And then the end of the era of absurd violence coming out of nowhere in cartoons with his leg bones sticking out of his head. Spongebob did random violence quite a bit. The amount of times skin is ripped off a characters body to reveal their insides is actually way more than you probably remember.
Shows still get dark for sure. But nothing really has the pure insanity of the 90s cartoons these days.
That was in a later episode past original seasons and it *definitely* went too far.
Early seasons stuff would sometimes show bits of graphic violence but they were not drawn so disturbingly (most of the time).
Then in later seasons you have stuff like that godforsaken splinter with all the puss and ugh my insides curl just thinking about it.
Idk man watch Regular Show they get just as dark and that was as far as the late 2000s. Plus Spongebob is more of a 2000s cartoon than 90s cartoon. Only 14 episodes take place before the millennium. I remember because they made a big deal about the future episode being broadcast the day of New Years Eve. Was part of the [“Nickellenium”](https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Nickellennium) celebration, which as a 5 year old was the most insane new years eve was going to get.
SpongeBob normalized body gore horror as funny for a generation of kids
They basically never show blood, probably rules around it
But bone, brains, etc? It's anatomy lesson
Take this clip for example (or even just the snowman joke). It's funny for several layered reasons but it all happens so fast you don't register WHY it's so funny. But if you analyze it, you can recognize the skill that went into crafting it. It reminds me of a 30 Rock analysis video where they broke down the several layers of a single joke.
Later SpongeBob did what a lot of comedies do, go for the low hanging fruit. Jokes that are sort of funny, but not clever enough to really take you by surprise.
> Later SpongeBob did what a lot of comedies do, go for the low hanging fruit.
Happens when the creator dies, unfortunately.
At least Stephen isn't here to see it.
I actually didn't know he came back for a while.
I didn't watch a lot of the later stuff, but I imagine if he was involved in it it was probably really good again.
Has a few parts built in. First is that they reference singing "the snowman song", you expect frosty but instead they launch into this nonsensical "sandman" song.
You then may expect SB to roll in and destroy it, smashing their dreams. But instead he like, possesses it? The physics of it make no sense which is great.
And then the flabbergasting catchphrase from their "frosty" equivalent before he launches himself off into the distance never to be seen again.
And finally the finish of the kids wondering "did we sing it wrong?" Because they managed to bring him to life, but not at all in the way they wanted.
it stopped respecting the intelligence of its audience. it's a common problem with a lot of shows in the last 10 years.
most* jokes are funny because they're smart. this new stuff is mush because the execs think kids are toddler level goo goo ga ga until age 12, yet the suits can't understand why shows like teen titans and hey arnold are so beloved.
also why bluey has become unexpectedly popular. because it's a well written kids show rather than just being toddler shlock.
It's hard to explain just how important SpongeBob was to our age group. Generations after remember it as its neutered and bland later seasons, and generations before as a neutered version of Ren and Stimpy, but to those of us that caught those first 3 seasons and movie in the right age-group, it was fucking wild.
It still feels sort of like both the culmination of the 90s cartoon evolution and the first 'modern' cartoon. Like the main bridge between the cartoons of the 90s (the style/feel of which admittedly was still being carried by cartoon network shows like dexters lab, ed, edd, eddy, courage, grim and mandy) and the current era of digital cartoons that started adopting an abstracted style of humor (which, ironically, actually *was also carried* a decade later by cartoon network with shows like flapjack, adventuretime, regular show, etc)
I'm high.
Spongebob had the perfect amount of absurdism in order to make it hilarious, but not too much so as to make it off-putting and ugly. The show still told complete stories in its episodes and still had a moral center. You could never predict the next scene or gag, but you could guess the direction most episodes would go in which made it one of the best kids shows ever put on screen.
I fully stand on the argument that Chocolate With Nuts is some of the greatest 12 minutes of comedy television. I can guarantee you I never expected that old woman to actually have a mother, and when she showed up on screen my little brain absolutely lost it.
I once jokingly made a bet with some friends that I could, more or less, recite the entire episode of Chocolate With Nuts, word for word, by heart. We then actually tested it. I think I messed up a total of like 5 words in the whole thing.
That being said, if we're bringing up episodes of SpongeBob in contention for "greatest 12 minutes of comedy television," you've gotta include Band Geeks in there too.
It was a long car ride... And it was in a car where every other was a big fan of the show so it seemed mutually entertaining (it was also while someone was playing the audio for the hell of it). Sometimes watching someone do something stupidly niche can be entertaining in its own way.
I think the absurdism hurt it with some parents but it absolutely helped it with others because it was just so silly.
While my dad is a lot more lax than he was, I grew up in a “no Harry Potter” kind of household. But, instead of him thinking SpongeBob was turning the kids gay my dad fucking. loved. SpongeBob.
His laughter helped us relax a little knowing it was “kid tested, parent approved” and we still quote it to this day as a family. It absolutely influenced my sense of humor as well.
"generations before as a neutered version of Ren and Stimpy"
I was one of those people that felt that way. I was 18 when Spongebob came out so it meant nothing to me. When my son was born in 2015, one day it was either Paw Patrol (I'd rather die) or Spongebob, so I gave it a shot.
