SpongeBob You're Fired

SpongeBob You're Fired is a SCUMBOB!-infamous episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. In this episode, Mr. Krabs fires SpongeBob to save money, and SpongeBob must look for a new job. This is the final episode before the return of Stephen Hillenburg.

AIR DATE FOR THIS EPISODE: NOVEMBER 11, 2013.

Why The People Who Came Up With This Episode Must Be Fired Immediately (We are being serious here.)[]

The idea of SpongeBob getting fired from the Krusty Krab is the worst idea possible.
- Also, the idea SpongeBob being fired from the Krusty Krab has already been done before in parts of episodes like "Karate Choppers" and "Squid on Strike", thus making it useless.
To get the fry cook out of the Krusty Krab, this is just a HUGE SpongeBob torture episode. Even worse than Stuck in the Wringer, and that episode was just as bad as this episode.
There is a TON of filler, so much that it doesn't feel like a special, but an eleven minute episode disguised as a twenty two minute special using filler.
- Examples include:
  1. SpongeBob crying for ONE WHOLE MINUTE because he got fired.
  2. Spongebob struggling to tell Patrick he got fired, and Patrick simply tries to guess foods that start with "F" which he states foods starting with "C", jeez, did the writers make him forget the alphabet?!?!
  3. The infamous "funemployment" scene.
  4. The new job montage.
Many people didn't like the episode's portrayal of unemployment, and in one scene, Patrick tries to show SpongeBob "the benefits of being unemployed", to which SpongeBob replies, "Unemployment may be fun for you, but I need to get a job." The scene was meant to demonstrate the title character's "eternal optimism and willingness to get back to work... in a way that's still funny and relatable". However, some political activists claimed the "notorious line" was a "slam" to the Food Stamps benefit.
It rips off a ton of elements in different episodes, which includes the following:
1. Can You Spare A Dime? (Squidward quitting, although he didn't quit in this episode, but still, this episode stole plots from it)
2. A Day Without Tears (SpongeBob crying a lot)
3. All That Glitters (See the episode above it)
4. You Don't Know Sponge (Do you already know?!?! If not, see those two episodes above it!)
5. Squilliam Returns (SpongeBob cooking other foods)
6. Bummer Vacation (SpongeBob not working at the Krusty Krab)
7. Model Sponge (SpongeBob thinking he got fired, but he didn't, but the only difference in this horrible episode (referring to the page) is he actually did got fired)
8. Le Big Switch (SpongeBob not knowing how to cook other foods other than Krabby Patties)
9. Mrs. Puff, You're Fired (Same as episodes 1, 6, & 7, but it actually shows a character being fired, in this case, Mrs. Puff.)
Almost all of the characters are unlikable in this episode.
- Mr. Krabs is super unlikable in this episode. He fires SpongeBob (Which is his best, talented employee!) from his job merely to save a nickel for himself. And, as expected, this causes the Krusty Krab to go downhill and leads to the customers rioting in the restaurant. Adding on to his jerkiness, it is revealed that he installed a pay toilet that costs a nickel to use to compensate for it.
- SpongeBob is kind of unlikable is this episode, as he cried for, as stated in WTESBF #2, a whole minute when he got fired (even worse than All That Glitters, A Day Without Tears, and You Don't Know Sponge), and not being able to cook anything other than Krabby Patties.
- Speaking of the devil, Squidward is also unlikable in this episode such as he was of course laughing at SpongeBob's misery when he gets fired. Reading his diary and humiliating him may be facetiously cruel enough but for him to laugh at him when he now has no job due to Mr. Krabs' excessive greed is also that cruel because it's not funny to laugh at someone when they now have no job and can't be able to gain money (Not that SpongeBob cares about money), or afford a house, food or water, or may even end up being homeless. Like I said, it's because "Squidward doesn't like SpongeBob." Come on Squiddy, this is low for you even after Little Yellow Book.
  - Also he was an idiot in the scene where Patrick teaches SpongeBob the bright side of "unemployment," where Patrick encourages SpongeBob to be in Squidward's tomato garden. Squidward however responds angrily at both of them as Squidward didn't notice or care about the state SpongeBob is in when he got fired yesterday.
- Patrick, although he was good enough to sympathize with SpongeBob by crying alongside him, but for the rest, he taught SpongeBob how to be a slob and taught kids that unemployment is good.
- Sandy is also out-of-character in this episode for running an experiment of how people would eat anything if it's free, by feeding them toxic waste.
- Mr. Weiner, Pizza Pete, Senior Taco, and Noodleman are all unlikable one-time antagonists. All four of them not only fire SpongeBob for making simple mistakes, but, for no reason other than that their customers like them, they literally kidnap him later on. How did their customers get all of those patties? Didn't SpongeBob only make one each before being fired?
