A Pal for Gary (SpongeBob SquarePants)
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An episode that became an absolute legend...but for all the wrong reasons.
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A Pal for Gary is an episode from season 7 of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Why It Should Put Gary Down
- In order to get the nudibranch out of the house: The episode is infamous for using the "character gets punished for something he/she didn't do while the person who did gets away with it" cliché, which has been done to death on many, many cartoon episodes.
- This is also a massive Gary torture episode. In addition, it is unoriginal, as it hinges around the overused cliché that the innocent character gets punished despite committing no wrongdoings, whereas the one(s) who did the wrongdoings get(s) away with it, while not the case with the villain. Not only is it beaten into the ground by this point, but it's always been mean-spirited and never pleasant to watch. Needless to say, this episode is no exception
- It is also infamous for what poor Gary went through, which feels like a far more egregious and poorly written version of the 3 Sylvester & Porky Pig episodes like "Claws for Alarm" from Looney Tunes; where Sylvester had to keep Porky safe from any type of danger despite Sylvester doing nothing to warrant any form of suffering and Porky being mostly oblivious to nearly everything. Not only have they used the cliché for really horrible attempts at comedy, but they do the sinful act of depicting SpongeBob as being overly oblivious to everything happening around him, which will be explained below as you read along.
- Speaking of SpongeBob, he is at his absolute worst, and at his lowest point, as his flanderization has gone way too far and out of hand. This is evident when:
- He intends to get a pal for Gary because he feels upset that the latter is all alone, even though Gary has always been doing fine and has never minded being alone
- He finds a pet store with nudibranchs owned by a merchant, at which he ignores her warning about Puffy Fluffy and steals him without paying, which could get SpongeBob arrested
- He sends Gary to bed with Puffy Fluffy as he thinks the former is ignoring Puffy Fluffy, even though Puffy Fluffy is acting psychopathically towards Gary
- When SpongeBob is sleeping, he leaves Gary and Puffy Fluffy fight with the latter transforming into a monster to the point it destroys the library and his entire house.
- Also, when Puffy Fluffy burns down the library and black smoke comes to his bedroom, he thinks that his grandma is baking cookies despite the fact that she is not in the house.
- He assumes Gary destroyed his library and almost his whole house, which is nonsensical as it would be impossible for a normal pet to destroy a house in a single night
- Instead of being scared of him, he idiotically thinks Puffy Fluffy's monster form is one of Puffy Fluffy's friends
- Right when he saw Gary being held captive inside Puffy Fluffy's mouth, he infamously said "Gary, you put Puffy Fluffy down right now!" Not even Patrick from Seasons 6-9a could be that stupid!
- Granted, this could be considered dark humor, and as such, it can be considered funny if it was in an adult show like Family Guy or The Simpsons, not in a kids show like SpongeBob SquarePants
- When Puffy Fluffy runs away, SpongeBob calls for him to return, although the former had held him captive
- Even at the end, he still blames Gary, despite how the latter had saved his life and prevented him from being devoured by Puffy Fluffy
- He takes Gary to work, even though the Krusty Krab already made a policy banning pets earlier in the episode, which is straight-up hypocritical of him. It's a generic story where the property of their owner is jealous of the new one, except it's taken to a direction so low that it's already become horrible
- This episode also uses the generic "pet being jealous of the new pet", but this episode took it to the point where it became horrible.
- Puffy Fluffy is unlikable for doing nothing other than terrorizing Gary.
- The scene where Puffy Fluffy puts one of his tongues in SpongeBob's mouth is gross.
- Puffy Fluffy's vicious design with long, jagged teeth and multiple Sarlacc-like tongues is very disturbing, nightmarish, grotesque, and looks more like something out of a rejected Johnny Quest episode, especially for one of SpongeBob. Although it does fit well with the solid tone about how the original must face the chaotic new pet, but still.
- SpongeBob never gets called out for his actions, like how he mistreated Gary, other than almost getting eaten by Puffy Fluffy, but it isn't enough.
