247b. One Trick Sponge

SlipperytheTotodile

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Average episode. Its funny and all but everyone with the exception of Patrick and SpongeBob were jerks. I even hated Fred here yes the MY LEG! man.

Rating: Alright Episode

Rankings:
Plankton's Old Chum (Superior)
Stormy Weather (Great)
The Krusty Slammer (Great)
Gary's Got Legs (Great)
Gary & Spot (Great)
The Ballad of Filthy Muck (Good)
Swamp Mates (Good)
FarmerBob (Good)
Pineapple RV (Okay)
One Trick Sponge (Alright)
King Plankton (Bad)
The Nitwitting (Despicable)
 

Pugs4Thugs

#1 SpongeBob Reviewer
Joined
Apr 23, 2016
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Coming up next, we’ve got the sister episode to “Swamp Mates”, “One Trick Sponge”. Like I said in my last review, I’ve got a lot to say about these two episodes together, and I’ll say all that at the end. Right now, let’s focus on what this episode is giving us.

What “One Trick Sponge” is giving us is a pretty simple episode, which makes sense as this episode is only 6 minutes long. This episode reminds me of “Bubble Buddy”. The whole plot is SpongeBob trying to get someone to see the magic trick he just learned, but everyone he knows is busy or uninterested. That’s it, that’s the plot. He tries Patrick first, and he’s not home. He tries Squidward, who literally runs away from him, which is hilarious. Squidward hates magic though (holdover from “Hocus Pocus” or “Wishing You Well”? And yes I remembered the existence of “Hocus Pocus” everyone clap), and he ends up running away again and purposefully takes out his eyes so he doesn’t have to watch SpongeBob. SpongeBob then tries Mrs. Puff, who like Squidward immediately flees the scene lol. Next up, SpongeBob tries Sandy, which is where most of my commentary is gonna come in, because when SpongeBob finds Sandy, turns out that she’s left her body temporarily while she studies another dimension…the same swamp dimension where Patrick and Bubble Bass are running away from the hot sauce makers. Oh I have many a comment about this. But I refrain.

SpongeBob then tries Mr. Krabs, but since SpongeBob’s trick has nothing to do with money, he ain’t interested. SpongeBob then tries Fred, which is nice to see. I like that Fred has become more of a character now. Anyway, since the trick has nothing to do with Fred, now he’s not interested. With no one able to watch his trick, SpongeBob ends up making a bunch of fake people to watch him. Sure, why not. Then we finally see SpongeBob’s trick, which is a visually excellent little scene. And, as it turns out, Patrick was there to watch it after all! Or, just part of it, I suppose. But no worries, cuz SpongeBob’s willing to do it again.

This episode relies on a lot of visual gags and things of that nature to entertain us, and I think these work decently. They don’t all land for me, which is the risk with visual gags (they’re the kind of humor that is least likely to work on me on any given day), but a lot of them at least leave me still amused, so that’s not too bad.

Okay let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Yeah, this episode is explicitly connected to “Swamp Mates”, confirmed to be taking place at the same time as that episode with Sandy’s segment (which explains why Patrick isn’t home). This show has never done anything like this before. This goes beyond the basic shared plot details of the show, like locations and jobs. And this goes beyond easter eggs, which tie episodes together in a different way. The closest we’ve ever really gotten to this sort of thing is characters like Bubble Buddy returning. Actually, he’s probably the only one, since DoodleBob’s return was not handled in the same way, and the return of other characters is not done in a way that implies the happening of previous experiences. And even with Bubble Buddy, this isn’t the same thing. This isn’t sister episodes being related to each other and referencing each other. So yeah, this is full-on continuity between episodes. And as far as I know, this will only be done one other time, again during a 16-6 episode combination.

To this, I’ve got one thing to say: Let’s keep doing this please and thank you. It makes for a very engaging watching experience. I really like both approaches to this continuity—having the sister episodes go on concurrently, or one after the other (like “Krusty Koncessionaires” and “Dream Hoppers”). It’s cool to see what goes on in Bikini Bottom during the same day, and it’s also cool to see what our beloved characters do after a typical adventure. The existence of “Swamp Mates” and “One Trick Sponge” especially really makes me want to see an episode kinda like “Tales of Ba Sing Se” from Avatar: The Last Airbender, just a day in the life of all of our main characters. That would be cool.

Bringing it back to “One Trick Sponge” itself, I thought this episode was cute. SpongeBob is adorable in this episode, I loved his enthusiasm for his magic trick. And I like that this episode avoided being repetitive, even if on paper it sounded like it might be since the plot is so simple. The episode isn’t particularly funny, though, and that’s its one big flaw. So it’s simply a solid episode.

Episode Tier: Good
Episode Score:
7.9/10
 
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