EmployeeAMillion
Season 12 Time!
Senior Discount (Season 12, Episode 10b)
Original Airdate: July 6 2019
Episode 481 in standard order, Episode 470 in airing order
Plot: Mr Krabs has to figure out a way to kick Old Man Jenkins out of the Krusty Krab
Written by Andrew Goodman
Animation Director: Michelle Bryan, Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi
I’ll stand by Old Man Jenkins being a welcome addition to the tertiary cast. If they want to make jokes about old people’s issues, so be it. Whether they reflect the show’s age, or the age of the writers and animators that have stuck around this long, he doesn’t feel like an out of place addition at the 12 season mark. But unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled by this episode’s depiction of him being a crude moocher, the first time I watched, and now after a few more whirls. I’m pretty young, so I don’t think I should be critical on behalf of the senior citizens this episode digs at, but I can tell I won’t like this one more as I get older.
Things seem to be going great today at the Krusty Krab. The customers are happy, Mr Krabs has a ton of money to count, and his employees are doing their regular jobs without much hassle. That all changes when Old Man Jenkins comes around to do his usual routine. He orders one small coffee for a half-cent using his senior discount privilege, slurps a condiment soup he makes in his beard from the condiment isle, and plays loud music until all the other customers get annoyed by him. Whenever they tell him to scram, he just yells at them to respect their elders, and goes back to his odd routine. No doubt, this annoys Mr Krabs, and clearly hurts days where business is booming.
So the old “moving the elephant” cartoon plot ensues, I don’t have a better name for it. Mr Krabs tries everything he can to get Jenkins off the premises. He’s no hippie, but the Krusty Krab’s still better off without him. Plan A- Yell and shake Jenkins until he leaves. This fails because it makes him look bad to the rest of the customers. Aren’t they annoyed by Jenkins too though? Shouldn’t they be egging him on like the living mob they are? Plan B- Let SpongeBob talk to him. Only SpongeBob’s won over by his sob stories and is too kind to make him leave. These aren’t exclusively old people issues, but there’s three more plans following this.
Plan C- Krabs does the unthinkable, and touches the thermostat! He turns the heat up tremendously, to the discomfort of many of the Krustomers, but Jenkins ironically finds it too cold. Instead of, oh I don’t know, turning the heat way down, Krabs initiates Plan D- playing heavy metal music on huge speakers to annoy him. He didn’t count on Jenkins’ being hard of hearing, the personal radio he carries around actually being a toaster oven. Enough fooling around on both their behalfs, I see. Plan E should do the trick and end this for once. That involves Krabs getting his father involved, who’s older than Old Man Jenkins. He then pulls out Older Man Jenkins, who’s just a shorter and wrinkler version of himself, who doesn’t look very authoritative in his old age, but whatever. Comedic escalation ahoy...
Krabs and Jenkins whip out older and older family members, eventually conjuring spirits from beyond the grave (or in Krabs’ case, redoing Seance Shmeance and then going wild with the Poltergeist 3000 at the cemetery). I don’t know why Jenkins’ ancestors are red ghosts, or how Krabs has an Egyptian heritage, but what matters is that these two are now the youngest folks in the Krusty Krab by a long shot, and are thrown out by the ghosts so they can party. So Krabs and Jenkins...bond over getting kicked out, and bother Plankton at the Chum Bucket instead. Weren’t these two mortal enemies 20 seconds prior to this? I could understand last episode’s quick resolution, but this just throws a lot of the episode’s buildup away for the sake of forgiveness. It’s nice, but after 10 minutes of bickering and fighting, it’s not the most fitting resolution.
The story got a little big for its britches, but the comedy could work sometimes. Some of the annoying stuff Jenkins does is just that, pretty dang annoying, and the routine of him being amazingly stubborn starts off fine but is played out. My favourite jokes have to do with SpongeBob, strange since this is the 3rd episode in a row that’s otherwise light on him. I like how he kicks Squidward in the back of the head repeatedly while dashing back through the window into the kitchen, something Krabs repeats later on, his description of Jenkins as he’s coming to the Krusty Krab, and how won over he is by Jenkins’ sob stories. Only SpongeBob can believe a man takes so many pills that they’re more pill than man.
