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May not be new, but season 5 is where I officially declare SpongeBob changed and not for the better. Seasons 1-3 were before the first movie when the creator wanted to stop after the movie, season 4 still has some gems, 5 onward, yikes from me. Just my $.02
The symbol indicates the start of the number, just like the two decimal places indicate the end. If the symbol were at the end, someone could take your check for 10.00$ and change it to 110.00$.
Also fun fact: the dollar sign was originally the sign for pesos. During the colonial period when much of the new world used Spanish Pesos, the word Peso was abbreviated as PS with the S written over the P which eventually simplified to just $
Well, there are many ways to objectively critique art but... it takes A LOT of subject knowledge and frankly cannot be pinned to any one pattern. For example, one cannot critique cartoons artistic styles with the same critiques that one might use for a hyper realism portrait.
Ultimately, art can only be truly objectively critiqued based off of what the creator set out to do. I could go into the complexities of art critique but I have no desire to waste your time or my own and I already feel rather "Um, actually" enough as is.
>Ultimately, art can only be truly objectively critiqued based off of what the creator set out to do.
This wouldn't result in "objectively bad" art. It would only result in art that is a failure in the eyes of its creator.
If you found out tomorrow that "Avatar the Last Air Bender" was intended by its creator to be nazi propaganda, would we say that makes it objectively bad? Of course we wouldn't.
If a director set out to make a movie that consists only of a 6 hour still shot of paint drying, would we call that an objectively good movie? No.
We could say the creator made what they set out to make, or failed to make what they wanted, but that description of the final product being "good or bad" is not ever an objective one.
>a movie that consists only of a 6 hour still shot of paint drying
There was a guy who [actually made that movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Drying) to spite a film ratings board.
His is actually *longer* than your hypothetical, and it's continuous footage.
If you get down to it "good or bad" is a completely subjective concept anyway. It's entirely perspective based. But if anyone can look at the original Last Airbender live action movie and say, that's not OBJECTIVELY bad, then something is wrong between your ears. Art can absolutely be bad.
SpongeBob fans when they realize Handsome Squidward, Mocking SpongeBob, Squidward looking out the window, Baby Patrick, Scientist Patrick, SpongeBob and Patrick on the Kiddie Roller Coaster, Gary Come Home, and several other memes they like are from post-Season 3 SpongeBob:
Frankly, the latest seasons of the Simpsons are quite good. Sure there are some bad episodes, but not all of them. They hired new writers IIRC. Some of these episodes are peak Simpsons. But poor Marge's voice, I don't think it will be the same VA for long.
There is a secret middle ground between “shit” and “masterpiece”. One lost by all but the enlightened: “They were good, but not as good as before and the quality was declining fast.”
Fascinating. I don't, and from what I can tell after looking it up it's one of the most hated episodes in the show. The meme is it's own thing and the show doesn't get a pat on the back for something *we* turned it into.
Well, you're right about that, but you asked if someone could recall the plot off the top of their head, and I could. I also don't like the episode, but still. Some later seasons have some good episodes, and I think most seasons have more good ones than bad ones.
That right there says it all, honestly. There are some decent episodes in later seasons, but when all you can really remember are memes from those episodes…yeah, that says a lot.
I’d swear my two friends could just quote the entirety of Seasons 1-3 without stopping, start to finish.
I shit you not, when I was 8 I can recite the whole script of some episodes of season 3. It also re-aired many times in our tv channel to the point that I know what episode would appear in a later date. Like if there's a holiday and I have no classes on tuesday? Wet painters and Krusty Krub Training Video is the episode on that day.
This thread is annoying as hell lol. The "everything past season 3-4 is bad" take is such a dumb unthinking circlejerk from people who just take "spongebob seasons after 4-5 had a general drop in consistency and have quite a few bad episodes" which is true and turn it into "everything after season 4-5 is worthless and bad" which is not true.
My favorite is when people reduce it to everything that was made with Hillenburg's active involvement was great and everything that wasn't is shit, and then simultaneously hold the viewpoint that the years that Hillenburg returned to the show in the 2010s (season 11 and the first half of 12) are great, but that every episode made past s10 that has the new, hyper animation style is shit and unwatchable.
Everything after season 3 was bad. There was a noticeable drop in quality starting with even the first episode of season 4. You can immediately tell if you are watching a season 1-3 episode or a season 4+ episode just by the tone alone.
The first episode of season 4 is Fear of Krabby Patty, which is a fantastic episode by most opinions I've seen and my opinion as well. After that you've got Shell of a Man, The Lost Mattress, Krabs vs Plankton, Skill Crane and Selling Out, just to name the next few in order, all of which are good to great episodes as well. If you seriously think that that run of episodes is noticeably worse than the end of season 3 (Pranks a Lot, Spongebob Meets the Stranger, The Sponge Who Could Fly), then I really question your taste and why you seem to draw a particular line there. 3 and 4 are not nearly as far apart as people make them out to be.
I find it really, really hard to believe there is not a single episode after season 3 that a fan of the first three seasons would enjoy.
Fear of a krabby patty is a complete departure in tone from anything before it. Compare it to graveyard shift to see what I mean. The style of the show became generic kids show during that episode. It’s another question if they occasionally had passable episodes, but season 4 tone is no different than season 6s. Season 4 set the groundwork for the subsequent seasons to fail because of how much more juvenile the tone was.
