Current Events > What the fuck happened to SpongeBob?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/spongebob/status/1449096104386117638?s=21

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Didnt listen to it with sound

getting some real Ren and Stimpy vibes from that clip

thats not a compliment

notoriously hated episode, but "new" spongebob's animation is so over the top and busy, i hate it

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Yo what the fuck

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viewmaster_pi posted...

notoriously hated episode, but "new" spongebob's animation is so over the top and busy, i hate it

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looks like it's become a parody of itself

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@root rkhunter

.........success..............

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The creator left the show after the first movie (around season 4), and it just started getting worse and worse from there. They pretty much gave up on trying to be funny and focused on being gross instead. I gave up on it around season 7 or 8, but the worst episode up that point was definitely The Splinter. Look up clips of that one on Youtube at your own risk.
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it very much seems like every episode is like "duhhhh look at the funny face little kids, duh huh huh huh!!!!"

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Yeah I tried sticking with it but after the first movie I was just like nah, Im done

So I just stick with the first three seasons / five years and the first movie.

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Season 4 still had a few gems in it before things went completely to shit. Krusty Towers is still one of my favorites.

viewmaster_pi posted...

it very much seems like every episode is like "duhhhh look at the funny face little kids, duh huh huh huh!!!!"

No, that was from a good episode.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5QldxFimfE
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totalnerdken posted...

Wtf did I just watch? It reminds me of Ren and Stimpy but dumber.

This, and that show made me cringe as a kid.

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Yeah it still had glimmers of quality sometimes for awhile but least it's still a meme factory.

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Good lord that's awful

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Well that was insane

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The fuck Spongebob

https://twitter.com/FallenDiscrete/status/1449420860490649602?s=20

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Guns_of_Verdun posted...

Good lord that's awful

this

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Are you feeling it now Mr Krabs?

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Are all current episodes like this? Ew.

YugiNoob posted...

The fuck Spongebob

https://twitter.com/FallenDiscrete/status/1449420860490649602?s=20

Jesus what the fuck

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I saw this years ago

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what's with the mouth movement and noises when he takes his shoes off? was he supposed to say something, but they just couldn't think of anything? was he not supposed to say anything but the animators didn't know? everything's just... off between what they do and how they deliver lines. it's too much

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Complete garbage.

If they wouldve stopped at season 4 and the movie, Spongebob would be remembered as legendary. Its legacy is beyond tarnished.

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Well no. It's still Nickelodeon's cash cow, continuing to do well enough to keep them running through the dark ages (where they had failure after failure trying to recapture the magic of Spongebob). It's just miraculously running on nostalgia of the first 4 seasons and I assume the rare good episode in more recent seasons.
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SpongeBob really should have ended after the first movie.

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TC, why. I need like some brain bleach now.

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pokedude900 posted...

The creator left the show after the first movie (around season 4), and it just started getting worse and worse from there. They pretty much gave up on trying to be funny and focused on being gross instead. I gave up on it around season 7 or 8, but the worst episode up that point was definitely The Splinter. Look up clips of that one on Youtube at your own risk.

sponge bob was in an odd place in the cartoon world.

you had your 80s cartoons, they were a grown ups idea of what is cool and aspirational for a kid. In these cartoons you were a hero and usually a grown up. This is stuff like the old Spider-Man cartoons where he had the iceman and fire star girl as sidekicks, and you also had stuff like He-man.

then 90s cartoons followed. They were still aspirational for kids, but they were significantly cooler, the animation was significantly better and the storylines were more complex. Examples of these cartoons were the 90s Spider-Man cartoon, xmen, Batman the animated series and stuff like that.

eventually these awesome 90s cartoons became too costly to make and they took too much effort. Latter efforts such as the thunder cats remake or Batman beyond were too expensive to make and they werent there successful.

this led to the 2000s cartoon trends. They were no longer aspirational for kids, these cartoons are not about a hero or otherwise powerful or good character that is doing good. These cartoons were not about someone the kids should look up to, but about someone the kids can relate to already. These cartoons are no longer about what a grown up would agree that is cool, such as an anthropomorphic cat with a magic sword battling an evil mummy, or freaking Batman. These cartoons are just meant to be easy, mindless fun. Theyre supposed to be funny and low pressure for the kids.

spongebob belonged to this 2000s cartoon trend: silly, zany and good natured fun. Spongebob was in the same conceptual paradigm as the the fairly oddparents, hey Arnold, Ed edd and eddy, Fineas and pherb, etc.

eventually this 2000s cartoon concept devolved in the 2010s into plain stupidity, shock value, toilet humor, and whatever the opposite of aspirational is: now the central character is supposed to be gross and dumb. Examples of this are Steven universe, gumball, teen Titans go! And all of the cal-arts bullshit out there.

sponge bob began as a 2000s cartoon and saw great success. Sponge bob was a dumb but lovable, naive and sweet kid who shared his funny and zany adventures with us. The cartoon has gone for so long that the original creator is gone and the cartoon transitioned into a 2010s cartoon paradigm, bring on the toilet humor, gross stuff and exaggerated shit.

