36a. Graveyard Shift

[jack_of_all_traids]

This is my favorite Season 2 episode, but that's not as surprising as Employee Of The Month being my favorite Season 1 episode. I really don't think I can say anything about this episode that hasn't already been said.

 

[FinnDinner]

Classic, one of the first I've ever seen, yet it still holds up amazingly well, it's one of those great SpongeBob + Squidward episodes, that contrast is brilliant, and good to see here in Season 2. In my Top 5 for this season definitely.

 

[Re-Hydrated Sponge]

10/10

 

[jack_of_all_traids]

Another episode I absolutely love. This episode gives off a spooky horror vibe very well, and has some very funny moments too. Not to mention it's one of the most quotable episodes in the whole show.

Ranking so far:
1. Graveyard Shift (A+)
2. Patty Hype (A+)
3. Band Geeks (A+)
4. Survival of the Idiots (A+)
5. Pressure (A+)
6. Big Pink Loser (A+)
7. Shanghaied (A)
8. Life of Crime (A)
9. Dying For Pie (A)
10. Christmas Who? (A)
11. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III (A)
12. Squidville (A)
13. Gary Takes a Bath (A)
14. Squid's Day Off (A)
15. Welcome to the Chum Bucket (B)
16. Imitation Krabs (B)
17. Frankendoodle (B)
18. No Free Rides (B)
19. Squirrel Jokes (B)
20. Your Shoe's Untied (B)
21. I'm Your Biggest Fanatic (B)
22. Prehibernation Week (B)
23. Something Smells (B)
24. Wormy (C)
25. The Smoking Peanut (C)
26. Bossy Boots (C)
27. The Secret Box (C)
28. Bubble Buddy (C)
29. Dumped (E)
30. Grandma's Kisses (F)

 

[FinnDinner]

This episode may be the funniest of the entire season, love it.

 

[Combusto82]

very funny! 10/10 love the ending! Oh, Nosferatu!

 

[CannedBread]

For whatever reason, as a kid, and even still now, I loved the dark aesthetic of this episode, for some reason it always enamoured me. It is definently unique in the sense we don't get to see night time in bikinibottom very often, let alone the krusty krab. The playful comedy between spongebob and squidward, which subtly gets more weird and scary as the episode goes on, just gives off a good vibe. I believe this to be on the level of chocolate with nuts, and even band geeks, in ters of creativity and comedy. It's a simple story, and most early episodes thrive off of this exact formula. Basic, with amazing humour. 10/10 for me.

 

[MimicMadness]

Graveyard Shift/Krusty Love is the 52nd episode in airing order,

 

[MimicMadness]

If you bought the "Nautical Nonsense" VHS tape or the "Nautical Nonsense and Sponge Buddies" DVD before September 2002, there was no need to see the airing of this episode.

 

[JoeyBoi]

This episode is phenomenal. The setup is great, all of the jokes hit, and the way the plot was executed is incredible. There's also some great tension in this episode. It amazing how they managed to make a horror episode this funny. Definitely in my top 5 for the whole show.

Perfect episode (10/10)

1. Graveyard Shift (10)
2. Band Geeks (10)
3. Shanghaied (9)
4. Dying For Pie (9)
5. Something Smells (9)
6. Patty Hype (9)
7. Welcome to the Chum Bucket (9)
8. Big Pink Loser (9)
9. Squidville (9)
10. Survival of the Idiots (9)
11. Christmas Who? (8)
12. Frankendoodle (8)
13. Squid's Day Off (8)
14. Wormy (8)
15. Mermaidman and Barnacleboy III (8)
16. The Secret Box (8)
17. Imitation Krabs (8)
18. Life of Crime (8)
19. Prehibernation Week (7)
20. Pressure (7)
21. Gary Takes A Bath (7)
22. No Free Rides (7)
23. I'm Your Biggest Fanatic (7)
24. The Smoking Peanut (7)
25. Bossy Boots (6)
26. Your Shoe's Untied (6)
27. Dumped (6)
28. Bubble Buddy (5)
29. Squirrel Jokes (5)
30. Grandma's Kisses (5)

 

[spunchbop444]

9/10

Another overrated one, but I find this better, since I laughed way more at this than Band Geeks. I do like the whole horror aspect of this episode, and I do like the Nosferatu reference. I also love Squidward's story. While it isn't the perfect episode, I do still like it.