Animation is a hodgepodge too, there are a few visual gags that I chuckled at (RIP Krustomer made of wax), but some of them were a bit nasty, like Krabs screaming and showing a crud ton of gum, the whole thing of Jenkins drinking a condiment soup from his beard, and there are a couple oddities with the colours and ethnicites of all the ghosts. You go from Ancient Egypt to Early Modern England to Modern America? Ancestry is a scam! Also I know it’s the joke, but their great grandfathers look like they’re pushing 150 and don’t want to be in the land of the living anymore. And Grandpappy’s pink now, I guess he’s done too much adventuring since we last saw him.
So there’s a whole mess of new crab and old fish characters to theorise about, like Mr Krabs’ dad who only gets one line (though I like how he sounds like how Krabs did in 1999), and the return of Grandpappy who only gets one line, and they didn’t get Dennis Quaid back to voice him for it. I shouldn’t be too underwhelmed, this is one big old comedic routine after all. Maybe I’m drawn to them because Mr Krabs himself isn’t anything special here, and neither is Old Man Jenkins. Typical portrayals of them are better than atypical any day of the week, but they weren’t very funny since the story they went through wasn’t very interesting. I should reiterate that I liked SpongeBob here, and I didn’t mind Squidward and Plankton’s little bit parts.
I feel like I’m missing something here, like I’m too young to really get invested in the jokes and dynamics they make here. That said, I don’t think I’ll find it any more entertaining as a 91 year old than as a 19 year old. The story stops and goes, there weren’t many characters I liked seeing onscreen, and Old Man Jenkins was funnier when he did stuff you wouldn’t expect an old man to do. Maybe a part of me is comparing it negatively to There’s a Sponge In My Soup, which had a similar structure but was far more energetic and creative, in that way I’m paying far more respect to the elder episode. This episode left an impact on me in that way, heh.
Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average)
Swamp Mates < Senior Discount < Squid’s On a Bus
I’ve decided to go on a short break, much shorter than last time I promise, after Big Birthday Blowout, so mind the gap in reviews then. Goodbye for now.
Original Airdate: July 6 2019
Episode 481 in standard order, Episode 470 in airing order
Plot: Mr Krabs has to figure out a way to kick Old Man Jenkins out of the Krusty Krab
Written by Andrew Goodman
Animation Director: Michelle Bryan, Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi
I’ll stand by Old Man Jenkins being a welcome addition to the tertiary cast. If they want to make jokes about old people’s issues, so be it. Whether they reflect the show’s age, or the age of the writers and animators that have stuck around this long, he doesn’t feel like an out of place addition at the 12 season mark. But unfortunately, I wasn’t thrilled by this episode’s depiction of him being a crude moocher, the first time I watched, and now after a few more whirls. I’m pretty young, so I don’t think I should be critical on behalf of the senior citizens this episode digs at, but I can tell I won’t like this one more as I get older.
Things seem to be going great today at the Krusty Krab. The customers are happy, Mr Krabs has a ton of money to count, and his employees are doing their regular jobs without much hassle. That all changes when Old Man Jenkins comes around to do his usual routine. He orders one small coffee for a half-cent using his senior discount privilege, slurps a condiment soup he makes in his beard from the condiment isle, and plays loud music until all the other customers get annoyed by him. Whenever they tell him to scram, he just yells at them to respect their elders, and goes back to his odd routine. No doubt, this annoys Mr Krabs, and clearly hurts days where business is booming.
So the old “moving the elephant” cartoon plot ensues, I don’t have a better name for it. Mr Krabs tries everything he can to get Jenkins off the premises. He’s no hippie, but the Krusty Krab’s still better off without him. Plan A- Yell and shake Jenkins until he leaves. This fails because it makes him look bad to the rest of the customers. Aren’t they annoyed by Jenkins too though? Shouldn’t they be egging him on like the living mob they are? Plan B- Let SpongeBob talk to him. Only SpongeBob’s won over by his sob stories and is too kind to make him leave. These aren’t exclusively old people issues, but there’s three more plans following this.
