SpongeBob Squarepants - Does It Hold Up?
Welcome to the classic hold up, where we analyze media from the past. Each episode features a different host that brings a fresh take on a film, TV show, video game, or music album of their choice. Do old favorites have a shelf life? Will the classics hold up?
Speaker 2:SpongeBob SquarePants first premiered on Nickelodeon in May 1999, marking the beginning of one of the most iconic animated shows in television history. Created by animator and director Steven Hillenburg, the show was first conceived as a nautical comic strip while Hillenburg was teaching marine biology at Orange County Marine Institute. He eventually went to Cal Arts and graduated working as a writer and artist for Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life. When Rocko's show had finished its third and final season, Hillenburg was working on creating a new show to pitch to Nickelodeon. It was inspired by his original comic strip to make something that was familiar to him, an animal show about marine life.
Speaker 2:After many reworks and revisions, SpongeBob SquarePants was born. SpongeBob SquarePants was released in early nineteen ninety nine, and its final episode of season one aired in late two thousand one. With 20 episodes airing, these early episodes established the style, character dynamics, and humor that laid the groundwork for SpongeBob that we know today. The art style being underwater was a fresh concept to the animal shows of the late nineties, which had their cats, dogs, and other land loving protagonists. The show often combined the childlike enthusiasm with surreal comedy, bridging generations and appealing to both kids and adults.
Speaker 2:SpongeBob's characters are iconic, but even more than that, I think they may be the easiest characters in the world to describe just based on their personalities alone. SpongeBob is kind, optimistic, emotional. Squidward is rude, sarcastic, self centered. With a show full of characters with overtly basic and obvious personalities, you might get the impression that SpongeBob isn't very complex when it comes to character conflict. However, in the original season, each character's most memorable moments are when they break these rigid structures.
Speaker 2:The structures were for readability, but they were never the rule. This gave a more complex dynamic between these characters. Season one of SpongeBob set the gold standard for animated humor in the early two thousands. Its writing combined slapstick, absurdism, and heartfelt character interactions resulting in universally remembered moments for a whole generation. The season's standout episodes demonstrated the remarkable ability to balance surreal humor with relatable emotions.
Speaker 2:The show's bright color palette, memorable voice work, and timeless themes of friendship and perseverance captivated audiences around the world. For many viewers, season one remains the purest expression of Hillenburg's vision before the franchise expanded into new creative directions. By the release of season three and the departure of Hillenburg, viewers have debated the quality of the show and its popularity ever since. Following the success of season one, SpongeBob became Nickelodeon's flagship series and one of the most recognizable brands in entertainment. Its cultural footprint grew exponentially influencing the early Internet, inspiring theme park attractions, and even planning with the SpongeBob production team to make a full feature film.
Speaker 2:SpongeBob's impact would also be felt through the growing children's animation industry. The Little Sponge proved that animated shows could thrive through the cross generational appeal. This would inspire networks to start investing in more sophisticated and eccentric programming. SpongeBob helped lay the foundation for a generation of cartoons that could be larger than the Saturday morning cartoons by appealing to general audiences. Some shows accomplished this feat by making a more compelling story told through serialized episodes, like Avatar the Last Airbender and Steven Universe.
Speaker 2:Some did it through capturing the wacky Internet humor like in Amazing World of Gumball and Regular Show. These shows have been given the opportunity to flourish because of the foundation that SpongeBob has created. Even decades after its debut, SpongeBob continues to thrive as a multigenerational phenomenon. This show's first season remains a benchmark for creative storytelling, influencing not just animators, but directors, writers, and artists across the creative industry. The blend of innocence, wit, and absurdity continues to shape Internet culture and inspired new works that echo its balance of chaos and sincerity.
Speaker 2:From memes to musicals, SpongeBob's legacy endures as a testament to the power of originality. Hello, and welcome back to the classic hold up. I'm your host, Devin Bush, and I'm here with my guest, Brennan Bush. Thank you for being here, and please bring deodorant if you're invited back to the studio.
Speaker 3:Listen. Okay? Just because Parmesan is not officially a deodorant does not mean that it doesn't count.
Speaker 2:This is my brother, Brendan Bush in the studio. Say hi. Howdy. How you doing? And today, we're gonna be talking about SpongeBob.
Speaker 3:Hey. Hey. Speaking of Parmesan.
