Some Things Never Change and its sequels are not particularly happy, but the trilogy still has a few laughs here and there.
Finite
- After closing the Krusty Krab early, Squidward returns home and runs across Patrick, who is carrying a ton of food he looted from Squidward’s fridge. The two casually greet each other before Squidward does a Double Take. Funnier still, instead of losing his shit and trying to kick Patrick out, Squidward instead indulges him and feeds him a turkey and a big glass of warm milk which make Patrick fall into a deep slumber (thus no longer being a bother) as Squidward has finally learned that trying to kick SpongeBob and Patrick out of his house is monumentally ineffective.
- Even better, when Squidward returns to watch the evening news for confirmation about Squilliam’s passing, Patrick is still there and slobbering all over the coffee table, which Squidward completely ignores.
- During Squidward and Squilliam’s final encounter in 2017, when the latter is having a friendly chat with the former and giving him a major dressing down, in the background, Patrick is drinking up the vine fountain and falls into it. And after Squilliam leaves Squidward, having thoroughly crushed his spirit, Patrick staggers by the latter, drunkenly asking him if he’s enjoying the party before tripping into a pool.
Nothing Lasts Forever
- While it takes place during a heartbreaking scene of SpongeBob finally being forced to face the reality of Mr. Krabs' impending death, he reveals that he was always aware that his Garies over the years were different snails, but had pretended otherwise out of sheer denial. Squidward...is less than amused.Squidward: Wait, you knew about the Gary thing all along!...You mean I had to bury all those festering corpses for nothing!?
- It's mentioned in passing that while Sandy is astonished that Mr. Krabs found and used up the Fountain of Youth, it does explain why several old photos of the evil oil tycoon her great-aunt fought look familiar.
- The group has a discussion about their own cartoon making a huge impact during its heyday, only for Patrick to express confusion about what they're talking about. SpongeBob says he'll explain meta humor to him later.
- Patrick realizes he's wasted 20 years of his life and has a panic attack, made funnier by just how little he's shown up in the narrative and how late he figures it out (midway through the final chapter of the final story). The epilogue reveals he became a responsible adult and an accountant in only six months, astonishing his friends since nobody expected him to do that. Sandy is described as slapping herself each time she is reminded of it out of sheer disbelief.Patrick: Holy shrimp! It HAS been that long! I've been procrastinating for 20 years! I let half my life fly by me! I need to get my GED pronto! Find work! Get insurance!
- The epilogue has a few:
- Squidward and SpongeBob's final scene has them go to take a coffee break, so they can gripe and commiserate about their personal inconveniences, a conversation SpongeBob has owed his co-worker for a long time.
- In Heaven, though free of his dementia for eight years, Mermaid Man still mispronounces "Bingo!" with No Indoor Voice just to mess around with Barnacle Boy, who is decidedly unamused.
- Even in the undersea equivalent of Hell, Mr. Krabs and Plankton are still continuing their rivalry through trying to outdo each other in their eternal punishment. Further adding to the hilarity are their two other Hellmates; Squilliam and Old Man Jenkins. The former is hilarious in how much karma has come back to bite him in the ass, turning the snotty, cruel and pampered octopus into a whiny crybaby begging to be let out of Davy Jones' Locker, but the latter is just funny in how utterly bizarre and unexpected his appearance here is. What did this guy even do to end up in Davy Jones' Locker in the first place?
