I. BasicAppeal
As I've said before on numerous occasions, Spongebob Squarepants is more than just a cartoon for kids. It's a cartoon that gives people a panoramic view of modern day society. The job of the characters is to point out the inner mechanisms of modern day society through their actions and torepresenta specificinner mechanism. Their actions and characteristics appeal to children in terms of humor but they provide something much more for the adults. The show is almost satirical in a way as it pokes fun at what makes up society. Seeing the way some of the characters act almost reflect onhow some people act in real life and the adults can appreciate and make connections with the show. Take Mr. Krabs for example. Some adults that see him can make connections with him because by seeing the way he acts to his employees and takes extreme measures to save money is an exaggerated example of how their boss at work acts. The adults can learn to appreciate Spongebob Squarepants because of his optimism and they can learn to become more optimistic in return to tackle on life's oppositions with a better attitude and think less about themselves and more of other people. The way the shows connects with people makes up a vast fan base of nearly every demographic. That's how Spongebob Squarepants became an icon, a household name, a worldwide phenomenon known to all cultures and all seven continents. Because of its appeal. Still don't believe me? Ask yourselves this. Why do YOU think Spongebob Squarepants became so popular around 2000, around the time the show started?
When the show entered into its second season, the show transitioned to digital ink and paint, practically the only majordifference the show has ever encountered, except of course forDerek "Dry"mon becoming executive producer. Do you honestly think when you ask people why they like Spongebob Squarepants, it's because of the style of animation? If you were to go into a classroom full of kindergartners why they like the show, I guarantee you not one of them will say they like it because of all the color and brightness that digital ink and paint provide. To be fair, if you would ask adults the same question, the likelihood of that answer coming up would increase, but not by much. Some adults who watch the show probably would appreciate the animation style, but more as a plus.
Also, in 1999, Spongebob Squarepants wasn't really selling that much merchandise. A Spongebob Squarepants ruler, backpack, DVD or video game was unheard of and would have been considered the worst idea ever. But in 2000, Spongebob Squarepants, merchandise started selling like crazy. But of course, it would have to get that way if the show got popular. The popularity of a show is almost always because of how a show is originally set up. Sticking to it's original style of appeal is what makes a show popular and maintains its popularity.
So if that's the case, why is Spongebob Squarepants still so popular despite the fact that I just said it doesn't stick to its roots anymore?
That was a question that I thought some of you may have at this point as the show should be less popular now. Well the answer is obvious. Children are the biggest viewingdemographic of the show. In most cases, they won't appreciate the purpose of the show and will be more interested in seeing Squidward falling off a cliff into a vat of molten glue and not sitting down and thinking as to how it relates to anything relevant to its original purpose. That's the case with most cartoons. The kids will be sitting cross legged with their faces pressed against the television screen because of their anticipation for Spongebob screaming at the top of his lungs parading around in his underwear all over town much to the disgust of the more sane patrons around him.
But, during the show's better years, Seasons 1 -3, the appeal to the adults along with the appeal to the kids made Spongebob Squarepants, the success it is today. Without it, I believe Spongebob Squarepants wouldn't be as popular as it is today. Without it, it would have joined the Nicktoons timeslot of abandoned shows that just didn't make the cut like The Mighty B!.
II. Humor
When we like a show that's supposed to be funny, we often describe it along the lines as "a great comedy with lots of funny humor". But what kind of humor? As some of you know, there are different genres of humor. There's satire, surreal, etc.. But what kind of humor does Spongebob Squarepants use? Spongebob Squarepants uses, or used to use, two different kinds of humor. Surreal and adult humor. Now that you know that, just what is surreal and adult humor? Surreal humor deals with events that go against common reasoning and often include being put in awkward or unrealistic situations, people acting strange and just being plain silly. The humor's effectcomes from departing the audience from what they expect to happen. It's a very common style of humor and is almost synonymous to cartoons themselves. As for adult humor, it's humor that is founded on the use of innuendos and satire that ties into "adult" topics the society deems not suitable for children. By looking at these types of humor side to side, they can be seen as polar opposites.
So why would two styles of humor that are polar opposites work well in the same show? Simple. Opposites attract. In this case? Viewers. The humors of the show tie back into the appeal. The same thing applies to how adults are drawn into the show. So with that said, it can almost be perfectly understood as to why the humor doesn't attract adults anymore and how the surreal humor only draws kids. But it gets even worse. The surreal humor has been amplified to the degree where I can't even tell if what I'm looking at represents what I believe is Spongebob Squarepant's original purpose; to provide people with an inside look into the inner mechanisms of society while appealing to children through tame use of surreal humor and appealing to adults through the subtle use of adult humor. In short, everything is so silly now. The characters are constantly put in the most ridiculous situations that they really don't reflect on society and real life occurences that adults can relate to. To exaggeratereal life occurences and everyday happeningsa little bit is okay, but to bend reality too far will create indifference for the mature audience. It will appeal to the kids and draw more ratings, but that won't stop the show from digressing into mediocrity. Now that I've told you all this and have given my explanation far from normal expectations, it's time to, hopefully, silence the fanboys by giving specific instances to support my "blasphemous and ignorantclaims".
The best example I can give is the episode "Mid-Life Crustacean".In the episode, we see that Mr. Krabs is depressed. At this point in hislife, he goes through the phase commonly known as "mid-life crisis". Already, the play on words can get the adults laughing because they know the internal purpose of the title itself. Then, there are jokes about bran, satire of the stereotype of elderly people having digestion problems which appeals to adults because of the likelihoods of being aware of that stereotype over kids, going out partying, getting that "wild, crazy and hot-blooded feeling" and panty raiding. Kids generally won't understand all of that but the adults are more likely too. But, the kids will more likely appreciate the surreal humor rather than the internal innuendos and pop culture references tied into the episode.
