There will never be a show like Spongebob Squarepants ever again.

Out of all the shows on Nickelodeon back in the early 2000's, Spongebob was easily my favorite one.  I owned just about every episode on DVD from the first 3 seasons, a Spongebob backpack, lunchbox, posters, basketball hoops and just about any other sort of merchandise you can think of.  I believe I even went as him for halloween TWICE!  That being said, I was labeled "the Spongebob kid" among my young peers and teachers.  Up until I was around 10 years old, I would watch just about every episode live when they aired, basically knowing every episode by heart.  As I grew older, Spongebob began to have a much weaker influence on my life, but it never disappeared completely.  Just yesterday, me and some of my friends in Landon watched some of the classic episodes, like "Band Geeks" "Pizza Delivery" and "Pickles".  A good time was certainly had.  Even outside of my own experience, Spongebob still seems to still be popular nowadays.  The show is a gold mine for memes and iterations across the internet and is quite possibly the only show keeping Nickelodeon alive at this point.  As mentioned before, the amount of Spongebob merchandise that was produced is insane.  I have never seen so much "stuff" being created over a children's animated cartoon show.  But why was this show so influential back then and even now?  That is a question that can be answered a variety of ways.  For starters, Bikini Bottom is such a lively and colorful environment.  The world these characters live in is truly magical, making you wish it were a real place so you can visit it yourself.  The characters are also a major pull, all of them being so unique and lovable.  In the first 3 seasons, the writing for these characters was brilliant.  Even from recent experience, the show contains jokes that I would crack up at even now, along with the occasional adult joke that would fly over the heads of children.  I have seen various theories on the show too, some saying that the characters all represent one of the seven deadly sins, and that the adult/child relationship between Squidward and Spongebob is the key to the show's early success.  Granted, the show did decline over time, producing some horrifying morbid and flat out painful episodes, but for what it's worth, Spongebob Squarepants has a reputation all cartoons should strive to achieve.  Rest easy Stephen Hillenburg, you created a show that inspired kids, like myself, and have proven to stand the test of time.

Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 28, 2018 at 8:43 AM

    As a fellow lover of Spongebob, I enjoyed reading this.

    ReplyDelete

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