Spongebob Created Our Sense Of Humor

Have you ever noticed that we have a completely different sense of humor than our parents? There are some tweets, photos, and movie scenes that make me laugh so hard I literally pee my pants. While they don’t incite any response from my parents. I have thought about what could have caused this divide, and I think it all stems from the highly successful show Spongebob Squarepants. 

The show has been incredibly influential on our generation and it has created our sense of humor. The jokes are goofy, irreverent, and they are based on these key principles: character humor, parody, and wordplay. There are others principles but tbh I don’t want this to be too long.

Character humor can be found in the situation and circumstances of that particular character. For example, Mermaid Man is supposed to be a superhero but he lives in a retirement home and literally wears a bra and slippers. This depiction of a superhero also connects to the show's use of parody. The superhero troupe plays into later episodes when each of the main characters become their own hero. For example, Spongebob becomes a hero named "The Quickster" and the gag is his he says “Wanna see me run to that mountain and back? *doesn’t move at all* Wanna see me do it again?” 

Clever lines make up another principle pf Spongebob's humor. Wordplay. A lot of jokes are derived from just drawing attention to language. For example, “The finest eating establishment ever established for eating!” or “Do you smell it? That smell. A kind of smelly smell that smells…smelly.” 

A clever use of language, parody, and character humor are the basis of our generation's idea of what's funny. Open up Twitter and the next viral tweet you see will probably feature one or more of these principles; and those principles were put in place because of this show.  

You can quote a line from Spongebob to anyone in our age group and they will (probably) laugh and respond with another quote. The storylines, characters, and gags have grasped our generation and they have served as the basis for what we find funny.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 26, 2018 at 1:45 PM

    It truly is the seminal work to understand our time. It shaped so many 15-25 year-olds that without it, popular comedy would not be the same.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 27, 2018 at 9:23 AM

    I never thought of it like that, but I can totally see this happening. It's funny if you think about it, but Sponge Bob has been a pretty significant part of pop culture and I can totally see why Sponge Bob could have bled into us.
    To be honest I still sometimes I get sucked into watching an episode of Sponge Bob and I think that goes the same way with my friends.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 27, 2018 at 11:24 AM

    I totally agree with the title and main point of this blog. I see people now, even catch myself a few times, laughing at something that is completely unfunny. We connect out experiences as a child to our experiences now and try to find s=positive similarities within them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownNovember 28, 2018 at 9:31 AM

    As much as I don't want to admit that a yellow sponge formed my sense of humor, you make a lot of good points in your post. So much of what my friends and I think is funny can easily be sorted into one of the categories you put forth and who isn't above a quick Spongebob quote to make any conversation more fun.

    ReplyDelete

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