I Was a Teenage Gary is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season one. In this episode, SpongeBob leaves Gary in the care of Squidward; when he gets back, he transforms into a snail after accidentally being injected with snail plasma.
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 Even Seasons 1-3 can have its fair share of garbage..
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Horrifying Qualities
- Squidward is unlikeable in this episode as he agrees to babysit Gary, but only does so because he finds out SpongeBob and Patrick are going to the jelly fishing festival for 3 days; he just focuses on relaxing and ignores Gary. Then, when SpongeBob wants him to inject snail plasma into Gary to make him better, he is impatient with SpongeBob’s anxious nature and injects it into SpongeBob, albeit accidentally.
- While not as much as Squidward, the doctor fish is also unlikable and does not have a good debut in the series for being "squeamish" to not inject the snail plasma into Gary and leaving an impatient Squidward and an anxious SpongeBob to do it.
- Bad pacing: The episode feels as though it's about to end when Squidward realizes Gary just needed to have his water bowl filled, even though the plot isn't set into action until after.
- This episode is a torture episode for Gary and SpongeBob:
- Gary for not being fed or given water and not being cared for, but he did drink water around the middle of the episode and felt better.
- SpongeBob suffers the most here though because he turns into a snail after Squidward injects him with the snail plasma.
- There are some very gross and disturbing scenes, like when Gary was looking dry, and the moment when SpongeBob turned into a snail.
- It should be worth mentioning that to create a correct horror-comedy, you need a creepy atmosphere and not have any disturbing content in it while keeping it entertaining, which is something that the later episodes got it right, except for some episodes like "One Coarse Meal".
- The moment where the SpongeBob snail chased Squidward was just creepy, even though Squidward did deserve it for what he did to SpongeBob.
- The doctor fish never got his comeuppance for getting away with not doing his job.
- Half-Bad Ending: SpongeBob and Squidward remain as snails.
- This episode could’ve been avoided if Squidward took care of Gary instead of doing nothing about it and enjoying his 3 days' worth of no SpongeBob and Patrick. Heck, even Squidward himself admits this.
Good Qualities
- The first 3-4 minutes were good.
- Half-Decent Ending: Squidward did get his comeuppance when he gets turned into a snail himself and got hit by a boot thrown by Patrick while he, SpongeBob, and Gary were doing the snail meow at night.
- Some funny moments in the episode, like when Squidward ate Gary’s snail food in one big bite, and the snail meow ending (while still mostly bad) where SpongeBob, Gary, and Squidward meowed to the tune of "Blow the Man Down" on top of a fence at night, especially when Squidward got his comeuppance.
- Four words from Patrick: "WILL YOU CLAM UP?!" (Right before he throws a shoe at snail Squidward.)
- SpongeBob, Patrick, and Gary are all likable characters, as usual.
- The doctor fish later had a much better appearance in "Suds".
- It started the SpongeBob timecard trend.
- SpongeBob and Squidward are back to normal in the next episode, so we can just ignore that this episode ever happened.
- This episode (along with "Scaredy Pants") probably was meant to be disturbing, considering it was aired three days before Halloween.
Trivia
- In recent airings on Nickelodeon, near the end of the episode is cut before Squidward says "meow."
- In the Gary-A-Thon, it was originally going to be paired up with "Gary Takes a Bath," but was replaced with "Missing Identity."
- This is the first episode where Gary has a major role.
- There was a rumor swimming about that a transformation sequence for Squidward at the end was cut out after the first airing and was said to be fully uncut in the Polish airing which was later debunked as false, but this is more of a case of the Mandela Effect than anything.
- This is the first episode in the whole series to have a timecard, "3 Days Later", except it is not read by the narrator. The first episode with the narrator reading the time card would be the very next episode SB-129, which is "2000 Years Later".
- This and "SB-129" are the only two episodes in Season 1 to have timecards.
- This episode is final time Chris Mitchell and Steve Fonti's SpongeBob careers as they both departed the series after until returned to the series for 6 (Chris)/20 (Steve) years until Season 4’s "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture" and Season 12’s "The Hankering", respectively.
- Chris Mitchell later returned and team up with Casey Alexander (who later worked with Zeus Cervas) to the series in season 4 and worked on episodes like "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture", "Patrick SmartPants", "Mrs Puff, You're Fired", "That's No Lady", "Karate Island", "Bummer Vacation", "Once Bitten", "Hocus Pocus", "Night Light" and "Squid Wood". Steve Fonti eventually returned to the series as well but only worked on the season 12 episode, "The Hankering".
- The title name is a parody of the 1957 movie I Was a Teenage Werewolf.
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