JCM's Fave 50

[JCM]

2 #10s?

 

Oh, sorry. SR is #9 now.

[JCM]

#8 - Wet Painters

 

"Can you move it along? I'm all out of time cards."

 

 

One of the things I love most about this show is its ability to find humor from the characters as well as the situations. This is an episode that does plenty of both, and it does it so flawlessly that I'd be crazy not to give it a spot in my top ten. It starts off like any other episode. SpongeBob is fooling around in the Krusty Krab when business is slow, then Mr. Krabs gives him and Patrick a super (super), special (special), secret (secret) assignment: painting the interior of his anchor-shaped house. SpongeBob and Patrick being who they are, they think it's the greatest thing ever, until Mr. Krabs threatens to chop their butts off if they get a drop of paint on anything but the wall. Surprise, surprise; after a hilarious paint bubble scene, they get a drop of paint on Mr. Krabs' beloved first dollar. SpongeBob, in a fit of paranoia, does everything he can to get the paint off, inevitably making it worse every time. Patrick brings his own careless naiveté to the mix, and them together ensure that you won't stop laughing for a minute while watching this episode.

 

#7 - Idiot Box

 

"Welcome aboard, Squidward! You've just set sail on the S.S. Imagination."

 

 

This is one of the many episodes that makes an older viewer like me want to be a kid again, so I can experience the wonder and excitement that I felt as a child watching SpongeBob and Patrick make something out of nothing and dance around, caring little about what other people thought of them. This episode embodies what the show has been about since day 1: a fun, fantastical underwater adventure that invites its young audience to get lost in its world for around 30 minutes plus commercials. It's never been more, it's never been less, and that's why it's been a champion of children's cable for almost fifteen years now.

 

In my review for Snowball Effect, I mentioned the Squidward-doesn't-want-to-do-something-fun-but-SpongeBob-and-Patrick-convince-him-to-do-it-anyway formula. That formula is used here, and just like in SE, its given enough twists and turns to make this episode look fully original. There's only one episode that uses the formula better than this one, and it'll appear soon. Most of you will probably be able to deduce it from what hasn't appeared in the list yet, but even for those of you who can't, I doubt that you'll be surprised once we get to it. See you next week! There's only six more to go!

[JCM]

#6 - Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V

"Ah, Make-Out Reef. Good times, good times."

 

I've always been a superhero fanboy, and that's why the Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy saga has such a special place in my heart. The reason most of the MM&BB eps aren't in my Fave 50 and the only other one that made it (IV) is 20 positions below this one is simply because there wasn't anything exceptional about them. I would've been happy to put the entire saga on my list, and I can assure you that all of the episodes are in my Top 100, but none of the others have close to the effect that MM&BB V has. This episode deconstructs as many superhero tropes as it can in 11 minutes, with notable examples of this being the "dark side" of the restaurant and the slightly-insane chief, all of this culminating with

Spoiler

the loss of the superhero team of SpongeBob, Sandy, Squidward, and Patrick, who thought it would be a good idea to jump into a fight without training with their powers at all. The touching reunion between Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy at the end was a rare emotional moment for Season 3, and definitely something that guaranteed this episode a place in my Top Ten.

#5 - Graveyard Shift

"The Sash-Wringing... the Trash-Singing... Mash-Flinging... the Flash-Springing... Wringing... "

 

This episode was the closest that SpongeBob ever got to gothic horror. As you can tell from the title, it's dark, and it doesn't try to hide the fact that it's dark. However, unlike Nasty Patty, it doesn't get so dark that it reaches the point of family unfriendliness. It's dark enough to retain the second season's trademark clever, low-key humor, instead of the in-your-face comedy that's more suitable for a Season 3 ep like Nasty Patty.

Also, this episode debuted Nosferatu, who inspired my SBM identity. That alone gets this episode mad props, making it a shoo-in for my top five.

 

Only four more to go! Hang with me. It'll be a wild ride.

[MMM]

I really love MM and BB V. Where else could my username have come from?

As for Graveyard Shift, it's a masterpiece to remember.

[WhoBibbles]

I love #5, #6, #7 and #8 too. Graveyard Shift is one of the best SpongeBob episodes.

[JCM]

#4 - The Camping Episode

 

"Good thing we're all wearing our anti-sea-rhinoceros undergarments."