  - On the topic of said four characters, the scene where they get their comeuppance HAS LOADS OF WASTED POTENTIAL, to the point that it just comes off as useless filler to add to the trainwreckiness of the episode.
Countless plot holes. First of all, Mr. Krabs won't fire Squidward for seniority, yet usually people would try to fire employees WITH seniority. All of the workers that fired SpongeBob try to kidnap him for no unexplained reason (however, for the Weiner guy, he does explain). Finally, if SpongeBob can only make Krabby Patties, how would he make perfectly good snail food?
- Mr. Krabs is also a massive hypocrite because even though SpongeBob offers to work for free, Mr. Krabs tells him that it is illegal for him to do that, when he has committed so many crimes in other episodes
  1. In various episodes, he does not pay SpongeBob or Squidward the way they should. They get paid with fake money or even have to pay HIM.
  2. In Skill Crane (although that good episode was good), he tried to commit tax evasion.
  3. Not paying the delivery fee in The Patty Caper.
  4. Stealing the newspaper and counterfeiting money in The Krabby Kronicle.
  5. Even in this episode, where SpongeBob's yearly salary is a nickel, which is far below the minimum wage.
  6. Torturing Plankton and making him suicidal in One Coarse Meal.
  7. Injuring Patrick and not caring about him in No Hat for Pat.
  8. Forcing his employees to work 24/7 with no breaks, as seen in both Graveyard Shift and Fear of a Krabby Patty. (although like Skill Crane, they are both good.)
  9. Selling SpongeBob for 62 cents.
  10. Robbing a grave for the Soda Drinking Hat (although in a good episode).
We also get an extremely disturbing face that SpongeBob makes, which is one of the most disgusting faces to ever appear on the show.
The story is INCREDIBLY slow, and tries to mash in completely irrelevant scenes to pan out the episode time, including, as referenced in WTESBF #2, SpongeBob struggles to tell Patrick he got fired, and Patrick simply tries to guess foods that start with "F".
When SpongeBob finally gets a job at the four employees' restaurants, he has trouble making those kinds of food because the only thing he can make is Krabby Patty-style foods, talk about yanking the dog's chain. And of course these four scenes each go on for way too long and try to be funny. This joke is tired and done; it's not funny, and the joke was already done before in Le Big Switch, and much better there. Moreover, it is repeated four times, which is a very easy way to kill a joke.
- In one scene at SpongeBob's house near the beginning of the episode, he is shown being capable of making Gary's food, which is not only pointless, but leaves a major plot hole considering that SpongeBob can make something other than a Krabby Patty, killing the joke even more.
Squidward's line "I hate the smell of burning Krabby Patties even more" is a really cheesy line and doesn't really suit his character.
Very Predictable Ending: The ending is one of, if not the most predictable thing to ever happen on the show. You can guess that SpongeBob would be rehired at the end of the episode even BEFORE you watch the actual episode. Not only that, the Krusty Krab, as expected, becomes the "Krusty Krap" without SpongeBob.
With that ending in mind, it makes every single event that happened in this episode COMPLETELY useless. You can make a four minute short out of the most important plots in the episode and you would lose NOTHING about the actual story. Also Plankton should've been in this episode as it could've had him saw that SpongeBob got fired by Krabs, decides to have the Sponge work for him in order to gain customers at the Chum Bucket, presumably get the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, and have the Krusty Krab go out of business.
No matter how many times SpongeBob got fired every time, he has an unhealthy obsession with the Krusty Krab, Like if SpongeBob really wants to spend the rest of his life working there, just like Bummer Vacation.
This feels like if the writers of this episode decided to combine two bad SpongeBob episodes ("A Day Without Tears" and "Model Sponge" in this case), into one worse SpongeBob episode.
The title itself is really weird and generic. The weird thing is that it doesn't have a comma or exclamation mark, and there's a disturbing fact that it rips off a previous title, "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired", which DOES have a comma. The generic thing is that it could've described every episode about SpongeBob getting fired. (Suppose you guys need Grammarly?)
The scene of SpongeBob making Snail Food for Gary has nothing to do with the rest of the episode and makes no sense because it was just established that SpongeBob can only make Krabby Patties.
Lastly, this episode ended season 9A, the post-movie era, and the dark era in the worst note possible.