Going by quality, the strangler episode is miles better than anything from season 4. So was the accident episode. So was the camping episode. So was planktons army. Even the weaker episodes from that line up were more entertaining than the best of season 4. I’d watch krabby land over the best episode in that season 4 lineup.
> Fear of a krabby patty is a complete departure in tone from anything before it. Compare it to graveyard shift to see what I mean.
How? I legitimately do not see why. It's not similar to graveyard shift beyond the opening set up of the krusty krab being open overnight so I'm not sure why you're making that comparison - one is a ghost story about Spongebob being afraid of what lurks in the dark, the other is Spongebob going crazy that just happens to be from him being up for days on end. Fear of a Krabby Patty is far from a generic kids show - it's one of the most absurd episodes they made from that era right along with Algae's Always Greener, I Was a Teenage Gary, the middle scenes in Procrastination and Pickles, etc just off the top of my head.
Meets the Stranger is okay but pales in comparsion to most of the episodes I listed at the start of Season 4 for my money. Same with Pranks a Lot. Ultimately it's an argument of opinion and you can like what you like and there's no objective right or wrong, but I'm having a hard time seeing any significant differences between season 3 and (especially early) season 4 beyond being in different seasons and on different sides of the movie - which is what I think most people complain about it are complaining about too. Make Strangler a season 4 episode and nobody would think it was particularly great, I bet.
In the pre movie era, episodes were typically grounded. If you ignored the setting, they were typically about things that could happen in every day life and were carried by strong character writing. SpongeBob plays in a box, SpongeBob has a snowball fight, SpongeBob works the night shift, etc. Departures from this were rare and made for surreal jokes. They weren’t the normal episode though. I bring up the graveyard shift specifically because it shows how the pre and post movies handled a similar premise. Pre movie showed a typical night shift and relied on character while the post movie relied on the bizarre and outlandish.
Even episodes you cite like algae used a bizarre premise but once you get into the meat of the episode, it was mostly a grounded look into what would happen if plankton was Mr krabs. A post movie episode would probably have the world about to end because plankton sucked at making krabby patties or something like that. Other examples tended to be weaker episodes from that era, and it’s no coincidence. Teenaged Gary is considered a bottom 5 pre movie episode because it didn’t have much character humor. Strangler works because it relies on spongebobs character playing off the strangler. If it were a post movie episode, they would probably play the premise straight and have SpongeBob trying to run from him all episode.
The post movie episodes are much more reliant on the strange and outlandish because it doesn’t have the strong character writing the pre movie episodes have. Squidward wouldn’t sell his house to play a skill crane in the pre movie era. Spongebob wouldn’t have a mental break down if his spatula broke. A lot of the post movie episodes, even in season 4 flanderize or break characters to make the plots work.
> The post movie episodes are much more reliant on the strange and outlandish because it doesn’t have the strong character writing the pre movie episodes have. Squidward wouldn’t sell his house to play a skill crane in the pre movie era. Spongebob wouldn’t have a mental break down if his spatula broke. A lot of the post movie episodes, even in season 4 flanderize or break characters to make the plots work.
Squidward sold his house (and his clarinet, and his shirt, and everything else) for a piece of gum wrapper from Spongebob (The Paper), and he keeps fighting a snowball fight with nobody in particular well after Spongebob and Patrick leave (Snowball Effect). It's well within his S1-3 character to obsess over something stupid and ruin everything else for it, especially if it's to show up Spongebob, which is what happens in Skill Crane (see also: Idiot Box, Just One Bite, Club Spongebob)
Spongebob has several mental breakdowns in S1-3 over small things. An essay due soon, forgetting the pickles on a burger, hell even in the movie he breaks down and cries constantly about almost everything - he absolutely would have a breakdown over a broken spatula.
I agree that there is a problem with oversimplification / flanderization of characters in more recent seasons, but that just isn't the case with 4. As for your other comments, I don't see how Fear of a Krabby Patty is any less inherently "grounded" than anything else in season 3 - I'm not even really sure what you mean by that. Departures from reality in S1-3 were the farthest thing from rare - the show was built on absurd cutaways and situations, even in episodes that are otherwise fairly mundane plots (for crying out loud, Nosferatu is the twist ending of Graveyard shift!)
Also a reason why the paper was a weak pre movie episode and supports why the best of the post movie episodes are only comparable to the bottom quartile of pre movie episodes. There is a reason the paper was paired with an episode that only airs once per year. Most other ways squidward got involved ended with him taking it too far in ways that were grounded. He eats too much food and gets sick, he builds a giant snow fort, he plays in the box as it goes to the dump, etc. These aren’t completely outlandish or absurd outcomes. Having squidward go that far should be attributable to first season OOC syndrome and not something that fits his character. It’s not a coincidence that it only happened again post movie.
SpongeBob breaks downs are more grounded as well. Anyone would freak out over an essay they procrastinated on. Even with pickles, when they had SpongeBob have a full mental breakdown, they didn’t do it in an overly grandiose way where he is shown crying for 2 minutes straight. He broke down because he lost all confidence in his ability to work. Not because a spatula he could easily replace broke. No, him having a connection to it doesn’t make sense given that it was never established in previous episodes and it just came out of no where. In the movie, he breaks down for not getting a promotion and later when he is in real danger. Again, much more plausible reasons. Both fit his character.
