The Secret BEST Episode of Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy
I could not say I'm a real Spongebob fan if I didn't have at least one favorite Mermaidman & Barnacleboy episode among the many seasons. The geriatric duo was a great addition to the Spongebob universe that only had so few episodes before... fading out the scene, if you know. What would be the best episode of theirs though? The 1st one that offered the best introduction or season three's Number V with Barnacleman and the International Justice League of Super Acquaintances? Well, I remembered one particular great Mermaidman episode that actually never aired on TV, but could play on the TV all the same. First, some background knowledge.
In 2005, THQ released Lights, Camera, Pants for the PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. We don't talk about the Gameboy or PC versions. It was a minigame party compilation akin to Mario Party Crash Bash. The story's about movie director Gill Hammerstein getting the Spongebob gang to compete for roles surrounding a new Mermaidman & Barnacleboy special. Whoever rallies the most points by the end of all 8 matches gets the SUPERVILLAIN role. Next to Battle for Bikini Bottom and Melee, this game was my childhood. The games are fun, the banter between Gill and the hosts is top notch, hell the voice cast is at the top of their game here. Even to this day, regardless of its shortcomings like the limited number of minigames, loading times, or CPU handling, I love going back to everything this has to offer. The main event is the episode itself, or "movie" as they call it (it's only 30 or so minutes). For me, this is my favorite episode because it's an actual episode of Mermaidman & Barnacleboy. No tricks, no misdirections, it's played 100% straight.
And it is the funniest special you could've asked for
I wasn't kidding when I brought up the voice cast because everyone got to come back and however minor, act no different for this game than if it was a regular TV episode. All except Ernest Borgnine who basically doesn't appear in most Spongebob video games. It's weird but you know what, Joe Alaskey did just as phenomenal a job as Mermaidman that I'm sad he couldn't voice him on the show. Him and Conway play off each other well, and this marks the only time we get the duo working with the villains Man-Ray and the Dirty Bubble. A super team up to fight the villainous Sneaky Hermit, who is played by...
Yes, what makes this episode also great is that in a way, it's customizable. Lights, Camera, Pants centers around you or the others playing to get the choice roles, so any of the Spongebob characters gets to be any role. Granted you finish the game three times, but it was worth it to get the best characters fitted for each role. Patrick makes for the funniest he's ever been, but every other character delivers great lines even when they don't play off Mermaidman and the others (not the biggest deal except for Plankton where they forgot the fact he's tiny so they're just staring ahead of him). They even get a couple moments in with both the French narrator and action narrator. This doesn't involve every Spongebob mainstay, but they did not slack at all in writing.
one of the most memorable scenes in all of Spongebob alone that's not even from the show
Now was this essay all a means to cope with the fact they haven't remastered this game or ported it to PC like Battle for Bikini Bottom? Yes. At the same time, it's just cool going down memory lane of when I'd go to my friend's house and play this throughout the night until morning when I was young enough to enjoy it. I feel with modern Spongebob, retiring Mermaidman and Barnacleboy has felt like something big was missing from the fictional world even when they developed a lot more else. It's nice though to fall back onto something that I never figured was better than I remembered. Give it a shot on Youtube, as a Spongeboy fan you won't regret it.
it deserves to be called the Best
