SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 1-5, 9-present)

This page is dedicated to Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018).

SpongeBob SquarePants, also simply referred to as SpongeBob, is an American animated comedy television series created by former marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It is chronologically the tenth Nicktoon to debut. The series is produced by Nickelodeon Animation Studio and United Plankton Pictures, Inc. The series chronicles the adventures and endeavors of an accident-prone yellow sea sponge and his various friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. The series' popularity has made it a media franchise, as well as the highest-rated series to ever air on Nickelodeon, and the most distributed property of MTV Networks. As of 2015, the media franchise has generated $12 e Krabbillion in merchandising revenue for Nickelodeon and is currently one of the most well-known and beloved cartoons to date.

This article will focus on the first 5 seasons and 9 onwards. If you want seasons 6 to 8, click here for the page on Terrible Shows & Episodes Wiki.

P​remise
A square yellow sea sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants lives in a pineapple with his pet snail, Gary, in the city of Bikini Bottom on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab. During his time off, SpongeBob has a knack for attracting trouble with his starfish best friend, Patrick. An arrogant octopus Squidward Tentacles, SpongeBob's neighbor, dislikes SpongeBob because of his childlike behavior.

​Why These Seasons Deserve Krabby Patties

 * 1) To this day, Spongebob Squarepants is one of the most well-known and beloved cartoons of all time.
 * 2) The animation is nice and near perfect for Nickelodeon standards from the start, and it improves vastly as the years go by and matches the style of zany cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation (especially the ones that Adam Paloian worked on) such as cartoons done by Bob Clampett, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Ward Kimball, and many others.
 * 3) The premise is interesting.
 * 4) The character designs are appealing.
 * 5) The opening is iconic.
 * 6) The cartoon is very adventurous in scope as there a lot of cool and interesting places, even outside of Bikini Bottom.
 * 7) Well done voice acting, such as Tom Kenny, who voices the title character as well as his pet snail, Gary, and the French narrator. Special mention to when he does amazing impressions of other characters in "Mimic Madness".
 * 8) Great and memorable songs, such as:
 * 9) * "Ripped Pants" (voiced by Peter Strauss)
 * 10) * "F.U.N. Song"
 * 11) * "Sweet Victory" (voiced by David Glen Eisley)
 * 12) * "Campfire Song Song"
 * 13) * "If Only I Could Join You"
 * 14) * "He's Flying"
 * 15) * "All You Need Is Friends"
 * 16) * "I Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You"
 * 17) * "Down The Well"
 * 18) * "The Bubble Song"
 * 19) * "Fueling The Bus"
 * 20) * "Attitude of Gratitude"
 * 21) * "A Day Like This"
 * 22) * "Oh Krusty Krab"
 * 23) * "Santa Has His Eye On Me"
 * 24) * "Don't Be A Jerk (It's Christmas)"
 * 25) * "It's High Tide Time We Went On Tour"
 * 26) * "Never Give Up"
 * 27) * "Best Day Ever"
 * 28) * "Who Am I?"
 * 29) * "Gary's Song (Gary Come Home)"
 * 30) * "Without You (This Grill is Not a Home/Greasy Spoon)"
 * 31) * "Texas (I Wanna Go Home)".
 * 32) Amazingly hilarious, clever, and self-aware humor. "Wet Painters" for example has Patrick acknowledge the show's overuse of time cards by having him hold the "Three Hours Later" time card, telling SpongeBob to get on with the painting since he is running out of time cards.
 * 33) The show is willing to go a little out of its way to handle more mature topics at times but does it in a subtly child-friendly way that doesn't feel too dark and keeps the comedic tone, examples include:
 * 34) * "Suds", which handles the subject of self-medication;
 * 35) * Both "Hooky" and "Just One Bite" talk about the subject of addiction;
 * 36) * "Plankton Paranoia", which focuses on the subject of paranoia and anxiety;
 * 37) * "Squirrel Jokes", that deals with the subject of stereotyping and racism through SpongeBob's mockery of squirrels during his comedy act at the Krusty Krab talent show.
 * 38) * "Squid's Day Off", which main theme is obsessive-compulsive disorder by featuring Squidward obsessively going back and forth to the Krusty Krab during his vacation, fearing SpongeBob (who is taking his place as the cashier while Mr. Krabs is in the hospital) causing any trouble (ie. causing a fire) while he's gone, only to find out that he's just waiting there normally, waiting for Squidward to finish with his errands.
 * 39) * And "Nasty Patty" that talks about the subject of murder, even though the Health Inspector wasn't really murdered (but that was what Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob thought).
 * 40) Though the show is mostly comedy, there are a fair share of heartwarming and sweet moments such as Spongebob hugging Gary in some episodes.
 * 41) There are so many likable characters with very distinct personalities like:
 * 42) * SpongeBob (Seasons 1-6A and 8 onwards) is the good-hearted, quirky, and happy-go-lucky yet intelligent protagonist;
 * 43) * Patrick (Seasons 1-5 and 9 onwards) is SpongeBob's dim-witted, yet good-natured and well-meaning best friend;
 * 44) * Squidward (Seasons 1-5 and 9 onwards) is SpongeBob's vain and grouchy neighbor but he has a fair share of care for SpongeBob inside and is very relatable;
 * 45) * Mr. Krabs (Seasons 1-5 and 11 onwards) is SpongeBob's money-obsessed but fatherly boss;
