Top 20 SpongeBob Episodes Results

[whuntva]

Attention, AMers! I decided to hold a SpongeBob poll, and we are finally at the results stage! It was a smaller, more laid back poll which catered mostly to a certain age group, but it was still a success. I had no idea how far it would go, but I managed to acquire a decent sample size and some enthusiastic fans who voted. Thank you everyone for voting and making this fun.



This poll is dedicated to the memory of SPongeBob SquarePants' creator Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018), who sadly passed away from ALS last October. Thank you, Stephen. You brought laughter and happiness into so many people's lives.

Before we begin, here's a few tidbits and trivia about the results:

[*]As was to be expected, Seasons 1-3 dominated, with only two episodes from Season 4 on even receiving votes.
[*]Despite their eligibility, no two-part episodes made the Top 20. Only "Christmas Who?" even received a single vote.
[*]In the Top 20, there were six episodes from Season 1, five from Season 2, and nine from Season 3.
[*]There ended up being four ties, including for #20. But I decided to leave them be as I had no convenient way to break them.
[*]I wanted to compare this poll to a critics' list, but couldn't find a thorough enough one. I had to settle for the Best Day Ever Poll from Nickelodeon in 2006. It's not that great (their #1, "Karate Island", didn't even place here), but it is perhaps the most prominent and readily available list we have.
[*]Only ONE episode made every ballot.

I received lists from seven voters:

[*]BleuPanda
[*]Cold Butterfly
[*]Dexter
[*]Nick
[*]Krurze
[*]Prosecutorgodot
[*]whuntva (myself)

Presentation Format:

Episode Quote
IMAGE
Number. Title of Episode (Season and Segment Number)
(Total Points | # of votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement:
Biggest Fans: (All votes within the Top 10)
Fun Fact: (Something funny I can tell about the episode)

Ready? Let's Go!

[whuntva]

There goes SpongeBob...ripping his pants again.

20 *TIE*. Ripped Pants (Season 1, Episode 2B)
(22 points | 4 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: NR
Biggest Fans: BleuPanda (13)
Fun Fact: This was the first episode to have an original song produced just for the episode. The pilot used Tiny Tim's "Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight" licensed from an outside source.

Hey I know what that means! That's one of those 'Sentence 'Enhancers'!

20 *TIE*. Sailor Mouth (Season 2, Episode 18A)
(22 points | 2 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 96
Biggest Fans: Dexter (13)
Fun Fact: The "dolphin chirps" used in this episode are actually sped up kookaburra noises, previously used in the 1963 film Flipper.

[whuntva]

The only people who don't like a Krabby Patty have never tasted one!

19. Just One Bite (Season 3, Episode 3B)
(23 points | 2 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 21
Biggest Fans: Prosecutorgodot (3)
Fun Fact: This episode was edited in later airings to remove a violent scene where Squidward breaks into the Krusty Krab and gets doused with gasoline and a lit match. Personally, I think the edited version flows better and is funnier.

Good evening and welcome to the First Annual Squidward Tentacles Talent Show. Sponsored by the Krusty Krab, home of the Krabby Patty, because no one else would give it a home.

17 *TIE*. Culture Shock (Season 1, Episode 10A)
(26 points | 2 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 48
Biggest Fans: Krurze (7), Cold Butterfly (9)
Fun Fact: Squidward calls Gary "Ginsburg" during his poetry slam in reference to Alan Ginsburg. Quite the reference for a kids' show!

Are you feeling it now, Mr. Krabs?

17 *TIE*. Mid-Life Crustacean (Season 3, Episode 15B)
(26 points | 2 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: NR
Biggest Fans: Whuntva (5)
Fun Fact: An image of what could perhaps be Mr. Krabs' late father can be spotted during the panty raid scene.

I can't hang out here all night! I've got a life!

