Squid Baby (SpongeBob SquarePants)
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 "One Coarse Meal 2": this time stealing someone’s deranged ABDL SpongeBob fanfiction from the depths of Fanfiction.net.
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Squid Baby is the 46th episode of season 9 of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Synopsis
A head injury causes Squidward to act like a baby and SpongeBob and Patrick have to care for him while he recovers.
Plot
In the beginning of the episode, Squidward is relaxing in his bathtub, when SpongeBob and Patrick, who are playing with SpongeBob's old baby toys, disturb Squidward, who comes out and demands them to stop making noises and act mature. However, SpongeBob and Patrick do not listen. Squidward walks back to his house, but he slips on a toy along the way and hits his head. His injuries to the head cause him to act like an infant himself. SpongeBob and Patrick then bring him to the hospital.
At the hospital, a doctor tells them that Squidward has developed a mental disorder called "Head-Go-Boom-Boom-Itis" due to his head trauma. It means he is mentally and socially an infant despite being an adult. The doctor also says that his head must be protected from more injury, or else he will likely remain infantile.
However, later at SpongeBob's pineapple, when SpongeBob decides to feed Squidward, Patrick hurts Squidward's head by tossing him up into the ceiling. SpongeBob reminds him that they are supposed to protect Squidward's head, not hurt it more. SpongeBob tries to feed Squidward, but he does not like his food and spits it all over SpongeBob. Patrick licks the food off SpongeBob's face and thanks Squidward for sharing. Then, they try to entertain Squidward with some games. They start off with "Kelpy Cake," but when Squidward does it, he ends up slapping SpongeBob and Patrick repeatedly, sending them flying into the air and out of the house into the street.
Squidward escapes, and SpongeBob and Patrick follow him as he crawls out to the street, where a truck is about to hit Squidward.... and to make things worse, the truck driver has fallen asleep! Fortunately, Patrick is able to protect Squidward and lift up the road to send the truck flying. However, when Patrick drops the road back into place, he accidentally smashes Squidward's head again. Then, SpongeBob and Patrick go back inside and put Squidward in a cage, but Squidward does not like the cage and begins to cry.
He cries for several days. Then, seventy-two hours later, SpongeBob goes to work at the Krusty Krab with Patrick and asks him if he can watch Squidward while he works, but Patrick, tired from taking care of Squidward, falls asleep on a table. SpongeBob informs an angry Mr. Krabs that Squidward has the mind of an infant and cannot work. Mr. Krabs does not care, since there are customers outside the door, literally begging to give Mr. Krabs their money. SpongeBob then gets an idea. He brings Squidward to the cash register and puts him in a highchair. When Squidward drops his head on the cash register, SpongeBob duct-tapes him to the seat so he cannot escape. When Mr. Krabs lets the customers in, Squidward sucks on a customer's hand and head and SpongeBob stops him.
SpongeBob then gives Squidward the order papers to write orders on, but Squidward instead doodles on them and throws them into the kitchen. SpongeBob asks him if it will be for there or to "goo." SpongeBob peeks out the order window and sees Squidward doodling on Nat Peterson's face. Nat screams and ends up running out of the restaurant. Pilar scolds Squidward for not taking an order. Squidward types in something, then the cash register's drawer ends up banging him and wails loudly.
SpongeBob thinks Squidward is crying because Pilar yelled at him, and SpongeBob tells Pilar he should be ashamed. Squidward then dirties his diaper. The customers smell the horrible stench of Squidward's diaper and Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to change it. Everywhere he goes to change Squidward's diaper, people are sitting, getting condiments or walking. Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to take Squidward to the kitchen, where the food is prepared, and change it. This disgusts the customers, so they leave.
Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to get Squidward out of his restaurant. SpongeBob cries and tells Mr. Krabs that if Squidward is not welcome there, he is not staying either. However, on the way out, he ends up slipping on Squidward's baby rattle and slips into the kitchen, where he bangs Squidward's head on the frying pans and the fryer.
Squidward falls into the ice machine and ice pours out onto Squidward's head, curing his head trauma and returning him to his adult state. SpongeBob is relieved that Squidward is "grown-up again" and a confused Squidward asks why he would not be grown up. He notices that he is wearing a diaper and that it is full.
When SpongeBob is about to tell Squidward that he was going to change him, a deadpanned Squidward tells SpongeBob to not say another word about that experience, ever, and then leaves the scene. SpongeBob then replies, "Kids, they grow up so fast," as the episode ends.
Why It Cries Like a Baby and Made Our Heads Go Boom-Boom
- Like many episodes from Seasons 6-8, this is another 11 minutes of Squidward torture, even though this time is less rampant compared to Season 6.
- The idea of SpongeBob and Patrick treating Squidward like a baby is absolutely humiliating, weird, and ridiculous.
- Fetish episode: As the main synopsis states, Squidward reverts back to an infantile state and SpongeBob and Patrick have to care for him. As some critics put it, it “feels like someone’s horrible ABDL (Adult Baby/Diaper Lover) fanfic brought to life, and I shouldn’t be watching it”.
- Terrible beginning: SpongeBob and Patrick act infantile while playing with SpongeBob’s old baby toys he found while cleaning out his attic, which makes them look like manchildren. Yeah, you can say they're supposed to be childish, but acting like this. but it's way too weird and ridiculous even for them.
