Absolutely abysmal. With its questionable morals to its anti comedy to its endless filler, this episode is just bad. None of the characters in this episode make sense. Mr. Krabs wants to get rid of SpongeBob, the source of all of his money, for a nickel that will obviously be temporary. Also, Squidward is just all over the place in this episode. Mr. Krabs did something similar in Born Again Krabs, and Squidward chastised him, but in this episode he did it and Squidward didn't care. The whole message about unemployment is confusing to me, because the episode makes no effort to tell kids that unemployment is bad, they just call it "funemployment" and show Patrick enjoying it. The sequences of SpongeBob trying to find a new job were repetitive at best, and had nothing to laugh about.
Horrible. 2/10
Whew, this is a bad review. Before my anti-capitalist awakening, that's for sure. Yikes. Let's fix...all of this.
My oh my oh my…”SpongeBob You’re Fired”. Haven’t seen this episode in a very long time, not since it was one of the most hated episodes of this show. I’m pretty sure that hatred has cooled quite a bit now. But now is the time to see if this hatred was ever warranted, if this episode was ever as bad as everyone said it was. Or was it yet another victim of overhatred?
One of the biggest complaints about this episode was that it had too much “filler”. I’m not sure if anyone has noticed, but I try my hardest to avoid this kind of critique, because I don’t really think filler exists? I think all scenes have a purpose, it just depends on what their purpose is, if they’re plot-relevant, etc. No one just makes a scene just to make a scene. So, yeah, I’m still describing filler, but I don’t think people use the word correctly, is what I’m saying. Anyway, what does this all mean for this episode? Well…I think that this complaint is not valid. Let’s start with the first scene, which is admittedly pretty long. But the entire point of that scene is to show how good SpongeBob is at his job, and how much he enjoys it. This makes sense given the very next bit of the episode is him getting fired. The rest of the episode after him getting fired is SpongeBob failing to find a purpose in his life in a variety of ways. That’s basically the entire episode. There’s no filler in here from what I can see. There are scenes that are lengthy, like the beginning scene or when SpongeBob is crying, but there’s no “filler”. That’s not to say I like all of these scenes, because I don’t. I, too, have my limit when it comes to scenes taking too long. But I just felt like dismantling that critique.
Another issue brought up with this episode is that the plot is weak, and by this I mean the motivating factors for the plot are kinda dumb. And this I agree with, because Mr. Krabs here is far stupider and more short-sighted than he typically is, so the entire plot was kind of dumb from the get-go. If there was a better reason to fire SpongeBob (which let’s be real, there’s never a good reason to do this as far as money is concerned), then this episode would’ve been improved instantly. At least it’s kind of in character? Kind of. It’s honestly just really mean-spirited too, and y’all already know I don’t like when SpongeBob is mistreated.
I think this episode does bring up something interesting, and that is a SpongeBob without the Krusty Krab. I’m reminded of “Whatever Happened To SpongeBob?” because of this. It’s interesting to see SpongeBob without his familiar environment, and I think this episode missed some big opportunities to capitalize on this interesting idea. I mean, Patrick trying to teach SpongeBob about “funemployment” was at least interesting, if kinda dull at times. It was visually interesting, at least. It’s just not right seeing SpongeBob jobless though. It doesn’t fit him. At least he finally starts trying to work again, though we get that pretty funny gag of him only being able to create a Krabby Patty again at all of his different jobs. I love that this is a running gag in the show.
The episode gets legitimately interesting about 17 minutes in, which…yeah, not good. But anyway, I love the way all these restaurant people keep fighting over SpongeBob, because he’s such a good cook. It’s fun, and chaotic, and when Squidward comes in to save him (because it’s obvious it’s Squidward as soon as he shows up), that’s pretty fun too. But of course it means that SpongeBob goes back to the Krusty Krab with no grievances. And you know what? That’s fine. Having grievances isn’t always in his character. But Mr. Krabs really did deserve some kind of just desserts for his behavior here.
“SpongeBob You’re Fired” is just a whole bunch of missed opportunities in my opinion. This episode could’ve been something really interesting, but we spent way too much time on boring stuff. Like imagine if this episode took more of a “Le Big Switch” type of direction. Which it did, for the last 5 minutes. That would’ve been better. As it is, it’s just a disappointing mess. An overhated disappointing mess, but one all the same. Mediocre. Buh-bye.
Episode Tier: Mediocre
Episode Score: 5.9/10