The Hash-Slinging Slasher: 20 Of The Scariest SpongeBob Squarepants Episodes

Summary

• There are many scary
  SpongeBob
  episodes, with installments from the show’s earliest seasons through to SpongeBob’s modern adventures containing many terrifying moments.
• The scariest episodes of
  SpongeBob SquarePants
  take inspiration from a variety of horror subgenres, from creature features to body horror.
• There are several unsettling
  SpongeBob
  episodes that don’t contain anything creepy or supernatural, but are instead unnerving because of how close to the brink of insanity SpongeBob is able to push characters like SquidWard and Mrs. Puff.

Nickelodeon’s most popular cartoon, SpongeBob Squarepants, is filled with episodes that evoke an illogical, goofy sense of humor, not to mention some really disturbing, scary SpongeBob episodes. Set in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom, it revolves around fry-cook SpongeBob and his misadventures with his friends. However, underneath the simple wit, the show can get meta at times, with genius references, and even subtle adult jokes occasionally. For a kid’s show, a few episodes can also get dark or disturbing. These can be unintentionally terrifying for a few children, while others also include intentional parodies of horror films.

SpongeBob Squarepants’ great episodes made it one of the most popular and beloved animated shows of all time, maintaining an impressive run since way back in 1999. While the series is known for being hilarious and often outlandish, it actually has delivered more than a few spooky episodes over its time. These aren’t the kind of installments that will legitimately frighten most viewers, but they do work as the perfect episodes for fans to watch to get in the mood for the Halloween season. The scariest SpongeBob episodes are definitely disturbing enough to creep a viewer out after watching what was supposed to be a kid’s cartoon.

20 Earworm

Season 7, Episode 20

The scariest episodes of SpongeBob SquarePants take influence from a variety of different horror movies and tropes, though not always. Sometimes, SpongeBob manages to take something mundane and make it absolutely terrifying, such as in the season 7 episode “Earworm.” In “Earworm, SpongeBob hears a song called “Musical Doodle” on the radio and can’t get it out of his head. As is often the case in real life, when a catchy, yet annoying song gets stuck in someone’s head, it is impossible to get it out.

However, in this SpongeBob episode, events take a Lovecraftian turn when the song sends SpongeBob to the brink of madness. This scary SpongeBob episode even included an actual personification of an earworm, refusing to stop playing the song until it has almost destroyed SpongeBob’s entire life in the process. This then leads to a grim storyline where Mr. Krabs and Sandy realize this is a form of addiction, and it could damage SponeBob irreparably if he can’t get the earworm out of his mind.

19 SpongeBob Vs. The Patty Gadget

Season 5, Episode 10

On the surface, the scary SpongeBob episode “SpongeBob vs. The Patty Gadget” from season 5 just seems like a silly idea that fits in with the rest of the show’s episodes. However, this particular installment becomes incredibly dark towards the end when it turns out that the plot is an allegory for a world where, eventually, industrialization would push out the actual workers and replace them with automation.

In this, it was the “Patty Gadget,” and SpongeBob found himself fighting for not only his job but the entire future of his occupation against what was a very real and scary phenomenon. This is perhaps one of the most cerebral scary SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, as it doesn’t rely on any supernatural beings or common horror-tropes to be terrifying — the fear, while being incredibly real, simply comes from the concept of automation.

18 Shanghaied

Season 2, Episode 13

When it comes to horror-themed SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, one character that will immediately spring to many viewer’s minds is the Flying Dutchman — a green and ghoulish pirate ghost. There was more than one episode with the Flying Dutchman, but his first appearance in season 2’s “Shanghaied” was one of the scariest SpongeBob episodes.

“Shanghaied” ended up getting even scarier when Squidward fell into the Fly of Despair, a dimensional rift complete with some incredibly disturbing visuals

In “Shanghaied”, SpongeBob, Squidward, and Patrick were going about their work one day and then accidentally boarded the Flying Dutchman’s ship, and were kidnapped and enslaved. “Shanghaied” ended up getting even scarier when Squidward fell into the Fly of Despair, a dimensional rift complete with some incredibly disturbing visuals, and both Patrick and SpongeBob turned into fruits that the Dutchman then chased and tried to eat. The combination of the Dutchman himself, along with the Fly of Despair, make this an absolutely terrifying SpongeBob episode, especially for younger viewers.

