One Coarse Meal

One Coarse Meal is a SCUMBOB!-infamous episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. In this episode, Mr. Krabs discovers that Plankton has cetaphobia, an intense fear of whales, and he takes advantage of it.

AIR DATE FOR THIS EPISODE: MARCH 25, 2010

Why It Was One Coarse Meal, And A POISONOUS Meal, And Must Be Shut Down By The HEALTH INSPECTOR![]

To get the whale out of the room, it is not only a very harsh Plankton torture episode, but it is also the absolute harshest torture episode of any character in this entire show.
- Also, this episode is basically SpongeBob SquarePants' answer to The Simpsons episode "The Boys of Bummer", which is another episode with a similar premise, and that episode was no better than this one.
- Mr. Lawrence, the voice actor of Plankton, was one of the writers who wrote this episode, meaning that he helped TORTURE a CHARACTER he VOICES.
Another big problem in this episode is that a massive amount of characters are unlikable:
- Mr. Krabs is at his absolute worst in this episode as he needlessly torments Plankton to the point where he considers suicide, even if it means keeping the secret formula from him.
  - Mr. Krabs appears to be portrayed as a protagonist, even though he acts like a diabolical, arrogant sociopath and shows no remorse for his actions. He also never gets any real comeuppance for his actions whatsoever. He almost did when Plankton tried to torment him with a mime, but it goes back to Mr. Krabs winning anyway.
- Karen is also unlikable. Instead of encouraging Plankton to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula and/or trying to help him get off his fear of whales, she criticizes him because of his irrational fear and ignores him.
- Pearl is unlikable for being portrayed as avaricious, and only helps Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob after she receives money.
  - There's one scene where Pearl says, "I prefer salad over plankton anyway", which implies that she has eaten plankton before.
- SpongeBob, while not as bad as Mr. Krabs in this episode, is no better than the rest, as he helps Plankton give Mr. Krabs revenge, only for him to suddenly betray Plankton and help Mr. Krabs instead for no reason without questioning anything. SpongeBob listens to Mr. Krabs all the time without questioning him in this episode, and when he sees Plankton trying to end his life, he STILL betrays him, meaning that he KNEW what Krabs was doing, and didn't care.
  - He also states it would fly in the face of his "good nature", which makes him a massive hypocrite as he has done horrible things before this episode:
    - Joking about being a drowned victim and saying, "Because I ripped my pants!", which pissed a lot of people off, although he did learn his lesson ("Ripped Pants").
    - Helping Mr. Krabs poison a health inspector ("Nasty Patty").
    - Taking advantage of Gary in a snail race, although he apologized to Gary for it ("The Great Snail Race").
    - Slaughtered clams while defending a Krabby Patty. ("To Love a Patty").
    - Cheering when Karen malfunctioned from crying after Plankton gave her a song for her anniversary ("Single Cell Anniversary").
    - Ignored Gary's condition while Gary was being constantly scared by an evolved Puffy Fluffy ("A Pal for Gary").
    - Constantly disturbs Squidward in various episodes.
The writers of this episode feel like they hate Plankton, as Mr. Krabs uses Plankton's fear of whales to scare him, leaving him in depression, paranoia, and even suicidal. Even when SpongeBob points out the consequences of his deeds, Mr. Krabs just laughs and points out how much of a mess Plankton is now.
