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"Mid-Life Crustacean"
SpongeBob SquarePants episode
Mr. Krabs partaking in a panty raid with SpongeBob and Patrick, which treats his midlife crisis, the former unaware they were doing it in his mother's house.
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 15b
Directed by	Frank Weiss (animation)
Written by	C.H. Greenblatt Kaz Mark O'Hare
Production code	5572-210
Original air date	January 24, 2003 (2003-01-24)
Episode chronology
← Previous "The Great Snail Race" Next → "Born Again Krabs"
SpongeBob SquarePants (season 3)
List of episodes

"Mid-Life Crustacean" is the second half of the 15th episode of the third season and the 55th overall episode of the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. The episode premiered on Nickelodeon on January 24, 2003. It is no longer rerunning on Nickelodeon as of 2018, and is also not available to watch on Paramount+, or to be purchased digitally on Amazon. It is still available on home media releases, and pieces of the episode can be still seen ongoing on the Nickelodeon and SpongeBob SquarePants official YouTube channels.

The episode's title is a play on the phrase "midlife crisis."

Plot

Mr. Krabs struggles to get out of bed; after getting up, he asks Pearl if she thinks he's old, which Pearl says she does. When he arrives to the Krusty Krab, he overhears a customer complaining that their Krabby Patty tastes weird, which their mother comments that it is "all old and dried out," comparing it to Mr. Krabs, upsetting him further. After SpongeBob and Patrick announce their "big night out," Mr. Krabs asks to join, in an attempt to feel young again.

During the evening, SpongeBob and Patrick arrive at Mr. Krabs' house, and the three characters take off to a laundromat, where SpongeBob and Patrick watch their faces spin in the mirror's reflection of a washing machine; Mr. Krabs finds this activity boring, and would rather see more of the nightlife. They then partake in several more bizarre activities, none of which satisfies Mr. Krabs. At an arcade, SpongeBob, Patrick and several children ask Mr. Krabs if he's "feeling it" multiple times, which angers him, berating the duo. As he's about to cancel his night out, Patrick then changes his mind when he reveals that they are going out on a "panty raid," grabbing the interest of Mr. Krabs.

When SpongeBob, Patrick and Mr. Krabs arrive to grab a woman's underwear from her dresser drawer, they are caught, and it turns out that the woman happens to be Krabs' mother; SpongeBob and Patrick never told him it was her house they were raiding. Because of the boys' lie by omission, she grounds Mr. Krabs; SpongeBob follows him and apologizes, to which Mr. Krabs forgives him, saying in reference to his old room's race car bed and toys: “I certainly feel younger”. As SpongeBob and Patrick leave, Mr. Krabs is ordered by his mother to shut off his bedroom lights, to which he dejectedly abides.

Reception and controversy

In its initial airing, the episode received generally positive reviews from critics and fans. "Mid-Life Crustacean" was ranked #86 during the "SpongeBob's Top 100" event in the UK and Ireland from June 4-8, 2012, and it's generally still considered a fan-favourite episode and one of the best episodes in the series.

In a 2019 ranking of SpongeBob's top 100 episodes, TV Guide listed "Mid-Life Crustacean" as the 79th best episode.

Nickelodeon said they banned the episode in the U.S because they have determined the episode might not be appropriate for young children.

when this episode was removed from Paramount+, the Nickelodeon executives were called out by people as unjustified, disrespectful towards Stephen Hillenburg and hypocritical, due to the fact that there are many old episodes in this series with adult-like humor, even more than this one in particular. 

Allegra Frank at Slate commented in 2021 "...as a nostalgia buff who looks to Paramount+ solely to sate that need, seeing a small piece of SpongeBob history be stripped away by its parent company is jarring. There are tons of other 11-minute SpongeBob adventures to enjoy, but there’s nothing like watching an episode and having that warm feeling of remembering it; I’m sad I won’t get to have that with that now-infamous 'panty raid' episode anymore." In a 2021 article discussing the controversy around the episode by Comic Book Resources, writer Reuben Baron considered it a great episode, reasoning "There's tons of great character-based humor driven by Mr. Krabs' mid-life crisis, Pearl's embarrassment about her dad and SpongeBob and Patrick's gleeful strangeness."

References

1. SpongeBob SquarePants Production Codes
2. "SpongeBob SquarePants S3 E14 The Great Snail Race; Mid-Life Crustacean: Watch Full Episode Online". DIRECTV.
3. Dastoor, Vaspaan (March 27, 2021). "Nickelodeon Pulled A SpongeBob Episode Because It Was About A Pandemic". TheGamer.
4. "SpongeBob SquarePants" The Great Snail Race/Mid-Life Crustacean (TV Episode 2003) - IMDb, retrieved 2023-01-15
5. "Nickelodeon UK Reveals The Results Of "SpongeBob's Top 100" - The Winning Episode Of "SpongeBob SquarePants" Is..." Retrieved 2023-01-15.
6. Storc, Matt (2023-01-12). "Why the episode was banned". Looper. Retrieved 2023-01-15.
7. Frank, Allegra (March 25, 2021). "Why Are These 11 Minutes Missing From SpongeBob on Paramount+?". Slate Magazine.
8. Baron, Reuben (March 30, 2021). "SpongeBob SquarePants' Recently Banned Episode Was a Great One". CBR.

External links

• "Mid-Life Crustacean" at IMDb

• 2003 American television episodes
• Animation controversies in television
• Midlife crisis in television
• SpongeBob SquarePants episodes
• Television controversies in the United States
• Obscenity controversies in television
• Obscenity controversies in animation
• Television episodes pulled from general rotation