YMMV / The Patrick Star Show

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • In "Uncredible Journey", when everyone thinks Tinkle is dead (another toilet got destroyed and they mistook it for Tinkle), GrandPat repeatedly interrupts everyone's mourning to say "You're talking about a toilet!" One interpretation of this is that, since GrandPat doesn't like Tinkle, he thinks it's stupid to mourn the (supposed) death of a sentient toilet and points out how ridiculous it is. The other is that, since he does know Tinkle isn't dead (he broke the other toilet), he's pointing out that they're crying over something that was never actually alive and can't be dead.
  • Despite conflicting evidence from both crew members and the show itself, most of the fandom generally agrees that Squidina was Happily Adopted by Patrick's family, who believe she's merely a weird looking sea star.
• Alternative Joke Interpretation: "Now Museum, Now You Don't" has a Badge Gag where Cecil's museum security guard badge has him half covered in syrup. While he's eating pancakes and it's possible he just spilled some, the fact that the syrup is only covering his image and not anywhere else on the badge could imply that he was already covered in it when he got the photo taken.
• Awesome Art: Especially following the show's Growing the Beard, the Patrick Show has a beautiful, colorful, and engaging art style. Character motions are fluid and the designs are appealing. There's strong visual direction throughout the episodes, too. The backgrounds have a watercolor style that looks amazing, with each being painted in-person. The show also has a tendency for Art Shifts, that keep it visually interesting: take a look at the rubberhose style of "The Lil' Patscals", the stop-motion puppetry of Dr. Plankenstein's castle, or the geometric, sci-fi designs of Captain Quasar's segments.
• Awesome Moments:
  • In "The Patterfly Effect", Patrick enrolls in college and singlehandedly reinvents time travel. The Hard-Work Montage with grand music and cinematic shots is awesome.
  • At the end of "Home ECCH!", Squidina manages to pull off a successful surgery that not even the hospital's doctors can do, using solely what she's learned from her home ec class. Her teacher is genuinely grateful that she brought him back to life, and since she managed to finish her earlier assignment correctly, he gives her an A as well.
  • In "Which Witch is Which?", Squidina undergoes witch training from her mean grandmother Agnes. When she sees Agnes putting her family in danger, this leads her to finally access her powers, float off the ground, and use psychokinesis to throw Agnes straight back to her house.
    Squidina: Grandma, it was nice meeting you, but it's time for you to go!
  • The ending of "Dr. Smart Science", where Patrick and GrandPat become beings of pure electricity and battle it out downtown in an epic fight scene.
• Awesome Music:
  • "Glockenspiel Gavotte" is a relaxing synth track that plays during calm moments or happy endings.
  • "Kitsch Latin Cool", a catchy Latin samba track that's used as a Leitmotif for the Patrick Show in-universe.
  • "Bossa Cubana" is another track that often introduces Patrick's show. It's an upbeat Bossa Nova song.
  • "One Zero Zero", most often used during endings, is an immediately recognizable synth track.
  • "Future Train" plays during fast-paced and high-energy moments.
  • "The Joint Is Jumpin'", a fast-paced jazz track that plays throughout "The Lil' Patscals" and perfectly fits the episode's 30s Retraux aesthetic.
  • "Jet Generation", which sounds like something you'd hear after winning a Game Show.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • The Dr. Plankenstein segment in "Stair Wars" comes out of nowhere, lasts a full two minutes, and is never mentioned again once it's over.
  • In "Patrick's Alley", Ouchie randomly speaks a full sentence to Patrick. He's never been able to speak outside of dog barks, which Patrick can understand anyways in the earlier episode "Just in Time for Christmas" (although with a bit of Repeating So the Audience Can Hear).
  • Near the end of "Fun & Done!", Patrick takes the quarter he got from "tutoring", shoves it into one of SpongeBob's holes, and spins his eyes like a slot machine. SpongeBob spits out a bunch of cherries, causing Patrick to complain, "Someday we'll win that sports car!" Then the episode continues like this never happened.
  • "The Commode Episode" has an odd Jump Scare. We see Patrick's skeleton left after a time card, but it turns out he just made it as an arts-and-crafts project to kill time. Then the skeleton screams "You'll never get out!" as it rapidly flashes between it and Patrick's face and lightning strikes. It has no effect on the plot and comes out of nowhere.
