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SpongeBob SquarePants Season 4 Review

The fourth season of SpongeBob SquarePants is the weakest one so far, though it’s still a fairly strong, fun season.

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“Huh, I didn’t even know I had an ear“

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Fear of a Krabby Patty is a fun Plankton episode with his plan going on pretty strong at first. Shell of a Man is forgettable, but The Lost Mattress is a lot of fun with every character being well utilized. Krabs vs. Plankton is a pretty amusing courtroom drama of sorts in a Plankton-heavy season where he excelled more often than not.

Have You Seen This Snail? is too silly, but Skill Crane is absolutely hilarious in Squidward wanting desperately to win a toy. He is always very funny when setting out to do something no matter what. Good Neighbors is another strong Squidward episode where everything goes wrong for him to hilarious results. Selling Out is an okay episode where a lot of things changed, but for too short a runtime to make a significant difference.

Funny Pants is overly ridiculous in plot, Dunces and Dragons is a medieval episode that should have been better crafted and more authentic while Enemy In-Law is a crazy episode where Plankton falls in love with his nemesis’ mother to very comedic results. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture is one of the best episodes coming from this usually mediocre segment because it’s more original. Basically, our heroes get to make their own movie version based on this IP and it was so amusing seeing them all in very funny roles.

Patrick SmartPants sees him become smarter for a day, thus effectively changing the status quo between friends. It’s ultimately a very moving, sweet friendship episode. SquidBob TentaclePants is a crazy, grotesque episode that overall did not work for me as it was mostly just a gimmick. Krusty Towers pits Squid against Krabs to very amusing results.

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Mrs. Puff, You’re Fired is forgettable, Chimps Ahoy is ridiculous, Ghost Host is not great, but it does use the Flying Dutchman quite resonantly, Whale of a Birthday is a fine Pearl episode where she is spoiled per usual, Karate Island is utterly forgettable itself. All That Glitters is a great workplace episode with the Monster Krabby Patty itself being a great comedic concept for this show.

Wishing You Well is an absolutely hilarious episode where Krabs wants to make money out of a wishing well scheme. His materialism has never been this funny or this nefarious. New Leaf is a perfect Plankton story where he acts like he’s become a good guy throughout the episode, but to no avail as Krabs saw through him. Once Bitten is a chaotic episode that is one-note, but Bummer Vacation explores so effectively SpongeBob’s workaholic nature in this superbly scripted installment.

Wigstruck is one of those episodes where the protagonist goes after a fad, but gets ridiculed by everyone else. The humor is great here and the entire episode is highly entertaining. Squidtastic Voyage is too cartoony in premise even for this show, That’s No Lady is rather odd in its gender humor, The Thing is very amusing in how Squidward gets treated so horribly and Hocus Pocus is forgettable.

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Driven to Tears, Rule of Dumb and Born to Be Wild are all very annoying episodes that do not feature any truly great character development or storytelling unfortunately. Best Frenemies is solid, The Pink Purloiner is once again uninteresting, Squid Wood is a solid, funny Squidward episode, Best Day Ever has a good titular song but is overall too silly and The Gift of Gum is another Patrick episode that doesn’t really work.