SpongeBob - "Walking Small"

You want to walk tall? Then just watch "Walking Small" that often airs after "Texas." Note to viewers this is the third and final Plankton-focused episode of the first season. So now, let's begin.

In this episode, Plankton decides to bring up the future sight of the Chum Bucket Mega Bucket on the Goo Lagoon. And he uses SpongeBob as bait to get everyone to leave Goo Lagoon. With a few comical situations like SpongeBob being "insertive," and SpongeBob misunderstanding Plankton's phrases to the guy in sandals borrowing his metal detector. It all gets better when SpongeBob's finally become improving like shaking sand everywhere, stealing the hot dogs, kites, and destroying volleyballs. Will SpongeBob reverse the damage, or will Plankton's plan succeed? Watch and find out. Okay?

What I like about this episode is that it's not focused on Plankton trying to steal the formula. Instead, it's focused on him trying to make a much bigger restaurant in Bikini Bottom. It's petty funny when he cries over the fact that he bought two ice cream cones, you know, because this is a Sean Dempsey animation directed episode, Dempsey has a fetish for crying! Also, SpongeBob's Jerry Seinfeld like stand-up comedy was pretty funny. I even like how he reverses the damage, like for example, bringing the hot dogs and kites back to the beach-goers, and being a surfboard for Scooter. All Plankton needed was aggresiveness and being assertive, sorry "Putting Your Hoof Down," you stole that idea.

Overall, this episode is pretty funny, especially with Plankton shouting through his megaphone, SpongeBob taking his sweet time eating his ice cream, and of course, his Jerry Seinfeld reference. He is a true altruist folks. By the way, Plankton does have a point, SpongeBob is soft because he IS a sponge.

In the end, Plankton deserved to have his plan reversed, he totally deserved it. I also like Larry the Lobster's speaking cameo asking for the volleyball and saying "Let's just go home I guess," which speaking of which, all of you should go home right now until the next review.

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 - "Can You Spare a Dime?"

Brother, can you spare a dime? Because I need that one to review this episode of SpongeBob. Oh wait, no I don't. I've got it right here. This episode is called, "Can You Spare a Dime?" Let's get going.

After Mr. Krabs accuses Squidward for something he didn't do, like say, stealing his first dime, Squidward quits his job. However, he ends up homeless in the process. Seeing Squidward heartbroken in the process, SpongeBob decides to take him into his own house to live with him, but only until he gets a job. However, so much later goes by and Squidward has become a free-loader and SpongeBob is his slave. Will he get out of slavery? Watch to find out.

This episode is pretty funny every time I watch this. Examples of funny include Squidward, Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob counting various things, SpongeBob going up and down the stairs getting this for Squidward, and SpongeBob finally losing his temper and patience due to Squidward's bossing him around, all because he can't get a job. He even takes his anger out on Mr. Krabs, because well, he falsely accused Squidward for stealing his dime. He even goes so far as to shake him violently while choking him until finally, his first dime falls out of his pants. There's a lot of humor here that it's hard to avoid it.

So, there are two morals here.

One: Never falsely accuse someone for something they didn't do or jump to conclusions.

and

Two: Never have a homeless person live with you, otherwise, he'll boss you around like crazy!

Also, since Sean Dempsey was the animation director for this episode, we see Squidward crying while he was homeless. Another indication that Sean has a crying fetish.

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.

SpongeBob - "Graveyard Shift"

This episode is filled with imagination, it takes you to another dimension, a dimension of sound, a dimension of fear, a dimension of mind, a dimension of 24 hours a day in a restaurant, where the Hash Slinging Slasher exists, and Nosferatu turns off the lights, you're crossing over into "Graveyard Shift."

Around closing time, when Tom comes to the doors to the Krusty Krab, when Squidward tries to inform Tom that he has to go home soon, Mr,. Krabs overhears all this and decides to make the hours to the Krusty Krab unlimited, in other words, 24 hours a day, With that Mr. Krabs leaves the scene leaving SpongeBob and Squidward in charge of the restaurant. Over time, Squidward spooks SpongeBob by telling him the story of The Hash Slinging Slasher, which results into SpongeBob into screaming in a rhythmic fashion, until Squidward snaps him out of it saying it was only a joke and a story, which results in SpongeBob laughing in the same rhythm. How will this end? Stay tuned.

This episode is scary........with humor! It's got a lot of good jokes about SpongeBob doing stuff, at night that is. Even rushing outside to take out the garbage and beathing heavily when he gets back inside. It's also very funny when SpongeBob takes off one of his arms and they grow back much to the surprise of Squidward, and even Patrick's little cameo was good. But the best highlight was has to be the reveal of the hash slinging slasher! Especially Squidward mispronouncing the name like SpongeBob did earlier, and he and SpongeBob's eyebrows and eyelashes rising up and shaking in fear. That's pretty funny, folks.

So, the bottom line, this episode is funny, with terror, and it's got a good story. Working late at night and telling scary stories along the way.

I must say, there should've been a Twilight Zone reference where Mr. Lawrence, who wrote this episode, would voice a parody of Rod Serling, explaining about the story of the Hash Slinging Slasher. Maybe it was a deleted concept or something from the storyboard artists.

Anyways, I like Dee Bradley Baker's character for the Hash Slinging Slasher who turns out to be a nice guy.

This episode to great to watch, even at night.

SpongeBob - "Texas"

Now, let's review an episode that was later in the first season of SpongeBob, this episode is of course, Texas. No, not the state of this country, I'm talking the episode in general.

The episode is that Sandy gets homesick from being away from Texas after a ocean wave destroyed her Texas shaped sandcastle. So, after she sings about how she misses Texas, Patrick and SpongeBob come up with a plan to try to have Sandy stay in Bikini Bottom. But it doesn't help that when Sandy gets on the bus and leaves for Texas, Patrick says out loud "What's so great about dumb old Texas?" and Sandy overhears this and comes back really ticked off about how he said that. Will they handle this problem, easily? Watch to find out!

Let's now go for the pros and cons on this episode. First off, I like the song that she sings called "Texas," with music composed by Junior Brown and lyrics by current SpongeBob crew members Vincent Waller and Sherm Cohen. The one thing is I never liked is that Patrick and SpongeBob make fun of Texas. You should never insult Texas in any shape or form. It also doesn't help that when they run off for the Krusty Krab, Sandy gives chase and ropes away Patrick and crashes into an explosion. And just when SpongeBob reached the door to the Krusty Krab, it almost looked like he was about to get torn apart by Sandy. Why doesn't he just fight back? Or for that matter, why not this guy?

Yeah, have the Beast come in, save SpongeBob by fighting Sandy like he did with the Killer Wolves from Beauty and the Beast, but also tell SpongeBob, if you haven't made fun of Texas, this wouldn't have happened. But that's just me.

So, bottom line, this episode is okay, it's just not my kind of episode, it's just another typical Sean Dempsey animation directed episode that has crying in it. Maybe it's just me but Sean Dempsey might have a fetish for crying or something.

This is just a weak, weak, episode, with SpongeBob having no brutal strength to fight back at Sandy just because he made fun of Texas, and the fact that there was nobody to save him.

Again, this is all my opinion. If you don't agree with me, that's totally fine. At least the episode that came along with this, "Walking Small" was better.