• Bizarro Episode:
  • "Terror at 20,000 Leagues", the Halloween Episode. It starts normally with Patrick and Squidina going trick-or-treating. By the end of the first half, they've only visited Bubble Bass's house, with much of the episode being spent on Dr. Plankenstein. Or sometimes not him specifically, but other random commercials and shows that he watches. The episode is constantly switching between different Halloween-themed bits, and it becomes even more of a Mind Screw once Patrick and Squidina come across Plankenstein themselves.
  • "Super Sitters" is notable in that it feels more like a regular SpongeBob episode, and has little to do with the exclusive setting of the Patrick Star Show. It's very light on characters and is the first episode to have none of Patrick's family members show up. Midway through the episode is a lengthy Art Shift showing off a Mermaid Man comic, which doesn't have anything to do specifically with the Patrick Star Show. It also has similarities to existing episodes such as "Back to the Past" and "Biddy Sitting" from the parent show.
  • "Fun & Done!" is a SpongeBob and Patrick adventure with no other established characters. The episode's use of Deranged Animation with the various insane creatures that Andy creates from his imagination are unmatched by anything else in the show. Fittingly enough, this one premiered on 4/20.
• Broken Base: "Mid-Season Finale" remains one of the more divisive episodes of the show for having a minimal plot and mainly consisting of a montage of random skits. Whether or not you like the episode depends entirely on whether the format of rapidly switching, disconnected jokes works for you.
• Catharsis Factor: For those who don't like Lady Upturn, it can be pretty satisfying to see her treated like dirt throughout "Neptune's Ball". Her invitation gets stolen by the Star family, she spends most of the episode hiding in a toilet to sneak in, and King Neptune gets mad at her for trying to get Patrick in trouble (because he's actually a fan of his show). However, she does get a Pet the Dog moment in the end, where she comes around to liking Patrick's show and gets to join the party with everyone else. Similarly, in "Now Museum, Now You Don't", Patrick and Cecil end up wrecking Upturn's ill-gotten museum exhibits.
• Character Rerailment:
  • Starting with "The Patterfly Effect", Patrick's characterization is brought a lot closer to how he is in the original seasons of SpongeBob. He never comes off as a Jerkass and, while still stupid, does it in a way that's much funnier and more understandable. His obliviousness from his Flanderization is cranked down, with him being genuinely helpful to the plot in episodes like "Home ECCH!". Even episodes like "The Patrick Show Sells Out" have him get the upper hand in the end. Overall, it makes him a much more engaging and likeable character.
  • Krabs and Plankton get this in "The Patrick Show Sells Out". While seasons 10-13 demoted Krabs to a Butt-Monkey whose jokes mostly involved him getting injured, or him being unlikeably greedy, and Plankton suffered Motive Decay and wound up becoming a generic, catch-all "evil" character, this episode brings them back to their original portrayals. It solely focuses on their personal rivalry and has them repeatedly advertising their restaurants to get more customers than the other, complete with plenty of funny Volleying Insults.
  • SpongeBob is definitely a case of Beware the Nice Ones, with some of the most epic moments of the series coming from him finally snapping and getting angry (like in "Can You Spare a Dime?" or "Krusty Love"). However, as he Took a Level in Dumbass over the series, it's rare to see him have any negative reactions beyond brief jokes. In "Big Baby Patrick", SpongeBob actually disapproves of Patrick's immature behavior and comes up with a plan to put a stop to it. When it goes Off the Rails, he yells at Patrick in a way he hasn't for seasons, and it's as shocking as it is awesome:
    SpongeBob: NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WATCH ME EAT THE ICE CREAM AND WANT YOUR OWN SO BAD THAT YOU GROW UP AND STOP BEING A BABY!
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • "Home ECCH!" is a Black Comedy about Squidina trying to make a good project for her teacher, only for them to turn out incredibly disturbing, such as making a bed out of GrandPat's skin or sticking a bunch of forks in Cecil. Her teacher repeatedly has heart attacks and doctors rush to revive him, and it's always funny.
  • "The Prehistoric Patrick Star Show". The CaveStar family end up drowning in a tar pit. When they're unearthed years later, they're put on display in a museum... while still wearing swim clothes and frozen in awkward positions.
