Sorry guys. I haven't updated this blog in a long time. If anyone still reads the stuff I post on this website, I have been busy for a while, so please excuse my awful behavior. To the rest that don't care, I'm back so read my stuff. So over the last few weeks, I've been mainly been studying, going to workshop thingy, and been watching stupid videos. Among the stupid videos I have watched are some old episodes and clips of Spongebob.
I bloody loved that show when I was in Korea as a kid. It was called "Spongey Spongey Sponge-Song" in Korean. So when I first came to Amerca, I was confused to learn that Sponge-Song's name was actaully Spongebob. This greatly angered me and drove me to learn English quickly. Ever since that time, I have never trusted English translators and have never relied on them. So anyway, I love the humor and the ingenuity behind every episode of Spongebob I watched as a kid. (Note the word 'kid'. Spongebob has severely deteriorated gradually over time, and its just a pile of junk at this point in Nickelodeon. I actually, kind of pissed with America tv programming in general at this pint in time.) But the two characters I was interested and felth sympathy for the most was Squidward Tentacles and Sheldon J. Plankton.
Plankton is a character who I believe to be incredibly complex and deep and only possibly surpassed by Plankton. As shown by the episode "Friend or Foe" of the Spongebob Squarepants, Plankton has had a terrible and traumatic childhood. He was bullied by his friend because he was a 'nerd' and lived in a poor family. Furthermore, he was raised in a single parent home by his dad. His mom had obviously had run away from the family due to its rampant poverty that plagued it. In fact, his entire family tree is shown to be full of rednecks and the mentally retarded. His only friend was Eugene Crabs, who would later become his arch-enemy, and even this friendship would fall apart after sometime. When someone has gone through this kind of childhood, it's not surprising that he would become a wreck and be unable to properly function in society. Although Plankton did go to college is shown to have superb engineering and computer skills, he is unable to hold down any job long enough due to his inferiority complex. He is unable to work under other and is forced to create his own squalid business of "Chum bucket". And because Plankton believes that he himself will fail to create anything, he thinks that he must steal from others in order to make something of his life, and to prove that Plankton is not like his countless relatives who fail to leave any mark on society. I think what Plankton wants is to be truly be accepted as a contributing and invaluable member of society who is accepted by others. But due to his traumatic life, he is unable to keep up any long term relations with another being, and creates an artificial intelligence named "Karen" as his robotic life. Sickened by such perverse behavior, others are drawn away even further from Plankton, and Plankton draws further back into his shell. What truly makes me sad about Plankton is that he has the potential to do so much, but chooses to believe that he doesn't, and believes that he is at the bottom of the society, even though he longs to be more. None will help him, and everyone treats him as a scum of the ocean. WHAT TRULY ANGERS ME IS THE PHYSICAL ABUSE THAT PLANKTON SUFFERS FROM CRABS. Whenever Plankton tries to steal from his former friend, Crabs always uses him superior strength in order to beat him down. I think to beat up a former friend, when he just wants to be accepted by you, is the worst atrocity that a sentient being can do.
Squidward Tentacles is the "Straight Man" of the show. "Straight Man" doesn't mean that he's hetreosexual, but that he is the only sane character in the show. If one watches Spongebob long enough, it is clear that Bikini Bottom is actually a representation of madness, with Spongebob as its personification. I actually think that the motif of the Spongebob Squarepants show is One mans struggle to live in a world of madness and stupidity. It is often shown that all Squidward wants are peace from Spongebob and an ordinary life. But his wishes are never granted. Rather, he is often forced into Spongebob's high-jinks, and forced to partake in madness. WHY CAN'T SPONGEBOB JUST LEAVE SQUIDWARD ALONE? YOU MONSTER!!! Squidward is the representation of the auidence within the show, and through him , we can truly see the madness behind the jaundiced square. In my opinion, the sadness episode of the series is the magic conch shell episode, where Squidward accepts the rule of the plastic conch shell toy, when he realizes that he is the only one who doesn't follow its every command. He has learned to accept madness. It shows the futility to stay sane in an insane world. But what is interesting is that in a way, Squidward may be the only insane character in the show. If the world you live in is insane, don't you become insane by being sane? For the insane is only a world used to describe the minority. Whatever may be the case, it was always saddening to watch Squidwards struggles against tides of madness in Spongebob Squarepants.
Anyway, the people at nickelodeon put a lot of effort to making Spongebob the masterpiece it was back in the days. I only hope they can do it again.
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