Fungus Among Us (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Fungus Among Us is the final segment of the third episode of the 5th season of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Plot
SpongeBob spreads an itchy fungus across Bikini Bottom.

Why It's Among Us (no pun intended)

 * 1) This episode in particular can easily frighten younger children, fans, and fans/people who suffer from mysophobia (fear of fungus or mold).
 * 2) * In addition, this episode is a rehash of The Powerpuff Girls episode, "Ghesundfight" (which is a terrible episode) where certain characters get a disease by touching an unidentified object that will make people sick (fungus and rain for common cold respectively).
 * 3) It is an extremely harsh and mean-spirited SpongeBob torture episode as poor SpongeBob gets extremely infected with the fungus that just so happened to show up because of plot convenience.
 * 4) Several scenes of SpongeBob attempting to get rid of the fungus only serve as filler and nothing else.
 * 5) Squidward knows SpongeBob contracts an itchy fungus, but he calls on the SWAT team instead of hospital.
 * 6) SpongeBob during part of that episode was also dumb as he wants to play "Pirate wrestling" with Patrick, even though the Pirate arm has a pointy section making it a bad idea from the start.
 * 7) The customers at the Krusty Krab drinking and eating with the fungus are incredibly disgusting to watch.
 * 8) The part where Squidward and the other characters blame and attack SpongeBob is needlessly harsh (and the part where SpongeBob was crying because of that is sad).
 * 9) Three inconsistencies:
 * 10) * When SpongeBob got the fungus of him, it was able to grow back, but when Gary consumed the fungus it doesn't grow back for some reason.
 * 11) * Some characters can see the fungus, while others don't for some reason despite how it is obviously on SpongeBob.
 * 12) *How did Gary get out of the bubble and make his way to the Krusty Krab?
 * 13) This episode goes to show that being disgusting and torturing an infected person is funny when in reality, it's not.
 * 14) "Fungus Among Us", overall, has a lot of disgusting imagery; this is common in scenes with the fungus spreading.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The opening of this episode is okay.
 * 2) At least the SWAT team still helps SpongeBob.
 * 3) Patrick's "worm dancing" and line "Go, Patrick!" are funny.
 * 4) The line "I supersede all of you! For I have an exotic accent", is quite funny, although it may sound unnecessary for someone to supersede someone just because he/she has an accent of that type.
 * 5) The episode has a nice ending where all of the customers pay Mr. Krabs for Gary to "de-ick" them, despite being a slight rehash of The Powerpuff Girls episode, Geshundfight.
 * 6) SpongeBob (for the most part) is still a likable character.
 * 7) This episode may be disgusting, but it's meant to deal with a serious issue.

Reception and Trivia

 * Ranked Number 8 on MoBrosStudios's Worst SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes List (Fan Edition)
 * Praised by PhantomStrider for dealing with a serious issue really well
 * The title of the episode is based on the album "Fungus Amongus" by Incubus that was released in November 1995, which that album was Incubus's debut studio album.
 * This is the very first episode that Richard Pursel worked on.