by Vi Hart
Open Letter to Nickelodeon, Re: SpongeBob’s Pineapple under the Sea
January 25, 2012
2 Comments | 
mistakes, SpongeBob SquarePants, video | Tagged: Fibonacci, phi | 
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Posted by The Editor
SpongeBob and the 7 Deadly Sins
July 28, 2010
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This article was originally written by "SpongeTronXYZ" in the ToonZone forums. The original link is here. I don't really like to reproduce entire articles found on other sites, but I also don't like to link to forums since they often disappear.]
I have been a fan of SpongeBob Squarepants for years and think that the depth of the characters is one of the things that really makes this show work. Ever since I heard Mr. Lawrence say (in an audio commentary on the Season 1 DVD’s) that Stephen Hillenburg based the 7 main characters on the 7 Deadly Sins, I couldn’t help but be very fascinated. I think I’ve figured out which character is each one.
1. Sloth-Patrick
Sloth is the sin of laziness, or unwillingness to act. Obviously this is Patrick. He lays under a rock all the time and doesn’t really do anything. In fact in the episode “Big Pink Loser” he got an award for doing nothing the longest.
2. Wrath-Squidward
Wrath involves feelings of hatred and anger. Squidward hates his life, usually hates SpongeBob, and is pretty much angry most of the time.
3. Greed-Mr. Krabs
Obviously Mr. Krabs is greedy and desires money. How could Greed not be Krabs? He actually sang about the power of greed in “Selling Out”.
4. Envy-Plankton
Plankton is envious of Mr. Krabs because The Krusty Krab is a success while The Chum Bucket is a failure. His envy drives him to try to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula.
5. Gluttony-Gary
I actually think this one is pretty funny. Did you ever notice the running gag in Spongebob where they say “don’t forget to feed Gary” or Sponge says “I gotta go feed Gary”. Gary even ran away that time when SpongeBob forgot to feed him. Glutony usually refers to the overindulgence of food so I’m guessing this one fits him pretty well.
6. Pride-Sandy
Sandy takes a lot of pride in who she is and where she comes from. She takes pride in the fact that she is from Texas and likes to let everyone know it. She also takes pride in the fact that she is a mammal and a land creature, like in the episode “Pressure” where she tried to prove land critters were better than sea critters.
7. Lust-SpongeBob
OK, I know what your thinking. It does seem a little weird and curious at first but I have given it a lot of thought. Lust in one definition is “excessive love of others”. I think this one works best for Spongebob. He shows his love of others with his over eagerness to do good and help people. If anything is true about SpongeBob its that he loves everyone around him, even if they don’t exactly love him back.
29 Comments | ex situ, SpongeBob SquarePants | Tagged: envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, Squidward, wrath | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
Mini-Analyzations
July 21, 2010
- I noticed an interesting, if pointless, link between the cartoon show The Boondocks and Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax. In both of these cartoons (or comics, books, whatever) there is a character representing big business, corporate greed, what have you. In The Lorax this character is the Once-ler, and in The Boondocks, well, it’s Mr. Wuncler. Both Once-ler and Wuncler represent the way big business uses the lower class for their own goals and rapes the land of it’s resources at the expense of all those on it. It’s just a nice little parallel, a nod of the head on the part of Aaron McGruder, as both characters’ names are pronounced the same.
-Contributed by SamRay - We’ve all had our suspicions about Spongebob’s sexual orientation. Oddly, being close with a friend of the same gender points to homosexuality but, this isn’t about a relationship with Patrick. This is about the episode of Spongebob Squarepants in which his B.O. fends off residents of Bikini Bottom.
In the episode, Spongebob confuses his B.O. for “ugly”. Spongebob’s “ugly” is homosexuality. This is backed up by a few events in the episode. Mainly, the scene where he stands on the roof of his pineapple and proclaims his ugly pride. Right after he exclaims his pride, we switch to Squidward alone remarking “Is that what he calls it?” It was right there and then that I knew that this episode was, very subtly, taking on the issue of homosexuality.
-Contributed by Matthew S. - The toy characters in the Toy Story series are shown to internalize what they are made to represent: Buzz Lightyear initially believes himself to be a space explorer, the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots are extremely combative, and the like. However, they are not always equipped to actually carry out their assumed functions: Buzz’s laser doesn’t work, Rex cannot actually eat smaller animals, etc. One key inability shared by all of the toys is the inability to reproduce. Strangely, though, Woody and Bo Peep carry on a low key relationship. What makes this even stranger is that in Toy Story 2, Woody is prepared to leave for Japan and never come back, but does not even mention his relationship with Bo Peep, even though this would jump immediately into the mind of any normal person. This would suggest, then that their relationship is essentially “going through the motions”: they do it because they are “imprinted” to do so, rather than for any biological reason.
-Contributed by H. Rex
3 Comments | homosexuality, knock-offery, Mini-Analyzations, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Boondocks, The Lorax, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, villains | Tagged: Buzz Lightyear, Squidward, Woody | Permalink
Posted by The Editor