Speaker 2:He does kinda look he's kinda cheese grater esque.
Speaker 3:I was thinking just more of, how many holes he has. He's like looks like a block of Parmesan cheese. Just kinda looks like a block of Parmesan.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first question I wanna ask you is, how was the content reviewed on release? Like, when it first came out 1999, you're a kid, the Nickelodeon awards show just finished up, SpongeBob airs for the first time, you see the pilot. What you thinking?
Speaker 3:I think it was a breath of fresh air from all the different cartoons back in the day. Like, I remember I remember Boomerang and Cartoon Network. If you know, you know. If not, do your homework. But, like, it was, like, just this new, fresh, funny, unique cartoon that entered the show or the the landscape of children's entertainment.
Speaker 3:And honestly, like, when we were going back to watch this for this podcast, it is still funny and still holds up to this day.
Speaker 2:We watched it a lot together as a kid, and I always found it super refreshing. I I always loved the water aesthetic of SpongeBob because, like, there were so many animal shows, and I loved underwater creatures so much as a kid. And having a show that was just that, I really, really loved it. Mhmm. I remember you really liking it, I really liking it.
Speaker 2:Like, we would always argue, like, oh, I wanted to watch Ben 10 or something and you wanted to watch, like, Teen Titans or something. But, like, if there was SpongeBob, we would always be like, no, we're watching. That was the happy medium. That was always, like, fuel. The the, like, to put out the fire of, like, the two siblings arguing was, like, the SpongeBob.
Speaker 2:It was, like, the predator meme with the two arms grabbing each other.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It was like the handshake agreement. Like, alright. We can't agree on this, but
Speaker 2:we will watch SpongeBob. Bro code. When in doubt, SpongeBob. Yeah. It was the first episode aired right after the, like, Nickelodeon awards during, like, 1999, and it was, like, their premier release.
Speaker 2:They, like, put it on prime time for everyone to see, and everyone immediately fell in love with it. Like, it was a overnight sensation. People immediately loved the first episode, which was Help Wanted, and they only grew from there. They just only got bigger throughout the season, which the season aired from 1999 to 2001. It was a long season.
Speaker 2:So people loved it when sorry. Sorry.
Speaker 3:It was a long and successful career too. Like, SpongeBob is still fairly popular. Yeah. And I wanna ask, it it was been it's
Speaker 2:been popular forever. What do you think the perception is nowadays? Like, do you think people still like the original season? I feel like I am a poor person to ask because I don't actively watch it anymore. I could still sit down and watch it.
Speaker 3:I think after the passing of Stephen Hillenburg, I believe that's the creator's name
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Like, a lot of people kind of fell off the show. But I've seen I saw, like, two episodes after his passing because, of course, they were gonna keep going. And I still think that even without his touch, it's still pretty good. The older episodes with him are better because I feel like he had a better sense of humor for it or he wrote it better than current producers of the show. But I still would argue that it holds up, the art style, the humor, and everything, even though it's digitally upgraded and better than initial screenings and seasons before that.
Speaker 3:I think it works pretty well still as a good show or movie because they have both now.
Speaker 2:I think the show really has held up over time and especially the initial first season. It is still so popular in, like, the cultural zeitgeist. Like, you don't pay too much attention to it, but, like, you know the memes. And, like, we watched all of season one and all of those references were, like, from season one. Like, you watch it and you're, oh, it's the scene, like, from the internet.
Speaker 2:Like, everyone still talks about the initial season.
Speaker 3:Everybody I I feel like if you don't get the firmly grasp it joke, then you've been living under a rock, which ironically would be fitting for this show. But, like, that's just one of many memes that we revisited it again when rewatching the show. It's like, wow. Oh, I forgot. That came from this episode or that came from that episode.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And a lot of the episodes after season one are still very popular. And, obviously, it's still one of the most popular shows on Nickelodeon. But and SpongeBob has been culturally relevant for our entire lives. And I was wondering, do you think SpongeBob will be culturally relevant in, like, the future?
Speaker 2:Like, do you think our kids will be sending each other SpongeBob memes like we do?
Speaker 3:Yes. Because memes can change, but the pictures generally don't change. And SpongeBob is such an iconic thing now.
Speaker 2:Like, even like, I forgot. How how many years has it been since the first season aired? Well, 1999, so it'd be about twenty six years.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Twenty six years. And we're still sending memes of the first season, like the the first movie, like everything about it. So I would say that, yeah, it would hold up. Probably not as much depending on how Nick Lodin does ten, fifteen years from now.
