Want to know how to get a zillion hits on your blog? Sure, InstaLinks are -- to borrow George Gershwin's felicitous phrase -- nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try, but a SpongeBob SquarePants image is forever. We blogged about the "gawky 'square' who wins in the end" -- as Tunku Varadarajan aptly describes the pored one today in Opinion Journal -- here on New Year's Day last January, and the Google-search hits have been flooding in from all over the world daily ever since. Now that SpongeBob has his own big-screen movie -- which we're planning to take in at the Monday matinee -- the sky's the limit. We just checked our Site Meter stats and found nearly 200 hits today from citizens of the world looking for pictures of the cartoon character Tunku mistakenly describes as a sea sponge. Importantly, SpongeBob is an everyday artificial kitchen sponge, crisply rectangular. Hence the square pants. But no matter. Tunku gets the big picture:
SpongeBob's appeal lies in his anarchic nature and his deeply felt respect for other people's feelings. This apparent contradiction creates wonderful dramatic tension. Bob is a bit of a silly git, but his tenacity, sweetness and decency invariably win the day. He shows that you don't need massive pecs, a magic sword or turbocharged ambition to be a hero.
The popularity of SpongeBob seems to flow from his boyish recalcitrance, added to which are his over-the-top mood swings -- from annoyingly exuberant cheerfulness to deep funk -- which every child viewer must relate to. SpongeBob is a gawky "square" who wins in the end. This is funny and gratifying and in a long tradition of "squares done good": Gomer Pyle or Gilligan or Curly Howard or Richie Cunningham or Bullwinkle.
Many grownups, too, are charmed by this marriage of success and bodily inelegance. And like all the best shows for children, this one "accommodates" adults with flashes of clever language (some badly behaved sea urchins are called "invertebrats") and SpongeBob's occasional echoes of other literary characters.
In the echoes of our mind, SpongeBob is right up there with "South Park," "Team America" and "The Incredibles."
Update: Welcome, SpongeBob fans! For your viewing pleasure, we offer a selection of sisu posts through the years celebrating the life and times of our poriferan pal:
SpongeBob happens to be in the asexual phase of his poriferan lifecycle
Why did you eat my boots, Mr. Crabs?
Also, be sure to check out "A Hero for Our Time: Hooray for SpongeBob SquarePants!" Tunku Varadarajan's Wall Street Journal peon to the "gawky 'square' who wins in the end.
hey this blog is pretty funny i think spongeboob is funny but when it is funny when your little bro or sis is watching it when it isa their tv time but when spongebob is on when it is your tv trime and your little bro or sis is siting with you when they see spongebob on they are like to you can i watch this please and you no and the start ctrying intill you put it on for them then the stop crying i hate that!!!!
Posted by: ashleytisdale1012 | May 08, 2008 at 12:53 PM
i love spongebob
Posted by: witney | August 01, 2008 at 09:39 AM