Popeye's Top 30 Worst SpongeBob Episodes Ever (with some honorable mentions)

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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I've never done one of these lists before but I wanted to keep it relatively simple. I'll try to put all the episodes that I thought were some of the worst I've ever seen from this show and order and talk about why I think the way I do about them. I will probably be doing one episode a day.

Doing that blog post really really made me see which ones I would need to focus on the most and offer some commentary as to why they're on the list. I will also talk about some of the honorable mentions that I had on the list and explain why even though they weren't as bad as some of the ones that made the cut as to why they still had problems. A lot of these are just gonna be from the top of my head to save some time and if I really want to offer more in depth commentary, I'll rewatch the episode and offer more thoughts here.

Okay, let's begin! Note: I updated this part with the two episodes that I think are quite similar to this episode and added a short description as to what I think of them.


30.
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Writers: Mike Bell

Storyboards: Aaron Springer

SBMania Rating: 4.7

Let me start off by saying that I really don't hate this one that much personally but including it on here because it was the prototype to all those infamous episodes people really really hate where Squidward has his life ruined because of something stupid that SpongeBob and Patrick did in the post movie era. Overall, it's a pretty mediocre and meh episode to me, but the fact that Squidward has to do community service for the rest of his life because of something he didn't do in the first place and the way that SB and Patrick reacted is just wrong on a lot of levels that I can see why many many fans were angry when they saw this episode. The biggest highlight of these episode for me is when Squidward's house goes on a Godzilla style rampage and tries to destroy the city. I think for me, it was at least entertaining enough to not make this a much worse episode and especially compared to all the crap that's coming up. There's also a really cool drawing of Squidward when he's yelling at SpongeBob and Patrick and trying to get to their thick skulls as to why they suck as neighbors so that kinda made me laugh seeing that. Overall, one of Season 4's weakest episodes and for a good reason and also because "Skill Crane" is a much, much better episode and yet was paired up with this one of all things.


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Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, and Richard Pursel

Storyboards by Luke Brookshier and Nate Cash

SBMania Rating: 4.2

Really all this episode is just "Good Neighbors" but with Illuminati references and a giant albino eel sock gag that managed to make me laugh every time I've watched this episode and compared to a lot of other episodes on my list that have Richard Pursel credited as coming up with the outline, it was honestly a lot more entertaining and much less boring to sit through IMO. To be honest, I don't really hate this one that much either even though Squidward obviously gets hurt a lot more here. After watching it several times, I still couldn't muster up enough hate to put this higher. If you already really hate GN, you're not gonna like this episode either. I'm not saying this episode is good or anything but I'd consider it for the most part to be mediocre too.

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Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, and Derek Iversen

Storyboards by Luke Brookshier and Nate Cash

SBMania Rating: 5.4

Man, this one is also just another clone of "Good Neighbors" though he doesn't really have to suffer as much as he did in the two episodes I've talked about above. He basically just loses his TV show and gets kicked out of his house and that's about it. Patrick actually makes a good meta joke that I liked but other than that, this episode is pretty much borderline mediocre to me with not many of the jokes being that funny and the plot not being that good either. I think "I Heart Dancing" is just the much better episode out of this specific pairing but I really don't have that much to say about this episode either.
 

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Wow, that's a good review for a top-of-your-head. Good reasons
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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It's a new day, which means I have another episode to talk about that after thinking about it, really is one of the stupidest episodes ever made in terms of plot and concept. So here it is.

29.

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Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Mr. Lawrence

Storyboards by Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas

SBMania Rating: 4.4

First of all, the plot doesn't make any sense. Squidward hits his head on the mailbox and it makes his head swell making him act like a.......baby? WHAT???????????????????!!!!!!!!! Let me try reading this again. SpongeBob and Patrick.....playing with baby toys. You have that right folks. Freaking baby toys. Already I'm shaking my head here and going WTF. Squidward trips on one of their toys. Hits his head and................just why???????? I know SpongeBob is supposed to be a cartoon but it doesn't mean that you can just bend the rules like that and make one of the weirdest episodes on this list. I always thought if you hit your head that hard in other cartoons, you'd just suffer from amnesia and it would have been one of those kind of plots, but no. It just had to be something as dumb and pointless as this.

If I didn't see the credits for this episode, I would have never guessed someone with a lot of writing experience like Mr. Lawrence came up with this tripe but apparently he did. I wonder what was going through his mind when he was writing the outline for this one because it really really is one of the stupidest episodes ever for that reason. A lot of people have said that this episode makes fun of head trauma or something like that, but with a plot this ridiculous and stupid, it's very very hard for me to take what happens to Squidward that seriously here or really get offended by it in that sense. "Good Ol' Whatshisname" though it's not on this list has the same problem. Really dumb plot but it's not nearly as long as this episode so there's a lot less to suffer through.

