SpongeBob - "Employee of the Month"

I thought the episode that aired with this, "The Chaperone," was okay, but it wasn't good enough for me to watch it more than twice. Luckily, Paul Tibbitt and his team of storyboard artists were able to bring us back up with the following episode, "Employee of the Month."

Today is judging for Employee of the Month, but Squidward on the other hand finds this a scam. Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob about Squidward being on the while, hence the phrase, "I might sneak up on you." SpongeBob, thanks to his soldier portrait, spies on Squidward, and Squidward, now following what's going on, decides to prove to SpongeBob he's better than him by trying to get awarded Employee of the Month that he is better. How will this end? Well, just watch and find out, okay?

This episode really made up for the blandness that "The Chaperone" had. It had more comedy than it's predecessor, and it even has a good plot, Squidward and SpongeBob competing against each other for the aforementioned Employee of the Month. I like the running gags of the krabby patties being spit at Squidward by a fan, as well as him stubbing his foot when trying to step on SpongeBob's hat. They even go so far as to carry anchors on foot.

This plot's just all over the place. But in a good way.


I should also mention that this episode had four storyboard artists!

You see that? FOUR STORYBOARD ARTISTS! And only one of them wrote the script, that one was Paul Tibbitt. Ennio Torresan and Erik Wiese previously worked as a duo writing various episodes for SpongeBob during the first half of the first season, and Mark O'Hare, he only wrote three episodes with Paul so, I guess he wasn't quite ready to be an official writer or something until late season 2.

Overall, you have to watch this episode to understand the humor they were going for.

I mean I like it when Squidward and SpongeBob showing Mr. Krabs what they can do even goes out of hand and after making too many krabby patties, the Krusty Krab explodes! Leaving the citizens of Bikini Bottom free krabby patties.

This episode is a heck of a lot of fun, and it's much better than "The Chaperone." Just watch out for that laughing Squidward hallucination.

SpongeBob - "Clams"

While many moments of SpongeBob have made illusions to timeless media and pop culture, only one episode was based entirely around that. That episode was "Clams," a clever parody of the Steven Spielberg drama, "Jaws."

This episode opens up with Mr. Krabs getting his one millionth dollar, a huge milestone in his career. As a "reward" to SpongeBob and Squidward, Mr. Krabs takes them on a trip, what kind of trip you may ask? Well, clam fishing of course. After SpongeBob's poor fishing skills ends up tossing several things overboard and giving Squidward a a nose rip apart, Mr. Krabs ends up losing his millionth dollar. After breaking the fourth wall, Mr. Krabs loses his millionth dollar to a giant clam. SpongeBob and Squidward take pity on him and decide to help him get it back.

But their efforts are useless when three days go by without ANYTHING happening. After trying to trick Mr. Krabs and giving out an allusion to Moby Dick, they've realized that Mr. Krabs has gone nuts! They try to escape, only to be captured, Mr. Krabs decides to use them as bait for the clam, this time using the music that summoned the clam originally. That musical score by the way is called "Dangerous" by Mladen Franko. Though, that does beg the question. Why didn't Mr. Krabs think of this before?! Anyways, Mr. Krabs, gets his dollar back but gets eaten in the process, luckily, he survives by giving the clam a piece of his body as a trade.

This episode was probably the only episode that consistently parodied something, but it did it very well. The motivation of the original Jaws movie characters was there, but it was made funny when the characters were swapped out with SpongeBob, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs. SpongeBob always knew how to do parody jokes right, and this episode was the trademark of that.

The highlight of the episode was when SpongeBob and Squidward try to trick Mr. Krabs into thinking they got his millionth dollar.

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.