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Encyclopedia SpongeBobia

Greetings fellow Wikians, Emily here today with yet another Top 10 blog enlisting 10 good TV shows that in my opinion went downhill after a certain era, some I liked more than others. I would love to hear anyone's feedback, and as always, I respect anyone's disagreements.

Time to get started!

10.) South Park[]

A very great show altogether and a perfect example of risque humor done right, but the reason this show is so low but still on the list nonetheless is because the newer seasons have slightly lost the charm that the older seasons had and they're not as funny as they once were.

South Park is a show that everyone has seen at least once in their lives, and like it or hate it, the show has undoubtedly made millions of people laugh for two decades with its top-notch envelope-pushing crude and crass humor dispensed at the mouths of four construction paper cutout fourth graders who live in the crazy town of South Park, Colorado. You know a show is loved by people all over the world when it gets a theatrical movie in just two years after the series premiere (compare that to how long it took SpongeBob and especially The Simpsons to get movies, and you'll notice how further valid my point is; even Family Guy doesn't have a theatrical movie yet!). South Park is a show that is at the top of its game with its many deliberate jabs at pop culture and celebrities, vulgar humor that has lampooned just about every label and group in existence, and the hilarious rebellious antics of pre-teens who expectedly do kids stuff combined with some unexpected adult behavior. Despite its over-the-top obscenity, the show still maintains a good heart in not wanting to offend and delivering every envelope-pushing moment with respect to the parody subject.

By Season 4, when characters like Timmy and Jimmy were introduced and Butters was promoted to a major character is when the show peaked. I started getting into South Park after Kenny died permanently and Butters took his place in Season 6, which made for a really interesting story arc.

However, I started noticing the show decaying into seasonal rot by season 9 (2005). This is when the character Chef died which was really sad as he was a funny and memorable character who always made me laugh with his soul songs and cared for the children, being one of the few morally decent adults in town. While South Park is by no means a terrible show nowadays and I even enjoy a lot of the new episodes and would take them over some of the new Family Guy ones any day, the modern eras worst moments especially go overboard with offensive jokes and parodies like they've never done before, with episodes like "Britney's New Look", "Miss Teacher", "The Problem with a Poo", "White People Renovating Houses", "Trapped in the Closet", "Follow That Egg!", and "HumanCentiPad". These episodes take obscenity to a whole new level to the point where it's an issue rather than something funny. Now don't get me wrong, the over-the-top nature of South Park's content is what complements the show and it wouldn't be as successful as it is today if it weren't for such irreverent humor (the episode "Scott Tenorman Must Die" was a perfect example of how to do shockingly monstrous plots right with the amusingly sadistic antics of Eric Cartman). However, even with the amount of times the show has defied the censors' sanity, there is a such thing as going too far, and the more recent seasons have become a lot grosser in terms of the amount of crude humor shown, a lot more episodes revolving around bodily functions, and the amount of shocking controversies that went too far were only increasing by season. Everyone was angered by the Muhammad censorship especially.

Then we have our characters, who admittedly have all changed for better or worse over the years, but there are a few in mind who have especially become unlikable over the course of the series. While all four boys and the rest of the fourth graders are all still pretty likable and haven't changed much, there are quite a few characters who lost my respect as the show went on. In particular, Mr. Garrison used to be the boys' hilarious and crazy teacher who had interesting subplots with his hand puppet Mr. Hat. Nowadays, Garrison has had all the past charm and charisma that made him a funny character sucked out of him and is now nothing more than an arrogant, sleazy, annoying jerk who's become a stand-in for President Trump in the most recent seasons and I wish he would just get off the show already or go back to his old ways. I cannot stand his hypocritical bigoted views and sob stories and wish all his gender identity and sexuality issues that portray LGBT people in a negative light would just stop being used because Garrison goes beyond limits of offending way too much.

Wendy was little more than Stan's girlfriend in the earlier seasons, and I honestly wished she would have just remained an unimportant satellite character because in the recent seasons she's just an agenda-pushing political platform and basically the Lisa Simpson and Brian Griffin of the show: A walking, talking, liberal mouthpiece for Stone and Parker. She always preaches about the latest crazes only to show that she is not so above it all herself by later joining in on the insanity, showing how hypocritical she is.

Butters, while still the innocent kindhearted little boy at the end of the day, has arguably become a bit too mature and cynical, there even being moments where he has gotten suspended from school for burning down the gymnasium and beating up his peers. I liked him better when he was just the cute, naive boy who couldn't hurt a fly and someone we all pitied because he was always put through so much (entertaining but mean-spirited) crap by his family and the four boys.

Randy Marsh used to be funny, but nowadays the show seems to rely too much on his prominence and has watered him down into an unlikable idiot responsible for running the show into the ground and I think he should only be used when it's necessary.

The worst character though has to go to PC Principal. He's an uninteresting, unlikeable jerk who never follows any of the advice he gives the kids, even beating Cartman up in his debut episode. He always screams annoyingly and accuses the kids of not being PC enough for the pettiest of offenses, and the less said any further about how terrible this character is, the better.

Another thing is that the comedy aspect of the show has started to decrease in the newer seasons and in favor the show is focusing more on drama. You'll especially notice this with the amount of dramatic piano music that plays during the most serious moments of the show in recent seasons. I get that most comedy shows will throw in some drama every now and then, but recent South Park has overdone it and it really brings down the comedy part of the show. I really wish they would go back to doing what they used to and have them do more kid stuff. The kids are starting to become a bit too mature for their ages and behave a lot more like adults in the later seasons. Another thing is the story arc that the recent seasons seem to focus heavily on. It's gotten repetitive and I wish the show would go back to its continuity-free episodic format because the continuations get boring after a little while.