- Wasted potential: The idea of an episode where the protagonist buys an animal that looks harmless when in truth it's a dangerous creature was a neat idea of a SpongeBob episode and could have made some creative and funny gags that involve the creature, but Gary had to be put through it, which ruins the episode greatly.
- Plot hole: Multiple episodes, including this one, have shown that SpongeBob has a pet clam named Shelley in his bedroom. The whole point of this episode is getting a new pet for Gary to play with, even though SpongeBob already has another one. With that in mind, SpongeBob's motivation, and the whole episode for that matter, are exceptionally pointless.
- Rip-off: Although "Pet or Pests" is another awful episode, we should still give it some love by exposing that this episode is a rip-off of it.
- Unsatisfying ending: After Puffy Fluffy runs away when Gary rescues SpongeBob, he takes Gary everywhere he goes, especially the Krusty Krab. Because of all that, he forgot to apologize to him because his pet had saved lives before, but before being saved by a monster, he yelled at Gary for help to be rescued. After that, he unnaturally blames him for his own sake of sayings.
- This episodes "being a bully to others is okay and standing up for yourself is wrong" moral was not only repeated from the most infamously hated episode "Imposter's Home for Um... Make' Em Up Pals" from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, it had been reinstated for the 1st time in 2010 and it was repeated on the deadliest episode "These Boots Were Made for Walking (On Your Face)" from The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack.
Redeeming Qualities
- Gary is the only likable character.
- Mr. Krabs is a tolerable character since he understands SpongeBob's needs to tend to Gary (despite being hypocritical.) It's also one of these episodes where he has his original personality instead of seasons 6-10
- Despite being unlikable, SpongeBob did have good intentions for doing what he did: It was because he was worried about his pet snail, and he just wanted him to have a companion while he was at work
- On that note, he has not been seen as a protagonist since this episode
- The opening is decent as it feels like something from a normal SpongeBob episode.
- SpongeBob is still likable in the beginning before he gets Puffy Fluffy
- Gary using a leash as a lasso to open the cabinet & grab some snail food before beginning to watch a cowboy show is a decent set-up for the climax. Likewise, Gary's attack on Puffy Fluffy to save SpongeBob was awesome.
- "Oh, these enchiladas are hot, hot, hot!" - SpongeBob. In fact, that's considered the only good joke in this episode. In fact it only took 10 seconds for the enchiladas to get cold.
- In the Polish dub, SpongeBob tells Puffy Fluffy to put Gary down rather than vice versa. See, Poland is smart, Nickelodeon! Be more like them.
- The battle scenes between Gary and Puffy Fluffy are fun to watch.
- Gary being scolded by SpongeBob while uncalled for is considered karma for chasing away Mrs. Wormsley in Pet or Pests or leaving SpongeBob's clothes in the clothes dryer in To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants.
- Even though Gary was tortured throughout the episode, he wasn't physically injured or harmed.
- The premise's dark tone could've worked if it didn't turn out so mean-spirited.
Reception
"A Pal for Gary" was universally panned by fans, some of whom had considered it one of, if not the worst in the series along with One Coarse Meal & other episodes like Stuck in the Wringer; it, alongside "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful", is also the lowest-rated episode of the series on IMDB, as it has a 3.2 rating there. It is also the lowest-rated episode on SpongeBuddy Mania with an average score of 1.80/10 based on 227 ratings.
It also ultimately ruined all three writers reputation which it's Casey Alexander, Zeus Cervas and Richard Pursel. Making them ones of the worst storyboard directors and the writers of all time, which making them the most overhated writers of the SpongeBob series, especially for Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas as they no longer recovered their writing qualities as they writes many bad episodes.
It was also the reasons, why Robertryan Cory no longer appearing in the later S7 episodes (besides that he worked on "The Great Patty Easer", though uncraread)
Top 10 YouTuber StephanieSparda in his "Top 10 favorite SpongeBob episodes" refers how he too also loves this episode, during the #1 Segment, he stated that SpongeBob SquarePants was his favorite TV-Show ever until the poorer episodes were made after the film, & right as he says that, the Title Card of "A Pal for Gary" appears with the Tec Tights that reads "I LOVE this episode in particular!", though despite that, he still enjoys watching the 1st 3 seasons, & still loves SpongeBob SquarePants.