Speaker 3:I would be surprised if
Speaker 2:it doesn't. I think it will be super influential for much longer than even we could imagine because I didn't think SpongeBob would be this culturally relevant for this long. And I think it absolutely is going to persist through, like, our kids. And I'm I'm sure they will have their own SpongeBob, but that was our thing. Like, we will be in the old folks' home talking about, like, he's just standing there menacingly.
Speaker 2:Like, we're going to be making those references in the old folks' home. It's just gonna be the old a bunch of old people making SpongeBob references wearing Crocs and scrolling TikTok.
Speaker 3:That'll be TikTok plus.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be a subscription service to scroll. Look,
Speaker 3:you only get five scrolls unless you pay the monthly fee.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I think SpongeBob is going to be super relevant. And after this ad break, I wanna ask you some questions if you're open.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. Perfect. My
Speaker 4:name is Leah Habrick.
Speaker 2:My name is Ben Nathan.
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Speaker 2:Start your journey at comartssci.msu.edu. Now we're going to be answering a few questions from the audience. Starting off, were we allowed to watch SpongeBob as a kid, and did you know someone that was not allowed to watch SpongeBob?
Speaker 3:Yeah. Of course, I was allowed to watch it as a kid, which I feel like is a weird question to be asked now because I did know a few unfortunate people. I won't mention their names, of course, but, like, I did know a few people who said that they weren't allowed not because of, like, the violence or anything,
Speaker 2:cause there
Speaker 3:is none, basically. But they just weren't allowed to watch it, which I feel like is sad. Because it was a great show growing up, and I I absolutely loved it. I'm really glad that I was able to watch it as a kid.
Speaker 2:I thought it was super weird because I knew one girl who was not allowed to watch SpongeBob as a kid, but her parents allowed her to watch Family Guy. Like, just straight up, that's not even, like, a bit or anything. Like, she was like, you don't watch Family Guy with your family? I'm like, no. We I watch SpongeBob.
Speaker 2:She's like, oh, I'm not allowed to watch SpongeBob. And, like, even as a kid, I was, like, kinda dumbfounded. And I get I can get why some parents didn't wanna show their kids SpongeBob because it's kind of like a weird show. Like, it's something that they're not used to, and I can see it being a parent, not wanting to show your kid that because, honestly, that kinda leads into our next question because the next question is, did SpongeBob start as an adult show? Not that I'm aware of.
Speaker 2:I mean,
Speaker 3:I know in the world today, there's violence in movies and sex on TV and I really wish there were some family values but, like, no, I
Speaker 2:don't believe so. Yeah. I I get the question because it is very weird sometimes. Like, you and I are watching and, like, there's just scenes that are just like it feels like they're meant for babies. There's scenes that are absolutely meant for adults, and that's part of the reason I love it.
Speaker 2:Like, it doesn't feel like a show for a certain audience. It feels like a whole demographic.
Speaker 3:And I feel like that's one of the things that has made it age so well is the fact that, like, as a kid, you're like, oh, I get those references. And then as an adult, you rewatch it like, oh, wow. There was that reference in there too? Wow. I I get it now.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. It was like a whole new level of the show that you get to appreciate when you're an adult. I always wondered and was one of the next questions is if the first season was rereleased now, would the comedy be offensive or still politically correct? See, that's a tough
Speaker 3:one because I don't get offended that easily.
Speaker 2:So I would say no. And especially with just rewatching it, I still don't think so. I but then again, I'm not that kind of person that can make that judgment because I'm not easily offended. Yeah. I think there's certain people that might see certain things as being offensive like rock bottom, where the people who, like, talk with, like, raspberries in their speech, like, you could see that as being offensive, but that's not how I interpreted it.
Speaker 2:And I haven't seen many people interpreted it, but if someone who has, like, a speech impediment would see that, I can understand if they were a little, Mhmm. I wish they didn't do that because that feels a little inappropriate or feels offensive to them and, like, I completely agree. But I would say for general audiences, I think it absolutely the humor does hold up, and it does not feel nearly as offensive as some shows from the time, like Rocko's Modern Life and even Courage the Cowardly Dog. There's some moments that are, like, kinda questionable, but I think SpongeBob has held up very, very well.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely. And especially with, that's digging in deep. Like, I honestly never even thought about that until just now when you mentioned it. And I think that if you can't please everybody. I think if you look hard enough, I'm sure somebody somewhere out there will be offended.