 * 46) * Plankton (Seasons 1-5 and 8 onwards) is the short-tempered and envious yet comedic villain;
 * 47) * Sandy (Seasons 1-4 and 9 onwards) is the smart and tough newcomer;
 * 48) * Mrs. Puff (Seasons 1-5 and 9 onwards) is the beleaguered boating teacher;
 * 49) * Karen (Seasons 1-5 and 8 onwards) is Plankton's snarky, but sensible computer wife;
 * 50) * Pearl (Seasons 1-5 and 8 onwards) is Mr. Krabs' bratty but cheerful and friendly teenage daughter;
 * 51) * Gary is SpongeBob's loyal pet snail;
 * 52) * Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are affectionate parodies of Batman and Robin or Aquaman and Aqualad or Flash and Kid Flash, respectively;
 * 53) * Larry The Lobster (Seasons 1-5 and 7 onwards) is the muscular and fun-loving bodybuilder;
 * 54) * Fred is the long-suffering background character;
 * 55) * Bubble Bass is the gluttonous, uppity, arrogant yet nerdy and neckbeard LARPer;
 * 56) * Old Man Jenkins and Old Man Walker are old and forgetful fish;
 * 57) * Scooter and Sandals are happy-go-lucky surfer fish;
 * 58) * And the Flying Dutchman is the bombastic pirate ghost.
 * 59) There are so many great, hilarious and memorable episodes from these seasons, such as:
 * 60) * "Help Wanted" (which started the series on a positive note).
 * 61) * "Tea at the Treedome"
 * 62) * "Reef Blower"
 * 63) * "Ripped Pants"
 * 64) * "Pizza Delivery"
 * 65) * "Home Sweet Pineapple"
 * 66) * "Jellyfish Jam"
 * 67) * The Mermaidman & Barnacleboy episodes (I, II (which ended season 1 on a high note), III, IV, V, VI and Mermaid Man VS SpongeBob)
 * 68) * "Sandy's Rocket
 * 69) * "Squeaky Boots"
 * 70) * "F.U.N."
 * 71) * "MuscleBob BuffPants"
 * 72) * "The Chaperone"
 * 73) * "Scaredy Pants"
 * 74) * "SB-129"
 * 75) * "Karate Choppers"
 * 76) * "Valentine's Day"
 * 77) * "The Paper"
 * 78) *"Arrrgh!"
 * 79) *"Rock Bottom"
 * 80) * "Neptune's Spatula"
 * 81) * "Something Smells"
 * 82) * "Big Pink Loser"
 * 83) * "Dying for Pie"
 * 84) * "Imitation Krabs"
 * 85) *"Patty Hype"
 * 86) * "Squidville"
 * 87) * "Prehibernation Week" (depending on your view)
 * 88) * "Christmas Who?"
 * 89) * "Survival of the Idiots"
 * 90) * "No Free Rides"
 * 91) * "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic"
 * 92) * "Shanghaied"
 * 93) * "Welcome to the Chum Bucket"
 * 94) * "The Secret Box"
 * 95) * "Band Geeks" (often considered the best episode of the series)
 * 96) * "Sailor Mouth"
 * 97) * "The Fry Cook Games"
 * 98) * "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm" (which ended season 2 on a high note)
 * 99) * "The Algae's Always Greener" (which started season 3 on a high note)
 * 100) * "Club SpongeBob"
 * 101) * "My Pretty Seahorse"
 * 102) * "Just One Bite"
 * 103) * "Idiot Box"
 * 104) * "Snowball Effect"
 * 105) *"Can You Spare a Dime?"
 * 106) * "Squilliam Returns"
 * 107) * "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve"
 * 108) * "Wet Painters"
 * 109) * "Krusty Krab Training Video"
 * 110) * "Chocolate with Nuts" (Also considered the best)
 * 111) * "Ugh"
 * 112) * "The Sponge Who Could Fly"
 * 113) * "Plankton's Army"
 * 114) * "The Camping Episode"
 * 115) * "Pranks a Lot" (Which ended the golden age & season 3 on a pretty high note)
 * 116) * "Fear of a Krabby Patty" (Which started season 4 on a high note)
 * 117) * "The Lost Mattress"
 * 118) * "Krabs vs. Plankton"
 * 119) * "Have You Seen This Snail?"
 * 120) * "Skill Crane"
 * 121) * "Selling Out"
 * 122) * "Dunces and Dragons"
 * 123) * "Enemy In-Law"
 * 124) * "Patrick SmartPants"
 * 125) * "Krusty Towers"
 * 126) * "Whale of a Birthday"
 * 127) * "Karate Island"
 * 128) * "Wishing You Well"
 * 129) * "New Leaf"
 * 130) * "Squidtastic Voyage" (depending on your view)
 * 131) * "That's No Lady"
 * 132) * "Bummer Vacation"
 * 133) * "Hocus Pocus"
 * 134) * "Best Day Ever"
 * 135) * "Friend or Foe" (which started season 5 on a high note in production order)
 * 136) * "The Original Fry Cook"
 * 137) * "Night Light"
 * 138) * "Spy Buddies"
 * 139) * "Good Ol' Whatshisname"
 * 140) * "New Digs"
 * 141) * "Krabs a la Mode"
 * 142) * "Roller Cowards"
 * 143) * "Bucket Sweet Bucket"
 * 144) * "SpongeBob vs. The Patty Gadget"
 * 145) * "Sing a Song of Patrick"
 * 146) * "The Donut of Shame"
 * 147) * "The Krusty Sponge"
 * 148) * "Goo Goo Gas"
 * 149) * "Le Big Switch"
 * 150) * "To Save A Squirrel"
 * 151) * "The Battle of Bikini Bottom"
 * 152) * "The Two Faces of Squidward"
 * 153) * "Pest of the West"
 * 154) * "Extreme Spots" (which started season 9 and the HD era on a high note)
 * 155) * "Squirrel Record"
 * 156) * "Patrick-Man!" (depending on your view)
 * 157) * "Eek, an Urchin!" (a funny Tom and Jerry parody episode)
 * 158) * "Jailbreak!"
 * 159) * "Evil Spatula"
 * 160) * "Plankton's Pet"
 * 161) * "It Came From Goo Lagoon"
 * 162) * "Lost in Bikini Bottom" (which started the post-sequel era on a high note)
 * 163) * "Pull Up a Barrel"
 * 164) * "What's Eating Patrick?"
 * 165) * "Patrick! The Game"
 * 166) * "Mall Girl Pearl"
 * 167) * "Bulletin Board"
 * 168) * "Food Con Castaways"
 * 169) * "Pineapple Invasion"
 * 170) * "The Whole Tooth" (which ended season 9 on a high note)
 * 171) * "Goodbye, Krabby Patty?"
 * 172) * "Mermaid Pants"
 * 173) * "Unreal Estate"
 * 174) * "Mimic Madness" (often considered the best of the post-sequel era and possibly the entire series)
 * 175) * "Krusty Katering"
 * 176) * "Burst Your Bubble"
 * 177) * "Trident Trouble"
 * 178) * "Patrick's Coupon"
 * 179) * "Feral Friends"
 * 180) * "There's a Sponge in My Soup"
 * 181) * "The Legend of Boo-kini Bottom"
 * 182) * "Krabby Patty Creature Feature" (despite the weird faces)
 * 183) * "Squid Noir"
 * 184) * "Scavenger Pants"
 * 185) * "Doodle Dimension"