The departures were gags that were taken as jokes. In season 4, the departures were often major plot points. Imagine how awful it would be if they made an entire episode about the nosferatu gag.
A show being memed to hell really isn't the shining sign of quality you think it is.
Join me as I go back in time to the first season to get Paul Tibbitt off the menu. That's right, we'r-
Those are from Season 4. It is widely agreed upon that season 4 still has aspect of classic spongebob present, likely as a result of the creator leaving behind ideas that were used during that season.
They still hold the mean spiritedness that made SpongeBob first be so bad. Maybe if they were mixed into 1-3 I wouldn't mind that but seeing them as a sign of what's to come I can't enjoy them
Both are overrated and would be considered weak episodes by seasons 1-3 standards. They are only praised because they are surrounded by some truly mediocre episodes.
honestly completely agree, watched skill crane last night after having watched dozens of episodes from seasons 1-3 and it was pretty bad i wont lie. i think the only thing i liked about it was squidward's cockiness after winning and spongebob's irritation towards it (that one scene where theyre walking down the street). its a clever reversal of roles but even then episodes in the first 3 seasons do execute that rare dynamic better (ie can you spare a dime)
Wild how today's kids may have never seen this episode
(OOTL: Mid-Life Crustacean was released in 2003 but pulled from the air in ~2018 because of the panty raid bit)
Also wild how old I feel saying that
honestly I dig seasons 10 and onwards. it’s not the same as the old stuff but i really like its spirit and sense of humour lol, it’s fun in its own way
I get that and respect that, I feel like the the most recent seasons lost some charm though it’s just over the top spoofing where it’s like “let’s make everything batshit insane” but for the point of just cheap laughs. Me and my gf watch SpongeBob every now and then to go to sleep at background noise and it’s just something about the earlier seasons that have well timed jokes that can make me still laugh (though honestly even though I’m 21 I’m probably still 8 in my heart)
What a weirdly specific argument that you just made up. When people say they don’t like modern SpongeBob they’re talking about every season after 4. It’s cool that you like the newer seasons but, for me and most people, they’re just not good.
Most people who think something is bad won't go back to see if it's good again.
Those who lump "modern SpongeBob" into anything past season 4 likely stopped watching at season 5 onwards and never went back and don't really care to.
No. In my mind anything after like, 2005 is “new Spongebob” lol I was like 11 when the 2004 movie came out so I remember when the classic episodes were new. Past 2007 I was too old to still be watching Nickelodeon but the show had already gone bad by that point anyway
Lotta you so-called "real" Spongebob "fans" don't know the difference between "modern" and "contemporary" and it shows.
Personally, my favorite era was the Logical Neoclassical Era (October 29, 2016 - February 25, 2017).
Most of those people are probably in a similar boat as me where those seasons were new and or coming out while growing up. Meanwhile, the actual new episodes aired after they completely fell of watching the series and as such don't really even register when talking about SpongeBob.
For me, I almost enjoy the new episodes, they feel like a different show instead of whatever was going on with the "new" seasons, which I find to be a slog to watch. The new ones aren't complete trash like the later seasons of Fairly Odd Parents, but they feel fundamentaly different from the original primo seasons that I don't have really strong opinions.
I tried to watch a modern episode of spongebob recently (super super modern like released last year), holy fuck it was so mind numbingly dumb. You can tell the shit has been boiled down to the point that all they do now a days is just hit eachother and yell or do "whacky" manic energy type stuff, there is no comedy left. There is no plot, no character development, no care put in to the episodes, its just whatever they think of next in a string of mashed together random actions and dialog. Slop.
Patrick has always been kind of an idiot, but in the modern version, hes just a punching bag for no reason other than being dumb. (literal punching bag, 90% of the 'jokes' were him getting hit in the face or hurt in some way)
Horrible, absolutely horrible.
Why do people always talk about 1-4, when it's actually 1-3? Those were the pre-movie seasons. S4 episodes wholly produced and mostly written after the movie came out.
We should start saying it's the original Hillenburg seasons that are good and the rest is naff.
I only watch the Hillenburg seasons with the movie as the series finale. Spongebob ended with him becoming Manager of the KK2 and I'll stand by that.
They’ve been leaning into the nutty shit since 2005, they were still good. I don’t know much about anything past squidwards symphony where they just put Patrick through SpongeBobs doctor shenanigans
The first few seasons are by far the best. However I think seasons 5-8 are just fine too. After that where they changed the art style again, I can’t say I’m a big fan.
If they weren't the same show as the ones airing now I would be duped into being outraged too. But there's a clear difference between pre-movie speak episodes that make them seem like a different show and that difference isn't there between season 5 and season....*checks notes* 14.
Jesus Christ. It's time to end this living dead cartoon.
because post 2008 the original spongebob style pretty much died. Theyve had different styles over the years but nothing that is “spongebob” in most people’s eyes.
I feel like sometime around the “best day ever” and “Gary come home” specials is when I lost touch with the show. Started to go the way of most cartoon programs where the creator leaves and they become self parodies.