- This also contradicts SB and P’s original characters because they would never act this immature.
- The episode also makes fun of head injuries to a disturbing effect, which is disturbing and very insulting, especially given the type of head injury that Squidward got actually happens to people in real life. This makes it all the more disgusting.
- Lots of gross-out jokes, especially the ending where Squidward soils his diaper complete with a gross close-up. Those jokes are not funny.
- "Head-Go-Boom-Boom-Itis” is terrible, immature, and uncreative name for Squidward’s head injury. It makes the diseases in Doc McStuffins sound like they came from a Mayo Clinic textbook. Not to mention that it's highly inaccurate because the suffix -itis is only applied to diseases characterized by inflammation (just like how Casey Alexander and Zeus Cervas already did in earlier episode), and the stem word is the body part affected. For example, appendicitis is the inflammation of the appendix.
- Since the name "Head-Go-Boom-Boom-itis" does not fulfill either category, it can be seen as making light of actual inflammatory diseases.
- The episode feels like a rehash of season 3’s “Rock-a-Bye Bivalve” down to the joke of Patrick watching TV and the Rugrats episode, “Regarding Stuie”, which handles this plot much better.
- The episode's story once again takes the elements from the other older episodes:
- The first half is a rip-off of "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve", where SpongeBob and Patrick took care of a baby in SpongeBob's house, and this time even has Patrick watch the same show that he saw in that episode while SpongeBob's taking care of a baby (Junior).
- The second half is a rip-off of "Goo Goo Gas", where firstly, Squidward became a baby and secondly, SpongeBob took care of a baby (Baby Krabs) in the Krusty Krab.
- Squidward crying for 2 minutes straight is very annoying.
- Mr. Krabs is very unlikable in this episode as he makes Squidward work at the Krusty Krab despite his injury and fails to listen to SpongeBob and Patrick when they try to explain it to him. He also tells SpongeBob to change Squidward’s soiled diaper in the restaurant’s kitchen which is not only disgusting but highly unsanity.
- Patrick wasn't any better as he caused Squidward’s injury in the first place, not abiding by the doctor’s orders (smashing his head into the ceiling after bringing him home to the hospital and a couple scenes later, putting the street on Squidward’s head), and falling asleep instead of watching Squidward when SpongeBob and him go to the Krusty Krab.
- Plot Hole: Mr. Krabs tell SpongeBob to change Squidward’s diaper in the kitchen when there’s likely places to change diapers in the bathroom.
- SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, and Patrick don’t get punished for their actions in the episode.
- Half bad and bittersweet ending: After bashing head into an ice machine which spits out ice immediately, Squidward is back to normal, discovers he’s in a soiled diaper, becomes disgusted, and walks home. SpongeBob simply remarks that they grow up so quickly. A gross-out innuendo was slapped into the audience's face before the episode cut to black.
- The infamous quote: "Are you out of your ever-living mind?! We can't change that baby out here in front of the customers! Take him in back where the food is prepared."
Redeeming Qualities
- Although SpongeBob and Patrick cause Squidward’s head injury in the first place, they did nurse him back to health and tried to prevent any further damage.
- "My face! My face! Also my leg, but mostly my face!"
- Half good ending: At least Squidward recovered at the end of the episode.
- SpongeBob and Squidward are still likable in this episode.
- At least SpongeBob knows how to take care of a baby well unlike Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and the people of Bikini Bottom.
- The animation is still great as usual considering the fact that the series was still animated by Rough Draft Studios at the time.
Reception
Along with "Little Yellow Book", "SpongeBob, You're Fired", and "The Fish Bowl", "Squid Baby" is widely considered to be one of the worst episodes of Season 9, even though it was somewhat perceived better compared to the former two episodes.
PIEGUYRULZ gave this one a SCUMBOB rating, and he considered it to be his second worst Season 9 episode, but he stated that this one wasn't "that" bad. This is LS Mark's least favorite episode of the whole show, ranking it at the bottom of his list.
Trivia
- This episode was paired up with "The Good Krabby Name" during the original airing, but has since been re-airing with "License to Milkshake."
- This episode and "The Good Krabby Name" premiered right before a commercial-free airing of the original version of the 1982 Universal Pictures movie E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, in celebration of the film's 30th anniversary.
- Some of the toys in the baby toy box resemble the ones from the skill crane from the episode of the same name, including an octopus and a teddy bear.
Similar to the scene in "Grandma's Kisses," when Patrick fell asleep, he is not seen for the rest of the episode.
- Itis is a suffix for swollen or inflammatory. In this case, Incidental 116 tells SpongeBob and Patrick that Squidward is suffering "Head-go-boom-boom-itis." Squidward suffers from neither of those (though his head is swollen).
- This also happens in "Oral Report," when Sandy tells SpongeBob he is suffering from "Oral-Reportitis," and in "Squiditis," Squidward fakes a disease called "squid's disease," so neither episode uses the suffix correctly.
- The same crew for "One Course Meal" and "License to Milkshake" wrote this episode.
- The soiled diaper Patrick ate in "Little Yellow Book" was likely Squidward’s as it’s the next episode after this one.
- The concept of a character turning into a baby was later explored in The Patrick Star Show's "Big Baby Patrick," though this time however it was done willingly.
- This episode was broadcasted on MTV2 one time.