- A common complaint about modern day episodes is the tendency to over-hype regular episodes as huge specials. This trend started back during seasons 2 and 3 of the show, which is often considered to be during the show's golden age, with episodes such as "Party Pooper Pants" (which would have been standard length were it not for the Patchy segments) and "Shanghaied" (the gimmick of which only worked the very first time it aired). It wasn't until the first such "special" to air after The Movie, "Best Day Ever", that fans started complaining, as it took a 24 hour marathon (that continued throughout the entirety of Nick at Nite) of the most beloved episodes of the series, as well as the movie, to advertise an 11 minute episode that quickly became divisive.
- The show's oft-criticized descent into Demographically Inappropriate Humour and gross-out jokes started as early as season 2, the former with the season’s very first episode, "Your Shoe's Untied" opening with SpongeBob getting caught watching a sea anemone on TV, which is treated as if he were looking at porn, one of the most classic examples of adult jokes in children's TV, and the latter with "Something Smells" revolving entirely around the joke that SpongeBob's breath stinks and he doesn't realize it. Typically though, this is limited to one or two Cutaway Gags per episode, whereas later seasons feature whole episodes centered around SpongeBob getting a splinter or contracting a fungal infection. The main problem stems from the writers attempting to emulate the style of episodes from Stephen Hillenburg's first tenure as show-runner without proper knowledge as to how he was able to make it work.
- Several fans complain about characters undergoing Flanderization in the show's later years, but what many don't know is how several of their traits were there in its earlier years;
- SpongeBob in later seasons is often criticized for being a Manchild. However, his immaturity has always been a part of his character; his entire story arc in the first movie is centered around accepting that he acts like a kid. But it's only in later seasons that it began to overshadow his other traits, to the point where he's not only downright infantile but completely devoid of common sense. In a way, they took "you're just a kid" quite literally.
- Not to mention that while post-movie SpongeBob has, in infamous episodes such as "A Pal For Gary", been neglectful to the point of wall-thumping ignorance and also contradicted enough of his kinder nature by (even while defending a Krabby Patty he dated) attacking scallops in ways that seem to kill them depending on how serious the subject can be in this show, he has had some little mean streaks in the first few seasons. That includes running his mouth on others when he perceived them as annoying him a bit much ("The Smoking Peanut" and "New Student Starfish") or thought they appeared reckless, not to mention such ignoramus tendencies leading to the conflict in "Squirrel Jokes". Note that SpongeBob has always had some early-established scenes of frustration. Also, these early scenes (listed under Jerkass Ball in his character sheet) were almost always written by the same writer, though he apparently hardly ever wrote for Seasons 4 and up. The difference is that when SpongeBob realized an error in some earlier stories, he was more likely to try and fix it than to let the plot save him.
- Mr. Krabs in later seasons is infamous for his tendency to do underhanded, immoral, or even illegal things if it means turning a quick buck. However, even in the first three seasons he's shown to use tactics like emotional manipulation and forcing SpongeBob and Patrick to dig up treasure only to plan to keep it all for himself, animal abuse and emotional manipulation, forcing his employees to use an old, diseased patty and then selling SpongeBob's soul for 62 cents, or even enslaving his employees. The difference, though, is that whenever he crosses a line in the first few seasons, he is generally punished for it or at least realizes he's wrong and tries to make amends for what he did.note In many later episodes, Krabs gets away with a slap on the wrist, if that. After many of his more controversial moments, most notoriously driving Plankton to attempted suicide in "One Coarse Meal", the show began to address this sin and give him comeuppance more often in later episodes.
- One of the biggest complaints people have with the modern series is the way they treat Squidward. This has been happening since the beginning, believe it or not. Thing is, Squidward is an arrogant jerk at best who went against childish fun, and was someone the audience loves to hate. Whenever the episode is sympathetic, they usually bring in someone even worse, namely Squilliam. As such, the audience usually laughed at Squidward's misfortune and saw it as well-deserved karma. However, later episodes tone down Squidward's rudeness, so he starts coming across less as a jerk being punished for his actions and more like a Cosmic Plaything who is being made miserable simply for wanting peace and quiet from SpongeBob and Patrick's antics, making his misfortune less funny and getting fans to complain. Not to mention, some of the earlier episodes which had a "Squidward gets tormented" plot (such as "Jellyfishing" and "Opposite Day") at least saw him get the last laugh on his neighbors, whereas in modern episodes, he’s lucky to even get a shot back at them.
- Patrick is notorious for being a bad, selfish friend to SpongeBob in the post-movie seasons. It's often ignored by pre-movie fans that, along with Patrick being a fellow troublemaker (prank-wise at least) and like-minded individual (through ignorance as well), there were still several moments where he acts jerkish towards SpongeBob, albeit not as pronounced as in the post-movie era, which had an episode where he stated he wasn't as stupid as he seemed to be. The list in detail:
- He goes insane and tries to kidnap SpongeBob when he goes to live with the jellyfish ("Nature Pants").
- He tries to, or so it could appear, murder him and a bunch of strangers when he doesn't get anything — and everyone else around him does — for Valentine's Day ("Valentine's Day").
