Angst? What Angst?: SpongeBob doesn’t seem to notice or care that catching all of the jellyfish damaged Jellyfish Fields' environment and left it a barren wasteland. This trope Played With though since he genuinely cares about the jellyfish themselves and is horrified to learn that Mr. Krabs has been abusing them in a factory instead of making them comfortable in captivity.
SpongeBob: I wouldn’t have collected all those jellyfish if I had known that this was their fate!
Catharsis Factor: Mr. Krabs getting brutally stung by the jellyfish he abused.
Franchise Original Sin: Multiple episodes in later seasons garnered complaints that Mr. Krabs' greed was manifesting in truly despicable ways, rather than making him a Mr. Vice Guy. "Jellyfish Hunter" is an early example of Krabs doing something genuinely awful for money, proving that he could be a terrible person even in the show's "classic" era; though unlike many of the later episodes where this is the case, it's clear that Krabs is supposed to be in the wrong and he gets what he deserves at the end of the episode.
Magnificent Bastard: The blue jellyfish known simply as "No-Name" is an elusive trickster who routinely outwits and evades SpongeBob's master jellyfish hunting skills, functioning as the sole jellyfish the hunter has never caught. When Mr. Krabs begins capturing and abusing jellyfish for their jelly, No-Name stalks, harasses, and terrorizes SpongeBob before kidnapping him and revealing Krabs' evil. No-Name proceeds to work with his former enemy to take down Krabs before willingly allowing himself to be captured and named by SpongeBob, who chooses the appropriate "Friend".
"It feels like somebody... WANTS TO SELL ME SOMETHING!" gained some favor as a response to spam messages and ridiculously aggressive advertising or telemarketing that the typical American observes.
"Moar" Krabs◊, a deformed and hyper-detailed depiction of Mr. Krabs that suddenly shows up during the montage of him ordering SpongeBob to catch more jellyfish. The image has found its way on numerous gifs and short videos, since the character's bizarre appearance often catches the viewer off guard.
Moar Krabs can be a bit jarring if you weren't expecting it.
The Fry Cook Games:
Crosses the Line Twice: After Patrick accidentally fries about six dozen poor saps into fish sticks, a vendor steps up and sells the lot of them up as snacks, all while the audience is still looking on in shock.
Franchise Original Sin: This episode portrays Krabs as being all too willing to manipulate Spongebob into hating Patrick's guts just to win an otherwise trivial competition. Unlike "Jellyfish Hunter", Krabs suffers considerably fewer consequences for his callousness (though admittedly he wasn't as bad here, since he's at least not torturing animals), which foreshadows how he would become Karma Houdini incarnate for a good deal of his Flanderization. Even so, while Krabs doesn't get punished onscreen at the end of this episode, his attempts at emotional manipulation ultimately fail to have lasting consequences or win him the glory he wanted, while the booing sounds heard from the disappointed audience imply he will most likely face shame and ridicule for losing the games.
Fridge Horror: Imagine being one of those fishes that got turned into fish sticks...
Harsher in Hindsight: Mr. Krabs and Plankton manipulating SpongeBob and Patrick for their own rivalry takes on a darker meaning when "Friend Or Foe" reveals they too suffered a broken friendship.
Ho Yay: Sponge and Patrick wind up looking super-buff for the wrestling match. At the end when they patch up their friendship, they hold hands as they walk off. This may be one of the episodes that led some people to suspect that SpongeBob and Patrick are gay.
"BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO!!!"ExplanationPatrick's blind obedience towards Plankton's is often used as a response to mundane questions in life.
Increasingly Buff SpongeBobExplanationSpongeBob's muscular form has been used to either reference another character being as strong as him, or to show how tough someone is for a mundane feat.
Patrick claims his yellow underpants were originally white.
Also him licking SpongeBob's foot in the middle of their match. His pained scream is quite appropriate.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The episode could've worked really well as a half-hour special, showing off all of the events at hand and how SpongeBob and Patrick's temporary rivalry escalates. Instead, all of the additional events are crammed into a five-second montage that's over as soon as it begins. Thankfully, the Plug 'n' Play Game from Jakks Pacific includes all the shown events, as well as adding some additional ones.
Woolseyism: Due to Lost in Translation, the Latin American dub translates Patrick's "My names not Rick!" line as "NOBODY. CHANGES. MY NAMEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!"
◊, a deformed and hyper-detailed depiction of Mr. Krabs that suddenly shows up during the montage of him ordering SpongeBob to catch more jellyfish. The image has found its way on numerous gifs and short videos, since the character's bizarre appearance often catches the viewer off guard.
