#1999-present

The adventures of aquatic beings and friends who have chaotic undersea adventures.

One of the better aspects over the series is how unpredictable the animation can be. Most of it is fairly simple with standard backgrounds and the same locations repeated but occasionally there will be extreme close-ups with so much detail that the contrast is jarring, and also a fair few original locations, some that are even so good that they couldn’t help repeating them in later seasons.

After so many episodes and seasons there is the occupational hazard that things get formulaic even in an unpredictable show, but this series has just enough variety that the typical stories are kept to a minimum. This is helped by the ones that have more modern references or entreat literary suplication, such as fairytales.

Much of the early success resulted from the “random” element of the series, which still has some appeal, but was mostly a phase of the early 00s decade. More recent episodes rely more on character driven humour since they’ve had ample time to develop and some more referencial humor that has adapted to the time.

A few sexual and old film reference jokes manage to get past the censorship and marketing board which is good as it allows more expression and growth. There are a few episodes that are particular to a certain genre and are often the best, such as the horror ones, but not all can break the archetype and some can definitely be considered ‘filler’ episodes.

7/10 -Well above average, but no masterpiece-

-The only episode where the title is said aloud during the title card is season 1, episode 14 “SB-129”.

-A creepypasta was made in 2009 called “Squidward’s Suicide” in which the character kills himself and had an associated image of Squidward with bloodshot eyes. This was referenced in an actual 2019 episode called “SpongeBob in RandomLand” in which Squidward finds the bloodshot face on a door to another dimension.