 * 186) * "Bottle Burglars"
 * 187) * "High Sea Diving"
 * 188) * "My Leg!"
 * 189) * "Fun-Sized Friends"
 * 190) * "Mustard O' Mine"
 * 191) * "Whale-Watching"
 * 192) * "Krusty Kleaners"
 * 193) * "Plankton Paranoia"
 * 194) * "Goons on the Moon"
 * 195) * "Karen's Virus"
 * 196) * "Bubbletown"
 * 197) * "Girls Night Out"
 * 198) * "Sandy's Nutty Nieces"
 * 199) * "Karen's Baby"
 * 200) * "The Krusty Bucket"
 * 201) * "SpongeBob in RandomLand" (despite the Squidward's Suicide reference)
 * 202) * "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" (An excellent way on celebrating the 20th anniversary of the series)
 * 203) * "The Krusty Slammer"
 * 204) * "Dirty Bubble Returns"
 * 205) * "The Goofy Newbie" (depending on your view)
 * 206) * "Bubble Bass's Tab"
 * 207) * "Kooky Cooks"
 * 208) * "Handemonium"
 * 209) * "Krusty Koncessionaires"
 * 210) * "Dream Hoppers" (which ended season 12 on a high note in production order)
 * 211) * "A Place For Pets" (which started season 13 on a high note)
 * 212) * "Under The Small Top"
 * 213) * "Goofy Scoopers"
 * 214) * "Pat The Dog"
 * 215) * "Something Narwhal This Way Comes" (depending on your view)
 * 216) * "C.H.U.M.S”
 * 217) *"SpongeBob’s Road to Christmas”
 * 218) *"There Will Be Grease"
 * 219) *"The Big Bad Bubble Bass"
 * 220) *”Say Awww!”
 * 221) *“Patrick The Mailman”
 * 222) A lot of the title cards and time cards are creative. As mentioned in WTSDAKP #4, there was even a funny 4th wall-breaking joke made with them in "Wet Painters", when Patrick says "Can you move it along? I'm out of time cards" as well as the narrator groaning in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve".
 * 223) Shares some elements with Rocko's Modern Life and The Ren & Stimpy Show, which makes sense as some of the SpongeBob crew worked on those shows before coming to work on SpongeBob.
 * 224) Seasons 2 and 3 were arguably the best seasons of the show, spawning so many memorable episodes, two of them (Band Geeks and Chocolate with Nuts) being considered the best of the series, among other episodes like Something Smells, Big Pink Loser, Dying for Pie & its sister episode Imitation Krabs, Christmas Who?, Frankendoodle, Graveyard Shift, Idiot Box, Wet Painters and sister episode Krusty Krab Training Video, The Camping Episode, Plankton's Army, etc.
 * 225) *Seasons 9B-13, while not as great as Seasons 2 and 3, are still good seasons and are a huge step-up from seasons 6-8 (and Season 9A to a lesser extent). These seasons have spawned many good episodes like Food Con Castaways, Mimic Madness, Mind the Gap, Karen’s Virus, My Leg!, and Pat The Dog.
 * 226) Ever since season 9, the show has improved dramatically after its decline in quality (see Reason #2 on Bad Qualities section below) and there have been a lot of unique episode plots that haven't been done before.
 * 227) The Japanese dub is just as good as the original English version, which makes it into an anime.
 * 228) * The Latin Spanish dubbing of the first seasons is also very good, with the voices of Luis Carreño as Bob Esponja (Kaihiamal Martínez in the first season), Paul Gillman as Patricio, Renzo Jiménez as Calamardo, etc.
 * 229) The background music is composed of either Hawaiian-style ukulele or pirate sea shanties, which matches the show's underwater aesthetic and is very calming to listen to, with a lot of memorable tracks such as "Grass Skirt Chase" and "The Rake Hornpipe".
 * 230) It had three Christmas specials: "Christmas Who?"  "It's A SpongeBob Christmas" and "SpongeBob's Road to Christmas", and a two-part stop-motion Halloween special called "The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom", with top-notch, stop-motion animation, the same stop-motion animation from "It's a SpongeBob Christmas!", all of them being great, hilarious and memorable.
 * 231) After the creator of the show (Stephen Hillenburg) passed away, the show made a couple of tributes of him. The first time was when Tom Kenny described how he was a good friend to him for a long time. The second was mentioned on the birthday special which is "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout", and the other one was on the third movie, which is Sponge on the Run.
 * 232) Lots of good morals here and there, such as:
 * 233) * Trying something new even if you don't want to. ("Just One Bite")
 * 234) * Don't care if people make fun of you. ("Grandma's Kisses")
 * 235) * Being yourself. ("Ripped Pants")
 * 236) * Always be kind to one another. ("Best Day Ever" and "Band Geeks")
 * 237) * Never take jokes way to the extreme. ("Pranks a Lot")
 * 238) * Never make fun of your friends. ("Squirrel Jokes")
 * 239) * Don't be upset if people don't like you. ("Something Smells")
 * 240) * Being honest. ("The Donut of Shame")
 * 241) * Never break into someone's home without their permission. ("Survival of the Idiots")
 * 242) * You can't always get what you want. ("Squidville")
 * 243) * Don't leave your life just to hang out with your favorite animals and be grateful for what you have. ("Nature Pants")
 * 244) * Always stand up for yourself. ("Pickles")
 * 245) The Patchy the Pirate segments in the show can be very entertaining, with Patchy being one of the most funniest characters in the show due to his rivalry moments with his parrot, Potty.
 * 246) The show has had some creative parodies before such as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy being parodies of Batman and Robin, Glove World being a reference to Disney World or Disneyland, and the Krusty Krab being a parody of McDonald's.
 * 247) It has its own channel on Paramount+ called "SpongeBob Universe", which airs nothing but SpongeBob content 24/7.
