Squilliam has become the leader of a "big, fancy band" scheduled to play at a venue called the Bubble Bowl, but tells Squidward he will be busy at that time and cannot attend.

On the last day of practice, the band members start blaming each other for their poor performance, and a brawl ensues.

As class ends, the band members instantly stop fighting and start filing out of the building; before they leave, Squidward expresses his disappointment in them, despondently tells them to not perform, and goes home, distraught over his failure.

On the day of the concert, Squilliam shows up at the venue entrance, where Squidward claims that his band could not come because they "died".

They enter the Bubble Bowl, a large glass dome that elevates them into a live-action football stadium full of human fans.

Squidward cringes in fear as he begins to conduct, but, to his surprise, the band is tremendously successful, performing "Sweet Victory" for the crowd.

Squilliam enters a state of shock and faints, leaving Squidward to triumphantly throw his baton away and celebrate as the band continues playing.

[3] Greenblatt said, "The story outline called for making it a really great marching band sequence, and it usually helps to have the music ahead of time to board to, so we started searching around.

[3] Greenblatt's favorite part was director Springer's drawings of Patrick on the electric drums and SpongeBob saying, "It's the thrill of one more kill" (an excerpt from "Sweet Victory").

[5] "Band Geeks" originally aired on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 7, 2001, with a TV-Y parental rating.

He said "Squidward's mix of artistic aspiration in the face of goading, humiliation and unrelenting sub-mediocrity made this a kids' episode that adults can experience on a whole 'nother level.

"[17] The Guardian ranked "Band Geeks" the second-best episode of the show, next to "Krusty Krab Training Video".

"[20] Emily Estep of WeGotThisCovered.com ranked the episode as the fourth-best SpongeBob SquarePants episode, explaining that "most of the gags in 'Band Geeks' center around Squidward's bleak existence, but it's also stuffed with one-liners from and about each of the characters on the show, such as the line 'These claws ain't just for attractin' mates!'

from an about-to-brawl Mr. Krabs, and when Squidward says, 'No, Patrick, mayonnaise is not an instrument,' in response to an inevitable query from the stupid star.

In 2012, Nickelodeon in the United Kingdom launched an event called "SpongeBob's Top 100", where viewers can vote at Nick.co.uk for their favorite episode.

[25][26] "Sweet Victory" went from being a largely unknown production music track, to selling 300,000 iTunes downloads in one year after its exposure on the show.

[27] After the death of series creator Stephen Hillenburg on November 26, 2018, a Change.org petition was created which requested that the NFL pay tribute to him by playing "Sweet Victory" during the halftime show for Super Bowl LIII.

[29] On January 13, the headlining act, Maroon 5, also released a teaser video featuring a clip of SpongeBob, which furthered speculation.

"[31] Many social media users were critical of the failure to include the "Sweet Victory" song and found the brief animated segment to be an inadequate tribute to Hillenburg.

"[36] The day after the game, the Dallas Stars' Twitter page uploaded a modified version of the full "Sweet Victory" sequence, in which the band's uniforms were altered from red to green to match the Stars' colors, with the title "The #SuperBowl halftime show fans deserve".