Top 10 Spongebob Squarepants Episodes

Spongebob Squarepants started airing in 1999 on Nickelodeon, immediately becoming a hit by making millennial children laugh for hours on end. Although marine-biology teacher Stephen Hillenburg created the show over twenty years ago, it remains immensely popular. Spongebob’s influence has spread to viral memes, video games, theatrical films, and a broadway musical.

Proof of Spongebob’s timelessness lies in how many millennials and adults quote memorable lines today. The show’s characters are immediately recognizable, and the theme song is equally iconic. Considering Spongebob Squarepants‘ exceptionally long twenty-one year run on Nickelodeon and its international likeability, this article counts down the show’s ten best episodes.

10. “Shanghaied”

In “Shanghaied,” Spongebob, Patrick, and Squidward climb aboard the Flying Dutchman’s ship after he drops anchor in Spongebob’s house. After the Dutchman makes Spongebob and Patrick his ghostly henchmen, the three have numerous misadventures aboard the ship. Spongebob and Patrick are terrible at their job, routinely failing to scare anyone, destroying the Dutchman’s ship, and misreading his simple commands. Eventually, the Dutchman decides to eat Spongebob and Patrick, which prompts the pair to escape through the perfume department in one of the show’s most recognizably random scenes.

Upon reuniting with Squidward after he is released from the “Fly of Despair,” the three barter with the Dutchman for their freedom until Spongebob wishes for the Dutchman to become a vegetarian. The Dutchman grants the wish, only to turn the trio into fruits. “Shanghaied” is one of the more bizarre episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, but its visual jokes, puns, and general randomness place it in the top ten. The banter between Spongebob, Patrick, and Squidward is hilarious. Particularly enjoyable are Squidward’s sarcastic comments to the Dutchman. When the Dutchman declares the three to be his henchman, Squidward wryly asks,

“Will we be getting business cards?”

The deadpan tone in his voice is probably funnier to older adolescents and adults, but Spongebob Squarepants‘ wide-ranging appeal is what has enabled the show to endure. However, “Shanghaied” is just the first echelon of Spongebob Squarepants at best.

9. “Pressure”

Spongebob Squarepants primarily took place in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom, but not all of the characters were sea creatures! Sandy was a squirrel who lived in a bio-dome, complete with her own underwater suit. In “Pressure,” tensions began to mount between Spongebob, Mr. Krabs, Patrick, Squidward, and Sandy after Spongebob asserts that sea creatures are superior to mammals. Sandy takes Spongebob’s opinion personally, so the gang challenges her to go one minute without her suit. After doing so and barely surviving, Sandy challenges the sea creatures to go on land for one minute and they accept.

At first all is well until angry Seagulls begin attacking the group and start eating Patrick among the chaos. Eventually, Sandy comes to rescue the group, using her Karate moves to drive the Gulls away. “Pressure” made me laugh the most as a kid and I always looked forward to watching reruns of the episode. I’m not exactly sure what was so funny about seeing the characters on land, but the sheer appearance of the group on visible holding sticks just seemed perfectly fitting. Often times, Spongebob Squarepants relies on more adult humor, but in this episode the character’s physical injury and disastrous journey above sea level most contributed to the episode’s hilarity.

Spongebob’s adventures going horribly wrong would be a repeated theme throughout the series, and it worked well. Physical humor is probably most used in current episodes of Spongebob Squarepants, but in “Pressure” the writers managed to balance it with enough plot to produce one of the funniest episodes of the series.

8. “Krusty Krab Training Video”

Mocking 1980’s style superstore training tapes, complete with poorly interlude graphics, cheesy music, and stereotypical training video narration, the “Krusty Krab Training Video” puts form above all else. As with any training video, the narrator introduces several acronyms, including P.O.O.P., which stands for “People Order Our Patties.” Ultimately, the episode shows how utterly useless most training video techniques are. The episode is immediately relatable to anyone who has ever worked a minimum-wage job and has been exposed to the completely ineffective and redundant training videos often shown to new employees. “Krusty Krab Training Video” is painfully accurate.