Redeeming Qualities That Shouldn’t Be Fired[]

NOTE: These redeeming qualities do not excuse the episode's content.

The beginning is enjoyable, until Mr. Krabs fires SpongeBob.
SpongeBob (despite crying a LOT in this episode), Patrick (despite teaching SpongeBob about unemployment is good), Sandy (despite feeding people toxic food), and Gary are likable characters in this episode.
1. Even though he was unlikeable in the beginning, Squidward at least became better when he kick SpongeBob's other bosses' 🐬 and saves him, showing that Squidward still at least cares about SpongeBob.
The awesome scene where the Krabby Patty (Squidward) kicks some🐬and saves SpongeBob.
This episode could be good if Mr. Krabs wasn't a massive jerk to SpongeBob.
Patrick crying for SpongeBob was kind of sweet.
Patrick is a likable character for such an abysmal episode.
Mr. Krabs at least realized that firing SpongeBob over a lousy nickel was the most stupidest mistake he ever made. And without his best fry-cook, his business would surely be flushed down the toilet. Soon, after Squidward brought SpongeBob back, Mr. Krabs apologized to SpongeBob for firing him over a nickel and happily rehired him, much to the latter's joy.
Despite not making sense, SpongeBob making his own snail food for Gary is still a likable scene.
Depending on your view, Old Man Jenkins' line, "I'm not a very strong swimmer!", can be quite funny.
Mr. Krabs' literal metaphors of being fired; "You're canned. Here's your pink slip. I'm giving you the axe." is pretty funny.

How To Prevent This Episode From Being Fired[]

Despite the fact that there were many ways the episode could have been fixed, it turned out to be so bad that some critics such as PIEGUYRULZ went as far as to say they don't even see any good potential in the episode. In the right context it's difficult to argue against this point due to the fact that the entire episode is based on something that was already used, and only worked because it was a plot element instead of an attempt at being an entire plot. However, the episode could have been decent if it were fixed in the following ways:

Have Mr. Krabs not be so over-the-top cheap, mad with power and unlikeable. If the fundamental concept of the episode must stay the same, at least give Mr. Krabs a good and justified reason to fire SpongeBob, something that makes more sense than only to save a nickel.
Cut out the obnoxious scenes of SpongeBob crying. For the times SpongeBob does focus on his loss of a job, have him react to it like he did to not getting the promotion in the first movie.
- If you still want SpongeBob to cry, do it to a lesser extent, instead of ONE MINUTE in the fired scene, cut it down to merely 1-5 seconds.
Make the "fun-employment" scenes entertaining and non-offensive. On that topic, make Patrick comedically stupid instead of boringly stupid.
- Or just remove it to avoid filler.
Don't make the restaurant owners judge SpongeBob's dishes without giving them a chance. Instead, have them seem poorly executed on the surface and later give it a silver lining.
If you must have the restaurant owners kidnap SpongeBob towards the end, at least show their desperation prior to it on-screen. Otherwise, don't include that "plot element" at all.
Make the ending not so obvious.
Take out Mr. Krabs' painfully obvious act of cheapness at the end.
Cut the episode down to 11 minutes to avoid boring filler. If you do have to make it 22 minutes, at least make the filler entertaining. Patchy the Pirate would be more entertaining than watching one minute of SpongeBob's crying, or that controversial fun-employment scene.
Cut out this scene.
Cut out the restaurant owners, put Plankton into the plot, and center the episode having Plankton trying to sway SpongeBob to work at the Chum Bucket.
If you do not want Plankton in the episode, you can have SpongeBob start his own snail food business instead, plus, you can make the scene where SpongeBob makes his own snail food for Gary appear earlier

Reception[]

The episode was universally panned by critics and fans, and is easily, without question, one of the most universally despised specials of the show’s entire run. Due to its excessive filler, lazy writing, and frustrating character derailment, it is also considered to be one of the worst episodes of the series, along with One Coarse Meal, A Pal for Gary, The Splinter, Little Yellow Book and Ink Lemonade and a user rating of 4.4 out of 10 based on 487 votes on IMDb, making it the sixth worst SpongeBob episode. It has also been met with controversy due to its insulting behavior against the unemployed.
PIEGUYRULZ called this one to be the worst Season 9 episode. He thought this episode is way worse than "Squid Baby," which is his second least favorite Season 9A episode, and he stated that the other ScumBob episodes in the same season (of course including the other ones in his bottom 5 of the season, which are "Squid Baby," "Salsa Imbecilicus," "Married to Money," and "Little Yellow Book.") aren't "that" bad.

Trivia[]

This is the only special to be ranked SCUMBOB!-infamous.
After this episode, there were no SCUMBOB!-infamous episodes until nearly five years later.
Ironically, it has a 8.17/10 based on 47 votes on Episode Ninja.
This episode was so controversial, Nickelodeon almost never airs it in reruns, like One Coarse Meal.
This was the last episode & special to be made before the ULTRA-famous sequel to the LEGENDARY-famous SpongeBob Movie, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
This is the least rated special in IMDB, yep, even worse ratings than this.[1][2]
Although it's an infamous episode on SpongeBuddy Mania it currently has a 4.0 score.

Gallery[]

Quotes[]

"Well, you see, I've been doing some calculating, and, you know, crunching the old numbers. And it turns out that I'll save a whole nickel if I cut your salary, completely."

"What!? NO! NOT that! Anything but that!!!"

"Hey, that's great! Being unemployed is the best gig I know!"