250a. Broken Alarm

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Nov 10, 2017
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I liked this episode a lot. It was creative and similarly to My Leg!, it used the same joke over and over again without getting old.

THE LIST:
1. Broken Alarm (A)
2. The Krusty Slammer (A)
3. Stormy Weather (B)
4. Sandy's Nutty Nieces (B)
5. FarmerBob (B)
6. King Plankton (C)
7. The Nitwitting (C)
8. Insecurity Guards (C)
9. The Ballad of Filthy Muck (D)
 

EditorWiki

Floating Shopping List
Joined
Jul 3, 2019
Messages
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39
I liked it, "Spongebob has passed away" comment made me laugh for some reason when I saw it on Twitter before watching the episode, the "you already know where this is going" card and the "late" slips parts were the highlights, the ending was rushed. but it was good.
 

CheeseCrocker

Bomb-Selling Pirate
Joined
Jun 22, 2019
Messages
193
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55
Both this and Senior Discount are okay episodes. I found this one a little boring but it has its moments like the beginning. 6.5/10
 

DCarlC

Baby Clam
Joined
Jul 7, 2019
Messages
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0
This episode is my favorite of the season so far. I was very pleasantly surprised the whole way through, as I wasn’t keen when I first read the episode description. It’s rare nowadays that I watch an episode immediately after seeing it the first time, but this was one of those episodes!

SpongeTom was one of my favorite gags of the episode. Though the late slip montage was great too.
 

krustykrab2forprofit

Imitation Krab
Joined
Mar 2, 2019
Messages
26
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30
the episode was pretty enjoyable, and had some nice gags. the part where patrick smashed the clock felt a bit mean-spirited but not as much as seasons 6/7 patrick was. the late slips were also sort of irritating but. again, not like the middle seasons. the part where everyone freaked out about spongebob being “dead” was super funny, and i really enjoyed it, and the part when spongebob sets up all of the alarm clocks to get him to work on time and cook the patties was genius, it was like a whole rube goldfish machine. and the ending with patrick fixing the clock was just cute. really enjoyable, and a nice ending to a great episode. 8/10


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Pugs4Thugs

#1 SpongeBob Reviewer
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
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What is this? Yet another episode that plays around with a foundational aspect of the show? Well what do ya know?

This episode starts with the Krusty Krab in literal chaos…how many times is Mr. Krabs going to allow customers to damage his property just because they’re not getting food? Like can everyone get a grip?? And a job??? lol. But anyway, the customers are going nutty because SpongeBob’s not at the Krusty Krab cooking them up some food. And with SpongeBob missing, Mr. Krabs can only come to one conclusion…SpongeBob died, or he’s seriously injured. I love this morbid humor, this is hilarious. And yes is Mr. Krabs being a greedy b in his conversation with Squidward? Yes, but it’s funny. And I still can get my quasi-father-son crumbs from other episodes anyway. Squidward being happy to check on SpongeBob’s remains is a bit too far though, I thought we left that sort of thing in season 5 (referencing “WhoBob WhatPants” with this one).

I guess privacy don’t exist anymore, cuz Mr. Krabs brings the entire Krusty Krab patronage to SpongeBob’s house to “check on his remains”. At least we get a pretty cool background out of this, very atmospheric. Mr. Krabs opens the door, and finds that SpongeBob…is very much alive. Just asleep. But the build up to that is hilarious, them thinking that Gary is eating SpongeBob’s face. At least Mr. Krabs is happy SpongeBob’s alive. Turns out that SpongeBob’s alarm clock was unplugged, so he goes to plug it in, but ends up breaking it. Yep, that’s right, we’re messing with the foghorn alarm. SpongeBob says that he’ll fix the clock, and Mr. Krabs just says that SpongeBob better not be late.

So now we cut to SpongeBob attempting to fix the clock. Considering he’s sitting outside his house doing this, you’ll never guess who shows up, saying that he can fix the clock. Yeah, it’s Patrick. Can you tell that I’m not enthused? And can you guess why? If your response is anything close to “Patrick’s probably going to make everything worse”, then you’d be correct! I can see this plot from a mile away. For God’s sake it’s literally the plot of my least favorite episode in the show. And considering how much SpongeBob emphasizes how much the clock means to him, seeing Patrick literally break the clock isn’t very funny. It’s at least not boring, and I can see the attempt at humor, but it’s just kinda annoying and predictable.

SpongeBob goes out to a clock store to go buy a new clock. SpongeBob buys out the whole store since he’s indecisive, making the clock maker rich lol. So now we get a sequence of SpongeBob trying out all the new clocks. At least they’re fun clocks. This is basically a montage, so each little scene has a similar structure—SpongeBob failing to be woken up by his unorthodox alarm clock, and arriving late to work, where Mr. Krabs stamps him with a late sticker. Some of these clocks are inhumane lol. And I love how the time cards eventually give up and are like “You get the idea!”. Now that was clever. I’ve gotta wonder what some of these alarm clocks are doing to poor SpongeBob.

SpongeBob gets an idea from Gary’s little rube goldberg machine of a feeder. I loved the shot of SpongeBob preparing his own rube goldberg machine, it was super cool. And honestly maybe SpongeBob needs a new career as an inventor, because this machine is quite clever. It gets him to work right on time, all while he’s still sleeping. This is entertaining enough to watch I suppose, but it’s kinda missing something for me to feel like this is a valuable enough use of my time, you know what I mean? Like, it’s harmless, but it could be more. Things start going wrong when Squidward returns an order, messing up SpongeBob’s system.

That’s the last straw for Mr. Krabs…it’s time for “or else”. Turns out, the “or else” is Mr. Krabs having to open and close the restaurant an hour later. I’m counting this as quasi-father-son crumbs because what do you mean Mr. Krabs will literally change restaurant policy for SpongeBob??? SpongeBob freaks out about this, and right at that moment, Patrick bursts in with a “fixed” foghorn alarm. Okay, maybe the earlier scene wasn’t so bad after all…yeah no still not great. And then it turns out that Patrick just uses himself as the alarm, leading to an everybody laughs ending. Well, everybody just being SpongeBob and Patrick.

I wasn’t quite feeling “Broken Alarm”. It was a harmless episode, but for some reason it didn’t quite do it for me? I just didn’t laugh very much, and at one point I was annoyed. But it was decently entertaining. I just felt disconnected.

Episode Tier: Okay
Episode Score:
6.4/10
 
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