Biggest highlight of this episode is the scene where Patrick's watching that show that he watched back in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" and the part where one of the characters makes a reference to the My Leg gag. That's really about the only interesting part about this episode. Otherwise, it's just a lame version of "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve" with a really really stupid and childish plot. Ugh. You're not missing much if you haven't seen this episode and really if you're looking for a good or decent Season 9 episode, this one isn't it. Watch Plankton's Pet or Jailbreak instead.

Hint for the next episode that will be on this list:

Another really really lame remake of an older episode. Season 6.
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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28.
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Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, Derek Iversen

Storyboards by Luke Brookshier and Nate Cash

SBMania Rating: 5.1

Since I'm in a good mood today and I had this episode on my mind all day, here's my review of "Gullible Pants." One word to describe this: BORING and kind of annoying too!!!!!!! This is one of those episodes that has almost literally nothing of substance happen in it though will give this episode some credit for that gag that occurs when the background turns blue and starts glowing and Mr. Krabs then tells SpongeBob he's in charge. I don't like this episode because it's a very slowly paced remake of "Squid's Day Off" and one that's inconsistent too. Since when does freaking Mr. Krabs have fingernails????? I thought it was established in "Fry Cook Games" that SpongeBob's the only character with fingernails. I mean wtf. I takes this episode about 3 minutes just so we can see SpongeBob "in charge" of the Krusty Krab instead of Squidward this time. This episode also loves to repeat the same bland jokes over and over again. I really think that MoBrosStudios should have included this one on his Top 20 Worst SpongeBob episodes list rather than "Krusty Dogs" or "A Flea in Her Dome" because THIS is where really hardly anything happens and it's likely to put anyone to sleep like it did with me. Such an overlooked episode that for some reason doesn't get criticized more. God, I don't even want to talk about this episode anymore. Don't even watch this one because you will fall asleep instantly. Waste, waste, waste.

Hint for the next episode: It's in Season 6 again and it's an episode that absolutely makes no sense.
 

Mantis

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I don't know why, but I really liked Good Neighbors when I was a kid. Maybe I didn't get Squidward Torture when I was little.
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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I put it at the bottom of this list for that reason. It was never really an episode that made me mad personally or anything even when it was first coming out and really, the ending was the main problem that I can see why people reacted so negatively towards it. Compared to these two episodes I picked, I'd watch "Good Neighbors" in a heartbeat. At least it tries to be funny.
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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New day, new episode. Let's go! This one's gonna be a bit more painful to talk about because someone really really talented wrote and boarded it and he's done a lot of his worst work on this show strangely after the movie. There are greater horrors coming that happen to have his name on them but I'm not going to reveal which ones are gonna be on the list yet. :/

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Written by Aaron Springer and Dani Michaeli

Storyboards: Aaron Springer

SBMania Rating: 3.9

I think this is one of the weakest Squidward vs. Squilliam episodes ever made and one that makes no sense from the start. For something that people think is a Squidward torture episode, the stuff that happens to him here is tame and this time it was actually his fault that he got arrested at the end for impersonating Squilliam. I mean don't you think he would have had enough brains to realize that no one was going to buy his idiotic scheme. To add insult to injury, they decided to add SpongeBob and Patrick to this episode haphazardly. They just shoehorned them in and the episode just becomes even more unfunny, boring especially, poor and stupid.

This episode's biggest highlights:

The part where Squidward says he's perfectly happy being Squidward Q. Tentacles.

The weird out of nowhere metronome scene.

I really wish I had more to say about this episode but let's face it. SpongeBob and Patrick are really unfunny in it and are just there to pad out the episode and add more filler to it. It shouldn't even exist let alone have been made in the first place. I mean why the heck would either of those two be at a university in the first place? Don't they have jellyfishing to attend to? I dunno, maybe Patrick should be sleeping under his rock instead and SpongeBob making Krabby Patties or something. Ugh. Moving on.

The next episode is possibly going to be from Season 7. Still thinking about it but yeah. It also of course has Squidward in it.
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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I wanted to post this because I have plenty to do tonight with school and tomorrow and I wanted to get this out of the way ASAP. This episode for some reason were on my mind the most today and I wanted to talk about why I don't like it that much. Just a heads up, I'm currently thinking of episodes I haven't seen that I'm gonna watch so see if they are at least eligible for a honorable mention if I don't get to them or talk about them here.

26.

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Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas, Derek Iversen

Storyboards: Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas

SBMania Ranking: 4.7

What good would a worst episode list be without one of those dreadful, painfully boring episodes from that Legends of Bikini Bottom special. See why Seasons 6-7 are my two least favorite seasons ever made and why so many of my least favorite episodes ever are from these. The show overall really took a nosedive in quality during that period and that's where a lot of the infamous episodes people hate came from for the most part with literally every writer on the show doing some of their weakest work too, even Aaron Springer unfortunately which remains a mystery for me to this day. Here's an episode that had potential but was ruined by several factors.