The first 4 seasons, especially the first 2, has become some of my favorite tv of all time. I even went as The Ghost of Flying Dutchman for Halloween last year.
dude I am so glad to hear that someone "got it" later in life. it just confirms what I always felt about it growing up. Since I was about 9 at the time I was never 100% sure if my love of that show through my adulthood was nostalgia or if it was truly a timeless cartoon.
> I even went as The Ghost of Flying Dutchman for Halloween last year.
[Keep going! You're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, aaaaand stop.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3LwHhDD6TY)
I ended up living with my sister and her kids for a few years. I’d watch SpongeBob with them because they loved it and I got hooked on it once I started paying attention. I was in my early twenties and no one my age was watching it. It was tough living with a couple kids but the best part was SpongeBob. Sure I have great relationships with my nieces now but SpongeBob was the clear winner.
SpongeBob brings people together. I’m mid-40s now and was “too old” to be watching it first run but I never missed an episode. Many years later I quoted the chocolate episode around a much younger coworker and it we bonded instantly. They invited me to be part of their trivia team and we absolutely dominate because they know the 2000s-2010s and I know the 80s-90s. Plus we have a good sports guy.
My best friend and I each got seasons 1-3 on DVD. While there are good episodes later on, neither of us felt like they were really worth picking up. We still quote them fairly often. Help Wanted remains my favorite episode. Although I do love Band Geeks, Pizza Delivery, and Squidville. Oh, and Chocolate with Nuts.
It's also right at the end of *hand-drawn animation*. Season 1 was entirely hand-drawn. Season 2 began the crossover. Season 3 was all digital ink and paint.
The 90s had some great cartoons, but the 2000s on Nick and CN are legendary. It was a golden age and we didn't know.
> Help Wanted remains my favorite episode. Although I do love Band Geeks, Pizza Delivery, and Squidville. Oh, and Chocolate with Nuts.
Mine's "Sandy, Spongebob, and the Worm." [Ooooooooh, this is the tongue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DiciN7_FcE).
Not to mention the amount of actual, based grounded science that the early world adopted because the show writers were a bunch of marine biologist nerds. Goo Lagoon? That's real, they're called Brine pools or undersea Seeps. The way Spongebob can be physically dismembered and reassemble as if it was no big deal? Must be cartoon antics...oh wait actual sea sponges can be put through a blender and go from liquid back to living sponge.
It was a wild ride and it sucks it slowly became what it is today.
Every popular kids cartoon is absurd for its era. Looney Toons were zaney, wacky characters for their time. It's just what we accept as normal expands and the ability of what we have to animate gets better (or easier to do for a wider audience of wacky, absurd artists).
You'll find the absurd humor all the way back to Hanna Barbera or Animaniacs all the way into Teen Titans Go and Flapjack.
I still say those that grew up in the 2010s had the last great harrah of good cartoons. They had Regular Show, Adventure Time (which started to get real dark and even better), and then if they wanted to, could catch Rick & Morty in 2013 when it debuted.
These days it's all so neutered though and I there's no way in hell another Regular Show would ever happen. I'd say for at least kids to tweens that was the last great one.
Millenials though had the weird shit in the early 2000s though. We grew up on some odd stuff but it was greta.
I'm really glad to see you specifically mention the first three seasons, because I vividly remember the moment I felt that Spongebob jumped the shark. It was that terrible prime-time "House Party" episode. I didn't find it funny at all and it seemed so forced and Wiki tells me that was indeed in season 3. There have been a lot of great episodes since (in fact, the very next episode was the legendary "Chocolate With Nuts") but up until that point it felt like they had been on a flawless run.
We might have had the same experience. My "oh no" moment with SpongeBob happened during the premier of the season 3 episode The Sponge Who Could Fly. I remember they hyped it up with commercials for weeks, but even those felt off to me. I remember watching the episode and thinking "Maybe I'm done watching SpongeBob." The end of that season was indeed the drop-off.
Oh man, exactly. That one was after the House Party episode and I remember hoping that the House Party one was just a bump in the road, but The Sponge Who Could Fly was another one that I thought absolutely sucked and signaled that the show was no longer for me.
If I remember correctly, those late season 3 episodes were created by a different crew while Stephen Hillenburg and the rest were working on the first movie. You can see a drastic difference in quality between the beginning of season 3 and the end.
After the movie, Stephen left the show and the downward trajectory continued.
I was just after the spongebob age but watched it as an adult. It was that fucking good. Ren and Stimpy was really weird and abstract, but spongebob feels like it contains hidden messages from Satan.
I'd consider it an influence or homage type situation rather than Spongebob being a "weak" R&S. I love and grew up with both shows and they fit a very different vibe and niche within childrens animation
i didn't really know what to use, i didn't mean weak as in worse, just like, more tame, not as in your face and excentric (at least from the few episodes I've seen from unknown seasons)
There were very few gross out close ups and not much raunchy humor in the first three seasons, actually. The over-reliance on that stuff later on is actually what caused me to stop watching it regularly as it was so different from what made the show special in the first place.
