Tell me the definition of "Diarrhea Sandwich syndrome".
129a - Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy[]
Premiered on July 19, 2009.
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Dani Michaeli.
Highlight: Plankton as Sandy.
Plankton poses as Sandy in order to steal the Krabby Patty formula.
Imagine having this episode as your least favorite of the series. No seriously, it's not because I like this episode, but seriously, try to find just one thing that this episode does bad enough to make it worst of the series. It doesn't even do enough wrong to stop it from being good. I'm not gonna go and call it better than all of S5 and S6 like a certain SBoomer here does, but I gotta say that I really enjoy this one. Sure, it's a ripoff of Imitation Krabs, but that doesn't stop it from being good. One thing that it doesn't have that IK does have though, is the fact that a lot of the comedy in said episode came from the line delivery that was quite comedical thanks to the dry expression of the robot and its monotonous voice, but Plankton uses his own voice for most of the episode, which removes the fun factor of the line delivery in that episode. The only part where this stays as it should be is when he first puts Sandy's fur on, and when he finds several people on his way to the KK, he tries imitating the Texan accent by saying "y'all" or "yee-haw" or "howdy" in every sentence, but for some reason, he stops doing it after the beginning. However, this doesn't stop the episode from still being funny, as most of the comedy works in the same way it did in IK, with SB showing Plankton stuff he doesn't give a crap about, and him reacting to it. My personal favorite joke is the obvious "Mmm... try again", when SB keeps telling Plankton to put the bun in the exact center of the Krabby Patty, but he keeps messing up. It's pretty fun because SB tells him to try again for such a stupid reason in a very purposely annoying way.
Most people seem to have a problem with Sandy's subplot, and if that's the reason they call this episode Bottom 20 or even worst of the series, I took the time to count and it's literally less than two minutes of the episodes. No, seriously, I understand that you can find a random group of dudes laughing at nakey Sandy annoying, mostly because that's not realistic, as in real life, people would just stand there looking at her like the degenerates 90% of dudes are, but still, that's not even two minutes of the episode. Unless you also count the final fight, but nobody laughs at Sandy there, plus, it's a fight, which is always cool to see, specially when it's between two characters we don't often see interacting with each other. I do agree that the ending where they arrest Sandy because of public nudity is completely stupid, considering they stole the equivalent to clothes for her, so she had to get it back.
Decent episode with decent humor. I fail to see why it gets all that hate.
Rating: Good
129b - The Inside Job[]
Premiered on July 19, 2009.
Written by Luke Brookshier, Nate Cash and Mr. Lawrence.
Highlight: Plankton inside SpongeBob.
Plankton explores SpongeBob's brain.
Here we have another Plankton episode. This one has a very similar concept to Plankton's first appearance in that marvelous S1 episode, Plankton!, and just like in that episode, Plankton gets inside SpongeBob's body to get to the formula, but instead of just using the brain to steal the formula, he tries to mind read SpongeBob, and in the process, we also get several good gags of him messing with SB's body, as this episode focuses way more than Plankton! on the exploration of SB's body, but I'll start by the beginning.
So, once the plan gets introduced, Karen shoots Plankton at Mr. Krabs, who is apparently just standing there, which is a clear sign that this episode is Bottom 20, and even though I'm not Cosmodore, I do have a small con with this, and it is that it ends up being kind of predictable that that wasn't actually Mr. Krabs, because Plankton takes way too much to hit Mr. Krabs, and even Squidward and Patrick pass him by while he doesn't do anything, and before Plankton hits you already suspect that something weird is going on. I think a more effective way to make the twist work would've been making SpongeBob wear a Mr. Krabs costume, so he could actually move a little bit and look in other directions, and when Plankton is about to hit him, he takes off the head of the costume, and in that way, the twist could've worked and would've actually been unexpected.
Once Plankton has entered SpongeBob's body, the fun begins, and yeah, I know that all this stuff of entering bodies sounds pretty messed up, but sorry, it's the only way I can say it. So, the first thing Plankton goes for, is SB's eyes, making him go blind, which gives for a fun gag of SpongeBob trying to make a Krabby Patty, but ending up making something that must taste like diarrhea, but it's probably still better than Plankton's chum. The second thing he does, is going for the eardrums, which are creatively, well, drums, which also gives for a nice scene of Krabs trying to yell everything at SB, because he can't listen anything, but because Plankton is hearing, he gets his ear basically bombed. I think this structure the first half had was considerably nice, as it shows us both SpongeBob's and Plankton's perspectives, giving for good comedical situations.
The second half, shows us more of SB's interior, which is very creatively designed. The eardrum was already something mildly creative, but now we get to see more of his body. First, with Plankton entering SB's brain, we see that the interior of it is a recreation of SB's house but made of pink squeaky brainlike material that contains all of his memories in the library of his house. I really enjoy the design of this brain, as it reminds me of something straight out of Alice in Wonderland or something like that, aside from the fact that this creative choice was pretty original.
