SpongeBob - "SpongeGuard on Duty"

Here's my favorite SpongeBob episode from the third season. Before I begin, let me give a little background. This episode along with The Algae's Always Greener aired on March 22, 2002, the same day ChalkZone premiered, as well as the new episode of The Fairly OddParents at the time, "Action Packed/Smarty Pants." Now, with that out of the way, let's begin the review.

While at the beach with Patrick, SpongeBob says Larry the Lobster as a lifeguard, who gets all the attention, wooing the ladies, talking to the surfer dudes (one of them voiced by Carlos Alazraqui), as well as banishing the old people of Bikini Bottom from Goo Lagoon for some odd reason. SpongeBob wants to be a lifeguard like Larry, but Patrick on the other hand thinks that lifeguards are a nuisance. He decides to go to the snack bar to control his anger. After a flying ice cream truck accident, Larry mistakes the white ice cream sticking to SpongeBob as lifeguard material. He compliments him on the looks and let's him be the assistant lifeguard. However, when Larry leaves SpongeBob in charge of the beach, SpongeBob quickly learns that being a lifeguard is a huge responsibility, like saving people from drowning, and the problem is SpongeBob can't swim. How will he handle doing this by himself. Go find out.

This is a clever plot. A person who wants to be lifeguard like Larry the Lobster, a wannabe if you will. I will say that SpongeBob's over-protection is a bit out of hand if you ask me. Going so far as to say "Uh, somebody went," disgusting the citizens and Scooter says "It's a lagoon, dude," even going WAY to far as to tie up everyone in do not cross taping! It's not out of character, but it's too much protection. I kind of like how Patrick stops in the middle of the water and hits butt twirls and makes him flinch in pain shouting "CRAMP!" Also, the weird thing is that the water was only two feet deep, since we saw Larry pick up SpongeBob and Patrick from being over the top while "drowning."

So, bottom line, this story is quite silly, in a good way. I especially like some of Larry's lines like "Gnarly, dudes!" and one fish saying "That's the last time I read and swim." I even like Larry beating the fish up to help him breath. That lobster is quite a hero.

All I can say if you can't swim, all I can say is that practice makes perfect.

And Patrick still doesn't have any ice cream.