(welp time to post a review)
stuck in the wringer (spongebob) review
Well today it is time to review a very infamous episode so what are my thoughts
Well i think it starts out with a great beginning of spongebob enjoying a bath until he drops the soap but luckily has a spare but then spongebob slips into the wringer and patrick puts forever glue on it
What i like about this episode is seeing how the wringer affects spongebob i mean i may like him but seeing him in this situation is so enjoyable it is gotten so bad spongebob can’t even eat ice cream
And well i kinda think the scene with the background fish makes a bit of sense since they did not know the full story
And i really enjoyed the krusty krab scenes
But at the end patrick ends up going to spongebob’s pineapple a bit after spongebob chased off patrick
I also love the scene with patrick saying how much does the carnival come to town and then it reveals it is always open on a sign
And then it is time for the crying always solves your problems after all
I actually enjoyed it and i like how patrick said crying doesn’t solve your problems but it does for spongebob
Okay, time for my second worst episode of SpongeBob ever. Yes, this is even lower than One Coarse Meal, even if my overall season 7 score doesn't say that.
This episode is just horrible. Patrick is at one of his worst appearances here, about at the level of Yours Mine and Mine. The episode is annoying and frustrating because seeing SpongeBob tortured is not funny. The worst part about the episode is that it had potential. Get rid of Patrick completely and have SpongeBob be the cause of this problem. Also, have the problem be solved by something else other than tears because that was a stupid let down ending that tried to copy "Wet Painters" but failed.
But really, the episode just is not funny and isn't entertaining. It isn't exactly boring, since I'm forced to pay attention to SpongeBob's cries and the townspeoples' a-holeness, but it just isn't good. That's another thing, what was even going on with the townspeople? I know the writers were trying to make Patrick sympathetic, and I'd be okay with that if it wasn't for Patrick's annoying behavior and him being the cause of the problem in the first place.
My least favorite episode of Spongebob, no doubt. It's downright insulting.
First off, it's a torture (character) episode, which automatically brings it down a couple hundred notches. But this episode takes it WAY too far, with Spongebob getting tortured to the point of being clinically depressed. And what does Patrick get for basically destroying Spongebob's life? Nothing. Not a thing. And they try and make Patrick the victim???? That's just completely backwards logic. That scene with Spongebob watching the TV was also really disturbing and uncomfortable. (they also make Patrick suddenly actually feel bad for Spongebob in this scene which just doesn't make any sense) And the ending was just so stupid. It feels so rushed. And the way Patrick says "should I get the glue?" at the end just tells me he learned absolutely nothing, which just makes the ending all the more unsatisfying.
I really hate this episode. I just felt awful watching it and there wasn't a single thing that made me laugh.
0/10
It was a tough choice between this one and One Coarse Meal, but this one just barely won out.
Okay, time for my second worst episode of SpongeBob ever. Yes, this is even lower than One Coarse Meal, even if my overall season 7 score doesn't say that.
Now that it's been a while, I want to "revamp" my review of this episode. This is absolutely my least favorite episode of SpongeBob, ever. Yes, still lower than One Coarse Meal, Pet Sitter Pat, A Pal For Gary, Squid Baby, Ink Lemonade, all of them. This episode is downright insulting, and almost every character except SpongeBob are at their worst. Seeing SpongeBob get tortured is never funny, and it's definitely never funny when he is completely out of character (as in not happy) the entire episode. The townspeople in this episode get me so angry. Patrick in this episode is insufferable with his being a complete and utter idiot. I don't understand what the writers were even going for with him. Was he supposed to be seen as the victim? Because he was the cause of everything and a direct player in SpongeBob's torture!
This episode doesn't do everything the worst though. For example, I hate Patrick more in You Don't Know Sponge and in The Card than here. I hated the townspeople in Someone's In The Kitchen With Sandy more than in this episode (though not by much). The reason this episode is the worst is because it combines multiple awful things (horrible Patrick, horrible townspeople, horrible torture of a character) and mixes it together in some amalgam of atrociousness.
I think another thing that makes this episode the worst is the SpongeBob torture. Now, hear me out. Squidward torture (of the likes of Boating Buddies) is bad. It isn't funny. But you can kind of understand where it's coming from. It isn't completely out of the blue. Additionally, it doesn't completely destroy Squidward's character. He's already a miserable grump, and getting tortured just turns that up. But when SpongeBob gets tortured, it's just wrong. He's an innocent, child-like character. Like who wants to see someone like that get tortured? It just leaves a sick taste in my mouth. And then the torture destroys his character in this episode. He gets irritated, which is rare for SpongeBob, and he gets depressed, also rare. Seeing the SpongeBob torture in this episode vs. Squidward torture in other episodes makes me realize how wrong it is to have SpongeBob be the butt of these jokes.
Lastly, as far as entertainment value in this episode goes, it's nonexistent. I can't think of one funny part of this episode, or even a moderately good portion. Usually I can find one good thing out of all the bad episodes (in A Pal For Gary, I like the Western Gary parts, for example), but in this episode there is absolutely nothing that I enjoy. I said in my original review that this episode had potential, but I'm not sure if I agree with that now. My idea was to have SpongeBob be the cause of his predicament. It would get rid of the torture aspect considerably, so that would improve the episode, but I can't say that this means that the original episode has potential at all. I think the idea for this episode should've been scrapped from the get-go and something else should've taken its place, because every story beat in this episode is garbage.
0.1/10, because I don't believe in saying absolute 0.
I watched it again some days ago and I agree with the weak points people have mentioned here before. This episode is very bad. Spongebob is the only one who is good character in this episode. Patrick and the townspeople are very very annoying. Thing I love about this episde: When Patrick didn't manage to pretend he doesn't need Spongebob, Super Weenie Hut Jr's appeares again, the name of the episode(I don't know why but I like the name) and that's it. Because of these reasons I give it 1/10.
Why It Should Be Stuck in the Wringer Forever (Why it sucks):
This episode is an episode of Torture to SpongeBob, which is very cruel and unfunny.
Patrick is at his worst when he puts glue on SpongeBob's wringer, leaving him trapped in it forever.
Speaking of Patrick, he shows little or no remorse for his actions in the episode, not caring that because of him, his best friend is suffering.
Mr. Krabs and Squidward are no better, because Squidward makes fun of SpongeBob for his situation, and Mr. Krabs instead of helping him, takes him out of work.
SpongeBob at the carnival, gets a black eye, and Patrick doesn't care, just making Patrick even nastier.
This episode tries WAY TOO hard to make jokes by torturing SpongeBob, which NEVER works.
The Infamous Scene: SpongeBob has had enough, and Scolds Patrick, for literally, Ruining his day and his life, BUT, even when SpongeBob is fully justified in scolding Patrick, the rest of the Fish who were watching the situation, scold SpongeBob, which is 100% stupid, cruel, nasty and disgusting.
For some reason, in this episode, the writers thought, we would be on Patrick's side, when it is clearly impossible to defend Patrick, because nothing he did was justified or right
The Infamous Final Scene: Patrick enters SpongeBob's house, and finds that SpongeBob has gone CRAZY from being stuck in the wringer for so long, and Patrick starts to Cry, and his tears melt the glue, so SpongeBob and Patrick start crying and SpongeBob manages to get out of the wringer, and SpongeBob says his infamous line with the infamous moral "I guess crying does solve your problems after all", after that, Patrick and SpongeBob get stuck in the wringer both, because SpongeBob threw the wringer and it fell on them both, this ending, is very stupid and unsatisfactory.
The Moral of this episode which is, "Crying solves any problem" is super stupid, because in real life, crying almost never solves anything, and knowing that this is a children's show, it may be detrimental to some child who takes this seriously.
Apart from the above bad moral, there is also another equally bad one, which is that "Defending yourself is wrong".
Redeeming Qualities:
SpongeBob was the only likable character in this episode.
