Thesis: Spongebob Squarepants played a central role in the development of contemporary internet humor and memes

Thesis: Spongebob Squarepants played a central role in the development of contemporary internet humor and memes.

Let's start with some obvious facts. First, a large portion of the meme generation (including early Veeky Forums oldfags) grew up on Spongebob humor. Spongebob exists in the shared nostalgia of millenials; its characters were iconic and instantly recognizable, it's stories and settings extremely comfy. Its humor also aged extremely well. Gags and jokes often had dual comedic thrusts: a slapstick absurdity that children could appreciate and a more nuanced and dark punchline for adults.

Nostalgia certainly helps to explains the proliferation of contemporary Spongebob memes. Spongegar, flustered Krabs, mocking spongebob, evil patrick have normie appeal due to their familiarity. BUT, there's a deeper allure here.

In an interview, Matt Furie (creator of pepe, known soyboy) was asked why he thought his creation blew up. His answer was simple: pepe has a very EXPRESSIVE face. Emotions and ideas can be reflected instantly in his huge mouth and bulging eyes. This expressiveness, this instant transmission of a feeling or thought is the essence of the majority of memes. Think about advice animals, one of the earliest examples of mass-template memes (oldfags know advice dog, bachelor frog etc. blew up on Veeky Forums well before reddit). The form is simple: a face expressing some sentiment with text matching it.

Finally, consider Spongebob. In addition to a masterful usage of slapstick / body humor, The show heavily relied on this same hyper-expressive face humor. Characters' faces are extremely pliable - they bend and morph to absurd proportions, their inner mental state completely reflected externally. Remember Spongebob's face when he says "you like krabby patties, don't you squidward?" Spongebob's facial features all shoot up to the top of his head, his eyes bulging out the top of his sponge frame.

Attached: squidward.jpg (545x657, 69K)

Part 2:

This image of Spongebob's face efficiently transmits a very complex emotion in an instant. Spongebob is feeling a sly, knowing glee; he knows something he is not supposed to know. You can tell that something is tickling him. You can tell that something that he had previously only suspected has been confirmed, namely that Squidward's pessimistic disposition is little more than a facade. The incongruity, the unexpected absurdity of the situation, the sheer pettiness of Squidward trying to hide joy; these hilarious realizations dance around the sponge's head.

Naturally, earlier cartoons attempted to take advantage of the inherent freedom that animation grants. Older cartoons (Tom and Jerry, the Flinstones) and later ones (Dexter's Lab, Hey Arnold!) use similar techniques to exaggerate more basic emotions like pain, surprise and joy. But Spongebob revolutionized the genre, taking full advantage of the art form to express much more subtle ideas.

This, we find, is the crux of a huge genre of internet memes. Consider pepe and wojak, Veeky Forums's longest lasting mascots of emotion and personality. In the vein of Spongebob, the two characters' faces take on ridiculous proportions; they stretch, bend, change colors, twist and warp to reflect a staggering library of sentiments. To take a recent example, look at Veeky Forums 's latest monstrosity, the horrifying red-colored wojak. Loosely based on the original wojak template, this version reflects a particularly visceral blend of rage, fear, horror and despair. It is quintessentially Spongeian in this regard, designed for instantaneous viewer recognition through a surreal, extreme form of the face.

Thus we may conclude that Spongebob functions as the Odyssey, Stephen Hillenburg as the Homer in our "Western Canon" of memes and meme culture. Obviously memes have branched out in divergent directions. But as with the Homeric cycle, much subsequent meme culture can be traced back to this wellspring.

Truly, Spongekino.

Attached: smug sponge.jpg (480x360, 27K)

bump

This isn't a theory you fucking pesud. Of course the most widely viewed children's comedic cartoon show would play a big role in the development of children's humor.

I think you meant Ren & Stimpy you dumb millennial pseud.

I think it's just a children's show that millennials on Twitter are very familiar with and enjoy juxtaposing against vulgar statements for humorous effect

Take it to /co/

Spongebob is a great show desu. Incredibly well-timed surreal humour.

Go to bed grandpa

Didn't DFW confess to like it during that one interview?

The overly expressive aspect is one of the reasons anime appeals to genuine autists

>look at Veeky Forums 's latest monstrosity, the horrifying red-colored wojak
I don't keep up to date with memes as I used to, someone post this.

Also, I think you're an idiot OP. Spongebob did not invent expressive faces and have not played a central role in the development of memes any more than any other reaction image. Nothing in your wall of text sets Spongebob apart from other expressive reaction images.

DFW is, amusingly enough, quite expressive. Just like Spongebob.