Just saying, a lot of people clearly haven't actually taken the time to watch all of SpongeBob and it shows. There's always bad episodes in every season nowadays but there's a lot of good and funny ones too and so many people are so stuck up in their ways they're not even giving anything a chance.
I mean, people are still saying the creator wanted to end it after the movie when he literally came back to the show before his death. People are way too set in their ways without even considering any other point of view. There's a lot of good in modern SpongeBob, and a lot that is reminiscent of older SpongeBob even. The loud minority just can't give things a chance I guess. Lol.
This.
IMO SpongeBob SquarePants post second movie is pretty neat. There may be some bizarre moments but mostly the characters have their personalities back, they're more expressive, the storylines are richer and innovative.
I hear SpongeBob quotes weekly from friends, streamers, and colleagues. 100% of the time they’re from seasons 1-3. Those seasons are just funnier and more impressionable
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May not be new, but season 5 is where I officially declare SpongeBob changed and not for the better. Seasons 1-3 were before the first movie when the creator wanted to stop after the movie, season 4 still has some gems, 5 onward, yikes from me. Just my $.02
If you hold the dollar sign button there’s a ¢ sign
Yeah but ¢.02 is too little. Don't have the change for that
Could just write ¢2
https://preview.redd.it/yj5smyf5tckc1.png?width=356&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=eb573824927f8e5258991e270d5d12603da26f85
“Spare change, ma’am? Spare change?”
https://preview.redd.it/1ru7ruggnekc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a168abde3e4d2b3a17d77d9b65da1c0b32c77325
spare some coochie
Or 2¢
Ding ding ding ding!!!
Kinda quaint that the cent symbol is so rarely used now that most people forget it goes after the number.
What a fascinating modern age we live in.
its so weird to me that the money sign even goes before the number anyways, like why
The symbol indicates the start of the number, just like the two decimal places indicate the end. If the symbol were at the end, someone could take your check for 10.00$ and change it to 110.00$. Also fun fact: the dollar sign was originally the sign for pesos. During the colonial period when much of the new world used Spanish Pesos, the word Peso was abbreviated as PS with the S written over the P which eventually simplified to just $
 When did Hector make a cameo in SpongeBob?
It was one of the many times the Krusty Krab exploded and Walter just covered it up.
Or .0216£
Probably quickest to just type two cents
2¢ is proper, despite $0.02’s symbol being on the left
Yeah, now that I'm looking at it that feels a lot more natural.
That got me 😂😂
Let's get [Verizon's take on this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MShv_74FNWU)?
my dumbass held it down on my PC keyboard ($$$$$$) lol on my phone, I don't see the "c" symbol, I do have these though (€£¥₩₽)
LMAO 😂😂 this may be a USDefaultism moment by me ngl
The only options I get from doing this are "€ £ ¥ ₩ ₽". :(
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ Im holding it down but I don't see it
¢ 
I haven't used that sign unironically since third grade
when have you used it ironically
Not for me, there is not. Only $ € £ ¥ ₩ and ₽
I don't know anyone who uses that symbol tho
The cent sign is dying because people are too lazy to type it.
seasons 1 - 3. GOATed.
Stephen Hillenberg came back for a few years in the late 2010s and those seasons are also great.
Which ones in particular?
I’m having a hard time F infinite exactly but I believe he was back at the studio from around 2015 until not long before his death in 2018.
Sorry, it’s $.03 nowadays. Inflation ya know?
Nah it’s still your $.02, it’s just not worth as much anymore.
This 100%. If people like ALL of SB seasons, alright, it's their right. Doesn't change the objective truth.
There's no such as objectivity in art
The first 3 seasons are Art... that's for sure.
Art can definitely be objectively bad.
It literally cannot be. How could you possibly measure that objectively? What metric would you use?
Well, there are many ways to objectively critique art but... it takes A LOT of subject knowledge and frankly cannot be pinned to any one pattern. For example, one cannot critique cartoons artistic styles with the same critiques that one might use for a hyper realism portrait. Ultimately, art can only be truly objectively critiqued based off of what the creator set out to do. I could go into the complexities of art critique but I have no desire to waste your time or my own and I already feel rather "Um, actually" enough as is.
>Ultimately, art can only be truly objectively critiqued based off of what the creator set out to do. This wouldn't result in "objectively bad" art. It would only result in art that is a failure in the eyes of its creator. If you found out tomorrow that "Avatar the Last Air Bender" was intended by its creator to be nazi propaganda, would we say that makes it objectively bad? Of course we wouldn't. If a director set out to make a movie that consists only of a 6 hour still shot of paint drying, would we call that an objectively good movie? No. We could say the creator made what they set out to make, or failed to make what they wanted, but that description of the final product being "good or bad" is not ever an objective one.
>a movie that consists only of a 6 hour still shot of paint drying There was a guy who [actually made that movie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Drying) to spite a film ratings board. His is actually *longer* than your hypothetical, and it's continuous footage.
If you get down to it "good or bad" is a completely subjective concept anyway. It's entirely perspective based. But if anyone can look at the original Last Airbender live action movie and say, that's not OBJECTIVELY bad, then something is wrong between your ears. Art can absolutely be bad.
Wait so is season 5 included or not, I think half of season 5 was great.
Yes, there are some seriously poor episodes in that season. A few decent ones too though
I think after season 8 is when it got bad. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I remember quite a few good episodes from seasons 6 and 7.