  • "Dad's Stache Stash" ends with Rube taking a photo of the family. He promptly gets hit by a runaway train, and the photo ends up showing just the bottom half of the family.
  • "A Root Galoot":
    • GrandPat's wish is an asteroid completely wiping out the Earth, leaving him (floating safely in space) as the only survivor. Fitting for a Grumpy Old Man who enjoys peace and quiet.
    • Patrick accidentally burns Shmandrake and kills him. But since Shmandrake was such a Jerkass to them, the Stars just decide to eat his body for dinner.
  • "The Starry Awards" is loaded with Black Comedy.
    • Patrick's "Best Bite" nominees show various pictures of him being bitten by different characters. In the third one, he stares at the audience with a bored expression while a zombie bites his arm.
    • Patrick throws a dart that ends up hitting Slappy in the head, making him faint. Slappy, however, is still alive, so Patrick gives him a carrot-shaped award. Slappy bites it and promptly dies from the paint not having dried yet. The show quickly continues with Patrick riding Slappy's body being carried a stretcher as he goes to introduce the next nominees.
    • Granny Tentacles repeatedly has her eyes and face burned off by spotlights. The last time it happens, she's just annoyed and comments that the joke has gone on for too long.
    • It ends on Patrick, Squidina, and Granny Tentacles being killed by a bomb at the finale for their awards show. It's incredibly jarring to see, but the aftermath where they all have deadpan expressions and just continue watching the show makes it really funny.
  • "Olly Olly Organ Free". A skinless Patrick swallowing up the entire contents of his kitchen and shouting "more organs!" is horrifying, in addition to his extremely misshapen body afterwards. It becomes hilarious when he starts strutting down the street and receives nothing but praise and admiration for his new look.
  • "Which Witch is Which?":
    • Patrick shows one of the "weird gifts" his mean witch grandmother has given him. It's a Voodoo Doll shaped like Patrick with multiple nails sticking out of it.
    • Agnes tricks Squidina into thinking she burned down Granny Tentacles' house. Agnes' reaction of "eh, it was an ugly house anyways" as Squidina screams is hilarious.
  • "Get Off My Lawnie". People stalking and harassing an old lady is horrible, but the sheer reverence Granny Tentacles' Loony Fans have for everything she does, like finding Faux Symbolism in her morning routine or proudly accepting her insults as compliments and making T-shirts of them, wraps back around to being funny.
  • "The Patrick Show Cashes In" highlights some ridiculous products that the Patrick Show brands, mainly aimed at kids. These are horrifically unsafe, like an action figure that comes with a real battle axe, a uranium playset, and a woodchipper that you're meant to use headfirst to cut your hair. When Squidina demonstrates the last one with a mannequin, the hair splats all over the room. The sheer audacity of it pushes it to being hilarious.
  • "10 & 1 Toilets". GrandPat is preparing to murder a group of innocent puppies for his own selfish goals. But the puppies are sentient toilets he's going to disassemble with plumbing tools, just to restart his line of inexplicably high-class toilet-themed fashion. The whole thing ends up being so ridiculous it's hard not to laugh.
  • "Family Plotz" is an entire episode full of jokes involving the Star family playing around at a cemetery. As if the opening of Cecil repeatedly ramming gravestones with his car wasn't enough, it continues with GrandPat sending Tinkle to fetch a stick, and Tinkle comes back with a corpse in his mouth. GrandPat happily declares that he recognizes who it was. Later on, GrandPat ends up scaring the hell out of some funeral mourners by sleeping in the coffin, and Cecil uproots graves to build a playground out of them (and bashes Patrick in the face with one).
  • "Dr. Smart Science" takes on the idea of infomercial scams preying on old people, which sadly does happen in real life. But Old Man Walker immediately dialing in to buy one of Patrick's healing crystals while declaring he's going to cancel his doctor appointment is so dark it's funny.
  • "Big Baby Patrick" ends with GrandPat becoming a baby so the family will pamper him. Bunny decides that after all the trouble Patrick put the family through, he should be the one to babysit him. Smash Cut to Patrick dropping GrandPat off at an orphanage.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Despite being a One-Shot Character, FitzPatrick has become popular with fans for his exaggeratedly evil personality, being a Foil to Patrick, and being voiced by Henry Rollins.
