I Was a Teenage Gary

This is inappropriate.

**I Was a Teenage Gary** is a semi-infamous episode of *SpongeBob SquarePants*. In this episode, SpongeBob transforms into a snail after accidentally being injected with snail plasma.

## Why It's Inappropriate

1. Squidward is unlikeable in this episode, as he agrees to babysit Gary, but only does so because he finds out SpongeBob and Patrick are going to the jellyfishing festival for 3 days, and he just focuses on relaxing and ignores Gary. Then, when SpongeBob wanted him to inject snail plasma into Gary to make him better, he was impatient with SpongeBob’s anxious nature and injects it into SpongeBob, albeit accidentally.
	* It is also extremely rare to see Squidward either be unlikable or despicable.
2. While not as much as Squidward, the doctor fish is also unlikable and not having a good debut in the series for being "squeamish" to not inject the snail plasma into Gary and leaving an impatient Squidward and an anxious SpongeBob to do it.
3. This episode is basically a torture episode for Gary and SpongeBob:
	* Gary for not being fed or given water and not being cared for, but he did drink water around the middle of the episode and felt better.
	* SpongeBob suffers the most here though because he turns into a snail after Squidward accidentally injects him with the snail plasma.
4. The moment where the SpongeBob snail chased Squidward was just creepy, even though Squidward did deserve it for what he did to SpongeBob.
5. The doctor fish never got his comeuppance for getting away with not doing his job.
6. **Bad Ending:** SpongeBob and Squidward remain as snails.
7. This episode almost killed Chris Mitchell and Steve Fonti’s SpongeBob careers, as they both departed the series after and didn’t come back to the series for **6 (Chris)/20 (Steve) years** until Season 4’s "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture" and Season 12’s "The Hankering", respectively.

## Redeeming Qualities

1. The first 3-4 minutes were good.
2. **Half-Decent Ending:** Squidward did get his comeuppance when he gets turned into a snail himself and got hit by a boot thrown by Patrick while he, SpongeBob, and Gary were doing the snail meow at night.
3. Some funny moments in the episode, like when Squidward ate Gary’s snail food in one big bite, and the snail meow ending (while still mostly bad) where SpongeBob, Gary, and Squidward meowed to the tune of "Blow the Man Down" on top of a fence at night, especially when Squidward got his comeuppance.
	* Four words: **"WILL YOU CLAM UP?!"**
4. SpongeBob, Patrick, and Gary are all likable characters, as usual.
5. When Squidward was chased by snail Spongebob, Squidward realized his mistake, stating that this would never happened if he only fed Gary. That doesn't excuse his actions, though.
6. The doctor fish later had a much better appearance in the Season 1 episode, "Suds".
7. SpongeBob and Squidward are back to normal in the next episode, so we can just ignore that this episode ever happened.
8. Chris Mitchell later returned to the series in season 4 and worked on better episodes like "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture", "Patrick SmartPants", "That's No Lady", and depending on your view: "Karate Island", "Bummer Vacation", "Hocus Pocus" and "Night Light" (which ended his SpongeBob career on an alright note). Steve Fonti eventually returned to the series as well and worked on the much better season 12 episode, "The Hankering" (which ended his SpongeBob career on a high note).
9. This episode probably was meant to be disturbing, considering it was aired three days before Halloween.
10. FAR better version of the SCUMBOB!-infamous episode A Pal for Gary.

## Trivia

* In recent airings on Nickelodeon, near the end of the episode is cut before Squidward says "meow."
* In the Gary-A-Thon, it was originally going to be paired up with "Gary Takes a Bath," but was replaced with "Missing Identity."
* This is the first episode where Gary has a major role.
* There was a rumor swimming about that a transformation sequence for Squidward at the end was cut out after the first airing and was said to be fully uncut in the Polish airing which was later debunked as false, but this is more of a case of the Mandela Effect than anything.
* This is the first episode in the whole series to have a time card, "3 Days Later", except it is not read by the narrator. The first episode with the narrator actually reading the time card would actually be the very next episode SB-129, which is "2000 Years Later".
	+ This and SB-129 are the only two episodes in Season 1 to have time cards.
* The title name is a parody of the 1957 movie, *I Was A Teenage Werewolf*.