At least Patrick finally realizes his actions toward SpongeBob were what caused the problem in the first place.
I give this episode a rating of....
Atrocious (0/20)
I hate this episode, for me it is the 3rd worst episode of the show.
Okay, time for my second worst episode of SpongeBob ever. Yes, this is even lower than One Coarse Meal, even if my overall season 7 score doesn't say that.
This episode is just horrible. Patrick is at one of his worst appearances here, about at the level of Yours Mine and Mine. The episode is annoying and frustrating because seeing SpongeBob tortured is not funny. The worst part about the episode is that it had potential. Get rid of Patrick completely and have SpongeBob be the cause of this problem. Also, have the problem be solved by something else other than tears because that was a stupid let down ending that tried to copy "Wet Painters" but failed.
But really, the episode just is not funny and isn't entertaining. It isn't exactly boring, since I'm forced to pay attention to SpongeBob's cries and the townspeoples' a-holeness, but it just isn't good. That's another thing, what was even going on with the townspeople? I know the writers were trying to make Patrick sympathetic, and I'd be okay with that if it wasn't for Patrick's annoying behavior and him being the cause of the problem in the first place.
Now that it's been a while, I want to "revamp" my review of this episode. This is absolutely my least favorite episode of SpongeBob, ever. Yes, still lower than One Coarse Meal, Pet Sitter Pat, A Pal For Gary, Squid Baby, Ink Lemonade, all of them. This episode is downright insulting, and almost every character except SpongeBob are at their worst. Seeing SpongeBob get tortured is never funny, and it's definitely never funny when he is completely out of character (as in not happy) the entire episode. The townspeople in this episode get me so angry. Patrick in this episode is insufferable with his being a complete and utter idiot. I don't understand what the writers were even going for with him. Was he supposed to be seen as the victim? Because he was the cause of everything and a direct player in SpongeBob's torture!
This episode doesn't do everything the worst though. For example, I hate Patrick more in You Don't Know Sponge and in The Card than here. I hated the townspeople in Someone's In The Kitchen With Sandy more than in this episode (though not by much). The reason this episode is the worst is because it combines multiple awful things (horrible Patrick, horrible townspeople, horrible torture of a character) and mixes it together in some amalgam of atrociousness.
I think another thing that makes this episode the worst is the SpongeBob torture. Now, hear me out. Squidward torture (of the likes of Boating Buddies) is bad. It isn't funny. But you can kind of understand where it's coming from. It isn't completely out of the blue. Additionally, it doesn't completely destroy Squidward's character. He's already a miserable grump, and getting tortured just turns that up. But when SpongeBob gets tortured, it's just wrong. He's an innocent, child-like character. Like who wants to see someone like that get tortured? It just leaves a sick taste in my mouth. And then the torture destroys his character in this episode. He gets irritated, which is rare for SpongeBob, and he gets depressed, also rare. Seeing the SpongeBob torture in this episode vs. Squidward torture in other episodes makes me realize how wrong it is to have SpongeBob be the butt of these jokes.
Lastly, as far as entertainment value in this episode goes, it's nonexistent. I can't think of one funny part of this episode, or even a moderately good portion. Usually I can find one good thing out of all the bad episodes (in A Pal For Gary, I like the Western Gary parts, for example), but in this episode there is absolutely nothing that I enjoy. I said in my original review that this episode had potential, but I'm not sure if I agree with that now. My idea was to have SpongeBob be the cause of his predicament. It would get rid of the torture aspect considerably, so that would improve the episode, but I can't say that this means that the original episode has potential at all. I think the idea for this episode should've been scrapped from the get-go and something else should've taken its place, because every story beat in this episode is garbage.
0.1/10, because I don't believe in saying absolute 0.
No. Just…no. This review is going to be extremely long, just telling you now. I have so much to say about this episode, so I put a few of the extra rants under spoiler tags at the end of the review. Before we even get started, this video is a TL;DR for everyone. Or perhaps this one. DragonBall fans, you might appreciate this one. All of these videos combined are how I feel about this episode. I wish I could carry myself with the eloquence of the second. But I am by nature a blunt person, so it’s easy for me to just put it simply: I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. I will never watch it again. Let’s discuss, shall we?
I’m going to move through this episode chronologically so that you can see how my hatred builds as these 11 minutes progress. So let’s start at the beginning. Just when “Single Cell Anniversary” had rebuilt my trust in singing in this show, this episode begins with annoying singing. Now, this is nowhere near as bad as “Choir Boys”, thank god, but it’s not pleasant either. SpongeBob ends up dropping his soap and we get a slo-mo part which I felt was fully unnecessary. I love dramatics, as y’all should know more than well by now, but I don’t care much for slo-mo unless it’s done tastefully, and here it just feels unneeded. Also, this episode also starts with SpongeBob being completely naked, which is not something I care to see, if you remember my comments on “All That Glitters”. Episodes with SpongeBob being fully naked like this also retroactively make me go back and question episodes like “Hooky”, but I digress.
Before I continue on in tearing this episode a new one, there are a couple of credits I can give here. SpongeBob owning a wringer is actually very smart, given that he is a sponge. SpongeBob not slipping on the second bar of soap, but then slipping on a rubber duck was a nice subversion of expectations. As always, Tom Kenny is masterful on his deliveries. And there was actually one joke that made me nearly chuckle, which is when SpongeBob leaves his bathroom and falls down the stairs and is like “don’t worry my spirits are still high!” And…that’s about it I think. So don’t say I didn’t try to find enjoyment here.
By the time SpongeBob gets stuck in his wringer, the episode is more ‘meh’ than anything. The very beginning was irritating, but the set-up for everything else was decent. Unfortunately, the episode does not use the rest of its time to improve itself, or even maintain its tentative “Okay”-tier status. SpongeBob tries and fails to get out of the wringer, which is dull. Things start souring seriously once Patrick enters the picture. We watch Patrick play with the rubber duck for entirely too long and in an annoying manner, before SpongeBob does the reasonable thing of asking Patrick if he could help him out.
From here, the frustration begins. See, I don’t mind Patrick being an idiot as long as it doesn’t cause irritation. However, this episode blows “irritation” out of the park and moves straight to the level of infuriation. Patrick hears the word “stuck”, doesn’t let SpongeBob finish, and glues SpongeBob to his wringer with superglue. Why. Why. WHY?! Never before have we seen Patrick make a problem worse in such a direct, unsubtle, unfunny way. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Patrick making a problem worse, but if he’s going to do it, for the love of god make it entertaining. This was not that. This was not making a second paint bubble in “Wet Painters”. This was bad. And then when SpongeBob is still rightfully upset about his predicament, Patrick gives SpongeBob a pep talk?? Even though he caused the issue??? “Stuck in the Wringer”, you will never be “Help Wanted”. Try again. What’s funny is that we haven’t even gotten started yet with the real issues I have with this episode. This is all just the appetizer. This is why the review is so long, because nitpicking every little thing in this episode brings me such joy!
As we move to the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob starts going through some real torment. Now, I don’t mind slapstick. But this episode isn’t using slapstick because none of this is funny to me. Like please explain to me where the humor is in SpongeBob struggling to live his life? In 100 words or less please. This physical issue is nothing in comparison to the sheer rage I feel towards SpongeBob’s treatment emotionally as the episode moves along. As if my rant about the beginning of “Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?” wasn’t enough, this episode decides to take the worst page from that episode’s book by having Mr. Krabs be verbally nasty towards SpongeBob, and then kick him out. While it is in character for him, I don’t understand why he doesn’t offer to help SpongeBob get the damn wringer off?? Clearly he can’t get it off, or else he wouldn’t come to work wearing it. The fact that no one seems to notice this throughout the episode is extremely annoying. And once SpongeBob is kicked out, Patrick reappears, and my dread skyrockets, because even though we’ve only seen him for a minute in this episode, that minute was atrocious, so I really don’t want to see more of him. Unfortunately, I do not get my wish.