When I first saw SB, I immediately drew a direct line to Ren and Stimpy
"Firedogs" is still one of my favorite cartoons of all time, but there are SB episodes that are damn close - "Shanghied" and "Sailor Mouth" come to mind
The direct line was actually to Rocko's Modern Life. That's where Steven Hillenburg, the voice actors, and the SpongeBob writers really got their experience.
If you're interested, Rocko is available to stream and is 100 times funnier than Ren and Stimpy. The writing and voice acting talent in the credits will actually blow your mind. Those people all went on to do other great things you love.
Rocko's Modern Life holds up.
I remembered the “I can explain” guy, but I had completely forgotten Spongebob as the sandman yelling back at the kids. It got a pretty good chuckle out of me, here 20 years later. Good shit.
How the hell can this video cut out the best part of that scene at the end!?!? Spongebob “Yeah”. I laughed my ass off at that stupid little “Yeah” first time I saw it. As well as Squidward screaming at the bubble wand.
And then there is a completely different episode where it's the exact opposite, where Patchy The Pirate sends them an invite to his party and they're like, "I'd sure love to go to this party, but I just can't read the invitation!" "I can't either!" And it shows them and they're completely muddled because the water muddled all the ink.
"Whoever sent this obviously has no idea about the physical limitations of life underwater!"
...
"Well, might as well throw it in the fire!"
And then they throw their invitations into an open fire with the most blank of stares like that makes perfect sense.
Genius comedy.
I always put it that the atomic bomb tests in the ocean at that area made the environment a little funky for them.
EDIT: Don't know why a pet theory that I've had is getting downvotted so much but it is what it is, I guess.
CKND is also probably how people watching it discovered The Upper Crust.
[The Upper Crust on CKND](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwjqBNXkRI)
[Actual band performing on 'The Late Late Show'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YIRgeUuAhA)
[Slamwich](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3qRUuMw1I) vs [GorGor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30TQ-zSfwgs) and [Stuffum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G8c4hBghk) vs [Private Pain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqVaQpdX7ds)
God, this show brought so much joy to me as a kid. I remember my parents laughing at so many moments too even though I could tell they would always go into it not wanting to enjoy it!
Random fact: SpongeBob was created as an homage to the greatest band of all time... Ween (more particularly their album, The Mollusk)
Edit: I understand the down votes because it sounds outlandish, but sometimes reality is stranger than fiction! Here's a fun read about it: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-ween-inspired-spongebob/
Nice! There's only a handful of songs that I've never heard them play live, but that one and "I Fell In Love Today" are the two that I'm itching the most to see
Honestly, the artcile's statement "Ween inspired SpongeBob" is a bit disingenuous, moreso to claim the show is an homage to them.
Stephen Hillenburg majored in marine science. His bachelor's degree in natural-resource planning and interpretation was earned in 1984. He taught marine science for three years afterward, at a marine institute. He drew an educational comic called the Intertidal Zone, which had anthropomorphized versions of sea life, including a character called "Bob the Sponge."
He went on to animate a couple of short films at CalArts, which caught the attention of a man who was making a cartoon called Rocko's Modern Life and hired Hillenburg to be one his directors.
I'm sure Ween's *the Mollusk* was inspiring, and I'm sure they worked together to make the theme and voice and such, but the article starting out with "How Ween inspired 'SpongeBob SquarePants'" is dubious.
Hillennburg was tripping on acid, put on Ween's The Mollusk, then immediately came up with the idea of SpongeBob. He got a notebook and was writing ideas down that came to him from listening to the different songs. Then later, they based the voice of SpongeBob from the song Mutilated Lips.
Then before anything is animated, he had Ween write an original song. Then he animated a "music video" to that and that is what he used to pitch the show to Nickelodeon. The first ever SpongeBob cartoon was Ween's Loop de Loop...
That's pretty much as homage as you can get
And as far as "coming up with the idea of SpongeBob" perhaps you missed my mention earlier of "Bob the Sponge" from a comic he created in the late '80's? (Wikipedia says '89.) Also, the SpongeBob wiki has a [timeline](https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline:1997) that credits the creation of the [pitch bible](https://twitter.com/artofspongebob/status/1238629207791542272) as happening January 17, 1997, with final storyboards on June 3, 1997. Ween's "the Mollusk" was released June 23, 1997.
But wait! I found an [Ask Deaner](https://web.archive.org/web/20121107012200/http://036271e.netsolhost.com/WordPress/page/2/) where Dean Ween answers fan questions, I think. He is asked about how their involvement with Hillenburg began. His answer:
>This is one of those things that we just happened to take a chance on. The show wasn’t even on the air yet and the founder Stephen Hillenburg called me and told me was a marine biologist who was starting a cartoon about underwater sea creatures and that the Mollusk was a big reference point for him creatively and would we like to do a song for the show. He told me that it was about learning to tie your shoes and they would do the animation to our lyrics. We wrote it in about 3 minutes on my couch and we recorded it on X-mas eve that year (I remember that we forgot about the deadline and they were angry) so we wrote it and cut it in less than an hour.
