History YMMV / SpongebobSquarePants

* BaseBreaker: Spongebob, especially from season 5 onwards.

* CreatorsPet: Mr. Krabs (arguably more an EnsembleDarkhorse in early episodes) seems to be evolving into one due to an overwhelming amount of focus on The Krusty Krab in later seasons, not to mention the character himself [[TookALevelInJerkass becoming increasingly less sympathetic]] as time passes.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: It's surprising how much the creators have managed to put into recent seasons whilst still having it considered 'safe for kids'. Among other things, there tons of NightmareFuel and GettingCrapPastTheRadar, [[SuicideAsComedy jokes about suicide]], [[GrossOutShow tons of disgusting close-ups, illnesses, etc....]]

** Season seven has the most of this, more than any other season to date.
* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Plankton a ruthless CardCarryingVillain trying to cheat his way to success by stealing the Krabby Patty formula, or is he a pitiful WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds that is [[DesignatedVillain merely driven to unscrupulous tactics]] due to [[KnightTemplar Mr. Krabs's obsessive bullying]]?
** Is [=SpongeBob=] sweet, clueless and innocent...or a manipulative [[PsychopathicManchild sociopath]] [[IdiotHoudini using a childish facade]] to hurt others and get what he wants? Strangely enough, recent episodes suggest the latter.
*** Another theory is that he's a ''serious'' StepfordSmiler hiding a depressed and disturbed personality.

** In "Graveyard Shift" (Season 2), Squidward tells [=SpongeBob=] a (false) story about a fry-cook who accidentally cuts his hand off with a knife while cutting patties:

* DorkAge: Seasons 4-6, especially 5.

* DudeNotFunny: The episodes "Plankton's Regular" and "One Coarse Meal" portray Plankton's misery as a joke. Even worse is that the latter episode treats SUICIDE as if it were hilarious.

*** Oddly enough, his appearance changes practically every time we see him.

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Some of the more recent episodes tends to have this. One notable example is in "Stuck In The Wringer".
* FridgeHorror: Bubble Buddy [[spoiler: was revealed to be fully sentient and capable of speech and movement]]. Which means he ''just let that fish drown and did nothing to help him.''

* MoralEventHorizon: For Krabs it might be "Jellyfish Hunter", where he extracts jelly in horrific ways. Or maybe in "One Coarse Meal" due to his driving Plankton to suicide.

* NauseaFuel: Quite a bit, mostly due to SeasonalRot taking it towards GrossOutShow.

* TheScrappy: [=SpongeBob=] in later seasons.
** That is to say nothing of Mr. Krabs. Many fans just want to see him suffer a truly horrible fate. Recent episodes have seen his rivalry with Plankton devolve into making his life hell just for fun, feeding poison or rotten food to his customers intentionally for the sake of an extra dollar, or extorting and abusing his employees. The fact that he [[KarmaHoudini gets away with these]] at least 80% of the time doesn't help.
** Patrick has been getting a lot of hate in his more recent appearances. He will have no role in the entire episode, show up and act as a DiabolusExMachina to screw over some other character, [[UnpopularPopularCharacter like Squidward]]. His {{Flanderization}} didn't help matters: he want from being the tolerable if not lovable RalphWiggum taken Up to Eleven into Too Dumb to Live territory. Coupled with this and a major upgrade to JerkAss (where even Spongebob gets annoyed with him more lately), you can't help but sympathize with why Squidward hates both him and Spongebob, his not-so under the radar StalkerWithACrush.

** Most fans believe the series itself has gone downhill after TheMovie. Stephen Hillenburg took a much less active role after this point, and the quality has suffered since.

* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: Most fans of the earlier seasons claim that seasons 4-6 are downright awful because the mood of the show changed considerably due to changes in the staff.

* UnfortunateImplications: In one episode, [=SpongeBob=] enters the dreams of all of his friends. In Squidward's dream, he [Squidward] is playing his clarinet when he snaps it in half after being annoyed by [=SpongeBob=]. To help Squidward avoid being decapitated, [=SpongeBob=] turns into a clarinet. Cue Squidward having to [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything "blow"]] [=SpongeBob=].
** Mr. Krabs as a negative Jewish Stereotype.

* TheWoobie: Sandy and Gary, to an extent. One could argue [=SpongeBob=] had occasional traits of this at his season one era personality as well. Mrs. Puff and Patrick as well, depending on who you ask.

