SQUID'S DISEASE.
Squiditis[]
WELCOME BACK TO ANOTHER EPISODE OF THIS REVIEW SERIES. TODAY WE WILL BE REVIEWING YET AGAIN ANOTHER MEH EPISODE.
This episode essentially takes that one scene from The Splinter where Squidward hurts himself in order to send himself home, but stretched out into an entire episode. Though, I do enjoy how this episode opens up with Squidward wanting to be at a field outside, but instead he has to be at the Krusty Krab. It's a good way to showcase Squidward's want to get out of the Krusty Krab as he's been forced to work there his entire life and hasn't gotten a break. However, afterwards, this episode's script starts to become bland. Squidward's "disease" is barely well-thought out and it seems as though the writers came up with it in just a few seconds. Yeah, I get it's a fake disease and fake diseases generally are made up out of the blue, but considering the symptoms are literally just regular illnesses that don't last long, this "disease" doesn't have any of the creativity that other previous diseases in the show such as the Mad Snail Disease does. For a positive, even if this episode's plot is entirely based off one scene from The Splinter, I think that was a pretty decent callback to that episode, and this episode kind of acts as the complete opposite of that episode. As in, this episode involves Squidward trying to get out of the Krusty Krab, while this episode has SpongeBob trying to stay at the Krusty Krab. This does make the concept a bit more memorable and original despite the uninteresting execution. Anyways, the name of the disease is "Squid's disease," which once again is such a bland and unmemorable name which barely describes the actual disease itself, because it can "pass off" to creatures such as the sponge or the crab. Why didn't Squidward just call it Squiditis? You know, the episode TITLE? Seriously, that was a much cooler and creative name than freaking "squid's disease," and whenever I recall this episode, I always refer the disease as Squiditis until I watch the episode to find out it's not called that. This isn't a major con but considering there's no excuse for the episode being bland, I have to remove points.
SpongeBob tells Squidward that he should go home until he recovers, so Squidward "breaks the news" to Mr. Krabs. Krabs does a health inspection or whatever on Squidward and yeah, I majorly have no opinion on this scene because it's just a plot progression sequence. I am very neutral towards the "MR. KRABS NOTHING!" joke, the one that comes from this sequence. The joke could've worked as some really great anti-humor had there been a few more "MR. KRABS NOTHINGs" to the joke, so that the fact that it goes on for so long would make it funny. However, the joke only repeats this three times, which is too few to work as anti-humor. I still find the joke a little amusing because like I said, even if it doesn't work perfectly as anti-humor, it's still a pretty clever repetition joke, I just wished it went on a little longer because that would enhance the fact that Mr. Krabs is just repeating the same response. Anyways, after that, Squidward starts working as usual, but SpongeBob starts to act differently around Squidward due to his "sickness," as in he wears a mask. Honestly, I have no opinion on the next minute or so except their so predictable they make me sleep. There's no twists or turns, the episode just decides to send Squidward home and drags out the sequence to bore me infinitely. I would be fine if the episode gave a humorous touch, but there are barely ANY jokes and is so ordinary and just-there I'm really surprised the director of this episode approved of the script, because it's so bland.
The rest of the episode is just as predictable and ordinary as what I've covered so far. SpongeBob starts feeling the symptoms and tries different methods of "curing himself." Despite the semi-good slapstick with the fact that every time SpongeBob tries something, it's always some extremely hot substance, and thankfully the episode doesn't repeat this joke so much that it becomes annoying. However, the episode still goes in a very obvious and predictable direction. SpongeBob constantly fails to cure himself and gets sent home, SpongeBob starts annoying Squidward causing him to want to get away from his home. I predicted this the scene SpongeBob thought he had Squid's disease and guess what, I'm completely correct! Yeah, I'll admit the jokes the episode tells during the second half are pretty solid, for example, SpongeBob and Squidward watching romantic comedies, which is a very weird thing for something Squidward and SpongeBob together should be watching, and I also loved the twist where it turns out that specific comedy have a ton of sequels, which also humorously gives off the plot point that because SpongeBob went back home sick, Squidward is still annoyed. There's also Mr. Krabs failure horribly at his job and the customers having their patties in anywhere but the plate, and the good visuals of the Krabby Patty sauce and simply the good exaggeration makes these jokes work. Of course, Mr. Krabs failing to deal with the Krusty Krab is very predictable and rips off MANY MANY episodes, but that joke almost redeems it.
This is the perfect definition of average. Yeah I guess you can refer to a lot of episodes like that. However, never have I seen an episode so predictable and bland ever. This isn't even a horrible type of bland: the episode just does nothing for my enjoyment and the writers seemed to just write whatever first came in their minds while writing it. This episode isn't all negatives of course, which is why this episode doesn't get a below average rating, but if this episode didn't exist, nobody in the existence of anything would remember this.
Episode Rating: Meh (5.5/10)
Demolition Doofus[]
There's been quite a few "infamous" episodes this season that actually managed to get me to hate them. However, THIS is not one of them, but instead is more in line with Pet Sitter Pat. This is obviously no One Coarse Meal or The Splinter, but hey, it tries with the writing!