Remember how I said there was nothing entertaining about SpongeBob struggling to live his life? Well, the episode clearly didn’t get the memo, because we’re subject to yet another scene of this exact thing happening. And then another! The carnival scene has got to be in the top 10 of the worst SpongeBob scenes that I have ever seen. Scratch that, top 5. Maybe even top 3. It’s up there, is what I’m saying. I don’t even know how to articulate the immense fury I feel watching this scene. This scene contains everything I have hated thus far in the episode: SpongeBob being subject to physical hurt, SpongeBob struggling to do everything, SpongeBob being upset, Patrick having no sense of care, urgency, or how SpongeBob is feeling at all. Nothing about this scene is funny or even enjoyable. And eventually, SpongeBob reaches his breaking point. When it happens, I’m giving a standing ovation because of how cathartic SpongeBob yelling at Patrick is.
Somehow, the episode gets worse. Because I’m not even allowed to enjoy the satisfaction I get from SpongeBob yelling at Patrick. Because for some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to have all the attendees of the carnival yell at SpongeBob for how he treated Patrick. This right here is beyond a doubt the worst part of this episode. “Stuck in the Wringer” was for sure bad before, but this right here made the episode teeter into irredeemability, because SpongeBob gets not even a second of respite in this entire episode. His rightful anger is criticized by people who know nothing of his situation (it’s not even their business, why are they commenting on it??) in a highly unnecessary scene. If we wanted to go this route of SpongeBob being in the wrong, then just have him reflect on his own?? Having all of these Bikini Bottomites gang up on SpongeBob is extremely unpleasant, completely undeserved, and a death sentence for this episode’s prospects. Patrick’s reaction irritates me because it’s clear that we’re supposed to see SpongeBob in the wrong here (which is why he parrots Mr. Krabs’ words), and Patrick does not deserve to feel sorry for himself here considering that again, everything is his fault. Once the Bikini Bottomites start talking, so much visceral rage consumes me to the point where I want to go into the show and make all these fictional people get a taste of my fury.
The next day arrives, and at this point, my emotions are so spent that I just sit here bored and exhausted waiting for this episode to end. The “staring contest” does not help. And then we eventually see SpongeBob who is clearly very depressed, which unsettles me. But I’ll have a whole long rant about that down at the bottom so we move on. The episode actually surprises me, though, by having Patrick take responsibility! I’m shocked. I mean, I don’t think this apology was anywhere near good enough considering it was like 5 seconds, but it was something I suppose.
Finally, this accursed episode ends with tears turning out to be the solution to the forever glue problem, and finally SpongeBob gets out of the wringer like he should have at the very beginning. This tears solution to me shows that this episode took a lot of inspiration from “Wet Painters”, but failed to understand what made that episode good. As for the very end of the episode, we get an unfunny joke, along with a very irritating stinger ending given that SpongeBob and Patrick end up getting stuck in the wringer, making everything feel pointless. The only thing pleasing about the ending is the fact that it means this episode is finally over. Thank goodness.
There’s so much to be disappointed by with this episode. The most clear disappointment to me is how this episode completely obliterates the stellar start to season 7. The second disappointment is that it’s part of season 7, because 7 is my favorite number. The third disappointment was that this episode was deemed acceptable in any capacity. And unlike many of the episodes from season 6, I really don’t think this episode ever had potential. The plot, all the way down to its most base form of SpongeBob being stuck in his wringer, is not interesting. If Patrick had been cut entirely and they went a more “Blackened Sponge” route (with SpongeBob trying to go about his day, not necessarily the making up stuff part), then this episode would’ve at least been better for sure. But I don’t know if it would’ve been good. I like to be optimistic, though, so I feel like if humor was actually attempted we could’ve got something good.
I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. Always have. There can be no doubt…this is my least favorite episode in the entire show. Yes, I hate “Stuck in the Wringer” more than “One Coarse Meal”, “Pet Sitter Pat”, and “A Pal For Gary”. More than the annoyingness of “Choir Boys” or the frustration of “The Thing”. There is nothing redeeming about this episode in any capacity. I almost wish I could invent a new tier for it because the ones I have don’t feel like enough. But I think giving it the one and only 0/10 should suffice, no?
Episode Tier: Abysmal
Episode Score: 0/10
Here's a couple of extra rants that I wanted to include separately.
Alright, so this rant is going to be about why I think this episode completely fails on a writing level, and in multiple ways. I’ll start with the small stuff. So firstly, the abrupt shift in POV between SpongeBob and Patrick at the ~8 minute mark makes no sense. We have been following SpongeBob for the entirety of this episode, why are we now following Patrick? But that’s just a tiny nitpick.
The next issue is that the writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. The writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. By that I mean that literally the things that happen in the episode are contradictory. This is an issue I found with the whole carnival scene. The reaction of the Bikini Bottomites makes no sense, because they crowded around SpongeBob and Patrick in the first place because they wanted to be entertained by their fight. So why is it that when the fight actually happens, they’re mad at SpongeBob?? That does not follow.
The last, and most significant, issue in the writing is related to the second one. SpongeBob being in the wrong in this episode is idiotic, and does not follow from the first half of the episode. There are multiple reasons for this. 1) Nothing SpongeBob said to Patrick was wrong. His delivery was harsh, perhaps, but I think it was more than deserved given we just watched Patrick put SpongeBob through physical torment not 30 seconds ago with the teacups, so he deserves to be this angry about it. Not to mention all of this is Patrick’s fault! So SpongeBob being in the wrong does not sit right from an emotional standpoint. 2) SpongeBob being in the wrong is not consistent. If we’re supposed to feel bad for SpongeBob in the scene with Mr. Krabs, then why would we not feel bad for him here? Equating SpongeBob to Mr. Krabs similarly doesn’t work, given that Mr. Krabs lost far less than SpongeBob did. Nothing has changed other than SpongeBob now being rightfully angry, and I don’t like how this episode gives the vibes that anger = bad or something like that. 3) The way the episode uses SpongeBob’s being in the wrong makes no sense. Because the Bikini Bottomites are never called out, we’re supposed to believe that what that one guy says is astute, that SpongeBob deserves what he’s gotten. But that makes no sense. SpongeBob did nothing wrong (by the episode’s own standards, no less!) when he got stuck in the first place! So how exactly can he deserve what he’s gotten when his yelling at Patrick is not what got him stuck?
Now, I think I can see what the goal was supposed to be here. It was supposed to be one of those episodes where the victim becomes a perpetrator by going too far, basically. But this episode did not pull this off with any kind of success, which is why I’d call it a failure from a writing standpoint.
So this (very short) rant will be about why putting SpongeBob through this kind of torture doesn’t work. I talked about this in my 2020 review of this episode, so this is going to be a very similar critique. See, the main reason why putting SpongeBob through this kind of stuff will never, ever be pleasant, is because of who SpongeBob is. He’s an innocent, child-like character. Watching him be slowly broken down like this is not an entertaining watch. It’s not pleasing. There’s a whole trope for things like this: Break the Cutie. Note how this is not a comedy trope. It is meant to be upsetting. This does not fit this show. Seeing SpongeBob by the end of the episode be extremely depressed is about as unpleasant as you can get.
The message about crying in this episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth...like there's nothing wrong with crying, and Patrick's whole rant about how "crying doesn't solve your problems" is stupid. People don't cry to solve their problems (unless it's being done in a manipulative way, I suppose). It's a natural emotional reaction to your situation. Sometimes people feel better when they cry. I'm aware I'm taking this way too seriously but I'm already annoyed at this episode so I was energized to write a rant.
The end of the episode seems to only further reiterate this dumb idea about crying because of how SpongeBob says crying solved his problems. This is a very weird and wrong message, not to mention it doesn’t even remotely fit this episode at all. I don’t think this should’ve been an episode with a lesson, but okay. And also, Patrick stopping SpongeBob from crying annoys me because again, this is all your fault, let SpongeBob cry if he wants to!