Speaker 3:So it's like, you're never gonna please everybody. But in general, I think that it's fine.
Speaker 2:I think it absolutely did the best that they could do to keep everyone in mind, and I can't think of many situations where someone would be uncomfortable with it. The last question which I do think is my favorite. If given creative control, would you change anything about season one of SpongeBob?
Speaker 3:I really wouldn't. I don't really know what I would change because I I remember reading that question before I started watching, and I started thinking about things that might change, and I really couldn't come up with anything. If you were to give a arguably perfect plot, script, and, like, budget to make a show that was appealing to pretty much every audience demographic out there for a cartoon show for kids, they pretty much nailed it. I really don't think that you could change anything. The graphics nowadays, because it was hand drawn, sure, it's starting to show its age.
Speaker 3:I'm sure somebody much smarter than me can tell me, oh, well, you can tell where they made an error here. You can tell where this is when they were trying to draw for the pilot episode. Like, it still holds up almost flawlessly up to anything that could be released today or prior to that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I love the creative decisions made for the first season. There's a lot of shows that, like, have a really cool concept, and I think they explore it well. But there's a lot of little details that aren't added, and I think the little details add so much. And something you mentioned while we were watching the first season together was the bubbles when like they move really fast.
Speaker 2:I genuinely didn't remember that kind of detail. I I remember it as like a transition, but watching it, I was like, that is such a little thing they didn't need to do. That added so much more time to the animation, but you feel it. It feels better.
Speaker 3:Oh,
Speaker 2:yeah. And I love those minor creative decisions that were not for budgetary reasons. It made it more expensive, but it was made to tell the best story they could and make it feel like it was an underwater show, which I think it did really, really well.
Speaker 3:It just was something that I always noticed, and it just made sense. I don't even know how to explain it. It just was so cool just to see anytime there was a fast action, instead of seeing, like, lines of a character dashing from left left to right, there was just a little, like, almost explosion or a little bit of bubbles just to show where they were, where they went. It was a perfect fit for such a comedically fun show.
Speaker 2:It's definitely a show of its time because it was a creative decision to make it an underwater show. It feels almost like the love of the game to add like all these little details and they make it feel so much more rich than And completely unnecessary too. Yeah. And they didn't need to do it. Like, they could have just added like a bubble sound effect.
Speaker 2:It would have been fine. Like, it would have been so much easier, but they committed. They were like, no. I'm the creator. I'm going to make my vision as best I can.
Speaker 2:And there are so many limitations when it comes to animation, especially back then with hand drawn cel animation and hand painted everything. The fact that they were willing to stick by their aesthetic and be like, no. I want this to feel fresh. I want this to feel new. I very much respect it, especially someone who does animation.
Speaker 2:So, Brennan, I wanna come to a conclusion here and now. Of course. Let's go. Do you think SpongeBob season one holds up? And if so, why do you think so?
Speaker 3:You know, I will fight anybody on this, but I think that it holds up to this day. Because, like, one of the biggest reasons, in my opinion, is the charm of the show. It is absolutely so charming. For a pilot episode or a pilot season as well, it just did so much to convey to its audience that it's gonna be a great show, and I think it holds up front and back. My favorite example for being a very charming show is the episode Reef Blower.
Speaker 3:Literally, the entire episode has no dialogue other than, like, you know, the breathing and various things happening in the in the episode. It's literally just Shwannjab using a reef blower to clean his yard. The only word you see is subtitles of him just saying you, but he doesn't even say it. It just says you read it as you. It's just a perfect example of it being a timeless classic in the show.
Speaker 2:I have always loved that episode, and I honestly forgot about it until we got to it. Because you were the one who were like, I'm really looking forward to Reef Lauer. And when we got to it, was like I remember, I'm like, this is the one without dialogue. And you were like, yeah. And I was like, I forgot it didn't have dialogue because they conveyed it so well that I didn't even think about it as a kid that it didn't have any.
Speaker 3:Oh, you're welcome.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you recommending it to me because it was just perfect, and I think it's a perfect representation of how well these characters are done. My favorite character dynamic in the show is SpongeBob and Squidward. I think it's a dynamic that has been lost in later seasons. I love SpongeBob in the first season because he's not a kid. He's just an adult with a very overactive imagination and just a heart of gold.
