Moving right along, we've got "Pest of The West", and hold on, what is this, our 3rd special of this season?? Season 5 is really the season of specials right now because my oh my. I'd argue that this special is probably the most forgotten of all 4, which is too bad because I'd say it's the second best of all of them.
For a special, we move into things pretty quickly as Patrick busts in talking about the mollusks are coming…after we get an unfunny butt joke. I think the set up of this episode, being about famous ancestors, is pretty interesting. And I like hearing about the cast’s famous family members. The bit with Mr. Krabs is funny, especially once you consider how he shows up only to do a demonstration of a glorified bear trap and then just leaves. It’s kind of funny that this episode is about famous ancestors. When I was in high school I took a genealogy class that required me to trace back my family through ancestry.com. No famous people in my line as far as I know. It also doesn’t help that a good chunk of my family can’t be traced further than I don’t know, 150 years or so? But I digress.
After some set up, we finally move into the part of the episode I’m very excited for, the Old West flashback that makes up the bulk of the story. For as bad as it is when you put more than 2 seconds of critical thought into it, I just adore Old West settings. They’re just so vibe-y and fun! And so I love that this episode really leans into all the Old Western movie tropes, such as SpongeBuck being a mysterious stranger in this little town by the railroad. And everyone’s Western accents are hilarious to me (just like they were in the Cosmic Shake lol). Everyone’s olden counterparts are super fun to see too. But seriously I just love SpongeBuck…Tom Kenny is really striking gold here with his voice, and I love how he’s our SpongeBob with a funny voice. And his status as a newcomer makes for some fun situations, such as the Mr. Krabs counterpart telling the Squidward counterpart to charge him double, or SpongeBuck treating milk like it’s tequila. Also I’m with Mr. Krabs, that chili don’t look right, not at all…rule of thumb, if a chili is all one color, run in the opposite direction.
I like that with the introduction of Old West Patrick, we get a callback to Patrick’s antics earlier in the episode. And I also love that with Old West Patrick we get a reminder that this is indeed a special with a song. The song is really fun too, and a great way to give some exposition. And I love the reveal of Dead Eye Plankton. Mr. Lawrence and Tom Kenny (and Bill Fagerbakke) truly nail the Old West accents in this episode. They’re just so over the top and perfect for their characters. Everyone else is good too, but I think they’re the stand-outs. And I like that Plankton, or rather Dead Eye, gets to be a certified menace in this episode too. The initial confrontation between SpongeBuck and Dead Eye is great and entertaining, and shows the dynamic I love to see between SpongeBob and Plankton. The visual gag of coffin jockeys is really fun too.
And then of course we get the next Old West trope of our hero being forced out of town briefly so that he can get his courage up and/or train for the big showdown. Of course this being SpongeBob SquarePants, this is going to take a comedic angle. SpongeBuck hallucinating out in the desert is quite amusing, and it is during this scene that I realize that Cowbones in the Cosmic Shake is a reference to this episode, which isn’t surprising given how much that level takes from this episode. And Pecos Patrick, once he reappears, is hilarious, and I love his little pep talk to SpongeBuck. Their quick friendship is very wholesome. And once SpongeBuck gets back to Dead Eye Gulch (after a fun exchange between Dead Eye and the Old West counterparts of Mr. Krabs, Mrs. Puff, and Squidward), I love his pep talk to them, it’s got some pretty funny moments in there too. I love the commitment to idiot friendship. And then I loved the joke poking fun at normal whispering sounds in media.
Moving on, we get the final showdown between SpongeBuck and Dead Eye, with all the Old West charm I’ve come to expect in these 20 or so minutes. The way all the tension builds just to dissipate so abruptly works great here. I also love that the solution in the end was the most obvious one…everyone else was just too much of cowards to do it. And of course Old West Mr. Krabs gotta make a profit off of it. And then I love the photograph of everyone that closes out the Old West segment, it’s so cute and wholesome!
Of course, the episode isn’t done yet, as we’ve gotta resolve the rest of the modern plot too. I love the reveal that the statue covered in jellyfish poop (so now jellyfish are apparently equivalent to birds LMAO…they coulda used scallops for that one) is the SpongeBuck statue. It’s perfectly obvious but not too obvious, you know? I think it would’ve been even better if they didn’t reveal at the very beginning of the Old West segment that SpongeBuck had a statue. And then I enjoy the little bit of tongue-in-cheek humor about knowing the name SpongeBob SquarePants.
And we can't end the episode without one more song it seems, as we then cut to Idiot Friends, a song I know very, very well because of yet again that SpongeBob’s Greatest Hits album I had as a kid. I’d say I know this song word-for-word. I mean it’s pretty good so I ain’t ashamed of that.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but I really enjoyed "Pest of the West", it was very charming (probably the most charming special of the season). I loved the vibes and atmosphere of this episode, and I appreciate that they really leaned into it with the setting, voices, outfits, music, and tropes. The humor is not top tier in this episode, but it's still pretty good in general, and there only a few lulls here and there, especially in the beginning of this episode. That's why I'd say it fits nicely into my "Great" tier.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.2/10