Big Pink Loser: (10/10)
Something Smells: (10/10)
Squidville: (10/10)
Imitation Krabs: (10/10)
Patty Hype: (10/10)
Christmas Who?: (9.5/10)
FrankenDoodle: (9.5/10)
Shanghaied: (9.5/10)
Squids Day Off: (9.5/10)
Dying for Pie: (9/10)
Graveyard Shift: (9/10)
Welcome to the Chum Bucket: (9/10)
Band Geeks: (9/10)
MM&BB III: (9/10)
No Free Rides: (9/10)
Wormy: (9/10)
Your Shoes Untied: (9/10)
Survival of the Idiots: (8.5/10)
I'm Your Biggest Fanatic: (8.5/10)
Bossy Boots: (8.5/10)
The Smoking Peanut: (8/10)
The Secret Box: (8/10)
Pre-Hibernation Week: (6.5/10)
Grandma's Kisses: (6.5/10)
Gary Takes A Bath: (5/10)
Life of Crime: (5.5/10)
Bubble Buddy: (4/10)
Squirrel Jokes: (3.5/10)
Dumped: (1.5/10)

 

[kevin_emery]

This episode is amazing. One of the most rewatchable in the show. (I think a lot Spongebob fans feel the same)

 

[Yoshi]

I don't like this one.

Highlightw!! I burnt my hand! At night.
Lowlight: The fact that it spends 9 mminutes setting up the plot

 

[SlipperytheTotodile]

My favorite of season 2 used been Dying for Pie but it changed to this! This episode was filled with hilarity and its packed with suspensefulness! Best of season 2!

Rating: Golden Episode



Rankings:
Graveyard Shift (Golden)
Dying For Pie (Golden)
Band Geeks (Golden)
Survival of the Idiots (Golden)
Frankendoodle (Perfect)
Shanghaied (Perfect)
Pressure (Perfect)
Big Pink Loser (Perfect)
No Free Rides (Amazing!)
MMABBIII (Delightful)
Christmas Who? (Sublime)
Imitation Krabs (Superb)
The Smoking Peanut (Awesome)
Squidville (Tolerant)
Squid's Day Off (Tolerant)
The Secret Box (Great)
Life of Crime (Great)
Dumped (Great)
Something Smells (Polite)
Bubble Buddy (Polite)
Bossy Boots (Polite)
Gary Takes a Bath (Okay)
Your Shoe's Untied (Dull)
PreHibernation Week (Bad)
Welcome to the Chum Bucket (Bad)
Patty Hype (Sucky)
Wormy (Pathetic)
I'm Your Biggest Fanatic (Stupid)
Grandma's Kisses (Garbage)
Squirrel Jokes (Trash)

 

[SlipperytheTotodile]

I don't like this one.

Highlightw!! I burnt my hand! At night.
Lowlight: The fact that it spends 9 mminutes setting up the plot

Thats okay this is my favorite season 2 episode i respect your opinion

 

[GlitchyGoomba]

Strong contender for best Season 2 episode. I really like the horror vibe the episode gives off, and the fact that it utilizes its characters (except for Mr. Krabs) perfectly well.

 

[SPNGBDDY]

My favorite episode of all time.
I love the spooky vibe of the episode so much and Squid and SpongeBob's dynamic through the episode is very entertaining.
10/10

 

[Pugs4Thugs]

Yes yes yes yes yes! Now this, this is an amazing episode. Yeah, I'm just going to say it right now. This is my favorite episode of season 2. It's simply excellent, and I'm excited to get into it.

Starting from the literal title card of this episode, "Graveyard Shift" is a very atmospheric 11 minutes. The art team really knocked it out of the park with the backgrounds in this episode, and the music choices were on point. I mean, music is absolutely one of SpongeBob's strong suits (you never think of background music until you hear positively bad background music for a scene).