While the plots are still good, the writing isn't as spectacular as it once was and either relies too much on drama and not enough comedy, or goes overboard with vulgarity and just pushes boundaries for the sake of it. And they focus too much on events in the real world and it just feels like a cash-grab by Stone and Parker to me, what with all the product placement and parodies that appear in an episode. This doesn't give any room for originality to shine. However if there's two things the show has greatly improved on over the years it would be animation and voice acting. Compare the animation nowadays to its crude movements in season 1 where the pilot episode was animated in actual construction paper (before shifting those elements to computer), and you'll notice how well the animation has aged over the course with its smooth character movements, spot-on lip syncing, and more detailed set designs. As for voice acting, Cartman's voice sounded raspy and a little annoying in the first season, but they've improved on it over the show by toning it down and in general making the voices match who the characters are supposed to be, something the older episodes lacked in.

Bottom line, South Park nowadays is a lot like a roller coaster: it has a lot of ups and downs and is subversive to what everyone would expect. The newer episodes are pretty hit and miss, but don't get me wrong there's still plenty of amazing episodes that come from the modern seasons like "You're Not Yelping", "Board Girls", and "World War Zimmerman". However some of the episodes lack the charm of the older days and have gotten a little too dramatic, offensive, and/or boring for my taste. I will be saddened when South Park ends, but with the show having lost its touch, maybe that is for the best considering I haven't been watching it much lately as often due to lack of amusement with the more recent seasons.

9.) The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy[]

I'm not going to let nostalgia lie to me, TGAoBaM actually went downhill at one point. While the series was amazing altogether and just barely makes my Top 5 CN shows, that isn't to say that a show that good can sell out at one point. Okay, Billy and Mandy was an amazing cartoon filled with interesting dark humor, witty pop culture references and a style of humor found from older animated sitcoms, original stories that don't recycle from other shows, unique characters that bring their own style of humor, smooth animation, and even toilet humor that was quite funny, nostalgia can't lie to me about that last one. XD Yeah, this is one of the few shows that actually did toilet humor good because it was rectified by Billy's funny stupidity. However, it started to become a problem around the last two seasons, as the show started to abandon dark humor in favor of practically 100% toilet humor, which made every episode so repetitive and just killed the comedy aspect without combining the gross humor with darkness. I also started to notice at this point that the plots started becoming less darker and more or less just started to feel like a generic kiddie show.

I also didn't like how they made Billy act in the last season and dumbed his IQ down to god knows how much. In the older seasons, he was dumb but in a funny way that had be laughing till' I couldn't breath, and he had his fair share or maturity every now and then, but later in the show they took both all the comedy and occasional boasts of maturity out of him and just made him an annoying idiot who competes with post-movie Patrick. The show also started to overuse gags and recycled episode plots later on which overall turned me away from the show.

While it started out fantastic, TGoBaM became a shell of its former glory in the end and ended for the better, which was probably a blessing so it wouldn't become any worse. While there were still a few decent episodes in the newer seasons, most of them I can't stand watching because they lack the charisma of the older ones which really got me into Billy and Mandy. Still, I would like to say that Underfist was a great TV movie and ended the show on a high note.

8.) Dexter's Laboratory[]

A once fantastic show which inevitably turned to crud, Dexter is probably the first cartoon to introduce the zany cartoon comedy and relatable kid plots found in many CN shows that we know and love today, and it utilizes those aspects to its full potential with entertaining results. Unfortunately, things started to take a tumble when creator Genndy Tartakovsky left the show in 1999 to work on Samurai Jack (awesome show BTW; check that one out if you haven't yet), but the show got revived in 2001 and went on for a little while without him, which proved to be a huge mistake. For one, the writing was nowhere near as good as it once was and introduced some of the stupidest and unoriginal ideas yet (Dee Dee becoming a monster after eating a contaminated apple, really?). Humor was also lacking in the post-cancelation seasons as it wasn't containing enough laugh-out-loud moments and was pretty corny and stupid for the most part then. Then we have the animation, which unlike other shows made in the 90s whose art style proves to be better as it ages into the 2000s, Dexter's animation took a change for the worse by using an art style too bright and making the characters move in such a stiff way. Then Dexter's voice started to become higher pitched and more nasally which was really annoying.

I overall give the 1996-1999 era of Dexter a 10/10, but the post-cancelation seasons a 1.5/10. Chris Savino also took over the show once the creator finished....guess what other show he created which also ended up going downhill? Yep.... ;)

7.) The Loud House[]

Perfect timing. XD Now we can talk about how downhill this show has gone ever since season 4.

Now The Loud House, splitting it up into separate eras or not, is one of those shows that's really, and I mean REEEEEEEEAAAALLLLLLLLLYYYYYY, hit or miss. There are some people who treat the show like it's the best thing since sliced bread, while there are others who absolutely despise it and consider it the worst show ever made. Well, I'm personally more on the like it side, but too bad seasons 4-present have really brought down my appreciation for the series.

I'm serious, as the show's gone on, there's been more Lincoln torture, less interesting stories, and weak recycled plots that have made the show boring and repetitive. Lincoln's family has become more callous to him, with "No Such Luck" taking the cake, in which even his parents kick him out of the house and force him to sleep in the rain. What is up with these jerks? Then the humor is starting to deteriorate and focus more on slice of life, which just makes it boring. While TLH's comedy was never really laugh until you do humor, it still offered some comedy gold moments ever now and then (and not just Luan's corny puns) even if focusing more on the serious aspect. Lincoln barely gets any focus now, and whenever he appears, he's become more of a selfish jerk who puts himself and his desires above others.