 * 248) Though the show wasn't meant to go on after the first three seasons, it still made the show pretty famous and it spawned a lot of cool merchandise.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some of the characters are unlikable in their ways.
 * 2) * Mr. Krabs is most likely the least tolerable, due to his perceived exaggeration of his parsimony throughout the series' run. However, while he hasn't recovered fully from his flanderzation in seasons 9 & 10, he is more tolerable in these seasons. But to be fair, he wasn't too bad in seasons 1-5 at all, since he is likable in those seasons because he still cares about his employees and customers. And with how likable he is in 11-onwards, it's safe to say that he has massively redeemed himself. At least when he isn't being a cheap A-hole.
 * 3) * Sometimes, SpongeBob can be annoying to other people for no reason especially Squidward, even before and after his flanderization.
 * 4) * Likewise, Patrick Star can sometimes be clueless and have no common sense at times, even before and after his flanderization.
 * 5) * While he is still likable, Squidward has his flanderized moments, such as in “SpongeBob In Randomland”, he becomes happy after finding about that SpongeBob might be dead, which is not like him in the earlier episodes (especially Dying for Pie). He is also still often used as a punching bag in many modern episodes, like “Under the Small Top” and “Who R Zoo?”
 * 6) * The background characters/incidentals (excluding Scooter) can also be very unlikable, mostly due to their tendency to start angry mobs.
 * 7) ** There was one scene in "Your Shoe's Untied" when they see Mr. Krabs underwear and become offended and leave the Krusty Krab. Even though some of them were shown to be not wearing any pants, making them hypocrites.
 * 8) ** Despite being more innocent and likable compared to most incidentals, Scooter can be annoying, especially because of his laugh.
 * 9) The series went downhill between the first and second movies.
 * 10) * It somewhat began to go downhill during seasons 4 & 5, but it didn't get too noticeable until season 6 when the series was hit with a massive decline in quality (season 7 is just as bad, though season 8 is a mixed bag). The series thankfully has gotten much better since season 9.
 * 11) Even the good seasons have some hiccups.
 * 12) * Season 1, while great, can be considered weak for some in comparison to Seasons 2 and 3, mainly due to the characters being less developed, weaker comedy, and the dull animation, though this is understandable since this season was cel-animated.
 * 13) * Season 4, while good and considered to be the best season of the post-movie era, is considered to be the start of the series' decline and can be considered unnecessary by some fans since the series creator Stephen Hillenburg wanted the series to end after season 3 with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but Nickelodeon greenlit the series for a fourth season due to popular demand, leading Hillenburg into resigning and offering his position as showrunner to co-worker, Paul Tibbitt, though Hillenburg remained to be an executive producer until he eventually returned in season 9 with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water until his death in 2018. Though, we can't blame the popular demand on Nickelodeon themselves because if the television executives at Nickelodeon wanted to greenlight a fourth season after the movie's success, then why not?
 * 14) * Season 5, while still good, is considered to be the weakest one of the good seasons, as it’s a bit of a mixed bag in terms of its quality due to there being more bad episodes than in previous seasons and the characters' flanderizations slowly started to kick in, with Sandy unfortunately being the quickest main character to get flanderized she started to becoming more interested in science rather than the other stuff she likes, making her bland, with "Atlantis SquarePantis" being the worst offender. Despite this, she is still a likable character.
 * 15) * Season 9a, while an improvement over seasons 6-8, is still not as good as the first four (or five to a lesser extent) seasons, as it still has a few flaws such as characters like Mr. Krabs still being flanderized and having a few bad episodes, with the most infamous ones being "Little Yellow Book", "Squid Baby", and the infamous "SpongeBob, You're Fired". However, at this point, almost all of the characters have recovered from their flanderization.
 * 16) There are even a handful of bad/mediocre episodes before and after the series' downfall, such as:
 * 17) *"I Was a Teenage Gary" (the first bad episode of the series)
 * 18) *"Wormy" (depending on your view)
 * 19) * "Grandma's Kisses"
 * 20) * "Dumped"
 * 21) * "I'm With Stupid"
 * 22) * "Party Pooper Pants"
 * 23) * "New Student Starfish"
 * 24) * "The Great Snail Race"
 * 25) * "Krabby Land"
 * 26) * "Good Neighbors" (which started the minor downfall of the series and is considered one of the worst episodes of the good seasons)
 * 27) * "Funny Pants"
 * 28) * "SquidBob TentaclePants" (depending on your view)
 * 29) * "All That Glitters"
 * 30) * "Once Bitten"
 * 31) * "Wigstruck"
 * 32) * "The Thing"
 * 33) * "Squid Wood" (an awful ending to season 4 in airing order)
 * 34) * "Driven to Tears"
 * 35) * "Rule of Dumb"
 * 36) * "The Gift of Gum" (depending on your view, a mediocre way to end season 4 in production)
 * 37) * "Waiting"
 * 38) * "Fungus Among Us"
 * 39) * "To Love A Patty"
 * 40) * "Breath of Fresh Squidward"
 * 41) * "A Flea in Her Dome"
 * 42) * "Atlantis SquarePantis" (an awful first TV movie)
 * 43) * "SpongeHenge"
 * 44) * "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?"
