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I'm surprised that even after much time has passed, this season remains as flawed as I remember it being. It's without a doubt my least favorite season of SpongeBob. I don't even think you can argue with me on why I think this is the case, since most people tend to agree that this is when the series truly fell off, and I don't blame them. I know that season 5 of this show has a really odd consensus, but what can be agreed on is that the quality gap between season 5 and this season is gargantuan. It's not the fault of the animators or writers that the final product came out this way now that we know Nickelodeon forced them to mass-produce episodes in a short amount of time, but during this period, a lot of problems ranging from the animation, characterization, general pacing of episodes, and style of humor started to work their way through and managed to give this season its bad name. I obviously don't think season 6 is that bad or even close to bad, but compared to every other season of this show, I can't say it's anything of high quality. Let's break down why I don't think season 6 will ever be a good season to me.

THE ANIMATION: If there's one thing you need to take note of with this season's animation, it's that SpongeBob began to start having issues with its animation post-Atlantis SquarePantis. It has been reported and confirmed in July 2019 that Nickelodeon began cutting the show's budget around late season 5 and, as a result, episodes were rushed and more hastily made with tons more animation errors to be found. Late season 5 showcased issues like incomplete outlines, parts of characters not being filled in properly (If you pause at a moment in Battle of Bikini Bottom when SpongeBob is running, a sleeve of his is not colored, it's literally transparent), or reusing animation from past episodes (20,000 Patties Under the Sea opening reused footage from Jellyfishing.), but they wouldn't be anywhere near as blatant in their budget-cutting as season 6.

Season 6's animation goes wholesale with late season 5's animation problems and, to put it lightly, it sucks lol. Although I can't fully blame the animators or storyboarders (The storyboards for episodes this season were actually really expressive so it pretty much proves the point that Nickelodeon themselves screwed this show over) for the way the season looks, I find it extremely hard to cut this season as a whole some slack in most departments since the number of animation errors makes early season 1 blush. There are tons of moments in this season that aren't even hard to miss in which you can tell that there was some sort of rushed production, such as:

    - Character outlines would be way too inconsistent throughout, either too thin, too thick, or some bizarre clash between the two. And like late season 5, they'd sometimes be incomplete.
    - Lip syncing in this season is also off sometimes like in Nautical Novice when Mrs. Puff exclaims "That's not a projector screen!" or House Fancy when Squidward asks, "SpongeBob, what's that noise?".
    - Characters can be drawn wrong numerous times, sometimes within the same scene (When rewatching Pineapple Fever, I took note of how Squidward's model in this episode kept model-switching as if we're back in early season 1, and SpongeBob's modeling and cheek design in this season constantly grated on me. I absolutely despise the overemphasized, detailed, golf-ball cheeks (Springer cheeks/Springerism is their nickname) since it's used so damn much throughout this season and doesn't even communicate any emotion.
    - Facial expressions were a lot more restricted and were regulated to about nine expressions in total per character.
- There are moments where frames are downright missing and characters can jump between two postures for no reason (Ex: twitter.com/religionofwumbo/st… )
      - The coloring in this season is so damn inconsistent. Episodes can either look extremely pale like Choir Boys, Porous Pockets, and Ditchin', but be perfectly fine in stuff like House Fancy, Sand Castles in the Sand, or even an abomination like Pet or Pests.

Now, these are all some pretty big problems with the visuals as a whole, but the worst of them all is how this season honest to God looks hideous because of its overreliance on gross-out. I'm someone that isn't even grossed out by things most of the time, but the times where this season actually wants to showcase how far they can go in its animation department only shines when they decide to do gross-out humor, and it's EVERYWHERE in this season. I dare you to watch a season 6 episode and showcase to me an episode where characters arent having their skin ripped off in a pretty brutal fashion, or pulsating veins, or some extremely grotesque closeup is being shoved in your face for no reason at all (lmao that one scene in Clash of Triton when SpongeBob put his hideous face on Triton's cage for a solid 50 seconds).
  There are entire episodes that just dedicate themselves to doing this and this only. I would go after the obvious The Splinter, but an even worse example would be Pet or Pests, which probably has the worst animation in the entire series. Not only does it fulfill at least 3/6 of the criteria I listed above, but this episode has some of the worst character designs I have ever seen in a SpongeBob episode. I literally can't stand to look at this episode, and I'm someone that can tolerate grossout. The worms here just look absolutely terrible with pulsating veins to boot, and they even had the audacity to show them going into labor and giving birth for some reason, and the baby worms look even fucking worse with their constant vomiting. These designs don't even feel like they belong in the show at all, and I don't even understand what was the intent with making the worms look this fucking gross.