Speaker 2:Like, he is just a little guy, And sometimes you just need that in your life. And my absolute favorite part of SpongeBob is the relatability of SpongeBob, especially to us nowadays. Because I don't know if you felt the same way, Brennan, but when I was watching SpongeBob season one again with you, it reminded me like, when we watched it, we were SpongeBob. We were hyperactive. We had hyperactive imaginations.
Speaker 2:Like, we just related to that character. And I don't think we relate to Squidward, but I understand him. You know? Like, sometimes life just beats you down and you just like, I get it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And and that's really the big point of it. It's like, everybody has good days and bad days. Or everybody has SpongeBob days, and everybody has Squidward days. It doesn't matter what happens, how best life you're gonna have.
Speaker 3:You're gonna have good and bad days. It's all about how you deal with it. With SpongeBob, even on his darkest days, he still tries to find some joy in it. It reminds me of something I like to tell everybody around me. It's like, if you're not having at least a little bit of fun, you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying you have to you have to take the bad day and be, oh, I guess it's happy now. It just means try to have fun.
Speaker 2:Life is not going to give you perfect days every day, but don't be a Squidward about it. Like, I felt like a kid learning something from a show again because, like, I was just watching Squidward and I was like, man, I'm glad I'm not this person. And I feel like that kinda conveys to adults, like, don't forget to have a little SpongeBob in you. Like, it's okay to be a little childish sometimes. It's okay to have that hopeful optimism.
Speaker 2:It's okay to have that overactive imagination sometimes. Like, that's fine. We shouldn't look down on that as being, like, childhood behavior. That's human behavior. We are like that.
Speaker 2:It I think it's okay to be a little bit of SpongeBob sometimes. Another timeless part of SpongeBob that I absolutely love has gotta be the writing. The writing holds up wonderfully.
Speaker 3:It is still funny. It is still bombastic and hilarious to pretty much anybody who watches it. I have always loved the writing of SpongeBob. I like kind of what you're saying, one of my favorites is it is
Speaker 2:so weird. It it's weird. There are moments where I'm like like SB one three nine or something was just such a strange episode and like I loved it as an adult and I loved it as a kid, but I look back and like I loved the writing and everything in that and like the concept. But it works. That's the crazy thing is that it works.
Speaker 2:I have no idea how. I don't know what they were smoking in that writer's room, but that feels like an episode that's like in season forty where Squidward goes to the future. Like, that sounds like it's in season one. It's like in one of the
Speaker 3:first couple, like, 15 episodes or so. It's wild. My example of good writing is Culture Shot, when Squidward hosts a talent show with various members of Bikini Bottom that would eventually become prominent side characters throughout the time, like Pearl, Plankton, and Gary as well. Like, they're only given, I wanna say, a max of two minutes to do what they're gonna do on show. And in those two minutes for each act of the quote unquote show, it conveys perfectly who they are, how they act.
Speaker 3:Even if you saw nothing else in the show and you only saw culture shock to see how they interact,
Speaker 2:it you you just know because the writing is so brilliant. It's very precise writing. The writers knew what they were doing. They knew their characters. And like you said, you don't need to see any other episode to understand the characters to enjoy culture shock.
Speaker 2:And I absolutely love the characters of SpongeBob, and I think it's one of the foundational pieces that makes me enjoy it to this day. Okay. So I think we're in
Speaker 3:agreement that SpongeBob absolutely holds up to this day. Absolutely. It's a timeless classic that everybody should see if everybody hasn't seen it already. I mean, who lives in a pineapple under the sea? If you ask that to anybody, of course, everybody's gonna say, SpongeBob SquarePants.
Speaker 3:They'd probably sing it too because everybody knows.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And I wanna say thank you so much, Brandon, for coming to the studio and talking with me. I very much appreciate having you.
Speaker 3:No. Absolutely. Thank thank you very much.
Speaker 2:And we will see you in the next episode of the Classic Hold Up. Bye. Bye.
Speaker 1:Find the Classic Hold Up on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us at Audio Video Land for updates, teasers, and behind the scenes content of all audio video land productions. The classic hold up is an audio video land production by students of the college of communication arts and sciences at Michigan State University in collaboration with Impact eighty nine FM.