Plan C- Krabs does the unthinkable, and touches the thermostat! He turns the heat up tremendously, to the discomfort of many of the Krustomers, but Jenkins ironically finds it too cold. Instead of, oh I don’t know, turning the heat way down, Krabs initiates Plan D- playing heavy metal music on huge speakers to annoy him. He didn’t count on Jenkins’ being hard of hearing, the personal radio he carries around actually being a toaster oven. Enough fooling around on both their behalfs, I see. Plan E should do the trick and end this for once. That involves Krabs getting his father involved, who’s older than Old Man Jenkins. He then pulls out Older Man Jenkins, who’s just a shorter and wrinkler version of himself, who doesn’t look very authoritative in his old age, but whatever. Comedic escalation ahoy...
Krabs and Jenkins whip out older and older family members, eventually conjuring spirits from beyond the grave (or in Krabs’ case, redoing Seance Shmeance and then going wild with the Poltergeist 3000 at the cemetery). I don’t know why Jenkins’ ancestors are red ghosts, or how Krabs has an Egyptian heritage, but what matters is that these two are now the youngest folks in the Krusty Krab by a long shot, and are thrown out by the ghosts so they can party. So Krabs and Jenkins...bond over getting kicked out, and bother Plankton at the Chum Bucket instead. Weren’t these two mortal enemies 20 seconds prior to this? I could understand last episode’s quick resolution, but this just throws a lot of the episode’s buildup away for the sake of forgiveness. It’s nice, but after 10 minutes of bickering and fighting, it’s not the most fitting resolution.
The story got a little big for its britches, but the comedy could work sometimes. Some of the annoying stuff Jenkins does is just that, pretty dang annoying, and the routine of him being amazingly stubborn starts off fine but is played out. My favourite jokes have to do with SpongeBob, strange since this is the 3rd episode in a row that’s otherwise light on him. I like how he kicks Squidward in the back of the head repeatedly while dashing back through the window into the kitchen, something Krabs repeats later on, his description of Jenkins as he’s coming to the Krusty Krab, and how won over he is by Jenkins’ sob stories. Only SpongeBob can believe a man takes so many pills that they’re more pill than man.
Animation is a hodgepodge too, there are a few visual gags that I chuckled at (RIP Krustomer made of wax), but some of them were a bit nasty, like Krabs screaming and showing a crud ton of gum, the whole thing of Jenkins drinking a condiment soup from his beard, and there are a couple oddities with the colours and ethnicites of all the ghosts. You go from Ancient Egypt to Early Modern England to Modern America? Ancestry is a scam! Also I know it’s the joke, but their great grandfathers look like they’re pushing 150 and don’t want to be in the land of the living anymore. And Grandpappy’s pink now, I guess he’s done too much adventuring since we last saw him.
So there’s a whole mess of new crab and old fish characters to theorise about, like Mr Krabs’ dad who only gets one line (though I like how he sounds like how Krabs did in 1999), and the return of Grandpappy who only gets one line, and they didn’t get Dennis Quaid back to voice him for it. I shouldn’t be too underwhelmed, this is one big old comedic routine after all. Maybe I’m drawn to them because Mr Krabs himself isn’t anything special here, and neither is Old Man Jenkins. Typical portrayals of them are better than atypical any day of the week, but they weren’t very funny since the story they went through wasn’t very interesting. I should reiterate that I liked SpongeBob here, and I didn’t mind Squidward and Plankton’s little bit parts.
I feel like I’m missing something here, like I’m too young to really get invested in the jokes and dynamics they make here. That said, I don’t think I’ll find it any more entertaining as a 91 year old than as a 19 year old. The story stops and goes, there weren’t many characters I liked seeing onscreen, and Old Man Jenkins was funnier when he did stuff you wouldn’t expect an old man to do. Maybe a part of me is comparing it negatively to There’s a Sponge In My Soup, which had a similar structure but was far more energetic and creative, in that way I’m paying far more respect to the elder episode. This episode left an impact on me in that way, heh.
Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average)
Swamp Mates < Senior Discount < Squid’s On a Bus
I’ve decided to go on a short break, much shorter than last time I promise, after Big Birthday Blowout, so mind the gap in reviews then. Goodbye for now.