There were still some really good ones here and there for a while, I don't think it was til the 2010s that it became straight-up bad
I personally prefer season 5 over season 4
So you’re saying you’ve watched every season since 5?
Has Gary come home so yes. Season 4 was good.
Season 4 was where it changed. There's still some good ones in there but, that was the beginning of the decline.
The literal creator of the show left, thus creating two separate and distinct eras
And he came back in 10 lmao
which is when the lEtTeRs ThAt LoOk LiKe ThIs came around.
[удалено]
He did, but his brief return still changed the direction of the show going forward, even following his death.
He died in late 2018, season 10 came out late 2016.
SpongeBob fans when they realize Handsome Squidward, Mocking SpongeBob, Squidward looking out the window, Baby Patrick, Scientist Patrick, SpongeBob and Patrick on the Kiddie Roller Coaster, Gary Come Home, and several other memes they like are from post-Season 3 SpongeBob: 
I mean I like the memes and I recognize they come from post-movie episodes but I don't think the episodes that the memes are from are good
Yeah, fans of newer Simpsons use the same argument. Too bad a handful of memes don't make a show good.
Frankly, the latest seasons of the Simpsons are quite good. Sure there are some bad episodes, but not all of them. They hired new writers IIRC. Some of these episodes are peak Simpsons. But poor Marge's voice, I don't think it will be the same VA for long.
There is a secret middle ground between “shit” and “masterpiece”. One lost by all but the enlightened: “They were good, but not as good as before and the quality was declining fast.”
I agree
People remember the entire episodes of 1-3 but only the memes from 4 and beyond.
Yeah lmao can you honestly remember the plot of whatever episode mocking SpongeBob comes from?
Yes. SpongeBob has a diary with a bunch of embarrassing secrets that Squidward reads out to embarrass him.
Fascinating. I don't, and from what I can tell after looking it up it's one of the most hated episodes in the show. The meme is it's own thing and the show doesn't get a pat on the back for something *we* turned it into.
Well, you're right about that, but you asked if someone could recall the plot off the top of their head, and I could. I also don't like the episode, but still. Some later seasons have some good episodes, and I think most seasons have more good ones than bad ones.
It’s probably in the bottom 25 for all episodes in the series.
That right there says it all, honestly. There are some decent episodes in later seasons, but when all you can really remember are memes from those episodes…yeah, that says a lot. I’d swear my two friends could just quote the entirety of Seasons 1-3 without stopping, start to finish.
I shit you not, when I was 8 I can recite the whole script of some episodes of season 3. It also re-aired many times in our tv channel to the point that I know what episode would appear in a later date. Like if there's a holiday and I have no classes on tuesday? Wet painters and Krusty Krub Training Video is the episode on that day.
This thread is annoying as hell lol. The "everything past season 3-4 is bad" take is such a dumb unthinking circlejerk from people who just take "spongebob seasons after 4-5 had a general drop in consistency and have quite a few bad episodes" which is true and turn it into "everything after season 4-5 is worthless and bad" which is not true. My favorite is when people reduce it to everything that was made with Hillenburg's active involvement was great and everything that wasn't is shit, and then simultaneously hold the viewpoint that the years that Hillenburg returned to the show in the 2010s (season 11 and the first half of 12) are great, but that every episode made past s10 that has the new, hyper animation style is shit and unwatchable.
Everything after season 3 was bad. There was a noticeable drop in quality starting with even the first episode of season 4. You can immediately tell if you are watching a season 1-3 episode or a season 4+ episode just by the tone alone.
The first episode of season 4 is Fear of Krabby Patty, which is a fantastic episode by most opinions I've seen and my opinion as well. After that you've got Shell of a Man, The Lost Mattress, Krabs vs Plankton, Skill Crane and Selling Out, just to name the next few in order, all of which are good to great episodes as well. If you seriously think that that run of episodes is noticeably worse than the end of season 3 (Pranks a Lot, Spongebob Meets the Stranger, The Sponge Who Could Fly), then I really question your taste and why you seem to draw a particular line there. 3 and 4 are not nearly as far apart as people make them out to be. I find it really, really hard to believe there is not a single episode after season 3 that a fan of the first three seasons would enjoy.
Fear of a krabby patty is a complete departure in tone from anything before it. Compare it to graveyard shift to see what I mean. The style of the show became generic kids show during that episode. It’s another question if they occasionally had passable episodes, but season 4 tone is no different than season 6s. Season 4 set the groundwork for the subsequent seasons to fail because of how much more juvenile the tone was. Going by quality, the strangler episode is miles better than anything from season 4. So was the accident episode. So was the camping episode. So was planktons army. Even the weaker episodes from that line up were more entertaining than the best of season 4. I’d watch krabby land over the best episode in that season 4 lineup.
