A Day Without Tears (SpongeBob SquarePants)
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| "A Day Without Tears" | ||||||||||||||||
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 And here we thought SpongeBob's character changes couldn't get any worse... He ruined a day without tears.
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A Day Without Tears is the first segment of the 136th episode from the 7th season of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Plot
Squidward challenges SpongeBob to spend a day without shedding a single tear.
Why It'll Make You Want to Cry
- Similar to "A Pal for Gary," SpongeBob's character has been taken to an extreme, with his flanderization reaching new heights. His transformation into an overly sensitive crybaby is depicted through excessive reactions to minor incidents, such as crying over a stubbed toe, a torn favorite shirt, a sad song on the radio, or the accidental dropping of a Krabby Patty.
- Although SpongeBob has been known to cry over minor things in the past, the extent of his crying in this instance is unprecedented.
- This is also, you guessed it, another SpongeBob torture episode.
- Squidward himself is also an unlikable jerk in this episode. This is evident when:
- He yelled at SpongeBob for no reason other than to make him stop his pettiness over a Krabby Patty that he poured his heart into making, now with his progress ruined after it fell onto the floor.
- Not to mention, he even tried to make SpongeBob cry so he can win the bet. That's, may you have guessed, cheating!
- The entire plot of the episode itself is generic, not for the "bet" type of plot that is used in the actual episode, but because it's simply based on a no-crying bet.
- This episode is a blatant copy of "Funny Pants" from the fourth season, which itself is not much better. The sole distinction is that in this episode, laughter is substituted with tears.
- The "crying montage" in SpongeBob, which purports to show flashbacks of "hundreds of tears" shed over the years, is entirely fabricated. None of these flashbacks are from previous episodes from seasons 1-6, highlighting a disregard for continuity merely for plot convenience. This is particularly egregious given that an earlier episode, "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired" from season 4, correctly utilized flashback scenes from "No Weenies Allowed" from season 3.
- Moreover, the animation quality in these "flashbacks" is quite poor, with the same clip of SpongeBob crying being repeatedly used against various backgrounds.
- Adding insult to injury, the "flashback" sequence fails to deliver the intended humor. Rather, it comes across as exceedingly irritating, pitiful, and somewhat disheartening.
- On the topic of continuity errors, for some strange reason Squidward yelling at SpongeBob seems to make the latter cry, despite that in other episodes SpongeBob doesn't seem to cry when he gets yelled at by Squidward. This same mistake is also previously repeated in the season 5 episode "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?".
- It also comes off as a SpongeBob torture episode because he has to hold in his tears, making it irritating for him.
- The scene where SpongeBob calls Patrick on the phone to tell him about his bet with Squidward served no purpose but to be filler.
- It's the first episode to play "Coconut Cream Pie" and "Aloha Bikini Bottom", which using both tracks in that same episode is a bad time for this episode to play these tracks considering this is an episode that is nothing more than a "Funny Pants" rehash, except with the second half being turned into an entire episode.
- Most of the humor in this episode is stale, annoying, and unfunny crying jokes from SpongeBob, as well as some stupid jokes like the one-joke where a news reporter reports on the news that a boy does not get what he wanted for his birthday, which with a joke like that, does this even feel necessary to the episode?
- Tom Kenny's voice acting for SpongeBob is particularly grating in this instance, primarily because of the character's incessant crying for the majority of the episode. The portrayal of SpongeBob's crying, which is meant to be heart-wrenching, instead feels overdone and insincere, rather than authentic and heartfelt.
- To make things worse, this episode is paired with an ultra-infamous episode: "Summer Job".
Redeeming Qualities That Don't Make Us Cry
- SpongeBob getting his toe stubbed was relatable because crying over a stubbed toe is believable since it could be pretty painful.
- This also serves as a nice call-back to a joke from, "No Weenies Allowed", where SpongeBob, in an attempt to seem tough, enter to enter the Salty Spitoon club, mentions to the bouncer that he stubbed his toe while watering his spice garden and only cried for 20 minutes.
- "KRABBY PATTY NOTHING!" is quite a funny quote in this episode.
- Also, SpongeBob's line, "You yelled at me, you yelled at me!", was funny, considering also the Squidward's disappointed face after.
- While completely pointless, Patrick is right when he told SpongeBob that it is possible to go the rest of the day without crying.
- The joke with Patrick and SpongeBob's TV that he destroyed is arguably the funniest scene from this episode.
- The ending isn't that bad. Squidward loses the bet, and as punishment, he cries, due to SpongeBob winning. After all, he came up with the bet in the first place.
- Unlike most cases during seasons six through eight, Squidward gets his comeuppance rather than be given the excessive punching bag treatment.
- As mentioned in WIMYWTC#9, it is the first episode to play the production music tracks, "Aloha Bikini Bottom" and "Coconut Cream Pie."
- Squidward did have a point about SpongeBob's non-stop crying getting on his nerves.
- SpongeBob is likable in this episode.
- There are some clever jokes here and there.
Reception
- Along with "Summer Job", "A Day Without Tears", is rated 5.3/10 on IMDB.
- "A Day Without Tears" is also the 14th worst episode on MoBrosStudios' top 20 worst SpongeBob episodes.
Trivia
- This episode marks the second appearance of the Bikini Bottom Men's Choir, the first being "Choir Boys". The choir makes two brief cameo appearances in this episode; the first half in the episode when Squidward gets SpongeBob to cry over the sight of the sunset, and then later at the end when Bikini Bottom is flooded with SpongeBob's tears. Coincidentally, these two appearances of the Bikini Bottom Men's Choir are in some of the worst and most hated SpongeBob SquarePants episodes ever produced in seasons 6 and 7 respectively.
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