  • Andy for his adorable design and voice, hilarious boring personality ("Mother... I would like some plain oatmeal."), and that Patrick and SpongeBob genuinely want to teach him how to have fun.
• Esoteric Happy Ending:
  • "Squidina's Little Helper" revolves around Squidina's new intern, Fentin, stealing all the studio equipment and setting up his own show for his sister. The episode ends with the Star family getting "revenge" on Fentin by dropping Tinkle, Patrick's sentient toilet, into their show, and he chases them around on-stage. Squidina is happy about this. This is despite the fact that they have no equipment left, no way to keep making the Patrick Show, and Fentin and Crabina have a network contract for at least six seasons and are enjoying tremendous success. Thankfully, "Best Served Cold" shows that the family somehow recovered, with Fentin now being jealous about Squidina's success.
  • "The Drooling Fool" ends with Patrick's drooling problem finally being solved, and him walking away contently... as buildings burn in the background behind him.
• Fan Nickname: The first season is usually split into two parts by fans: the "old crew" episodes ("Late for Breakfast" to "Patrick's Got a Zoo Loose") and the "new crew" episodes ("The Patterfly Effect" onwards). The "new crew" era is considered to be a major improvement over the old stuff, when the Rapid-Fire Comedy is cranked up and much of the Early-Installment Weirdness is ironed out.
• Genius Bonus:
  • In "The Lil' Patscals", Patrick goes back in time to the Monochrome Past of 1927 to see what GrandPat's childhood was like. Only, Patrick is still colored in at first, while everything is grayscale. 1927 is the same year color film was invented.
  • In "The Patrick Show Cashes In", the Bureau of Bureacracy has a roll of red tape on top of the building. Red tape is a slang term for overly strict bureaucrat regulations.
  • "Now Museum, Now You Don't" is full of recreations and parodies of famous art pieces, including some more obscure ones like Medusa by Caravaggio and The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.
  • In "Is There a Director in the House?", Sandy's complicated explanation of an evaporation event during GrandPat's Silent Movie is shown in the form of a Cue Card full of physics graphs and equations. It includes a lot of real college-level physics formulas, such as Gauss's law, Maxwell's equations, the del formulas for coordinates, and the divergence of an electric field.
• Growing the Beard: Starting with "The Patterfly Effect" in season 1, the show's staff team got an overhaul, consisting of a dozen new writers and plenty of new storyboard artists. It also switched to being storyboard-driven, like the original seasons of SpongeBob, instead of script-driven. While the show still had its fans before then, the new staff episodes are generally agreed to be a much better direction. They're not only much funnier, but have crazier visuals, giving it a distinct Surreal Humor vibe along the lines of Uncle Grandpa. The plots are more original, faster paced, and make better use of the characters than the show's earlier episodes. Some disliked characters are also given new traits to make them more fleshed-out or put into situations where they work better. Another bonus is the much smarter satire: "Get Off My Lawnie" has a plot about obsessive fanbases, "Bubble Bass Reviews" is an Affectionate Parody of internet review shows, and "The Patrick Show Cashes In" takes on Misaimed Marketing.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: "Pearl Wants to Be a Star" ends with Squidina congratulating Pearl and saying that she'll put her on the show soon. This happens in "Mid-Season Finale", where Pearl gets to be a part of the show, telling a joke alongside Squidina.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In "Fun & Done!", despite all the trouble Patrick and SpongeBob had babysitting Andy, they still put in a good word for him to his mother and tell her he behaved just like she would have wanted him to. Patrick even says goodbye to Andy "'til next time", meaning that he'd be happy to see him again.
  • At the end of "The Lil' Patscals", Patrick comes to appreciate GrandPat's stories and realizes that he did have a really cool childhood.
  • In "Now Museum, Now You Don't", the family is supportive of Cecil's new job — even GrandPat's Backhanded Compliment ends with him kissing Cecil on the cheek.
  • In "Tying the Klop-Knot", Squidina is willing to accomplish years' worth of ridiculous wedding traditions all in one night, just so Bunny and Cecil can continue being Happily Married together and she doesn't have to lose her parents.
  • While there's some silly jokes in it, the opening to "Chum Bucket List" is pretty adorable, consisting of a Friendship Song about SpongeBob and Patrick being excited to spend their day hanging out together.