No. Just…no. This review is going to be extremely long, just telling you now. I have so much to say about this episode, so I put a few of the extra rants under spoiler tags at the end of the review. Before we even get started, this video is a TL;DR for everyone. Or perhaps this one. DragonBall fans, you might appreciate this one. All of these videos combined are how I feel about this episode. I wish I could carry myself with the eloquence of the second. But I am by nature a blunt person, so it’s easy for me to just put it simply: I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. I will never watch it again. Let’s discuss, shall we?
I’m going to move through this episode chronologically so that you can see how my hatred builds as these 11 minutes progress. So let’s start at the beginning. Just when “Single Cell Anniversary” had rebuilt my trust in singing in this show, this episode begins with annoying singing. Now, this is nowhere near as bad as “Choir Boys”, thank god, but it’s not pleasant either. SpongeBob ends up dropping his soap and we get a slo-mo part which I felt was fully unnecessary. I love dramatics, as y’all should know more than well by now, but I don’t care much for slo-mo unless it’s done tastefully, and here it just feels unneeded. Also, this episode also starts with SpongeBob being completely naked, which is not something I care to see, if you remember my comments on “All That Glitters”. Episodes with SpongeBob being fully naked like this also retroactively make me go back and question episodes like “Hooky”, but I digress.
Before I continue on in tearing this episode a new one, there are a couple of credits I can give here. SpongeBob owning a wringer is actually very smart, given that he is a sponge. SpongeBob not slipping on the second bar of soap, but then slipping on a rubber duck was a nice subversion of expectations. As always, Tom Kenny is masterful on his deliveries. And there was actually one joke that made me nearly chuckle, which is when SpongeBob leaves his bathroom and falls down the stairs and is like “don’t worry my spirits are still high!” And…that’s about it I think. So don’t say I didn’t try to find enjoyment here.
By the time SpongeBob gets stuck in his wringer, the episode is more ‘meh’ than anything. The very beginning was irritating, but the set-up for everything else was decent. Unfortunately, the episode does not use the rest of its time to improve itself, or even maintain its tentative “Okay”-tier status. SpongeBob tries and fails to get out of the wringer, which is dull. Things start souring seriously once Patrick enters the picture. We watch Patrick play with the rubber duck for entirely too long and in an annoying manner, before SpongeBob does the reasonable thing of asking Patrick if he could help him out.
From here, the frustration begins. See, I don’t mind Patrick being an idiot as long as it doesn’t cause irritation. However, this episode blows “irritation” out of the park and moves straight to the level of infuriation. Patrick hears the word “stuck”, doesn’t let SpongeBob finish, and glues SpongeBob to his wringer with superglue. Why. Why. WHY?! Never before have we seen Patrick make a problem worse in such a direct, unsubtle, unfunny way. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Patrick making a problem worse, but if he’s going to do it, for the love of god make it entertaining. This was not that. This was not making a second paint bubble in “Wet Painters”. This was bad. And then when SpongeBob is still rightfully upset about his predicament, Patrick gives SpongeBob a pep talk?? Even though he caused the issue??? “Stuck in the Wringer”, you will never be “Help Wanted”. Try again. What’s funny is that we haven’t even gotten started yet with the real issues I have with this episode. This is all just the appetizer. This is why the review is so long, because nitpicking every little thing in this episode brings me such joy!
As we move to the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob starts going through some real torment. Now, I don’t mind slapstick. But this episode isn’t using slapstick because none of this is funny to me. Like please explain to me where the humor is in SpongeBob struggling to live his life? In 100 words or less please. This physical issue is nothing in comparison to the sheer rage I feel towards SpongeBob’s treatment emotionally as the episode moves along. As if my rant about the beginning of “Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?” wasn’t enough, this episode decides to take the worst page from that episode’s book by having Mr. Krabs be verbally nasty towards SpongeBob, and then kick him out. While it is in character for him, I don’t understand why he doesn’t offer to help SpongeBob get the damn wringer off?? Clearly he can’t get it off, or else he wouldn’t come to work wearing it. The fact that no one seems to notice this throughout the episode is extremely annoying. And once SpongeBob is kicked out, Patrick reappears, and my dread skyrockets, because even though we’ve only seen him for a minute in this episode, that minute was atrocious, so I really don’t want to see more of him. Unfortunately, I do not get my wish.
Remember how I said there was nothing entertaining about SpongeBob struggling to live his life? Well, the episode clearly didn’t get the memo, because we’re subject to yet another scene of this exact thing happening. And then another! The carnival scene has got to be in the top 10 of the worst SpongeBob scenes that I have ever seen. Scratch that, top 5. Maybe even top 3. It’s up there, is what I’m saying. I don’t even know how to articulate the immense fury I feel watching this scene. This scene contains everything I have hated thus far in the episode: SpongeBob being subject to physical hurt, SpongeBob struggling to do everything, SpongeBob being upset, Patrick having no sense of care, urgency, or how SpongeBob is feeling at all. Nothing about this scene is funny or even enjoyable. And eventually, SpongeBob reaches his breaking point. When it happens, I’m giving a standing ovation because of how cathartic SpongeBob yelling at Patrick is.
Somehow, the episode gets worse. Because I’m not even allowed to enjoy the satisfaction I get from SpongeBob yelling at Patrick. Because for some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to have all the attendees of the carnival yell at SpongeBob for how he treated Patrick. This right here is beyond a doubt the worst part of this episode. “Stuck in the Wringer” was for sure bad before, but this right here made the episode teeter into irredeemability, because SpongeBob gets not even a second of respite in this entire episode. His rightful anger is criticized by people who know nothing of his situation (it’s not even their business, why are they commenting on it??) in a highly unnecessary scene. If we wanted to go this route of SpongeBob being in the wrong, then just have him reflect on his own?? Having all of these Bikini Bottomites gang up on SpongeBob is extremely unpleasant, completely undeserved, and a death sentence for this episode’s prospects. Patrick’s reaction irritates me because it’s clear that we’re supposed to see SpongeBob in the wrong here (which is why he parrots Mr. Krabs’ words), and Patrick does not deserve to feel sorry for himself here considering that again, everything is his fault. Once the Bikini Bottomites start talking, so much visceral rage consumes me to the point where I want to go into the show and make all these fictional people get a taste of my fury.
The next day arrives, and at this point, my emotions are so spent that I just sit here bored and exhausted waiting for this episode to end. The “staring contest” does not help. And then we eventually see SpongeBob who is clearly very depressed, which unsettles me. But I’ll have a whole long rant about that down at the bottom so we move on. The episode actually surprises me, though, by having Patrick take responsibility! I’m shocked. I mean, I don’t think this apology was anywhere near good enough considering it was like 5 seconds, but it was something I suppose.
Finally, this accursed episode ends with tears turning out to be the solution to the forever glue problem, and finally SpongeBob gets out of the wringer like he should have at the very beginning. This tears solution to me shows that this episode took a lot of inspiration from “Wet Painters”, but failed to understand what made that episode good. As for the very end of the episode, we get an unfunny joke, along with a very irritating stinger ending given that SpongeBob and Patrick end up getting stuck in the wringer, making everything feel pointless. The only thing pleasing about the ending is the fact that it means this episode is finally over. Thank goodness.
There’s so much to be disappointed by with this episode. The most clear disappointment to me is how this episode completely obliterates the stellar start to season 7. The second disappointment is that it’s part of season 7, because 7 is my favorite number. The third disappointment was that this episode was deemed acceptable in any capacity. And unlike many of the episodes from season 6, I really don’t think this episode ever had potential. The plot, all the way down to its most base form of SpongeBob being stuck in his wringer, is not interesting. If Patrick had been cut entirely and they went a more “Blackened Sponge” route (with SpongeBob trying to go about his day, not necessarily the making up stuff part), then this episode would’ve at least been better for sure. But I don’t know if it would’ve been good. I like to be optimistic, though, so I feel like if humor was actually attempted we could’ve got something good.
