Finally, an episode that I remember premiering. Or, at least, I’m pretty sure I remember the promo for it? At this point in my life, I didn’t have Nickelodeon playing on the TV as much, because I was too busy, so it’s pretty miraculous that I can remember any promo for any episode that I’ll be reviewing from now on. Yeah…I had a very short-lived period of actually being sat down in front of my TV for episode premieres. Starting with season 10, I typically waited until I could get my hands on the DVDs to watch anything (hence why I’ve hardly seen anything of season 13), unless I managed to be around for once.
“Code Yellow” is one of those simply plotted episodes. Its main focus is on providing humor and shenanigans. And, as always, I’m perfectly fine with that. Squidward getting a nose job is the basis for the entire episode, and that’s very simple. It’s also not a plot I was expecting. And it reminds me of both “No Nose Knows” and “The Two Faces of Squidward”. So that’s fun. Though I do think the joke involving Squidward’s nose being ugly didn’t quite land for me. Probably because it’s been his character design for like 24 years LMAO.
Once Squidward gets to the hospital for his nose job, shenanigans ensue, starting with SpongeBob covering Squidward’s room with all sorts of balloons, flowers, and stuffed animals. The little guy is just so full of love, it’s adorable (and SquidBobbers, don’t start now or so help me God). And then more shenanigans ensue when SpongeBob goes to be a candy striper, and eats the stripes off of his uniform, making him look like a doctor. I love his little uniform with the head mirror in this episode, it looks adorable on him.
Seeing SpongeBob walking around acting like a little doctor is fun. This episode is kind of like the SpongeBob equivalent of what happened to Patrick in “The Executive Treatment”, considering he never meant to pretend to be a doctor, everyone just assumed that he was. Of course, this would not fly as a legal defense in the real world lol. Anyway, SpongeBob manages to be surprisingly (in-universe…out of universe, we all know that SpongeBob will turn out on top, and this is the most obvious writing decision) good at being a doctor. This part is not particularly funny, but it is enjoyable. This is something I’ve been saying a lot. Seems to be a trend carrying over from season 9. I’ll keep an eye on that. Anyway, I love how SpongeBob’s optimism aids him here. It’s a good…character moment. I can’t think of a better way to describe it. Things get a lot funnier once SpongeBob acts as the doctor for Mrs. Puff. More Mrs. Puff, her terror is hilarious, and her “help me” sets me off laughing immediately. Mary Jo Catlett is a treasure.
Finally, we get to the part that I thought would take up more of this episode, SpongeBob being the doctor for Squidward’s operation. Obviously, in the real world, the same doctors would not be the ones doing all of the procedures in this episode, as the medical field is too specialized for that. Why I just pointed that out, I have no idea, other than the fact that it is my god-given duty to go on tangents about anything I want in my reviews. Anyway, SpongeBob trying to be a plastic surgeon goes as well as you’d expect, as he basically becomes a stand-up comedian to the observers. And then we get a bunch of different noses on Squidward (including a Squilliam cameo which reminds me of how long we have gone without seeing him). In the end, Squidward stays with the nose he’s known all along…at the expense of his own body parts. And the only one who gets away unscathed is SpongeBob, as once he reveals that he’s just a fry cook, the other doctor’s just about lose it.
Okay I know I said that I would I stop talking about this (well, I didn’t say exactly that. also, this is my review, I do what I want), but I can’t get over how cute SpongeBob is looking in these episodes. Do you guys remember,
way back, when I talked about how season 1 understood the assignment of SpongeBob looking and being cute, something that we wouldn’t fully return to until later? Well, it’s later now. In my season 1 overview, I specifically said we wouldn’t get this until season 10 or 11, and it looks like I was right, because the SpongeBob design in this season is the cutest I’ve seen him, outside of select appearances, since season 1, hands down. I think it really just cements the fact that season 10 might be my favorite art style of the show. Maybe. I’m still very partial to Marker-Bob, and the first 3 seasons in general (even if each of those seasons looks different).
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.2/10