** Season seven has the more of this than any other season to date.

*** Another theory is that he's a ''serious'' StepfordSmiler hiding a ''broken'' personality.

** DesignatedVillain: He used to be an ordinary villain, but now that Mr. Krabs has been {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed into a {{Jerkass}}, one can't help but side with Plankton.

** Is [=SpongeBob=] sweet, clueless and innocent...or a manipulative [[PsychopathicManchild sociopath]] [[IdiotHoudini using a childish facade]] to hurt others and get what he wants?

** JumpingTheShark: Season 5, according to most fans of the preceding seasons.

* RecycledScript: A few recent episodes of the show seem to have recycled plots from other Nicktoons. "Toy Store of Doom", for example, has essentially the same plot as the {{Rugrats}} episode "Toy Palace" (they get locked in a closed toy store and are afraid the toys will attack them), while "Banned in Bikini Bottom" (Krabby Patties are outlawed and Mr. Krabs starts selling them at [=SpongeBob=]'s house secretly) is similar to the CatDog episode "Just Say [=CatDog=] Sent You".

* ThatOneLevel: That goddamn ball puzzle in the Mermalair in ''Battle for Bikini Bottom''. It requires ludicrous amounts of speed, precision and near-pinpoint accuracy with one of the most awkward weapons in the game.

* TheWesley: Mr. Krabs (arguably more an EnsembleDarkhorse in early episodes) seems to be evolving into one due to an overwhelming amount of focus on The Krusty Krab in later seasons, not to mention the character himself [[TookALevelInJerkass becoming increasingly less sympathetic]] as time passes.

** Plankton enslaving Bikini Bottom in The Movie

* TaintedByThePreview: The preview commercials before the show came out made it look INCREDIBLY stupid. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case.

* Squidward: ''[[TemptingFate "How can you possibly have fun with a Jellyfish?"]]'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6v2Rl-pbg -nnz- -nnz- -nnz- -nnz- Da Da DA da da dada da! Da da da dada da da da DA!]]

** Season seven has the most of this than any other season.

** Is [=SpongeBob=] himself sweet and innocent or a manipulative [[PsychopathicManchild sociopath]] [[IdiotHoudini using a childish facade]] to hurt others (mainly Squidward) and get what he wants?

** DesignatedVillain: Plankton used to be a clear villain, but now that Mr. Krabs has been {{Flanderiz|ation}}ed into a {{Jerkass}}, one can't help but side with Plankton.

* BrokenBase: Over whether post-movie episodes are even worth watching or not.

** Though this changes with the writer, as he's still the clear villain in some of the newer episodes.

* EarWorm: '''Squidward:''' ''[[TemptingFate "How can you possibly have fun with a Jellyfish?"]]'' [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv6v2Rl-pbg -nnz- -nnz- -nnz- -nnz- Da Da DA da da dada da! Da da da dada da da da DA!]]
** "[=SpongeBob=] is the only guy I know that can have fun with a Jellyfish... FOR TWELVE HOURS!"

* BrokenBase

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: [[Awesome/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}} Has it's own page for them.]]
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: [[Funny/{{SpongeBob SquarePants}} So much so that it has its own page.]]

* DesignatedVillain: Plankton used to be a clear villain, but now that Mr. Krabs has been [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into a total {{Jerkass}}, one can't help but side with Plankton now.

* DorkAge: seasons 4-6, especially five. Season 7 is SoOkayItsAverage to a lot of people.
* DracoInLeatherPants: Plankton so much.
** Squidward too.
* DudeNotFunny: The episode's "Plankton's Regular" and "One Coarse Meal" portray Plankton's misery as a joke. Apparently, they expect us to root for [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs, even though Plankton is the true victim in those episodes.
** Even worse is that the latter episode treats SUICIDE ITSELF like it's hilarious.

** Tom the fish: "CHOCOLATE! [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLLeCeN0Y4Q&feature=recentf ''CHOCOLATE!''"]]

** An example of an older episode would be "Just One Bite", which gives the message that if you don't enjoy something everyone else does, something is wrong with you (granted, Squidward did like krabby patties after he finally tried it, but that doesn't change the fact Spongebob forced it on him).
*** Nah, SpongeBob apologized for trying to force the food on him. The moral is more along the lines of, "Even if it seems harmless, don't give into peer pressure."