First of all, I HATE the designs of those smelly garbage things that come out of SpongeBob's trash can. They are hideous. Just look at this crap! AAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!! No appeal or anything. They look like characters from a bad Klasky Csupo cartoon rather than anything from SpongeBob. There are several more episodes that are coming up that have some really sloppy drawings that I think are much worse than this but let's stay focused on the topic at hand.

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Really shaky lines, no form, no direction. Just a really lumpy, green mess really. I really hope this was something that happened in production that we don't know about, like the overseas animation studio making a serious animation error or some problem they were having in training new artists. Who knows! Oh yeah, they're making farting noises in this scene. So not needed at all. As for the song itself, it's meh but these garbage things make it so annoying to sit through. They should never exist in the SpongeBob universe. Never and I'm so glad they were never brought up again in any future episode.

As for the rest of the episode, we get a random volcano out of nowhere and apparently in order to save the town, the Bikini Bottomites have to sacrifice the most miserable person according to this really weird ancient Dolphin Warrior guy or at least that's what it looks like when everyone's sitting at the movie theater (volcano shelter, I know it's stupid). The episode seems to get a little bit better when Squidward accidentally almost falls directly into the volcano and SpongeBob's about to save his life and everything. I actually liked the perspective that they added with Squidward. Really helps to emphasize that he's about to fall and there seems to be some really good character development too. I guess that's one positive this episode has but it still doesn't excuse the other stuff that happens.

Here's the biggest slap to the face however. The pipes underneath Squidward's house explode causing his house to somehow fly right into the volcano and that fixes the problems. It turns out that the Dolphin Warrior never said that they had to sacrifice anyone but the most miserable person's house. WHAT?! That is just such a bad, shoehorned way to end an episode and it really sours the whole experience of watching it even more for me. Really? All of this for nothing and any character development was killed because of how this episode ended. It would have been so much cooler if they had made it more of an open ending like in "Hooky" where Patrick gets packed into a can of tuna. And look, it turns out that Squidward was lying to SpongeBob the WHOLE TIME!!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!!!!!!! I'm so mad right now and especially because this could have been a better, more meaningful episode if they had cut the song number out and really made the relationship between SpongeBob and Squidward genuine and have much more layers to their personalities.

I think this is the first episode on this list that really made me react strongly in some way. Tomorrow, I will try to make it a double post. One episode in particular is also one of the dumbest ideas I've ever seen for an episode. It will make you cry and it will make you cry even more when you see who wrote the episode.
 

Popeyes Haunted Barnacles

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Another day, another crappy episode. What is it this time?

25.
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Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash, and Steven Banks

Storyboards by Luke Brookshier and Nate Cash

SBMania Rating: 3.4

Already you know this episode isn't going to be good. Look at those unappealing bright purple colors on this title card. Makes it look just as putrid as this episode is. So what's wrong with "The Play's The Thing" you may ask.

Ehhhhhhh, it's boring. Boring. Boring. Very very boring. It's a good idea like with "Sponge-Cano" but not executed well I might say. Really a lot of the episodes on the first 10 so far that I've included here could be interchanged with each other depending on how you think about them and have similar problems in some ways. And oh yeah, the singy eaty time part is one of the stupidest jokes I've ever heard on this show ever and it makes SpongeBob look kind of like a jerk in that instance. I was wondering whether one of the writer's kids came in the studio and one day and said something like that and they took inspiration from it.

The pacing also sucks and screw this, it's on the same level of "Gullible Pants" in terms of lameness but a little bit more annoying than that and mostly less funny because they made the episode too serious in certain scenes especially during Squidward's play.The townspeople are also kinda douchey when they demand for Krabby Patties as if they've never eaten at the Krusty Krab or other fast food restaurants before and I HATE how Mr. Krabs gets away with his misdeeds in this episode. That's almost always a guarantee that your going to get on my nerves in some way if you do that in an episode.

I don't know what else to say besides the fact that there are barely any jokes in this episode. It's really just a throwaway episode that you could live without seeing.

Don't worry. The next episode is coming up soon. Maybe that one will give me more material to work with and tear into.
 

Pospooky

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My opinion on these so far:

30) I think there was an earlier episode that started the series of Squidward Torture episodes. Naughty Nautical Neighbors kinda fits the description; I'm not saying it's bad because it isn't, but really Squid's getting tortured when Spongebob and Pat are friends and when they're trying to persuade Squidward to be friends with him. On-topic though, this isn't funny.

29) They're just trying too hard at this point. "Hey, let's take SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, turn Squidward into a baby, and then make the former two take care of them!" "Yeah, it'll be so funny!"

28) Squidward Torture Episode.

27) I don't remember this one except for that annoying metronome scene. That's probably not good.

26) Another Squidward Torture Episode.

25) This is another one of those episodes where Mr. Krabs only cares about money and himself. Another one revolved around that plot: Spongebob, You're Fired.
 
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