 * 45) * "Stanley S. SquarePants" (which ended the first five seasons on a weak note)
 * 46) * "Squid Baby"
 * 47) * "Little Yellow Book"
 * 48) * "Bumper to Bumper"
 * 49) * "SpongeBob You're Fired" (a terrible way to end the first half of Season 9 and the post-movie era)
 * 50) * "The Fish Bowl"
 * 51) * "Married to Money"
 * 52) * "House Worming"
 * 53) * "Sportz?"
 * 54) * "Out of the Picture"
 * 55) * "Ink Lemonade" (the most infamous of the post-sequel era)
 * 56) * "Squirrel Jelly"
 * 57) * "SpongeBob's Bad Habit"
 * 58) * "Jolly Lodgers"
 * 59) * "Kwarantined Krab" (which ended season 12 on a sour note in airing order)
 * 60) * "Lockdown for Love"
 * 61) * "Squidward's Sick Daze"
 * 62) The first two TV movies, "Atlantis SquarePantis" and "Truth or Square", were not well received. In the former's case, it’s due to the Nickelodeon executives forcing the crew to make both into two TV movies, resulting in throwing in some pointless songs and six character arcs that could have been used as their own episodes. In the latter's case it’s also due to the blatant bait-and-switches. As a result of negative reviews that both TV movies got, Nickelodeon made no more TV movies for the show after "Truth or Square", but thankfully didn't involve flanderization. However later in 2019, "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" aired for the series' twentieth anniversary in July and was a well-received TV movie, with some calling it the perfect apology for "Truth or Square".
 * 63) While the animation is generally great, it isn't always perfect and has some hiccups:
 * 64) * Season 1's animation, while still good, looks inferior to later seasons due to it being done in traditional cel form, while Season 2 onwards uses digital ink-and-paint.
 * 65) * Season 2's animation, while a step up from that of season 1, is filled with errors and some episodes have color inconsistencies (most notably the episodes with washed-out colors on DVD), similarly to season 6. Though to be fair, this is understandable since this is the very first season to use digital ink-and-paint animation.
 * 66) * Season 4's animation starts off looking clunky and inferior to seasons 2 and 3 but gets better as the season progresses and the lighting has noticeably improved.
 * 67) * The animation for season 11 onwards, while great, has a lot of weird and/or messed-up looking facial expressions. "Krabby Patty Creature Feature", in particular, while it does a decent job, uses this over the top. Which can make some fans lose interest in it. Though it got toned down a bit by season 13.
 * 68) * The earlier seasons have a poor blend of CGI and 2D animation, especially for its time.
 * 69) While most jokes are funny, some of them are unfunny such as some of the jokes in "Prehibernation Week". Likewise, before the movie, there are (poorly) covered-up innuendos, such as:
 * 70) * SpongeBob watching a sea anemone in the episode "Your Shoe's Untied", which is basically a metaphor for watching pornography.
 * 71) * Finally, in Texas, SpongeBob said "Patrick, your genius is showing", and Patrick obviously thought he said "penis" and said "Where?!".
 * 72) ** There is even gross-out humor from time to time that mostly comes from close-ups that can be pretty disturbing, even though thankfully it's being toned down, the most infamous case being the gross face Spongebob made in "Whatever Happened to SpongeBob".
 * 73) While most of the dubs were good, the Persian and Tibetan dubs were not well received for being unlicensed dubs.
 * 74) Quantity Over Quality: Like The Simpsons and Family Guy, the series ran for way too long (it started in 1999 and there are no signs of the show ending anytime soon), spanning a total of 13 seasons and 267 episodes and counting. The show itself isn't bad by all means and is mostly a great show overall. Also, starting in Season 6, Nickelodeon began ordering 26 episodes per season compared to 20 episodes per season in seasons 1-5. As a result, it will sometimes jump the shark, especially with seasons 6-8.
 * 75) * It should be mentioned that however, season 10 didn't have 26 episodes, but had 11 instead. The continuity is often inconsistent and is not safe from being hit or miss.
 * 76) Character development is nearly devoid in the series, despite having 13 seasons.
 * 77) The post-sequel era can have unnecessary character removals. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy have largely disappeared from the show, following the deaths of their voice actors Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway. Thankfully, there is still continuity regarding them instead of being forgotten about entirely. But that's beside the point, the point is that probably after around season 9, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy had little to no main roles and were given less focus. Even when the two do appear in an episode, they are either used as cameos or minor continuity and nothing else.
 * 78) What's most noticeable with how seasons 12 and 13 are aired in the US is that Nickelodeon has hardly been giving these episodes a US release date for TV. "SpongeBob's Road to Christmas" was lucky to air for Christmas last year, but some of them did not bother getting aired on American television possibly due to Nickelodeon's recently awful scheduling.
 * 79) * The rest of season 12 (minus "Kwarantined Krab") only made their release debuts in the US on the Season 12 DVD in 2021.
 * 80) Vincent Waller became the new sole showrunner after Stephen Hillenburg passed away, and Richard Pursel returned to work on the show as writer in 2021. Both were known as of this year for defending John Kricfalusi's (The creator of Ren and Stimpy) pedophilia.