17 Doing Time

Season 3, Episode 5

What made season 3’s “Doing Time” one of the scary SpongeBob episodes wasn’t a supernatural character like the Flying Dutchman, or an invasive presence like the titular earworm in “Earworm”. Instead, this episode is scary simply because of how SpongeBob manages to push his driving instructor, Mrs. Puff, until she becomes more-or-less insane. This series has always treated the teacher terribly, and she always seems to end up tortured by SpongeBob with no chance of getting any peace.

However, “Doing Time” pushed things to the next level because Mrs. Puff ends up mistakenly placed in jail because of SpongeBob and Patrick. What really makes the plot of “Doing Time” so terrible is that she wanted to stay in jail to remain away from SpongeBob, but he kept showing up to rescue her and her hallucinations ended up driving her into a state of despair unlike any SpongeBob had put her through before.

16 Nasty Patty

Season 3, Episode 4

Season 3’s “Nasty Patty” is one of the scary SpongeBob SquarePants episodes that is clearly going to be incredibly dark simply from the premise. SpongeBob often does things that are terrible, without meaning any harm. However, in “Nasty Patty,” his troubles get worse when he and Mr. Krabs seem to have murdered a man. Krabs heard that there was a customer who impersonated the health inspector to get free food, so he pranked him with a “nasty patty.”

However, when this prank goes wrong, and they realize they might have killed the health inspector. Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob then set out to hide the dead body while running from the police. Krabs makes SpongeBob do some disturbing things to eliminate the body, and things just get scarier from there. While most SpongeBob SquarePants episodes are relatively tame (even the scary ones), the plot of “Nasty Patty” is so particularly bleak that it’s somewhat surprising it made it to air given that the target audience of the show is younger viewers.

15 A Pal For Gary

Season 7, Episode 5

While episodes like “Nasty Patty” are terrifying because of the circumstances SpongeBob finds himself in, others, like season 7’s “A Pal For Gary”, are simply scary because they contain disturbing-looking seamonsters. SpongeBob can’t bring his pet snail, Gary, to work. Concerned about his loneliness, he gets him another snail friend called Puffy Fluffy. Puffy turns out to be quite a bully, harassing Gary at any moment when they are alone. SpongeBob still believes that Gary is the troublemaker and not Puffy.

While the appearance of Puffy is scary enough, there’s also something incredibly tense when it comes to Gary’s reaction to SpongeBob never believing him.

Puffy ends up turning into a large reptilian monster of sorts and even attempts to eat Gary at one point. SpongeBob finds his house in a mess and still feels all of this might Gary’s undoing out of jealousy of Puffy. The slug-like appearance of Puffy’s final version along with its pointy teeth and Sarlacc-like tongues might be scary for younger viewers. However, while the appearance of Puffy is scary enough, there’s also something incredibly tense when it comes to Gary’s reaction to SpongeBob never believing him.

14 Squidward In Clarinetland

Season 7, Episode 7

In the SpongeBob SquarePants season 7 episode “Squidward In Clarinetland”, Squidward is eager to protect his clarinet from the unruly Krusty Krab clientele before a recital, opting to store it in a locker begrudgingly provided by Mr. Krabs. Unfortunately, SpongeBob takes it upon himself to renovate the locker, transforming it into a twisted, unreal maze that seems to have no end. This is another scary SpongeBob episode that takes some clear inspiration from the works of H.P. Lovecraft, and there’s also a touch of liminal horror to it too.

To reclaim his instrument, Squidward treks through a clarinet forest, gets swallowed by a giant eagle, and chases SpongeBob through the outer reaches of space before eventually reaching his recital, from which SpongeBob’s antics promptly scare him away. It’s just the kind of absurd humor that is right in line with the history of the show, but that doesn’t make its surreal visuals any less unsettling.