The very premise of the episode demonstrates Spongebob’s value as an employee and Squidward’s complete disregard for his job as a cashier. In fact, Squidward’s hatred of his job is mostly what makes the episode so funny. Seen falling asleep in the bathroom, getting short with customers, and generally taking poor care of his work station, Squidward’s attitude can be boiled down to the pin on his shirt that reads

“I really wish I weren’t here right now.”

Spongebob, however, is portrayed as the model employee. Never failing to show enthusiasm and fervor for his job as a fry cook, Spongebob’s constant positivity is what makes the character so enjoyable to watch. “Krusty Krab Training Video” exaggerates Spongebob and Squidward’s most basic qualities to present a work environment that is routine, shamelessly cheap, and wonderfully relatable.

7. “Sandy, Spongebob, And The Worm”

As great as the Spongebob, Patrick, and Squidward team-up was, the Spongebob/Sandy pairing was just as good, if not better. In “Sandy, Spongebob, and the Worm,” Spongebob wakes up to find his house destroyed. Bikini Bottom has a town meeting at the Krusty Krab after similar incidents occur. At the gathering, Sandy reveals that the “big, hairy, and wiggly” monster is an Alaskan Bull Worm. The sea creatures decide to send Sandy to catch the worm, entertaining Patrick’s idea to “take Bikini Bottom and push it somewhere else” as a backup plan. Sandy thinks she has bested the worm, but Spongebob tells her that she has only been fighting the worm’s tongue.

The actual worm is huge, towering over both of them. Running in fear, Sandy and Spongebob lead the worm off a cliff, but it crushes Bikini Bottom in the process. Although the vast majority of the episode revolves around Spongebob and Sandy, the peripheral characters’ brief moments are some of the funniest. When Sandy first offers to catch the worm, she says she expects to be paid. In response, Mr. Krabs, foaming at the mouth, protested that he would never give a cent to Sandy and would see the worm eat everyone before doing so.

After Sandy reassures Mr. Krabs that she was only kidding, Mr. Krabs laughs but then begins to cry. The scene is thoroughly weird, but hilarious. Patrick’s continual insistence that the entire city could somehow be pushed to a different location is also nonsensically hysterical. The Spongebob Squarepants writers got carried away with Patrick’s stupidity and Mr. Krabs’s cheapness in later seasons, but in “Spongebob, Sandy, and the Worm,” the two characters had some of their more quotable moments.

6. “Frankendoodle”

Spongebob Squarepants is known to be a completely incorruptible, eternally benevolent character. In “Frankendoodle,” Spongebob inadvertently created his opposite, an evil drawing come-to-life named Doodlebob. Doodlebob pursues to cause chaos and destruction throughout Spongebob’s neighborhood. Doodlebob seems to focus on causing harm to Patrick the most. First, he drops a wrench on Patrick, and then pursues to bowl at his head until Patrick humorously and randomly yells “Finland!” Doodlebob finally meets his demise when he challenges Spongebob to a one-on-one duel. Despite Doodlebob gaining the upper hand, Spongebob erases him and turns him back into an inanimate drawing.

Despite Doodlebob being one of the more menacing Spongebob Squarepants villains, the character is funny because of his nonsensical ramblings and his embodiment of everything Spongebob isn’t. However, there is a lesson in the episode: with great power, comes great responsibility. The episode begins when an artist accidentally drops his pencil into the ocean. Spongebob and Patrick find it and use its somewhat magical powers to play pranks on people. Mr. Lawrence’s (the voice of Plankton) cameo as the artist who loses his pencil is also a big plus. Featuring limitless quotable dialogue and one of the most beloved Spongebob villains in the series, “Frankendoodle” solidifies its legacy as number six on this list.