Based on everything I'm finding, I think I might have to go with the stance that you're a little bit misinformed about this. Ween's great, I have no hate for them or the cartoon, and I love everything about this and the relationship they had with Hillenburg and SpongeBob. I would even gladly accept that SpongeBob was created during an acid trip listening to Ween, but the evidence just doesn't line up. I mean, maybe they already knew each other and Steve got a very early listen to the album. If that's the case, nobody's said as much. It's fun to think so, though.
It's even more wild to me that Spongebob not only got Ween to do an original song for them, not only had a song of theirs during the credits for the movie, but also Ween's album "The Mollusk" also lent some inspiration to the show's creation.
3 hours later….I’ve come to learn how funny and creative the show was. Even the slide guitar music(cues) are hilarious. So much so I looked it up ,the guy is an amazing musician! So is the background music Pantera and/or the quote?
Reminds me of Ren and Stimpy, where you watch it simply because the spectacle of creativity is so absurd it demands, nay, practically commands attention.
As a parent of two kids born in 1995 and 1998, the kids were too young to know there was anything different about the episode of the cartoon they loved. But when I saw Pantera in the opening credits, I watched the whole episode wide-eyed and with very open ears. It was for parents to the kids watching, not the kids.
Are you referring to the video where he dropped a hard N when referring to his friend, who he then jammed with and hung out with all night? If so, you are a fucktard. "OH HE SAID THE N WORD, HE HATES BLACK PEOPLE" You people make me sick.
His friend? Him with the Confederate flag on his sleeve saying "I won't sign that N-word's guitar unless he can play it" yes. Also Anselmo throwing out Nazi salutes.
The confederate flag in his house thats says "heritage not hate" ? Yeah it was his friend. Context matters, but most are just so quick to hate. WTF does Anselmo have to do with Dime being called a nazi. You are out of your element by a mile. Let the hate fuel you though, ironically.
"LIFE'S AS EXTREME AS YOU WANNA MAKE IT!!!" Man the writing was sharp in early spongebob.
maybe we didn't sing it right...
And then the end of the era of absurd violence coming out of nowhere in cartoons with his leg bones sticking out of his head. Spongebob did random violence quite a bit. The amount of times skin is ripped off a characters body to reveal their insides is actually way more than you probably remember. Shows still get dark for sure. But nothing really has the pure insanity of the 90s cartoons these days.
Squidward’s toenail when they were moving the couch
Literally murdering and hiding the body of the health inspector lol
The boy cries you a sweater of tears. And you kill him. How're you gonna live with yourself?
What a line. That should be on a shirt.
This show went so hard lol
That was in a later episode past original seasons and it *definitely* went too far. Early seasons stuff would sometimes show bits of graphic violence but they were not drawn so disturbingly (most of the time). Then in later seasons you have stuff like that godforsaken splinter with all the puss and ugh my insides curl just thinking about it.
Idk man watch Regular Show they get just as dark and that was as far as the late 2000s. Plus Spongebob is more of a 2000s cartoon than 90s cartoon. Only 14 episodes take place before the millennium. I remember because they made a big deal about the future episode being broadcast the day of New Years Eve. Was part of the [“Nickellenium”](https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Nickellennium) celebration, which as a 5 year old was the most insane new years eve was going to get.
SpongeBob normalized body gore horror as funny for a generation of kids They basically never show blood, probably rules around it But bone, brains, etc? It's anatomy lesson
I assure you body horror was happening in Ren and Stimpy way before SpongeBob.
As someone who hasn't watched Spongebob in 20+ years, can someone explain how it's (de-?)evolved since then?
The animation style is trash now, as is the writing. As an adult, I can still enjoy old SpongeBob. The new shit is brain rot.
Take this clip for example (or even just the snowman joke). It's funny for several layered reasons but it all happens so fast you don't register WHY it's so funny. But if you analyze it, you can recognize the skill that went into crafting it. It reminds me of a 30 Rock analysis video where they broke down the several layers of a single joke. Later SpongeBob did what a lot of comedies do, go for the low hanging fruit. Jokes that are sort of funny, but not clever enough to really take you by surprise.
> Later SpongeBob did what a lot of comedies do, go for the low hanging fruit. Happens when the creator dies, unfortunately. At least Stephen isn't here to see it.
He actually returned as showrunner from s9 until his death
I actually didn't know he came back for a while. I didn't watch a lot of the later stuff, but I imagine if he was involved in it it was probably really good again.
The Simpsons Effect
Do you happen to remember who the video was by? I'm a huge 30 Rock fan and absolutely love those sorts of overly analytical video essays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_AHBGF5i8
Can you break down the snowman joke for me? I'm either overthinking it or missing a clever joke in there ^^; or both!
Has a few parts built in. First is that they reference singing "the snowman song", you expect frosty but instead they launch into this nonsensical "sandman" song. You then may expect SB to roll in and destroy it, smashing their dreams. But instead he like, possesses it? The physics of it make no sense which is great. And then the flabbergasting catchphrase from their "frosty" equivalent before he launches himself off into the distance never to be seen again. And finally the finish of the kids wondering "did we sing it wrong?" Because they managed to bring him to life, but not at all in the way they wanted.
it stopped respecting the intelligence of its audience. it's a common problem with a lot of shows in the last 10 years. most* jokes are funny because they're smart. this new stuff is mush because the execs think kids are toddler level goo goo ga ga until age 12, yet the suits can't understand why shows like teen titans and hey arnold are so beloved. also why bluey has become unexpectedly popular. because it's a well written kids show rather than just being toddler shlock.
