YMMV / SpongeBob SquarePants S9E11 "SpongeBob You're Fired"

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: As outrageous as Mr. Krabs installing a coin-op lock on the restroom door is, bathroom tolls were a real thing in the early 20th century, but they completely disappeared in the 80s (in the US) when a wave of backlash from feminists and the plumbing industry led to many states banning them. In Europe and Mexico, you can still find pay toilets.
• Character Rerailment:
  • Squidward was shown to have a soft spot for SpongeBob, like he did in the earlier seasons.
  • Patrick sticks up for SpongeBob and punches his mutated head for insulting him, showing him becoming more supportive of his best friend rather than a Jerkass Ball he was from Seasons 5-8.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • When Patrick saw SpongeBob cry, he cried as well.
  • When Patrick's mutated forehead insults SpongeBob, Patrick says "Hey! You can't talk to my friend like that!" and punches it. This shows Patrick's Character Rerailment, as he actually stands up to someone insulting his best friend, rather than just letting those things happen to him.
• Ho Yay: Squidward asks SpongeBob to come back to the Krusty Krab by taking SpongeBob's hand and getting down on one knee like he was going to propose to him.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Besides selling SpongeBob's soul for 62¢, firing SpongeBob in order to save a nickel is often seen as the worst thing Mr. Krabs has ever done for money, and is often used as a means to demonize him.
  • Sandy doing unethical tests by feeding various freeloaders some kind of toxic waste. This was a single, short scene in the episode (and the only time to date she's done something like this), yet people frequently portray Sandy as a Mad Scientist because of her behavior here.
• Padding: A lot of scenes in the special tend to drag on for a while without going anywhere or contributing to the plot. In particular, immediately after being fired, SpongeBob cries for a solid minute with the scene sticking to a single shot and not really having any other gags.
  • Special mention goes to the scene where SpongeBob feeds Gary by making his own homemade snail food, which Gary finds delicious. No, the scene does not set up SpongeBob starting his own business making snail food despite evidently having a natural talent for it, the idea never even crosses his mind. The episode doesn't even lampshade the fact that the idea never crosses his mind.
• Squick:
  • SpongeBob drinking and spitting out pickle juice, and him attempting to serve the same pickles from the same pickle jar to a customer.
  • The gunk that Sandy uses for an experiment, and Patrick and the other guy eating it.
• Tear Jerker: SpongeBob's reaction to getting fired, as well as him becoming depressed over being unemployed.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: One scene that doesn't have much to do with the rest of the episode has SpongeBob, after only being able to make Krabby Patties, realizing he can make some really good homemade snail food. There was an opportunity to use this plot point and make it his new job, with at least adding an extended gag of SpongeBob starting a successful snail-food business to really rub it in for Mr. Krabs' Laser-Guided Karma (and it's not like he hadn't done something similar before). However, this development gets dropped as quickly as it was brought up.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: By the end of the episode, we're obviously meant to feel sorry for Mr. Krabs once his restaurant is put out of business because SpongeBob was not there to make the patties right, but given that he fires SpongeBob over something so trivial and the fact that this has already happened around who knows how many times, Mr. Krabs downright deserves to be put out of business and SpongeBob should really get a new job at this point. If he really had to fire him, he should have at least had a much better reason to do so, like a mess too many.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: The episode was seen by news sources to be a Take That! to the jobless who rely on food stamps and other welfare services, by having Spongebob rejecting "Fun Employment" (including a free meal from Sandy) and seek another job after being fired. Russell Hicks of Nickelodeon clarified there were no intentions to address political ideologies within the episode.
• The Woobie: SpongeBob loses the job he really and truly loves through no fault of his own, and becomes severely depressed.

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