Harsher In Hindsight / SpongeBob SquarePants

• All the negative experience Squidward has had with police officers (from the ticket for littering in "Squid on Strike" to thinking he's under arrest for kicking a box in "Idiot Box") are uncomfortable to watch after his voice actor got a DUI arrest in early 2016. Thankfully, he was later released and this incident hasn't affected his voice acting career.
• The gag of the sand castle shaped like Texas from the episode of the same name, along with it being washed away by a wave, is uncomfortably evocative of Hurricane Harvey devastating much of Texas in 2017.
• Any scene where Squidward is referred to as a loser, such as "Help Wanted"◊ or "Skill Crane", given how in The SpongeBob Musical, the word is a painful reminder of having been bullied as a child.
• Many of Mr. Krabs' money-loving moments, especially in "Krusty Krab Training Video" where a young Krabs uses a Coin-on-a-String Trick on a vending machine or "My Pretty Seahorse" where he laments spending a beloved dollar on a soda when he was five, become more understandable with episodes like "Friend or Foe" establishing he grew up dirt poor and barely even knew what money was as a child.
• In "Patty Hype", Mr. Krabs panics when he mistakes SpongeBob's green "Pretty Patty" for a spoiled burger and immediately torches it, as a responsible restaurant owner might. In later episodes like "Born Again Krabs" and "The Krusty Sponge", Mr. Krabs is more than willing to sell tainted patties for a profit.
• In "Hooky", Mr. Krabs warns SpongeBob that he could end up in a gift shop if he plays on the hooks. In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, SpongeBob and Patrick die while being prepared to be sold in a gift shop.
• Some episodes of the show even make it hard to watch previous episodes. Try watching "Friend or Foe" (which is about how Mr. Krabs and Plankton used to be friends before Krabs' success with the krabby patty tore them apart) and "Best Frenemies" (where Krabs and Plankton form an Enemy Mine to investigate the success of the new Kelp Shakes) after "One Coarse Meal" (which had Mr. Krabs remorselessly use Plankton's fear of whales to drive him into suicide), or try watching "Have You Seen This Snail?" (where SpongeBob spends a good deal of the episode missing his pet snail Gary and desperately trying to find him) and "A Pal for Gary" (where SpongeBob is completely oblivious of his new pet Puffy Fluffy's violent nature and is an Ungrateful Bastard when Gary saves his life from the creature) in succession.
• Any episode where Mr. Krabs shows that he deeply cares for SpongeBob, like in "Welcome to the Chum Bucket" when he sings "I'll trade it all away, if you come back to stay" (referring to SpongeBob) in the "This Grill Is Not A Home" song, are a lot harder to watch after "SpongeBob, You're Fired", where he is willing to (and does) fire SpongeBob so that he can save a nickel.
• In "Fear of a Krabby Patty", SpongeBob gains a fear of Krabby Patties due to being overworked, specifically that giant patties are going to eat him. In "Krabby Patty Creature Feature", science-created Krabby Patties turn anyone who eats them into mutant Krabby Patty zombies, who spread the virus by making others eat them.
• The Fantastic Racism Sandy faces in episodes like "Squirrel Jokes" gains even more uncomfortable tones due to Sandy being cast as a black woman in the musical (in which she still faces racism for being a land mammal).
• During his Imagine Spot in "MuscleBob BuffPants", SpongeBob pictured himself doing his usual activities, including frycooking, after he becomes stronger and jacked. "Larry's Gym" would go on to show how impractical this actually is.
• In the ending of "Sleepy Time", Squidward asks SpongeBob, "Don't we get enough of you during the day?" "Gone" reveals that Bikini Bottom has a holiday devoted to avoiding SpongeBob.
• "The Smoking Peanut" stars a giant oyster named Clamu who is kept in captivity and trained to do tricks, like Shamu and the orcas at SeaWorld. The plot in which Clamu goes on an angry rampage attacking others isn't really funny after that incident in which a SeaWorld orca killed its trainer and the controversy that prompted afterwards about the ethics of orcas in captivity.
• In "The Goofy Newbie", Patrick is quite rude to Squidina, holding up the line while sampling ice cream. Squidina responds by calling him a "mooch" and getting security to kick him out. In the somewhat-prequel series The Patrick Star Show, we see that Squidina is actually Patrick's sister, and they get along well; this could hint that they had a falling-out sometime after The Patrick Star Show (unless you assume the show is non-canon to the main series).

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