Pet Sitter Pat (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Pet Sitter Pat (SpongeBob SquarePants)
A Pal For Gary 2: The curse of the dreaded starfish.
Series: SpongeBob SquarePants Part of Season: 8 Episode Number: 12b Air Date: September 16, 2011 Writer: Casey Alexander Zeus Cervas Richard Pursel Previous episode: Barnacle Face Next episode: House Sittin' for Sandy

Pet Sitter Pat is the second segment of the twelfth episode of the eighth season of SpongeBob SquarePants, and was greenlit as the third episode of, "all about Patrick", bath time.

Synopsis

When SpongeBob gets an invitation to his grandma's birthday party, he asks Patrick to pet-sit Gary. However, SpongeBob gets worried about Patrick's misguided attempts at pet-sitting.

Why Patrick's A Horrible Pet Sitter

1. The episode lazily takes elements from both A Pal for Gary from the seventh season, and I Was a Teenage Gary from the first season.
   1. This is made even lazier because, "A Pal for Gary", aired a year ago.
   2. Given that this episode rips off, "A Pal for Gary", one of the worst episodes ever produced in the history of SpongeBob SquarePants, alongside, "One Coarse Meal", meaning that it is doomed from the start, based off that fact alone.
2. It is also nothing more than another torture episode for Gary.
3. Patrick is at his absolute worst in this episode as his character change has gone way too far, evident when:
   • He drops Gary on the ground, causing the latter to splat.
   • He ignores and throw out SpongeBob's instructions, because he held it upside down and thought that SpongeBob had terrible handwriting.
   • He forgets to feed Gary his food causing Gary to starve, and eats said food in front of Gary.
   • Then when it's time for Gary's bath he then pours snail food into the tub, because, "he had to get the water to stay in there somehow".
   • The most infamous example is the part where Patrick shows Gary a flamethrower that spews out actual fire. Yes, he intends to trick Gary into getting into the bath, but it's still cruel and idiotic to use a flamethrower, out of all things.
     • It should be worth noting that while in previous seasons 1-3, Patrick did have moments like this, but those were never this extreme!
   • He sprays Gary water with a fire hose, and while that's happening Gary is moaning.
     • There's a random moment after Patrick gave Gary, "a bath", a can falls on Gary's stomach, as if poor Gary wasn't tortured enough.
   • He initially intended to dry Gary off with salt, something that actually kills snails upon contact. When that plan fails, Patrick painfully dries Gary with a hairdryer, causing the latter to shrivel up.
     • The episode tries to portray all of this as funny, but tormenting someone in the ways Patrick does to Gary isn't funny at all, in any way, shape, or form.
4. It is also predictable, as it is easy to tell that Patrick is going to screw up, due to his exaggerated stupidity. Even the humor is predictable, notably when Patrick opens Gary's snail food, and you can easily tell that he is going to eat all of it, and it falls flat as a result.
5. Plot hole: How does the flamethrower work, when Patrick mentions that he’s underwater in season 2?
6. Despite having been treated horribly by Patrick throughout the episode, at least from his perspective, Gary makes up with him for some reason and is even shown reading him a bedtime story when he’s asleep. It was a quite contrived and mediocre way of trying to pretend this all didn't happen just to end the episode.
   • Gary was also shown laughing after water fell on him while SpongeBob's house was flooding. This contradicts the fact that Gary hates taking baths, as shown in Gary Takes a Bath.
7. Much like, "Rule of Dumb", and, "Yours, Mine and Mine", previously, Patrick gets off scot-free and faces no consequences for his actions against Gary.
8. At the end of the episode, once SpongeBob returns to his pineapple, he doesn't seem to question the fact that the house looks like it had flooded earlier, and that around half of it is in ruins.
9. "Bath Time", is even worse, as it adds laugh tracks to everything that is supposed to be comedy. It even exposes the fact that the writers treat controversial scenes as comedy completely!

Redeeming Qualities

1. At least SpongeBob's character development from Have you Seen this Snail? is back as he is very caring for the safety of Gary, unlike in A Pal for Gary, the episode where he faced character derailment.
2. Some hilarious attempts at humor, notably SpongeBob's grandma struggling to blow out her birthday candles.
3. The scene where Gary attacks Patrick after the snail food sinks in the tub was satisfying and justified.
   • Patrick also got hit in the head, when he throws the phone out the window.
4. The first few minutes of the episode were decent. Sadly, the rest of the episode is what brings it down.

Reception

Along with its sister episode, it holds a 5.1/10 on IMDB.

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