tl;dr version: The animation in this season is really stilted and choppy, but for some reason also looks hideous due to it adding so much detail in places they shouldn't even be. It even went as far as to affect this season's style of humor by having such an over-reliance on grossout. Character designs were inconsistent, there's a lot more veiny structures here, coloring could look fine in some episodes but awful in others, there's just a general sloppiness to how the animation looks and moves, and I'm going to blame Nickelodeon for fucking around with this season's production since they aired over 50 episodes in the span of less than two years.

GENERAL THOUGHTS: I already covered some issues I have with this season's style of humor in relation to grossout, but I think there's some other key points that I left out along with one whole other issue I take with the comedy as a whole. I've stated numerous times in other reviews that I am not bothered by grossout at all, but upon further speculation of this season, I realized that it's even hard to consider most of the grossout "comedy". Haha, look at these ugly-as-piss worms vomitting on people, let's do that for a whole fucking episode, SURELY it won't get stale. Most of the grossout in this season isn't even for comedy's sake, and comparing it to episodes from previous seasons is evidence of that.

  In an episode like Just One Bite, the "grossout" closeup was there to aid a gag about SpongeBob asking Squidward if he was sure about his choice not to eat a Krabby Patty, and even then, that closeup wasn't even disgusting to look at. A lot of the closeups in prior to this season and after it were literally there to put emphasis on an emotion or expression a character was making, not on stuff like pulsating body structures. It comes off less as gross-out humor and more of shock humor, and not even good shock humor since I'm not disgusted by what this season throws at me besides Pet or Pests.

This season also really likes to drag out a lot of its jokes forever too and it makes a good chunk of these episodes a slog to get through as well. Some people would call stuff like this "anti-humor", and I love me some good anti-humor, but this season rarely ever did it right. The only time I actually laughed at a dragged out joke was the hot cocoa scene in Pineapple Fever, but other times, you'll get the door bell ringing gag in Pet or Pests, which is one of the strangest jokes this series has ever told. Upon rewatch of this season, I was expecting Family Guy's effect on my sense of humor to aid this season, but it didn't do it any favors. I still think most of the drawn out jokes stink. An anti-thesis to the previously mentioned doorbell joke though would be Komputer Overload, where we actually get a third party (Plankton) to react to the moments in which this episode decides to slow down its pacing for completely stupid reasons. Anti-humor works when there's an underlying joke to be found, but this season mostly didn't have that.

Some episodes can be one-trick ponies like The Card and Shuffleboarding where they'll rely on a simple trope and.... do nothing with them. The Card has one or two good lines, but the rest of the episode is just one sequence on repeat of SpongeBob protecting Patrick while he remains completely ignorant, the setpieces they go through are extremely boring besides Patrick almost falling into a fuel tank, and the twist at the end is just Yeah Okay Sure Whatever, and Shuffleboarding becomes plain retardedness after the opening.

Occasionally, this season has its Clash of Triton or Gullible Pants which are episodes that have next to nothing going on and are filled with almost no substance and meander in terms of their actual "plot". I think you all get the point that, by now, season 6 really suffers in its pacing department by either dragging out sequences that aren't funny for an eternity, or simply relying on one joke throughout an episode with no variation whatsoever, which is funny, because the actually enjoyable episodes of this season are ones that manage to avoid every single one of these things above.