The first three seasons were probably one of the best of any cartoon show IMO with its clever pacing, wit, heartwarming moments, and great humor, but pretty much every episode after the Casagrandes story arc is boring (as with The Cleveland Show and Planet Sheen, The Casagrandes is an unnecessary spin-off IMO) and I don't have very high hopes for the movie, but I'll still see it to see if it subverts my expectations.

6.) The Simpsons[]

The Simpsons is on? Oh boy!

Wait, it's a new episode? Nevermind then...

Yeah, I'm really sorry to any modern fans, but The Simpsons just hasn't entertained me or made me laugh in several years like it used to. While there's definitely still a great episode here and there that blows me away by modern Simpsons standards, the show has definitely lost a majority of the charm that made it successful in the first place.

The plots aren't as interesting as they used to be and the humor is really lazy nowadays, with most of the same humor from past episodes being recycled. Most of the characters still keep their classic personalities though and haven't changed much, so kudos to the show for that. Although, Homer can be more of a jerk nowadays, but thankfully he's nowhere near as bad as modern Peter Griffin. Animation still looks good and has improved significantly over the years, so no complaints for that either.

There are also some modern episodes that try to push the envelope and become edgy like Family Guy or even South Park to the point where they contain more swearing and inappropriateness than needed, which just feels out of place and unneeded on a show like The Simpsons.

While I definitely wouldn't say I hate the modern episodes of The Simpsons, it's just that a moderate amount of them have become rather boring and lack the entertainment value of the old days. Though, if there's one episode I truly hate, it's "Lisa Goes Gaga". The bad reviews for that episode on IMDB speak for themselves. It started off magnificently, but I think now it's time to put the show to rest for it has gone one long enough (I think three and a half decades is long enough, thank you).

5.) Arthur[]

Arthur was one of those kid shows that not only kids, but older audiences could enjoy as well due to having everything a good kids show should have and lacking the fourth-wall breaking elements and cutesy crap that most toddler shows seem to rely on nowadays. And unlike most kid shows, it wasn't afraid to break the radar a bit and put in parental bonuses (tell me, does "The Bleep" really feel like an episode that would air on a toddler show?). It followed entertaining plots, had a unique set of characters who brought in their own style of humor, and relatable storylines that take the older audience back to when they were kids.

Unfortunately, all the perfection that once came of this show went down the drain once Season 16 rolled around and the series shifted to Flash animation, and GOOD GOD DOES IT LOOK HORRENDOUS. The brightly colored art direction and thick lines along with the stiff movements is excruciating to watch and the characters look like they suffer from arthritis. The lip syncs are also off most of the time.

Nothing much has changed of the show since it first aired, but the God awful animation is enough to bring the modern seasons down for me and a rare instance in cartoon history where that is the case.

4.) SpongeBob SquarePants[]

OOF!

Now this is an extremely tricky choice and an infamous one at that, but keep in mind that this is one of the most downplayed examples and I am only gonna tackle the bad seasons.

If you're reading this right now, then it's obvious that you've at least heard of SpongeBob even if you haven't watched it. But let's be real here: who HASN'T watched SpongeBob? It's an extremely iconic cartoon that took the world by storm when it first premiered and has developed a cult following ever since, spawning a huge franchise and a worldwide series of merchandise, theme park rides, promotions, you name it. Wherever you go, the little sponge just never seems to disappear and always finds his face in every children's attraction. Everyone considers the first three seasons to be pure comedy gold and the most gifted to ever grace television. It's usually agreed that the show started to go downhill after the first feature film The SpongeBob SquarePants was released in 2004 and series creator Stephen Hillenburg resigned from the show and Paul Tibbitt took his place as showrunner.

Well, I personally think it actually went downhill with season 6. That's when I truly started noticing a decline in quality. Compared to seasons 4 and 5, and Squid torture, character abuse portrayed as comedy, gross humor, and rip-off plots especially increased with terrible episodes like "Giant Squidward", "Boating Buddies", "Choir Boys", "Pet or Pests", and, my absolute least favorite, "The Splinter". They rely on character abuse too much by torturing Squidward and having SpongeBob and Patrick win at the end with no repercussions faced, and rely on overly gross humor like SpongeBob's thumb puking out pus or Squidward's foot being ripped apart in half by a couch leg and revealing blood. I really wish the writers would stop using this kind of humor because it's never funny unless done right (for gross humor at its best, see "The Battle of Bikini Bottom").

I think I'm pretty much done talking about the gross out. As for the character abuse, yeah, the newer seasons seem to have an obsession with torturing innocent characters while letting the ones who should have been punished off the hook. Now yes, Squid torture has always been prevalent in the series and has been used since season 1, but in those cases the writers actually knew what they were doing and it was funny because it was handled in funny ways, he usually deserved it for the most part for being a jerk, and SpongeBob and Patrick weren't aware of how intentional their annoyance to Squidward was. But in the newer seasons Squidward not only gets tortured in unfunny ways that he doesn't deserve in the slightest, but SpongeBob and Patrick now seem to be aware of what they're doing wrong. Great... That is really nice of our main characters to put someone who just wants to be left alone through such hell. Such examples include SpongeBob purposely sabotaging Squidward's chances at performing in the choir in "Choir Boys" and him making a dummy version of him that steals his dreams and talent in "Squid Wood." These instances just make me feel bad for Squidward and wish I could hug him. And then there's episodes like "A Pal for Gary" and "One Coarse Meal" where SpongeBob is oblivious to a monstrous nudibranch eating his pet snail Gary and placing the blame on him while defending the monster DESPITE IT EATING GARY RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM AND THEN HIM, and the latter in which Mr. Krabs dresses up as his daughter Pearl to purposely traumatize Plankton to the point of contemplating suicide. These episodes just prove how dark and cruel the show has became and unneeded drama is thrown in these episodes which really downplay the comedy aspect. I have never found myself laughing at SpongeBob's darkest hours.