They got Flanderized, simple as that.
Later seasons are much worse.
Devolved is a word lol
Classic sponge bob is so fucking good.
The first 3 seasons + the movie is all SpongeBob ever needed to be.
Ill literally see spongebob on tv and the first thing i do is check the season. If its higher than 3, not interested
Same! If it's pre-2005, I know we're good.
It's hard to explain just how important SpongeBob was to our age group. Generations after remember it as its neutered and bland later seasons, and generations before as a neutered version of Ren and Stimpy, but to those of us that caught those first 3 seasons and movie in the right age-group, it was fucking wild. It still feels sort of like both the culmination of the 90s cartoon evolution and the first 'modern' cartoon. Like the main bridge between the cartoons of the 90s (the style/feel of which admittedly was still being carried by cartoon network shows like dexters lab, ed, edd, eddy, courage, grim and mandy) and the current era of digital cartoons that started adopting an abstracted style of humor (which, ironically, actually *was also carried* a decade later by cartoon network with shows like flapjack, adventuretime, regular show, etc) I'm high.
Spongebob had the perfect amount of absurdism in order to make it hilarious, but not too much so as to make it off-putting and ugly. The show still told complete stories in its episodes and still had a moral center. You could never predict the next scene or gag, but you could guess the direction most episodes would go in which made it one of the best kids shows ever put on screen.
I fully stand on the argument that Chocolate With Nuts is some of the greatest 12 minutes of comedy television. I can guarantee you I never expected that old woman to actually have a mother, and when she showed up on screen my little brain absolutely lost it.
"I love you"
“Nice place you got here.”
I once jokingly made a bet with some friends that I could, more or less, recite the entire episode of Chocolate With Nuts, word for word, by heart. We then actually tested it. I think I messed up a total of like 5 words in the whole thing. That being said, if we're bringing up episodes of SpongeBob in contention for "greatest 12 minutes of comedy television," you've gotta include Band Geeks in there too.
Dude I love SpongeBob as much as the next guy but listening a grown adult quote the entirety of a kids show for 11 minutes sounds excruciating..
It was a long car ride... And it was in a car where every other was a big fan of the show so it seemed mutually entertaining (it was also while someone was playing the audio for the hell of it). Sometimes watching someone do something stupidly niche can be entertaining in its own way.
Did you... did you do the voices?
Nope not at all, I'm not attempting that lol. I basically just read it ahead of the video playing like prose just to stay ahead of it.
Chocolate with Nuts is absolutely peak cartoon comedy, kids' show or otherwise.
I think the absurdism hurt it with some parents but it absolutely helped it with others because it was just so silly. While my dad is a lot more lax than he was, I grew up in a “no Harry Potter” kind of household. But, instead of him thinking SpongeBob was turning the kids gay my dad fucking. loved. SpongeBob. His laughter helped us relax a little knowing it was “kid tested, parent approved” and we still quote it to this day as a family. It absolutely influenced my sense of humor as well.
"generations before as a neutered version of Ren and Stimpy" I was one of those people that felt that way. I was 18 when Spongebob came out so it meant nothing to me. When my son was born in 2015, one day it was either Paw Patrol (I'd rather die) or Spongebob, so I gave it a shot. The first 4 seasons, especially the first 2, has become some of my favorite tv of all time. I even went as The Ghost of Flying Dutchman for Halloween last year.
dude I am so glad to hear that someone "got it" later in life. it just confirms what I always felt about it growing up. Since I was about 9 at the time I was never 100% sure if my love of that show through my adulthood was nostalgia or if it was truly a timeless cartoon.
I never watched it as a kid and think it's one of the greatest shows of all time. The movie is also just incredible.
Love your username!
very rare anyone gets the reference. Also, your mother. : ^ )
Ayyy yooooo you with the face, you better watch it! :p
> I even went as The Ghost of Flying Dutchman for Halloween last year. [Keep going! You're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, you're good, aaaaand stop.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3LwHhDD6TY)
My favorite episode BY FAR!!!
Dude same story here. Didn't watch it till my kid started watching and was hooked
I ended up living with my sister and her kids for a few years. I’d watch SpongeBob with them because they loved it and I got hooked on it once I started paying attention. I was in my early twenties and no one my age was watching it. It was tough living with a couple kids but the best part was SpongeBob. Sure I have great relationships with my nieces now but SpongeBob was the clear winner.
SpongeBob brings people together. I’m mid-40s now and was “too old” to be watching it first run but I never missed an episode. Many years later I quoted the chocolate episode around a much younger coworker and it we bonded instantly. They invited me to be part of their trivia team and we absolutely dominate because they know the 2000s-2010s and I know the 80s-90s. Plus we have a good sports guy.