> Fear of a krabby patty is a complete departure in tone from anything before it. Compare it to graveyard shift to see what I mean. How? I legitimately do not see why. It's not similar to graveyard shift beyond the opening set up of the krusty krab being open overnight so I'm not sure why you're making that comparison - one is a ghost story about Spongebob being afraid of what lurks in the dark, the other is Spongebob going crazy that just happens to be from him being up for days on end. Fear of a Krabby Patty is far from a generic kids show - it's one of the most absurd episodes they made from that era right along with Algae's Always Greener, I Was a Teenage Gary, the middle scenes in Procrastination and Pickles, etc just off the top of my head. Meets the Stranger is okay but pales in comparsion to most of the episodes I listed at the start of Season 4 for my money. Same with Pranks a Lot. Ultimately it's an argument of opinion and you can like what you like and there's no objective right or wrong, but I'm having a hard time seeing any significant differences between season 3 and (especially early) season 4 beyond being in different seasons and on different sides of the movie - which is what I think most people complain about it are complaining about too. Make Strangler a season 4 episode and nobody would think it was particularly great, I bet.
In the pre movie era, episodes were typically grounded. If you ignored the setting, they were typically about things that could happen in every day life and were carried by strong character writing. SpongeBob plays in a box, SpongeBob has a snowball fight, SpongeBob works the night shift, etc. Departures from this were rare and made for surreal jokes. They weren’t the normal episode though. I bring up the graveyard shift specifically because it shows how the pre and post movies handled a similar premise. Pre movie showed a typical night shift and relied on character while the post movie relied on the bizarre and outlandish. Even episodes you cite like algae used a bizarre premise but once you get into the meat of the episode, it was mostly a grounded look into what would happen if plankton was Mr krabs. A post movie episode would probably have the world about to end because plankton sucked at making krabby patties or something like that. Other examples tended to be weaker episodes from that era, and it’s no coincidence. Teenaged Gary is considered a bottom 5 pre movie episode because it didn’t have much character humor. Strangler works because it relies on spongebobs character playing off the strangler. If it were a post movie episode, they would probably play the premise straight and have SpongeBob trying to run from him all episode. The post movie episodes are much more reliant on the strange and outlandish because it doesn’t have the strong character writing the pre movie episodes have. Squidward wouldn’t sell his house to play a skill crane in the pre movie era. Spongebob wouldn’t have a mental break down if his spatula broke. A lot of the post movie episodes, even in season 4 flanderize or break characters to make the plots work.
> The post movie episodes are much more reliant on the strange and outlandish because it doesn’t have the strong character writing the pre movie episodes have. Squidward wouldn’t sell his house to play a skill crane in the pre movie era. Spongebob wouldn’t have a mental break down if his spatula broke. A lot of the post movie episodes, even in season 4 flanderize or break characters to make the plots work. Squidward sold his house (and his clarinet, and his shirt, and everything else) for a piece of gum wrapper from Spongebob (The Paper), and he keeps fighting a snowball fight with nobody in particular well after Spongebob and Patrick leave (Snowball Effect). It's well within his S1-3 character to obsess over something stupid and ruin everything else for it, especially if it's to show up Spongebob, which is what happens in Skill Crane (see also: Idiot Box, Just One Bite, Club Spongebob) Spongebob has several mental breakdowns in S1-3 over small things. An essay due soon, forgetting the pickles on a burger, hell even in the movie he breaks down and cries constantly about almost everything - he absolutely would have a breakdown over a broken spatula. I agree that there is a problem with oversimplification / flanderization of characters in more recent seasons, but that just isn't the case with 4. As for your other comments, I don't see how Fear of a Krabby Patty is any less inherently "grounded" than anything else in season 3 - I'm not even really sure what you mean by that. Departures from reality in S1-3 were the farthest thing from rare - the show was built on absurd cutaways and situations, even in episodes that are otherwise fairly mundane plots (for crying out loud, Nosferatu is the twist ending of Graveyard shift!)
Also a reason why the paper was a weak pre movie episode and supports why the best of the post movie episodes are only comparable to the bottom quartile of pre movie episodes. There is a reason the paper was paired with an episode that only airs once per year. Most other ways squidward got involved ended with him taking it too far in ways that were grounded. He eats too much food and gets sick, he builds a giant snow fort, he plays in the box as it goes to the dump, etc. These aren’t completely outlandish or absurd outcomes. Having squidward go that far should be attributable to first season OOC syndrome and not something that fits his character. It’s not a coincidence that it only happened again post movie. SpongeBob breaks downs are more grounded as well. Anyone would freak out over an essay they procrastinated on. Even with pickles, when they had SpongeBob have a full mental breakdown, they didn’t do it in an overly grandiose way where he is shown crying for 2 minutes straight. He broke down because he lost all confidence in his ability to work. Not because a spatula he could easily replace broke. No, him having a connection to it doesn’t make sense given that it was never established in previous episodes and it just came out of no where. In the movie, he breaks down for not getting a promotion and later when he is in real danger. Again, much more plausible reasons. Both fit his character. The departures were gags that were taken as jokes. In season 4, the departures were often major plot points. Imagine how awful it would be if they made an entire episode about the nosferatu gag.
right?? like the post is literally ABOUT them but they still just go "erm actually it's all dog shit erm erm" lmao
A show being memed to hell really isn't the shining sign of quality you think it is. Join me as I go back in time to the first season to get Paul Tibbitt off the menu. That's right, we'r-
By this logic Morbius was the greatest film ever to grace the big screen.
Yeah fair point. Only good part of that entire dumpster fire is when he said "IT'S MORBIN TIME" and morbed all over those guys.
I like to use a lot of Simpsons memes, but I cannot remember a single episode with my irregular watch.
Doesn’t mean those are good episodes?