By the way, nowadays characters are barely punished for their actions. Sure, that happened in pre-movie too, but it became more prominent in the later seasons. In episodes like "Hooky" and "Pranks a Lot", SpongeBob and Patrick would usually face some repercussion for all the damage they had caused, but not in the recent seasons; they seem to be going scot-free for their absentminded actions and instead the ones we pity take the blame for their behavior. A perfect example would be "One Coarse Meal", where Mr. Krabs faces no consequences whatsoever despite his vile attempts to get Plankton to kill himself. Others include "Shuffleboarding" where the real Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are at the receiving end of karma when SpongeBob and Patrick impersonated the heroes and arrested the whole town for small reasons, "Yours, Mine and Mine" where Patrick hogs a toy that he and SpongeBob were supposed to share, and "Pet Sitter Pat" where Patrick nearly kills Gary due to his stupidity yet falls asleep at the end as he is read a bedtime story by the latter.

Then we have our characters, who have all taken a change for the worse and are hardly recognizable from their original personalities that made SpongeBob the successful household name he is today. All of them have either become too dumb or to mean-spirited.

SpongeBob in particular used to be a joyful, cute, kindhearted, eccentric sea sponge who had not a single mean bone in his body and could even grow a spine at the most unexpected of moments and exhibit his intelligence despite not knowing how to drive a boat and get his license. Nowadays, SpongeBob has had his IQ reduced to -10 points and has become nearly as oblivious as Patrick. SpongeBob has become a complete airhead and a creepy, obsessive, sociopathic stalker to Squidward who literally cannot get a clue what "Leave me alone!" means. This is not the same kind-hearted joyful sea sponge that got me into the show in the first place. This is an insane stalker who needs to have a harassment lawsuit filed against him. In the episode "Boating Buddies," we're treated to a disturbing close-up of him heavily breathing while sitting next to Squidward... Even worse though, the entirety of "Squid's Visit" first involves SpongeBob crying for a whole minute in a desperate plea to get Squidward to come over to his house, and then SpongeBob decides to convert his pineapple into an exact replica of Squidward's house, getting every little detail right down to a hole in his wall. Then we have his stupidity, which he could rival his friend Patrick for. In earlier seasons SpongeBob was pretty naive and not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but he had a brain nonetheless and was the voice of reason to the even dumber Patrick. In newer seasons, he's become so oblivious that he can't even take a hint. In APfG he falsely accuses Gary of harassing Puffy Fluffy when in reality it is the other way around, and in "Gramma's Secret Recipe" he doesn't seem to realize that Plankton is impersonating his grandma to get the formula. Also he's become an annoying crybaby in the recent seasons who bawls over the drop of a hat. This is especially noticeable in "All That Glitters" and "A Day Without Tears" where SpongeBob's crying is used as a filler element.

Patrick was always stupid but it was done right and portrayed in a comedic aspect. The first three seasons no doubt gave us some of the most witty one-liners in cartoon history thanks to Patrick that have become internet memes just to show how great they are. But now, all the funniness in his stupidity has been sucked out and turned Patrick nothing more into a smug, oblivious, jerky airhead with no moral value who only makes things worse and brings many of his fatal predicaments onto himself. "Stuck in the Wringer" for example revolves around Patrick permanently gluing SpongeBob to his bathroom wringer and causing SpongeBob to be belittled by the Bottomite fish when it was really Patrick's fault. He's also joined SpongeBob in on his constant torment and stalking of Squidward which only makes his modern personality more detestable. He's also become hypocritical and contradicts himself minute by minute. In "Yours, Mine and Mine", he calls SpongeBob out for not knowing the meaning of sharing when he himself is hogging the toy, and in "Little Yellow Book" he later joins the town in pelting Squidward with tomatoes due to the latter reading SpongeBob's diary and revealing all his embarrassing secrets, even though Patrick himself earlier laughed at SpongeBob naming his spatula "Fifi" along with the others.

Sandy was once a Texan cowgirl who was into karate and exhibited many of her western traditions. Nowadays, she has become primarily interested in science experiments which only cause the town more bad than good and her past self has disintegrated, and only every so often do we get to see her Texan personality or love of karate.

But the worst modern character would without a doubt go to Mr. Krabs. Back in the old days, he was obsessed with money but wasn't greedy and knew that the green stuff isn't all that mattered, and his heart was in the right place at the end of the day and he acted as a father figure to SpongeBob. Nowadays, money is all he'll ever think about and base his life and actions around, putting it above his employees, family, and even himself! He has become a real cash cow who always concocts terrible ideas to raise the Krusty Krab's profits through the roof which always end up failing miserably. If you want to see him at his most greedy and obsessive though, see the episode "Penny Foolish." The entire episode revolves around Mr. Krabs witnessing SpongeBob pick up a penny that was stuck in the middle of the road and he goes NUTS over trying to get it from him by remodeling the Krusty Krab into a charity, establishing a movie theater for a movie whose admission only costs one penny only to demolish that waste of space afterward, and finally realizing that the penny was just a chewed-up piece of gum (stupid plot twist by the way) and that he wasted his time all for nothing. Then in "SpongeBob You're Fired" he fires SpongeBob ALL BECAUSE OF A NICKEL (....okay, as much as I'd hate to admit it, I...actually really like SBYF, but I for sure hated Mr. Krabs in this episode if that makes any of you haters feel better). He's also become much more of a callous jerk and less of a father figure to SpongeBob who's now just abusing his employees for profit. But his worst flanderized trait yet would HAVE to be how villainous he has become. He could ironically compete with Plankton (which has been brought up a few times in the show), who himself sometimes isn't even shown to be as bad as Krabs. I already explained the concept in my character abuse paragraph above, but seriously, just watch the episode "One Coarse Meal" in its entirety and you'll get exactly where I'm coming from.