This episode starts off like most boating school episodes: SpongeBob goes to take his drivers test, and fails. However, I really enjoy how unpredictable the result of the test is. While most tests would just result in a simple crash, this episode goes further and has SpongeBob's boat literally float in the air because of Mrs. Puff puffing so hard, leading to them crashing into the lighthouse. That was a very creative way to showcase the boating test once again, and also really cleverly makes Mrs. Puff's puffness go away, as the explosion must have caused something inside of her to get damaged as she was extremely puffed up during that scene. At the hospital, Mrs. Puff is revealed to have lost her puffness, while SpongeBob, being the mindless person he is, doesn't seem to realize the extent of this issue. Honestly, even if SpongeBob does act a bit rude to Mrs. Puff's situation, it's justified by the fact that this episode main characterizes SpongeBob like this throughout the entire thing, rather than just having him act this way during one scene for a joke. SpongeBob's characterization here isn't bad at all anyways. Sure, he is oblivious to the intensity of the situation, but he still cares about Mrs. Puff enough to check up on her at times, which fits his general characterization in the show. Also, the actual concept of Mrs. Puff losing her inflation is GENIUS. Mrs. Puff is a pufferfish, of course, so the fact that the episode utilizes this logic for an episode makes the concept more clever that what the setup already created. This episode's beginning promises that this is going to be a good one.
The next two minutes is simple plot progression until the demolition derby scene, how the episode creatively shows the characters how the demolition derby is a dangerous sport through this small sequence of characters smashing and banging into each other in dangerous ways. After this, we get the main reason people hate this episode: that Mrs. Puff wants to kill SpongeBob by sending him to the demolition derby. And may I ask why this is unreasonable? SpongeBob made Puff lose her INFLATION, not to mention in the past 8 seasons he has caused him severe misery. SpongeBob always causes Mrs. Puff to either go insane or get hurt, so at this point wanting to kill him actually seems pretty reasonable. Of course, KILLING someone does seem like a pretty big exaggeration, but I think this exaggeration really showed how Mrs. Puff really isn't kidding when she says she wants to kill SpongeBob. If Mrs. Puff didn't want to specifically kill SpongeBob with the demolition derby, this episode would just be stuck at the hospital for 11 minutes, and that's not a good way to spend a plot.
Mrs. Puff goes to Captain Lutefisk so that she can get SpongeBob in the derby, and obviously, he gets in. The main joke I liked here was where Lutefisk decides SpongeBob needs a "scary" identity, but puts on a sock on his head of all things, which is the complete opposite of scary. Otherwise, this is simply another plot progression scene (damn season 8, give me more than just plot progression!) The demolition derby starts, and honestly, starting here, this episode becomes AMAZING. Before hand, yeah I enjoyed the plot, but it barely scratched an ok. But here, this episode really shows off how great its slapstick can be as the ways The Squish (SpongeBob) causes much bigger competitors to crash are very unpredictable and wacky. While SpongeBob being able to defeat everyone could cause the episode to become predictable, thankfully there's SpongeBob's good obliviousness to what's actually going around and the unpredictability once again where it really seems as though SpongeBob's going to get defeated, but SpongeBob does something that somehow prevents him from getting hurt. Examples being the Cackling Cruiser smashing The Squish's car into the wall only for it to bounce back to his boat, SpongeBob causing all his competitors to smash into a random boat that happened to be on the track, SpongeBob's boat smashing into a guy's face, etc. Like I said, these jokes are unpredictable, but that's mainly because their all perfectly timed within each other where each character receives the physical damage done to them at just the right moments and the comedy keeps on going and going, making the entire sequence a real joy. Throughout this entire scene, Mrs. Puff constantly makes comments about how SpongeBob isn't getting killed, which also gives some irony as the complete opposite of what Mrs. Puff wanted occured. Plus, the quotes she makes are surprisingly memorable, either through her good expression of her lines or the simple creative that's put into them. Examples include "Why... are you still... ALIVE?!" which is a really good way to showcase her anger at the fact that SpongeBob is still in the game, and also leads to a hilarious misunderstanding by SpongeBob where he thinks she said "Put it in drive," which made for a clever rhyme. Another clever line is when Mrs. Puff says "Squash the squish" which was a genius way of utilizing similar words to emphasize Mrs. Puff's points. Eventually, Mrs. Puff decides to try and kill The Squish herself and gets a big boat to do so. A lot of people say this is too extreme of SpongeBob but keep in mind, not only has SpongeBob tortured her indirectly a lot, but seeing him not dying obviously makes her more and more anxious. This sequence continues being witty and crazy until eventually Mrs. Puff crashes her boat into her boating school. One thing I don't understand is how Mrs. Puff got her puff again, because as stated earlier in the episode, her inflation was supposedly "gone forever." It is one minor con that doesn't bring down the demolition derby scene one bit.
And yeah, the demolition derby is what really makes this episode. The first half of the episode establishes the episode well but isn't that memorable outside of that, while the second half with the derby is so wacky and fun I forget about trying to critique and simply want to enjoy the fun. Easily an underrated episode.
Episode Rating: Solid (7.5/10)