Driven to Tears (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Driven to Tears" is a SpongeBob SquarePants episode from season four. In this episode, Patrick gets his driver's license and rubs it in SpongeBob's face.

Synopsis
When SpongeBob fails his boating test again, Patrick decides to try to take the test himself and passes and wins a new boat mobile, making SpongeBob extremely jealous.

Tearful Qualities

 * 1) Out of plot contrivance, Patrick is shown to be more stupid and dimwitted than Spongebob is, yet he was able to get a driver's license. There is absolutely no way Patrick can get his driver's license way before Spongebob does because he's shown throughout the show to be smarter than Patrick is.
 * 2) Patrick is unlikable for boasting about getting a driver's license and mocks SpongeBob for failing his boating test.
 * 3) Patrick violates a lot of traffic laws and doesn’t care because he calls himself a “driving genius” just because he owns a driver’s license.
 * 4) * He sped through three red lights.
 * 5) * SpongeBob mentions that he has done an illegal U-turn through an orphanage off-screen.
 * 6) * He resisted arrest by trying to escape the police in a high-speed chase.
 * 7) The scene where Patrick rubs his license in SpongeBob’s face after he calls Patrick out for his horrible behavior shows that Patrick can’t handle criticism.
 * 8) The scene where Patrick gets awarded as the millionth person to pass the driving test and win a new boat is only there to add to SpongeBob’s misery.
 * 9) Patrick randomly eats SpongeBob's flashcards to help him with his driving test (SpongeBob probably wouldn't have passed with them anyway, but still it was a jerk move from Patrick).
 * 10) * Also, why couldn’t SpongeBob hold on to his flashcards instead of Patrick?
 * 11) Patrick acts hypocritically to SpongeBob:
 * 12) * He woke up SpongeBob at 3:00 am by working on his boat and scolds him for being disruptive even though he's the one that's causing all the racket.
 * 13) * He told SpongeBob about his boat and license despite SpongeBob being there when it happened and when SpongeBob tells him this, he accuses him of stalking him and tells SpongeBob to get his own life.
 * 14) Depending on your view, Spongebob being jealous could be annoying.
 * 15) Patrick drove up to SpongeBob’s parents to even tell them about SpongeBob failing his test and not to bring it up to him.
 * 16) The police officer threatens to arrest SpongeBob and calls him a “tattletale” for trying to report Patrick to him. Which is very immature for him to say and is not a good reason to arrest someone.
 * 17) Half-Bad Ending: Horrible attempt at a heartwarming ending, instead of Patrick getting arrested for all of the traffic violations he committed, SpongeBob gets arrested after confessing to the judge that he was the one who rip up Patrick’s license and calls himself a litterbug after SpongeBob gets out of jail, he accepts Patrick having a boat mobile, only for Patrick to get rid of his boat mobile for running out of gas and thinks it’s broken and never apologizes to SpongeBob for being a smug jerk.

Driving Qualities

 * 1) SpongeBob calling Patrick out and ripping his license was satisfying.
 * 2) "I'm not rubbing my license in your face! This is rubbing my license in your face!"
 * 3) Half-Decent Ending: Although a failed attempt, the ending can be somewhat heartwarming as Spongebob and Patrick are once again good friends.
 * 4) The episode tries to tell a good moral: Just because you have a driver's license doesn't give you the right to drive recklessly. But it was poorly executed in this episode.
 * 5) There are some funny moments, such as SpongeBob's parents showing a bit of jealousy of Patrick getting his driver's license after Patrick drives away.
 * 6) Patrick briefly gets arrested in this episode, giving him some comeuppance, but ruined when SpongeBob takes his place in jail.
 * 7) The episode correctly proves that Patrick is good at driving, as shown in "Boating School."

Trivia

 * Like most episode titles, this is a pop-culture reference. Specifically, the song by The Police of the same name.