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Why is SpongeBob Square Pants so Popular? I have watched many cartoons in my life. Even as an adult, I am still a huge fan of cartoons and animated television. I remember watching cartoons as a child and enjoying them simply because they were animated pictures and some funny things happened. These days, I understand some of the more mature content that was included in the Bugs Bunny shorts. I even enjoy some of today’s newer shows that appear on Nickelodeon and on Cartoon Network. That having been said, there is one show that I just do not “get,” even though this show is one of the most popular shows currently on television. SpongeBob SquarePants, in my opinion, is not interesting and is not very funny, but, if I attempt to turn him off my television, I incite a small war with my children. Therefore, I need to know what it is about SpongeBob that makes him and his show so popular. In discussions with my children, we attempted to explain their favorite cartoons in a single sentence. “The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron” is about a boy genius who uses science to improve his life, only to find that, when his experiments fail, he has to use science to return things to normal. In the “Fairly Oddparents,” Timmy Turner makes wishes through his fairy godparents in an attempt to change his life, but, when things go wrong, he always has to wish that things were back to the way that they originally were. “Rocket Power” is a show about four young extreme athletes who have adventures while living with relatives in a town called Ocean Shores. These shows were easy. When we attempted to explain SpongeBob, it was nearly impossible to pare the show down to a single sentence. It was this failure that intrigued me the most. Before I can know why SpongeBob is so popular, I need to know what the show is about. I discussed this topic with my 15-year-old son Timothy, and his answers were very simple, but drove me to research the topic further. When I asked him what he liked about SpongeBob, he said, “The show is just funny.” I then asked what it was that made the show different. He replied that the show is underwater and featured all of these characters living seemingly regular lives, apart from the fact that they are breathing water and not air, a concept that I found fascinating. So I decided to find out for myself what the attraction is to the little, yellow sponge that wears the square pants and “lives in a pineapple under the sea.” The simplicity of my son’s response that SpongeBob was just “funny” made me think that there had to be more to the show than its just being comical. As I previously mentioned, many other cartoons are about something, but SpongeBob, just as “Seinfeld” was, appears to not be about anything and has no other purpose than to entertain and make its audience laugh. Mr. SquarePants lives in Bikini Bottom with his meowing pet snail Gary. SpongeBob hangs out with his friends Patrick the starfish and Sandy the squirrel who uses a spacesuit to help her breath under water. SpongeBob works as a fry cook in a fast food restaurant alongside his neighbor Squidward, who has indifferent feelings towards SpongeBob despite SpongeBob’s overwhelming admiration for Squidward. The show is not about anything more than life in the fictitious Bikini Bottom, and it might just have been designed to simply be funny. Communications Professor Robert Thompson, Director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University, is quoted in a July 21, 2002, NY Times article by Tom Zeller as saying that, “because there’s nothing in it (the SpongeBob SquarePants Show) that’s trying to be hip or cool or anything else, hipness can be grafted onto it.” Thompson believes that SpongeBob does not try to be smarter, cooler or better than everyone else; he is simply living his life the only way he knows how to. SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg, when interviewed for the Zeller article, states that “he is simply trying to make people laugh.” This might be the answer to the question. Hillenburg states that he is not trying to create a product and then attempt to analyze how it fits into pop culture. He says that he and his team endeavor to make themselves laugh with their product. James Poniewozik writes in his December 9, 2001, Time Magazine article that SpongeBob’s appeal is found in his innocence. Poniewozik writes that SpongeBob’s personality is one of being “conscientious, optimistic and blind to the faults in the world and those around him.” Poniewozik compares SpongeBob to Pee-Wee Herman, a comparison that Hillenburg himself makes in the Zeller piece. Hillenburg states that he drew inspiration from Pee-Wee Herman, Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, who, as Hillenburg says, “made naiveté the core of their comedy.” So, is the main character’s overwhelming innocence the most appealing aspect of the show? Is the show popular because it does not try to be something more than a life and times piece of the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom, or is it because other shows are trying to be the next funny something and SpongeBob is just trying to be funny? The answer could be any of these, all of these, or a combination of them. When I spoke with my son Timothy, I asked him what it was that made the show different. His reply was that the characters are leading seemingly normal lives, except that these characters live underwater. Many other shows feature characters whose lives do not seem to be “normal.” Not everyone can jump over things on skateboards like the characters on “Rocket Power,” and not many children can build robots like Jimmy Neutron does. While these feats might be normal activities to some, to others, these might appear to be extraordinary accomplishments, and, in these instances, they extend beyond what would be considered a normal existence. SpongeBob lives in a modest dwelling with a pet, has a cranky neighbor who SpongeBob believes has a decent side underneath the gruff exterior and has a best friend who he loves and supports unconditionally, even in instances where his friend might be second-guessing their relationship. Beyond this, SpongeBob is a loyal employee at a hamburger stand, likes to spend his free time enjoying his hobbies and suffers from many of the same inadequacies that many of us endure daily. It appears that SpongeBob is not much different from any other person, except that he requires watery existence. As a lifelong fan of Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and Tex Avery’s work for MGM, I have always watched cartoons and looked to sight gags, clever banter, or innuendo as my source of amusement. When I saw my first episode of SpongeBob, I thought that the show was utterly ridiculous. That first episode, entitled Ripped Pants, told the story of SpongeBob who, while trying to impress his friend Sandy, accidentally rips his pants. SpongeBob’s embarrassment is set aside when a group of onlookers greets the event with raucous laughter, believing that the incident was intended as a joke. This acceptance leads SpongeBob to parlay the repeated ripping of his pants into a successful comedy bit and instant popularity that lasts until it, as many popular things tend to, gets old. SpongeBob searches for a way to regain favor with the masses and a heartwarming song chronicling his mistake does the trick. The idea of him ripping his pants, first by accident and then for laughs, left me wanting more, but it might have been because I expected more from the show than I had received. Perhaps I had gotten so used to a main character outsmarting, tricking, overpowering or overwhelming someone that, when that did not happen, I felt as if I had missed something. This is not that show. This is a show where the characters have adventures and suffer mishaps, not unlike those that are possible in anyone else’s life, and those adventures and mishaps are played for laughs. Society might just be tired of wondering who the hero is in a cartoon. Society might be tired of the one character being smarter than all the others. Society might be tired of the same formula in cartoons, where the good guy suffers at the hands of the bad guy only to vanquish him in the end. Maybe society just wants to laugh, and that is what SpongeBob provides, “No Frills” laughter. That might just be all that it takes to make this show as popular as it is.
Works Cited
Jenkins, Timothy. Personal interview. 17 Sept. 2007. "List of SpongeBob SquarePants Episodes." Wikipedia. 17 Sept. 2007. 18 Sept. 2007 . Poniewozik, James. "Soaking Up Attention." Time 9 Dec. 2001. 17 Sept. 2007 . Zeller, Tom. "How to Succeed Without Attitude." New York Times 21 July 2002. 17 Sept. 2007 .
(Written November, 2007)
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