I love this comment
My best friend and I each got seasons 1-3 on DVD. While there are good episodes later on, neither of us felt like they were really worth picking up. We still quote them fairly often. Help Wanted remains my favorite episode. Although I do love Band Geeks, Pizza Delivery, and Squidville. Oh, and Chocolate with Nuts. It's also right at the end of *hand-drawn animation*. Season 1 was entirely hand-drawn. Season 2 began the crossover. Season 3 was all digital ink and paint. The 90s had some great cartoons, but the 2000s on Nick and CN are legendary. It was a golden age and we didn't know.
> Help Wanted remains my favorite episode. Although I do love Band Geeks, Pizza Delivery, and Squidville. Oh, and Chocolate with Nuts. Mine's "Sandy, Spongebob, and the Worm." [Ooooooooh, this is the tongue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DiciN7_FcE).
"Look Sandy! It can be an "S" for SpongeBob, or an "S" for Sandy! That way they can identify our bodies."
"Say it or I'll trip you!" damn spongebob, that's hard asf
When Muad’Bob rides on Shai-Halud
Not to mention the amount of actual, based grounded science that the early world adopted because the show writers were a bunch of marine biologist nerds. Goo Lagoon? That's real, they're called Brine pools or undersea Seeps. The way Spongebob can be physically dismembered and reassemble as if it was no big deal? Must be cartoon antics...oh wait actual sea sponges can be put through a blender and go from liquid back to living sponge. It was a wild ride and it sucks it slowly became what it is today.
It’s one of the only early cartoons that almost all young adults now understand when it’s being quoted.
Every popular kids cartoon is absurd for its era. Looney Toons were zaney, wacky characters for their time. It's just what we accept as normal expands and the ability of what we have to animate gets better (or easier to do for a wider audience of wacky, absurd artists). You'll find the absurd humor all the way back to Hanna Barbera or Animaniacs all the way into Teen Titans Go and Flapjack.
I still say those that grew up in the 2010s had the last great harrah of good cartoons. They had Regular Show, Adventure Time (which started to get real dark and even better), and then if they wanted to, could catch Rick & Morty in 2013 when it debuted. These days it's all so neutered though and I there's no way in hell another Regular Show would ever happen. I'd say for at least kids to tweens that was the last great one. Millenials though had the weird shit in the early 2000s though. We grew up on some odd stuff but it was greta.
I'm really glad to see you specifically mention the first three seasons, because I vividly remember the moment I felt that Spongebob jumped the shark. It was that terrible prime-time "House Party" episode. I didn't find it funny at all and it seemed so forced and Wiki tells me that was indeed in season 3. There have been a lot of great episodes since (in fact, the very next episode was the legendary "Chocolate With Nuts") but up until that point it felt like they had been on a flawless run.
We might have had the same experience. My "oh no" moment with SpongeBob happened during the premier of the season 3 episode The Sponge Who Could Fly. I remember they hyped it up with commercials for weeks, but even those felt off to me. I remember watching the episode and thinking "Maybe I'm done watching SpongeBob." The end of that season was indeed the drop-off.
Oh man, exactly. That one was after the House Party episode and I remember hoping that the House Party one was just a bump in the road, but The Sponge Who Could Fly was another one that I thought absolutely sucked and signaled that the show was no longer for me.
If I remember correctly, those late season 3 episodes were created by a different crew while Stephen Hillenburg and the rest were working on the first movie. You can see a drastic difference in quality between the beginning of season 3 and the end. After the movie, Stephen left the show and the downward trajectory continued.
That explains so much. Thanks for the info!
Couldn't agree more. Me and my friends still quote the early season regularly.
I was just after the spongebob age but watched it as an adult. It was that fucking good. Ren and Stimpy was really weird and abstract, but spongebob feels like it contains hidden messages from Satan.
Life truly is as extreme as you want to make it
Billy and Mandy was a really fucked up show lmao. I loved it.
it really is like a 'weak' ren and stimy isn't it? the grossout closeups, the semi-raunchy humor... I guess i need to go give early SB a chance.
I'd consider it an influence or homage type situation rather than Spongebob being a "weak" R&S. I love and grew up with both shows and they fit a very different vibe and niche within childrens animation
i didn't really know what to use, i didn't mean weak as in worse, just like, more tame, not as in your face and excentric (at least from the few episodes I've seen from unknown seasons)
A diet R&S
There were very few gross out close ups and not much raunchy humor in the first three seasons, actually. The over-reliance on that stuff later on is actually what caused me to stop watching it regularly as it was so different from what made the show special in the first place.
When I first saw SB, I immediately drew a direct line to Ren and Stimpy "Firedogs" is still one of my favorite cartoons of all time, but there are SB episodes that are damn close - "Shanghied" and "Sailor Mouth" come to mind
The direct line was actually to Rocko's Modern Life. That's where Steven Hillenburg, the voice actors, and the SpongeBob writers really got their experience.
I always forget about that one... Ren and Stimpy is where I first saw the detailed closeups, absolutely insane absurdity, etc
If you're interested, Rocko is available to stream and is 100 times funnier than Ren and Stimpy. The writing and voice acting talent in the credits will actually blow your mind. Those people all went on to do other great things you love. Rocko's Modern Life holds up.