Getting into the actual episode, as someone who has worked in a restaurant let me just say that this episode gives me a tremendous amount of enjoyment, from the dumb customers to the inconsiderate boss. I feel Squidward on a spiritual level throughout the beginning of this episode. Speaking of the beginning of "Graveyard Shift", we see my boy Tom here, which is great. And this whole beginning set up is very funny and very believable (that Mr. Krabs would do this to his employees for money). Despite feeling Squidward's annoyance, you can't help (or at least I can't), be endeared to SpongeBob's enthusiasm about working the night shift. He's really just so adorable in this episode, in a way that hearkens back to some of the best of season 1. Mr. Krabs' repetition of Squidward's earlier sentiment is just perfect, making it a great exit for the crustacean from this episode.

Moving on, I love the entire sequence of SpongeBob taking out the trash. It's hilarious and visually stunning. Like I said, the atmosphere in this episode is just fantastic. It feels perfectly eerie, and given we don't usually get night shots like this, I'm enjoying what we get to see as much as I can.

Again, this episode feels very...realistic in how it plays out. Squidward, out of boredom and annoyance at his coworker, decides to mess with SpongeBob by telling him a scary story. This is definitely something I would do not going to lie. And having worked late nights before, we've definitely done stuff like this, including clean deeply as SpongeBob does later in the episode. Really, this episode feels like a love letter to all of us night shift employees out there. I'm taking it that way, at least.

The story of the Hash-Slinging Slasher is immensely entertaining, and this is helped by SpongeBob's reactions throughout the story, which make for some great visuals (I'm thinking of him eating his hands like popcorn). In the end, SpongeBob's screaming (and then laughing) aren't even annoying at all, which is a great relief, because sometimes these moments can get real annoying real fast.

Zooming through the rest of the episode a bit, so that this review doesn't get too long, I enjoy everything else as well. The atmosphere once again as Squidward gets more and more nervous, the random 3AM cutaway gag (which now I can't watch without thinking of the YTP Deliver Us), and the build up to the Hash-Slinging Slasher. The joint screaming scenes of SpongeBob and Squidward are amazingly animated and hilarious, and I love the bit where Squidward and SpongeBob have their pre(-perceived) death confessions, too funny. And then of course, the tension is evaporated once the "Hash-Slinging Slasher" is revealed to just be a kid (with a great design, btw). I like that SpongeBob immediately forgot about everything and went straight to asking the kid if he had references, that's SpongeBob for you! Why that kid decided to show up at the Krusty Krab at 3AM to apply for a job, who knows? I choose to believe that after this episode, the kid worked the night shift until Mr. Krabs decided to turn the Krusty Krab back to normal hours. Or who knows, maybe he started to work at The Night Patty...

And then, of course, we have the iconic ending of "Graveyard Shift", a complete non-sequitur that just works. That the new kid gets in on it too is perfect as well. I love that Nosferatu has returned as well in a modern episode that I still need to watch, I love all the callbacks writers are making lately!

One thing that puts this episode above one like "Squid's Day Off", which is another episode I really enjoy from this season, is that the great character dynamics are on full-swing here. Squidward and SpongeBob drive the plot, but Mr. Krabs is there as well at the beginning. And because SpongeBob SquarePants had been going on for long enough by this point, we know what everyone's dynamic is like. That knowledge helps lay the foundations for this episode, in my opinion. We can enjoy Mr. Krabs' appearance more because we already know he has a friendly relationship with SpongeBob and Squidward. I don't know if I'm making myself very clear here, but I also don't know how to better explain what I mean, so I'll just move on.

"Graveyard Shift" is one of the most recognizable episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, and much like "Band Geeks" I believe this episode definitely deserves it. The number of SpongeBob horror games using concepts from this episode alone is enough to cement its icon status haha. But in all seriousness, this episode is amazingly-crafted, atmospheric, hilarious, and fun. A perfect addition to my "Amazing" tier, and one of my favorites of season 2, if not the entire show.

Episode Tier: Amazing
Episode Score: 9.6/10

 

[zerocool]

10/10.

 

[YuYuYuuki]

I always thought Nosferatu was like, some Scooby Doo loser in a costume which is why they, like, weren't scared of him for some reason.