You know what else?
We're in the middle of nowhere!
And you know what else else?
I think the pizza's getting cold.
SpongeBob is one of the most popular, and in some ways most
important, animated shows in television history.
It has been one of the best shows on television
and one of the worst, at times, during its nearly two
decade run.
But one thing is indisputable.
When SpongeBob is great, it's 12 to 24 minutes of animation
that is borderline unrivaled in the medium.
And it's been great a lot.
But its writing staff, creative team,
and, unfortunately, its creator have changed
and in some cases moved on, leaving current SpongeBob
in a very different place than this SpongeBob.
So with all that variation in quality,
somewhere in that sea of hundreds of episodes
has to sit a gold standard.
Turns out, there's quite a few magnum opuses that
have come out of Bikini Bottom.
But today I want to talk about that one episode
that I think best typifies the show at its best.
"Pizza Delivery."
[MUMBLING]
This sequence here is one of my favorite moments
in SpongeBob's entire run.
It's a simple moment.
An exhausted SpongeBob and Squidward
walking through this seemingly endless expanse of land.
But it's how that is visually articulated that's so perfect.
This moment was a product of a unique time for SpongeBob.
"Pizza Delivery" is one of the few episodes, its only season,
that was fully cell animated, meaning
each frame was drawn by hand.
And that cell animation created a very organic, sometimes
imperfect, look that was incredible.
If you think this moment reminds you a lot of something
like this, you aren't alone.
Whereas future seasons will shift further and further
towards digital animation, "Pizza Delivery" cell animation
gives the episode this amazing energy
where every moment feels unique.
And it's because every single frame has to be different.
It creates this chaotic visual momentum,
the same energy you see in Ed, Edd n Eddy or Ren and Stimpy.
If I slow a moment like this down,
it's kind of incredible to see just how
much detail is paid to every single bat of your eye.
Sure, the cell animation created a darker tint
and it was substantially more expensive
than digital animation, but "Pizza Delivery"
is an episode where SpongeBob's energy, the visual gags,
feel kinetic.
Feel raw.
And it's kind of beautiful to watch.
But the second thing that makes for a perfect episode
of SpongeBob has everything to do with these two.
You know what else else?
I think the pizza's getting cold.
A good portion of the very best SpongeBob episodes,
things like "Graveyard Shift," "The Magic Conch,"
"Squid's Day Off," "Idiot Box," all have one thing in common.
They utilize the show's two most interesting characters
to their advantage.
It's SpongeBob versus Squidward or with Squidward.
It's SpongeSquid.
"Pizza Delivery" epitomizes SpongeSquid and everything
great about their relationship.
Totally ideologically opposed, totally
true to their characters, SpongeBob
is too naive to understand that Squidward finds him obnoxious.
But here, they're put in a unique situation.
SpongeBob wants to deliver the pizza
to the customer at all costs.
But common societal logic would dictate that SpongeBob
is right, that's his job.
Squidward, on the other hand, would rather eat it or--
Who cares about the customer?
I do!
Well I don't!
Oh!
Squidward!
--just go home.
But this episode does one better.
It finds comedy in making us question which one of these two
is actually smarter.
Squidward forces SpongeBob to drive.
He objects, Squidward insists, and well--
Back it up!
SpongeBob follows the pioneers, puts his ear to the ground,
and--
Truck!
16 wheels.
Oh, wait.
He was right.
Here comes a truck.
And that pioneer gag pays off in a big way later in the episode
when SpongeBob finds a rock and says
he can drive it to freedom just like the pioneers.
And he actually does.
Drive rocks.
As the two are lost, struggling to find home or their delivery
destination, Squidward's voice of reason act
slowly flies out the window.
And it's when the show plants these two together and forces
its two funniest characters onto level ground,
that I think it's at its very best.
Which is what we see in "Pizza Delivery."
And that kind of leads into the third core element
of a perfect SpongeBob episode.
It's this.
Oh, how can it get any worse?
Any show that runs as long as SpongeBob
has is going to hit walls with its writing and animation.
CH Greenblatt came in and introduced the gross-out
that helped revolutionize how we saw the show's characters.
