15 Best SpongeBob Squarepants Episodes, Ranked

SpongeBob Squarepants has taken viewers to a pineapple under the sea for more than 20 years, delivering over 250 nautical episodes and three feature-length films. The show became a staple of Nickelodeons cartoon slate of the early 2000s and has won five Daytime Emmy awards, with two for Tom Kenny as the voice of SpongeBob.

“SpongeBob Squarepants” has taken viewers to a pineapple under the sea for more than 20 years, delivering over 250 nautical episodes and three feature-length films. The show became a staple of Nickelodeon’s cartoon slate of the early 2000s and has won five Daytime Emmy awards, with two for Tom Kenny as the voice of SpongeBob.

The underwater hijinks of SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy and Mr. Krabs have now received the spin-off treatment with “Kamp Koral,” a prequel series, and “The Patrick Star Show,” with Patrick and his family. All “SpongeBob” content is available on Paramount Plus, and “The Patrick Star Show” premieres on July 9.

To celebrate the debut of “The Patrick Star Show,” Variety ranked the 15 best “SpongeBob Squarepants” episodes — though there are many more worthy candidates throughout its run. To that point, honorable mentions are “Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V,” “Shanghaied,” “Arrgh!,” “Squidville,” “Sailor Mouth,” “Sandy, SpongeBob and the Worm,” “The Secret Box,” “Dying for Pie,” “Jellyfish Hunter.”

  • Something Smells (Season 2, Episode 2)

    After discovering he’s out of ice cream, SpongeBob makes a sundae with some…odorous ingredients: ketchup, onion and a questionable peanut plant. Upon beginning his Sunday task of greeting every citizen of Bikini Bottom, he realizes he’s not receiving his usual welcome, which Patrick chalks up to his best friend simply being ugly. Predictably, the sea star exacerbates SpongeBob’s anxiety by telling the story of the Ugly Barnacle: “Once there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died. The end.” Just as quickly, though, Patrick teaches his pal to accept himself, resulting in an extra-memorable scene of the fry cook screaming from the rooftop, “I am ugly and I am proud!” The episode’s already strong script is aided further by the animators’ portrayal of SpongeBob’s breath as a noxious green gas and Tom Kenny’s perfectly breathy performance. 

  • Rock Bottom (Season 1, Episode 17)

    Following a trip to Bikini Bottom’s premier leisure destination, “Glove World,” SpongeBob and Patrick find themselves on the wrong bus home. They end up in Rock Bottom, a bizzaro version of their hometown blanketed in darkness at the deepest part of the ocean and inhabited by strange-looking fish you might see on a nature documentary. The episode flips the usual dynamic of SpongeBob irritating his friends into losing their sanity by forcing him to experience what life is like in a world full of characters wackier than he is. By the end of the episode, not only has SpongeBob lost his bearing on the world around him, but he has also uttered one of the series’ most iconic lines: “This isn’t your average everyday darkness. This is advanced darkness.”

  • Culture Shock (Season 1, Episode 10)

    Mr. Krabs calls on his two ever-present employees to devise a plan to drum up interest in the Krusty Krab. After dismissing SpongeBob’s ideas of free socks with every order and something called “double patty midnight madness,” Mr. Krabs suggests live entertainment, which immediately energizes the dance-obsessed Squidward, who pitches a talent show. SpongeBob wants desperately to be involved in the show and, after rejecting all of his “talents,” Squidward relents and allows him to mop the stage at the end of the night. However, the decision intended to prevent SpongeBob from stealing the limelight ends up giving him the biggest platform and most captivated audience he’s ever had.

  • No Weenies Allowed (Season 3, Episode 8)

    SpongeBob is many things, but tough isn’t one of them. When he and Sandy discover The Salty Spitoon, “the roughest, toughest sailor club ever to be built under the seven seas,” SpongeBob makes it his mission to prove he’s bad enough to get in. He can’t quite stand up next to the club’s other patrons, including a sailor who can eat a bowl of nails for breakfast — without any milk. Determined to avoid Weenie Hut Jr., SpongeBob stages a fight with Patrick and finally gains entry. However, he immediately slips on an ice cube and gets covered in “boo-boos,” prompting the doctor to send him to a more appropriate hospital: Weenie Hut General.

  • Survival Of The Idiots (Season 2, Episode 9)

    Of course Patrick and SpongeBob ignore Sandy’s warnings to avoid her tree dome as she hibernates. The lovable duo is met with a massive version of their bikini-clad squirrel friend and quickly hatch a plan to keep her asleep while they play in the winter snow. They gain some inspiration from Sandy’s dream enemies, taking on the personas of Dirty Dan and Pinhead Larry — but the fun stops too soon when Sandy awakens. They attempt to escape, but the door is frozen over. (Patrick does attempt to open it by yelling “Open Sesame,” to no avail.) To make it through the winter, they opt to wax Sandy with duct tape and wear her fur — it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the feisty Texan isn’t too happy when she wakes up. 

  • Club Spongebob (Season 3, Episode 2)

    All hail the magic conch! SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward are stranded together in a kelp forest and their only hope for survival is a wind-up conch that spits out random prophecies like a Magic 8-ball. The episode is a classic setup that pits Squidward against the two buffoon best friends, with Squidward slowly losing his mind while SpongeBob and Patrick gleefully obey the conch.