16. Graveyard Shift (Season 2, Episode 16A)
(28 points | 3 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 64
Biggest Fans: Dexter (5), Nick (10)
Fun Fact: The Nosferatu gag at the end was originally supposed to be a character named "Floorboard Henry", but Hillenburg ditched the idea at the last minute.

[Nick]

Quite the reference for a kids' show!

My favorite obscure reference in the show is the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec shout out in the episode where Squidward pretends to be a ghost.

[whuntva]

Wait, I don't understand this. I feel all tingly inside. Should we stop?

14 *TIE*. F.U.N. (Season 1, Episode 10B)
(30 points | 4 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 14
Biggest Fans: Cold Butterfly (8), BleuPanda (10)
Fun Fact: The working title for this episode was "My Fair Plankton", an obvious send-up to Lerner and Lowe's My Fair Lady.

Squidward, we don't need television. Not as long as we have our…imagination.

14 *TIE*. Idiot Box (Season 3, Episode 4B)
(30 points | 4 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 62
Biggest Fans: Prosecutorgodot (4)
Fun Fact: During the Space Launch scene, audio from the radio broadcast of the Challenger Event is played.

Can you move it along? I'm all out of time cards.

12 *TIE*. Wet Painters (Season 3, Episode 10A)
(31 points | 3 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 92
Biggest Fans: Krurze (6), Nick (8)
Fun Fact: Mr. Krabs' first dollar gets a backstory in the Season 5 episode "Friend or Foe?"

I've never felt such a strange combination of pity and indigestion.

12 *TIE*. As Seen on TV (Season 3, Episode 7A)
(31 points | 2 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 65
Biggest Fans: Whuntva (3), Krurze (8)
Fun Fact: A second Krusty Krab would become a plot point later in the first movie.

Oh, these pies aren't homemade. They were made in a factory...a bomb factory...they're bombs!

11. Dying For Pie (Season 2, Episode 4A)
(34 points | 5 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 52
Biggest Fans: Nick (5)
Fun Fact: Squidward's open-heart surgery marks the first time blood was depicted on the show.

[whuntva]

Everything's Chrome in the future!

10. SB-129 (Season 1, Episode 14A)
(42 points | 4 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 63
Biggest Fans: BleuPanda (6), Dexter (9)
Fun Fact: A calendar in the future scene is for the year 4017. If we interpret the "2000 Years Later" time card as exact, the episode was set in the year 2017. How time flies!

Why must every eleven minutes of my life be filled with misery?

8 *TIE*. Club SpongeBob (Season 3, Episode 2A)
(44 points | 3 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: NR
Biggest Fans: Prosecutorgodot (2), Dexter (8), Nick (9)
Fun Fact: This episode and "Graveyard Shift" were the first two SpongeBob episodes to go straight-to-video. They appeared on the compilation VHS tapes Nautical Nonsense and Sponge Buddies before airing on television.

Squidward: I could be anything I set my mind to. I could be a football player, or a king, or a spaceman...
SpongeBob: Or a football playing king in space...with a moustache.

8 *TIE*. Can You Spare a Dime? (Season 3, Episode 7B)
(44 points | 4 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: NR
Biggest Fans: Krurze (6), whuntva (10)
Fun Fact: Mr. Krabs' dime looks suspiciously like a rai stone.

But the Door is Locked. And the only way out is through the...Perfume Department!

7. Shanghaied (Season 2, Episode 13A)
(54 points | 5 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: NR
Biggest Fans: Nick (3), BleuPanda (9)
Fun Fact: This episode was first aired as the quasi-special "You Wish!" hosted by Patchy the Pirate with the gimmick of the fans choosing the ending. After the event was over, the Patchy segments were cut short and the episode defaulted to showing the winning ending, SpongeBob's last wish, in both reruns and on the Season 2 DVD. The uncut host segments plus all endings are available on the First 100 Episodes DVD.

I guess Grandpa SquarePants was right. Don't run for a bus. Especially one that's going up at a 90-degree angle.

