Breath of Fresh Squidward

More like The Breath of Poopy ScumWard!

**Breath of Fresh Squidward** is a super-infamous episode of *SpongeBob SquarePants*. In this episode, Squidward becomes nice after being shocked by an electrical fence.

## Why Its Breath Smells TERRIBLE

1. The episode, to date, is arguably the worst one in the whole show that involves Squidward getting extreme karma, as it is extremely mean-spirited towards the character, even by the show's standards.
2. SpongeBob is unlikeable selfish JERK in this episode and shows early sign of Flanderization, as he believes that Squidward is disallowed from being happy. Ever. This completely goes against SpongeBob's character because Squidward has had some happy moments before.
	1. SpongeBob is supposed to be happy that Squidward got what he deserved after all these years of being miserable, rather than being ungratefully jealous.
3. It wasn’t a great idea to give Squidward the Employee of the Month based on just one day.
4. To add the last straw, he gets angry when Squidward plays pogo sticks with Patrick, shouting at him until he kicked Squidward out of Patrick's house, making him cry, hence making SpongeBob come off like a spoiled brat.
5. What makes SpongeBob hypocritical is the fact that he and Patrick started this whole mess from the very start.
6. In the beginning, there's a stupid and disturbing fact that SpongeBob and Patrick watch Squidward sleep every morning and wait for the sunrise. They even have snuck into his room to celebrate holidays like Easter, Valentine's Day, and the Fourth of July. These things only make both SpongeBob and Patrick seem less of the good neighbors but more of the creepy stalkers.
7. The tale about Squidward's "happy gland" with SpongeBob's cheerful attitude is rather confusing as it somehow makes SpongeBob aware of Squidward's mind.
8. As stated earlier, Squidward gets kicked out of his own congratulation party at the end, because ***he was pogo sticking with Patrick!***
9. There's not so many good jokes or even funny moments in this episode, which is sad, considering SpongeBob is supposed to be a comedy show.
10. **Weird and stupid ending:** After Squidward, SpongeBob and Patrick touch the electric fence, all of their personalities change, while Squidward goes back to normal, SpongeBob and Patrick start acting like Squidward.
	* Thinking about it, this scene can be considered a rip-off of "Opposite Day," where SpongeBob and Patrick act like Squidward on that holiday as well.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. In the beginning, SpongeBob mentions the 4th of July, it shows some American culture into the show itself, which is considered an interesting and cool reference.
2. The montage of happy Squidward having fun with SpongeBob and Patrick is considered cute and heartwarming.
3. Squidward's visual representation of why he's always sad is kinda cute.
4. Squidward is the only likeable character that you can feel sympathetic with in this episode.
5. It's interesting to see Squidward annoy SpongeBob this time (even though it wasn't executed that well) because you might have watched a lot of episodes where SpongeBob annoys Squidward.
6. Even though SpongeBob shows remorse for making Squidward cry at the latter's party, at least he goes over to his house and apologizes to him.
7. Depending on your view, the ending can be funny to some people.

## Reception

* Mr. Enter called this the worst "Squidward Torture Episode" although the true list puts it at number 2. As of his "Top Ten Worst Spongebob Episodes" video however, he said that while it was not good, wasn't as bad as he said and took it too seriously.
* This episode is the one that PIEGUYRULZ had the most to say on in his "Every SpongeBob Season 5 Episode Reviewed!" video, and he gave this episode a SCUMBOB rating as well.
* It's rated 5.7/10 on IMDB, along with its sister episode, "To Love a Patty."
* PhantomStrider called this the 2nd worst Squidward episode in his "5 Worst/Best Squidward Episodes." In his review he says that Spongebob is horribly out of character and also said that it was on-par with his treatment of Gary in "A Pal For Gary."