Season 1

 * 1) "Help Wanted"
 * 2) "Reef Blower"
 * 3) "Tea at the Treedome"
 * 4) "Ripped Pants"
 * 5) "Pizza Delivery"
 * 6) "Home Sweet Pineapple"
 * 7) "Sandy's Rocket"
 * 8) "Squeaky Boots"
 * 9) "F.U.N."
 * 10) "SB-129"
 * 11) "Valentine's Day"
 * 12) "The Paper"
 * 13) "Rock Bottom"
 * 14) "Texas"

Season 2

 * 1) "Dying for Pie"
 * 2) "Imitation Krabs"
 * 3) "Christmas Who?"
 * 4) "Survival of the Idiots"
 * 5) "The Secret Box"
 * 6) "Band Geeks"
 * 7) "The Graveyard Shift"
 * 8) "Sailor Mouth"
 * 9) "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm"

Season 3

 * 1) "Club SpongeBob"
 * 2) "Just One Bite"
 * 3) "Can You Spare a Dime?"
 * 4) "Wet Painters"
 * 5) "The Krusty Krab Training Video"
 * 6) "Chocolate with Nuts"
 * 7) "The Camping Episode"
 * 8) "Plankton's Army"

Season 4

 * 1) "Have You Seen This Snail?"
 * 2) "Dunces and Dragons"
 * 3) "Patrick SmartPants"
 * 4) "Wishing You Well"
 * 5) "The Best Day Ever"

Season 5

 * 1) "Friend or Foe"
 * 2) "Good Ol' Whatshisname"
 * 3) "Sing a Song of Patrick"

Season 6

 * 1) "Suction Cup Symphony"
 * 2) "Toy Store of Doom"
 * 3) "Sand Castles in the Sand"

Season 7

 * 1) "Enchanted Tiki Dreams"
 * 2) "Perfect Chemistry"

Season 8

 * 1) "It’s a SpongeBob Christmas!"

Season 9

 * 1) "Food Con Castaways"

Season 10

 * 1) "Mimic Madness"
 * 2) "Patrick's Coupon"

Season 11

 * 1) "The Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom"

Season 12

 * 1) "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout"

In general
SpongeBob SquarePants has received universal critical acclaim, being praised for its appeal to different age groups, and the show has earned numerous awards and accolades throughout its run. James Poniewozik of Time magazine described the title character as "the anti-Bart Simpson, temperamentally and physically: his head is as squared-off and neat as Bart's is unruly, and he has a personality to match—conscientious, optimistic and blind to the faults in the world and those around him. However, reception for seasons varies widely.

Pre-Movie Era
Seasons 1-3 have been highly praised among fans and critics for their humor, writing and characters. These seasons also have tons of amazing episodes, like "Band Geeks", "My Pretty Seahorse", "SB-129", "Chocolate with Nuts", "Pizza Delivery", "Imitation Krabs", "Idiot Box", "F.U.N.", "The Secret Box", "Club SpongeBob" and the list goes on. However, some episodes like "I'm With Stupid", "The Great Snail Race", and "I Was a Teenage Gary" weren't well received.

Post-Movie Era (Seasons 4, 5 & 9a)
Seasons 4 & 5 received mixed to positive reception with some liking these seasons and considered it on par with seasons 1-3, and some disliking these seasons because of minor flanderization of some characters, and some bad episodes. These are still a handful of fan-favorite episodes such as, "That's No Lady", "Best Day Ever", "Friend or Foe", "Fear of a Krabby Patty", "Roller Cowards", "Have You Seen This Snail?", and "Krabs a la Mode," but there were a couple of stinkers such as "Fungus Among Us", "To Love a Patty", "Good Neighbors" and "Atlantis SquarePantis."

Seasons 9a received mixed reviews with some praising them as an improvement over seasons 6-8 and some saying that they are just as bad as the latter seasons mentioned.

Post-Sequel Era
Season 9b onwards have been highly praised as well, with improved writing, storylines and humor than that of seasons 6-8 (and season 9a to a lesser extent).