Believe it or not, I can actually say that I enjoy a good chunk of this season despite me pointing out all its problems, because it has a good amount of merit. Season 6 works best when it actually tries to engage its audience in a plot without having to resort to obnoxious shit like gross-out or "anti-humor", and when it does that, it can be really entertaining. Episodes like Chum Caverns and Sand Castles in the Sand prove that season 6's animation can look good when it wants to, and both have really fun action sequences and creative stories to boot. No Hat for Pat and Suction Cup Symphony are actually two of the coolest stories of this season and maybe series since I'm generally a fan of escalation plots, while the former has one of my favorite portrayals of Patrick and a really sweet story. Chum Bucket Supreme and, going to bring this ep up again because it was such an experience upon rewatch, Suction Cup Symphony are two of my favorites of the series and don't even feel like season 6, more like holdovers from seasons prior, because all these two episodes do is hurl jokes at you for 11 minutes straight, and even if a joke in one of these didn't make me particularly laugh, there would be about 10 others that would have me dead. I just wish at least the other half of this season was more like this and not like Porous Pockets, Grooming Gary, Gullible Pants, and so on, which are episodes that're really stale in terms of ideas for episodes, suffer from general S6 issues, and are extremely shallow in terms of actual substance that they have.

tl;dr version: Season 6, overall, suffers from having a poor usage of grossout, dragging out scenes in episodes for an eternity, and having stale concepts. Most of the time, I find it troubling to believe this season knows how to execute anti-humor properly since more often than not, it's just flatout unfunny. However, when this season decides to actually go out-there with its ideas and tell actual jokes, it can work wonders. Hell, I managed to have a top 15 composed of Great or better episodes.

CONCLUSION: And... that was my review on what will probably remain the weakest season of this show. In fact, the stretch between Sun Bleached and Gullible Pants is the worst part of this series, and had it not been for the great stretch from Toy Store of Doom- Clash of Triton, this season would've been worse. Look, I love SpongeBob with all my heart and think it's one of the greatest influences of my childhood, which is why I seemed harsher than usual here, I can't stand to see this series lose its luster. A lot of elements in this season just fall flat on their face and it resulted in a MEH season.
  It's a mixed season with bad animation, hit-or-miss humor, and slow pacing with some glimpses of brilliance in episodes that can be pretty fun when they decide not try and shock you or go for "anti-humor". It's really fitting that this is the only(?) season of the show that I wouldn't call Good, since it does have way more issues than something like Season 1.

Description
I'm surprised that even after much time has passed, this season remains as flawed as I remember it being. It's without a doubt my least favorite season of SpongeBob. I don't even think you can argue with me on why I think this is the case, since most people tend to agree that this is when the series truly fell off, and I don't blame them. I know that season 5 of this show has a really odd consensus, but what can be agreed on is that the quality gap between season 5 and this season is gargantuan. It's not the fault of the animators or writers that the final product came out this way now that we know Nickelodeon forced them to mass-produce episodes in a short amount of time, but during this period, a lot of problems ranging from the animation, characterization, general pacing of episodes, and style of humor started to work their way through and managed to give this season its bad name. I obviously don't think season 6 is that bad or even close to bad, but compared to every other season of this show, I can't say it's anything of high quality. Let's break down why I don't think season 6 will ever be a good season to me.

THE ANIMATION: If there's one thing you need to take note of with this season's animation, it's that SpongeBob began to start having issues with its animation post-Atlantis SquarePantis. It has been reported and confirmed in July 2019 that Nickelodeon began cutting the show's budget around late season 5 and, as a result, episodes were rushed and more hastily made with tons more animation errors to be found. Late season 5 showcased issues like incomplete outlines, parts of characters not being filled in properly (If you pause at a moment in Battle of Bikini Bottom when SpongeBob is running, a sleeve of his is not colored, it's literally transparent), or reusing animation from past episodes (20,000 Patties Under the Sea opening reused footage from Jellyfishing.), but they wouldn't be anywhere near as blatant in their budget-cutting as season 6.