* GrowingTheBeard: Season two is when people ''really'' started paying attention to the series. After a bout of SeasonalRot following the movie, it seems to have found its feet again in season seven.
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel/SpongeBobSquarePants Now has a page!]]

** A case of this or HarsherInHindsight, the title character of "Stanley S. [=SquarePants=]" is essentially a duplicate of [=SpongeBob=], albeit with his dopey [[TheKlutz klutzy]] traits [[UpToEleven Upped To Eleven]] (to the point even [=SpongeBob=] thinks he's an intolerable nuisance). Come the show's SeasonalRot and excessive Flanderization...

* HoYay: [[HoYay/SpongeBobSquarePants Has a page of its own.]]

* MoralEventHorizon: Krabs in "Jellyfish Hunter". Extracts jelly in horrific ways. Or maybe in "One Coarse Meal" (drives Plankton to suicide).

** Patrick has been getting a lot of hate in his more recent appearances. He will have no role in the entire episode, show up and act as a DiabolusExMachina to screw over some other character, [[UnpopularPopularCharacter like]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Squidward]]. His {{Flanderization}} didn't help matters: he want from being the tolerable if not lovable RalphWiggum taken Up to Eleven into Too Dumb to Live territory. Coupled with this and a major upgrade to JerkAss (where even Spongebob gets annoyed with him more lately), you can't help but sympathize with why Squidward hates both him and Spongebob, his not-so under the radar StalkerWithACrush.

** Season seven [[ItGotBetter got better]].

* ThatOneLevel: That Goddamn ball puzzle in the Mermalair in ''Battle for Bikini Bottom''. It requires ludicrous amounts of speed, precision and near-pinpoint accuracy with one of the most awkward weapons in the game.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks

** "Patrick Smartpants" seems to suggest that being intelligent will make you miserable.
*** But remember that the reason he became miserable in the first place was because after he became smart, [[TookALevelInJerkass he also became a giant douche bag]] and became unable to comprehend why he thought the things he used to enjoy were "fun" to him.
**** Which is kind of unfortunate in itself.

* VillainDecay: In the later seasons, some writers seem ''forgot'' that Plankton is a villain.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids: It's surprising how much the creators have managed to put into recent seasons of [=SpongeBob=] whilst still having it considered 'safe for kids'. Among other things, we have ridiculous amounts of HoYay, tons of NightmareFuel and GettingCrapPastTheRadar, [[SuicideAsComedy jokes about suicide]], [[GrossOutShow tons of disgusting close-ups, illnesses and other such things...]] To be fair, the show has always had some controversial aspects, but recently those have become ridiculously over-the-top. Still, for some [[YourMileageMayVary that might not necessarily be a bad thing]].

** Season seven has the most AccidentalNightmareFuel episodes than any other season.

* HoYay: Has its own page:[[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/HoYay/SpongeBobSquarePants]]
* ItsPopularNowItSucks: The main reason the [[SeasonalRot newer episodes]] even exist is because of the show's popularity during the earlier seasons.
* MemeticMutation: We should take the meme, and push it someplace else!
** Yeah, like on [[Memes/SpongeBobSquarePants this page!]]
* MoralEventHorizon: Krabs in Jellyfish Hunter. Extracts jelly in horrific ways.
** Or maybe in One Coarse Meal (drives Plankton to suicide). This one was even worse, as he got [[KarmaHoudini no real comeuppance for it whatsoever.]]
*** So being plagued by the [[spoiler: mime]] isn't comeuppance?
** Plankton enslaving Bikini Bottom in TheMovie

** The toenail incident, which is easily the most vile thing in the show's run.
* NeverLiveItDown: Mr. Krabs drives Planton to suicide in every episodes apparently.

** It really [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the writer]].
* TheScrappy: Due to SeasonalRot, [=SpongeBob=] has fully became a Scrappy. He has became absolutely unlikable, his voice has become extremely annoying, he combines JerkAss tendencies with his annoying voice, and he ruins the lives of likable characters like Squidward and Mrs. Puff. Hurts to be TheScrappy even more since he's the main character.

