Do we prefer and ignore the negative traits certain episodes if it's generally good?

I've noticed that for episodes like Driven to Tears or I'm with Stupid I will let it pass for Patrick's negative behavior. But others like Yours, Mine and Mine or The Card I don't. Characters are important and how they act can really effect an episode. But if it keeps my attention in a good way, I won't mind it as much.Then again, time changes opinions as a lot of us grew accustomed to early pre-movie seasons. How about you guys?

I think I'm with Stupid gets a pass mostly because it's a pre-movie episode.

I honestly love all pre-movie episodes, whether good or bad, due to the fact that I always watched the Ol' Sponge as a kid.

I always did that. A good example is House Fancy. For me it's a great episode, but I agree that the toenail scene is just stupid. So most of the time I just pretends it never exist so I can enjoy the episode better.

Well, as "bad" as it is, his quote in The Card is actually quite true. He does have a lot of brands of stupidity to mix things up. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's just a matter of the viewer's taste. Some people like The Card more than Rule of Dumb because Patrick's stupidity seemed unconscious and Mr. Magoo-esque, while others have it the other way around because Rule of Dumb gave Pat a reason to be hateful. Just because Patrick acts negatively, doesn't mean we're going to automatically hate the episode. It's just how he's portrayed in certain episodes.

I agree.

Using pre-movie episodes as an example, just my opinion...

"Pressure" is, overall, a pretty solid episode. It's got good message, has some funny jokes, and plays with its own medium (animation) in a pretty funny way. It has one really horrible scene- in which Spongebob and his friends taunt Sandy as she's drowning and struggling for air.

"I'm With Stupid" is a pretty solid episode, too. It's funny and really memorable. Patrick is being a jerk, but the rest of the episode is so funny that I don't care.

"Born Again Krabs" and "Krabby Land" are both episodes I hate. They both contain really grossly cruel scenes (ie, Krabs selling Spongebob's soul to Satan, and Krabs mocking a brutally injured Spongebob,) and the episodes aren't funny enough for me to overlook or forget about those horrible scenes. I feel the same way about "The Great Snail Race," which is actually a lot worse, because A) the cruelty is part of the plot, and B) the message is handled so un-tactfully and is so grossly out-of-character.

just my thoughts...

Yeah, people tend to ignore the small amounts of bad stuff in an otherwise good episode (At least in Pre Movie). Same goes for the inverse, like the beginning scene of One Coarse Meal. I think that scene is pretty awesome. I mean, we haven't seen Plankton be so competent since the first movie. (or in any other episode before that, really)

Yes, but I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with that. If an episode is so good overall that you're willing to excuse the bad parts then the writers did a good job in general.

I agree. A specific character who acts jerkish for example Patrick doesn't always ruin the episode for me.