13 The Splinter

Season 6, Episode 5

Season 6’s “The Splinter” is one of the rare SpongeBob SquarePants episodes that’s scary because it veers into body horror – a risky gamble given that it’s a subgenre commonly associated with gore and gross-out visuals. While “The Splinter” manages to tell a convincing body horror story that’s still suitable for kids (just), it’s still an incredibly unsettling watch. In the SpongeBob SquarePants season 6 episode, a splinter gets stuck in SpongeBob’s thumb during work and the usually squeamish SpongeBob refuses to take it out, leading to further infection.

For most of the “The Splinter”, viewers get to see the disgusting image of the pus-filled wound that only increases in size. Patrick pretends to be a doctor to cure the injury by adding a dumpster’s toxic waste. Finally, Mr. Krabs removes the splinter as the swelling bursts with liquid pus. It’s an episode that puts gross-out humor and outright disgusting imagery at its forefront, and it’s an unpleasant watch from beginning to end.

12 Squid’s Visit

Season 6, Episode 29

Season 6’s “Squid’s Visit” is difficult to summarize when it comes to why it’s a scary episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, but it essentially boils down to SpongeBob’s antics coming across as dangerous and borderline-psychotic instead of simply childish and irritating. SpongeBob can be quite a nuisance for his neighbor Squidward, who considers himself to be intellectually superior to any other Bikini Bottom resident.

It might not be a scary episode in general, but SpongeBob’s obsessive behavior seems to cross the border between funny and creepy.

It’s for this reason that Squidward takes pride in his taste in art and his modernist home design. SpongeBob desperately tries to invite him to his own pineapple house, an invitation that Squidward continuously rejects. Hellbent on inviting Squidward, SpongeBob ends up stealing his vacuum. The theft sparks a wild series of events that are often a bit darker than the show is used to, including a house fire. It might not be a scary episode in general, but SpongeBob’s obsessive behavior seems to cross the border between funny and creepy.

11 Ink Lemonade

Season 11, Episode 16

SpongeBob SquarePants has changed a lot over the years, and the more recent seasons have noticably leaned into the more surreal aspects of the shows visuals and humor. While this has managed to keep the the show fresh, it also means that there have been some incredibly unsettling and scary SpongeBob SquarePants episodes in recent years, such as “Ink Lemonade”. This season 11 episode epitomized the weirdly offputting quality many of the more recent seasons have.

Even the premise of “Ink Lemonade” is somewhat unnerving, as SpongeBob and Patrick discover that Squidward’s Ink actually doubles as a delicious beverage, though he can only produce it when he’s scared. What follows are various attempts to frighten Squidward, with Patrick going so far as to peel the flesh from his body, exposing his organs in a grotesque act that certainly wasn’t suitable for younger audiences.

10 Planet Of The Jellyfish

Season 8, Episode 17

Season 8’s “Planet of the Jellyfish” is a scary SpongeBob episode both because of the plot, and because of the visuals that accompany it. In “Planet of the Jellyfish,” SpongeBob and Sandy engage in combat with villainous jellyfish known as “jelliens” that clone the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom. The premise is clearly a reference to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, while the title can be a reference to Planet of the Apes or Planet of the Vampires.

The creepy part is the creation of the jelliens; a jellyfish-like alien with black eyes that consumes a jellyfish and spits out a pink goo which turns into a hybrid of the monster and its previous jellyfish form. This mutated jellyfish then becomes a parasite, infecting every other creature in its vicinity into black-eyed jelliens. The look of the jellien-infected characters bears an eerie resemblance to the button-eyed Other Mother in Coraline, and it’s certainly not an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants that easily-frightened viewers will enjoy.

9 I Was A Teenage Gary

Season 1, Episode 13

Much like “The Splinter”, the season 1 episode “I Was A Teenage Gary” is one of the scary SpongeBob episodes that leans heavily into body horror, with incredibly impressive (and unsettling) results. After Squidward accidentally injects him with snail plasma, SpongeBob slowly begins morphing into a snail-sponge hybrid in a clear homage to the 80s Cronenberg body horror classic The Fly. The new hybrid SpongeSnail’s body functions slow down, and he loses the ability to talk. The only line that he can say is, “something is wrong with meeoowww!”