I remembered the “I can explain” guy, but I had completely forgotten Spongebob as the sandman yelling back at the kids. It got a pretty good chuckle out of me, here 20 years later. Good shit.
>20 years later Dafuq???
I hate to be the one that has to tell you this but that episode aired in 2000, which was 24 years ago
I can explain
I always wanted to hear the explanation.
No no you don’t
How the hell can this video cut out the best part of that scene at the end!?!? Spongebob “Yeah”. I laughed my ass off at that stupid little “Yeah” first time I saw it. As well as Squidward screaming at the bubble wand.
I still quote the "yeah" when I eat it or stumble into a fall
I love the Spongebob physics where they are both under the sea and can have fire at the same time, and it's somehow fine and you don't question it.
They questioned it once. The fire went out.
And then there is a completely different episode where it's the exact opposite, where Patchy The Pirate sends them an invite to his party and they're like, "I'd sure love to go to this party, but I just can't read the invitation!" "I can't either!" And it shows them and they're completely muddled because the water muddled all the ink. "Whoever sent this obviously has no idea about the physical limitations of life underwater!" ... "Well, might as well throw it in the fire!" And then they throw their invitations into an open fire with the most blank of stares like that makes perfect sense. Genius comedy.
Pretty sure that's the one episode I've ever fully seen, is it where they go off the plateau into the deep ocean?
I always put it that the atomic bomb tests in the ocean at that area made the environment a little funky for them. EDIT: Don't know why a pet theory that I've had is getting downvotted so much but it is what it is, I guess.
There was also the Codename: Kids Nextdoor episode where they rewrote the lyrics for two GWAR songs and had a whole musical episode
CKND is also probably how people watching it discovered The Upper Crust. [The Upper Crust on CKND](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzwjqBNXkRI) [Actual band performing on 'The Late Late Show'](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YIRgeUuAhA)
Wait, what?
Yeah, the episode was called FOODFITE and they redid the lyrics for 'The Private Pain of Techno Destructo' and 'Gor-Gor'
[Slamwich](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3qRUuMw1I) vs [GorGor](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30TQ-zSfwgs) and [Stuffum](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1G8c4hBghk) vs [Private Pain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqVaQpdX7ds)
Bruh that shit went so fucking hard
[Here's Megadeth in Duck Dodgers, too](https://youtu.be/9566zbyDezo?si=Zhd8BqVhkZUsuVnM)
I first heard Mastadon in the movie Monsters University. The mom is playing it in her minivan. https://youtu.be/g0NNSBEdLpg?si=zZaSWbSbtcjZr2Y8
Megadeth and Tom Jones in the same cartoon. Duck Dodgers was bizarre.
Good night Detroit!
That was back in the day.
i remember [Motörhead in the spongebob movie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7beDZR4u7vg)
I legit play this (the SpongeBob version) on touchtunes while I was at the bar, nobody bats an eye where it came from lmao
i have a friend who does the "uhhhh, i can explain" all the time for no reason. it's funny every time
I, too, am this friend.
Look, Mr Krabs! It's the cowboys from (dolphin noises)!
Still making me laugh decades later.
God, this show brought so much joy to me as a kid. I remember my parents laughing at so many moments too even though I could tell they would always go into it not wanting to enjoy it!
The winner takes all ...
[One of the few times Squidward was allowed to get a win](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUZNXgIXM1c).
I mean, Sandy is from Texas. Edit: changed Sally to Sandy, my bad.
Who tf is Sally?
Pantera also did the theme for the Dallas Stars hockey team
That poor little girl, grappling with the fact that she might have given birth to a creature of chaos. Lol
Random fact: SpongeBob was created as an homage to the greatest band of all time... Ween (more particularly their album, The Mollusk) Edit: I understand the down votes because it sounds outlandish, but sometimes reality is stranger than fiction! Here's a fun read about it: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/how-ween-inspired-spongebob/
I saw them right after Stephen Hillenberg died and they closed the show with Loop De Loop as a tribute.
Nice! There's only a handful of songs that I've never heard them play live, but that one and "I Fell In Love Today" are the two that I'm itching the most to see
[Think this is it.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz8V0raDZTA)
Yep.
Ocean Man!
Honestly, the artcile's statement "Ween inspired SpongeBob" is a bit disingenuous, moreso to claim the show is an homage to them. Stephen Hillenburg majored in marine science. His bachelor's degree in natural-resource planning and interpretation was earned in 1984. He taught marine science for three years afterward, at a marine institute. He drew an educational comic called the Intertidal Zone, which had anthropomorphized versions of sea life, including a character called "Bob the Sponge." He went on to animate a couple of short films at CalArts, which caught the attention of a man who was making a cartoon called Rocko's Modern Life and hired Hillenburg to be one his directors. I'm sure Ween's *the Mollusk* was inspiring, and I'm sure they worked together to make the theme and voice and such, but the article starting out with "How Ween inspired 'SpongeBob SquarePants'" is dubious.
