SpongeBob SquarePants Cleanup

The Flanderization laconic, changed per the improvement thread: "One of a character's traits becomes their main facet over time."

I was less concerned with misuse, and more concerned with the bash-y and whiny language.

First new post in over a month, but I've noticed the Fanon Discontinuity section for YMMV.The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water (more specifically the second bullet) is a bit lengthy and excessive. I'm also not sure if the Were Still Relevant Dammit example actually counts as one. (I know Weezer got a big boost in popularity after their "Africa" cover but they've been fairly active for nearly 30 years.)

Which Were Still Relevant Dammit example? Also note that that trope is currently in a Trope Talk discussion spun off from TRS so the trope may not exist in its current form for much longer.

Did you mean YMMV.The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge On The Run?

Ah, that's the one. Yeah that's an easy cut, Weezer have been popular since The '90s.

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Aug 18th 2021 at 8:31:41 AM

Oh, yeah, that was the one I meant. Whoopsies.

This example on SpongeBob SquarePants S1E4 "Naughty Nautical Neighbors" / "Boating School" seems to exaggerate how many times Mrs. Puff wants to kill Spongebob.

• Harsher in Hindsight: Mrs. Puff is apathetic to SpongeBob's antics in this episode, but soon enough, she goes insane to the points of wanting to kill him. Most notably in "Demolition Doofus".

Wasn't it just that one episode? And that doesn't make this episode Harsher in Hindsight, I don't think, just shoehorned complaining about flanderization.

You know what else was one episode? SpongeBob being stupidly horrible to Gary.

Speaking of that episode, Sometime ago I changed this entry:

• Laser-Guided Karma: After everything SpongeBob did throughout Puffy Fluffy's stay, the monster rightfully rewards him for his jerkish behavior toward Gary by nearly devouring him whole, to the point of even silencing him with one of his prehensile tongues.

To this:

• Asshole Victim: SpongeBob almost being Eaten Alive by Puffy Fluffy serves as indirect karma for his jerkish and oblivious behavior towards Gary throughout the episode.

I don't know which trope is a better fit for SpongeBob facing the concequences of his actions. The main reason I switched it because it makes it sounds like Puffy Fluffy had the sapience to punish SpongeBob for how he treated Gary in the episode, when it wouldn't really care either way. The former Laser-Guided Karma entry has some complainy editorializing in it too.

I also found this entry in Unacceptable Targets:

• Gary the Snail from SpongeBob SquarePants; while he does have his moments of snark, he's the least likely of the main characters to pick up the Jerkass Ball, and thus the least deserving of being the butt of a joke. Episodes that put him under significant distress, then play it for laughs (i.e. "A Pal For Gary", "Pet Sitter Pat"), are met with unanimously negative reception (ones that play it for drama, like with "Have You Seen This Snail?" and "Treats!" are better received).

Edited by PlasmaPower on Aug 24th 2021 at 10:48:43 AM

I think the vitriol towards "A Pal for Gary" and "Pet Sitter Pat" is less because of Gary as a character and more for being the underwater equivalent of comically abusing a cat.

Should the entries questioning negative continuity on the Headscratchers page be removed? SpongeBob is famous for its extremely poor continuity, so I can't imagine these entries would be plausible since the answer would become painfully obvious to all of them at some point.

Edited by TVGuy2001 on Sep 20th 2021 at 8:12:55 AM

There are some entries on Jerkass to One, which, while not misuse, seem a bit too complainy, but I can't quite lay a finger on what exactly to change or remove. For reference, here they are:

• While Squidward is generally a snide, rude asshole to everyone around him, and has personally admitted to hating everyone in Bikini Bottom on more than one occasion, he's much ruder and meaner to SpongeBob than he is to anyone else. To be fair, much of Squidward's attitude toward SpongeBob is justified, since SpongeBob constantly bothers him and his antics often ruin Squidward's day. It doesn't help that they're not only neighbors, but are also co-workers at the Krusty Krab. The "to be fair" part seems iffy to me.
• SpongeBob is typically the only person whom Mrs. Puff holds a grudge against. Aside from him, she's usually outgoing and friendly to everyone. Like Squidward, it's easy to see why she's hostile toward him, considering the amount of times he has endangered her with his reckless driving and gotten her arrested. ???
• While Mr. Krabs alternates between a money-grubbing but fairly likeable guy at best and a cold-hearted, greedy jerkass who only cares about making money at the expense of everyone else at worst, one thing that's consistent is that he seems to have a special hatred for his business rival Plankton, making efforts to actively sabotage Plankton when he's making legitimate profits or simply trying to make him miserable. He's at his lowest in "One Course Meal," where Krabs relentlessly torments him psychologically by dressing up as Pearl (since whales eat plankton), to the extent that Plankton is nearly Driven to Suicide, all for the sake of a cheap laugh. Seems like stealth One Course Meal complaining.
• Squilliam Fancyson is an arrogant, elitist snob in general, but he takes particular delight in tormenting Squidward, whether by rubbing his wealth and success in his face or by setting him up to be publicly humiliated. This is because the two have been bitter rivals since high school, and Squilliam knows his wealth, success and popularity make him everything Squidward — a struggling artist and musician who has to work as a cashier at a fast food restaurant to pay his bills — dreams of being. This one actually seems fine.

Do you think all Aesop examples in the recaps are good examples? If so, the series should have its own An Aesop page.

Maybe ask the Headscratchers clean up.

• Americans Hate Tingle: The show is disliked in Norway not only due to the decline in quality affecting the episodes of Seasons 4-9, but also because of the replacement of the titular character's voice actor with Trond Teigen (known for his role as Aladdin among other more action-oriented roles), whose attempts at mimicking the previous actor's performance come off as forced and unconvincing.

Didn’t everyone else hate the Seasonal Rot of the show? It’s not like the rot didn’t exist in other countries. Also, the latter part of the entry sounds like WTH, Casting Agency?. This all just sounds shoehorned if that’s the only problem Norwegians have with the show.

Edited by PlasmaPower on Feb 4th 2022 at 6:03:47 AM

Yeah, that's They Changed It, Now It Sucks! / general Seasonal Rot. Slice away.

Under An Aesop on Sponge Bob Square Pants S 3 E 3 The Bully Just One Bite:

• Assuming that this episode is set after "Sandy's Rocket", don't be surprised if those who you annoy/anger want revenge against you.
• Adding to the previous aesop, don't take mischief as malice.

Neither of these messages were pushed, and it also hinges on the very debatable timeline.

It's been brought up before, but the recap pages for the series have a problem with shoehorned Aesops.

I'm seeing multiple aesops on those pages and very few seem directly relevant.

"The Bully" doesn't have a lesson so much as just an exploration of bullying (unless you take SB's squishy body saving his life as a Space Whale Aesop) and "Just One Bite" has a simple aesop of "you won't know if you like it til you try it."

I actually once considered opening a sandbox to sort through the Aesops- Genuine- for example, SpongeBob's Last Stand (Green Aesop) Accidental Aesop- for example, Pizza Delivery most likely wasn't ment to have the message "Don't treat delivery drivers (or other service people, for that matter) like garbage just because your order wasn't what you were expecting", but it's easy to see where someone could get that idea from it Then there's the pure shoehorns, like those above or "Sandy, SpongeBob and the Worm", which has this under An Aesop: Anything is possible with teamwork. From defeating a worm to pushing the entire city elsewhere...

These seem to be the three categories for most of the aesop examples- although I think my suggestion would be misuse of the sandbox...

Edited by fragglelover on May 12th 2022 at 11:22:30 AM

No, I think that's a good use of the sandbox as you're using it to collect and sort examples for cleanup.

Alright, I have created a sandbox for that here, as well as added some examples from one episode. Please note that this is my first time doing something like this, so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right...

I felt the need to bring these examples up, as I wasn't sure where to place them (all from "The Smoking Peanut"):

• Don't put down people when they own up to their honest mistakes, not even if you think they are also taking responsibility for someone else's.
• Don't let other people take the blame for what you've done.
• Sometimes, what happened isn't your fault. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think they're all Misuse, but I'm not sure...

I think the second part might be the lesson of the episode?

Speaking of Aesops, Recap.Sponge Bob Square Pants S 3 E 1 The Great Snail Race Mid Life Crustacean claims that "Mid-Life Crustacean" has the Aesop that doing youthful things is what solves a midlife crisis. Doubt that's intentional though, since it's a kids' show.