I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. Always have. There can be no doubt…this is my least favorite episode in the entire show. Yes, I hate “Stuck in the Wringer” more than “One Coarse Meal”, “Pet Sitter Pat”, and “A Pal For Gary”. More than the annoyingness of “Choir Boys” or the frustration of “The Thing”. There is nothing redeeming about this episode in any capacity. I almost wish I could invent a new tier for it because the ones I have don’t feel like enough. But I think giving it the one and only 0/10 should suffice, no?
Episode Tier: Abysmal
Episode Score: 0/10
Here's a couple of extra rants that I wanted to include separately.
Alright, so this rant is going to be about why I think this episode completely fails on a writing level, and in multiple ways. I’ll start with the small stuff. So firstly, the abrupt shift in POV between SpongeBob and Patrick at the ~8 minute mark makes no sense. We have been following SpongeBob for the entirety of this episode, why are we now following Patrick? But that’s just a tiny nitpick.
The next issue is that the writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. The writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. By that I mean that literally the things that happen in the episode are contradictory. This is an issue I found with the whole carnival scene. The reaction of the Bikini Bottomites makes no sense, because they crowded around SpongeBob and Patrick in the first place because they wanted to be entertained by their fight. So why is it that when the fight actually happens, they’re mad at SpongeBob?? That does not follow.
The last, and most significant, issue in the writing is related to the second one. SpongeBob being in the wrong in this episode is idiotic, and does not follow from the first half of the episode. There are multiple reasons for this. 1) Nothing SpongeBob said to Patrick was wrong. His delivery was harsh, perhaps, but I think it was more than deserved given we just watched Patrick put SpongeBob through physical torment not 30 seconds ago with the teacups, so he deserves to be this angry about it. Not to mention all of this is Patrick’s fault! So SpongeBob being in the wrong does not sit right from an emotional standpoint. 2) SpongeBob being in the wrong is not consistent. If we’re supposed to feel bad for SpongeBob in the scene with Mr. Krabs, then why would we not feel bad for him here? Equating SpongeBob to Mr. Krabs similarly doesn’t work, given that Mr. Krabs lost far less than SpongeBob did. Nothing has changed other than SpongeBob now being rightfully angry, and I don’t like how this episode gives the vibes that anger = bad or something like that. 3) The way the episode uses SpongeBob’s being in the wrong makes no sense. Because the Bikini Bottomites are never called out, we’re supposed to believe that what that one guy says is astute, that SpongeBob deserves what he’s gotten. But that makes no sense. SpongeBob did nothing wrong (by the episode’s own standards, no less!) when he got stuck in the first place! So how exactly can he deserve what he’s gotten when his yelling at Patrick is not what got him stuck?
Now, I think I can see what the goal was supposed to be here. It was supposed to be one of those episodes where the victim becomes a perpetrator by going too far, basically. But this episode did not pull this off with any kind of success, which is why I’d call it a failure from a writing standpoint.
So this (very short) rant will be about why putting SpongeBob through this kind of torture doesn’t work. I talked about this in my 2020 review of this episode, so this is going to be a very similar critique. See, the main reason why putting SpongeBob through this kind of stuff will never, ever be pleasant, is because of who SpongeBob is. He’s an innocent, child-like character. Watching him be slowly broken down like this is not an entertaining watch. It’s not pleasing. There’s a whole trope for things like this: Break the Cutie. Note how this is not a comedy trope. It is meant to be upsetting. This does not fit this show. Seeing SpongeBob by the end of the episode be extremely depressed is about as unpleasant as you can get.
The message about crying in this episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth...like there's nothing wrong with crying, and Patrick's whole rant about how "crying doesn't solve your problems" is stupid. People don't cry to solve their problems (unless it's being done in a manipulative way, I suppose). It's a natural emotional reaction to your situation. Sometimes people feel better when they cry. I'm aware I'm taking this way too seriously but I'm already annoyed at this episode so I was energized to write a rant.
The end of the episode seems to only further reiterate this dumb idea about crying because of how SpongeBob says crying solved his problems. This is a very weird and wrong message, not to mention it doesn’t even remotely fit this episode at all. I don’t think this should’ve been an episode with a lesson, but okay. And also, Patrick stopping SpongeBob from crying annoys me because again, this is all your fault, let SpongeBob cry if he wants to!
and glues SpongeBob to his wringer with superglue. Why. Why. WHY?! Never before have we seen Patrick make a problem worse in such a direct, unsubtle, unfunny way.
I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. Always have. There can be no doubt…this is my least favorite episode in the entire show. Yes, I hate “Stuck in the Wringer” more than “One Coarse Meal”, “Pet Sitter Pat”, and “A Pal For Gary”. More than the annoyingness of “Choir Boys” or the frustration of “The Thing”. There is nothing redeeming about this episode in any capacity. I almost wish I could invent a new tier for it because the ones I have don’t feel like enough. But I think giving it the one and only 0/10 should suffice, no?
i've heard you talk about this episode on multiple threads and even in other reviews, so i must say the review was worth the wait, cant wait to see this in video form tho, that'll be fun
No. Just…no. This review is going to be extremely long, just telling you now. I have so much to say about this episode, so I put a few of the extra rants under spoiler tags at the end of the review. Before we even get started, this video is a TL;DR for everyone. Or perhaps this one. DragonBall fans, you might appreciate this one. All of these videos combined are how I feel about this episode. I wish I could carry myself with the eloquence of the second. But I am by nature a blunt person, so it’s easy for me to just put it simply: I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. I will never watch it again. Let’s discuss, shall we?
I’m going to move through this episode chronologically so that you can see how my hatred builds as these 11 minutes progress. So let’s start at the beginning. Just when “Single Cell Anniversary” had rebuilt my trust in singing in this show, this episode begins with annoying singing. Now, this is nowhere near as bad as “Choir Boys”, thank god, but it’s not pleasant either. SpongeBob ends up dropping his soap and we get a slo-mo part which I felt was fully unnecessary. I love dramatics, as y’all should know more than well by now, but I don’t care much for slo-mo unless it’s done tastefully, and here it just feels unneeded. Also, this episode also starts with SpongeBob being completely naked, which is not something I care to see, if you remember my comments on “All That Glitters”. Episodes with SpongeBob being fully naked like this also retroactively make me go back and question episodes like “Hooky”, but I digress.
Before I continue on in tearing this episode a new one, there are a couple of credits I can give here. SpongeBob owning a wringer is actually very smart, given that he is a sponge. SpongeBob not slipping on the second bar of soap, but then slipping on a rubber duck was a nice subversion of expectations. As always, Tom Kenny is masterful on his deliveries. And there was actually one joke that made me nearly chuckle, which is when SpongeBob leaves his bathroom and falls down the stairs and is like “don’t worry my spirits are still high!” And…that’s about it I think. So don’t say I didn’t try to find enjoyment here.
By the time SpongeBob gets stuck in his wringer, the episode is more ‘meh’ than anything. The very beginning was irritating, but the set-up for everything else was decent. Unfortunately, the episode does not use the rest of its time to improve itself, or even maintain its tentative “Okay”-tier status. SpongeBob tries and fails to get out of the wringer, which is dull. Things start souring seriously once Patrick enters the picture. We watch Patrick play with the rubber duck for entirely too long and in an annoying manner, before SpongeBob does the reasonable thing of asking Patrick if he could help him out.