  • In "Is There a Director in the House?", Patrick calls on Cecil as his emergency director. Cecil immediately decides to do a show about father-son bonding, including inexplicably gluing a teapot together and then going to play catch.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "Terror at 20,000 Leagues", Quasar threatens, "One of these days, Pat-Tron, I'm gonna sell you for scrap!" In "The Patrick Show Cashes In", he actually does try to sell Pat-Tron on Squidina's shopping network.
  • "Mid-Season Finale" has a joke about the show's Seasonal Rot after "the first three episodes". As the Patrick Show went on, it would actually end up getting much better, rather than declining in quality.
  • In "A Root Galoot", Bunny wants to use her wish to turn into a superhero. "Super Stars" the next season involves exactly that.
  • In "The Starry Awards", Patrick hands out an award for "Best Stunt", which he ends up giving to himself. "Stuntin'" just two episodes later involves him actually being a stuntman.
  • "Stuntin'", which premiered on July 3, 2023, has a scene of Patrick making a sandwich that's just many layers of cheese between bread. Later that month, Burger King Thailand would indirectly defictionalize this by having a limited-time burger that consists of 20 layers of cheese and nothing else.
  • In "Get Off My Lawnie", Old Man Walker is the first to adapt Granny Tentacles' catchphrase "Don't you people have lives?" onto a shirt, happily proclaiming "I have no life!" "Family Plotz" would later show him as one of the many zombies that rises from the Star family's antics, making it true in a different sense.
• Improved Second Attempt:
  • "The Prehistoric Patrick Star Show" is another time-shift episode taking place in prehistoric times, just like "Ugh" from the parent show. While it's not hated, "Ugh" has a Broken Base and is usually considered one of the weakest episodes of the first three seasons due to the slow pacing of its SpongeBob segments. "Prehistoric Patrick" is a much faster-paced episode, with the jokes landing very quick, and it does a lot of things in its runtime rather than just focusing on the discovery of fire. While "Ugh"'s comedy entirely revolves on visual gags since the caveman characters can't speak, they can in "Prehistoric Patrick", giving it some new jokes. It also helps that it's a regular-length episode and not a special, avoiding Hype Backlash and not overstaying its welcome.
  • The fan-favorite episode "The Patrick Show Cashes In" can be seen as another take on the divisive "Mid-Season Finale". Both are meta episodes that mainly revolve around a series of different skits. While "Mid-Season" had segments that had no thematic throughline and were often random for the sake of random, every single one in "Cashes In" takes the form of a Parody Commercial with hilarious satire of both Misaimed Marketing and overly dangerous branded products, which is rooted in the episode's setup. "Cashes In" also throws a curveball in its plot with a business executive objecting to how unsafe the advertised products are, while "Mid-Season" remains with no stakes the entire time. Even the endings are different; "Mid-Season" ends with some indulgent Gushing About Guest Stars from Patrick, but "Cashes In" delivers An Aesop that TV shows don't exist to be merchandised and just making something that people like watching is enough.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Patick's face after kissing Ouchie, with numerous thorns impaled in his mouth and eyes, in "Late for Breakfast".
  • Patrick's disgusting, detailed rash in "Bummer Jobs".
  • Patrick being skinned alive, complete with muscle and skin detail, in "The Haunting of Star House".
  • "Squidina's Little Helper" has a disgusting shot of Patrick's body being sliced apart, looking like deli meat and being surprisingly disturbing rather than cartoony.
  • In "Patrick's Alley", a fish gets his face ripped off by a lollipop, and so we see his skinless face with the bones and muscular system still showing.
  • GrandPat's back covered in suction cup-shaped scars caused by octopi in "Pearl Wants to Be a Star". Also Mr. Krabs having a chunk of his body taken out by bobbit worms in the same scene.
  • "The Drooling Fool" is an entire episode focused on Patrick's uncontrollable drooling. His drool gets all over his family and floods the town. It's pretty gross.
  • "Patrick's Got a Zoo Loose" has a scene near the beginning where Patrick gets his vital fluids sucked out by an alien, looking disturbingly pale and shriveled afterwards.
• One-Scene Wonder: Patrick's "gorgeous Swedish cousin", Inga, appears for a one-off gag in "Blorpsgiving". Despite this, she caught attention on Twitter after the episode's premiere.