The rest of the characters not mentioned have had little changes made and have at least remained true to their original forms, and I'm glad that there's more Plankton has been up to lately than just stealing the formula so kudos to the modern seasons for that. However, if there's anything that's become noticeable nowadays, it's that Squidward is now more of a likable character than he used to be. While he was funny with his cynical sarcastic humor and not that hard to root for in the pre-movie era, most of the times he deserved his torment as karma and was a lot meaner to SpongeBob and Patrick when the latter two didn't deserve it. When he got tortured in "Club SpongeBob," he deserved it because he badmouthed the Magic Conch shell and called SB and Pat out for praising a toy, and he only pretended to like it just so he could get something to eat, so this episode is Squid torture done right. Additionally, most of the time in the first three seasons SpongeBob and Patrick were just trying to be nice to Squidward and get him to play with them, which he always abrasively turned down, so it kind of gives them a reason to bother him whether intentional or not. However, in newer seasons Squidward's anger is now 100% understandable and nobody could blame him for having such disdain for SpongeBob and Patrick because they make his life a living hell by not only bothering him, but bringing him into situations that cause mayhem for the whole city and get him in trouble while they get off the hook, and stalk him as a way of showing their affection towards him. The more the show progresses, the more relatable Squidward becomes. However, I'll cut anyone who disagrees some slack: there ARE a few moments in the newer seasons where Squidward DOES go too far with his revenge towards SpongeBob and Patrick to the point where he is very unsympathetic, like in "Sportz?" where he nearly gets them killed and doesn't feel any remorse unlike in episodes like "Fools in April", and then "Little Yellow Book" where he reads SpongeBob's diary and makes him run off crying while reading his embarrassing secrets without feeling a shred of remorse for his heartless actions.

The plots still have a lot of potential going for them, but are executed lazily and add in terrible plot holes or filler just to drag the episode on too long with unnecessary gags. For instance the pacing of "You Don't Know Sponge" is just awful as it takes forever to get to the main point and wastes our time with a lousy beginning. But if that's not bad enough, a lot of the new episodes rip-off past ones as though the writers have lost their originality. These are just rehashes of previous episodes with some minor alterations thrown in to call it a new episode. For example, SpongeBob and Patrick babysitting an infantile version of Squidward in "Squid Baby" was just a dead ringer of the episode "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve". And "SpongeBob LongPants" is basically the season 9 equivalent to "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants" (underrated episode IMO).

However, if there's one thing I can give the new episodes credit on, it's the fact that the animation is still very fluid and has become smoother over the years, and the art direction is still beautiful and the sets are more detailed than ever, although I don't like the amount of disturbing close-ups thrown in the post-sequel era and how unappealing they look compared to their tolerable appearance in season 3, but at least they don't overuse them like seasons 6 or 7. The voice acting is also still stellar and hasn't changed one bit which is very impressive, although SpongeBob's voice has significantly become higher pitched which is slightly annoying and I wish it would go back to his laid-back voice in the first three seasons.

Here's how I would rank each season so far:

  • Season 1: Awesome. While the show hadn't quite developed its personality yet and SpongeBob was nowhere near as goofy or hyperactive as he is today, there's still a lot to like about this season with its mellow nature and atmospheric oozing. Also this season holds the distinction as the only one to use cel animation before shifting to computers in 2000s, and it's so unique that it's amazing how so much of it had changed later on and only become more beautiful. 9.5/10
  • Season 2: Now this is when the show started to become really good. It took a while but it eventually developed its integrity and its classic style of humor really started to kick in with many memorable quotes and gags, cutaways, and cultural references reminiscent of shows like The Simpsons and Rocko's Modern Life. Unfortunately though, the art work wasn't the best as the brightness or lack of fluctuated between episodes and SpongeBob looked incredibly pale, and we did have more than a few mean-spirited episodes, but other than that this season is a classic. 9.0/10
  • Season 3: YEAH NOW THIS IS WHERE IT'S AT BABY! Every time season 3 attempts to make a joke, it delivers. The humor in this season is so hilarious that it will have everybody rolling on the floor laughing with its witty subversions and memorable quote after quote. Everyone was really at the top of their game in this season and brought in their own unique style of humor defining their character. Compare this to season 1, which occasionally had a tendency to repeat jokes, and you'll notice that the humor in season 3 never gets tiresome or repetitive in any mood and always brings in new material in every episode that keeps you at the edge of your seat waiting for more. The animation has also become much smoother and vibrant and all the washed out colors seem to have majorly been improved on since the second season. There are no words to sum up the perfection of season 3 and it is truly a classic and a must-see for all. A SOLID 11/10!
  • Season 4: The first era without Stephen Hillenburg and where Paul Tibbitt took his place, this season will forever be known as the death of "Old" SpongeBob. Okay, I'm just going to say what needs to be said: STOP HATING ON SEASON 4 JUST BECAUSE OF NEW WRITERS! Yes, the show may no longer have the charm that it had when Stephen was still working, but does that automatically make it bad? No, so no reason to jump on the bandwagon without seeing an episode first. Anyways, rant aside, this season was actually really good and continued to have the charm that the previous two seasons had with fun original plots, interesting character dynamics, and witty humor that does a good job at getting the audience's attention. It was also one of the first times where the show proved that comedy isn't what it's all about with the amazing "Have You Seen This Snail?", so kudos to the writers for bringing in new ideas. While SpongeBob has reverted back to his pale season 2 design in the first few episodes for some reason and is somewhat smaller, I can forgive it because it sort of brings in nostalgia and the animation itself is very fluid. Despite a few stinkers, season 4 brought in a lot of entertainment value and appreciative things that compare to the golden days. 8.0/10
  • Season 5: Truly amazing and some of the most original and complex plots in the series, but more of a mixed bag to me. There's some really great episodes like "Friend or Foe", "The Inmates of Summer", "The Krusty Plate", "BlackJack", and "Le Big Switch", and some really terrible episodes like "Atlantis SquarePantis", "A Flea in Her Dome", "Fungus Among Us", "To Love a Patty", and "Waiting." Also has very good humor but could do better here and there. Bottom line, a good season, but nowhere near a masterpiece. 8.0/10
  • Season 6: Oh no, not THIS season. This is probably the first season of SpongeBob I truly hated. It brought in just about everything that many post-movie haters have been actively complaining about and cranked those traits beyond acceptable limits, what with the increasing level of disturbing gross-out humor, lazy writing, jerk characters, and worst of all TEDIOUS amounts of filler with annoying and dumb scenes that drag on for too long and make me want to hit the mute button. Now there are a few saving graces every now and then like "Krusty Krushers", "The Card", "Ditchin'", "Suction Cup Symphony", "Single Cell Anniversary", "Chum Caverns", and "The Slumber Party", but the trash like "The Splinter", "Gone", "Penny Foolish", "Slide Whistle Stooges", "Giant Squidward", "Squid's Visit", and "The Clash of Triton" brings down the blessings. 3.0/10
  • Season 7: OH MY GO-NOOOOOO! Not this abomination! It took all the bad things I mentioned being introduced in season 6 and made them 10x worse. But also the show reached its darkest hour by portraying animal abuse and suicide which made me ashamed of the writers for even thinking such disturbing elements belong in a show like SpongeBob. Even the good episodes like "Enchanted Tiki Dreams" and "I Heart Dancing" weren't enough to save this horrible nightmare. 1.0/10
  • Season 8: Meh. Thankfully nowhere near as horrendous as the previous season but nothing too noteworthy here either. Has a few great ones like "Drive Thru" "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!", and "Hello Bikini Bottom!", but other than that everything else is either mediocre or bad. 5.5/10
  • Season 9: Started off poorly, but made major improvement by 9B when Stephen returned to the show and the show got back to what it once was and introduced a beautiful style of animation. 10/10
  • Season 10: Mixed bag, some amazing episodes but a moderate amount of mediocre or bad ones. 6.5/10
  • Season 11: Pretty amazing season, but stay away from "Ink Lemonade". Animation is great in this season and everyone is more in character. 9.0/10
  • Season 12: Cannot rate until every episode airs and I have seen them all.

