A Pal for Gary is a SCUMBOB!-infamous episode[1] of SpongeBob SquarePants. In this episode, SpongeBob gets a pet called Puffy Fluffy to keep Gary company when he isn't home, but the creature plans to eat Gary.
Summary[]
When SpongeBob thinks that Gary is lonely while he is at work, he buys another pet named Puffy Fluffy as a playmate for Gary. However, Puffy Fluffy does not get along with Gary, and SpongeBob believes that Gary is being too mean to him. Whenever SpongeBob is not present, the new pet terrorizes Gary and plans to make him into a yummy snack, but SpongeBob thinks Gary is being mean to it.
AIR DATE FOR THIS EPISODE: JANUARY 2, 2010
Why It's Not A Pal[]
- In order to quickly get the elephant out of the room, this is a MASSIVE Gary Torture episode. In clear addition, it is unoriginal, as it hinges around the overused cliché where the innocent character gets punished despite committing no wrongdoings whereas the one(s) who did do the wrongdoings get(s) away scot-free, while not the case with the villain. Not only is it beaten into the ground by this point, but it's always been mean-spirited & never pleasant to watch. Needless to say, this episode is no exception.
- SpongeBob is a total idiot, and his flanderization has gone way too far and out of hand (In fact, he is at his absolute worst here) This is evident when.
- He finds a pet store with nudibranchs owned by a merchant, at which he ignores her warning about Puffy Fluffy & steals him without paying.
- He sends Gary to bed with Puffy Fluffy, as he thinks the former was ignoring Puffy Fluffy, even though Puffy Fluffy is acting psychopathically towards Gary.
- He assumes that Gary had destroyed his library and most of his house, which is nonsensical as it would be impossible for a normal pet to destroy a house in a single night.
- In the most infamous and infuriating scene of the episode, he obnoxiously scolds Gary & tells him to put Puffy Fluffy down, when Gary was clearly being held captive inside Puffy Fluffy's mouth right in front of him; yes, SpongeBob has always been portrayed as naive from time to time, but never too stupid to realize that one of his "pets" is eating the other!
- When Puffy Fluffy runs away, SpongeBob calls for him to come back, although the former had held him captive.
- Even at the end, he still blames Gary, despite how the latter had saved his life and prevented him from being devoured by Puffy Fluffy.
- He takes Gary to work, even though the Krusty Krab already made a policy banning pets earlier in the episode.
- Generic story where the property of their owner is jealous of the new one, except it's taken to a direction of so low that it's already become horrible.
- Puffy Fluffy does nothing other than terrorizing Gary. That's what his character is.
- The scene where Puffy Fluffy puts one of his tongues in SpongeBob's mouth is disgusting.
- Puffy Fluffy's vicious design with long, jagged teeth & multiple Sarlacc-like tongues is very disturbing, nightmarish, grotesque, & looks more like something out of a rejected Johnny Quest episode, especially for an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, although it does fit well with the solid tone about how the original must face the chaotic new pet, but still.
- SpongeBob never gets any comeuppance for how he mistreated Gary (other than almost getting eaten by Puffy Fluffy, but it isn't enough).
- Wasted potential: the idea of an episode where the protagonist buys an animal that looks harmless when in truth it's a dangerous creature was a neat idea of a SpongeBob episode & could have made some creative & funny gags that involve the creature, but Gary had to be put through it, which ruins the episode greatly.
- Plot Hole: It has been shown in multiple episodes, including this one, that SpongeBob has a pet clam named Shelley in his bedroom. The whole point of this episode is getting a new pet for Gary to play with, even though SpongeBob already has another one. With that in mind, that makes SpongeBob’s motivation, and the whole episode for that matter, exceptionally pointless.
- Rip-Off: Although, Pet or Pests is a HYPER-infamous episode, we should still give it some love by exposing that this episode is a rip-off of it.
Redeeming Qualities That Are Pals[]
- Puffy Fluffy got what he deserved in the end (Depending on your view).
- On that note, Puffy Fluffy has not been seen as a protagonist since this episode.
- He also gets what he deserves in the flash game based on this episode, "Gary's Revenge".
