There are two types of people in the world: Those who know who SpongeBob SquarePants is and those who don’t.
And to narrow the distinction even further, those who know the little yellow sponge fish who lives in a pineapple under the sea can be divided into those who love the noisy little TV cartoon devil and those who hate the very sight and sound of him. I am happy to report that I am solidly in the camp who not only knows SpongeBob, but who can’t get enough of him. The reason this makes me glad is because I know I probably would never have encountered the sometimes-annoying little sea creature with the staccato laugh were it not for the two youngsters in my house who have seen every episode of this long-running cartoon and never get tired of seeing them again. And neither do I. Therefore, I conclude that I have not yet grown so old and cynical (though it’s a close one) that I cannot chuckle at simple humour like I did when I was 10 years old and losing it over the Porky Pig crew.
When the troubles of the world get too much to take in, a good dose of SpongeBob, his dimwitted starfish friend Patrick Star, his curmudgeonly neighbour Squidward, his penny-pinching boss Mr. Krabs and a host of other characters including a tiny demonic creature named Plankton, is all the solace I need.
And so it was that when the SpongeBob SquarePants movie came to Stratford a month ago, I was the first one in line outside the theatre on opening day, waiting for the doors to open. A couple of insubordinate youngsters tried to squeeze in line in front of me but I fought them off bravely. My money is as good as theirs, I reasoned.
I howled with laughter all through the big-screen version of the antics of Bikini Bottom where all these creatures live (including a squirrel from Texas called Sandy who somehow ended up at the bottom of the sea and who lives in an air-filled dome and wears a space suit and glass helmet when outside of it) and felt the world was totally right when I left the building.
As was the Bugs Bunny gang when I was growing up – my favourite figure was the loud-mouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn – the Bikini Bottom dwellers of the year 2005 are cleverly created for children but targeted to adults as well. And while I still crack up over a good Yosemite Sam or Sylvester the Cat episode, SpongeBob is giving the Warner Brothers classics a run for their money.
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What I find so hilarious about the show – and it probably shouldn’t be analyzed – is that the characters take in practically every personality type known from the naive to the numb-skulled to the nasty. They all struggle with their various dilemmas – not an episode goes by where a character or two doesn’t break down crying – and yet, despite their defects, they are all good-hearted at their core and somehow work it all out despite the mostly dysfunctional community that they are.
The day SpongeBob and Patrick decide to start a business selling chocolate bars door to door is a killer episode as is the one where SpongeBob’s pet snail Gary, who meows like a cat, refuses to take a bath.
Of course, it helps to have two elementary schoolers in the house who continually crack up over scenes they’ve seen a dozen times, such as SpongeBob failing yet again to get his boat-driving licence or the one where Plankton, ever in search of the recipe for the Krabby Patty burgers frycook SpongeBob serves up at Mr. Krabs’ restaurant the Krusty Krab, wins SpongeBob in a poker match with Krabs and takes him off to his own restaurant – the Chum Bucket – to cook for him.
But I would like to think that, kids or no kids, had I landed on this show as I flipped around the dial, I would have loved it all the same. I know there is much to criticize about the world of entertainment these days what with wardrobe malfunctions and violent movies and video games, but thank God for it all nevertheless. Distraction is about the only hope we have, it seems to me, in a world that seems so often to have gone completely mad. And SpongeBob SquarePants is the mental equivalent of a cool shower after a hot day in the fields. I, for one, need more of Youth Television (YTV) and a whole lot less of Cable News Network (CNN).
I know, as we are learning these days, that good human beings outnumber the bad a million to one but sometimes it’s hard to remember that. To me, the writers, artists, producers and voice actors who bring me SpongeBob SquarePants twice a day definitely belong in the good column.
©2005 Jim Hagarty
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