Season 6's animation goes wholesale with late season 5's animation problems and, to put it lightly, it sucks lol. Although I can't fully blame the animators or storyboarders (The storyboards for episodes this season were actually really expressive so it pretty much proves the point that Nickelodeon themselves screwed this show over) for the way the season looks, I find it extremely hard to cut this season as a whole some slack in most departments since the number of animation errors makes early season 1 blush. There are tons of moments in this season that aren't even hard to miss in which you can tell that there was some sort of rushed production, such as:

    - Character outlines would be way too inconsistent throughout, either too thin, too thick, or some bizarre clash between the two. And like late season 5, they'd sometimes be incomplete.
    - Lip syncing in this season is also off sometimes like in Nautical Novice when Mrs. Puff exclaims "That's not a projector screen!" or House Fancy when Squidward asks, "SpongeBob, what's that noise?".
    - Characters can be drawn wrong numerous times, sometimes within the same scene (When rewatching Pineapple Fever, I took note of how Squidward's model in this episode kept model-switching as if we're back in early season 1, and SpongeBob's modeling and cheek design in this season constantly grated on me. I absolutely despise the overemphasized, detailed, golf-ball cheeks (Springer cheeks/Springerism is their nickname) since it's used so damn much throughout this season and doesn't even communicate any emotion.
    - Facial expressions were a lot more restricted and were regulated to about nine expressions in total per character.
- There are moments where frames are downright missing and characters can jump between two postures for no reason (Ex: twitter.com/religionofwumbo/st… )
      - The coloring in this season is so damn inconsistent. Episodes can either look extremely pale like Choir Boys, Porous Pockets, and Ditchin', but be perfectly fine in stuff like House Fancy, Sand Castles in the Sand, or even an abomination like Pet or Pests.

Now, these are all some pretty big problems with the visuals as a whole, but the worst of them all is how this season honest to God looks hideous because of its overreliance on gross-out. I'm someone that isn't even grossed out by things most of the time, but the times where this season actually wants to showcase how far they can go in its animation department only shines when they decide to do gross-out humor, and it's EVERYWHERE in this season. I dare you to watch a season 6 episode and showcase to me an episode where characters arent having their skin ripped off in a pretty brutal fashion, or pulsating veins, or some extremely grotesque closeup is being shoved in your face for no reason at all (lmao that one scene in Clash of Triton when SpongeBob put his hideous face on Triton's cage for a solid 50 seconds).
  There are entire episodes that just dedicate themselves to doing this and this only. I would go after the obvious The Splinter, but an even worse example would be Pet or Pests, which probably has the worst animation in the entire series. Not only does it fulfill at least 3/6 of the criteria I listed above, but this episode has some of the worst character designs I have ever seen in a SpongeBob episode. I literally can't stand to look at this episode, and I'm someone that can tolerate grossout. The worms here just look absolutely terrible with pulsating veins to boot, and they even had the audacity to show them going into labor and giving birth for some reason, and the baby worms look even fucking worse with their constant vomiting. These designs don't even feel like they belong in the show at all, and I don't even understand what was the intent with making the worms look this fucking gross.

tl;dr version: The animation in this season is really stilted and choppy, but for some reason also looks hideous due to it adding so much detail in places they shouldn't even be. It even went as far as to affect this season's style of humor by having such an over-reliance on grossout. Character designs were inconsistent, there's a lot more veiny structures here, coloring could look fine in some episodes but awful in others, there's just a general sloppiness to how the animation looks and moves, and I'm going to blame Nickelodeon for fucking around with this season's production since they aired over 50 episodes in the span of less than two years.

GENERAL THOUGHTS: I already covered some issues I have with this season's style of humor in relation to grossout, but I think there's some other key points that I left out along with one whole other issue I take with the comedy as a whole. I've stated numerous times in other reviews that I am not bothered by grossout at all, but upon further speculation of this season, I realized that it's even hard to consider most of the grossout "comedy". Haha, look at these ugly-as-piss worms vomitting on people, let's do that for a whole fucking episode, SURELY it won't get stale. Most of the grossout in this season isn't even for comedy's sake, and comparing it to episodes from previous seasons is evidence of that.

  In an episode like Just One Bite, the "grossout" closeup was there to aid a gag about SpongeBob asking Squidward if he was sure about his choice not to eat a Krabby Patty, and even then, that closeup wasn't even disgusting to look at. A lot of the closeups in prior to this season and after it were literally there to put emphasis on an emotion or expression a character was making, not on stuff like pulsating body structures. It comes off less as gross-out humor and more of shock humor, and not even good shock humor since I'm not disgusted by what this season throws at me besides Pet or Pests.

