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"What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" (alternatively titled "WhoBob WhatPants?") is the 18th episode of the fifth season of the American animated television series ''
SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It chronicles the adventures of the title character a ...
'', and the 98th episode overall. It first aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on October 13, 2008. In the episode,
SpongeBob ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American Animated series, animated Television comedy, comedy Television show, television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It ...
thinks that his friends don't like him anymore after he made them angry because of a few accidents and decides to leave Bikini Bottom. Along the way, he accidentally bumps his head and loses his memory. SpongeBob wanders away into a new place called New Kelp City and attempts to get a new job, unaware he is becoming a target for a criminal gang known as the Bubble Poppin' Boys, while
Patrick Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
,
Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people *Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) * (Sandy) ...
and a reluctant
Squidward Squidward Q. Tentacles is a fictional character voiced by actor Rodger Bumpass in the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Squidward was created and designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. He ...
try to find him. The episode was written by
Casey Alexander Casey Alexander (born June 8, 1972) is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Belmont University. He previously served as head coach at Stetson University and Lipscomb University. Playing career Alexander played college basketball at Bel ...
, Zeus Cervas, and
Steven Banks Steven Craig Banks (born November 27, 1954) is an American actor, musician, comedian, and writer of television, plays, books and cartoons, including ''CatDog'', ''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'', and ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Performing In 1987, Banks ...
, and the animation was directed by supervising director Alan Smart and Tom Yasumi. The episode features a guest appearance by Ray Liotta as the voice of the leader of the Bubble Poppin' Boys. The episode's premiere pulled an average of 7.7 million viewers, but received mixed to negative reviews from critics. Years after the episode first aired, the theme song of the episode was replaced with the generic main theme song internationally, but in the UK, it was replaced by the season 1-season 7 theme song.


Plot summary

SpongeBob wakes up on a normal day as usual and wants to spend time with his friends. However, he ends up angering them: he accidentally breaks Gary's shell, crushes a cake
Patrick Patrick may refer to: * Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People * Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint *Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...
made for his mother's birthday, disturbs
Squidward Squidward Q. Tentacles is a fictional character voiced by actor Rodger Bumpass in the Nickelodeon animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Squidward was created and designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. He ...
's sleep (as usual), destroys
Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people *Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) * (Sandy) ...
's new robot, and deep-fries
Mr. Krabs Eugene Harold Krabs, better known as simply Mr. Krabs, is a fictional character in the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' (or simply ''SpongeBob'') is an American animated comedy tel ...
and two of his dollar bills. Each of these is met with SpongeBob being thrown out and derogatively called "Idiot Boy". After this happens so frequently, SpongeBob comes to believe none of them like him anymore and decides to leave Bikini Bottom. As he leaves, however, he becomes spooked in the dark and ends up falling off a cliff and bumping his head, knocking himself unconscious. Back in Bikini Bottom, Sandy and Patrick find a goodbye note from SpongeBob inside his pineapple and, feeling remorseful, show it to Mr. Krabs and Squidward. To make matters worse, without SpongeBob making Krabby Patties at the Krusty Krab, the city breaks out into massive chaos. To retrieve SpongeBob, Sandy creates a sea sponge locator device, only for Squidward, having no intention of finding SpongeBob, to smash it with a mallet. Angered by this, Mr. Krabs bribes Squidward to find SpongeBob on foot, promising him a Fabergé egg as a reward; Squidward is followed by Patrick and Sandy. Meanwhile, SpongeBob wakes up with
amnesia Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use ...
. He sees a couple of tramp fish, who deem him "CheeseHead BrownPants" to steal his possessions, leaving him with only a bottle of bubble soap. SpongeBob eventually wanders into New Kelp City, a dilapidated urban city, where he attempts to get a job. Each time he gets a job, he displays his bubble-blowing ability, but this strikes fear into all the residents of the city and results in his termination. Late that night, his activity brings up a confrontation with "the Bubble Poppin' Boys", a gang of greasers. They explain that having developed an unreasonable hatred against bubbles for blinding them upon popping in their eyes, they have spent the last two decades killing anyone who blows bubbles, resulting in their unofficial ban and the city's downfall. The gang chases SpongeBob, who eventually defeats them by trapping them in a bubble that carries them out of the city forever. He is rewarded by getting the position of mayor of New Kelp City. While on the road, Squidward's group learns that SpongeBob became the new mayor, but when they go to New Kelp City to retrieve him, SpongeBob cannot remember who they are and brushes them off. They manage to kidnap SpongeBob and return him to the Krusty Krab, but he still rejects them. Squidward celebrates this, only to slip on a spatula and throws the Fabergé egg onto SpongeBob's head, restoring his memory. SpongeBob is then given an apology from his friends for running him out of town. Although he forgives them, SpongeBob still decides to return to New Kelp City since the city still needs its mayor. At that moment, a breaking news report comes on, saying that the bubbles in New Kelp City are blinding the citizens, who blame SpongeBob. This finally makes SpongeBob change his mind, and he says that he will stay in Bikini Bottom, much to Squidward's chagrin.


