonna be stuff I’ve seen done before.

[Jjs Goodman]

This might be a strange take, but this is honestly my favorite Season 12 episode to date. I liked what they did here with SpongeBob's "cool persona" (and on that note, damn does Tom Kenny have a great "cool" voice), and how he played off of Squidward from it. I loved the dynamic Squidward and SpongeBob had going here, which makes this episode pretty memorable for me. Felt like a much better execution of the concept from To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants. Squidward brought everything upon himself here and got his just well deserved desserts. It might not have been super funny, but there were enough subtle gags I liked. The one thing that put this episode so high for me though was the atmosphere. Maybe it's just me, but I got a weird 9B vibe from it, and that's good in my book. 

Grade: A