6. Rock Bottom (Season 1, Episode 17B)
(58 points | 5 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 79
Biggest Fans: BleuPanda (3), Cold Butterfly (3), Dexter (6)
Fun Fact: This episode inspired the roller coaster SpongeBob's Rock Bottom Plunge at Mall of America in Minnesota.

[whuntva]

Truck! Sixteen wheels. Now I can show you how the pioneers hitchhiked.

5. Pizza Delivery (Season 1, Episode 5A)
(72 points | 6 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 29
Biggest Fans: Dexter (2), Cold Butterfly (6), Prosecutorgodot (7)
Fun Fact: In SpongeBob's hallucination, the Korean on the driving controls just reads "forward" and "reverse"

Well it may be stupid, but it's also dumb!

4. The Camping Episode (Season 3, Episode 17B)
(74 points | 5 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 7
Biggest Fans: Prosecutorgodot (1) , Cold Butterfly (4), BleuPanda (6), whuntva (7), Dexter (10)
Fun Fact: "The Campfire Song Song" turned up later in an episode of Family Guy, with original reanimated footage. Animator Dan Povenmire worked on both shows and secured the licensing to make this possible.

Remember, no employee wants to be a Squidward!

3. Krusty Krab Training Video (Season 3, Episode 10B)
(93 points | 6 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 15
Biggest Fans: Nick (2), whuntva (4), BleuPanda (5), Cold Butterfly (7), Dexter (7), Prosecutorgodot (8)
Fun Fact: Steve Kehela, this episode's narrator, made his living by narrating actual training videos.

[whuntva]

As for the Top Two, you can probably guess what they are. They were tied on the fifth ballot and received identical amounts of #1 votes. But in the end, only one could win...

[whuntva]

Fancy Living, here we come! La La La La La!

2. Chocolate With Nuts (Season 3, Episode 12A)
(112 points | 6 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 45
Biggest Fans: BleuPanda (1), Krurze (1), Whuntva (1), Dexter (3), Cold Butterfly (4), Nick (4)
Fun Fact: SpongeBob and Patrick didn't sell chocolate to the Con Man, making him the only holdout.


Which means #1 is...

Whoever's the owner of the white sedan, you left your lights on.

1. Band Geeks (Season 2, Episode 15B)
(122 points | 7 votes)
Best Day Ever Poll Placement: 38
Biggest Fans: Cold Butterfly (1), Dexter (1), Nick (1), BleuPanda (2), Krurze (2), Whuntva (2)
Fun Fact: Backlash at the Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show sent "Sweet Victory" onto the Rock Charts, just trying to get that SpongeBob kick!

"Band Geeks" was the only episode to make every ballot. And all but one ranked it in their Top Two. While it seemed close at a glance, the winner was apparent. It really is the quintessential SpongeBob episode and perhaps the most famous one for a reason. Good call!

And that's a wrap! Thanks to all the voters and to everyone who followed the rollout! This was a fun little poll and I'm glad I ran it. I feel it apropos to play us out with this little ditty...

Once again, I can't thank you enough for helping me with this!

[Nick]

Thanks for running the poll, whuntva! Now I think I should go back and rewatch some of those old Spongebob episodes...

[prosecutorgodot]

Thanks for running this Whuntva! I do love "Chocolate with Nuts," but I hate that con man so much, it makes me dislike the episode to some extent.

[StevieFan13]

So sad I missed this poll entirely! I would've voted in a heartbeat.

[Rob]

I didn't vote, because I didn't watch this series since... 2005 or something? But I was really into it for a period and I'm actually surprised that I still recognize most of these episodes based on the stills or fun fact. Perhaps I'll get back to these early seasons one of these days.

Band Geeks is perhaps the most famous Spongebob episode, but besides that the one I always heard the most references about (and my personal favorite) was The Idiot Box, which I would have guessed would have been a lock for #1. It's one of the most absurd, creative and quotable episodes in my memory.