The film and Stephen Hillenburg's return
helped resurrect the writing.
But the reality is that the show was at its best
when it was hard to predict.
When the gags and humor were novel,
so well written that it prevented its characters
from becoming Flanderized, a term referring
to a character who is enveloped by
and slowly transitioned into being
exclusively one piece of their personality all the time.
I have a whole video about it here.
"Pizza Delivery" nails that.
Sure, SpongeBob is naive, emotional, and high-energy
but this iconic hitchhiking gag follows
a previous moment of SpongeBob actually showing
some intellect.
And yes, the Krusty Krab pizza song, particularly this moment,
is incredibly funny.
But it's funny because Squidward is begrudgingly
letting it happen.
Even in this gag here with the boat,
it's expected that SpongeBob is going to screw this up.
We know he can't drive.
But instead of taking the easy route with the riding
and having him excitedly jump at the opportunity to drive,
hop into the boat, and peel off into absolute mayhem,
he actually protests driving at all, tells Squidward, no.
I can't.
I'm still in boating school.
Come on, SpongeBob.
It's just around the corner.
It's Squidward that pressures him into and creates
this moment.
In "Pizza Delivery," SpongeBob isn't brainless.
He's just committed to his job to a hilarious degree,
to the point that he'd rather starve than fail.
Squidward in "Pizza Delivery" is angry and a little mean,
but he's also empathetic.
He isn't a total bully.
So every moment of humor kind of feels grounded.
You get it.
It doesn't need to shove the humor down your throat.
And it's the only reason the final element
of a perfect SpongeBob episode works.
How am I supposed to eat this pizza without my drink?
Didn't you ever once think of the customer?
You call yourself a delivery boy?
Well, I ain't buying!
[DOOR SLAMMING]
SpongeBob's an interesting show in that it's almost entirely
humor-based.
There's no nuanced narrative, there's no hero or villain most
of the time, it isn't about teaching life lessons,
and it isn't serialized.
It, unlike things like the aforementioned Ed, Edd n Eddy,
also doesn't follow a formula episode to episode.
So it can be hard to write a really good resolution
to that kind of very loose structure.
"Pizza Delivery" has one of the best endings of any episode
of SpongeBob period.
It's hilarious but it's also kind of heartwarming.
After traveling all that way, fighting a sandstorm,
riding a rock, they arrive at the house for delivery
but the guy doesn't want the pizza because he
didn't get his drink.
His response is brutal, totally unexpected,
a complete subversion of the catharsis expected
by the viewer.
And he ends up slamming the door in SpongeBob's face.
Squidward reacts like we should.
Instead of doubling down on his anger and frustration,
he feels bad for SpongeBob.
He goes back and, well--
Well, this one's on the house!
Then he tells SpongeBob a lie, that he changed his mind
and ate the pizza, just to make him feel better.
And they drive back to work, which hilariously, is just
a mere few feet away.
It's a funny, smile-inducing ending
that gives Squidward a moment to empathize with SpongeBob
and adds a nuance to his personality.
He isn't a one-note character.
And it also makes sure to end with Squidward
completely defeated, as is his natural, existing state.
It's great writing.
Sticking the landing on this episode makes a great episode
a perfect one.
And it's something all the best episodes have in common--
unexpected but importantly perfect endings.
There are a dozen or more episodes
that you could call perfect throughout the show's run.
But I think it's fair to say that "Pizza Delivery" is
one of the more iconic episodes of animation, period.
It combines its product-of-the-time cell
animation with the show's best characters,
some of its best writing, and one of its more unique endings,
and creates something that still makes its way into memes
and perforates throughout popular culture all these years
later.
Stephen Hillenburg's early work on the show,
that original team, created something
truly and genuinely special.
Something that Nick has been chasing across their network
ever since.
But it takes more than a meme to create something iconic.
It's a perfect storm.
It's the context that surrounds the moment that makes it stick.
It's the perfect episode.
And this, well, there's a very good reason we remember this.
(SINGING) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Pizza is the pizza, yeah, for you and me!
Well, guys, that is it for today's episode of Nerdstalgic.
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