  • Welcome to the Chum Bucket (Season 2, Episode 14)

    Mr. Krabs loses SpongeBob to Plankton in a game of cards, but the Chum Bucket owner isn’t ready for the fry cook’s increasingly high demands to work. This episode also features one of the most memorable and heartfelt ballads in the series with SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs’ “This Grill Is Not a Home,” which is sure to have viewers belting out the lyrics. To top it off with a dark twist, Plankton implants SpongeBob’s brain into a robot, though he’s quickly restored and returned to the Krusty Krab.

  • The Fry Cook Games (Season 2, Episode 19)

    In a parody of the Olympic Games, SpongeBob, repping the Krusty Krab, competes against Patrick, recruited by the Chum Bucket, in a series of food-themed challenges, such as the deep fry pole vault and bun wrestling. The yellow and pink pals nearly ruin their friendship, until a simultaneous wardrobe malfunction reveals that they’re each wearing underwear that matches the other’s color. The episode is one of the few that pits SpongeBob and Patrick against each other, but luckily the power of friendship prevails.

  • Krusty Krab Training Video (Season 3, Episode 10)

    Presented in the style of a corporate training film, “Krusty Krab Training Video” exists in the “SpongeBob” universe as an instructional video for new employees. The narrator guides the new Krusty Krab worker, as played by SpongeBob, on what it takes to work at Mr. Krabs’ iconic burger shack. The episode is a perfect example of how the show mixes mediums, presenting portions in hand-drawn animation, CG art styles and live-action elements. But the highlight of the episode is the Krusty Krab employee motto of “P.O.O.P.,” a.k.a. “people order our patties.”

  • Frankendoodle (Season 2, Episode 14)

    With a few dashes of a magical, real-life pencil, SpongeBob creates one of his greatest foes: DoodleBob. The crudely sketched, black-and-white doppelgänger draws destruction wherever he goes, uttering gibberish and the hilariously nonsensical line, “Me hoy minoy!” With a few fourth-wall breaking jokes and help from an eraser and notebook, SpongeBob defeats the doodle — at least for this episode.

  • Graveyard Shift (Season 2, Episode 16)

    When the ever-economical Mr. Krabs tasks his employees with working the night shift, cynical Squidward dampens SpongeBob’s enthusiasm by spinning a tale of the “Hash-Slinging Slasher.” The phantom’s appearance is foretold by three warning signs: flickering lights, a call with no one on the line and the arrival of a bus at the Krusty Krab. While the call and the bus are explained away by a nervous job applicant, the reveal of Nosferatu as the cause of the flickering lights perfectly represents the nonsensical comedy that keeps “SpongeBob” fans hungry for more. 

  • Chocolate With Nuts (Season 3, Episode 12)

    An issue of “Fancy Living Magazine” inspires SpongeBob and Patrick to change their lives by becoming door-to-door chocolate bar salesmen. During their first few house calls, the enthusiastic pair are met by a deranged green fish who only screams, “CHOCOLATE,” followed by a hustler who insists they purchase his candy bar bags (and candy bar bag carrying bags). After racking their brains for a new sales strategy (“Let’s get naked!” “No, let’s save that for when we’re selling real estate.”), SpongeBob and Patrick hatch a plan to sell chocolate by lying about its benefits. In one particularly memorable sale, they’re met by an elderly woman and her even-more-elderly mother, who exclaims, “Chocolate? I remember chocolate. How I hated it!” After getting hustled for a third time, Patrick and SpongeBob sell their stash and take the ladies out to a dinner so fancy, it would even impress Squidward. 

  • Pizza Delivery (Season 1, Episode 5)

    Tasked with delivering the first-ever Krusty Krab pizza, SpongeBob and Squidward embark on an odyssey that takes them across Bikini Bottom and, of course, tests the limits of their patience. After managing to get stranded in the middle of nowhere, SpongeBob channels the old-school techniques “the pioneers” used to find their way back home. The two-hander episode relies squarely on the voice performances of Tom Kenny and Rodger Bumpass as each of Kenny’s nasally intonations sticks another dagger into Bumpass’ monotone Squidward. The episode further establishes SpongeBob’s lack of boat-driving skills, which is ironic because he somehow knows how to drive a giant boulder across the ocean floor, something he learned because “the pioneers used to ride these babies for miles.”

  • Ripped Pants (Season 1, Episode 2)

    “SpongeBob” has created many catchy songs that have stuck with fans for more than 20 years, and one of the best came from the show’s second episode back in 1999. “Ripped Pants” proved that the show had much more than nautical gags and eccentric characters up its sleeve. The hilarious ode to embarrassment paid homage to the Beach Boys and showed that anyone can overcome an awkward moment through song.

  • Band Geeks (Season 2, Episode 15)

    If the Bubble Bowl halftime performance was all this episode had going for it, it would still land a spot on the ranking of the best “SpongeBob” episodes. “Band Geeks,” however, builds toward that moment through an episode packed to the gills with visual gag after visual gag. Featuring what’s less of a story arc and more of a series of vignettes, viewers are treated to Squidward’s anxiety-riddled journey of putting together a marching band to prove to Squilliam, an upper crust competitor from his school days, that he has a world class ensemble. The highly-memed episode also contains a line — “Is mayonnaise an instrument?” — that perhaps epitomizes Bill Fagerbakke’s aloof and lovably dumb performance of Patrick Star, which no doubt played a vital role in the creation of Patrick’s spin-off.

Read More About:

Jump to Comments

More from Variety

Most Popular

Must Read

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Variety Confidential

A Variety and iHeartRadio Podcast

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV%2BhtrTA0miZnqukYsCxu82gnJunkmLAssHAq5ypmZ6pwG6xz6KqqJyVqHw%3D

 Share!