After being woken up early by SpongeBob, Squidward yells at him for not being normal. SpongeBob takes this to heart and begins studying how to be normal, which apparently translates to working on a computer in a cubicle, having a normal house rather than a pineapple, and being boring. Squidward is pleased with the new SpongeBob, and so is Mr. Krabs at first because SpongeBob can print Krabby Patties from his computer. Except that the Krabby Patties he prints are made of paper. Customers start leaving the Krusty Krab and SpongeBob is told to leave until he can make Patties the way he used to. He runs into Patrick, but Patrick now finds him too boring. He goes to visit Squidward, who is happy to see him, but then SpongeBob starts pointing out all of the things that are abnormal about Squidward (his hundreds of self-portraits, his nose, the fact that he never wears pants). Squidward tries to tell him that it’s okay to be a little weird, but it doesn’t get through to SpongeBob, and Squidward eventually kicks him out. SpongeBob wants to become weird again, so he asks Patrick to teach him how to be weird. Nothing seems to work until Squidward shows up looking “normal”, which scares SpongeBob into being weird again.
This episode is pretty boring, which I guess it’s to be expected when SpongeBob himself is acting boring. The only note-worthy thing about this episode is that someone finally acknowledged that Squidward doesn’t wear pants. That’s been bugging me for years.
Rating: 2/10
SpongeBob wakes up to find Bikini Bottom completely deserted. Thinking something bad must have happened to make everyone go missing, he decides to honor them by living out their lives for them. Makes sense. He impersonates everyone in Bikini Bottom, but when it comes time to impersonate Mrs. Puff, he has a breakdown and begins crying about his missing friends. He’s cheered up when he realizes he can make himself a driver’s license. Then he befriends a boat. Kay. After a few weeks, SpongeBob begins to go insane with no one else around. Finally everyone returns, and when SpongeBob asks them where they all went, they say that it was National No SpongeBob Day, a day dedicated to getting away from SpongeBob (except they were gone for weeks). The episode ends with everyone, including SpongeBob, leaving for No Patrick Day.
I hate this episode. I really hate this episode. This has got to be the most mean-spirited episode so far, and as you’ve probably noticed, nothing kills an episode more than mean-spiritedness for me.
Over the course of these reviews, I’ve complained a lot about how annoying and stupid SpongeBob has become, and I’ve probably been making it sound like I don’t like him at all. That’s not true. In pre-movie episodes, SpongeBob is my third favorite character (which is why I’m so bothered by his flanderization). Not only was he hilarious and adorable, you couldn’t find a sweeter, more innocent character than him. Yeah, he could be over-zealous to the point of annoyance, but he always meant well and he’s done plenty of nice, selfless things for the people he considers friends (which is basically everyone). In fact, let’s list a few of them, shall we?
- In Christmas Who?, he tries to spread joy to everyone in Bikini Bottom, and when Squidward refuses to write to Santa, SpongeBob makes Squidward a beautiful gift so that he wouldn’t feel left out when everyone else got presents. And when Santa doesn’t show up and Squidward gloats and acts like a complete ass, SpongeBob still wants him to have the gift he made.
- In F.U.N, he tries to befriend Plankton after seeing how lonely and miserable he is. It doesn’t quite work, but it’s a nice gesture nonetheless.
- In Can You Spare a Dime?, he lets Squidward stay with him when he loses his job, and puts up with his bratty attitude for months.
- In Band Geeks, he convinces everyone to come together on Squidward’s behalf.
- In Texas, he throws a party to cheer Sandy up when she’s homesick and does his best to get her to stay in Bikini Bottom.
- In I Had an Accident, he left his home to save Sandy and Patrick despite his fear of going outside.
- In I’m With Stupid, he acts like a fool in front of Patrick’s parents so that Patrick will look smarter by comparison. I’m With Stupid is actually one of my least favorite episodes because it’s also really mean-spirited, but SpongeBob’s kindness should still be noted.
My point is, SpongeBob is so well-meaning and innocent, and he’s always willing to help out his friends. And how do they repay him? By leaving him alone for weeks while they celebrate a day without him. The celebrations include burning a statue of SpongeBob and then dancing in the ashes. Really. I could understand Squidward wanting to have a day (or weeks) away from SpongeBob, but everyone in Bikini Bottom goes, including Patrick, his supposed best friend, and Gary, his pet. The look on SpongeBob’s face when he finds out where everyone was is heart-breaking. I couldn’t believe everyone was being so horrible to him. I may not like post-movie SpongeBob nearly as much I like him in pre-movie, but he didn’t deserve this.
I know the episode ends with everyone leaving for No Patrick Day, but that doesn’t change things. If anything it’s worse, because I don’t think SpongeBob would ever be that mean to his best friend.
Rating: -5/10
Your Face Has a Blog 
Feb 02, 2014 @ 19:43:22
Ew, this pair. Don’t get me wrong, I like Not Normal a lot. I think it’s rather amusing. And the normal Squidward at the end was creepy, but funny!
8.5/10 (great)
Gone, however, is not. I absolutely hated how the Bikini Bottomites treated Spongebob. The ending to it isn’t dumb or nonsensical. It’s a painful surprise because of how cold it is to poor Spongebob. I really hated how the Bikini Bottomites (including Spongebob’s supposed “friends”) ditched Spongebob without warning, leaving him to think that something horrible happen to him, and to let him go slowly insane because of that, only to return so that they could tell him that they just celebrated a holiday about how much they hate him. 😦 Yeah. ‘Cause that’s what friends are for, right? Your friends ditching you for weeks, psychologically tormenting you so that they can celebrate how much they’d love to get away from you just means they LOVE you? RIGHT?! Ugh… And I TRY to respect differing opinions, but how can ANYONE who has known Spongebob and even say he’s a fan of him actually LIKE this episode because “he deserved it”? Not only that, but some people who reviewed One Coarse Meal have pointed out Spongey’s Good Nature line and went against that, talking about him as if he has NO good nature! Ugh…
Rating: -5/10
Oh, and hey look! Someone made a creepypasta based off of this episode! http://tilemaxosbra.deviantart.com/art/When-Everyone-Was-Gone-431326120
Sep 17, 2014 @ 08:22:56
I really like “Not Normal” a lot. I felt it was a very serious episode because of the fact that SpongeBob was changing his own self in order to fit the public’s perception of normal. I give it 9.5/10. “Gone”, on the other hand, is terrible. I give it 0/10.