SpongeBob - Mermaidman and Barnacleboy 5

On SpongeBob, there were a few episodes that centered around SpongeBob and Patrick's interactions with their favorite semi-retired superheroes, Mermaidman and Barnacleboy. Probably the best episode was "Mermaidman and Barnacleboy 5."

This episode starts off with a crime, the crime of hour-long waiting lines! Oh, to be stuck behind someone who had tons of time to make up their mind but can't decide now that they're at the front. As it turns out, Barnacleboy is fed up with being treated like a child, and when the other characters proceed to make fun of him, he decides to join the dark side, literally. Because Mr. Krabs said, "Why should I waste money lighting the whole store?" Soon enough, Barnacle-Man is committing crimes with two of Bikini Bottom's biggest criminals, Man Ray and the Dirty Bubble. Their crimes range from things like shooting lasers, robbing banks to, brace yourselves, everybody, ding-dong ditching!

Desperate, and out of options, SpongeBob and his friends, Patrick, Sandy, and Squidward decide to help Mermaidman his pursuit against EVIL. That is, after they dawn their appropriate superhero costumes. After a clever montage of them acquiring their powers, they learn of the location of the baddies, Make-Out Reef. They quickly go to the scene of the crime. At first, it looks like the odds are stacked up against them, that is, until their mediocrity starts to show. The villains declare victory and Barnacle-Man gives his final demands.

His first demand is he wants to be treated like a superhero, not a sidekick, number two, he wants to be called Barnacle-Man, and number three, he just wants an adult-sized Krabby Patty. Yep, Barnacleboy decides to give in to his own instincts and go back to being a superhero, and Mermaidman decides to call him Barnacle-Man. The episode ends with Barnacle-Man enjoying his adult-sized Krabby Patty and everyone having a good laugh. This episode is a great example of what makes for good humor. Constantly coming at you with great quality, this episode will start you off laughing and will not stop until it's over. It's especially funny to see the contrast personalities between Mermaidman and Barnacleboy and to see all the superhero tropes parodied. It was hard for me to find a highlight, but I decided to pick two. One, where we see what SpongeBob and the other characters alter egos are, and the IJLSA defeating themselves in a comedic fashion, but other than that, there are just too many. But in my opinion, Squidward was and will always be........

Captain Magma! Get him angry and he's bound to erupt!

SpongeBob - "Krusty Krab Training Video"

One of the best qualities of a show is immersion, meaning deep mental involvement. You'll always know a show is good if they can get you immersed and make you believe this is all really happening. with the Krusty Krab Training Video, the show goes for the jugular and gives us the instructional video explaining how to work at the Krusty Krab.

There's really not much to say about this episode, but one thing I should mention is that this episode does a brilliant job of mocking the stereotypical instructional video. It shows the good worker in relation to the bad worker, gives history behind the establishment, shows all the necessary steps in the work shift, and so on. It even goes so far as to have a well-spoken narrator.

As stated with Clams, when the series wants to satirize something, it did so very well. It did a good job being both a parody and a very popular episode. We as kids believed even more that these characters and environments were real, immersing us even further in the magic of the show. And even though we're older, thinking that way while watching this episode still makes it all the more fun, and captures that warm feeling we felt in ourselves when we were young.

The highlight of the episode has to be the Hoopla gag and SpongeBob being smashed in the face by a spatula.

So, in conclusion, I would like all of you newcomers out there to give this episode a shot if you haven't already.

SpongeBob - "I Had an Accident"

Now, if you thought Born Again Krabs was not good enough for you to like the episode, than this episode from the middle of the third season of SpongeBob is for you. C.H. Greenblatt at his finest here, folks.

Let's go into the story, uh?

It starts off with Patrick dying (in a video game that is, and says "D'oh! I got dead again, this game stinks.) Wait, not really, well, good thing he's gonna be okay. (he crashes into a mountain) I guess not. Anyway, this episode has SpongeBob getting into a bad accident while sand-boarding with Sandy and Patrick. His doctor tells him that if he gets another injury, he could end up being crippled for life, in the iron butt. SpongeBob, now overly paranoid is scared to death that he's going to be disabled if if he goes outside, so he becomes a hermit to avoid outdoor content, much to the disappointment of his friends.

Anyways, they try multiple ways of convincing SpongeBob that the outdoor world is worth risking your safety including ice cream, games, and washing an old person, but however, none of it works and they try to convince SpongeBob that they need his help when a gorilla attacks. SpongeBob knows that they're faking it at first, but then a real gorilla arrives and attacks! SpongeBob fianlly gives in and gets the courage to try and do something good, good for him, but it fails, however, one could argue that he did save his friends because he causes him to question about a gorilla being underwater, but I think a better question is how do they know what a gorilla looks like.

Also, for some reason, the gorilla becomes anthropomorphic and says "Oh, well, uh, that's funny you should, I mean, you see-uh, George, they're onto us!" And he and George the horse ride off into the sunset. Weird ending aside, this episode was very funny, it was quite enjoyable seeing SpongeBob's antisocial habit get put to the fullest, antisocial means not wanting to do with the outside world, and see Patrick and Sandy react according to their characters. Squidward's minor appearances were well-timed and funny too.

The highlight of the episode is of course the weird ending.

SpongeBob - "Prehibernation Week!" Review

Now, let's review my favorite second season episode, "Prehibernation Week!" For those who don't remember, this episode came on a while after The Fairly OddParents first premiered, and when the Fairly OddParents were airing new episodes around that time, Stephen Hillenburg and his crew had to take a break for a while after doing Shanghaied and Gary Takes a Bath. Luckily in May 2001, they went back to work with this episode. Now, let's begin the EXTREME!

The plot is that Sandy is preparing for hibernation, which is strange because in airing order, this came on after Survival of the Idiots, but that's another story. And with the hibernation only a week ahead, For the next seven days, SpongeBob and Sandy do a lot of stop that is EXTREME! Like sand-boarding, catapulting out of bed, EXTREME jacks, giant ear cleaners on the sea needle, a bike ride through the industrial park, and finally, finding the hay in the needle-stack! These thrill seekers are really EXTREME TO THE MAX! Until SpongeBob gets so exhausted and sick of all this that he decides to hide from Sandy in, where else? Under Patrick's rock.

I did feel bad for SpongeBob in this one because he's just SO forced into doing these things that are so EXTREME before Sandy could go into hibernation, however, just because SpongeBob was dragged into all of this, doesn't mean that Sandy was out of character. Because, if I didn't know any better, being a thrill seeker is just what she does in her spare time, let's just say she's a Adrenaline junkie, look it up, Wikipedia that. Or to be more precise, she's more of a novelty seeker who is so EXTREME! Even going so EXTREME as to turn Bikini Bottom upside down while looking for SpongeBob.

One thing I do have to question was that who was doing all the fry-cooking at the Krusty Krab while SpongeBob was stuck with Sandy, oh well, who cares, the customers' foods came out right. This episode is EXTREMELY funny, especially with the joke of fly fishing (cue rimshot), Squidward's dead-pan reactions are well timed as well, and I like Mr. Krabs calling out "MAN THE LIFE BOATS!" I have to give the writers for this episode, Aaron Springer, C.H. Greenblatt, and Merriwether Williams for going a different route with this episode into something SO exciting. Also, I would like to mention that this was the last episode Edgar Larrazabal served as the animation director for the show.

I wonder what he went on to do after this. Oh well, I guess we'll never know. Either way, this episode is pretty good........TO THE EXTREME!!