• Padding: The Variety Show cutaway sketches that have nothing to do with the main plot of the episode. For instance, "Pat-a-thon" randomly gets derailed with a lengthy Frankenstein skit. These completely disconnected bits were cut pretty early into the show, and would begin being incorporated into the plot more naturally.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: "The Patterfly Effect" is widely considered to be where the show got better and found its footing. Part of this is the improvements for disliked characters that came after it.
  • Slappy is reviled for having no character traits beyond just being a Nightmare Fetishist and showing up way too much for no reason. Thus, his role in "Home ECCH!" came to a surprise for many. He notices Squidina's Despair Event Horizon and actually helps her get through it. With Slappy's guidance, Squidina is able to cook a recipe that she couldn't get right, and thus ends up saving her grade in her home ec class. It also helps that in the new crew run, his uncomfortable stalker-ish tendencies are almost completely gone, and his appearances are much funnier.
  • Captain Quasar was disliked for the fact that he mainly shows up in unfunny Cutaway Gags that have nothing to do with the episode, and he has no defined personality besides being a bit of a jerkass. "Blorpsgiving" salvaged the concept by giving Quasar a main role, portraying him as more sympathetic and involving him in a plot with more characters.
  • In the old crew episodes, Pat-Tron is just an irredeemable moron who actively endangers Quasar in all of his appearances, while refusing to admit that he's doing anything wrong. "Blorpsgiving" dials down his stupidity in the second half, has Quasar confide in him more, and even has Pat-Tron come to his rescue in the end. Notably, the end of the episode is the first time Quasar has said anything nice about Pat-Tron.
• Salvaged Story: The Quasar and Pat-Tron segments get a major revamp in "Blorpsgiving" through both characters' recharacterization. Quasar goes from being an obnoxious Miles Gloriosus to being a more emotional and dramatic Fish out of Water compared to Pat-Tron's family, making his character more entertaining and sympathetic. With most of the conflict focusing on Quasar's misguided attempts to impress one of Pat-Tron's relatives, Pat-Tron's Lethally Stupid nature is dialed down. While he does cause trouble at the start, he's mostly out of the story after it and even manages to save Quasar in the end. It also helps that their appearance is the main story this time around, rather than being padding to a completely unrelated one.
• The Scrappy:
  • Slappy, a recurring character. He's Patrick's Stalker with a Crush (such as wanting to dance with him, watching him through the window and hoping that he fails), acts and looks incredibly creepy, and shows up a lot for no reason. The fandom considers him unfunny and feel he is overused. However, he gets Rescued from the Scrappy Heap in "Home ECCH!"; he is genuinely supportive of Squidina and actually helps her cook a recipe that she can't get right, and thus ends up saving her grade in her home ec class.
  • Pat-Tron and Captain Doug Quasar. They mainly show up for time-consuming filler segments that have no relevance to the actual story, and their jokes are predictable and not funny. Quasar gets a deserved Take That, Scrappy! in "The Patrick Show Sells Out", where Plankton takes control of Pat-Tron and proceeds to blast him with a laser and beat him into the ground. However, both of them are redeemed in "Blorpsgiving".
  • Lady Upturn. She is a recurring Rich Bitch with an overused and unfunny recurring gag (angrily gasping and saying she's offended by whatever stupidity is occuring). Not to mention fans are seemingly convinced she's effectively replaced Squilliam Fancyson as the designated "rich character," making people dislike her even more than they would've not knowing that. She gets a Take That, Scrappy! moment in "Neptune's Ball" when her invite to Neptune's party is stolen by the Star family and the bouncer outside the castle refuses to let her in.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: While the show doesn't have an overarching storyline, it does take a while to iron itself out and settle into a comfortable pace. Much of the old crew run has slower paced episodes and less jokes. The show doesn't really come into its Rapid-Fire Comedy style until the new crew run. For instance, the first episode is about Patrick slowly going around the house and talking to one person at a time, with not much else going on. Other episodes like "I Smell a Pat" and "Patrick's Got a Zoo Loose" have frequent Padding and will take a minute or two to tell a single joke. In contrast, the second season opens with "The Patrick Show Cashes In", which contains a sequence of increasingly ridiculous Parody Commercials that are full of jokes, and "The Star Games", an episode full of incredibly fast and frequent Game Show-themed gags.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • "Survivoring" has two ideas introduced early in the episode: Cecil and the kids going Fancy Camping with an overly cozy RV, and Patrick and Squidina being terrified by a horror movie that leads Cecil to show off his monster defense system. However, both of these are dropped once Patrick throws the RV off a cliff — with the exception of a brief Brick Joke at the end. Either leaning into the fancy RV or the horror angle would have made the episode more distinct than the mostly generic wilderness plot it ended up being.
