I was telling someone at work about Spongebob Squarepants and tried to describe the cartoon’s humor and soon realized it was much harder to do than I thought.
Can anyone do it in one sentence or phrase?
Here’s my try:
An eternally optimistic and happily naive character in a cartoon which barely borders on adult-friendly humor with extremely creative animation.
SpongeBob is funny because he’s funny. Also, he wears tighty-whities, and every animator knows that tighty-whities are the funniest kind of underpants. They also know that “underpants” is funnier than “underwear.”
Oh my. That’s difficult.
How about:
Old fashioned cartoon-style visual and verbal humor with unique, but likeable, characters.
Bigheartedly childlike. I feel SBSP approaches life with such enthusiasm and good humor; therefore, everyone he comes in contact with will eventually be all the better for having known him. The humor is infectious, his laugh DOES take some getting used to.
An incredibly childlike talking sponge and his pink, jams-wearing starfish pal go through the world, annoying the clarinet-playing squid next door, usually.
Honestly, it’s such a mix of typical cartoon humor and hyterical stuff only older (over 13!) people will get. (Example, in one episode, every time Spongebob said, “Imagination!”, he did this thing with his hands that made a rainbow appear. Every time Squidward tried it, he failed. That=funny. “Just use your…imaaaaginaaaaaaation!”) I frequently say, “Do kids KNOW they don’t deserve a cartoon this funny?”
“Hey, could I have one of those homemade pies?”
"They’re not homemade pies, they were made in a factory.
A bomb factory.
They’re bombs."
An atypically non cynical cartoon with an honest overly optimistic boardering on annoying Sponge who is friends with one of the dumbest and funniest Star fish in the whole ocean.
Damn… just loan them a DVD and let them discover it for them selves.
The Spongebob character reminds me a lot of Pee-Wee Herman (eternally naive, happy-go-lucky manchild), and the trippy, anything-goes animation and stories seem to be inspired a lot of classic animation from Looney Tunes to Ren and Stimpy to Yellow Submarine. Not that it ever feels like a ripoff, more of an homage. I think adults dig it not only because it’s clever and downright LOL funny, but because it harkens back to the spirit and genuine creativity of those other classic cartoons.
Variant.
I’m not a huge spongebob fan but I did catch one episode that convinced me of it’s brilliance.
The details are hazy but a pencil was running amok and erasing the show. It kind of blew my mind.
Also the underpants thing…
He has the mentality of a 2-yr old, and just as mischievious. And, that’s why he’s so funny! I think he has more appeal to men than women, though. He’s great for when I just want to veg out and have my mind as crystal-clear blank as his!!! - Jinx
Hey, did I mention I got my driving license at Mrs. Puff’s (IIRC) Driving School!? Just kidding…
Neh-eh-eh-eh-eh! (Spongebob laughs, cluelessly)
Just them it’s like the Mary Tyler Moore Show. Sort of.
If they don’t buy that, unload on them with some ‘sentence enhancers.’
That would be the short Doodlebob, in which SpongeBob encounters a magic pencil from the land. Everything he starts drawing comes to life. When he draws a funny sketch of himself, it turns out that it’s evil, and bent on erasing the real SpongeBob!
Just say, “If nautical nonsense be something you wish, then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!”
That sums it up pretty well, I think.
I’m sure that one is called Frankendoodle
I remember seeing it, i think it’s actually the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, definitely my favourite spongebob episode.
TV Tome agrees with this.
My favorite episode (Imagination) is where SpongeBob and Patrick sit in the box and Squidward hears amazing sound effects from their imagination which he cannot duplicate.
Finally, he gets in the box, pretends he is driving a car, and He Hears It! Car Sounds! It works!
Except its really a dump truck which has picked up the box and is driivng it to the dump.
Excellent.
I like Plankton.
That’s my favourite episode too, Vanilla.
I got the first season DVD collection for Xmas. I highly recommend it for any SBSP fans.
“You just set sail on the ship of immmaaaaaaginnnation”
“Everything’s chrome in the future!”
“Once upon a time there lived a happy barnacle. And then it DIED!!”
“Can you play that song again? The one that goes beep beep boop?”
“‘F’ is for ‘fire’ that burns down the whole town.
‘U’ is for ‘uranium’… BOMBS!
‘N’ is for ‘no survivors’ when you’re…”
I like:
I wish I was in Texas,
The ocean’s no place for a squirrel.
Heh.
I think it’s funny how the main charactors are sort-of juxtaposed against the incidental characters. Even Plankton has this goofy cartoon innocence. But the incidental characters are normal adults in voice and perspective, often being rather unfeeling and sarcastic, and they can really set off the characters in a way that other cartoons don’t.
I really get a kick out of that.