Patrick the Genius

Patrick the Genius

Plot: Patrick is put in a school for gifted children after cheating on an IQ test.

Season: 1 Episode: 2

Total Episode Count: 2

Production Code: 7G02

Plot
The episode starts with the Spongeson family playing a game of Scrabble in order to help Patrick prepare for an intelligence test at school. Not taking the game seriously, Patrick lays down all his tiles in the order they were placed on his letter stand. He invents the word "kwyjibo", defining it as "a big, dumb, balding ape from Bikini Bottom, with no chin..." to which Sandy adds, "...and a short temper." Patrick is then chased around the house by an enraged Spongebob, who instantly understands that Patrick's explanation of a "kwyjibo" accurately describes him.

Faced with the prospect of failing an intelligence test, Patrick surreptitiously switches exam papers with Phil. When the school psychologist Dr. Pryor analyzes Patrick's results, he identifies that Patrick is a genius, to the delight of Spongebob and Sandy, who decide to enroll him in a new school for gifted children. However, Pearl is not fooled and claims that Patrick is still a moron no matter what the test says.

At the Enriched Learning Center for Gifted Children, Patrick feels out of place among the other students with more advanced academic skills. Meanwhile, Sandy attempts to stimulate Patrick's mind with culture by taking the family to the opera. Ostracized by his classmates, Patrick visits Bikini Bottom Elementary, where his friends also reject him. However, he enjoys newfound attention from Spongebob.

After Patrick's chemistry experiment vexplodes, filling the school lab with a green substance, he confesses to Dr. Pryor that he switched tests with Phil. Patrick returns home and tells Spongebob that he cheated on the intelligence test, but that he is glad because they are now closer than ever before. An enraged Spongebob chases Patrick through the house prompting Pearl to say, "I think Patrick's stupid again, mom".

Reception and Legacy
In its original American broadcast, "Patrick the Genius" finished 47th place in the weekly ratings for the week of January 8–January 14, 1990 with a Nielsen rating of 12.7. It was the second highest rated show on the Fox Network that week. Since airing, the episode has received mostly positive reviews from television critics. Warren Martyn and Adrian Wood, the authors of the book I Can't Believe It's a Bigger and Better Updated Unofficial Spongesons Guide, strongly praised the episode calling it "superbly written and directed, often a literal child's-eye view of education, the first Spongesons episode proper is a classic." They went on to say, "these twenty minutes cemented Patrick's position as a cultural icon and a hero to all underachievers, and managed a good few kicks at hothouse schools along the way. Especially worthy of note is the sequence where Patrick visualises his maths problem, the viewing of which should be a required part of teacher training." In a DVD review of the first season, David B. Grelck gave the episode a rating of 2½/5 and commented that the episode was "wacky and fun, very Patrick centered, it's easy to see with this episode why Patrick became the figurehead for a few years of class clowns". Colin Jacobson at DVD Movie Guide said in a review that the episode "offered another decent but unspectacular episode" and further commented that "its early vintage seems clear both through the awkward animation and the lack of appropriate character development."

Trivia

 * There is a picture of Patrick on the wall opposite one of Albert Einstein in Dr. Pryor's office.
 * After Patrick comes home green Spongebob washes him in Turpentine.
 * Spongebob thinks it was Albert Einstein that invented the light bulb.
 * Plankton spells out EMCSQU (or E=MC²) on his building blocks.
 * Plankton falls once (As Pearl looks up).
 * This is the first (and so far, only) couch gag to visually continue into the TV scene.

Rating
TV-G