I was enjoying Tubi recently, loving how many obscure, foreign, artsy films they had to watch, when they recommended the movie Good Burger to me. I wanted something light and funny, so I gave it a try.

A little while into the movie, I started noticing something oddly familiar. So much so that I checked the date the movie came out. 1997. 2 years before Spongebob started.

Both movies:
Small time “burger” restaurant.
One ditsy overly enthusiastic employee
One foil to this one, the one who doesn’t want to be there
One chunky owner/manager
Evil character who opens a competing business
And the kicker: a recipe that the evil character tries to get

I searched youtube to see if anyone had posted this obvious ripoff of Good Burger, but did not find anything readily available. So, I wanted to throw the idea out there.

Yes, the same company, Nickelodeon, created both of these, so the term “ripoff” might be stretching, maybe “lazy”? I want to know how the pitch meeting went for spongebob.
“Good Burger, but under the sea and in cartoon form!”
“That’s gold! Do it!”

More similarities:
old/crotchety worker
female who is levelheaded

Got anymore similarities?