the episode is largely said to be one of the best episodes of the show. tom kenny, the voice of spongebob, said it is one of his favorite episodes. michael cavna of "the washington post" said that squidward's artistic traits and roles in the episode "made this a kids' episode that adults can experience on a whole 'nother level." "the guardian" said the episode is the second best episode of the show, behind the episode "krusty krab training video". the episode along with another season two episode, "the secret box", have the highest rating out of all of the other "spongebob squarepants" on imdb with a rating of 9.8 out of 10.