** Patrick has been getting a lot of hate in his more recent appearances. He will have no role in the entire episode, show up and act as a DiabolusExMachina to screw over some other character, [[TheWoobie like]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Squidward]]. His {{Flanderization}} didn't help matters: he want from being the tolerable if not lovable RalphWiggum taken Up to Eleven into Too Dumb to Live territory. Coupled with this and a major upgrade to JerkAss (where even Spongebob gets annoyed with him more lately), you can't help but sympathize with why Squidward hates both him and Spongebob, his not-so under the radar StalkerWithACrush.

** Patchy gets extra points for being a scrappy since the early days.
** Perhaps one of the few characters that still has some basic redeeming aspects or a regular basis is Sandy Cheeks, who ironically started off as an arguable Scrappy due to her rather Mary Sue-ish character and lack of flaws. Since then she has arguably been RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap by [[ParodySue lampshading her excessive gifts and talents]] and evolving her into a [[LargeHam hammy]] SmallNameBigEgo.

** Most fans believe the series itself has gone downhill after TheMovie. Stephen Hillenburg took a much less active role after this point, and the quality has suffered since.

* TheWoobie: Sandy and Gary, to an extent. One could argue [=SpongeBob=] had occasional traits of this at his season one era personality as well.
** Ms. Puff.
** Patrick is dumb, pathetic and jobless.

* DesignatedVillain: Plankton is used to be a clear villain, but now that Mr. Krabs has been [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderized]] into a total {{Jerkass}}, one can't help but side with Plankton now.

** Even worse is that the episode treats SUICIDE ITSELF like it's hilarious.

* ThatOneLevel: That goddamn ball puzzle in the Mermalair in ''Battle for Bikini Bottom''. It requires ludicrous amounts of speed, precision and near-pinpoint accuracy with one of the most awkward weapons in the game.

* VillainDecay: In the later seasons, some writers seem ''forget'' that Plankton is a villain.

* VillainDecay: Plankton.

* AssPull: The Patty Vault in "Just One Bite".

* NoProblemWithLicencedGames: Battle For Bikini Bottom

* FamilyUnfriendlyAesop: Some of the more recent episodes tends to have this. One notable example is in "Stuck In The Wringer".

* PainfulRhyme: From "Party Pooper Pants"'s FramingDevice: "Down, down, down to the bottom of the sea/Where we wait for [=SpongeBob=] and his snail Gary..."

* TheScrappy: Due to SeasonalRot, [=SpongeBob=] has fully became a Scrappy. He has became absolutely unlikable, his voice has become extremely annoying, he combines JerkAss tendencies with his annoying voice, and he ruins the lives of likable characters like Squidward and Mrs. Puff. Hurts to be TheScrappy even more since he's the main character.
** That is to say nothing of Mr. Krabs. Many fans just want to see him suffer a truly horrible fate. Recent episodes have seen his rivalry with Plankton devolve into making his life hell just for fun, feeding poison or rotten food to his customers intentionally for the sake of an extra dollar, or extorting and abusing his employees. The fact that he [[KarmaHoudini gets away with these]] at least 80% of the time doesn't help.
** Patrick has been getting a lot of hate in his more recent appearances. He will have no role in the entire episode, show up and act as a DiabolusExMachina to screw over some other character, [[TheWoobie like]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse Squidward]]. His {{Flanderization}} didn't help matters: he want from being the tolerable if not lovable RalphWiggum taken Up to Eleven into Too Dumb to Live territory. Coupled with this and a major upgrade to JerkAss (where even Spongebob gets annoyed with him more lately), you can't help but sympathize with why Squidward hates both him and Spongebob, his not-so under the radar StalkerWithACrush.
** Pearl is incredibly annoying, loud... and generally disliked.
** Patchy gets extra points for being a scrappy since the early days.
** Perhaps one of the few characters that still has some basic redeeming aspects or a regular basis is Sandy Cheeks, who ironically started off as an arguable Scrappy due to her rather Mary Sue-ish character and lack of flaws. Since then she has arguably been RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap by [[ParodySue lampshading her excessive gifts and talents]] and evolving her into a [[LargeHam hammy]] SmallNameBigEgo.

* TheWesley: Mr Krabs (arguably more an EnsembleDarkhorse in early episodes) seems to be evolving into one due to an overwhelming amount of focus on The Krusty Krab in later seasons, not to mention the character himself [[TookALevelInJerkass becoming increasingly less sympathetic]] as time passes.