- The opening scene is decent, as it feels like something from a normal SpongeBob SquarePants episode.
- Depending on your view, it's funny to see SpongeBob throw away the snail food can which hits a lot of things.
- Gary using the leash as a lasso to open the cabinet & grab some snail food before beginning to watch a cowboy show is a decent set-up for the climax. Likewise, Gary's attack on Puffy Fluffy to save SpongeBob was awesome.
- The scene where SpongeBob says "Oh, these enchiladas are hot, hot, hot!" was considered the only good joke in this episode.
- In the Polish dub, SpongeBob tells Puffy Fluffy to put Gary down rather than the other way around. (See, Poland is smart, Nickelodeon! Be more like them.).
- Gary is still a likable character since he saves SpongeBob & gets rid of Puffy Fluffy.
- Despite the ending being unsatisfying it is pretty decent.
- Despite his hypocrisy, Mr. Krabs is also tolerable since he understands SpongeBob's needs to tend to Gary.
- Speaking of Mr. Krabs, this is one of the few episodes in the show's dark age where he has his old personality.
- The episode's dark tone could've worked if it wasn't for the episode's mean-spirited nature.
- The battle scenes between Gary & Puffy Fluffy are kinda fun to watch.
- Gary being scolded by SpongeBob while uncalled for is considered karma for chasing away Mrs. Wormsley in Pet or Pests or leaving SpongeBob's clothes in the clothes dryer in To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants.
- SpongeBob is still likeable in the beginning before he gets Puffy Fluffy.
- Although Gary was tortured throughout the episode, he was not physically injured or harmed.
- Pop culture reference: This episode parodies the 1984 film "Gremlins", which has a similar plot about a small creature turning into a monster.
How to Make it a "Good" Pal:[]
- Whenever SpongeBob comes back, have Puffy Fluffy revert to his cute state & go back to his normal "harmless" self & have SpongeBob get mad at Puffy Fluffy instead of Gary for hissing at Gary to better set up a plot twist.
- Or at the very least, you can have Puffy Fluffy return to his cute state but have SpongeBob still scold Gary. SpongeBob would still be a mean jerk but at least instead of SpongeBob's jerkiness being the problem, it would be Puffy Fluffy manipulating the little sponge into believing that Gary started the argument. It would make SpongeBob's behavior more understandable.
- Even better, at least take out all of the mean-spirted nature and you've got a pretty decent episode right there.
- When SpongeBob outs the door to the library, have him shocked that he saw Gary trapped onto Fluffy, then have SpongeBob tell Fluffy to put Gary down instead, and when after Gary chases Fluffy out of town, have SpongeBob show regret that he didn't listen to Gary in the first place. And to not miss Gary, he installs a TV that shows Gary inside the Krusty Krab.
- Change the plot a bit: have Spongebob find an abandoned animal on the side of the road and bring him home. Chaos starts when he attacks Gary. Gary saves Spongebob and he shows remorse for unintentionally trying to torture him. Gary would get a job at the Krusty Krab and become a security guard (protecting the Formula from Plankton).
- Rename the episode to something in contrast to the official title. Maybe, "Companion Catastrophe" or "Gary and the Gremlin" (as a reference to the film it parodies)
Reception[]
"A Pal for Gary" was universally panned by fans, some of whom had considered it one of, if not, the worst in the series along with One Coarse Meal & other episodes; it, alongside "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", is also the lowest-rated episode of the series on IMDB, as it has a 3.2 rating there. It is also the lowest-rated episode on SpongeBuddy Mania with an average score of 1.80/10 based on 227 ratings.
Top 10 YouTuber StephanieSparda in his "Top 10 favorite SpongeBob episodes" refers how he too also loves this episode, during the #1 Segment, he stated that SpongeBob SquarePants was his favorite TV-Show ever until the poorer episodes were made after the film, & right as he says that, the Title Card of "A Pal for Gary" appears with the Tec Tights that reads "I LOVE this episode in particular!", though despite that, he still enjoys watching the 1st 3 seasons, & still loves SpongeBob SquarePants.