  • "Shrinking Stars" briefly explores the idea of the Stars living in Shmandor, a futuristic miniature society. It seems like this is going to be a major part of the story, but Shmandor is abruptly destroyed by Cecil and never shows up again in the episode. Thankfully, it would later get its own episode in season 2's "The Wrath of Shmandor".
  • The Fake-Out Opening is widely considered the best part of "The Drooling Fool", with the idea of Patrick visiting an ice cream-themed amusement park being a perfect fit for the show. Sadly, this isn't the main plot, but a lead-in to a gross and uncomfortable one.
  • In "Dad's Stache Stash", Patrick's antics in the stache stash are easily the funniest part of the episode, with a Hurricane of Puns and a rapidfire Costume-Test Montage. It can be a disappointment when the episode takes an abrupt Halfway Plot Switch and the stache stash is never even mentioned again after that point, with the second half being a lot slower paced and bogged down by unnecessary meta humor.
  • "Patrick's Prison Pals" doesn't actually show much of Patrick's time in prison. Instead, it focuses on a forgettable One-Shot Character, and in order to drive home the Prefer Jail to the Protagonist joke it's building up to, almost everyone is Flanderized back into their old crew selves. Not helping is that the show has already done this exact premise of "criminal gets driven mad by the Star family's antics" in "X Marks the Pot", meaning the Patrick stuff that the episode promises ends up being an underbaked subplot to a main story that's a Recycled Script.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Squidina as Patrick's sister. On SpongeBob, Squidina had two appearances: as one of Sandy's scouts in "Goons on the Moon", and a Goofy Goober employee in "The Goofy Newbie" (where she doesn't seem to recognize Patrick). Her sudden promotion to the main cast was very unexpected.
  • "X Marks the Pot" has the Inferno Island warden from SpongeBob's "The Inmates of Summer" reappear as the prison warden of Bikini Bottom Jail.
  • Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy have often appeared on the series through action figures and comic books. Nobody expected them to appear in person (as babies) in "Super Sitters". At the end of the episode, Barnacle Boy (in his prime) even gets a speaking role! He's voiced by Tom Kenny.
  • "Nitwit Neighborhood News" has Harvey from Kamp Koral assisting Perch Perkins. While he doesn't have that big of a role, he's the first instance of a Canon Foreigner from one of the spin-offs crossing into a different spin-off.
  • The Goofy Scoopers returning in "FitzPatrick", especially since it had only been a year since their first appearance. All three of them are also voiced by guest stars, with most guest star characters just staying as one-offs.
  • Elwood, a Living Prop from Kamp Koral, shows up to Patrick's party in "A Space Affair to Remember" and even gets some dialogue.
  • Shecky, a minor character from Kamp Koral who only appeared in one episode, makes a cameo near the end of "Get Off My Lawnie." What makes his appearance here particularly surprising is that Gilbert Gottfried (who had died a year before the episode aired) briefly reprised the role during his scene.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: While Granny Tentacles isn't a very nice person, it's hard not to feel bad for her when Patrick barges into her house and begins breaking her stuff in "I Smell a Pat".
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: In "Pearl Wants to Be a Star", Pearl's acts are actually pretty good (such as juggling and dancing), and whenever she messes up, it's genuinely a mistake rather than a lack of talent. Squidina is meant to come off as Innocently Insensitive, but gets the Jerkass Ball instead and says some shockingly mean things, telling a crying Pearl that her act "was pretty terrible" and that the audience will "probably remember her enough" to hate her.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The Dr. Plankenstein segments, done by Screen Novelties. They use puppet-based Stop Motion that looks fluid and cartoony, perfectly fitting alongside the main show. "Terror at 20,000 Leagues" features some beautiful scenery and shots in particular, especially with the outside of the castle.

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