Here's why I despise Boating Buddies so much: SpongeBob. I think that this is THE worst appearance of him in the entire series. This is also his most ignorant, annoying, creepiest, and unintelligent role of the entire series as well! And what did he end up doing in this episode? Torture Squidward! And I mean, TORTURE!!!! First of all, SpongeBob annoys Squidward so much, such as by getting some hot chocolate all over him, that Squidward wants to get the hell away from him. And of course, because of SpongeBob and the fact that Squidward was frantically trying to get rid of him, he runs a stop sign and is sentenced to boating school! How fun! And to make things worse, SpongeBob also attends that boating school! He now has to spend a whole day with the cause of his sentence and the person that he was trying to get away from! Horray! And of course, since Mrs. Puff doesn't give a cr*p, Squidward has to sit next to SpongeBob! And wow, is he annoying! He is also the biggest creep that I've ever seen! Who randomly touches someone with two fingers like that? And breaths heavily repeatedly like that?! And also, what makes me hate this episode even more is SpongeBob's physical appearance! He has these huge cheeks that we've even seen before, and they just look disgusting! I hate them! This also led me to believe that SpongeBob was going to look like that for now on! Oh, the horror that would've been! But anyway, I consider the WORST face and close-up of the entire series to be of SpongeBob breathing heavily at Squidward! *shudders* That face actually gives me chills! For someone who doesn't find The Splinter cringe-worthy, I find SpongeBob's face cringe-worthy AND disturbing in this! And literally, cringe-worthy!!! And we got to see it 3 times! And unlike some other close-ups we got in this show, this one actually moves! And that just makes it way worse than any other close-up on this show! (For example, if the face that SpongeBob made in "WhoBob WhatPants" actually moved instead of being a still-frame, then I probably would've hated it!) So yeah, SpongeBob's cheeks in the ENTIRE episode is also cringe-worthy to me! And SpongeBob's voice, such as when he was yelling "SQUUUIIIIDWAAARD!!!" is cringe-worthy to me, as well. So, let's get back to the Squid Torture: Squidward has to sit next to this creep and deal with his creepiness and bullsh*t during class. And then at lunch, SpongeBob is also annoying him, that he had to sit next to the trash cans. And that "joke" about Squidward sitting next to the trash back in grade school was NOT funny! That's upsetting to know! But anyway; SpongeBob still "prevented" him from sitting there, so he had no other choice but to eat his lunch in the BATHROOM, thanks to f***'n SpongeBob! And then Squidward says, "You ruined my morning! You ruined my lunch! And you're ruining my... (life)!!!" How wonderful! This SpongeBob fellow seems like a wonderful person for destroying someone's life, doesn't he?! And then Squidward gets beat up for no reason at all! Yay, Unnecessary Cruely is SO funny, right?! And to make everything worse, Squidward is assigned to be in the same boat as the WORST driver in history! How fun! And of course Mrs. Puff doesn't even give a cr*p about doing this to poor Squiddy! And of course, chaos occurs, but with a little Squidward mixed into it! And then we cut to some random science experiment scene with a scientist trying to turn a mailman (Why, specifically a mailman?!) into the size of a grain of sand. Okay, WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?! That scene just screams Lackluster Writing! And then we get some really stupid lines/moments from that science scene, such as "Potato chips are his favorite snack", "JOHNSON, NO!!!", "They're heading to that discarded potato chip", and "[sprays with water] No. No. No." So after that stupid scene, Squidward gets beat up AGAIN!!! Hilarious, right?! And then when they have to take the test, Squidward can't take it because of him being all bandaged up! And that's SpongeBob fault because he's the reason why he got transported to that same guy, since he was the one who crashed into that lab, and he is the reason why Squidward had to go to boating school in the first place! So anyway, the only way that Squidward could take the test is with SpongeBob's help. And of course, this is the only time in the entire episode where SpongeBob realizes that Squidward doesn't need his help and that he doesn't need him! And the only way he would change his mind is if Squidward called him a "boating buddy." (Are we intended to be on SpongeBob's side or something?!) So he's forcing Squidward to like him?! That's a Rancid Moral right there, since you're apparently not supposed to help someone unless they like you. Also, you're apparently supposed to force someone to like you. And he's pretty much blackmailing him to say this?! And of course, he says this for no reason, since SpongeBob didn't help at all because the test's time finished the exact same second when SpongeBob agreed to help him. And guess what, because of this, he failed the quiz and without Mrs. Puff even giving a fu*k that he was injured to not let the test count! And guess what else: He has to spend another day in boating school, I mean HELL, with SpongeBob, I mean the DEVIL! Yay, Unfortunate Implications!!! And the episode ends off with Squidward screaming in misery that he has to go through hell again! And who is the reason why he even had to go through this hell in the first place?! SpongeBob, that's who! And he's making it even more of a hell for him! So, what overall made me hate this episode the most is in fact SpongeBob. This is the WORST Character Derailment of him that I've ever seen. He was completely ignorant, without even noticing all the torture, hell, and misery that he's inflicting on Squidward. And God, was he ANNOYING!!! And he was a full-on creep. And a stalker. Just look at this quote: "SpongeBob, I've been sitting here motionless for 45 minutes. What could you possibly have heard me doing?" "Breathing." WTF, SpongeBob?! Just what?! Also, SpongeBob was a dumb a** in this episode. He was the stupidest excuse for an organism that I've even seen! And also, since when did he fail the written/oral boating exams. He got EVERY SINGLE QUESTION wrong on this test that he took a billion times, but in the Season 1 episode "Boating School", he got all of the questions right on a test that he also took many times. Aside from that, the writers messed up naiveté with complete unintelligence and ignorance! His behavior was even worse than Patrick's behavior in Pet Sitter Sitter, because, hey, at least he is meant to be the dumb character. And SpongeBob is not supposed to be the dumb character! Just compare his intelligence and likability in episodes like Help Wanted, Rock-a-Bye Bivalve, Picture Day, Rock Bottom, Planet of the Jellyfish, ect. to this piece of sh*t! See the difference? Heck, I was even worried that he would behave like this for now on in upcoming episodes! Thankfully, he doesn't! So anyway, for SpongeBob, he get all of this plus a mix of Cringe-Inducing Visuals and Audio, and Low Production Values, from his disgusting looking face and cheeks in the episode, and his extra annoying voice, and voila! We got SpongeBob's WORST appearance in the entire show! For someone who loves SpongeBob to death, I downright HATE him in this episode! And I mean, HATE!!!! This episode sometimes makes me wonder, why do I even like this character? (Okay, I still do love SpongeBob, don't worry.) But oh my goodness, he was AWFUL in this one!!! Just why would the writers even write poor Spongy like this?! This doesn't even seem like the SpongeBob that we all know and all! And to make it all worse, this episode was a poorly written, awful, and mean-spirited Squid Torture where Squidward has to go through hell for doing nothing bad at all! Oh, and does SpongeBob get any comeuppance? Nope! He gets away scot-free, while Squidward is the one who has to continue to suffer. So overall, this is the WORST SpongeBob episode of all-time, in my opinion. I've despised it ever since I first saw it in the summer after 4th grade, and I even considered if my least-favorite episode ever since! I'd hate when it came on! I never wanted to watch it! Even as I rewatched it a few days ago, I really did not want to! And I don't ever want to again! This episode was probably even the first episode of the entire show where I HATED SpongeBob as a character! This episode is just that AWFUL! :(