Well...it was...alright, I guess. It certainly wasn't a terrible episode by any means, but it was far from good. Sanitation Insanity is kind of like Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful done...well, I wouldn't say right, I'd say at least a proper version of the basic synopsis. Sanitation Insanity's main storyline is relatively simplistic. Krabs makes a giant mess out of trash out of his cheapness, he ropes Squidward and SpongeBob into doing his dirty work (Heh-heh, better dialogue humor than what this episode has to offer), wacky trash related hijinks ensue. It's your standardized SpongeBob episode, the main problem is that Ben didn't build on it at all, it's kind of just your typical cartoon setup and story. No interesting twists are really thrown in, aside from maybe the dump truck robot transformation, but aside from that, it's the most predictable execution of such a generic layout.
The episode of course isn't necessarily story driven. It's primarily driven through an excessive spew of jokes, and when the humor is as bland as Raisin Bran, minus the Raisins and milk, the humor does not do this episode any favors. The gags in this episode are so basic, so generic. Trash is being slung all over the place, hah-hah. It'd have a better comedic effect had it been done in live-action media (This type of episode would've made a great Stooges episode), but gross-out humor doesn't necessarily translate as well in cartoons as it does in live-action. In live-action, you can easily rely on something gross because, well...it's real. In cartoons, however, there needs to be a clever spin on the gag, it needs to be more layered than just something gross. Heck, detailed close-ups are easily the best type of gross-out humor, because there's so much possibility with what you can do with those gags. There are so many options with how to execute a nasty close-up, so many different details. This episode just relies on throwing trash. The trash isn't gross, we know trash is gross, but there's nothing more to these basic gags! I can't really, nor do I have any desire to go into extreme detail of what makes this episode as humorless as a sack of flour. All the gags are visual gags, not creative, interesting visual gags, no, pathetic slapstick that relies too much on characters getting wacked or something along those lines.
The story is really harmless. It's not a good plot, oh not at all, it has no real convention, the characters are...well, give me a moment, I will get there, Ben did absolutely nothing to add onto this generic story structure. The gags in this episode are so pitifully cheap, there's no ounce of creativity in them in the slightest. When practically every other bad episode from the Post-Prequel era feature loads of these gags, they don't even feel original anymore, it feels like the same ol' boring routine! I've seen practically the same gags portrayed in this episode over the course of several Season 10 & 11 episodes, they're such a bore to sit through.
I honestly didn't expect this episode's humor to be so lacking, even Bunny Hunt had some legitimately good jokes (Really early on into the episode). But with no interesting story for the gags to flow through, this episode is severely lacking.
And the characters, ugh...the characters...
Krabs is used as nothing more than a plot device. His "greedy" trope is the only reason he has a role in this episode, to kickstart the plot. Sure, he gets his comeuppance, which if there's any satisfaction from this episode, it's that, but he's really just not than fun of a character to watch. There are ways to make Krabs a more enjoyable and entertaining character, while still retaining his greed. Give him proper motivation to skip out on assisting the cleanup, don't just make his excuse derived from laziness, actually build a more interesting subplot to Krabs' situation in this episode (It's not like there's really anything essential going on in the main plot anyway, just constant slapstick, that's all). Maybe turn Krabs' motivation into attending, oh I don't know, something to do with Pearl, maybe. Have it be closing time at the Krusty Krab, he needs to rush out to drive Pearl to a concert or something, because he doesn't want her racking up his gas. The trash needs to be taken out, but there's only one bag left, so Krabs in a hurry, gets SpongeBob and Squidward to stuff it all in one bag. At the end of the episode, Krabs learns his lesson about being too cheap, and that it's okay to spend some money, and allows Pearl to drive his car around. That would be a proper and complete story! Not the usual greed trope we see pop up anytime a writer decides to think inside the box.
Squidward was a fairly decent character in this episode. He was pretty much entirely in character, didn't have that many problems with him. SpongeBob wasn't really much of an intentionally unlikable character. He was pretty annoying at times, but that's many in part of the awful jokes he was a part of. Patrick was pretty annoying in this episode. I was kind of worried since Season 11 doesn't have the best track record of handling Patrick's character, especially given how low this episode will stoop to throwing in a gag no matter how unfunny it is. But surprisingly he wasn't as bad as I thought he would be the moment his house popped up. I knew that he would obstruct SpongeBob and Squidward from reaching their goal (C'mon, you thought this episode would try something different?), but I liked how he acted as a foe to SpongeBob and Patrick through the trash fight. I thought that was a pretty neat concept, given how they're battling Transformer-esque robots, but of course like anything else in this episode, the execution was so anticlimactic, it was the same ol' goofy slapstick, this time with excessive trash thrown around. The trash inspectors were probably the highlight of the episode, I thought they were pretty good characters, I really find their car's design amusing and pretty creative.
Sanitation Insanity seems like your regular ol' bad episode from Season 11. The problem is, it's got worse humor than usual, virtually no story, unlikable characters, and was just overall, terribly executed. Sanitation Insantiy is an Awful Episode. I give it a 3.4/10
EDIT: Before I'm accused of hypocrisy, the beginning of this review was literally seconds after I finished watching the episode. I had to let it sink in over time for my "It was alright" status to evolve into my "It was awful" status