Aside from disturbing, the animation here is very bland and doesn't feel fluid at all, not to mention having a lot of washed-out colors.
There are countless plot holes and inconsistencies with previous episodes:
- Mr. Krabs and Plankton were actually friends before, as established in Friend or Foe. It comes off as really sad to contradict such past events.
- In The Algae's Always Greener, Plankton and Pearl directly interact with each other, which contradicts what occurs in this episode.
- In Squeaky Boots, Mr. Krabs pays half his money to SpongeBob almost at the end of the episode, but in this episode, Mr. Krabs pays SpongeBob with play money.
The opening scene, while decently action-packed, actually makes the rest of the episode worse because it further unjustified Mr. Krabs' treatment to Plankton. Plankton does attempted robbery, which not only has been done many times on the show before, but is also something that Mr. Krabs does too.
Perhaps the most infamous scene in the episode is when Plankton reveals his intentions to take his own life, which is rather sensitive and goes well into adult territory.
This episode failed miserably to do horror-comedy correctly, as prior and later episodes, including "Squidward in Clarinetland", "Fear of a Krabby Patty", "Don't Look Now", "Nasty Patty", "Graveyard Shift", & "The Ghost of Plankton" have done this right. This (along with "A Pal for Gary") tried to take this concept correctly, except they went too far. What failed experiments of episodes they are, it would be considered laughable.
As stated in WIWOCMAAPMAMBSDBTHI #2, Mr. Krabs seems to be portrayed as a protagonist and Plankton as an antagonist, even after all of the torment Plankton is put through, just because he is designated to be a villain by the show's standards. This episode implies and encourages that you are in the right for harassing and driving people you despise.
- Driving someone to suicide can be considered murder as there have been some cases in real life where people have been arrested for being the perpetrator of another person's suicide.
The nightmare scene adds to the whole atrocity of this episode.
The title card, for some reason, plays light-hearted music, which is a very bad contrast to the episode's scary tone.
- On that topic, the title card, while still good, is somewhat creepy because it has black bars around it, which is used in a lot of horror movies.
Hypocrisy: This episode tries too hard to make Plankton unlikable, as one part has him trying to take revenge on Mr. Krabs by tormenting him with his own worst fears and it portrays that moment as bad, which is very hypocritical of both the show and the episode.
Krabs' infamous line after learning about Plankton's torment: "Really? He's a mess! (laughs)", shows how heartless, rude, and cruel he is.
Abysmal ending: After Plankton finally learns "Pearl" was Mr. Krabs in disguise the entire time and gets his revenge on him at last with a mime he can torment him with, SpongeBob scares him away with holographic whales so he can lose.
Mr. Krabs erases a drawing of Plankton in this episode, meaning that HE WANTS TO MURDER HIM!
There could possibly be some kids watching this episode who are either terrified by, or reenact Plankton's suicidal actions by any type of ways to do so. For example, a 7-year-old boy from England reenacted Jeffy hanging himself in the SML episode “Jeffy’s Tantrum”.