From here, the frustration begins. See, I don’t mind Patrick being an idiot as long as it doesn’t cause irritation. However, this episode blows “irritation” out of the park and moves straight to the level of infuriation. Patrick hears the word “stuck”, doesn’t let SpongeBob finish, and glues SpongeBob to his wringer with superglue. Why. Why. WHY?! Never before have we seen Patrick make a problem worse in such a direct, unsubtle, unfunny way. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Patrick making a problem worse, but if he’s going to do it, for the love of god make it entertaining. This was not that. This was not making a second paint bubble in “Wet Painters”. This was bad. And then when SpongeBob is still rightfully upset about his predicament, Patrick gives SpongeBob a pep talk?? Even though he caused the issue??? “Stuck in the Wringer”, you will never be “Help Wanted”. Try again. What’s funny is that we haven’t even gotten started yet with the real issues I have with this episode. This is all just the appetizer. This is why the review is so long, because nitpicking every little thing in this episode brings me such joy!
As we move to the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob starts going through some real torment. Now, I don’t mind slapstick. But this episode isn’t using slapstick because none of this is funny to me. Like please explain to me where the humor is in SpongeBob struggling to live his life? In 100 words or less please. This physical issue is nothing in comparison to the sheer rage I feel towards SpongeBob’s treatment emotionally as the episode moves along. As if my rant about the beginning of “Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?” wasn’t enough, this episode decides to take the worst page from that episode’s book by having Mr. Krabs be verbally nasty towards SpongeBob, and then kick him out. While it is in character for him, I don’t understand why he doesn’t offer to help SpongeBob get the damn wringer off?? Clearly he can’t get it off, or else he wouldn’t come to work wearing it. The fact that no one seems to notice this throughout the episode is extremely annoying. And once SpongeBob is kicked out, Patrick reappears, and my dread skyrockets, because even though we’ve only seen him for a minute in this episode, that minute was atrocious, so I really don’t want to see more of him. Unfortunately, I do not get my wish.
Remember how I said there was nothing entertaining about SpongeBob struggling to live his life? Well, the episode clearly didn’t get the memo, because we’re subject to yet another scene of this exact thing happening. And then another! The carnival scene has got to be in the top 10 of the worst SpongeBob scenes that I have ever seen. Scratch that, top 5. Maybe even top 3. It’s up there, is what I’m saying. I don’t even know how to articulate the immense fury I feel watching this scene. This scene contains everything I have hated thus far in the episode: SpongeBob being subject to physical hurt, SpongeBob struggling to do everything, SpongeBob being upset, Patrick having no sense of care, urgency, or how SpongeBob is feeling at all. Nothing about this scene is funny or even enjoyable. And eventually, SpongeBob reaches his breaking point. When it happens, I’m giving a standing ovation because of how cathartic SpongeBob yelling at Patrick is.
Somehow, the episode gets worse. Because I’m not even allowed to enjoy the satisfaction I get from SpongeBob yelling at Patrick. Because for some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to have all the attendees of the carnival yell at SpongeBob for how he treated Patrick. This right here is beyond a doubt the worst part of this episode. “Stuck in the Wringer” was for sure bad before, but this right here made the episode teeter into irredeemability, because SpongeBob gets not even a second of respite in this entire episode. His rightful anger is criticized by people who know nothing of his situation (it’s not even their business, why are they commenting on it??) in a highly unnecessary scene. If we wanted to go this route of SpongeBob being in the wrong, then just have him reflect on his own?? Having all of these Bikini Bottomites gang up on SpongeBob is extremely unpleasant, completely undeserved, and a death sentence for this episode’s prospects. Patrick’s reaction irritates me because it’s clear that we’re supposed to see SpongeBob in the wrong here (which is why he parrots Mr. Krabs’ words), and Patrick does not deserve to feel sorry for himself here considering that again, everything is his fault. Once the Bikini Bottomites start talking, so much visceral rage consumes me to the point where I want to go into the show and make all these fictional people get a taste of my fury.
The next day arrives, and at this point, my emotions are so spent that I just sit here bored and exhausted waiting for this episode to end. The “staring contest” does not help. And then we eventually see SpongeBob who is clearly very depressed, which unsettles me. But I’ll have a whole long rant about that down at the bottom so we move on. The episode actually surprises me, though, by having Patrick take responsibility! I’m shocked. I mean, I don’t think this apology was anywhere near good enough considering it was like 5 seconds, but it was something I suppose.
Finally, this accursed episode ends with tears turning out to be the solution to the forever glue problem, and finally SpongeBob gets out of the wringer like he should have at the very beginning. This tears solution to me shows that this episode took a lot of inspiration from “Wet Painters”, but failed to understand what made that episode good. As for the very end of the episode, we get an unfunny joke, along with a very irritating stinger ending given that SpongeBob and Patrick end up getting stuck in the wringer, making everything feel pointless. The only thing pleasing about the ending is the fact that it means this episode is finally over. Thank goodness.
There’s so much to be disappointed by with this episode. The most clear disappointment to me is how this episode completely obliterates the stellar start to season 7. The second disappointment is that it’s part of season 7, because 7 is my favorite number. The third disappointment was that this episode was deemed acceptable in any capacity. And unlike many of the episodes from season 6, I really don’t think this episode ever had potential. The plot, all the way down to its most base form of SpongeBob being stuck in his wringer, is not interesting. If Patrick had been cut entirely and they went a more “Blackened Sponge” route (with SpongeBob trying to go about his day, not necessarily the making up stuff part), then this episode would’ve at least been better for sure. But I don’t know if it would’ve been good. I like to be optimistic, though, so I feel like if humor was actually attempted we could’ve got something good.
I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. Always have. There can be no doubt…this is my least favorite episode in the entire show. Yes, I hate “Stuck in the Wringer” more than “One Coarse Meal”, “Pet Sitter Pat”, and “A Pal For Gary”. More than the annoyingness of “Choir Boys” or the frustration of “The Thing”. There is nothing redeeming about this episode in any capacity. I almost wish I could invent a new tier for it because the ones I have don’t feel like enough. But I think giving it the one and only 0/10 should suffice, no?
Episode Tier: Abysmal
Episode Score: 0/10
Here's a couple of extra rants that I wanted to include separately.
Alright, so this rant is going to be about why I think this episode completely fails on a writing level, and in multiple ways. I’ll start with the small stuff. So firstly, the abrupt shift in POV between SpongeBob and Patrick at the ~8 minute mark makes no sense. We have been following SpongeBob for the entirety of this episode, why are we now following Patrick? But that’s just a tiny nitpick.
The next issue is that the writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. The writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. By that I mean that literally the things that happen in the episode are contradictory. This is an issue I found with the whole carnival scene. The reaction of the Bikini Bottomites makes no sense, because they crowded around SpongeBob and Patrick in the first place because they wanted to be entertained by their fight. So why is it that when the fight actually happens, they’re mad at SpongeBob?? That does not follow.
The last, and most significant, issue in the writing is related to the second one. SpongeBob being in the wrong in this episode is idiotic, and does not follow from the first half of the episode. There are multiple reasons for this. 1) Nothing SpongeBob said to Patrick was wrong. His delivery was harsh, perhaps, but I think it was more than deserved given we just watched Patrick put SpongeBob through physical torment not 30 seconds ago with the teacups, so he deserves to be this angry about it. Not to mention all of this is Patrick’s fault! So SpongeBob being in the wrong does not sit right from an emotional standpoint. 2) SpongeBob being in the wrong is not consistent. If we’re supposed to feel bad for SpongeBob in the scene with Mr. Krabs, then why would we not feel bad for him here? Equating SpongeBob to Mr. Krabs similarly doesn’t work, given that Mr. Krabs lost far less than SpongeBob did. Nothing has changed other than SpongeBob now being rightfully angry, and I don’t like how this episode gives the vibes that anger = bad or something like that. 3) The way the episode uses SpongeBob’s being in the wrong makes no sense. Because the Bikini Bottomites are never called out, we’re supposed to believe that what that one guy says is astute, that SpongeBob deserves what he’s gotten. But that makes no sense. SpongeBob did nothing wrong (by the episode’s own standards, no less!) when he got stuck in the first place! So how exactly can he deserve what he’s gotten when his yelling at Patrick is not what got him stuck?