This season also really likes to drag out a lot of its jokes forever too and it makes a good chunk of these episodes a slog to get through as well. Some people would call stuff like this "anti-humor", and I love me some good anti-humor, but this season rarely ever did it right. The only time I actually laughed at a dragged out joke was the hot cocoa scene in Pineapple Fever, but other times, you'll get the door bell ringing gag in Pet or Pests, which is one of the strangest jokes this series has ever told. Upon rewatch of this season, I was expecting Family Guy's effect on my sense of humor to aid this season, but it didn't do it any favors. I still think most of the drawn out jokes stink. An anti-thesis to the previously mentioned doorbell joke though would be Komputer Overload, where we actually get a third party (Plankton) to react to the moments in which this episode decides to slow down its pacing for completely stupid reasons. Anti-humor works when there's an underlying joke to be found, but this season mostly didn't have that.

Some episodes can be one-trick ponies like The Card and Shuffleboarding where they'll rely on a simple trope and.... do nothing with them. The Card has one or two good lines, but the rest of the episode is just one sequence on repeat of SpongeBob protecting Patrick while he remains completely ignorant, the setpieces they go through are extremely boring besides Patrick almost falling into a fuel tank, and the twist at the end is just Yeah Okay Sure Whatever, and Shuffleboarding becomes plain retardedness after the opening.

Occasionally, this season has its Clash of Triton or Gullible Pants which are episodes that have next to nothing going on and are filled with almost no substance and meander in terms of their actual "plot". I think you all get the point that, by now, season 6 really suffers in its pacing department by either dragging out sequences that aren't funny for an eternity, or simply relying on one joke throughout an episode with no variation whatsoever, which is funny, because the actually enjoyable episodes of this season are ones that manage to avoid every single one of these things above.

Believe it or not, I can actually say that I enjoy a good chunk of this season despite me pointing out all its problems, because it has a good amount of merit. Season 6 works best when it actually tries to engage its audience in a plot without having to resort to obnoxious shit like gross-out or "anti-humor", and when it does that, it can be really entertaining. Episodes like Chum Caverns and Sand Castles in the Sand prove that season 6's animation can look good when it wants to, and both have really fun action sequences and creative stories to boot. No Hat for Pat and Suction Cup Symphony are actually two of the coolest stories of this season and maybe series since I'm generally a fan of escalation plots, while the former has one of my favorite portrayals of Patrick and a really sweet story. Chum Bucket Supreme and, going to bring this ep up again because it was such an experience upon rewatch, Suction Cup Symphony are two of my favorites of the series and don't even feel like season 6, more like holdovers from seasons prior, because all these two episodes do is hurl jokes at you for 11 minutes straight, and even if a joke in one of these didn't make me particularly laugh, there would be about 10 others that would have me dead. I just wish at least the other half of this season was more like this and not like Porous Pockets, Grooming Gary, Gullible Pants, and so on, which are episodes that're really stale in terms of ideas for episodes, suffer from general S6 issues, and are extremely shallow in terms of actual substance that they have.

tl;dr version: Season 6, overall, suffers from having a poor usage of grossout, dragging out scenes in episodes for an eternity, and having stale concepts. Most of the time, I find it troubling to believe this season knows how to execute anti-humor properly since more often than not, it's just flatout unfunny. However, when this season decides to actually go out-there with its ideas and tell actual jokes, it can work wonders. Hell, I managed to have a top 15 composed of Great or better episodes.

CONCLUSION: And... that was my review on what will probably remain the weakest season of this show. In fact, the stretch between Sun Bleached and Gullible Pants is the worst part of this series, and had it not been for the great stretch from Toy Store of Doom- Clash of Triton, this season would've been worse. Look, I love SpongeBob with all my heart and think it's one of the greatest influences of my childhood, which is why I seemed harsher than usual here, I can't stand to see this series lose its luster. A lot of elements in this season just fall flat on their face and it resulted in a MEH season.
  It's a mixed season with bad animation, hit-or-miss humor, and slow pacing with some glimpses of brilliance in episodes that can be pretty fun when they decide not try and shock you or go for "anti-humor". It's really fitting that this is the only(?) season of the show that I wouldn't call Good, since it does have way more issues than something like Season 1.