5. “Pizza Delivery”

One of Spongebob Squarepants‘ earliest episodes, “Pizza Delivery,” set the standard for the rest of the series. “Pizza Delivery” was the first episode to quicken the pacing and give the audience a non-stop comedy routine between Spongebob and Squidward. The actual premise is simple: Mr. Krabs forces Squidward to hand-deliver a pizza to a customer. Sensing Squidward’s resistance to the task, Krabs orders Spongebob to join him, much to Squidward’s dismay. However, the journey to the patron’s house is anything but boring.

Spongebob’s mere existence already grates on Squidward’s nerves, but his constant singing, butt-jiggling, and poor driving skills put Squidward over the edge. There are numerous times where Squidward yells at Spongebob in the episode only for Spongebob to turn the situation into something positive. At one point, Squidward and Spongebob are out of gas and seemingly lost.

Suddenly, Spongebob picks Squidward up while driving a rock, much to Squidward’s disbelief. The rock enables the pair to finally arrive at the customer’s house, but the man insults Spongebob. In response, Squidward knocks on the door and throws the pizza in the man’s face. It’s funny to see the accurate and unfair abuse Squidward and Spongebob are constantly subject to in their job, but Squidward’s standing up for Spongebob proves that he actually does regard Spongebob as his friend. Something Spongebob pays Squidward back for in the number one pick…

4. “Sailor Mouth”

Spongebob Squarepants gained notoriety for being a children’s show whose characters weren’t children themselves. They were adults who lived in the real world, worked jobs, and worried about real problems like income. There was even an episode in which Squidward is fired from the Krusty Krab, goes broke, and has to move in with Spongebob. “Sailor Mouth” took those inflections of adulthood to another level. Essentially, Spongebob and Patrick learn how to curse after reading graffiti on the Krusty Krab dumpster.

The episode was well received by fans, but garnered significant backlash from the Parents Television Council, a watchdog media group. The Parents Television Council’s allegation that the episode promoted the use of curse words was fiercely denied by Nickelodeon and supporters of the show. Nothing came of the complaint, and the episode is still regularly shown to this day. “Sailor Mouth” ranks highly because it’s one of the most enjoyable episodes of Spongebob Squarepants for kids. As a child, you are constantly told not to use inappropriate language. Watching Spongebob and Patrick use such language in a satirical way and get in trouble for doing so was cathartic.

It’s also funny to see the dynamic reverse itself when Mr. Krabs goes on a cursing-tirade after stubbing his foot on a rock. As punishment, Mr. Krabs is forced to paint his mother’s house. The ending definitely exposes the hypocrisy of parents’ “no cursing” rule since parents themselves often use so-called foul language. “Sailor Mouth” showed that a children’s program could have adult characters and be funny, appealing to a broader audience in the process.

3. “Dying For Pie”

Despite the myriad of hilariously nonsensical Spongebob Squarepants plots, “Dying for Pie” may be my personal favorite. After Squidward rebuffs a sweater made out of eyelashes from Spongebob, Mr. Krabs commands Squidward to buy Spongebob a gift in return. Stumbling upon a band of pirates, Squidward purchases a pie from them. However, the pie turns out to be a bomb in disguise. Mr. Krabs attempts to eat a small piece and blows up half the Krusty Krab.

While the pair are distracted, Spongebob eats the pie. Mr. Krabs warns Squidward that Spongebob will die by sunset when the pie hits his lower intestine. To make amends, Squidward spends the whole day with Spongebob doing whatever he wants. Spongebob, of course, doesn’t die. It turns out he never ate Squidward’s pie and was saving it for them to share. The episode highlights how creative the writers got with some of the show’s plots. After all, Spongebob Squarepants was a children’s show, and the open-world style made the storytelling practically limitless. “Dying for Pie” is funny because of how ridiculous the premise is.

It’s actually rather morbid, considering the entire episode is basically the build-up to Spongebob’s death. The build-up itself is funny though, with Squidward completing Spongebob’s bizarre bucket list comprising the bulk of the episode. The ending is my second favorite Spongebob Squarepants closing joke with Spongebob accidentally throwing the pie in Squidward’s face, causing an atom-bomb-like-explosion.

