Little Yellow Book (SpongeBob SquarePants)
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 Literally one of the worst things Squidward could've ever done.
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Little Yellow Book is the first segment of the 182nd episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Plot
Squidward finds SpongeBob's diary and reads it out loud to everyone at the Krusty Krab.
Why This Book Yells Down Low
- First and foremost, it follows one of the most worrying tropes in cartoons where a character reads someone's diary, the other character gets embarrassed, and the character that has read the diary has to apologize for it. Except, the way it's handled was appalling.
- It is yet another pointless torture episode. But this time, it takes a pin cushion out of both SpongeBob and Squidward, while transforming the latter into a jerk to take things up the roof.
- On that topic, the episode's concept is basically a rip-off of the episode "Fools in April" from Season 1 but without any of the charm and cleverness that episode had, as well as making Squidward even more irredeemable than said episode.
- It is also notorious for having the characters inconsistently portrayed, making it hard for the viewer to root for and sympathize with them, such as:
- Squidward is at his absolute worst in this episode. He had no business taking SpongeBob’s private property and spilling his secrets out loud in public. Similar to "A Day Without Tears", he wants to make SpongeBob cry.
- Yes, Squidward did make SpongeBob cry in Fools in April, but unlike this episode, he states that he didn't mean to make him cry and actually tries to apologize. Here, he made SpongeBob cry on purpose and didn't feel bad for him at all.
- It should be worth noting that while Squidward does generally dislikes SpongeBob and even hates him as well, there were moments throughout the series where Squidward does care for SpongeBob ("Pizza Delivery" from season one for example), but here, this episode shows none of that. Even after all the pain Squidward went through, the writers managed to make him even unlikable.
- Even worse, SpongeBob did nothing wrong to Squidward to make him read his diary in front of the customers.
- Bikini Bottom’s citizens, who are hypocritical and no better than Squidward, as they at first seemed to have enjoyed listening to Squidward reading SpongeBob’s diary and was fully aware it was SpongeBob's diary and participated in making fun of him until SpongeBob himself found out, he cries and ran away which makes the Bikini Bottomites say "That was that little dude's diary?" and instantly turned against Squidward and treat him maliciously throughout the rest of the episode, while blatantly pretending they didn’t know the diary belonged to SpongeBob, even though Squidward said it was his from the beginning and was reading about him. This is probably the biggest reason as to why this episode is so hated, because of how idiotic and hypocritical the Bikini Bottom's citizens are in this episode.
- While hypocrisy has been a staple comedic element in cartoons, this one is played out poorly, making audiences more upset than laughing.
- What's even more bizarre is that Squidward doesn't raise an eyebrow about the Bikini Bottom’s citizens' hypocritical actions (aside from Patrick).
- Even Patrick was participating in making fun of SpongeBob, his own best friend, and acts sexist as he insulted SpongeBob's spatula "FiFi" for having a female's name and shows his spatula named "Frank". He was also a part of the hypocritical citizens of Bikini Bottom that turned on Squidward when he's just as bad, which he points this out unlike he did to the citizens. Some friend he has there.
- SpongeBob, who at first was innocent and likable, but then right at the end of the episode, he reveals that Squidward only read his work diary, which got published, and that Squidward never actually read his secret personal diary, which is a mediocre attempt to make a plot twist. This raises questionable plot holes:
- Wouldn’t everyone else in Bikini Bottom who brought the book to be guilty of reading someone else’s diary as well?
- Isn’t a work diary technically the same as a secret personal diary? What’s the difference?
- Why would SpongeBob even want to do something that would emotionally hurt him so dearly?
- Why did SpongeBob show Squidward his Secret Personal Diary?
- Squidward is at his absolute worst in this episode. He had no business taking SpongeBob’s private property and spilling his secrets out loud in public. Similar to "A Day Without Tears", he wants to make SpongeBob cry.
- Regarding that, the entire episode feels very contrived and the writing for it doesn’t make any sense, because it raises this questionable plot hole: Who would want to bring their diary to their workplace and leave it out in the open where people could see and read it?
- SpongeBob's reaction to plaid also doesn’t make sense. How come he acts and transforms into a chicken during his reaction to plaid-related stuff in this episode but not in "Patty Hype"? He served a plaid Krabby Patty to a customer before.
- Misleading title: Despite the episode's title "Little Yellow Book", SpongeBob's "little book" which Squidward reads out loud to everyone at the Krusty Krab is blue, not yellow.
- There is a disgusting scene where Patrick eats a dirty diaper with ketchup from trash, which implies something bad.
- This episode, later on, becomes a Squidward torture episode after SpongeBob runs off crying, he gets scolded by the town, has a taxi run by him, loses his house, gets zapped by lightning, and gets punished by the police, while it is understandable that Squidward is a huge jerk for purposefully hurting SpongeBob's feelings, it's a too over-the-top punishment for just reading someone's diary.
- The people of Bikini Bottom are insufferable hypocrites for doing this to him when they're just as guilty as Squidward.
- Bad Ending: Squidward apologizes to SpongeBob for reading his diary, only for Squidward to read SpongeBob's secret personal diary making SpongeBob cry and run away again making the townsfolk throw tomatoes at Squidward while he laughs about it and saying he doesn’t care because it’s so worth it (which it isn't) and the episode ends there. Not only does this ending undo Squidward's apology, but it also undoes his comeuppance and never learns his lesson. The Bikini Bottomites never get punished for making fun of SpongeBob or their hypocrisy towards Squidward and Squidward himself never properly gets his comeuppance for reading both of his diaries.
Redeeming Qualities
NOTE: The "Mocking SpongeBob" scene becoming a meme is not related to the episode, so do not add it as a good quality.
- We get to see a nice scene where SpongeBob cooks the Krabby Patties and serves them to the customers.
- Some funny scenes such as SpongeBob finding Old Man Jenkins in the toilet and Squidward reading about SpongeBob recounting Squidward cursing at him and Gary biting him in return.
- "Puh... puh... puh-puh-puh... PUH-LAAID?!"
- "Buck-buck-gack! Buck-buck-gack-buck-buck! AH! AH-AH! AH-AAAAAHHHH!"
- Even Tom Kenny himself has cited this as is his favorite meme from the series.
- It became so popular that it even made it as SpongeBob's taunt in Nickelodeon All Star Brawl!
- Mr. Krabs is likable in this episode, in that he cares about SpongeBob and wasn't laughing at him and he was, in fact, disgusted with Squidward for his behavior, so he at least doesn't come across as a hypocrite.
- Adding to this, Mr. Krabs has his original seasons 1-5 & 11 onwards personality.
- Despite being an idiot at the end, SpongeBob is also a likable character.
- Despite the bad ending, The Bikini Bottomites throwing tomatoes at Squidward is justifiable.
Gallery
The writers did it guys, we don’t know but even after all the pain and suffering Squidward endured all those years the writers somehow managed to make even Squidward unlikable.
Reception
"Little Yellow Book" was panned by critics, audiences, and SpongeBob fans alike and is considered one of the worst episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants, due to Squidward being unnecessarily mean-spirited and almost every character (except for Mr. Krabs) being cruel to SpongeBob although the part where SpongeBob turns into a chicken was praised. It hold a 5.4/10 on IMDb along with Bumper to Bumper.
Trivia
- The scene where SpongeBob acts like a chicken spawned a popular internet meme called "Mocking SpongeBob".
Videos
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