I’m going to be completely honest right now: "Trenchbillies" was always the episode of the Legends of Bikini Bottom series I liked the least. By a long shot. And after rewatching it, this opinion still holds true. But not because of anything like "egregious stereotyping". The redneck as a concept is already a stereotype, you can't stereotype a redneck. Now someone who lives in a rural community? Sure, and that's a conversation worth having, but not in this review. Okay that's my little soapbox moment, let's get on with it.
I always appreciate when an episode starts with some good ol’ fashioned jellyfishing. I just always think it’s fun to watch. Like I’ve said before, I’m easy to please. The joke about Mr. Krabs was pretty funny and unexpected too. As was Patrick’s lack of directional sense. But then my enjoyment does take a hit when I’m subjected to annoying slo-mo. One thing about me, I don’t like slo-mo. Unless, of course, we’re talking about the
greatest Kamehameha wave of all time, then I love it. And this slo-mo also shows us a very…grotesque impact between SpongeBob and Patrick. It wasn’t as unpleasant as some of the shots from “The Splinter”, but it wasn’t fun to watch.
Speaking of unpleasant things, I don’t like the design of the trenchbillies…at all. Sorry but this isn’t the move, they are not good to look at. Which means that a lot of the episode is just hard to watch. So that’s already bringing my enjoyment down quite a bit. But I guess I can also take this time to talk about some aspects about the design of this episode I do like. The backgrounds in this episode are great, I love how they really make the vibe that this is a whole different world. And then I love the
background music in this episode, how they’re country-fied versions of SpongeBob themes. The link is to a playlist with the soundtrack, if you’re curious.
Going back to more chronological things, I like how SpongeBob and Patrick just seem to fall into a different, cool-looking world. It makes sense considering the whole “Legends of Bikini Bottom” angle, though I have to wonder who thought of trench people mixed with hillbillies as the episode’s plot. Very interesting, and definitely creative, I have to give them that. And I love how the whole “now or never” joke is brought back in this segment, that was pretty funny.
As the episode goes on, it spends its time being decently entertaining. Some parts simply drag on too long, like that guy getting his fiddle, or really just the set-up to the musical challenge in the first place, or the singing competition. And some parts are enjoyable, like Cletus trying to tell his story, or the actual musical challenge itself. I love how SpongeBob always seems to be turned into an instrument or object of some kind in so many different episodes. He’s a sponge with many talents. The part where SpongeBob and Patrick demonstrate what jellyfishing is was more entertaining than I expected, mostly because of the trenchbillies’ comments, but then of course we get unnecessary slomo again, sigh.
SpongeBob and Patrick then get inducted into the clan on an honorary basis, which is good because it’s always nice to see them win. And it’s fun to see Tom Kenny’s southern SpongeBob haha. Of course, the episode doesn’t end here. Which kind of doesn’t make sense because if they’re honorary members, they aren’t really members, so the trenchbillies can’t get mad at them leaving, but I digress. This antagonism doesn’t last too long (well, it does, but we at least get a break from it), as Patrick manages to trick the trenchbillies in a pretty funny moment.
And then we cut to Mr. Krabs and Squidward, which is a surprise. Y’all know I love my crumbs of these two having a real friendship. And I loved the little snippet of the conversation we got from them. And then we see that the trenchbillies followed SpongeBob and Patrick to the Krusty Krab. I like that the episode made them antagonists if only so we could see them in the normal Bikini Bottom. And just like a couple episodes ago, capitalism saves the day again as making the trenchbillies paying customers is what pacifies them lol. And then the ending of the episode is hilarious, with Mr. Krabs and Ma having a shotgun wedding (it’s not actually a shotgun wedding but the saying was too good to pass up).
“Trenchbillies” was definitely a lot better than I remember, although I’d still say it’s definitely the worst so far of the Legends anthology. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad episode though, not at all. It just has a lot of slow moments that aren’t really that funny. It also has a few not so great visuals. So all of this makes me put this episode into my “Good” tier. It could’ve been great, had it not been for the unnecessary slo-mo at points, to be honest. Well, that and the many humorless moments.
Episode Tier: Good
Episode Score: 7.6/10