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Steven hillenberg wrote a "design bible" for spongebob back when he was pitching the idea. It's the blueprints for the show, it describes the point of the show, its characters, the nature of the humor etc. This is an interesting video that reviews the interesting parts of it and how the show has changed compared to its blueprints.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypWH7QxjZBE

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SpongeBob went to shit in 04.

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Who actually likes gross-out "humor"? I always hated that shit in the 90s and never understood who it appeals to and who decided it appeals to others.

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Farts and burps can be funny under the right circumstances, so maybe they thought grosser = funnier. But they also forgot to make it funny to begin with.
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1337toothbrush posted...

Who actually likes gross-out "humor"? I always hated that shit in the 90s and never understood who it appeals to and who decided it appeals to others.

ren and stimpy started that shit and that show was never funny, as a kid I always hated when they'd play it

south park popularized it among adult shows, which led to batches of adult-oriented shows that were meant to be gross and unappealing to chase the south park trend.

spongebob always had some gross-out humor but it was balanced with genuine wit. i'm talking about its first seasons.

it makes me appreciate early spongebob, as well as other cartoons like phineas and ferb which relied on clever writing rather than edginess and shock humor

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Kloe_Rinz posted...

Didnt listen to it with sound

getting some real Ren and Stimpy vibes from that clip

thats not a compliment

This.

How long has it been like this?

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I don't know when it got THIS bad, but it definitely started devolving into this partway through season 4, which was 2006-ish. Statistically speaking, Spongebob has been a terrible show with some good episodes for the majority of its lifespan.
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DogOfPeace posted...

eventually this 2000s cartoon concept devolved in the 2010s into plain stupidity, shock value, toilet humor, and whatever the opposite of aspirational is: now the central character is supposed to be gross and dumb. Examples of this are Steven universe, gumball, teen Titans go! And all of the cal-arts bullshit out there.

Of the thousands of actual examples of this type of cartoon you chose Steven Universe lol

DogOfPeace posted...

Examples of this are Steven universe, gumball

I know you're not lumping those shows with:

DogOfPeace posted...

plain stupidity, shock value, toilet humor

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stoltenberg11 posted...

Of the thousands of actual examples of this type of cartoon you chose Steven Universe lol

They just wanted to dunk on the bean mouth.

Verdekal posted...

SpongeBob went to shit in 04.

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SpongeBob has always had wild shit like this in it. Remember the episode where SpongeBob is training Gary for a snail race, and during the race Gary's shell breaks apart and his fucking eyeball explodes?

https://youtu.be/7c3_57CVIu8

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Could have sworn that was a season 4 episode, but no, season 3. Honestly looking at the list, even that was hit or miss. We had some of the best episodes like Chocolate with Nuts and Krusty Krab Training Video, but also shit like The Sponge Who Could Fly (I don't know why they hyped this one up so much).
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pokedude900 posted...

Could have sworn that was a season 4 episode, but no, season 3. Honestly looking at the list, even that was hit or miss. We had some of the best episodes like Chocolate with Nuts and Krusty Krab Training Video, but also shit like The Sponge Who Could Fly (I don't know why they hyped this one up so much).

Really wouldnt call S3 hit or miss, that one & Planktons Army were the only weak ones from the season & even the latter had its moments

https://youtu.be/rmnqCKSieVQ

https://youtu.be/DDEhS0mckfs
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I thought I was the only person who didn't care for Ren and Stimpy's random and weird gross out humor. Yeah, Spongebob always had a bit of that, but nothing like this. The few clips I've seen of newer Spongebob almost seem like a totally different show. The charm and (relative) subtlety is gone.

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Not quite Ren and Stimpy level yet. I never could stand that disgusting show.

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PC_Genjin posted...

Really wouldnt call S3 hit or miss, that one & Planktons Army were the only weak ones from the season & even the latter had its moments

The Great Snail Race admittedly did have some good jokes. But the race itself was the first time I ever thought "this isn't funny, just gross". Spongebob being a complete jackass was hard to watch too. Missing Identity was also leaning in that direction, now that I think about it.
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They overdid the my leg gag too on one episode