Believe me, I do stand by everything I say when I say that this is the most downplayed example on my list, because SpongeBob is my favorite cartoon of all-time, but the seasonal rot era was unfortunately enough to land it a spot this high on the list. While SpongeBob SquarePants will forever go down in history as a classic and is a marvelous cartoon altogether and I'll be saddened beyond belief when it ends, there's no denying that it went downhill at one point like all long runners, but at least it manages to get back on its feet after every knockdown.

3.) Johnny Test[]

Now you're probably wondering why such a despised cartoon would even have a place on this list if most people agree that it was awful from the start. Well, that's because, believe it or not, season 1 actually wasn't that bad. The animation format wasn't generated in Flash which made it look like it had a lot of effort put into it and was much smoother in comparison to the later seasons. Johnny, while a bit smug, was definitely a respectable kid with a good heart at the end of the day. The plots were also pretty good and the writing was decent. However by the second season everything just seemed to go down the train and turned JT into this unwatchable horrid mess.

For one thing, the animation is now Flash which looks horrible and the characters move in such a stiff way and the lip syncs are off. The character designs look absolutely hideous and nothing like the laid back art work in season 1.

And now the characters have all taken a turn for the worse. Johnny himself is now a narcissistic, selfish, arrogant, manipulative jerk with a tendency to blackmail people into doing things for him. He does nothing that makes me respect him and cares about nobody but himself.

Dukey is just a failed comic relief who is really unnecessary to have if Johnny is just going to take his words for granted, but at least he has some sanity unlike the other characters.

The sisters are just annoying and constantly obsess over Gil in such a monotonous way.

The villains are bumbling and pathetic and fail miserably at all their attempts to capture Johnny and take over Porkbelly, and deliver some of the lamest puns.

Humor is another category where this show falls apart drastically. It pulls off some of the lamest attempts at comedy in animation history with cheesy puns and repetitive gags that are painfully unfunny, and uses the same tired humor in every episode that doesn't work out for kids at all. And they even throw in some pathetic potty humor every now and then. Real mature Canada....

But the most irritating thing about this show that takes the cake is the repetition of the plots: Johnny wants something, his parents parents say no, he used blackmail and manipulation to get his way, he breaks into his sisters lab and messes with their inventions, the city goes mad, Johnny saves the day and learns his lesson. Rinse, recycle, repeat. Once you've seen one episode of Johnny Test, you've seen them all. The show is so repetitive and they recycle pretty much every basic formula from past episodes such as plots, animation, and worst of all, that *CRACK* damn *CRACK* whipcrack *CRACK* sound *CRACK* effect. Seriously, I'm not kidding. The show uses that annoying sound effect at practically every character movement and there are about 100 usages in every episode.

I'm just going to end this one on a short note because the less further said about Johnny Test's flaws, the better. Thankfully, the show was finally given the ax in 2014, but.....


THEY REVIVED IT THIS YEAR!!! 😡 And good Lord the animation now looks 100x worse than it did on TV. So unbearable.

