Unintentionally Unsympathetic: While Patrick's complete idiocy in this episode may be heartbreaking, SpongeBob himself is little better — he constantly cries due to mundane things happening around him (like Patrick eating SpongeBob's ice cream that SpongeBobdid not like) and just before the big reveal becomes outright jealous of Patrick.
Viewer Gender Confusion: In-universe Patrick isn’t sure whether SpongeBob is a boy or a girl when questioned.
Broken Base: Some fans consider this episode to be one of the decent episodes in the post-Movie era while others dislike it because of how unlikable Pearl was portrayed.
At one point, SpongeBob says he's not afraid of the dark itself, but rather what's in it. Considering that many deep-sea predators have dark or transparent skin to blend in with their abyssal habitats, that's actually pretty reasonable for a guy who lives underwater.
One might think SpongeBob mentioning bus drivers in the list of scary things he's not going to talk about might just be a little Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking, but given how rude some of the bus drivers he's met were, he might actually be scared of bus drivers to some degree.
Funny Moments: Perch Perkins suddenly yelling at Patrick through the screen after the latter ignored the bad news about SpongeBob being stuck two times in a row.