 

 

What makes this episode funny is how mercilessly is subverts the very genre it got its title from. Even in the concept: SpongeBob and Patrick camping in their backyard instead of going in the woods and roughin' it. Then there's their version of the campfire song (The Campfire Song Song, which you should all have burned into your brains by now) and their version of the scary campfire story ("Once I met this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy who knew this guy..."). This episode shows what the writers can do when they're given a tired idea and given the freedom to mangle it until it's almost unrecognizable and they're being sent to the police station for questioning. Okay, that was a very disturbing metaphor, but you get my point. This episode is an awesome example of the show's ability to take a cliché and make it into something new and memorable, and for that reason, The Camping Episode gets to camp out in my Top 5.

 

#3 - Band Geeks

 

"Is mayonnaise an instrument?"

 

 

Every SpongeBob fan is familiar with this episode in some way, whether it's from watching it or hearing other SpongeBob fans gush about it or watching any of the millions of YouTube videos that sync clips from this episode to the latest pop hit. And this episode deserves its fame. It brought all of the main characters together (along with some minor ones like Mrs. Puff and Larry) and allowed them to play off each other while working toward a common goal. Many of the interactions, like Patrick's and Sandy's, and Mr. Krab's and Harold's ("Big, meaty claws!"), were comically contentious. Then, of course, there was the big musical number at the end of the episode and the freeze-frame that represented Squidward's ultimate triumph, his sweet victory, if you will, better than anything else.

 

#2 - Chocolate With Nuts

 

"Let's get naked!" / "No, let's save that for when we're selling real estate."

 

 

What is there to say about this episode that hasn't been said already? It's hilarious. The jokes come fast and each hit their targets with beautiful precision. The humor comes not only from SpongeBob and Patrick's door-to-door antics but from the range of interesting characters they meet on their journey, from a lunatic to a con man to a woman so old that she's literally just a head and spine. (!) This is pristine SpongeBob here, and it's the stuff that kept us coming back for more every week or whenever they decided to freakin' give us a new ep. (It was just as bad as now while Season 3 was airing, trust me.)

 

I flipped Band Geek's and CWN's positions a lot during the process of writing this list, but this episode came out on top because SpongeBob is, in essence, a comedy, and CWN made me laugh more than any other episode in the series.

 

Come back next week for Numero Uno, my favorite episode of SpongeBob SquarePants ever! (In case you haven't figured it out from what's missing on the list.) See you then!

[MMM]

I'm 85% sure I know what #1 is.

[WhoBibbles]

Band Geeks is my favorite episode because It was so funny, the song was awesome and Squidward was happy at the end. Why It shouldn't be the best episode? I love Chocolate With Nuts and The Camping Episode too.

[JCM]

Here it is. The moment you've all been waiting for!

 

 

#1 - Krusty Krab Training Video

 

"The money is always right!"

 

 

Nothing pleases me more than when the writers experiment. SpongeBob is not a work of art, and it doesn't try to be, which is why these artsy-type episodes are always such a wonderful surprise. KKTV manages to play with a different storytelling technique while giving each of the show's main characters (minus Sandy and Gary) the spotlight and still being funny through it all. It takes everything that made the show successful up to that point and multiplies it by 1000 while simultaneously ripping it apart. This episode is a masterpiece of structure, of comedy, of everything. Then there's the music. The rock-inspired nature of the episode's theme is a stark contrast to the mundane nature of the episode itself, and this works to parody how training videos try to create enthusiasm for something that is fundamentally boring.

 

Also, this episode gives us a rare look at the inside operations of the Krusty Krab. It describes their "latest achievements in fast-food technology" and "strict set of personal hygiene guidelines" in an entertaining and slightly self-deprecating manner. The narrator, or "ceiling", as Patrick calls him, seems to understand how absurd everything is, but instead of just commenting on it, he partakes in the fun in many instances, openly defying the expectation that he be detached and unbiased. We get a look into the history of not only the Krusty Krab but Mr. Krabs himself. We learn that he was always a cheapskate, even as a kid, and that he suffered from a bout of depression after coming back from a war. It's not like the series to go this deep into character backstories, and it doesn't do so again until the fifth season episode Friend or Foe, also about Mr. Krabs.

 

All of this and more is what makes KKTV my favorite episode. That's it for the list! Join me next time when I do my Bottom 5! (jk that's never happening  or is it? ) See you then?

[MMM]

I saw it coming, but GREAT LIST!

[WhoBibbles]

Krusty Krab Training Video is amazing and It's one of my favorite episodes.