2. “Graveyard Shift”

Picking up from the always enjoyable Spongebob/Squidward storylines, “Graveyard Shift” presents the duo at their best. After Mr. Krabs decides to keep the Krusty Krab open 24 hours a day, Squidward and Spongebob are forced to work the night shift. Naturally, Squidward decides to scare Spongebob by relaying to him the tale of the Hash Slinging Slasher. Spongebob is thoroughly terrified by Squidward’s story. When Squidward finishes, however, the tale becomes reality.

The pair notice a menacing figure fitting the exact description of the Hash Slinging Slasher walking towards the Krusty Krab, spatula hand and all. Eventually, the mysterious man reveals himself to be a prospective employee seeking a job application. Without a doubt, the Hash Slinging Slasher is the most iconic secondary Spongebob Squarepants character, despite appearing only once in the entire series. For me, the episode comes in at number two because of the surprise ending. Although the Hash Slinging Slasher reveals himself to be a non-threatening teenager, the question of why the lights were flickering still remains unanswered. Just before the episode ends, Squidward asks this exact question.

All three glance over to the Krusty Krab light switch and see none other than a photoshopped Nosferatu flipping the lights on and off. The group wryly taunts “Nosferatu” before the final shot of Nosferatu smiling is shown. The idea to include the 1922 Max Schreck in the episode is as clever as it is extremely random, but it works perfectly. Spongebob and Squidward’s chemistry was great, but to top off a horror-themed episode with an actual horror icon made the episode stand out amongst all others.

1. “Band Geeks”

There could be no doubt in any Spongebob Squarepants fan’s mind that “Band Geeks” would be the number one pick. I have talked to many Spongebob Squarepants fans and I have yet to meet one whose favorite episode isn’t “Band Geeks.” For those unfamiliar with the plot, Squidward is challenged by his arch-rival Squilliam to perform in the Bikini Bottom Super Bowl with his “band.” Except Squidward doesn’t have a band. Squidward finally convinces the entire town to help him. While the practice is a disaster at first, the band eventually pulls together and puts on an unforgettable halftime show.

The entire episode is fantastic, with the best writing in the entire series laden with numerous nervous puns from Squidward coupled with overt dead-pan humor. In one scene, Squidward is maimed after three band members accidentally blow their drum sticks at him thinking that is how the instrument is to be played. Instead of correcting them, Squidward merely states: “Too bad that didn’t kill me.” Many more adult jokes like this are featured in “Band Geeks.” The episode gets a lot of credit for being extremely Squidward-centric, something most episodes shy away from now.

However, the ending is what steals the show. Spongebob and the band show up to support Squidward. He assumes they will be terrible, but they are amazing. In the greatest Spongebob Squarepants moment of all time, the band performs David Glen Eisley’s “Sweet Victory.” I’m not sure whose idea it was to include the song in the show, but it was a brilliant decision and absolutely fitting for Squidward’s much overdue moment of triumph. Squidward’s band kills it, with major thanks to Spongebob. Even though the episode aired almost twenty years ago, it enabled the series to achieve the powerhouse success it has. If “Band Geeks” is responsible for keeping Spongebob on the air for another twenty years, it is deservedly so.

Twenty Years Under The Sea

Most of the episodes on this list are from Spongebob Squarepants‘ first three seasons on Nickelodeon. However, these are but ten of the show’s 262 episodes that have impacted people’s lives. Spongebob Squarepants has declined in quality a bit, but its prevalence in meme culture and on social media proves that its continuation is valued.

Even current episodes, in short doses, will bring viewers a smile if for no other reason than Spongebob’s infectious laughter and incessant optimism. Put simply, the show is a great way to make people feel happy, an extremely valuable skill in today’s world. Although Stephen Hillenburg is no longer here to see it, I’m sure he is smiling down on Spongebob Squarepants‘ hilariously heart-warming legacy.