SpongeBob SquarePants is the yellow rectangle who loves nautical nonsense. Throughout his adventures, he has served as a beacon of childlike innocence and unshakable optimism. Even with that said, SpongeBob is not exactly innocent.
In fact, at times, he can be an absolute jerk. He has done a number of shady things, from lying to people to alienating his closest friends. He even covered up an apparent murder. This makes him not exactly the best role model for kids. Here are some instances where SpongeBob was just the worst!
6 SpongeBob’s Anchor Arms
In “MuscleBob BuffPants,” SpongeBob tries to get fit with Sandy’s help, and he grows frustrated with how strenuous the workouts are. Usually, the heaviest weight SpongeBob can lift is two stuffed animals. So he decides to get some inflatable muscle arms so that everyone would think he got buff, including Sandy.
His plan backfires when Sandy signs him up for an anchor tossing competition. Predictably, SpongeBob fails miserably, and Sandy punishes him with hundreds of rounds of pressing the channel buttons on the remote control, giving his thumb heavy practice. If SpongeBob was so frustrated, the rational thing would be to say that they were going too hard, too fast, and ask to start small, but he just wanted to look like he was buff.
5 SpongeBob Buries A Body
While SpongeBob is a kids’ cartoon, it can go to some pretty dark places. When a supposed fake health inspector visits the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs create the Nasty Patty, which is also the name of the episode. Before he could take a bite, a fly goes into his mouth, causing him to choke and knock himself out on the table, making SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs think they killed him.
Instead of just checking his pulse as an intelligent person would, SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs proceed to bury him in a shallow grave, after they unknowingly knock him out again several times over. If they didn’t murder him, they would have been charged for covering up the supposed crime, and almost killing him by burying him alive.
4 SpongeBob Rides The Hooks
Even though Mr. Krabs is a money-obsessed boss who overworks his employees for little pay, he tries to look out for SpongeBob in his own way. Such a case is in the episode “Hooky.” He warns SpongeBob and Patrick not to go on the hooks put out by fishers, for they would end up in a gift shop or “vacuum-packed in a can of tuna.”
In spite of Mr. Krabs’ warnings, SpongeBob continues to ride the hooks and eventually gets one through his pants and undies. To free himself, he has to strip his clothing in front of the female customers at the Krusty Krab. Thanks to Squidward’s angling, SpongeBob finally learned his lesson.
3 SpongeBob Pushes Gary Too Hard
SpongeBob adores his pet snail, Gary. He is one of his best friends apart from Patrick. Even still, SpongeBob has not always been the greatest to him, at points even being borderline abusive.
In “The Great Snail Race,” Squidward enters his purebred snail worthy of big-brow Squilliam in the upcoming snail race. To compete with him, SpongeBob pushes Gary to his limits. He even gives Gary a fitness smoothie with “raw eggs because they’re cliché” and “nails for toughness.”
At the race, Gary blows a tire, so to speak, and skids off the track. SpongeBob runs to him, apologizing for the way he treated him, and asks him why he didn’t tell him he was pushing him too hard. It turns out that Gary did, and SpongeBob just wasn’t paying attention.
2 SpongeBob Pretends To Be A Lifeguard
One of the recurring extra characters in Bikini Bottom is Larry the Lobster, the local beach muscle-builder/lifeguard of Goo Lagoon. Envious of the attention Larry gets on the beach, SpongeBob pretends to be a lifeguard in order to obtain the same fame in the Season 3 episode, “SpongeGuard On Duty.”
The only problem with this is that SpongeBob doesn’t even know how to swim, which is important when it comes to saving swimmers’ lives. Once Patrick ends up struggling to stay afloat, his secret is found out, as he ends up struggling in the lagoon as well. Lying to get attention is one thing, but pretending to be someone that can save lives does the exact opposite. It’s best to leave the guarding of lives to the professionals.
1 SpongeBob Rips His Pants
In an attempt to lift weights on the beach, SpongeBob accidentally rips his square pants, getting a good laugh out of the other fish, as well as Sandy. SpongeBob rides this wave, ripping his pants on more occasions. When he feigns drowning just to pull another ripped pants joke, he alienates everyone.
Pulling a couple of harmless pranks isn’t necessarily bad, especially when those involved can enjoy the joke. In SpongeBob’s case, though, he made everyone think that his life was in mortal peril, just to keep pushing the joke. This was no good-natured prank; it was just plain mean!