Top 10 Worst Things That Happened to Sandy Cheeks

An Alaskan Bull Worm has slithered into town on a massive eating spree, devouring anything in its path… including Sandy’s tail. Despite SpongeBob’s warnings, the vengeful squirrel is determined to find the monster and take back what’s hers. Unfortunately, her overconfidence may be her undoing when she sees that the Worm might be too much for her to handle. We all know that Sandy’s arguably the strongest critter in Bikini Bottom, but today was not her day. Not only does she have her tail stolen, but she and SpongeBob almost get eaten by a big, scary, pink monstrosity because she got too cocky. Thankfully, the two manage to escape the beast and save the town… sort of.

When Mermaid Man is in need of heroes to help take on E.V.I.L., Sandy gets in on the action as the elusive Miss Appear. With her invisibility powers, it seems like nothing can stop her… except for an oncoming boatmobile. Unable to see the camouflaged squirrel, the car slams into Sandy, sending her flying through a billboard and down a steep cliff. Thankfully, because she was invisible, we don’t see anything too gruesome, though hearing it was more than enough. Even more fortunate is that Sandy survives the whole ordeal and is able to laugh it off at the end – albeit in crutches. It just goes to show that being a superhero is dangerous work, even for the great Sandy Cheeks.

In another harebrained evil scheme, Plankton swipes Sandy’s fur pelt to impersonate her and swindle the Krabby Patty Formula from SpongeBob. Meanwhile, Sandy goes on the hunt for the thief who stole her fur… but the townsfolk are no help at all. Instead, they just laugh at her furless state and shame her for being a “nudist”. To add insult to injury, when Sandy finally catches Plankton… SHE gets arrested for “public nudity” right as the episode ends. No matter how Texas-Tough she is, the episode doesn’t even try to cut poor Sandy a break, instead humiliating and punishing her for something that isn’t her fault. Plus, the charges don’t even make sense since she wasn’t that indecent… just bald.

SpongeBob and Patrick go all out to welcome Sandy home from her trip. Unfortunately, her homecoming is ruined when she ends up bringing home a nasty surprise – a hungry flea. This nasty pest wastes no time making a meal out of our trio, and things get even worse when it multiplies into a whole swarm of bloodsuckers. With nowhere left to run, Sandy only has one option left – flood the treedome to drown the fleas, accidentally sucking in the townsfolk in the process. Any pet owner can confirm that fleas are nothing but trouble, but these pests were too tough for even Sandy. What a way to return home.

Sandy asks SpongeBob to watch over her treedome while she’s out for the day. At first, things go well, but then Patrick shows up and everything falls apart… in the literal sense. Sandy returns to her destroyed treedome and fixes everything with a special ray gun, only for SpongeBob to accidentally ruin everything again. But before Sandy can fix everything again, her invention is broken so that she can’t reverse the damage… and then the episode just ends. It’s bad enough that this episode was agonizingly slow in pacing, but the abrupt end where Sandy’s home is wrecked all over again is just frustrating, especially since Sandy will have to clean everything up by hand!

How does Sandy afford to have a treedome under the sea? It turns out that her bosses are a trio of British chimpanzees who fund her research and inventions. Unfortunately, Sandy has been having trouble making a useful invention to impress them; and if she can’t give them what they want, she’ll be forced to leave town. SpongeBob and Patrick try to help with an invention of their own, but they end up making things worse and almost ruining her chances to remain. Thankfully, the episode does have a happy ending, but it’s terrifying how close she came to being forced to leave behind everything and everyone she loves in Bikini Bottom.

With her treedome all locked up and filled with snow, Sandy is all bulked up and ready for hibernation. Unfortunately, SpongeBob and Patrick’s curiosity leads them to break into her home and disturb her slumber with their shenanigans. To survive the rest of winter, our favorite numskulls resort to shaving off Sandy’s fur to keep warm, leaving her bald and embarrassed when spring finally arrives. We SHOULD feel bad for the twosome for enduring the harsh weather and getting beaten up by the sleepwalking Sandy, but they kind of deserved it for trespassing and stealing her winter coat. Fortunately, Sandy has a way for the boys to make it up to her – at least until her hair grows back.

To save his failed stand-up career from going under, SpongeBob wins over the audience by telling squirrel jokes; putting heavy emphasis on how “smelly” and “stupid” they are. Naturally, this hurts Sandy’s feelings, but SpongeBob assures her that it’s all in good fun. Unfortunately, the townsfolk take the jokes too seriously and start treating Sandy like she really is dumb and smelly. Worst of all, SpongeBob doesn’t want to give up the jokes because of how well they sell. It’s hard to tell which was worse for Sandy – having a bunch of idiots insult her, or having her best friend humiliate her instead of respecting her wishes to stop; fortunately, it’s nothing a little bit of payback can’t solve.

SpongeBob and Patrick have been blowing bubbles with hot sauce… because why wouldn’t they? Tragically, their horseplay ends up destroying the oxygen supply to Sandy’s treedome, and the poor squirrel’s spacesuit is slowly running out of air. The lack of fresh air causes her to become delirious and slowly suffocate, and her friends take their sweet time trying to find temporary –and embarrassing - means to get her some oxygen. While SpongeBob fixes everything in the end –sort of - he and Patrick’s bumbling recklessness put Sandy in terrible danger of drowning. They should consider themselves VERY lucky that Sandy’s so forgiving!

Before we unveil our number one pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Going Feral
“Feral Friends”

Homesickness
“Texas”

Lead on a Wild Goose Chase
“Shopping List”

Mutated into a Krabby Patty Zombie
“Krabby Patty Creature Feature”

Having Her Rocket Stolen
“Sandy’s Rocket”

During a contest of land creatures versus sea creatures, Sandy angrily removes her suit and helmet to show that she doesn’t need either. Unfortunately, she ends up struggling to hold her breath, and what do SpongeBob and their friends do? They mockingly wait for her to run out of air, goading her to take a breath, and laugh at her being forced to wear a pickle jar to breathe. Even if it was just a contest, the fact that Sandy nearly drowned and her so-called friends just sat back mocking her is pretty terrible. While she does get even at the end, it kind of makes you wonder if Sandy would’ve been better off never coming to Bikini Bottom at all.