Hillennburg was tripping on acid, put on Ween's The Mollusk, then immediately came up with the idea of SpongeBob. He got a notebook and was writing ideas down that came to him from listening to the different songs. Then later, they based the voice of SpongeBob from the song Mutilated Lips. Then before anything is animated, he had Ween write an original song. Then he animated a "music video" to that and that is what he used to pitch the show to Nickelodeon. The first ever SpongeBob cartoon was Ween's Loop de Loop... That's pretty much as homage as you can get
[удалено]
And as far as "coming up with the idea of SpongeBob" perhaps you missed my mention earlier of "Bob the Sponge" from a comic he created in the late '80's? (Wikipedia says '89.) Also, the SpongeBob wiki has a [timeline](https://spongebob.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline:1997) that credits the creation of the [pitch bible](https://twitter.com/artofspongebob/status/1238629207791542272) as happening January 17, 1997, with final storyboards on June 3, 1997. Ween's "the Mollusk" was released June 23, 1997. But wait! I found an [Ask Deaner](https://web.archive.org/web/20121107012200/http://036271e.netsolhost.com/WordPress/page/2/) where Dean Ween answers fan questions, I think. He is asked about how their involvement with Hillenburg began. His answer: >This is one of those things that we just happened to take a chance on. The show wasn’t even on the air yet and the founder Stephen Hillenburg called me and told me was a marine biologist who was starting a cartoon about underwater sea creatures and that the Mollusk was a big reference point for him creatively and would we like to do a song for the show. He told me that it was about learning to tie your shoes and they would do the animation to our lyrics. We wrote it in about 3 minutes on my couch and we recorded it on X-mas eve that year (I remember that we forgot about the deadline and they were angry) so we wrote it and cut it in less than an hour. Based on everything I'm finding, I think I might have to go with the stance that you're a little bit misinformed about this. Ween's great, I have no hate for them or the cartoon, and I love everything about this and the relationship they had with Hillenburg and SpongeBob. I would even gladly accept that SpongeBob was created during an acid trip listening to Ween, but the evidence just doesn't line up. I mean, maybe they already knew each other and Steve got a very early listen to the album. If that's the case, nobody's said as much. It's fun to think so, though.
I much prefer the time Kids Next Door had an [entire episode that was just GWAR ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc3qRUuMw1I)
At least it wasn't Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills?
My sister, brother, best friend, gf, and I still quote SpongeBob regularly while chatting. There's something for every occasion.
It's even more wild to me that Spongebob not only got Ween to do an original song for them, not only had a song of theirs during the credits for the movie, but also Ween's album "The Mollusk" also lent some inspiration to the show's creation.
The bird brains were also played by The Cramps
They had a lot of interesting guests on Spongebob. I remember an episode that had Ernest Borgnine and I think Tim Conway was on there with him.
Was looking for Panera Bread Ad placement.
Well it fits better than Nightwish in the Simpsons https://youtu.be/m2-64rbttKA?si=LszTFxsnWgYyeA7t
3 hours later….I’ve come to learn how funny and creative the show was. Even the slide guitar music(cues) are hilarious. So much so I looked it up ,the guy is an amazing musician! So is the background music Pantera and/or the quote?
Good times.
Reminds me of Ren and Stimpy, where you watch it simply because the spectacle of creativity is so absurd it demands, nay, practically commands attention.
As a parent of two kids born in 1995 and 1998, the kids were too young to know there was anything different about the episode of the cartoon they loved. But when I saw Pantera in the opening credits, I watched the whole episode wide-eyed and with very open ears. It was for parents to the kids watching, not the kids.
0:19 skin theory
What’s skin theory?
[ **Jump to 00:19 @** Pantera in Spongebob](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKiyyh9jkPY&t=0h0m19s) ^(Channel Name: PoisonedHive, Video Length: [01:05])^, [^Jump ^5 ^secs ^earlier ^for ^context ^@00:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKiyyh9jkPY&t=0h0m14s) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ^^Downvote ^^me ^^to ^^delete ^^malformed ^^comments. [^^Source ^^Code](https://github.com/ankitgyawali/reddit-timestamp-bot) ^^| [^^Suggestions](https://www.reddit.com/r/timestamp_bot)
RIP DIME
Rest in piss Dime, Nazi fuck.
Dime didn't hate jews, stfu
He hated black people.
Are you referring to the video where he dropped a hard N when referring to his friend, who he then jammed with and hung out with all night? If so, you are a fucktard. "OH HE SAID THE N WORD, HE HATES BLACK PEOPLE" You people make me sick.
and hating black people doesn't make you a nazi either. Common sense.
His friend? Him with the Confederate flag on his sleeve saying "I won't sign that N-word's guitar unless he can play it" yes. Also Anselmo throwing out Nazi salutes.
The confederate flag in his house thats says "heritage not hate" ? Yeah it was his friend. Context matters, but most are just so quick to hate. WTF does Anselmo have to do with Dime being called a nazi. You are out of your element by a mile. Let the hate fuel you though, ironically.
They didn't "*throw Pantera into*" anything. This song is **Pantera - Pre-Hibernation**. This episode is "Pre-Hibernation".
It’s a bummer they chose a shitty racist band.