Videos
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Trivia

 * This series spawned a large number of internet memes.
 * Season 1 is the only season to be animated using cel animation as later seasons would use digital inking and painting animation.
 * Many people already know the fact that in the episode "Sleepy Time", SpongeBob's and Mr. Krabs' driver licenses are seen, revealing that the former was born on July 14th, 1986 and the latter on November 30th, 1942, making them around 35 and 79 years old, respectively. However, a fact that is largely ignored is that "Sleepy Time" first aired on January 17th, 2000, making SpongeBob 13 years old and Mr. Krabs 57 years old. The franchise as a whole started on May 1st, 1999, which would make SpongeBob 12 and Mr. Krabs 56. Plankton would also be 56, as he was shown to have been born around the same time as Mr. Krabs in Friend or Foe. On "Whale of a Birthday", it was revealed that Pearl turned 16 on May 12, 2006, meaning she is currently 31 years of age. In the Kamp Koral sneak peek she was a baby which reveals that KK: SBUY takes place in 1990 or 1991.
 * It should be noted though that SpongeBob and Pearl Krabs are supposed to be adults in the show.
 * There is a spin-off called Kamp Koral - SpongeBob's Under Years that was released on Paramount+ on March 4, 2021. The spin-off, however, quickly received backlash from fans and even Paul Tibbitt (the showrunner from Season 4 to the first half of Season 9) for “disrespecting Hillenburg’s legacy”, as Hillenburg is often said as not wanting any spinoffs to happen, despite the fact that he actually said he didn't see any spinoffs happening. Rob Renzetti also criticized the spinoff. Said spinoff is referenced in Sponge on the Run.
 * There's also a new spin-off called The Patrick Star Show with Patrick as the protagonist. Patrick's family is different in the show, as Herb is replaced by Cecil, Margie is replaced by Bunny, Sam may or may not be replaced by Squidina (yes, the Squidina from Goons on the Moon) as the show is set between Patrick and Sam's separation and reunion, and Billy Bob is replaced by GrandPat Star. There are explanations from Vincent Waller, Ariel "Pinkie" Davis, and Ian V. on why Patrick's parents and sister are different. Vincent responded: "We felt the original iterations of the characters, while they worked for that episode, they were boring as characters. They were NOT entertaining or fun. These two are so much more fun." for why Herb and Margie are replaced. April says that Squidina is Patrick's adopted sister. And Ian V. says: "As someone who's on the show I can say they're officially just a redesign of the old parents (his dad even still has the same voice) into...stars! I just love coming up with these ridiculous explanations for it is fun." It is unexplained why Billy Bob is replaced by GrandPat Star.
 * The episode "Gary Takes A Bath" was the only episode to air on Nicktoons before it aired on Nickelodeon.
 * Creator Stephen Hillenburg died at the age of 57 on November 26, 2018, from ALS.
 * Stephen Hillenburg created Plankton and Karen as potential villains for the series, but he decided in 1997 that they didn't have much potential and that the "Plankton wants to steal a Krabby Patty" plot would become stale after a while. He wanted to have them be one-off characters, and Nickelodeon suggested hiring a one-time guest star like Bruce Willis for the voice of Plankton. However, staff writer Doug/Mr. Lawrence (who became the voice of Plankton) was convinced that his character had untapped potential; he gave Hillenburg a set of episode outlines about Plankton and Karen, many of which were used throughout the first three seasons. The episodes were popular with the writing team, and Plankton and Karen officially became main characters in the credits of the first theatrical movie. Lawrence considers season three as the first season where Plankton is part of the main cast.
 * An anime-styled video titled "Bubble Bass Arc", the first episode of a web series "Suponibobu", also known as "The Spongebob Anime" premiered on the YouTube channel Narmak on July 24, 2020 and soon went viral, gaining 16,238,407 views. However the episode is suitable for more mature audiences, and is said to be removed on YouTube for violating the "Child Safety Policy".
 * The main character "SpongeBob" was named because Stephen Hillenburg was worried that people will confuse him for a block of cheese.
 * Stephen also wanted to call him "SpongeBoy", and the show SpongeBoy Ahoy, until he learned the name SpongeBoy was trademarked by a cleaning company. This appears in a gag where Mr. Krabs says" Sponge boy, me Bob!"
 * Due to its popularity, it spawned merchandise, from DVDs to lunchboxes, to mini shorts, etc.
 * The show was going to have a completely different intro with a more action-styled music piece, still images, and no lyrics. The intro was later changed to fit the show's style.
 * When the show debuted in May 1999, it surpassed Pokémon as the highest-rated Saturday-morning children's animated series on television. It is also one of the highest-rated shows on Nickelodeon for years, the other being The Loud House.
 * Mr. Lawrence auditioned for the role of SpongeBob, using the same voice he'd later use for Plankton (which comes across as serious vocal dissonance for anyone more familiar with the character's more famous high-pitched voice).
 * Barnacle Boy was originally a character called "Barnacle Bill", a salty old sailor whose body is a piece of log with his head sticking out, similar to Seamus from Family Guy. While he never appears in the show, he's the titular character of the two-part comic "The Ballad of Barnacle Bill" in the SpongeBob comic.
 * In early sketches, Plankton was going to be so small that every shot of him would require an off-camera character to hold a magnifying glass over him, but it made acting too difficult, resulting in some artistic liberties being taken with his size.
 * Several US Publications such as USA Today named the Krabby Patty among other fictional foods that many have wanted to exist in real life, and according to the New York Daily News, there are four restaurants which serve a similar burger to the Krabby Patty, which include the Snow Crab Crispy Rice, Phuket Fantasy, Angry Crab Benedict, and Soft Shell Crab Taco. The fictional burger also inspired real-life gummy confectionery treats, primarily in New England. However, the candies were not well received and were the subject of controversy, as a doctor from the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine warned the parents the candy was produced in China and was contaminated as it was made using Chinese milk. In 2019, a reporter with the student newspaper of Capital University gave the gummy candies a rating of a 2 out of 10 in their review of Halloween candy. It was featured in the SpongeBob merchandise, the burger was portrayed by an actor on stage at the SpongeBob Musical at  Palace Theatre, and Katy Perry used it as a second costume on the red carpet at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.
