Watching Sponge Bob Square Pants in German, we noticed they were after a coveted chocolate bar. CHOCOLATE. It’s a universal word!
Watching Sponge Bob Square Pants in German, we noticed they were after a coveted chocolate bar. CHOCOLATE. It’s a universal word!
MMM Chocolate, it’s good even under the sea!
Heil SpongeBob!
THIS IS FOR MANDY~~
Spongebob Squarepants is a popular cartoon on the cable TV network Nickelodeon. I’ve come to believe that the show is not only about an anthropomorphic sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea, but the entire series is filled with Freudian psychology and Jungian metaphors.
Consider that the show takes place in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Water is a powerful symbol representing life and purification. Large bodies of water usually represent the subconscious mind. The symbolism only starts there.
Freud proposed that the psyche was divided into three parts: The Id, the super-ego and the ego. Let’s start by comparing the primary characters in the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon with each aspect.
The Id is primarily concerned with our primal needs such as food, sleep and sex.
Patrick Star, Spongebob’s best friend, is mainly interested in food, sleep and his head is shaped like a penis.
The SuperEgo is the analytical, self-criticizing part of your personality. It is constantly trying to control your immediate environment with judgments about right and wrong.
Note that Squidward Tentacles, Spongebob’s neighbor, is a hyper-analytical creature whose rectangular eyes cast judgment on everyone around him. Like the SuperEgo, he thinks of himself as an artist, but his work is entirely self-absorbed and therefore only appreciated by himself.
The Ego is your creative self, attempting to find balance between primitive drives, morals and reality.
Spongebob Squarepants is an idealized version of what an enlightened Ego can be like. He is playful, innocent and perfectly at peace with who he is.
The key to understanding most of the hidden meanings behind the cartoon is to stop thinking of these three primary characters as individuals – they are actually three aspects of the same being. Consider: All three are invertebrates; All three either work, or have worked, at the Krusty Krab, and; All three live on the same street:
Note the order of the houses: Patrick’s primitive rock house, Squidward’s analytical statue house, Spongebob’s playful pineapple house.
Id. SuperEgo. Ego.
The symbolism couldn’t be more obvious.
Most of the other characters in the Spongebob Squarepants cartoon are metaphors of cultural archetypes. For the sake of time, let’s focus on only one character: Sandy Cheeks, the land squirrel.
Sandy was introduced into the series with the episode titled: Tea at the Treedome. Spongebob meets her while she battles a giant clam. This is a clear reference to Botticelli’s painting The Birth of Venus.
Have you ever considered why an air-breathing red squirrel would want to live underwater?
Unlike Venus, the Roman Goddess of idealized feminine love and beauty, Sandy is still wrestling with her sexuality and gender role. Unlike the stereotypes of what women should be like, Sandy is adventurous, scientific and athletic. Perhaps she has chosen to cut herself off from her air-breathing brethren because she felt held back?
Spongebob and Sandy both enjoy karate and they become fast friends. It is possible that karate is a metaphor for sex?
Or perhaps I’ve been thinking about this too much?
In any case; I suspect one of the reasons for the wide appeal of Spongebob Squarepants, is that the creators of the show use symbolism and icons in such a way that the cartoon becomes instantly understood on a subconscious level.