Unlike other scary
SpongeB
ob episodes, the story ends on an unresolved cliffhanger, as Gary and the snail versions of Squidward and SpongeBob meowing under the moon.

Squidward turns frantic after seeing his neighbor’s grotesque transformation. Scared by SpongeBob’s pleas for help, the tentacled neighbor starts running around in his house. Amidst the ruckus, the plasma syringe accidentally pierces his nose, turning him into a snail, too. Unlike other scary SpongeBob episodes, the story ends on an unresolved cliffhanger, as Gary and the snail versions of Squidward and SpongeBob meowing under the moon.

8 Spongehenge

Season 5, Episode 19

Though not exactly creepy or outright scary, the SpongeBob SquarePants season 5 episode “Spongehenge” definitely has an eerie and off-kilter feel to it. Harsh winds are causing SpongeBob’s pores to whistle a tune that attracts jellyfish, and he becomes a societal outcast as a result. Forced to take refuge in a cave, he constructs giant stone monuments of himself in an effort to draw the attention of the jellyfish away from him.

His plan is eventually successful, but, in a hilarious parody of Planet of the Apes, SpongeBob returns to discover that he’s now in the far future and the Krusty Krab has been destroyed. It’s one of the scary SpongeBob episodes that doesn’t elicit fear from any one specific moment, but instead is simply unsettling due to the premise itself. Due to the nature of the show too, SpongeBob’s fate is left unresolved, implying there’s a version of him somewhere out there, possibly in an alternate universe, who is alone in a desolate and empty Bikini Bottom.

7 Graveyard Shift

Season 2, Episode 16

Season 2’s “Graveyard Shift” is one of the earliest examples of a scary SpongeBob episode, and also one that relies more heavily on classic horror tropes instead of being unsettlingly weird. In “Graveyard Shift”, the crew at Krusty Krab are forced to work overtime one night. Bored with the night shift and with the restaurant empty, Squidward conjures up a spooky tale to creep out SpongeBob. His story is pretty detailed as he talks about the “Hash-Slinging Slasher,” a former fry cook whose clumsiness lost him a hand, which was later replaced with a spatula.

The Hash-Slinging Slasher later got run over by a bus and was “fired from his job” at his funeral. The atmospheric horror builds up as a figure eerily similar to the Slasher makes its appearance, equally scaring Squidward and SpongeBob. While the end is anti-climatic, it’s one of the best creepy episodes of the show, even featuring an appearance by Count Orlok from Nosferatu.

6 Ghoul Fools

Season 8, Episode 10

Season 8’s “Ghoul Fools” brings back the ghostly The Flying Dutchman along with his nemesis, Lord Poltergeist, and as always when it comes to the spooky pirate, this makes for an incredibly scary episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. Lord Poltergeist scares SpongeBob and Patrick with imagery and jump scares that might be a bit too edgy for the casual tone of the series. There are brains with eyeballs being served in balls, snakes slithering inside SpongeBob, screaming doorknobs, and the like.

Even by the standards of the scary
SpongeBob
episodes, the ending of “Ghoul Fools” is unusually morbid for the typically happy-go-lucky Nickelodeon show.

The ending is surreal and unsettling too, as The Flying Dutchman transforms into a nuclear bomb of sorts and explodes over Lord Poltergeist, while a mushroom cloud forms. The rest of Bikini Bottom is then shown to exist in some form of the afterlife, as all the characters sport green outlines around them like the titular ghouls. Even by the standards of the scary SpongeBob episodes, the ending of “Ghoul Fools” is unusually morbid for the typically happy-go-lucky Nickelodeon show.