How about another example, fanboys? How about the episode, "Your Shoes Untied"? Spongebob is watching television, with great interest I must add. Something that looks like coral flopping around when Gary comes in and Spongebob awkwardly changes the channel. Now seeing as most, if not all, of the people who come on the Spongebob Squarepants forums are teenagers now who grew up with the show in its earlier years, I don't think it's necessary to explain how that little side gag appeals to adults. If not, don't bother asking.
Now that I've covered how surreal humor and adult humor tied into Spongebob Squarepants, now it's time to show how the overbearing surreal humor in "Spongebob Squarepants?" makes the show horrible and not just in driving away the adults.
Take a look at the episode, "A Pal for Gary". We see the classic situation "wolf in sheep's clothing" scenario where the offender takes on the alias as an innocent bystander incapable of doing things that cause harm which often puts the person trying to prove their alias a front in trouble with a force that exceeds their power. Okay. That's been done before. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, right? A little tweaks here and there and the involvement of the show's original purpose(I'm done with repeating it so if you want to find out what it is, look back in the "Synopsis" section of the review then come back here) should be okay, right? But no. That'd be too boring, right? So now, instead of the "wolf in sheep's clothing" wanting to just put the victim in hot water, it now wants to eat the victim or something like that. It's apparently a big giant monster that wants to eat Gary, in this case, and adds keeps adding in more surreal humor every thirty seconds by making Gary avoid it by doing "funny" things and him using a collar to drive the creature out of Spongebob's house by imitating a western show he saw on TV. If the episode took on a more classic, moral approach, then it probably could attract adults too because of how it might have mirrored an incident that happened in their own lives, i.e. a younger sibling deemed incapable of causing any trouble by the parents takes advantage of his dubbed innocence by putting the older sibling in trouble just for his own amusement. It's a very common occurrence between siblings which explains how effective it would be to establish connections with adults.
But now I want to go into side gags. Side gags, are very important to a cartoon because they keep the flow of the episode going. When referring back to cartoons or certain episodes of a cartoon, most people will bring up side gags. Some are so popular they even create internet memes such as "It's Over 9000!!!" and "It's a Trap!". In Spongebob Squarepants's case, I couldn't find a more perfect than "The Chocolate Guy". Remember? "CHOOOOOOOCOLAAAAAATTTTEEEE!!!!!!!!!!". But what exactly makes side gags so effective? Personally, I don't know how they relate to other cartoons that much, other than Chowder, Tom & Jerry and a few others, but for Spongebob Squarepants, there are three things that make their side gags effective:
a. Relation with the current setting/plot and/or situation
If Spongebob was walking down the street while going to work and a giant half tarantula, half lion creature suddenly came down and swooped him up in their arms, swallowed him, then spit him back out after Spongebob has hallucinations of playing checkers with a piece of toast onto the street and he instantly goes on his way as if nothing happened, would you think that's funny? Honestly? No need for that much explanation there. But in case you're either a fanboy who's still not convinced or you're one of those people who STILL don't get it, allow me to offer you an example.
In the episode "Your Shoes Untied", we see Spongebob frantically asking around for people to tie his shoes with each person getting more absurd than the last until we finally come across the last person in the side gag, the painting who is seen in the Spongebob Squarepants opening.
See? It has relations to the current situation; Spongebob Squarepants wanting his shoes tied. Even if the side gag is surreal, the viewers can most likely laugh at it because of how it relates to the current situation. Still don't get it? Oh well. I'm moving on.
b. They realistically, yet surreally mirror the inner mechanisms of modern day society or just don't use so much surreal humor to begin with
The side gags in Spongebob Squarepants are, in most cases, funny because they don't take things to far. By not using so much surreal humor in the side gags, I can connect with the plot. I don't have to scratch my head, or in this case afro, wondering what's going on because I know right away. For example, look at the episode "Chocolate With Nuts". We see Squidward going in Fancy! wanting to be fancy. The waiter informs him that the entire restaurant got rented out by Spongebob and Patrick and took dates with them. STOP!!! Got your attention, right? Good. Before I continue with the side gag, let's take a look at people who have money in real life. They go to the fanciest restaurants, have the most expensive houses, ride the best cars, and date/marry the most attractive women in the world. Alright, let's continue. Then we find out that the dates were the two old women from before who Spongebob and Patrick tried selling chocolates, too. The kids laugh because of the absurdity of two old women getting dates and the adults laugh because they don't expect two old women going on dates based on what they experience in real life. Just that one side gag creates connections with children and adults and does an effective job at it. It's surreal enough for the kids and has adults laughing because they can relate to the side gag without being overwhelmed by too much surrealism.
c. Build-up
Like with my previous example of a side gag that wouldn't work( Remember? The one with the half lion, half tarantula thing?)a side gag will not work if there is no build up to it. Like a ghost story around the campfire. Would a story that literally goes, "A ghost came from the woods and ate the children. The End.", be called scary? Come on, fanboys, be honest. If a side gag shows build up, then it will be more effective. If not, it's not gonna be good because although it's unexpected, there weren't previous events in the episode that hint the side gag's occurrence.
Now that I've explained how side gags work in Spongebob Squarepants, instead of showing you an example that is effective, I'm going to show you one that isn't effective. However, it will fail at all three categories instead of just one. Eat your hearts out, fanboys.
In "The Great Patty Caper", we first see Patrick and Spongebob interrogate "the butler" about the whereabouts the missing key. Then a random fish walks in, looks up at the moon and turns into a werewolf and runs off screen. If I have to explain why this doesn't have any build up at all, how it has any relation to the current story or how it uses too much surreal humor to establish any connections to an audience outside of children, then I don't even know why you're even reading this.
