5 More of My Favorite SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes

SpongeBob SquarePants is my second favorite Nickelodeon show (#1 is Avatar: The Last Airbender) and one of my favorite TV shows in general. I did a random five favorites list five years ago on the show’s 20th anniversary. Today marks the show’s 25th anniversary so I’m here to share fire more favorite episodes. This isn’t a Top 5 list per se; just five episodes that I particularly enjoy at the top of my head. Maybe someday, I’ll do an actual ranking.

“Bubblestand” (Season 1, Episode 2a)

One of the earliest episodes in the show, in which SpongeBob runs a bubble blowing stand. The primary joke of this episode is SpongeBob demonstrating an incredibly convoluted technique to blow the perfect bubble. It gets even funnier when Squidward begrudgingly does it and it ends up working anyway (a bit too well but nevertheless, it works). It’s definitely a very straightforward episode but it does have the excuse of being one of the very first episodes and that doesn’t stop it from being memorable and hilarious. Also, I still to this day quote “it’s a giraffe!” whenever I watch something and an elephant appears (and when an actual giraffe shows up but it’s not the same).

“Shanghaied” (Season 2, Episode 13a)

I looked at the last post to double check which episodes I already chose and I re-read a comment telling me that it was baffling that I did not include “Shaghaied”. That’s 100% fair. “Shanghaied” has SpongeBob and Patrick being forced to serve as the Flying Dutchman’s new crewmen. Unfortunately, the two are bad at the job so they then have to escape the ship before the Flying Dutchman devours them. While certainly a funny premise, I think “Shanghaied” is largely beloved for many of its individual gags. It’s just joke after joke and they’re all hilarious. Me personally, I’m most fond of the perfume department scene and the part where Patrick fails to negotiate more wishes out of the Flying Dutchman and completely wastes the first wish. The episode is also famous for letting the viewers vote on the ending online though I personally didn’t know about this until years later. It blew my mind to see the alternate endings.

“Band Geeks” (Season 2, Episode 15b)

Another episode I got called out for omitting and like with “Shanghaied”, that’s fair. In “Band Geeks”, Squidward is forced to recruit the townsfolk of Bikini Bottom to perform as a marching band for the upcoming Bubble Bowl. Suffice to say, this is easier said than done. “Band Geeks” has its fair share of solid jokes. My favorite are Patrick asking if mayonnaise and horseradish are an instrument and the tragic flag twirler scene. That said, the episode is perhaps best known for the end where everyone successfully performs the song, “Sweet Victory”, at the Bubble Bowl, much to Squidward’s surprise and delight. It’s an unusually sentimental moment in SpongeBob and it works to great effect. Technically, “Sweet Victory” wasn’t actually made for SpongeBob but it’s easily one of the best songs in the entire show, both due to the context in which it’s used and in its own right.

“Idiot Box” (Season 3, Episode 4b)

A very nostalgic pick for me. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick order a TV just so that they can play make-believe in the box it came with. Squidward gets the TV but he struggles to enjoy it as he overhears the imaginative scenarios SpongeBob and Patrick come to life. But whenever Squidward checks up on his neighbors, he just sees them playing make-believe in the box, leaving him to speculate on what trickery the two are using. The scenarios SpongeBob and Patrick come up with get pretty wild, either in concept (i.e. robot pirate island) or in execution (i.e. the avalanche that forces the guys to get amputated). Oddly enough, the joke that sticks with the most is the interlude where Squidward tries to enjoy his TV, only for every channel to play something involving boxes. My brother and I have quoted that soap opera where the two characters give each other boxes and nothing else besides those on many occasions.

“The Camping Episode” (Season 3, Episode 17b)

Probably one of the less iconic picks in this post but I have a lot of nostalgia for “The Camping Episode”. Here, Squidward camps with SpongeBob and Patrick in the great outdoors of their backyard to prove that he can camp just like them. The episode starts fairly normal but it eventually culminates in the amazingly absurd conundrum where Squidward provokes a Sea-Bear after mistaking it as a myth. Squidward gets injured a lot in this show but this is one that’s particularly memorable for me because of the attacker is so unique and strange. This episode also features “The Campfire Song Song”. I don’t know if it’s my favorite SpongeBob song anymore but I was randomly obsessed with it as a kid because of its catchy lyrics and its needlessly intense progression.