Sponge-Cano! (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Sponge-Cano!"
"You're the most miserable person? YOU DIE!!!" - Bikini Bottom citizens
Series: SpongeBob SquarePants Part of Season: 7 Episode Number: 15b Air Date: January 28, 2011 Writer: Casey Alexander Zeus Cervas Derek Iversen Previous episode: Trenchbillies Big Sister Sam (Airing order) Next episode: The Great Patty Caper The Main Drain (Airing order)

Sponge-Cano! is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season seven, and is the sixth episode of the Legends of Bikini Bottom special.

Summary

A volcanic eruption summons an ancient warrior to Bikini Bottom, who arrives with ominous forecasts.

Miserable Qualities

1. It's another episode from the "Legends of Bikini Bottom" mini-series, which has been poorly received for being a significant ratings trap due to its misleading advertising and failure to live up to its potential.
2. Similar to many episodes from Seasons 6-8, this episode features Squidward being unjustly tormented, making it one of the least intelligent episodes thus far. It portrays Squidward simply experiencing a bad day, akin to anyone else's bad day, which coincidentally occurs on a day when it really shouldn't.
3. Continuity error: This episode revises the backstory of Squidward's misery. Instead of being solely exasperated by SpongeBob's behavior, he finds himself irritated by the customers' minor and trivial actions at the Krusty Krab. Additionally, SpongeBob does little to provoke Squidward or disrupt his day.
4. The humor is quite uninspired and unsophisticated.
   • "I knew it! We have to sacrifice the most miserable person!" No, you didn't.
5. The townspeople are portrayed as highly disagreeable and foolish in their efforts to sacrifice Squidward to the volcano, simply because he declares himself the most miserable person during a rough day.
6. Atrocious ending: Squidward's house is lost after being sacrificed to the volcano.
   • But on the bright side, SpongeBob offers Squidward his home.
   • The plot twist revealing the sacrifice was actually for the most miserable person's house feels very forced and like a significant evasion. The warrior's claim that he wasn't allowed to finish his explanation for the sacrifice is puzzling, as there is no sign that he was interrupted. Moreover, it's unclear why he didn't attempt to resolve the confusion surrounding the sacrifice earlier, rather than waiting until the last moment.

Good Qualities

1. The "Attitude of Gratitude" song at the beginning is pretty catchy and it shows that everyone should have some "gratitude", and those singing garbage monsters are funny.
2. Squidward tells SpongeBob off at the end, despite the latter rescuing him from falling into the volcano.
3. SpongeBob at least saved Squidward in this episode and he was nice enough to let him sleep at his house.
4. Out of all the characters in this episode, SpongeBob is the only one of the few characters that are mostly likable and is not an idiot unlike everyone else. Mr. Krabs is also surprisingly tolerable for once.
5. The concept was later recycled into "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical", which received far more critical acclaim than the original episode.
6. The idea of a volcano being in a SpongeBob episode is interesting, and it had a lot of potential as well. But because of the aforementioned flaws, it’s poorly executed.
7. The sacrifice at the end is pretty funny.

Reception

1. Sponge-Cano! has a rating of 5.5/10 on IMDB, partially due to Trenchbillies.

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