Possibly the worst pre-movie episode.
This is not how a special episode should be done. They made a special that's more gag oriented instead of a compelling plot that can actually fill out the time. This really shows when you see stupid things for no reason, like the whole "key under the mat" thing (the mat wasn't even visible before the end!) and the entire bit where SpongeBob gets arrested. And by "no reason" I mean that this does not make for good comedy, and it makes for a flimsy and half-witted plot- there's no reason to have it.
I constantly see myself trying to find gags all over, and I don't really get that much. A lot of them feel drawn out, because of the extended run time, so they kind of overstay their welcome (especially on re-watch) With the gags of the party being planned, and the really tight schedule, for example. I found myself liking some of the more subtle gags like the window flip one, and some of the interaction between recurring characters.
Why am I so desperate to look for gags? Because the plot to this special is really really awful. Why on Earth did they decide to make our main character the conflict? I'll tell you why, it's because a party can't make a plot worth 22 minutes, and they needed something, so they went with SpongeBob being very crude for a party he has zero motivation to want to make exact. What do I mean? I mean that SpongeBob is being very jerkish in this episode, and that's our conflict. I go harsher on specials in the plot department, because that's why their specials. The other four specials pre-movie have a conflict that can fill the time, as well as the two from Season 4, and this plot would probably get repetitive in 11 minutes, let alone 22.
Just to take you through it, basically SpongeBob gets all up in arms because people aren't doing EXACTLY as his party was supposed to be. Listen, I understand if people are not respecting you at all, in a party you threw at your own house, but doing simple things like laughing, and eating the cake provided is something that isn't worth yelling at for. Maybe if there was some escalation to SpongeBob getting mad at the people as they gave his house less and less respect, I could understand, but not this. Because the second part where he gets locked out is even worse, at least earlier; Jerky SpongeBob had other people to bounce off of, but now it's just a lot of monologue and when he gets all surprised that people aren't doing what he wants at his party, it's like jeeeeeeeez. The attempts to get back in, aren't even that interesting ether, typical stuff like digging, calling, and going through the window.
It's not only irritating, it's very repetitive, and that's not fun. The rest is very stupid, and I already explained how the gag with him getting arrested and the key under the mat doesn't work, so that's the end. I really hope you understand why I don't like this plot, or comedy, or episode.
Oh, and as for the Patchy segments, they are mediocre or low-good at best. It is interesting to see more of Patchy's "universe", but it doesn't really gear me up for the party. I usually like it as just Patchy and Potty by themselves to make for some good gags between them. There wasn't really anything unique or interesting like SpongeBob B.C. I actually get his explosions mixed up with other Patchy segments before, because we've already seen this, it's not too interesting. The segments are not bad, Patchy is fine in this, and I would just call it OK, for how bad SpongeBob was, OK is not really good for the special. On a side note, Underwater Sun is a really great song, one of my favorites, and I do like the idea of two parties going on side-by-side for comparison. Beside that though, nothing too special.
With pretty bad SpongeBob stuff, and some OK Patchy stuff, it doesn't really make a good overall experience between the two.
I thought that this episode was bad- 3.4/10