2.) The Fairly OddParents[]

Butch Hartman, how could you?! The FOP was once a show that was at the top of its game with its creative stories and premise, excellent lineup of characters, and witty humor found at every pace, but those aspects started to get BUTCHered (tee-hee see what I did there? 😋) by season 6 when they introduced baby Poof to the main cast. As cute as I found him, was it really necessary to introduce a baby who can only say his name to the cast? I don't think so, because he really only exists to be cute and say his name. Things only got worse when dog Sparky was introduced and just decided to add more filler to the show with his annoyance. But of course, the atrocity of the FOP peaked when they added that obnoxious waste of animation known as Chloe to the cast. STOP WITH ALL THE ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS WRITERS! YOU'RE ONLY MAKING THE SHOW WORSE!

The plots are now unoriginal and predictable and even have the nerve to recycle the storylines of classic and better episodes. Fairy OddPet was probably the most generic special ever: Timmy wants a dog because everyone in town a pet except him. Haven't we seen that idea like a million times already? Also most modern episodes focus too much on Poof and put the other characters into the background. Those episodes are a waste of time because Poof is just a baby and contributes nothing to these episodes other than to be cute and say his name.

Characters have also gone downhill. Timmy may have been a brat and a bit demanding and jerky in the older seasons, but he had a heart of gold that brought down any of his bad aspects because he loved his friends and family and always sacrificed his life to save them. Nowadays Timmy is so whiny and a demanding jerk who abuses his fairies for magic even in the most unwarranted of situations where more important things are going on, and always complains about how miserable his life is and how he doesn't have everything he wants rather than counting his blessings. Cosmo was a dimwit from the beginning but had a sharp edge of maturity he exhibited when the time called for it, but now he's just annoyingly unfunny and lacks the comedic value he had in the past. Wanda was once the voice of reason who tried to incorporate heart into Timmy at the end of the day, but now she's just a stuck-up snobbish know-it-all. Timmy's parents went from loving their son to not giving a crap about him and abandoning him in the most fatal of their predicaments because they're so stupid. The villains are now annoying and idiotic to the point where they have reached the level of the pathetic ones in Johnny Test, and lastly Sparky....the less we say about him the better, but I'm glad Nick booted him off the show after negative reception.

Then there's the humor which barely gets the chance to shine because it's buried under all the drama and argumentative characters, but whatever few jokes they use nowadays are really cheesy and lack the charm that the past seasons had.

FOP was once a great show with breathtaking levels of creativity and wit, but all that greatness went down the hill once Poof was introduced and I'm glad the series ended in 2017. While there may be a good modern episode here and there, it was really for the best to put the FOP to a rest so it wouldn't continue to tank.


Now, for the moment we've all been waiting for. I bring you guys the worst offender in terms of a show that has gone downhill.......






1.) Family Guy[]

Seth MacFarlane, may I have a word with you? What have you DONE to this once marvelous masterpiece of a cartoon?!! Oh how the mighty have fallen. You were once a comedic genius, but now a former shell of your glory who's only in it for the money nowadays.

Love it or hate it, Family Guy is a show that impressed many when it first premiered with its boundary-pushing humor and jabs at pop culture and everyone was talking about it. It bears more than a few similarities to The Simpsons, but the show still has its own identity and sense of humor. There's no denying that FG is one of the most influential cartoons of all time that has inspired many other great cartoons like American Dad! and Bob's Burgers and is truly a classic to behold.

However, once Season 7 rolled around the show has severely lost all of its past charisma and just isn't the same anymore (and yes it did have a few bad episodes prior too). That's when I noticed the writers became too political and basically gave up on making the humor tolerable and overall they've gone too far with everything. Let's talk about the characters first:

Peter was once the wacky and idiotic father who made us laugh out loud with all his silly antics and goofy situations he got into. He was a kindhearted man who actually cared about the family and went out of his way to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. Sure, he could be a jerk and got too caught up in his zany schemes, but he always came to realize the error in his ways whenever something went to his head. Nowadays, Peter is just an unlikable and annoying jerk who doesn't care about his family and goes as far as to mentally AND physically abuse his daughter Meg just because he thinks it's funny. He always takes whatever advice his family may give him for granted and gets himself into risky situations he knows will kill him but is too stupid to care. He's also become much cruder and crass in the later seasons as he does the most morally unacceptable of things like try to marry his son Chris in "Fresh Heir". Just what is up with the writers who decide to make Pete push this much boundaries beyond acceptable limits in the later seasons?

Lois was once the loving and caring housewife who acted as the voice of reason to her husband. While still maintaining that role to Peter in the later seasons, it makes her look like a hypocrite because she herself has stooped to lows that make her look almost as bad as her husband, since joining in the rest of the family with their abuse towards Meg, which is especially shocking because she was much more motherly to her in older seasons and protecting her from bullies who outcast her. She's become an intolerable soapbox who pushes her political agendas too much and not only that, but she's also become just as negligent to the family as Peter. She goes as far as to kick her whole family out of the house in "Throw It Away" because they don't bring her joy or happiness anymore, which goes to show how much of an uncaring parent she is nowadays. Her family is the only thing that can make her realize everything will be okay at the end of the day and the very people she puts a roof over and feeds, and this is how she treats them in the modern seasons?

Chris was once the geeky, unpopular kid at school who just wanted to fit in and had a pretty likable personality based on that and provided more than a few laughs with his random outbursts and exclamations being thrown in as well as whatever funny situation he catapulted himself into and the running gag with his Evil Monkey in his closet as well as his interactions with his creepy neighbor. Now in the recent seasons he's just a cynical mouthpiece with unnecessary boats of anger who tries to be the voice of reason but comes off aggressive and doesn't deliver the moral as good as he did in the earlier seasons. "Trading Places" was a great example of how unnecessarily angrier he gets as the show goes on. Plus he can get a little grosser than usual and is more of an abusive younger sibling to Meg rather than a playful one.

