Shanghaied (SpongeBob SquarePants)

"Shanghaied", also known as "You Wish", is an episode of the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants". It is the first part of the 13th episode of the second season, and the first half of the 33rd episode overall. It was directed by Aaron Springer and written by Springer, C.H. Greenblatt, and Merriwether Williams, with the animation directed by Frank Weiss. Greenblatt also served as the storyboard artist.
The series follows the adventures and endeavours of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. In this episode, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward encounter the Flying Dutchman, a ghostly pirate who seeks to acquire a new eternal crew to scare the residents of Bikini Bottom. As SpongeBob and Patrick do a poor job as his crew, the pirate considers devouring them instead, leading the two to try and figure out how to thwart his plan.
"Shanghaied" originally aired as a television special on Nickelodeon in the United States on March 9, 2001, and featured a poll where viewers can vote on the outcome of the episode; subsequent broadcasts have since shown a revised version which removed references to this voting feature. The episode received critical acclaim from online pop culture critics for its extensive and hilarious gags, and is generally ranked highly among their lists for the best "SpongeBob SquarePants" episodes. The original broadcast version was released on the "The First 100 Episodes" DVD of the series in 2009 while the revised version was released on "The Complete Second Season" DVD set in 2004.
Plot.
In Encino, California, "SpongeBob SquarePants" fan Patchy the Pirate presents his favorite episode "Shanghaied" to audiences.
SpongeBob is shocked to find that an anchor (which he mistakes for a "baby") has suddenly dropped onto his house during breakfast, and alerts his next door neighbor Squidward to what happened. As Patrick shows up to take notice of the anchor, it soon swings from SpongeBob's house to Squidward's. This compels Squidward to begin climbing the anchor rope to see where it comes from, with SpongeBob and Patrick joining him.
The three come across a large, floating, and glowing ship, which Squidward proceeds to board, impatiently demanding to know its owner. As SpongeBob tries to recall the ship's owner, the Flying Dutchman appears and insists on knowing who disturbs him, upon which SpongeBob naively expresses to him Squidward's complaints. After the Flying Dutchman burns Squidward for his alleged insults, the pirate turns to SpongeBob and Patrick for their own punishment, to which they try to escape from multiple times and fail. The Flying Dutchman then announces his rule that for anyone who sets foot on his ship, they will be forced to serve as his "ghostly" crew for eternity. Due to Squidward's continuous complaining, the pirate throws him through the "Fly of Despair", a seemingly endless void filled with horrific imagery, which intimidates SpongeBob and Patrick into becoming part of the ship's crew.
After the Flying Dutchman instructs SpongeBob and Patrick to prepare the ship for a Bikini Bottom haunting spree, they prove inept at their haunting task, failing to frighten citizens even with the pirate leading by example. Due to their poor performance, the Flying Dutchman decides that he will eat SpongeBob and Patrick instead of letting them continue to be his crew. The two then try to escape through the perfume department, though they still end up on the ship. However, they overhear the Flying Dutchman mentioning in his diary that he could not eat without his dining sock, which leads the two to try and take it. The pirate notices them, and tries to take the sock back, which results in a stalemate. The Flying Dutchman proposes that when they give back the sock, he will give them three wishes. Upon settling the terms of the proposition, Patrick unwittingly wastes the first wish by wishing they had known this earlier, while SpongeBob wishes that Squidward could see them having wishes.
Squidward safely returns to his home after passing through the void, only to be brought back to the ship by SpongeBob's wish. Upon realizing there is only one wish left, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward argue as to who should get the last wish. The Flying Dutchman intervenes and uses eeny, meeny, miny, moe to ultimately decide who gets the wish, with SpongeBob ending up selected. SpongeBob then wishes that the Flying Dutchman was a vegetarian so that he will not eat them. The three are then seemingly transported back to SpongeBob's pineapple home, but they quickly realize that they have also been turned into fruits, and are now in the Flying Dutchman's blender. A chase ensues as they bounce their blender away from the pirate, who now resides in a hippie van with a mast.
After the episode proper, Patchy tries to read fan mail, only to be blown up with his parrot Potty who lit a fuse on himself, not knowing it is no longer planned for the program.
Release.
"Shanghaied" originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States as a television special titled "You Wish" on March 9, 2001. In the special, viewers who tuned in can vote by telephone or online for who gets the wish at the end of the episode. After SpongeBob received the most votes, the original episode proper had SpongeBob get the wish, and Patchy then featured what would have happened if viewers voted for either Squidward or Patrick.
For every subsequent broadcast of the episode, SpongeBob is the official character selected to get the wish, while the segments featuring Patchy the Pirate are trimmed down to remove any reference to the original polling feature of the episode. The original broadcast version of the episode was released on the 14-disc DVD collection titled "The First 100 Episodes" on September 22, 2009, while the revised version was released on "SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Second Season" DVD collection on October 19, 2004; the latter release includes a commentary track for the episode from director Aaron Springer, animation director Frank Weiss, and writer C.H. Greenblatt. The revised version would also be featured in the UK edition of the "SpongeBob Squarepants: Ghoul Fools" DVD release on October 8, 2012, with dubbing in French, German, Italian, and Dutch.
A five-minute edit of the episode was released on YouTube by the official "SpongeBob SquarePants" YouTube account.
Critical reception.
"Shanghaied" received critical acclaim from online pop culture critics. Lizzie Manno of "Paste" ranked "Shanghaied" at 3 in her top ten list of "SpongeBob SquarePants" episodes, commending the episode's abundance of jokes and stating that it "might be the most underrated episode of "Spongebob" due to its high laugh ratio." Jaclyn Kessel of Decider ranked "Shanghaied" at 1 in her "10 Essential 'SpongeBob Squarepants' Episodes" list, writing that "[t]he terrific writing, creativity, and absolute goofiness of 'Shanghaied' makes it the best episode ever." Jared Russo of the website Medium ranked the episode at 1 in his top 100 list, praising its clever dialogue and "hilarious" gags and expressing that it "perfectly encapsulates the humor that SpongeBob is known for... I’ve been watching this episode for thirteen years now, and I still find it funny." Elijah Ackerman, who also writes for Medium, gave praise to the episode as well, describing its pace as "really really fast" and stating that "it gets better with every watch." Oliver Whitney of "TV Guide" ranked "Shanghaied" at 6 in his "100 Best SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes" list, while Aaron Kirby of WhatCulture ranked it at 10 in his top ten list.