The ending of this episode is kind of goofy and it really works. It's kind of cute seeing a criminal mastermind like Plankton turning into SB and suddenly being a good noodle who doesn't want to steal the formula, and the transformation scene is also pretty cool to see. Same goes for Patrick, who also gives for a pretty hilarious ending to this episode that has some pretty good gags, pretty good designs and just a lot of creativity put into it. This goes to show Mr. Lawrence still knows how to write Plankton episodes. Well, he wrote WttCB, but that doesn't exist for me. This one is one is a magnificent episode.
Rating: Good
130a - Greasy Buffoons[]
Premiered on November 27, 2009.
Written by Aaron Springer and Derek Iversen.
Highlight: The greasy products' names.
Mr. Krabs and Plankton start selling greasy foods at their restaurants.
Well, this episode continues the trend started by S6 of Plankton stealing Mr. Krabs' customers without stealing the formula. However, this one has the interesting added twist that Mr. Krabs strikes back by doing the same as Plankton, rather than just trying to destroy his business, which gives for a more entertaining episode than most of the episodes with this concept in S6, with the exception of Chum Bucket Supreme.
It all starts when Mr. Krabs needs to get rid of a grease trap beneath the Krusty Krab, and in order to do that, he throws all the grease on Plankton's backyard, which I guess made sense for him, as Plankton is his worst enemy, so he uses every opportunity he has to try to bring him down. However, I really enjoy that this ends up bringing the irony of Plankton actually stealing Krabs' customers thanks to that, so it was Krabs' fault after all. I also find pretty creative BTW, that for once, it's Krabs who tries to copy the Chum Bucket, and not the other way around. It's a nice twist.
Once he realizes that Plankton is stealing his customers, he strikes back with the same strategy that Plankton did, and this is where the episode, much like CBS, decides to start a pretty good parody of companies and how people are easily manipulated by them, and this is shown through Krabs and Plankton selling things more ridiculous every time, but because they have cool names, people buy them. They start with greasy burgers, but Krabs eventually just starts selling just greasy buns, or "Yummy Bunz", and then Plankton selling fried grease crumbs, to the point where Mr. Krabs just straight up sells grease, without anything else, and people go buy it. I know it's not the most original concept for an episode, as we've already seen several parodies of consumism and greedy corporations throughout the series, but this one really works because of this second half consisting of a grease war to see who comes up with the most stupid product and still manages to sell it.
Not much else to say. It's not the most original episode ever, but the set-up and plot are pretty great, along with a second half that is full of good comedy with the good parody it contains.
Rating: Good
130b - Model Sponge[]
Premiered on November 27, 2009.
Written by Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Mr. Lawrence.
Highlight: The commercial.
SpongeBob believes he is banished from the Krusty Krab, so he finds a new job as a commercial actor.
This is the very definition of a damn boring episode. It has a bad pacing and doesn't have much humor.
It basically starts with SB at the KK hearing Krabs say that he's gonna "let him go", but he wasn't referring to him. This would've been a decent set-up, but because Mr. Krabs said that "he was gonna let the little guy go", SB tries to be taller than Squidward so he doesn't get fired. I thought this was a very stupid and unnecessary scene that serves as a cheap way to fill an entire minute of the episode, because it isn't funny, nor makes any sense, because I mean, if he was going to get fired, him being taller than Squidward wouldn't change anything because they're not fricking firing him for his height. I know this sounds obvious, but I had to emphasize how ridiculous this scene is. I could excuse it if it was funny, but it's not.
Once SB gets fired, he gets to his home, Patrick is there, and I do like that he is in fact supportive to SB, who ends up looking for a job in the newspaper, which leads us to a montage that is not really entertaining because it's about SB not being able to do any job, because he ends up making Krabby Patties, which is not really original at all, because I've already seen this in the second half of Le Big Switch, although fortunately, it wasn't really long, but still unnecessary. Fortunately, after that, SB finds a sign that says exactly everything he's saying, but he doesn't seem to notice, which is the first good joke in the episode, although we are already halfway through, unfortunately.
SB eventually goes to an audition for a commercial thanks to the sign he saw, and it is all pretty straightforward in the sense that it barely has any comedy, although it's not straightforward in the sense that it tries one joke, I think, but it's a very unnecessary and I would almost say dragged out joke, even though it's not really dragged out, but thanks to the fact that it is unfunny, you feel a lot of cringe when watching it, that joke being SB singing for some reason, when he's auditioning for the FRICKING SPONGEMODEL ROLE.
After he gets hired, he becomes an egomaniac because he believes he is now famous, which is clearly taken from ASoTV, so that's even less originality for this episode, and after that, near the ending, we get pretty much the only scene I like about this episode, which is the commercial, because it's a nice throwback to Suds, and it maintains the hilariousness of SB being used to clean all types of garbage across the bathroom. It's nothing original, because it's the Patrick treatment from Suds, but it's still pretty hilarious and cool to see again.
Not much else to say, this episode sucks and it has bad pacing, lack of comedy, and lack of originality. I'm glad though, that this was the first bad S7 episode. It took longer for S7 to have a bad episode than any other season so far, which is surprising considering this is supposed to be the worst season.
Rating: Bad