The title of “C.H.U.M.S.” immediately makes me think of “F.U.N.”. Anyone else? Please say it’s a reference please please please. I haven’t seen this episode at all so I truly have no idea. I hope this prediction of mine will be on the mark today.
Okay I know I started the last review like this, but last time someone was in the vents of the Krusty Krab, there were four of them and they were stuck. I will try and not use this structure in the future, but I kinda like it haha. Anyway, we begin with Plankton breaking into the Krusty Krab, so business as usual. At this point Plankton’s shenanigans have got to be a selling point for the Krusty Krab, like “will today be the day I see him in action?” It’s like a rollback on a rollercoaster, it’s gotta be one of those events you just wanna experience. Hmm…maybe it would be fun to have an episode about this…where’s Nickelodeon at, I’m ready to sign my writing contract!
MY PREDICTION WAS CORRECT. SpongeBob manages to foil Plankton’s plan simply by washing the windows of the Krusty Krab. While wearing headphones. That are playing the certain instrumental of a certain song that SpongeBob is singing…I love being right. Have I said that before? Well let me say it again. I love being right. Funnily enough, Plankton ends up falling through pipes to land in Bubble Bass’ bathroom. I say funny because of course we all know that Bubble Bass appeared for the second time ever in “F.U.N.”. I wonder if the entire episode is going to be full of references like this? I won’t be complaining.
Plankton ends up discovering a giant chum monster in the sewers, a giant chum monster that turns into a bunch of smaller chum creatures that all worship Plankton. Well now I’m thinking of “Chum Caverns”. Or “King Plankton”. Fascinating. So clearly the entire episode will not be a reference to “F.U.N.”, which is probably for the best. I think that they just saw an opportunity with the title and took it. Anyway, Plankton trains the Chum, and then also trains them in karate. You know, I was just on the wiki page right now and I saw that apparently we’re gonna get an episode with Sandy teaching Plankton how to defend himself, so that’s a neat coincidence.
Mr. Krabs has gotta learn how to stop saying “you and what army” to Plankton when being confronted by him. That’s like…twice now that this has happened. I love the way SpongeBob is still chilling cleaning the windows listening to the F.U.N. song while Mr. Krabs is being brutalized by Chum. This action scene is quite entertaining I must say. How much you wanna bet SpongeBob ends up saving the day somehow? 30 seconds after writing this, I see that I’m right once again. A little less impressive this time though, since it was the only logical conclusion to this running gag, at least if the episode was written well. As for Plankton, he ends up losing the worship of the Chum (hilariously…guess they learned the lesson never meet your heroes).
“C.H.U.M.S.” was a good episode. Nothing too special, and I feel like most of my enjoyment came from the “F.U.N.” references rather than the actual episode itself. Kinda funny that two episodes in a row reminded me a lot of “Plankton’s Army”. In fact, I’d say that this episode does reference “Plankton’s Army” by the “you and what army” line, even if it is a common piece of dialogue. I just think that this episode spent a little too much time on the training segment that wasn’t even useful in the end (the Chum didn’t fight Squidward or SpongeBob, didn’t use karate, etc.).
Episode Tier: Good
Episode Score: 7.5/10