Production

"What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?", also known as "WhoBob WhatPants?", was a special episode written by
Casey Alexander Casey Alexander (born June 8, 1972) is the head coach of the men's basketball team at Belmont University. He previously served as head coach at Stetson University and Lipscomb University. Playing career Alexander played college basketball at Bel ...
, Zeus Cervas, and
Steven Banks Steven Craig Banks (born November 27, 1954) is an American actor, musician, comedian, and writer of television, plays, books and cartoons, including ''CatDog'', ''Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi'', and ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. Performing In 1987, Banks ...
. The animation and supervising director was Alan Smart. Alexander and Cervas also functioned as
storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...
directors. The episode was first announced by Nickelodeon on September 24, 2008, on a press release. According to the network, SpongeBob "wanders the ocean, a stranger in his own pants," and finds himself in a rough part of New Kelp City, where he faces off against the Boys' gangleader, Liotta's character. The episode originally aired in the United States on October 13, 2008. From October 3, 2008, TurboNick featured a special playlist of content dedicated to the episode, including a sneak-peek of the special, themed episodes, short-form content, song clips, and an instant replay of the special following the television premiere.
Nick.com Nick.com is a website owned and developed by Nickelodeon. The website previously served as an online portal for Nickelodeon content, and offered online games, video streaming, radio streaming and individual websites for each show it broadcasts. I ...
, in 2008, presented a new game called "SpongeBob SquarePants: WhoBob WhatPants?" to celebrate the episode's television airing. The episode also features SpongeBob's signature sea chanty altered to "WhoBob WhatPants?" during the chorus answers in the title sequence. In addition to the regular cast, the late Ray Liotta guest starred in the episode as the voice of the leader of New Kelp City's Bubble Poppin' Boys gang, and the main villain in the episode. On October 14, 2008, "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" became available in the DVD compilation called ''SpongeBob's WhoBob WhatPants'', along with six other episodes including "Goo Goo Gas", "The Two Faces of Squidward", "SpongeHenge", "Banned in Bikini Bottom", and "Stanley S. SquarePants". It also became available in the '' SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 5, Vol. 2'' DVD on November 18, 2008.''SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 5, Vol. 2''. DVD. Paramount Home Entertainment. 2008. On September 22, 2009, "What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" was released on the ''SpongeBob SquarePants: The First 100 Episodes'' DVD, alongside all the episodes of seasons one through five.


Reception

"What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?" was viewed by 7.7 million audiences. This ranked the program the number one most viewed entertainment show of the night, and the number two most viewed show in all categories after ESPN '' Monday Night Football''. Despite the high ratings, the episode received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics. Maddy Pumila said that the episode was "extremely fun and entertaining. I hadn't watched SpongeBob in a while, but the laughs in this episode provided more laughs than I would get in an entire day." Maxie Zeus of ''Toon Zone'' cited the episode as an example of the series' decline. Lesley Aeschliman of
Yahoo! Voices Yahoo! Voices, formerly Associated Content (AC), was a division of Yahoo! that focused on online publishing. Yahoo! Voices distributed a large variety of writing through its website and content partners, including Yahoo! News. In early December 20 ...
wrote, "I have to look at this special like the ' Friend or Foe?' special. While 'WhoBob WhatPants?' works well as a regular story for SpongeBob SquarePants, I'm not entirely convinced that it deserved to be hyped up as a special. While this story had the potential to be 'special material,' it just didn't materialize in the final produced product." Roy Hrab of
DVD Verdict DVD Verdict was a judicial-themed website for DVD reviews. The site was founded in 1999. The editor-in-chief was Michael Stailey, who owned the website between 2004 and 2016, and the site employed a large editorial staff of critics, whose reviews ...
said, "It makes me sad to think about how something so pleasurable has declined into something so tedious." Paul Mavis of DVD Talk said, "With a laugh-skimpy script, 'What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?' may be confirming a trend I noticed back with the last original ''SpongeBob'' toon to get its own disc release,
Pest of the West "Pest of the West" is the 16th episode of the fifth season and the 96th overall episode of the American animated television series ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. In this episode, SpongeBob finds that he is a distant relative of SpongeBuck SquarePan ...
: ''SpongeBob'' shorts are starting to get tired. And 'What Ever Happened to SpongeBob?' is even less funny than 'Pest of the West'," adding the episode was "Not a good sign."


References


External links

* {{SpongeBob SquarePants episodes 2008 American television episodes 2008 television specials SpongeBob SquarePants episodes Television episodes about amnesia Animated television specials 2000s animated television specials