Now, I think I can see what the goal was supposed to be here. It was supposed to be one of those episodes where the victim becomes a perpetrator by going too far, basically. But this episode did not pull this off with any kind of success, which is why I’d call it a failure from a writing standpoint.
So this (very short) rant will be about why putting SpongeBob through this kind of torture doesn’t work. I talked about this in my 2020 review of this episode, so this is going to be a very similar critique. See, the main reason why putting SpongeBob through this kind of stuff will never, ever be pleasant, is because of who SpongeBob is. He’s an innocent, child-like character. Watching him be slowly broken down like this is not an entertaining watch. It’s not pleasing. There’s a whole trope for things like this: Break the Cutie. Note how this is not a comedy trope. It is meant to be upsetting. This does not fit this show. Seeing SpongeBob by the end of the episode be extremely depressed is about as unpleasant as you can get.
The message about crying in this episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth...like there's nothing wrong with crying, and Patrick's whole rant about how "crying doesn't solve your problems" is stupid. People don't cry to solve their problems (unless it's being done in a manipulative way, I suppose). It's a natural emotional reaction to your situation. Sometimes people feel better when they cry. I'm aware I'm taking this way too seriously but I'm already annoyed at this episode so I was energized to write a rant.
The end of the episode seems to only further reiterate this dumb idea about crying because of how SpongeBob says crying solved his problems. This is a very weird and wrong message, not to mention it doesn’t even remotely fit this episode at all. I don’t think this should’ve been an episode with a lesson, but okay. And also, Patrick stopping SpongeBob from crying annoys me because again, this is all your fault, let SpongeBob cry if he wants to!
No. Just…no. This review is going to be extremely long, just telling you now. I have so much to say about this episode, so I put a few of the extra rants under spoiler tags at the end of the review. Before we even get started, this video is a TL;DR for everyone. Or perhaps this one. DragonBall fans, you might appreciate this one. All of these videos combined are how I feel about this episode. I wish I could carry myself with the eloquence of the second. But I am by nature a blunt person, so it’s easy for me to just put it simply: I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. I will never watch it again. Let’s discuss, shall we?
I’m going to move through this episode chronologically so that you can see how my hatred builds as these 11 minutes progress. So let’s start at the beginning. Just when “Single Cell Anniversary” had rebuilt my trust in singing in this show, this episode begins with annoying singing. Now, this is nowhere near as bad as “Choir Boys”, thank god, but it’s not pleasant either. SpongeBob ends up dropping his soap and we get a slo-mo part which I felt was fully unnecessary. I love dramatics, as y’all should know more than well by now, but I don’t care much for slo-mo unless it’s done tastefully, and here it just feels unneeded. Also, this episode also starts with SpongeBob being completely naked, which is not something I care to see, if you remember my comments on “All That Glitters”. Episodes with SpongeBob being fully naked like this also retroactively make me go back and question episodes like “Hooky”, but I digress.
Before I continue on in tearing this episode a new one, there are a couple of credits I can give here. SpongeBob owning a wringer is actually very smart, given that he is a sponge. SpongeBob not slipping on the second bar of soap, but then slipping on a rubber duck was a nice subversion of expectations. As always, Tom Kenny is masterful on his deliveries. And there was actually one joke that made me nearly chuckle, which is when SpongeBob leaves his bathroom and falls down the stairs and is like “don’t worry my spirits are still high!” And…that’s about it I think. So don’t say I didn’t try to find enjoyment here.
By the time SpongeBob gets stuck in his wringer, the episode is more ‘meh’ than anything. The very beginning was irritating, but the set-up for everything else was decent. Unfortunately, the episode does not use the rest of its time to improve itself, or even maintain its tentative “Okay”-tier status. SpongeBob tries and fails to get out of the wringer, which is dull. Things start souring seriously once Patrick enters the picture. We watch Patrick play with the rubber duck for entirely too long and in an annoying manner, before SpongeBob does the reasonable thing of asking Patrick if he could help him out.
From here, the frustration begins. See, I don’t mind Patrick being an idiot as long as it doesn’t cause irritation. However, this episode blows “irritation” out of the park and moves straight to the level of infuriation. Patrick hears the word “stuck”, doesn’t let SpongeBob finish, and glues SpongeBob to his wringer with superglue. Why. Why. WHY?! Never before have we seen Patrick make a problem worse in such a direct, unsubtle, unfunny way. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Patrick making a problem worse, but if he’s going to do it, for the love of god make it entertaining. This was not that. This was not making a second paint bubble in “Wet Painters”. This was bad. And then when SpongeBob is still rightfully upset about his predicament, Patrick gives SpongeBob a pep talk?? Even though he caused the issue??? “Stuck in the Wringer”, you will never be “Help Wanted”. Try again. What’s funny is that we haven’t even gotten started yet with the real issues I have with this episode. This is all just the appetizer. This is why the review is so long, because nitpicking every little thing in this episode brings me such joy!
As we move to the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob starts going through some real torment. Now, I don’t mind slapstick. But this episode isn’t using slapstick because none of this is funny to me. Like please explain to me where the humor is in SpongeBob struggling to live his life? In 100 words or less please. This physical issue is nothing in comparison to the sheer rage I feel towards SpongeBob’s treatment emotionally as the episode moves along. As if my rant about the beginning of “Whatever Happened to SpongeBob?” wasn’t enough, this episode decides to take the worst page from that episode’s book by having Mr. Krabs be verbally nasty towards SpongeBob, and then kick him out. While it is in character for him, I don’t understand why he doesn’t offer to help SpongeBob get the damn wringer off?? Clearly he can’t get it off, or else he wouldn’t come to work wearing it. The fact that no one seems to notice this throughout the episode is extremely annoying. And once SpongeBob is kicked out, Patrick reappears, and my dread skyrockets, because even though we’ve only seen him for a minute in this episode, that minute was atrocious, so I really don’t want to see more of him. Unfortunately, I do not get my wish.
Remember how I said there was nothing entertaining about SpongeBob struggling to live his life? Well, the episode clearly didn’t get the memo, because we’re subject to yet another scene of this exact thing happening. And then another! The carnival scene has got to be in the top 10 of the worst SpongeBob scenes that I have ever seen. Scratch that, top 5. Maybe even top 3. It’s up there, is what I’m saying. I don’t even know how to articulate the immense fury I feel watching this scene. This scene contains everything I have hated thus far in the episode: SpongeBob being subject to physical hurt, SpongeBob struggling to do everything, SpongeBob being upset, Patrick having no sense of care, urgency, or how SpongeBob is feeling at all. Nothing about this scene is funny or even enjoyable. And eventually, SpongeBob reaches his breaking point. When it happens, I’m giving a standing ovation because of how cathartic SpongeBob yelling at Patrick is.
Somehow, the episode gets worse. Because I’m not even allowed to enjoy the satisfaction I get from SpongeBob yelling at Patrick. Because for some reason, someone thought it was a good idea to have all the attendees of the carnival yell at SpongeBob for how he treated Patrick. This right here is beyond a doubt the worst part of this episode. “Stuck in the Wringer” was for sure bad before, but this right here made the episode teeter into irredeemability, because SpongeBob gets not even a second of respite in this entire episode. His rightful anger is criticized by people who know nothing of his situation (it’s not even their business, why are they commenting on it??) in a highly unnecessary scene. If we wanted to go this route of SpongeBob being in the wrong, then just have him reflect on his own?? Having all of these Bikini Bottomites gang up on SpongeBob is extremely unpleasant, completely undeserved, and a death sentence for this episode’s prospects. Patrick’s reaction irritates me because it’s clear that we’re supposed to see SpongeBob in the wrong here (which is why he parrots Mr. Krabs’ words), and Patrick does not deserve to feel sorry for himself here considering that again, everything is his fault. Once the Bikini Bottomites start talking, so much visceral rage consumes me to the point where I want to go into the show and make all these fictional people get a taste of my fury.