 * SpongeBob was originally designed to resemble an actual sea sponge, but Stephen Hillenburg couldn't do an appealing caricature of one. He went with a synthetic sink sponge instead to give the character a "squeaky clean nerd" appearance, as well as to imply the he's "a square peg trying to fit into a round hole."
 * SpongeBob himself is based on Bob the Sponge from Hillenburg's old educational book, "The Intertidal Zone".
 * In 1999, Nickelodeon released a press statement summarizing the first four episodes. At the time, these episodes were planned to be released in production order: "Help Wanted," "Tea at the Treedome," "Squeaky Boots," and "Jellyfishing." Sometime in April 1999, Nickelodeon decided to air the episodes in a different order instead; it was called the "packaging order." This order does not relate to production or airing order, and it most notably moved "Squeaky Boots" (the third produced segment overall) to episode 8b, much later than it was produced.
 * In 1997, a draft of the pilot episode was completed. This is known today as "Help Wanted".
 * According to Vincent Waller, an episode revealing Pearl's mother was written and reached the early development stages; however, Stephen Hillenburg was strongly against solving the mystery and shelved the episode indefinitely.
 * This show has spawned theories. One example is that the fish were mutated into people-like after the nuclear testing of Bikini Atoll. Another example is that the secret formula is crab meat.
 * Nick actually wanted the cast to be grade-schoolers instead of adults, due to the success of Hey Arnold!. Hillenburg was so opposed to this that he nearly abandoned the series, until he put SpongeBob in boating school as a compromise.
 * Reef Blower was originally intended to have dialogue, but became a dialogue-free episode due to the sound equipment being damaged.
 * Storyboard artist Adam Paloian mentioned one episode that had some storyboards, but was ultimately never made. It's called A Day In The Life Of Plankton, a 4-5 minute short with minimal dialogue that would've focused on Plankton when he isn't stealing the formula, just doing mundane things.
 * According to Vincent Waller, one of Stephen Hillenberg's original ideas for the series was to have Sandy be SpongeBob's girlfriend. Though they've been ship teased at times, the show ultimately leaves them as really good friends.
 * One early design for SpongeBob gave him a green baseball cap, seen at the end of "Home Sweet Pineapple".
 * Patrick was intended to be a surly bar owner at one point.
 * The line from the episode "Something Smells", "Once upon a time, there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died! The end." became a popular internet meme in 2013.
 * Squidward originally had eight legs, but the animators thought it made him look too burdened, and that he was harder to animate, so they cut them down to six.
 * The name of the Krabby Patty was originally going to be the Barnacle Burger, and the Krusty Krab was originally the Crusty Crab.
 * At one point, Rob Paulsen auditioned for the voice of SpongeBob. Jess Harnell and Mr. Lawrence (as mentioned above) auditioned as well.
 * In 2021, the episode "Mid-Life Crustacean" was removed from Paramount+ because of the infamous panty raid scene. The episode "Kwarantined Krab" was also removed from Paramount+ and put on hold from airing in the US due to it's plot being unintentionally similar to the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. Nick does plan to air "Kwarantined Krab" when the COVID-19 Pandemic is no longer a concern, though many fans believe that the will be released before the COVID-19 Pandemic ends and before 2030. But it was finally released in the US on April 29, 2022.
 * Patrick Star has his own show called “The Patrick Star Show” and you can watch the first episode here.
 * This is currently the largest page on the wiki.
 * Minecraft once made a caption on the main menu saying "Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?" which was made to reference this show.
 * It is the first Nickelodeon cartoon to reach its eleventh season.
 * The show has its own FANDOM site named mh:freshwebsites:Encyclopedia SpongeBobia.
 * The series is very popular in Germany where it's known as SpongeBob Schwammkopf, which may explain David Hasselhoff's appearance in The Movie. It also arguably has the best dub out of all the countries. The series is so popular in Germany that there are multiple SpongeBob SquarePants albums (14 as of 2021) containing original/cover songs that are exclusive in Germany and are sang by the characters. The series even has it's own music channel called "MusikSpongeBob" on YouTube, and a website dedicated entirely to these albums released annually. Even popular German singers and musicians (such as Markus Becker, MC Fitti, and Roland Kaiser) are heard singing alongside SpongeBob.
 * SpongeBob has a large cult following in Japan among not just children, but young women as well, who find him cute, cool and unique. Yeah, the kids love their SpongeBob over there; that is for sure.
 * The show is still popular to this day with its' current airings on NHK and TV Osaka. There was even a SpongeBob restaurant that opened up in Tokyo which sold exclusive food and merchandise.
 * SpongeBob is quite popular in China, especially with adults, and contrary to the parody on YouTube, has had no Executive Meddling by those Dirty Commies and a fairly decent dub.
 * The Russian army enjoys marching to the theme song.
 * SpongeBob is one of the most popular cartoons in Mexico (despite the dub being made primarily in Venezuela). There, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge out of Water topped the box office for two weeks in a row. Also, while SpongeBob merchandise isn't as common as it used to be in the United States, the merchandise is everywhere in Mexico. And when show creator Stephen Hillenburg died, the Spanish tag for SpongeBob was the third most popular tag of the day on Twitter, which also happened when the show turned 20. The 20th anniversary campaign that happened in North America also happened in Mexico, with promotions not happening in the US being tied to it, like these donuts. The third film The Spongebob Movie Sponge On The Run even gained an original song called "Agua" by Tainy and J Balvin which was performed entirely in Spanish with two English lyrics as a response to SpongeBob 's popularity in Mexico.
 * The 5th season ended on the the day that the 7th season started, which it the only season to end during a season premiere.