Ah, “Life Insurance”. You remind me a lot of “Sold!”, you know that? I don’t really get those two episodes mixed up, but when I think of one, I often think of the other. Especially now that I’ve rewatched “Sold!” and can see how similar that episode is to the one I’ll be reviewing today.
This episode begins with a chaotic morning in the life of SpongeBob SquarePants. And writing that intro sentence makes me think of “Missing Identity”. That’s an episode I haven’t thought of in a while. Anyway, this first minute is enough to at least ensure that the episode does not start out boringly. We’ve got Gary being awesome, SpongeBob getting flung around, and an oddly-interactive informercial featuring the same character model as the supervisor from “Mrs. Puff, You’re Fired”. And said infomercial causes SpongeBob (and Patrick) to believe that he’s immortal because he’s now got life insurance. I mean…SpongeBob does basically have the plotless cartoon equivalent of plot armor lol, so it checks out.
These kinds of plots, where a character fundamentally misunderstands some commonplace thing leading to a comedy of errors, well they can vary in quality. Typically this type of plot is done very well, or not so well. Like “Sold!”, that was meh. “That’s No Lady”, pretty good. This episode? I also think it’s pretty good because SpongeBob and Patrick misunderstanding life insurance makes sense to me. It’s not a stretch that makes either one of them seem too stupid, especially because I bet some of the littler kids part of this show’s demographic could easily make that same mistake. So this plot doesn’t feel forced in any way. (And later, when Squidward begins to believe in the life insurance, the reasoning behind his change of mind is persuasive and sensible).
As for the other side of what makes a plot enjoyable, which is the actual execution in terms of amusingness and hilarity, I think this episode does a pretty good job here as well. SpongeBob and Patrick trying to get hurt is entertaining enough, and I love the added layer of entertainment that comes from knowing that for their first ploy at least, there’s no way they could get hurt from that (unless the episode is “Extreme Spots” lol). And then Squidward enters the picture, and I’m reminded of “Snowball Effect”. Squidward’s addition makes the episode a lot funnier, as he adds the kind of slapstick comedic relief that SpongeBob and Patrick don’t provide, given that the entire plot of this episode is that they (think they) can’t get hurt. Additionally, the running gag with his wig is funny.
The episode actually surprises me a bit by having Squidward find out about the whole life insurance thing halfway through. I thought he’d find out at the end. But I think the episode decided to take preemptive steps to ensure that the setup with SpongeBob and Patrick trying to hurt themselves didn’t get stale (or get too close to “Life in a Day”). Because now the episode turns into a “Squidward stoops (or rises) to the level of SpongeBob and Patrick” type of episode, as he becomes convinced of the power of Life Insurance through a series of illuminating coincidences. This is one of the oldest plot types in the show, originating all the way back in “Bubblestand”, so it’s stood the test of time. And for good reason, because it’s usually a good story to take up an episode’s runtime. And as it typically goes in these kinds of plots, Squidward ends up testing fate a little too much and becoming too egocentric and malicious and nasty about what he does to get himself in danger.
Mr. Krabs then enters the scene, as this episode needs a new straightman given that Squidward has now absorbed the delusion. Additionally, Mr. Krabs then educates SpongeBob and Patrick (and any of the audience who might not know about life insurance) on what life insurance really is. It’s after he does this that I see that the inclusion of Mr. Krabs here is more justified, because I was thinking Sandy could’ve worked too. But if money’s involved in the conversation, then it just makes sense that Mr. Krabs is the one talking. And of course, Mr. Krabs has to be a greedy, uh, illegitimate child (yep, nailed it!), which was a funny little moment. And his greed leads to SpongeBob taking the life insurance policy from Squidward before he goes into the “Sushi Maker”, which then ends up as predictably as you’d expect. It’s predictable, but it’s enjoyable.
Episode Tier: Great
Episode Score: 8.8/10