Stephen Hillenburg’s 1999 animated series is downright surreal: it takes place under the sea, and all the characters are undersea creatures, which is easy enough to understand, but it also affects the aesthetic and soundtrack of retro-’60s Hawai’ian kitsch. Although underwater, the cartoon physics of the series still allows for burning fires and ordinary gravity, adding a note of dreamlike unreality to everything. The title character is a sea sponge, but one that looks like a kitchen sponge, and who walks around on spindly human limbs.
SpongeBob is played by comedian Tom Kenny, and the plucky, childlike hero adores his job as a fry cook at his local burger joint, the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob’s boss is the money-obsessed Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), who possesses a secret formula to make the perfect hamburger (or Krabby Patties, as they are called). Mr. Krabs is in a rivalry with a rogue, villainous plankton named Plankton (Mr. Lawrence), who spends his life trying to steal the Krabby Patty recipe. There is something distantly tragic about SpongeBob’s life, in that he is a low-wage stooge for an uncaring capitalist junk-slinging establishment, and clearly has no ambitions beyond that.
But we forgive the series because SpongeBob is so relentlessly innocent and upbeat. He loves everyone, treats everyone like a friend, and giggles at most everything. His giant eyeballs make him seem eager and optimistic at all times, even if the world he inhabits can be nonsensical and cruel (“SpongeBob” owes a lot to “The Ren & Stimpy Show”). SpongeBob’s innocence often resembles the behavior of a child. Is he a child? SpongeBob is at least old enough to work as a fry cook, but behaves like he’s in elementary school. Perhaps some investigation is needed to find out the Sponge’s actual age.
