And here we are yet again with another kinda forgettable season 6 episode, “Gullible Pants”. Before rewatching this episode, I was…decently confident I knew what the plot was, and I could remember like one particular moment from the episode. So basically, I had very very little memory of “Gullible Pants”, which is a rare thing. I feel like I think of “Funny Pants” or “Squiditis” before I think of this episode. I also never see anyone talk about this episode, which is interesting to say after seeing that the episode discussion for this episode has 4 pages. And oh boy, looks like I'm about to have an unpopular opinion just looking at the consensus here...
Mr. Krabs breaking his nail by counting money is so very him. Can’t say I’m a fan of the first few minutes of this episode being about Mr. Krabs trying to hide the fact that he’s getting a manicure because it would “emasculate” him if anyone knew. I’m too tired to even fully get on my soapbox about that one, so let me just say that I find that humor to be unpleasant and move on. At least Mr. Krabs trying to sneak out is interesting.
With SpongeBob being put in charge, the episode feels a bit like “Squid’s Day Off” mixed with “Hall Monitor”, with SpongeBob immediately using his power to try and put Squidward to work. It was also nice to see the return of
Maui Beach here, so that was cool. But anyway, Squidward is very much a mood during this part of the episode, though personally I would never sleep at work because I do not sleep in public. Squidward tricking SpongeBob is great too, because you know that he’ll definitely get his by the end of the episode, so now we just sit in anticipation for both how far Squidward will go, and how exactly everything will end up crashing around him.
Squidward’s antics vary in how entertaining they are. Like I love the part where SpongeBob just makes this random customer the fry cook, but the part where Squidward tricks SpongeBob into serving Krabby Patties with his feet elicits too much of a visceral reaction in me to be all that funny. SpongeBob making the Krusty Krab a dump is also pretty entertaining. It’s nasty, but it doesn’t gross me out in the same way as the foot part. And when SpongeBob starts dancing, I love how horrified everyone is by it, that’s pretty funny.
Once Mr. Krabs returns, the episode continues to be pretty funny and amusing. I love how he lists off everything wrong with what he’s seeing, his increasingly dramatic reaction is great. I like that Mr. Krabs ends up just listening to SpongeBob because he fears his secret is out, I just wish that the base of the joke wasn’t what it was. But whatever. The ending of the episode is great too, I love how SpongeBob just continues to creep out the customers by dancing.
One thing I like about this episode is that it leans into the kind of expressiveness we haven’t seen in a while. Like the animation of this episode still feels very…still, but there are moments of real expressiveness, such as when Squidward first starts tricking SpongeBob. So that was nice. I didn’t even realize how much I had been missing this kind of expressiveness until now, and I bet that’s exactly why so many episodes of this season feel so dull and empty, because there’s little expressiveness happening. So that’s interesting to know.
“Gullible Pants” surprised me by not actually giving Squidward any comeuppance. And you know what, I’m cool with that. Mostly because I know that he’ll eventually get an earful from Mr. Krabs once he gets over his unnecessary shame. Anyway, to sum up this episode, I really enjoyed it. It’s a very funny episode, and definitely a hidden gem, because no one talks about this episode either, and that’s a shame. I really love how expressive this episode is too, like I said before. Really feels like we’re leaving some kind of rut in that way.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.8/10
