SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6b and 7)

"'Gary! You put Fluffy down right now!' (A Pal for Gary)"

SpongeBob SquarePants is the titular main protagonist from the American children's animated television series of the same name and one of the main characters in his best friend's own spin off show, The Patrick Star Show. He is an optimistic yellow sea sponge who works as a fry cook and goes to a boat-driving school. Unfortunately, he suffered from a bad case of Flanderization and some character derailment in seasons 6b and 7.

"Barnacles!" Qualities

 * 1) He got badly flanderized, going from being an optimistic, funny, and somewhat childish adult to a very obnoxious, idiotic, immature, unfunny, troublemaking, melodramatic man-child.
 * 2) *He has lost almost all of his charm and likability from the first four seasons, though it varies whether he's in character or not in Seasons 5, 6A and 8, depending on the episode.
 * 3) *SpongeBob could be annoying and immature at times in the earlier seasons, but not to this extent.
 * 4) *Before and after Flanderization, it was admittedly rare for him to act like an adult, but he still had some levels of maturity. However, during these seasons, he almost never does.
 * 5) He is either too happy or too emotional.
 * 6) He mostly has clumsy/accident-prone moments and a Butt-Monkey in the series.
 * 7) He tends to be a crybaby over things that aren't a big deal at all whatsoever, with "A Day Without Tears" being the worst offender of such. Heck, not even Pearl, Mr. Krabs' daughter, is that much of a crybaby in this season in comparison to the first three seasons.
 * 8) He also has the tendency to do terrible things, and never gets any real consequence for them, such as:
 * 9) Acting like complete moron when worrying about Sandy going on a rodeo as he thinks it's very dangerous by kidnapping the townspeople in trapping them with bubbles and bringing them to his house instead of doing it by himself or with only Patrick (it makes sense in context) in "Rodeo Daze".
 * 10) Apparently lacking in empathy.
 * 11) Horribly mistreating Gary by gratingly scolding and blaming him for things he clearly didn't do and telling him "what do you have to say for yourself?" instead of thanking him when he saves his life (in the same episode, by the way; and not to mention, he also stole a pet from a store, and also ignored the pet saleswoman's warnings about Puffy Fluffy's own species getting along with other animals) in "A Pal for Gary".
 * 12) Him and Patrick frame Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy by disguising themselves as them by assaulting and throwing everyone they see in jail for completely unjustified reasons in "Shuffleboarding".
 * 13) Flooded Bikini Bottom with his crybaby tears in "A Day Without Tears".
 * 14) Betrayed Plankton and helped Mr. Krabs (who made him almost run over by an bus) in "One Coarse Meal".
 * 15) Inviting Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks, Mr. Krabs, Pearl Krabs, Plankton, Larry the Lobster, and Bikini Bottomites to go as far as interrupting and tarnishing Squidward's TV show, stupidly acting like it was a playground, and not to mention; they were the ones responsible for Squidward being kicked out of his house and his own TV show shut down in "Tentacle Vision".
 * 16) He can be mean-spirited and act like a jerk to people at times, though not as bad as Patrick, which is a character downgrade that was unexpected, especially for SpongeBob.
 * 17) His gags have gone from funny and entertaining to irritating and unintelligent.
 * 18) During these seasons, he has a downright creepy obsession towards Squidward for no particular reason to the point of coming off as a stalker, mostly Season 6B.
 * 19) *In fact, the episode "Boating Buddies" is notable as the turning point where his friendliness towards Squidward has been over-exaggerated to creepy extents during these seasons.
 * 20) *On that topic, unlike all the other times that SpongeBob causes trouble to Squidward which are clearly out of his stupidity, cluelessness, or unintentionally by accident, "Choir Boys" instead has him actively causing trouble to Squidward on purpose just to get Squidward to listen to his singing. HE ALSO SAID "What a lucky break, now I have captive audience"!
 * 21) *"Squid's Visit" has the absolute worst display of SpongeBob's obsession towards Squidward taken too far, as not only does he continuously harasses Squidward by wanting him to visit his house including SpongeBob cries and begging Squidward to visit him at various places, yet he somehow makes an exact replica of Squidward's house down to the tiniest detail (which is implied to be made possible by SpongeBob continuously breaking into Squidward's house way too many times) and lures Squidward over to his house by stealing his vacuum cleaner under the excuse of "borrowing".
 * 22) *Granted, before and after these seasons SpongeBob always wanted to be friendly towards Squidward, but not to this extent of being a creepy stalker.
 * 23) His infamously hypocritical quote from "One Coarse Meal", that being "I'm sorry Plankton, but that flies in the face of my 'good nature'."
 * 24) His voice in these seasons is annoyingly high pitched in Season 4-7 to the point where he sounds like he is on helium, possibly due to Tom Kenny's aging.
 * 25) He has also turned into a punching bag for the writers in some episodes, most notably "Stuck in the Wringer", which was the only episode when he ever did stand up for himself even when everyone is mean-spirited towards him.
 * 26) *Because of this, he generally acts very spineless and barely stands up for himself when he gets pushed around by his friends, much like the "Adult Party Cartoon" version of Stimpy.
 * He, along with Patrick, are more destructive in their antics around Bikini Bottom than ever before.
 * 1) Speaking of which, while he and Patrick are moronic and childish lunatics, they can sometimes come off as masochistic as seen in a Season 6 episode called "Cephalopod Lodge" as they willingly electrocute themselves by the tongue for no good reason other than for their own enjoyment.
 * 2) * It doesn't help that in a great episode from a bad season like Season 7's "Enchanted Tiki Dreams", he and Patrick make an island just for Squidward to enjoy and both of them willingly get themselves hurt to make Squidward happy, and they seem to be cool with all of the physical pain they received.
 * 3) While his design is the same as ever, it looks a bit downgraded compared to the other seasons since it can range from mediocre (in most episodes) to downright ugly (like when he makes overly detailed facial expressions or when he's off-model).

"I'm Ready!" Qualities

 * 1) He can be likable and have his original personality in some episodes, such as:
 * 2) *"The Krabby Kronicle"
 * 3) *"The Slumber Party"
 * 4) *"Grooming Gary"
 * 5) *"Sandcastles in the Sand"
 * 6) *"The Cent of Money"
 * 7) Despite all the annoying things he's done, his intentions aren't bad by any means and he still cares about his friends.
 * 8) He is still a hardworking employee at the Krusty Krab.
 * 9) As mentioned above, he isn't as much of a mean-spirited jerk as Patrick.
 * 10) He's still pretty optimistic and fun-loving.
 * 11) He spawned some hilarious lines like "Who put you on the planet?".
 * 12) His design still looks cute, despite the fact that it is a bit of a downgrade compared to other seasons.
 * 13) He was a much better character in the first six and a half seasons and has massively redeemed himself since Season 8.
 * 14) *He is also a good character in the first half of Season 6. It wasn't until "Boating Buddies" where his flanderization kicked in.
 * 15) Despite his high-pitched voice, Tom Kenny still does a good job voicing him, at least when he isn't crying or screaming.
 * 16) *Not surprisingly enough in "Stuck in the Wringer", the screaming from Tom Kenny in the scene where Spongebob snaps at and blames Patrick for his suffering is actually justified here since he needed anger for that to happen and this one is very tolerable.
 * 17) *His voice has also returned to its original pitch since Season 8.