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Description

I think the description below will get updated eventually too, but not now (inb4 i never ever touch it)

Let's cut to the chase: Season 3 of SpongeBob is the strongest season of the pre-movie era. I love it, and on the surface, this season may seem exactly like season 2 yet again but with better coloring, and that may be true... but...

  ...that's not entirely correct, since there was one major difference that I've been trying to place my finger on that displaces this season from S2, and I think I've figured out what it is: I believe that SpongeBob lost that sense of being a child in this season. He's much more of an every-man and it's demonstrated in episodes like Rock-a-Bye Bivalve and Party Pooper Pants. It makes this season a little on the mundane side even if I still like a majority of these episodes.
I will say though, one big positive this season does poses is that flukes this season has aren't THAT bad (well, y'know, besides Party Pooper Pants), and between the first three seasons, this one has the least number of duds.

  The general episode quality is top tier because the average ep here is easily among the best things the series has produced, but the rest is a bit interchangeable, and this made me realize something that affects this season: I don't know why, but looking at this pie chart, season 3 seems to be really small. I can tell that even one episode rating can make a difference, but that doesn't matter because this entire season is a national treasure.

  This still means that I still think the comedy in this season is really strong and is even more brilliant than season 2 thanks to episodes like Idiot Box, which honestly shows just how much millage they can get out of a literal bottle episode. You can tell that the animation in this episode had cut corners, but what ultimately drives the plot is Squidward's idiotic fear building up over the course of the episode, and the extremely well-written dialogue. It manages to showcase a subtle, but effective dynamic without even needing to have all three of these characters be in the same physical place at once. If I'm going to be honest, this season actually did a much better job at its plots than season 2. Some of these episodes are the most unique episodes of the series, like The Algae's Always Greener and the famous Krusty Krab Training Video. Both of these episodes are a sight to behold, as the former has one of my favorite premises in the whole series, and the latter is unlike any other episodes in the series in terms of structure, so much so that not even Boat Smarts could capture the way this episode was structured or capture its top-tier satire. Both manage to go a long way in their premises. The former covers every single trope this show has done at the Krusty Krab (Squidward being a grump, SpongeBob being irritating , Pearl annoying "Krabs" for money, "Plankton" trying to steal the formula, unsatisfied customers, etc.) and Plankton's reactions to them all are just glorious. This episode really cemented Plankton as one of my favorite characters on this series.
  As for KKTV... do I even need to explain why this episode rules? It's a perfect take on employee training videos, as all it does is throw joke after joke after joke at you... it's pretty much the only episode of the series without an actual story going on. It's more like a sketch, and the amount of subversion put here is marvelous. Every single fourth wall break here has me gasping for air, every single segment in this episode has jokes centered on things that shouldn't even be funny (the whole Hygiene section and Interfacing With Your Boss) but somehow are, and that ending still both frustrates me and humors me both at the same time.

Overall, season 3 of SpongeBob is still a lot of fun. Despite having a dumpster fire of a special, I can say that the comedy in nearly every single one of these episodes was strong enough to weigh this one up to one of the best seasons. I can see both this and season 2 being slight turn-offs since their biggest priority is comedy while everything else comes second, and while it is a problem for season 2, it is not for season 3 because this is probably the 2nd funniest season of the show. It's overall a AMAZING season and I consider it the best of pre-movie simply because it's one of the funniest seasons in the series (top 3 at least) and keeps a consistent quality with almost no dips.

Description

I think the description below will get updated eventually too, but not now (inb4 i never ever touch it)

Let's cut to the chase: Season 3 of SpongeBob is the strongest season of the pre-movie era. I love it, and on the surface, this season may seem exactly like season 2 yet again but with better coloring, and that may be true... but...

  ...that's not entirely correct, since there was one major difference that I've been trying to place my finger on that displaces this season from S2, and I think I've figured out what it is: I believe that SpongeBob lost that sense of being a child in this season. He's much more of an every-man and it's demonstrated in episodes like Rock-a-Bye Bivalve and Party Pooper Pants. It makes this season a little on the mundane side even if I still like a majority of these episodes.
I will say though, one big positive this season does poses is that flukes this season has aren't THAT bad (well, y'know, besides Party Pooper Pants), and between the first three seasons, this one has the least number of duds.

  The general episode quality is top tier because the average ep here is easily among the best things the series has produced, but the rest is a bit interchangeable, and this made me realize something that affects this season: I don't know why, but looking at this pie chart, season 3 seems to be really small. I can tell that even one episode rating can make a difference, but that doesn't matter because this entire season is a national treasure.

  This still means that I still think the comedy in this season is really strong and is even more brilliant than season 2 thanks to episodes like Idiot Box, which honestly shows just how much millage they can get out of a literal bottle episode. You can tell that the animation in this episode had cut corners, but what ultimately drives the plot is Squidward's idiotic fear building up over the course of the episode, and the extremely well-written dialogue. It manages to showcase a subtle, but effective dynamic without even needing to have all three of these characters be in the same physical place at once. If I'm going to be honest, this season actually did a much better job at its plots than season 2. Some of these episodes are the most unique episodes of the series, like The Algae's Always Greener and the famous Krusty Krab Training Video. Both of these episodes are a sight to behold, as the former has one of my favorite premises in the whole series, and the latter is unlike any other episodes in the series in terms of structure, so much so that not even Boat Smarts could capture the way this episode was structured or capture its top-tier satire. Both manage to go a long way in their premises. The former covers every single trope this show has done at the Krusty Krab (Squidward being a grump, SpongeBob being irritating , Pearl annoying "Krabs" for money, "Plankton" trying to steal the formula, unsatisfied customers, etc.) and Plankton's reactions to them all are just glorious. This episode really cemented Plankton as one of my favorite characters on this series.
  As for KKTV... do I even need to explain why this episode rules? It's a perfect take on employee training videos, as all it does is throw joke after joke after joke at you... it's pretty much the only episode of the series without an actual story going on. It's more like a sketch, and the amount of subversion put here is marvelous. Every single fourth wall break here has me gasping for air, every single segment in this episode has jokes centered on things that shouldn't even be funny (the whole Hygiene section and Interfacing With Your Boss) but somehow are, and that ending still both frustrates me and humors me both at the same time.

Overall, season 3 of SpongeBob is still a lot of fun. Despite having a dumpster fire of a special, I can say that the comedy in nearly every single one of these episodes was strong enough to weigh this one up to one of the best seasons. I can see both this and season 2 being slight turn-offs since their biggest priority is comedy while everything else comes second, and while it is a problem for season 2, it is not for season 3 because this is probably the 2nd funniest season of the show. It's overall a AMAZING season and I consider it the best of pre-movie simply because it's one of the funniest seasons in the series (top 3 at least) and keeps a consistent quality with almost no dips.