5 SquidBob TentaclePants

Season 4, Episode 8

Episodes like “The Splinter” and “I Was A Teenage Gary” may show that SpongeBob is incredibly scary when it experiments with body horror, but neither come close to the fear-inducing final shots of season 4’s “SquidBob TentaclePants”. In this scary SpongeBob episode, an experiment with Sandy’s machine ends up Squidward and SpongeBob fusing together in one body. SpongeBob sees this as a good opportunity to stay friends forever, while Squidward, on the other hand, is desperate to get out of this mess, as he has a clarinet recital.

In the end, even after getting separated, Squidward’s talent fails to amuse audiences. In a fit of rage, he ends up fiddling with the machine yet again. The scene ends on a very depressing note as Squidward tells his therapist that “it all started when I was born.” The full shot reveals that he has been fused in a ball of flesh, with other characters like Sandy and Mr. Krabs. This scene was even cut in some European reruns for being too gruesome.

4 Rock Bottom

Season 1, Episode 17

The deepest depths of the ocean are home to some of the most bizarre and alien-seeming creatures on planet Earth, and one of the earliest scary SpongeBob episodes made use of this to deliver an incredibly unsettling installment in the show’s first season. Perhaps one of the most memorable installments of SpongeBob SquarePants ever to air on television, “Rock Bottom” sees SpongeBob and Patrick mistakenly disembark at the wrong bus stop, landing them in the inescapable and utterly alien titular town.

Though Patrick eventually catches a bus back to Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob is forced to wait for a while, though the Rock Bottom transit authority seems weirdly keen on preventing him from returning home. The episode is evocative of being a stranger in an unfamiliar, hostile place, a deep-seated fear of nearly every child.

3 Krabby Patty Creature Feature

Season 6, Episode 11

Season 6’s “Krabby Patty Creature Feature” is yet another scary SpongeBob episode that features body horror, though (as the title suggests) it also drums up plenty of tropes from monster movies too. When his customers are craving a new dish, Mr. Krabs forces Sandy and SpongeBob to create a new kind of Krabby Patty. But, something about this new Patty starts turning the customers into “Krabby Patty Creatures.”

Eventually, Bikini Bottom turns into a nightmarish apocalypse, leaving an unsettling cliffhanger for viewers.

The transformation is quite scary for a normal SpongeBob episode, as all the characters find their insides bursting and transform into a literal patty. Everyone from SpongeBob’s friends like Patrick and Sandy, to the nefarious Plankton, and even children on the streets of Bikini Bottom mutate into such abominations. Some, just like in season 4’s “SquidBob TentaclePants”, even fuse together. Eventually, Bikini Bottom turns into a nightmarish apocalypse, leaving an unsettling cliffhanger for viewers.

2 Are You Happy Now?

Season 8, Episode 17

Season 8’s “Are You Happy Now?” is another scary SpongeBob episode that harrowing simply because of its portrayal of mental health, and is simply bleak to watch throughout.Squidward gets fed up with the everyday monotony and mediocrity of his life. Spongebob struggles to make happy memories for his friend, taking him to a violin concert and an art gallery.

The plans end up making him more depressed, and the bow of a violinist strikes his eye, a scene skipped in the Bahasa Indonesian version for being too violent. Squidward tries giving up on life quite literally as he stays locked inside his home for two weeks. In a particularly gruesome scene, he seems prepared to do something that certainly wouldn’t be allowed on daytime television, though it’s eventually played off as a bit of unusually bleak humor.

1 SB-129

Season 1, Episode 14

Easily one of the series’ most recognizable early episodes, season 1’s “SB-129” sees Squidward transported thousands of years into the future only to discover that SpongeBob and Patrick are as omnipresent in his life as they always were. After traveling to the distant past and discovering much of the same, Squidward accidentally breaks his time machine, transporting him to some sort of blank void, which sends him into a panic.

“SB-129” explores themes of nihilism and existential dread, which are incredibly heavy topics for young children to be exposed to. This alone would make it easily one of the scariest SpongeBob episodes, but the strange visuals throughout more than add to the terror. However, while it’s certainly unnerving, it’s also counted by many fans of the show as incredibly hilarious too.