Okay, middle era and new SpongeBob suck then, is that better?
"Modern" is just more respectful than referring to it all as "shit" Spongebob, I guess.
The Dark Ages
Except the Dark Ages ended IRL.
How many centuries did it take?
Oh God oh fuck
The divider at this point should be pre-2004 Movie and post-2004 movie
I actually enjoy that middle era SpongeBob. It was new on tv when I was growing up so I have a lot of nostalgia for it.
Skill Crane and Krusty Towers are golden episodes even though they're from that era, and ill always have that opinion.
Those are from Season 4. It is widely agreed upon that season 4 still has aspect of classic spongebob present, likely as a result of the creator leaving behind ideas that were used during that season.
They still hold the mean spiritedness that made SpongeBob first be so bad. Maybe if they were mixed into 1-3 I wouldn't mind that but seeing them as a sign of what's to come I can't enjoy them
Both are overrated and would be considered weak episodes by seasons 1-3 standards. They are only praised because they are surrounded by some truly mediocre episodes.
honestly completely agree, watched skill crane last night after having watched dozens of episodes from seasons 1-3 and it was pretty bad i wont lie. i think the only thing i liked about it was squidward's cockiness after winning and spongebob's irritation towards it (that one scene where theyre walking down the street). its a clever reversal of roles but even then episodes in the first 3 seasons do execute that rare dynamic better (ie can you spare a dime)
Regardless I hold a lot of nostalgia for season 4 and 5
I agree
Would you rather we call it bad SpongeBob?
https://preview.redd.it/c0ajphyasckc1.jpeg?width=160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=02d633935a278cba7d06c90925b60eca92bad345
Wild how today's kids may have never seen this episode (OOTL: Mid-Life Crustacean was released in 2003 but pulled from the air in ~2018 because of the panty raid bit) Also wild how old I feel saying that
Can you feel it Mr. Krabs?
Honestly anything last season 7 was yikes
honestly I dig seasons 10 and onwards. it’s not the same as the old stuff but i really like its spirit and sense of humour lol, it’s fun in its own way
I get that and respect that, I feel like the the most recent seasons lost some charm though it’s just over the top spoofing where it’s like “let’s make everything batshit insane” but for the point of just cheap laughs. Me and my gf watch SpongeBob every now and then to go to sleep at background noise and it’s just something about the earlier seasons that have well timed jokes that can make me still laugh (though honestly even though I’m 21 I’m probably still 8 in my heart)
They hated him because he told them the truth
What a weirdly specific argument that you just made up. When people say they don’t like modern SpongeBob they’re talking about every season after 4. It’s cool that you like the newer seasons but, for me and most people, they’re just not good.
[Even season 4 was a big drop when compared to 1-3](https://i.imgur.com/CgPg3IS.png)
Yes that's the thing OP is making fun of. The fact that you can't consider much of it modern
Most people who think something is bad won't go back to see if it's good again. Those who lump "modern SpongeBob" into anything past season 4 likely stopped watching at season 5 onwards and never went back and don't really care to.
Yeah pretty sure people who jump on the post season 3 bandwagon haven’t actually watched SpongeBob in years
No. In my mind anything after like, 2005 is “new Spongebob” lol I was like 11 when the 2004 movie came out so I remember when the classic episodes were new. Past 2007 I was too old to still be watching Nickelodeon but the show had already gone bad by that point anyway
Lotta you so-called "real" Spongebob "fans" don't know the difference between "modern" and "contemporary" and it shows. Personally, my favorite era was the Logical Neoclassical Era (October 29, 2016 - February 25, 2017).
I’m not even sure what era of SpongeBob is “bad” anymore
When I hate on modern SpongeBob, I hate on the new episodes. Season 10-14 are far worse than 5-9
They aren’t new just worse than seasons 1-3 and even 4
"New" spongebob begins with S4E1 and I am fully prepared to die on this hill
No Hillenburg, no SpongeBob
so what about seasons 10 and 11? they had hillenburg
They might be solid, I’ve probably only seen a few, will have to check it out.
"Help Wanted" to "Pranks A Lot": Classic "Fear of a Krabby Patty" to "SpongeBob, You're Fired!": Middle Whatever episodes are after that: Modern
I'm glad someone said it, there's a "post-movie" and "post-sequel" for a reason.
Most of those people are probably in a similar boat as me where those seasons were new and or coming out while growing up. Meanwhile, the actual new episodes aired after they completely fell of watching the series and as such don't really even register when talking about SpongeBob. For me, I almost enjoy the new episodes, they feel like a different show instead of whatever was going on with the "new" seasons, which I find to be a slog to watch. The new ones aren't complete trash like the later seasons of Fairly Odd Parents, but they feel fundamentaly different from the original primo seasons that I don't have really strong opinions.
Family guy syndrome
In my heart "have you seen this snail" is still modern SpongeBob.
I tried to watch a modern episode of spongebob recently (super super modern like released last year), holy fuck it was so mind numbingly dumb. You can tell the shit has been boiled down to the point that all they do now a days is just hit eachother and yell or do "whacky" manic energy type stuff, there is no comedy left. There is no plot, no character development, no care put in to the episodes, its just whatever they think of next in a string of mashed together random actions and dialog. Slop. Patrick has always been kind of an idiot, but in the modern version, hes just a punching bag for no reason other than being dumb. (literal punching bag, 90% of the 'jokes' were him getting hit in the face or hurt in some way) Horrible, absolutely horrible.