Meg was once the insecure unpopular girl at her school who tried everything to be accepted but was vehemently rejected by the universe and really only had her family on her side. But nowadays she's been flanderized into a bratty overreacting teenage girl who has mental health problems that she needs to forwards to professionals. However to be fair it definitely isn't that hard to pity her based on the amount of abuse she receives from her family nowadays and the world in general. I also give her credit for at least making a point whenever she tries to be the voice of reason in her family, but whenever she stands up for herself she takes her anger too far like in "Dial Meg for Murder".

Stewie was once an evil baby obsessed with world domination and killing Lois, and he brought entertaining antics with each evil scheme he delivered. Not only that but he was a funny character altogether what with his precociousness and dynamic with Brian whom was the only one of the family who could normally understand him. Now Stewie is nowhere near as evil as he used to be and has been turned into a living embodiment of gay stereotypes with his flamboyant and feminine characteristic and it really is an insult to LGBT people like myself with how stereotyped to the max he becomes in later seasons with his sexuality issues. Seth makes them look bad by having Stewie live up to every false gay stereotype in the book and only being used for this kind of homophobic humor. While he can still be funny every now and then when he sets his mind to it, Stewie just hasn't gotten a laugh from me for a while and has become too obsessed with time traveling or Brian. Speaking of that, it's really disturbing how they try to imply a gay relationship between Stewie and Brian. Even if Brian is anthropomorphic, that is still wrong on many levels trying to get some ship tease in on a baby and a dog relationship. I just wish Stewie would go back to his world dominative ways and not be used for gay stereotype jokes or Brian plots that get overused. Although, as with Meg, I gotta give him credit for at least being a believable voice of reason whenever his family turns into idiots, but they all ignore Stewie because he's just a baby which is really stupid considering how many years it has been.

Brian is probably the worst change in character this show has ever made though. He was once a funny and witty dog who excelled at dry humor and brought out the good in Peter and Stewie whenever their unrealistic goals went to their heads, by giving them important advice that would help them in the long run. Nowadays, Brian is nothing more than an arrogant soapbox with a drinking problem who just serves as a political platform for Seth to voice such opinions through his voice work. He's a hypocrite who puts down everyone and their beliefs in favor of his, having no support for tolerance and just trying to get unnecessary campaigns active. This is evident in the episode "Excellence in Broadcast", where Brian meets Rush Limbaugh and spends the rest of his episode just voicing his political views with all the humor and substance abandoned. Then there's the episode "Brian Writes a Bestseller" where Brian is upset that his writing skills are terrible, so he hires Stewie to be his new manager and help him on improving, which proves to be a success as he writes a new book which turns out to be a best seller. Now the problems really start to kick in when fame goes to Brian's head and he treats everyone as though they are inferior to him, even firing Stewie after the latter actually tried helping him, which there are not enough words to express how disrespectful that was. It certainly didn't help that he didn't apologize to him at the end either. Lastly, there's his issues with women that's recurring throughout the series. Episodes like "Brian's Got a Brand New Bag", "We Love You Conrad!", and "The Old Adventures of New Tom" show that Brian is a sexist scumbag who only cares about women for their looks and doesn't care about their unlikable personalities as long as he has someone to spend the night out with and is even willing to cheat on his loyal partners, showing he has terrible judgement. The episode "Be Careful What You Fish For" even has Brian neglect Stewie to date his daycare teacher, further illustrating how much of an unlikable jerk he's become.

The plots aren't as good as they once were and a majority of them either center around Peter's selfishness and terrible ideas, Meg's torture, Stewie's sexual identity issues, or just serve as a blatant waste filler for Seth to spew his political views like in "Excellence in Broadcasting", "420", "Dog Gone", "Brian Writes a Bestseller", and "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven". Seth, enough with this political stuff! It's not entertaining and totally contradicts the comedy aspect that Family Guy is supposed to capture. If you want to express your political opinions, then make a blog or something, anything but incorporating this junk into your show. The episode "Brian Writes a Bestseller" especially took the cake because it contained a God-knows-how-long live action appearance with Brian on a talk show talking about his latest novel success and it was painful to sit through. Also a majority of the time when the characters have made jerk moves they don't ever get what's coming to them or apologize, showing how cynical the show has become later on. And some of these plots just go beyond acceptable limits. The existence of "Fresh Heir" speaks for itself... (Ugh, why do I even have to bother bringing that episode up?)

The humor has also fallen apart drastically and is not as clever as it once was. For one, they go too overboard now with pushing the envelope and taking jabs at minorities which is actually repulsive. Family Guy did that in the older seasons too, but with a good heart and done in an entertaining way, but the overall butchered quality of the newer seasons make me overlook whatever heart may be put into these new "jokes." And of course we have the cutaway gags, which have lost the charm they had in the earlier seasons. The older seasons also used cutaways frequently, but only when we expected them and they knew when to give them a break. Nowadays, the show relies on cutaway gags pretty much every 30 freakin' seconds and it becomes insufferably repetitive. For how often these cutaways are used nowadays, they're not funny anymore and make no sense whatsoever, recycle jokes from the past episodes, or go beyond the limit and offend me.

While I would say the show has improved in its most recent years and I still enjoy watching the new episodes, maybe Family Guy was something that should have remained in cancelation rather than brought back considering the amount of increasingly awful episodes and boundary-pushing moments of the post-cancelation seasons. While I'll definitely miss it when it's gone, I can't say I'll be too sad when Family Guy is over because it's gone to waste since 2008 with the exceptional good episode here and there.

That's all for today folks! Hope you enjoyed reading and feel free to express your thoughts in the comments! 😀 Oh wow, I typed so much into this blog? Well, all that energy was definitely worth it! XD

 EmilyHReturns (MCBE)  07:56, May 18, 2020 (UTC) 

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