‘Banned’ Spongebob Squarepants episode leaks online and everyone is shocked
NickelodeonA notorious episode of Spongebob Squarepants has leaked in its entirety on social media, and it’s obvious why it was banned from Nickelodeon.
I don’t blame you for being curious. Anyone would hear “banned episode” and immediately want to know why; was it for blasphemous reasons like The PowerPuff Girls’ See Me, Feel Me, Gnomey, or did it simply stretch the line of what’s appropriate for children, like Man’s Best Friend in The Ren and Stimpy Show?
However, this is a weird one: Mid-Life Crustacean, the second segment of Season 3 Episode 15 of Spongebob Squarepants, is seemingly banned from TV.
The 11-minute segment has been posted in full on X/Twitter, and after you watch it, it’s obvious why it’s been taken off the air.
Why Mid-Life Crustacean was banned
Mid-Life Crustacean has effectively been banned since 2018, with Nickelodeon citing inappropriate “story elements” to blame for it being removed from rotation.
So, what happens in this episode? Well, as the title suggests, it follows Mr Krabs as he has a mid-life crisis. He asks Spongebob and Patrick to accompany him on a “big night out” to feel young again, but none of it excites him.
Until… Spongebob and Patrick reveal they’re going on a “panty raid.” This is exactly what it sounds like: they go into a woman’s house and steal a pair of underwear. There’s an extra twist: it’s revealed to be the home of Mr Krabs’ mother. She grounds him for his misbehavior, which makes him feel young again.
Nickelodeon has never explicitly pointed the finger at the “panty raid” scene, but a representative said: “Mid-Life Crustacean has been out of rotation since 2018, following a standards review in which we determined some story elements were not kid-appropriate.”
NickelodeonHere’s the thing: it’s still available via certain channels. For example, you can’t watch it on Nickelodeon or Paramount Plus, but you can purchase the episode on YouTube and iTunes (only from the ‘From the Beginning Part 2’ collection) and clips have been uploaded online. It briefly appeared on Paramount Plus in 2023, but it was removed almost immediately.
That said, the response to the clip has been almost unanimous: people aren’t surprised that it was banned.
“Although the scene was able to slide under the radar due to it being an adult joke back then, the joke would not fly nowadays. This is kinda why not a lot of cartoons no longer have Innuendos and adult jokes due to things changing,” one user wrote.
“As a kid, I laughed so hard at this, but as an adult, I realize this was crazy,” another tweeted. “He broke into his boss’s mom’s house to steal her panties… with his boss and best friend. That’s breaking and entering on top of a sexual infraction,” a third wrote.
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