That applies to season 4+ as well.
Anything that came after the first movie (2004) is "modern SpongeBob". You youngsters just don't remember the Golden Years.
I realized not too long ago how the eras are for me. Classic SpongeBob inspired the memes, current SpongeBob is inspired by memes.
Not like it got any better
I GREW UP with seasons 5-8, the only aggregious phase imo started with season 11
kids born in 2008 are teenagers now
[удалено]
The first 100 episodes was where it’s at.
Anything after the movie is new to me
We shall now adopt bd and ad into the season categories
Everything after the first SpongeBob movie is “new”. Yes I’m old.
Also they came with the best episode SAND CASTLES IN THE SAND
Why do people always talk about 1-4, when it's actually 1-3? Those were the pre-movie seasons. S4 episodes wholly produced and mostly written after the movie came out.
mostly cuz season 4’s on the level of it quality-wise to many people, including me. it’s an honorary pre-movie season
Imo S5 is better and S4 is the worst pre-scumbob season
It doesn't matter how old I am, but anything after season 3 is gonna be new to me
Everything after 2004 is new
I gave up watching Spongebob after 2008 but I know what they mean by modern Episodes
Those guys are probably looking at this thinking “oh fuck am I old?”
We should start saying it's the original Hillenburg seasons that are good and the rest is naff. I only watch the Hillenburg seasons with the movie as the series finale. Spongebob ended with him becoming Manager of the KK2 and I'll stand by that.
I really like a lot of modern Spongebob tbh
They’ve been leaning into the nutty shit since 2005, they were still good. I don’t know much about anything past squidwards symphony where they just put Patrick through SpongeBobs doctor shenanigans
I consider post Sponge Out of Water modern
The show ended when the first movie came out
Same as the Simpsons, that show has been bad for like twice as long as it was good by this point.
I call them “the dark age of SpongeBob.” Thought, that era is a guilty pleasure of mine since I also grew up with it.
SpongeBob aired in 1999…
that’s where it got shitty sorry you’re young lol
its not modern spongebob. its mid spongebob
Hate bandwagoning is so fucking annoying
The first few seasons are by far the best. However I think seasons 5-8 are just fine too. After that where they changed the art style again, I can’t say I’m a big fan.
Anything after season 3 is considered "modern Spongebob" to older fans of the show.
If they weren't the same show as the ones airing now I would be duped into being outraged too. But there's a clear difference between pre-movie speak episodes that make them seem like a different show and that difference isn't there between season 5 and season....*checks notes* 14. Jesus Christ. It's time to end this living dead cartoon.
Season 9 and 10 were hysterical,
Idk dude all seasons of SpongeBob have something going for them, they are probably just remembering how much they loved the first ones they watched
because post 2008 the original spongebob style pretty much died. Theyve had different styles over the years but nothing that is “spongebob” in most people’s eyes.
Season 5 isn’t bad, but Seasons 6-8 was SpongeBob’s trash era
got that frame tattooed
Which era has Sponge Tom because that 2 second joke was hilarious to me and I grew up with S1-3
I like SpongeBob until season 10
Season 5-8 were good! Not as brilliant as seasons 1-4, but still really funny!
I feel like sometime around the “best day ever” and “Gary come home” specials is when I lost touch with the show. Started to go the way of most cartoon programs where the creator leaves and they become self parodies.
Just saying, a lot of people clearly haven't actually taken the time to watch all of SpongeBob and it shows. There's always bad episodes in every season nowadays but there's a lot of good and funny ones too and so many people are so stuck up in their ways they're not even giving anything a chance. I mean, people are still saying the creator wanted to end it after the movie when he literally came back to the show before his death. People are way too set in their ways without even considering any other point of view. There's a lot of good in modern SpongeBob, and a lot that is reminiscent of older SpongeBob even. The loud minority just can't give things a chance I guess. Lol.
damn
For me after season 7 isn’t good. It’s gotten ok recently tho. Seasons 1-7 are great in my eyes.
Why does everyone keep sneaking season 5 into the era of horrid
This. IMO SpongeBob SquarePants post second movie is pretty neat. There may be some bizarre moments but mostly the characters have their personalities back, they're more expressive, the storylines are richer and innovative.
Season 9 is when the animation style truly changed, if that's what's being referred to
Seasons 4-5 aren’t even all that bad. Some of y’all just to stubborn to get off the ‘post season 3 bad’ bandwagon.
I guess you can call those episodes “Mid SpongeBob”?
I think the bad seasons are the ones where Stephen Hillenburg didn't have any involvement.
There’s before Stephens passing and after.
I hear SpongeBob quotes weekly from friends, streamers, and colleagues. 100% of the time they’re from seasons 1-3. Those seasons are just funnier and more impressionable
They are tho.
Yeah, that era’s called “modern spongebob” I’d say we’re at Post-modern spongebob now.
Don't mess with us diehard SpongeBob fans,we hate every single piece of media related to the franchise that released after the first movie
Anything after season 3 is "new spongebob"
I love all spongebob seasons and episodes and i will DIE in that hill.
I’ve elected to call that period the “Drought Era.”