Redeeming Qualities that are safe to consume[]

Just like a regular SpongeBob episode, The first few minutes of the episode were decent, until Mr. Krabs finds out about Plankton's fear of whales.
Plankton was able put behind his suicidal intentions and plot some well-deserved revenge against Mr. Krabs, even when his revenge attempt failed anyway.
Krabs’ fear of mimes can be funny.
The "Wacky Bucks" scene is the only funny moment in this episode.
Plankton is still in-character in this episode.
Pearl is at least likable for not participating in her father's attempts to torture plankton.
This is one of Plankton's most well-developed roles yet, making for a more interesting plot than your typical 'Plankton tries to steal the Krabby Patty formula' episode.
Plankton’s cousins return!
If SpongeBob didn't betray Plankton, Plankton would have likely been able to truly obtain the Krabby Patty secret formula for the first time ever, which could have eventually caused Mr. Krabs to run out of business.
Despite making a bad comment at the worst time, SpongeBob still comforted Plankton
Without this episode, we wouldn’t have the creepypasta called, “Plankton Got Served.”
The nightmare scene, despite being vile, became a meme.

How To Make It An Edible Meal[]

Rather than having a happy and cheerful title card music track, have the title card have a scary title card music track instead as this episode is scary and terrifyingly bad. The title music for Fear of a Krabby Patty can work instead of a happy and cheerful title card music track.
- Additionally, have the background visuals be more different than just a screen with a black border.
Begin the episode with an action-packed sequence in which Plankton attempts to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula instead of just showing Mr. Krabs taking a stupid money bath.
Have Pearl question why Plankton is scared of her.
Have Karen listen to Plankton and encourage him to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula instead of having her ignore him.
Make it like a "Tom & Jerry" episode, with Pearl appearing every time Plankton tries to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and repeating the gag several times (but in creative, unique ways).
Have the line "I'm sorry, Plankton, but that flies in the face of my good nature" cut out.
Have Mr. Krabs receive real punishment for his actions. It shouldn't be too brutal, but enough to feel as if Plankton got him back in some way. The mime gag at the end is pitiable and unfunny where it should be satisfying.
Have Mr. Krabs as the antagonist and Plankton as the protagonist.
When SpongeBob tells Mr. Krabs how far he’s gone with this trick, have Mr. Krabs become concerned or disgusted of how he has treated Plankton.

Reception:[]

"One Coarse Meal" was universally panned by fans and critics and is widely considered one of, if not, the worst episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. Along with its sister episode, Gary In Love, they received a 3.6/10 on IMDb, making it the 2nd lowest-rated episode of SpongeBob. PhantomStrider ranked it the number #1 worst episode of the series. WatchMojo ranked it Number #1 on their Worst SpongeBob Episodes list. Recently, The Mysterious Mr. Enter ranked this episode as the #2 worst episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, behind "Pet Sitter Pat". Some fans & viewers stopped watching the show altogether after this episode. It is also one of the lowest-rated episodes on Episode Ninja, with an average score of 5.66/10 based on 119 votes, making it the only episode prior to Season 11 to score less than a 6.0/10.

Similar in case to the Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends episode “Everyone Knows It’s Bendy”, much of the cast and crew confessed to hating this episode as well, most notably Clancy Brown, who is Mr. Krabs' voice actor, as he felt uncomfortable when he was recording his lines for the character in the episode. There were even rumors that even Stephen Hillenburg hated this episode as well. But evidence of that is unconfirmed as of 2021, even before and after his death in 2018.

PIEGUYRULZ considered this episode to be his final 3rd least favorite episode of Season 7. Although, he doesn't think this one is bad enough to appear on his bottom 5 or even the Bottom 10 (all of his bottom 4 episodes of Season 6 (Boating Buddies, The Splinter, Truth or Square, and Choir Boys) more, Atlantis SquarePantis, SpongeHenge, Back to the Past, That Sinking Feeling, Are You Happy Now?, and, SpongeBob, You're Fired being examples of episodes he hates more) of the entire series, and he thought there're still some of the episodes are less entertaining to watch than this such as Boating Buddies for example.

On the other hand, Intrancity states it as one of his favorite episodes because of its compelling story and characters, and placed it at number 9 for best SpongeBob episodes on his scorecard, along with a further explanation.

Trivia[]

Ironically, this episode was paired with the famous episode, Gary in Love.
This episode was originally going to be titled "Plankton Got Served" during production.
Clancy Brown, Mr. Krabs' voice actor, stated he hated this episode.
The series' late creator, Stephen Hillenburg, had openly expressed his negative feelings towards this episode.
A similar episode, Plankton Paranoia, released in 2018 to a significantly better response.
This episode was ranked #99 during the SpongeBob's Top 100 event in the UK and in Ireland.
This episode rarely airs on Nickelodeon, although it could be because it's sister episode is a Valentine's Day episode and not because of the controversy surrounding this episode (this inspired "Plankton Got Served").

Gallery[]

Quotes[]

"My triumphant husband returns, how'd you fail this time?"

"Yes, I can hear you. Can you bring it up? I can't risk stepping into the light, the whale might see me."

"What's the point of going on? I'll just be tortured for the rest of my life by that whale! [lies down on the road] That's it, I'm done. The 4:15 bus should be here any time now."

"I'm sorry Plankton, but that flies in the face of my good nature."

"Really? He's a mess! [laughs]"