TheMysteriousMrEnter took this episode FAR more seriously & dramatically when he reviewed this episode for his 2nd Animated Atrocity, such as the dramatic music that plays when it showed the title card after asking what his next review is, needing associations from Thomasmemorycentral to review this episode, showing a scene where a guy throws a TV out the window which represents how he reacted after watching this episode, & having Thomasmemorycentral review the rest of the episode while he does a bunch of random synanikings off-screen after showing the infamous "SpongeBob tells Gary to put Puffy Fluffy down scene", such as shooting someone with a gun & running over someone with a car, despite that, however, he amendments that the episode is not nearly as bad as "One Coarse Meal". He later put the episode at the #6 spot on his Top 10 WORST SpongeBob SquarePants episode list.
Nathaniel Bandy also criticized this episode, calling it one of the worst episodes of the show.
PIEGUYRULZ considered this one a ScumBob episode, but he didn't think it's as bad as a lot of people think. He stated that the episode only has 2 obvious problems, one of them is that SpongeBob is beyond ignorant, & the other one is that it's not very funny. Moreover, he found the 1st half is just dull, & he also gave the episode a credit for having some actions & an awesome design of character. So he didn't think it's so bad that it deserves to be put into his bottom 5 of Season 7.
Arrogantgodjealous suggested that rather than the creature be a nudibranch that SpongeBob should have instead gotten a worm as a pet so that the plot would instead be a cat (snail) vs dog (worm) plot. Had the pet been a worm, it would have kept the creature from being a total monster as well as allow Gary to be hostile back without being unlikable, & Gary would have put Fluffy down, but didn't. However, Doug Walker surprisingly does not hate this episode he praised for its idea & dark humor.
PhantomStrider placed "A Pal For Gary" at #8 on his "Worst Episodes of Good Cartoons" video, describing it as the the closest thing he's seen to animal torture in a cartoon, he also called the imagery "unnerving" & called the sounds Fluffy made "legitimately disturbing". He also panned the episode for SpongeBob being out of character, calling his treatment of Gary "sadistic", & referring to Fluffy as a "leviathan horror". He also speculated this episode was "The Big One", A.K.A the episode that made everyone think SpongeBob was going downhill. He'd later double down on his thoughts on the episode in his "Top 6 Worst SpongeBob Episodes" as an honorable mention, stating it didn't make the list due to him already discussing it.
Quotes[]
Here are some infamous quotes for not only the episode, or season 7, but also, the entire show!
""Gary! You put [Puffy] Fluffy down right now!
- SpongeBob acting like Gary is Puffy Fluffy. What a (beep)!""
""Fluffy! Fluffy, wait! Well Gary, what do you have to say for yourself?
- After Gary saves his owner, this is the thanks he gets?""
""Garold, it is not nice to ignore new friends.
- Tell that to Puffy Fluffy.""
Trivia[]
- The episode is very scary, even Puffy Fluffy's monster form can terrify & give you nightmares, just like Wormy did.
- In the Polish dub, when SpongeBob sees Gary being attacked by Puffy Fluffy, he tells Puffy Fluffy to put Gary down, as opposed to the reverse.
- This episode shares the same title card as the ULTRA-famous episode "Culture Shock" but a little darker & red.
- SpongeBob does not pay the breeder before taking Puffy Fluffy home.
- The episode calls Puffy Fluffy a nudibranch, a type of gastropod, however he looks like a fish & transforms into a grotesque fish monster.
- Nudibranchs don't have teeth, they have a radula; a minuscule, ribbon-like structure made out of chiton.
- Nudibranchs rarely exceed over a few centimeters (1-2 inches) big.
- The Red Can Chips that Gary had in the beginning is similar to Pringles.
- In 2015, there was a better episode that used elements from this episode. That episode happens to be Sanctuary! which is also on this wiki.
- The monster form is inspired from moray eels because its additional sharp, retractable jaws hidden in the mouth.
- Puffy Fluffy was so controversial that Robertryan Cory allegedly deleted the Monster design off of his Flickr page, however Puffy Fluffy appears in the online game "What's Your Bikini Bottom Pet", the Roblox experience "SpongeBob Simulator" in the Alaskan Bullworm Clam, and an orange version appears in the Season 14 episode, "Pet the Rock".
Gallery[]
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