You’ve heard of “Pat The Horse”, now get ready for “Pat the Dog”! I realized the double meaning of this title quickly, but that makes me wonder now…does “Pat the Horse” have the same double meaning? You don’t really think of petting horses, right?
I’ve definitely talked about this before, but I do kinda really like this move by the show to start using recurring characters at these new recurring locations, like the recurring cop character (though we did already have some with Officer Nancy and such), or in this episode, the animal control guy. Funny that I bring this up, because this episode also builds on the running joke of Patrick acting like a dog. Though this joke has been brought up exclusively in Spot episodes up until now, so it seems we’re expanding our horizons.
This beginning bit of SpongeBob trying to manage the worms is pretty entertaining. I really liked the bit with “Butcher”…with a name like that, what else could you expect but a rabid worm? When it’s revealed that Patrick is the “worm” that Marvin was tipped about by Squidward, I start thinking about something. This episode is called “Pat the
Dog”, correct? And he does act like a dog. However, he is considered in-universe to be acting like a worm. And before you say anything, yes, I do know that worms in this universe are considered to be dogs. So why not just call this episode “Pat the Worm”? It’s already a long-established fact of the SpongeBob universe that snails are cats and worms are dogs. Maybe it’s so the episode could keep the double meaning I discussed earlier. Or maybe I just look far too deeply into everything. We all know it’s that one.
SpongeBob devotes himself to training Patrick…who isn’t even housebroken. Now that’s how you do a gross joke. Don’t spend too much time on it, no gross visuals, just drop it and run. Of course, Patrick is quite the chaotic worm. Patrick turning the pound into a racing ring is actually hilarious. Because Patrick is such a menace, he’s gotta be locked up, so SpongeBob has to adopt him to prevent that…oh boy. This means that Patrick is taken home to SpongeBob’s house, where Gary is. And of course, my king Gary can’t stand having a worm inside the house.
Moving into the next morning, after a gorgeous background alert (that I sadly have no picture of because the wiki did not get a good one of it), of course Squidward’s gotta properly enter this episode now. Huh, now I’m reminded of “Jellyfish Jam”. Patrick clearly does not vibe with Squidward, going to attack him immediately. This little bit of everyone running around was very nicely animated, I must say. I love the expressions here. It’s really interesting seeing SpongeBob admit defeat to Squidward like this. I like it, we don’t normally see him get…frustrated like this. Especially not with Patrick. And it’s great seeing Squidward actually decide to help SpongeBob here. I mean, he’s doing it for his own sake, and because his ego is large enough to think that he has supreme training capabilities, but I would’ve expected Squidward to be like “it’s your problem, fix it” and go on his way. And yeah, I suppose Squidward does tell SpongeBob to beg so he can swim in that for a little bit, but he still agrees.
So now Squidward’s recruited to give some “tough love” to Patrick while SpongeBob plays dead. Oh this should be good. And it is. Watching this back and forth between Squidward and Patrick, even without Patrick talking, is great. Also, this
shot of Patrick on top of Squidward lowkey implies to me that Patrick is at this point trolling Squidward. Idk…maybe I just like seeing characters troll each other. And as it turns out, Squidward does eventually train Patrick…probably. Again, if Patrick’s trolling, I think that makes this even better. Because Marvin basically forces Squidward to train Butcher…who is not so receptive. AND THEN I GET PROVEN RIGHT THAT PATRICK WAS BEING A TROLL (okay, well, he wasn’t trolling per se, he wanted Squidward to feel accomplished. But I’m counting it as me being right anyway so there).
I really liked “Pat the Dog”. It was just a stupid fun episode that doesn’t take itself seriously. Lots of great gags and jokes in this one, and I already detailed all the other smaller things I really liked here. Keep the episodes like this coming, and I’ll be happy.
Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.3/10