The next day arrives, and at this point, my emotions are so spent that I just sit here bored and exhausted waiting for this episode to end. The “staring contest” does not help. And then we eventually see SpongeBob who is clearly very depressed, which unsettles me. But I’ll have a whole long rant about that down at the bottom so we move on. The episode actually surprises me, though, by having Patrick take responsibility! I’m shocked. I mean, I don’t think this apology was anywhere near good enough considering it was like 5 seconds, but it was something I suppose.
Finally, this accursed episode ends with tears turning out to be the solution to the forever glue problem, and finally SpongeBob gets out of the wringer like he should have at the very beginning. This tears solution to me shows that this episode took a lot of inspiration from “Wet Painters”, but failed to understand what made that episode good. As for the very end of the episode, we get an unfunny joke, along with a very irritating stinger ending given that SpongeBob and Patrick end up getting stuck in the wringer, making everything feel pointless. The only thing pleasing about the ending is the fact that it means this episode is finally over. Thank goodness.
There’s so much to be disappointed by with this episode. The most clear disappointment to me is how this episode completely obliterates the stellar start to season 7. The second disappointment is that it’s part of season 7, because 7 is my favorite number. The third disappointment was that this episode was deemed acceptable in any capacity. And unlike many of the episodes from season 6, I really don’t think this episode ever had potential. The plot, all the way down to its most base form of SpongeBob being stuck in his wringer, is not interesting. If Patrick had been cut entirely and they went a more “Blackened Sponge” route (with SpongeBob trying to go about his day, not necessarily the making up stuff part), then this episode would’ve at least been better for sure. But I don’t know if it would’ve been good. I like to be optimistic, though, so I feel like if humor was actually attempted we could’ve got something good.
I hate “Stuck in the Wringer”. Always have. There can be no doubt…this is my least favorite episode in the entire show. Yes, I hate “Stuck in the Wringer” more than “One Coarse Meal”, “Pet Sitter Pat”, and “A Pal For Gary”. More than the annoyingness of “Choir Boys” or the frustration of “The Thing”. There is nothing redeeming about this episode in any capacity. I almost wish I could invent a new tier for it because the ones I have don’t feel like enough. But I think giving it the one and only 0/10 should suffice, no?
Episode Tier: Abysmal
Episode Score: 0/10
Here's a couple of extra rants that I wanted to include separately.
Alright, so this rant is going to be about why I think this episode completely fails on a writing level, and in multiple ways. I’ll start with the small stuff. So firstly, the abrupt shift in POV between SpongeBob and Patrick at the ~8 minute mark makes no sense. We have been following SpongeBob for the entirety of this episode, why are we now following Patrick? But that’s just a tiny nitpick.
The next issue is that the writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. The writing in this episode is internally inconsistent. By that I mean that literally the things that happen in the episode are contradictory. This is an issue I found with the whole carnival scene. The reaction of the Bikini Bottomites makes no sense, because they crowded around SpongeBob and Patrick in the first place because they wanted to be entertained by their fight. So why is it that when the fight actually happens, they’re mad at SpongeBob?? That does not follow.
The last, and most significant, issue in the writing is related to the second one. SpongeBob being in the wrong in this episode is idiotic, and does not follow from the first half of the episode. There are multiple reasons for this. 1) Nothing SpongeBob said to Patrick was wrong. His delivery was harsh, perhaps, but I think it was more than deserved given we just watched Patrick put SpongeBob through physical torment not 30 seconds ago with the teacups, so he deserves to be this angry about it. Not to mention all of this is Patrick’s fault! So SpongeBob being in the wrong does not sit right from an emotional standpoint. 2) SpongeBob being in the wrong is not consistent. If we’re supposed to feel bad for SpongeBob in the scene with Mr. Krabs, then why would we not feel bad for him here? Equating SpongeBob to Mr. Krabs similarly doesn’t work, given that Mr. Krabs lost far less than SpongeBob did. Nothing has changed other than SpongeBob now being rightfully angry, and I don’t like how this episode gives the vibes that anger = bad or something like that. 3) The way the episode uses SpongeBob’s being in the wrong makes no sense. Because the Bikini Bottomites are never called out, we’re supposed to believe that what that one guy says is astute, that SpongeBob deserves what he’s gotten. But that makes no sense. SpongeBob did nothing wrong (by the episode’s own standards, no less!) when he got stuck in the first place! So how exactly can he deserve what he’s gotten when his yelling at Patrick is not what got him stuck?
Now, I think I can see what the goal was supposed to be here. It was supposed to be one of those episodes where the victim becomes a perpetrator by going too far, basically. But this episode did not pull this off with any kind of success, which is why I’d call it a failure from a writing standpoint.
So this (very short) rant will be about why putting SpongeBob through this kind of torture doesn’t work. I talked about this in my 2020 review of this episode, so this is going to be a very similar critique. See, the main reason why putting SpongeBob through this kind of stuff will never, ever be pleasant, is because of who SpongeBob is. He’s an innocent, child-like character. Watching him be slowly broken down like this is not an entertaining watch. It’s not pleasing. There’s a whole trope for things like this: Break the Cutie. Note how this is not a comedy trope. It is meant to be upsetting. This does not fit this show. Seeing SpongeBob by the end of the episode be extremely depressed is about as unpleasant as you can get.
The message about crying in this episode leaves a bad taste in my mouth...like there's nothing wrong with crying, and Patrick's whole rant about how "crying doesn't solve your problems" is stupid. People don't cry to solve their problems (unless it's being done in a manipulative way, I suppose). It's a natural emotional reaction to your situation. Sometimes people feel better when they cry. I'm aware I'm taking this way too seriously but I'm already annoyed at this episode so I was energized to write a rant.
The end of the episode seems to only further reiterate this dumb idea about crying because of how SpongeBob says crying solved his problems. This is a very weird and wrong message, not to mention it doesn’t even remotely fit this episode at all. I don’t think this should’ve been an episode with a lesson, but okay. And also, Patrick stopping SpongeBob from crying annoys me because again, this is all your fault, let SpongeBob cry if he wants to!
this is like the suds scene.....................just now it isnt funny
i've heard you talk about this episode on multiple threads and even in other reviews, so i must say the review was worth the wait, cant wait to see this in video form tho, that'll be fun
Thank you friend! This is honestly probably my magnum opus when it comes to verbally eviscerating an episode. There are other episodes I don't like in this season, but I don't think I'll get quite on this level again haha.
Alright I haven't seen this episode in a long time so I don't have anything to add to what was just said (other than saying it was a great review ofc), however I will say this (and this is for reviews of the episode in general):
I actually really like the whole "crying solves your problems after all" bit at the end. I get that it can be annoying for some people, but I just find it really funny. It's obvious SpongeBob isn't being serious too. People always say that kids won't understand that it's a joke and they'll take it seriously but when I saw this episode in 1st Grade I understood it was a joke and laughed at it. It's a joke people, you can calm down lol.
However, that was a pretty good review. It's a perfect description of my feelings towards Something Narwhal This Way Comes. Nice job Pugs!
Alright I haven't seen this episode in a long time so I don't have anything to add to what was just said (other than saying it was a great review ofc), however I will say this (and this is for reviews of the episode in general):
I actually really like the whole "crying solves your problems after all" bit at the end. I get that it can be annoying for some people, but I just find it really funny. It's obvious SpongeBob isn't being serious too. People always say that kids won't understand that it's a joke and they'll take it seriously but when I saw this episode in 1st Grade I understood it was a joke and laughed at it. It's a joke people, you can calm down lol.
However, that was a pretty good review. It's a perfect description of my feelings towards Something Narwhal This Way Comes. Nice job Pugs!
Thank you! And yeah this didn't come across in my review well, but I agree it's very clear SpongeBob is making a joke, and it's a bit weird how some people don't get that. The issue for me in particular is the idea that this episode assumes that people think crying solves their problems in the first place.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