>I don't keep up to date with memes as I used to, someone post this.
literally take one scroll through the catalog

spongebob memes are normalfag shit you fucking tourist underage b& fuck off back to your social media meme page

you're over-stating your case, of course, but i think you've rightly identified a tributary of our weird, rephractive 'imaginary' culture

Ren and Stimpy did this before Spongebob.

But people are more likely to be referencing Spongebob then R&S. R&S was never near the popularity or influence Spongebob did.

keep this thread alive, I will check back on it when I get home.

>quintessentially Spongeian
I'm dead

This. I know we're on Veeky Forums so confessing to liking something that other people like is just going to invite ridicule, but it really was great.

I love how your thesis and its Schopenhauer-like wording and style make something like Spongebob sound so profound.
>quintessentially Spongean
wew lad

Nice. Few thoughts:
I think your actual thesis is
>The meteoric rise of SpongeBob memes is a natural consequence of those characteristics of a cartoon once described by Matt Furie.

Also you should not have to tell us what your thesis is separately - if you're going to do that, you should do it in a full abstract. I am a firm believer in abstracts.

Also,
>Spongebob is feeling a sly, knowing Glee...
I think you can let the reader do a little more work here. I didn't think you needed to analyze what our protagonist should be experiencing and I think to do so distracts from the overall aim of the work.

I will be mulling this and its consequences over with a possible response but wonder if your piece couldn't also have gone farther, providing additional and more satisfying answers.

I wonder if some others of you don't also write essays in your free time. I will see if I have anything suitable, and follow OP's lead to share it if so. This could be a nice thing to do.

>quintessentially Spongeian
10/10

Who doesnt like spongebob?

There is an overlap in chan memes and normie memes, spongebob is a part of it

pic unrelated

Attached: 13533348_257007994671364_1562052586510851795_n.jpg (409x574, 55K)

The Simpsons, Spongebob, Emperor's New Groove, and Homestar Runner are the Holy Rectangle of referential animated humor.

This is all true but you're missing so much of why Spongebob is as popular as it is today. Its a staple of virtually every cartoon, as can slapstick humor. Surely what made Spongebob in particular so popular would be that which is particular to Spongebob, and not applicable to any cartoon. Expressiveness is important, but only in conjunction with other qualities that set this show part from its peers.

The show's memetic value comes from the totality of its subject matter it deals with. There's a reason images like the one OP posted or the one on the left are very common: the show is infinitely malleable such that virtually anything can be portrayed by it.

Attached: 177.jpg (700x884, 142K)

This desu pseuds

Not animated, but I think Tim and Eric was one of the shows that really divided an era of memes and sense of humor from earnest and simple to ironic, detached, and surreal.

I think that era was also marked when K-On replaced Azumanga Daioh as the cute girl anime to use for memes.

Spongebob was being memed here before reddit or facebook even existed.

From the last time I discussed spongebob here, I think it pertinent:

>I meant to show you that Spongu Bubba is for all ages. And some of the more extreme or "adult" parts usually go over a kid's head. If you watch any kid's movie, there's usually some "jokes" in there for the parents, so they're not too bored. But, I think, Scourer Bib transcends this. Have you seriously never looked back to an old movie or show you liked and picked up on strange, implied homoeroticism, etc.? Spongebob, too, has this gay subtext.

>Anyway, I have no qualms with adults who watch MLP - I think the writers have made a conscious decision to market it to autistic weeb men anyway. And good for them! But Spung Bub Short Shorts is to MLP what Pynchon is to, say, some fantasy YA writer. The former is embedded in strange drug culture, intertextuality, the Bizarre and oft times transgressive; where MLP is more about platitudes, accessibility and prettiness. These two forms of art are gateways for people to self-reflect, or, for Sponge Robert, destroy, deconstruct, satirise.

>Spung Bub Short Shorts
>Sponge Robert
Was this supposed to be funny somehow?

No, you kike.

The only reason spongebob is so widely used in contemporary memes is because it's so widely views that anyone can relate to it

Hence, autism. We identify more wih cartoons than our human counterparts. We no longer need the ties that once bound us socially, pencil pushing has become survival. Our evolution into floating brains is coming to fruition in a sense we had not expected.

Azumanga is more ironic/detached/surreal than K-On though, which is far more earnest and simple.

Agreed but the memes oddly seem to veer in opposite directions. Maybe for that very reason.

At least that's been my experience online.

Really, it's the fault of our forefathers and their designation of the television as a safe and simple babysitter. The weakness of will has trickled through that idiot box, from a space once occupied by a mammoth radio, only absorbing, holding sway the audial receptors, leaving the mind still ripe to create visual landscapes by its own accord. Transhumanism is the next inevitable step, only when the lines are bridged over the uncanny valley. When we rise to the godhead, and rip from ourselves that essential need for vitamin D.

On a side note, I now understand the advertisement name "Sunny D".