- He had no issue convincing SpongeBob he's hideous way too much ("Something Smells").
- He abandons their plan to be 'grown-up' and leaves him hanging for some cookies ("Grandma's Kisses").
- He tries to sell SpongeBob out to the cops when he can't con him out of his last chocolate bar ("Life Of Crime").
- He rubs it in a decent bit, with Gary choosing him over SpongeBob in SpongeBob's face ("Dumped").
- He abruptly stabs SpongeBob in the back so he can continue looking like the smart one to his 'parents' ("I'm With Stupid").
- He immediately tries to squeal on SpongeBob to Mr. Krabs for swearing ("Sailor Mouth").
- He neglects the baby scallop, Junior, leaving SpongeBob with all the work of raising it for months on end while he sits around in his house watching TV ("Rock-A-Bye Bivalve").
- The pre-movie seasons have one of the more drastic cases of Took a Level in Jerkass which was toned down post-movie, with Sandy becoming much more arrogant, and standoffish in Season Two. Since Sandy was an overwhelmingly intellectual, calmer character who tried to be polite originally, however, this usually only serves to make her a more flawed, but still reasonably likeable character that can contribute her own amount of humor, especially since (similar to the pre-movie Krabs examples) Sandy is usually brought back down to earth by the end of each story and still has glimpses of her original, saner character in other episodes.
- The show itself runs on Negative Continuity, and as such, very little happens as a consequence of what went down in a previous episode. This didn't hurt the show early on since the writing and characters are often so strong that any continuity errors can be ignored. note Even with the weaker episodes, this wasn't usually a complaint. This was finally no longer an excuse with "Are You Happy Now?" where the premise is Squidward trying to find a happy memory since he's never had a happy memory; an idea far harder for fans to swallow because it ignored key elements of Squidward's backstory and thus character, plus the emotional core of many episodes (including some of the show's most beloved, like Band Geeks.)
- Something that is somewhat contested about the episodes following the second movie is the noticeable increase in Wild Take humor. Zany takes have been a staple of the show from the very beginning; some of the show's most famous memes from the first three seasons and the first movie are exaggerated reactions, even, such as the "DEEEAUGHHH" guy, SpongeBob's "too much sauce" face, and Patrick's surprised expression from the first movie. However, what made these particular jokes work was how sparingly used these faces were, which made them stand out more. The wild take humor became much more noticeable from Season 10 on due to the show hiring a lot of Ren & Stimpy alumni and bringing that show's penchant for over-the-top wild takes and looser, intentionally Off-Model animation along with them, resulting in these faces quickly becoming exhausting for old-school SpongeBob fans.
- Many fans complain about Mrs. Puff tending to get arrested in episodes from later seasons, viewing it as overused. But this is fairly common in the early seasons too: of the eight episodes in seasons 1 to 3 where she is a major character, three have her get arrested. However, one of these episodes ("Doing Time") is revealed to be All Just a Dream, while her other two arrests make sense: in one of them ("Hall Monitor"), she claims SpongeBob is her responsibility and thereby unintentionally transfers the blame for what he did onto her; while in the other ("No Free Rides"), she attempts to steal SpongeBob's new boat and nearly commits vehicular manslaughter on two police officers. This tendency is much less forgivable in later episodes, where the reasons for her arrests are much flimsier or even outright nonexistent, and seemingly only exist to keep up a Running Gag rather than as a logical consequence of Mrs. Puff's actions. Not helping matters is that in some episodes where she does commit crimes (like in "Demolition Doofus"), she inexplicably isn't arrested.
- Later season episodes like "A Pal for Gary" are infamous for SpongeBob being so stupid, he can not sense an obvious threat. The episode "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy III" depict him trusting some who gives an obvious line (see below) that Man Ray should not be trusted at all. However, the line came right after SpongeBob unintentionally annoyed Man Ray into saying it, giving it much better comedic timing that the former episode failed in. In addition, SpongeBob was foolish enough to let him out, but not foolish enough to do so without a backup plan, as he could protect himself using that tickle belt from Episode 17note .Man Ray: YES, YES, ALREADY! I'M GOOD, I'M GOOD! Now, let me out of here, or you'll suffer dire consequences!
SpongeBob: Well, that's good enough for me.- On a related note, this video
, using the episode "Yellow Pavement" as an example, posits that one of most significant flaws of Modern SpongeBob is that SpongeBob is portrayed as oblivious to everything (not just to obvious threats like Man Ray) to a fault, to the point that he can no longer recognize when he is making another person actively miserable. SpongeBob has always been portrayed as oblivious in this way, but his obliviousness is usually portrayed as part of a joke, such as when he accomplishes outlandish feats due to not realizing he couldn't, or made it so that the only characters who suffer as a result of SpongeBob's oblivious nature actually deserve it (such as Plankton, the aforementioned Man Ray, Squidward when he acts mean enough to warrant it, or one shot antagonists like Kevin or the Strangler). Some modern-era episodes forget this, playing SpongeBob's obliviousness completely straight without a hint of irony and having anybody and everybody suffer for his cluelessness without rhyme or reason, to the point that it just becomes annoying.
- On a related note, this video
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