Plankton's Regular (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Plankton's Regular" is an episode from season six of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Plot
Plankton learns that he has a regular customer who visits the Chum Bucket daily.

Why It's Forced to Eat Chum

 * 1) The premise of Plankton having a customer who regularly visits the Chum Bucket feels rather uninteresting and more trivial.
 * 2) The episode feels as though the writers absolutely despise Plankton for seemingly no reason at all; all he wanted was at least just one customer, but instead he gets unfairly treated throughout the episode just for that, with Karen mistreating Plankton and showing no empathy for him, even going as far as paying Nat to eat Plankton's chum to get him to stop complaining about his lack of customers.
 * 3) Mr. Krabs is jealous and upset all because Plankton has a single customer who visits the Chum Bucket daily, and instead of being relieved that Plankton doesn't want his formula anymore, he tries to steal Plankton's only customer from himself; what pours salt on the wound is when considering the fact that Krabs is already the owner of one of the most successful restaurants in all of Bikini Bottom that so it turns out he has no real need to lure Nat away from the Chum Bucket and have him visit the Krusty Krab instead. It also makes it a missed opportunity for the restaurant war between them to end for good.
 * 4) * It is, however, explicitly stated that Krabs assumes Plankton is trying to overthrow his business, but this ignores how one customer would not be enough for Plankton to overthrow the very business that is only successful because dozens of customers visit the Krusty Krab regularly and thus pay Krabs quite a lot of money; Krabs even says it himself, "You think you can compete with me? Look, Plankton, look at all these loyal customers. Loyal to me, Plankton. Not to you."
 * 5) SpongeBob seems to be even more of an idiot that he never seems to call out Mr. Krabs for his insensitivity; in fact, he even helps him in his attempts (at one point even harassing Nat with a krabby patty). As this is one of the episodes that has Spongebob acting like a mindless yes-man towards Krabs instead of being guided by his own moral compass.
 * 6) Rather disturbing and disgusting imagery, with both Plankton and SpongeBob having their skin peeled off from their facial areas and Nat vomiting out the Krabby Patty.
 * 7) Terrible ending: It reveals that Nat hated Plankton's chum and paid Karen to eat at the Chum Bucket to stop Plankton's complaining about not getting any customers. Nat is then taken to the hospital to get his stomach pumped. This all ruins Plankton's happiness over finally getting a customer and makes the episode's events pretty redundant and insulting.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) It was nice to see Plankton finally focus on improving his own business and on what he's good at creating rather than comparing himself to and obsessing over his failures and trying to be the Krusty Krab. His excitement over Nat genuinely appreciating his chum is pretty endearing as well.
 * 2) It does have a unique twist of Mr. Krabs trying to steal the formula from Plankton rather than vice versa, despite its flaws.
 * 3) While the ending is otherwise bad, at least SpongeBob does not partake in humiliating Plankton, unlike his boss - in fact, he outright says that he would prefer to "beat a hasty retreat". That shows that, despite helping Krabs throughout the episode, even SpongeBob has standards.
 * 4) The part where SpongeBob impersonated Karen and tied the real Karen up was kind of funny.
 * 5) * "Why, don't be ridiculous, my husband. BLEEP BLAP! Of course it's me."
 * 6) The legendary ‘Shortcut to the Chum Bucket’ part that became an internet meme.
 * 7) The Background Blues song gets used in this episode a lot. It's one of the best background music in the show, and it's nice to see it get used a lot.

Trivia

 * It spawned the “This isn't the Chum Bucket” meme.

Videos
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