 Maxie Zeus of Toon Zone cited the episode as an example of the series ' decline . Lesley Aeschliman of Yahoo ! Voices wrote " I have to look at this special like the ' Friend or Foe ? ' special . While ' WhoBob WhatPants ? ' works well as a regular story for SpongeBob SquarePants , I 'm not entirely convinced that it deserved to be hyped up as a special . While this story had the potential to be ' special material , ' it just didn 't materialize in the final produced product . " Roy Hrab of DVD Verdict said , " It makes me sad to think about how something so pleasurable has declined into something so tedious . " Paul Mavis of DVD Talk said , " With a laugh @-@ skimpy script , ' What Ever Happened to SpongeBob ? ' may be confirming a trend I noticed back with the last original SpongeBob toon to get its own disc release , Pest of the West : SpongeBob shorts are starting to get tired . And ' What Ever Happened to SpongeBob ? ' is even less funny than ' Pest of the West ' , " adding the episode was " Not a good sign . " 