TheMysteriousMrEnter took this episode more seriously and dramatically when he reviewed this episode for his 2nd Animated Atrocity, such as the dramatic music that plays when it showed the title card after asking what his next review is, needing associations from Thomasmemorycentral to review this episode, showing a scene where a guy throws a TV out the window which represents how he reacted after watching this episode, & having Thomasmemorycentral review the rest of the episode while he does a bunch of random synanikings off-screen after showing the infamous "SpongeBob tells Gary to put Puffy Fluffy down scene", such as shooting someone with a gun & running over someone with a car, despite that, however, he amendments that the episode is not nearly as bad as "One Coarse Meal". He later put the episode at the #6 spot on his Top 10 WORST SpongeBob SquarePants episode list.
Nathaniel Bandy also criticized this episode, calling it one of the worst episodes of the show.
PIEGUYRULZ considered this one a ScumBob episode, but he didn't think it's as bad as a lot of people think. He stated that the episode only has 2 obvious problems: SpongeBob is beyond ignorant, and the other one is that it's not very funny. Moreover, he found the 1st half is just dull, & he also gave the episode a credit for having some actions & an awesome design of character. So, he didn't think it's so bad that it deserves to be put into his bottom 5 of Season 7.
Arrogantgodjealous suggested that rather than the creature be a nudibranch that SpongeBob should have instead gotten a worm as a pet so that the plot would instead be a cat (snail) vs dog (worm) plot. Had the pet been a worm, it would have kept the creature from being a total monster as well as allow Gary to be hostile back without being unlikable, & Gary would have put Fluffy down, but didn't. However, Doug Walker surprisingly does not hate this episode he praised for its idea & dark humor.
Phantomstrider placed "A Pal for Gary" at #8 on his "Worst Episodes of Good Cartoons" video, describing it as the the closest thing he's seen to animal torture in a cartoon, he also called the imagery "unnerving" & called the sounds Fluffy made "legitimately disturbing". He also panned the episode for SpongeBob being out of character, calling his treatment of Gary "sadistic", & referring to Fluffy as a "leviathan horror". He also speculated this episode was "The Big One", A.K.A the episode that made everyone think SpongeBob was going downhill. He'd later double down on his thoughts on the episode in his "Top 6 Worst SpongeBob Episodes" as an honorable mention, stating it didn't make the list because he already discussed it.
Trivia
- The episode is very scary. Even Puffy Fluffy's monster form can terrify and give you nightmares, just like Wormy did.
- In the Polish dub, when SpongeBob sees Gary being attacked by Puffy Fluffy, he tells Puffy Fluffy to put Gary down, as opposed to the reverse.
- This episode shares the same title card as the episode "Culture Shock", but a little darker & red.
- SpongeBob does not pay the breeder before taking Puffy Fluffy home.
- The episode calls Puffy Fluffy a nudibranch, a type of gastropod; however, he looks like a fish & transforms into a grotesque monster.
- Nudibranchs don't have teeth; they have a radula, a minuscule, ribbon-like structure made of chiton.
- Nudibranchs rarely exceed over a few centimeters (1-2 inches) big.
- The Red Can Chips that Gary had in the beginning is similar to Pringles.
- The monster form is inspired by moray eels because it has additional sharp, retractable jaws hidden in the mouth.
- Puffy Fluffy was so controversial that Robertryan Cory (who made the designs) allegedly deleted the Monster design off of his Flickr page, however Puffy Fluffy appears in the online game "What's Your Bikini Bottom Pet", and an orange version appears in the Season 14 episode, "Pet the Rock".
Gallery
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One of the many times Puffy Fluffy scares Gary.
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Gary be looking like he is fighting the final boss of a video game.
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Who thought this would be a good idea, anyway...
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"Gary! You put Fluffy down right now!"
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Gary to the rescue.
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Puffy Fluffy is trying to eat SpongeBob, until Gary saves his owner.
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Spongebob somehow survived this. (Design by Robertryan Cory)
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"Well, Gary, what do you have to say for yourself?"
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What a way to end this episode.
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