Harrison Lisle

04/05/2016

Ms.Phillips

English 101 

Historically since the French Revolution drawn cartoons have always played some kind of role in society whether it is commenting on certain issues or subtly representing something with a character. When television came along drawn cartoons evolved with it and started to transform from the drawn paper cartoons into the animated cartoons on television that we have all have come to know and love today. Even as these cartoons became animated the social commentaries and subtle representations through the use of characters still remained as a major part even as the audience of cartoons shifted from older viewers to younger viewers. One of these cartoons that was present during my childhood was SpongeBob SquarePants which as I grew older I realized there were actually quite a few cultural aspects that had been tied into various episodes and characters of the show. Choosing from a large pool of these episodes the one that stuck out the most was "The Two Faces of Squidward" which addressed cultural beauty issues and showed there was a great deal of cultural influence on the creation of SpongeBob. This paper will be broken down into four different parts discussing the cultural influence on this episode, how each character plays into the episode, what each character represents in respect to the culture, and if episodes of SpongeBob like this one actually affected the audience that watched it. 

The major cultural influence that came into play when the writers were creating this episode of SpongeBob was the belief that good looks can pretty much get you anything and that the better looking you are the better your life will be. This is shown very early into the episode when Squidward has his face injured by SpongeBob accidently hitting it with the door and sending him to the hospital. Once Squidward's face heals and the bandages are removed everyone is left speechless until a nurse enters the room and says "Time for your medicine Mr ... .Mr ... . Handsome!"(SpongeBob SquarePants; S5; E19a; 3:58) This part of the episode immediately draws attention to the influence of our cultures beauty stereotypes due to the fact that everyone is rendered speechless by Squidward's beauty and that he is even so good looking that people faint when they see him. This kind of thing is always included into popular culture whenever some kind of highly attractive person is introduced into a situation whether it be a television show or book. This kind of thing keeps happening after Squidward leaves the hospital and everyone who sees Squidward is fawning over how good looking he is. At the same time as they are walking away from the hospital SpongeBob is giving Squidward lots of compliments about how good he looks while he just smugly smiles. This shows two more aspects of the cartoon that were affected by our cultures views and stereotypes about beauty. The first is that people always stop what they are doing and give all of their attention to attractive people when they see them. You can see this in pretty much every day cultural examples with something as simple as a commercial using an attractive woman or man to try and catch the attention of viewers. The second aspect is the idea that people just will constantly give compliments to an attractive person for various reasons. This can just be seen in everyday life watching various people interact on a daily basis in our culture. As Squidward's walk from the hospital continues there are various people who see him and have ailments such as blindness and paralysis cured by just looking at how good looking Squidward is. This is a somewhat joking cultural stereotype that is in other cartoons and in some movies. The attractive character is introduced and some person who couldn't walk can suddenly walk when they see this attractive person. This writers of this episode of SpongeBob of course made sure to include the other sides of beauty that aren't so commonly talked about in our current culture. Towards the end of the episode people start to get overly obsessed with Squidward and his good looks. This causes them to break into his house and start stealing his things while saying crazy things like "I want his shirt! I want his eye lids!"(SpongeBob SquarePants; S5; E19; 6:23) This event clearly shows the way that our cultures over obsession with celebrities and good looking people has caused many absurd actions to be taken by people who have become obsessed with a beautiful person. One of these events that has happened more recently is when a group of teenagers who had become obsessed with Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. They used various recordings and pieces of information gathered off the internet to "break into the houses of celebrities and make off with millions of dollars' worth of stolen possessions." (Fox News) This event itself obviously was not the cultural event that influenced the creators of SpongeBob but something like this surely did when they were creating the episode. Finally at the end of the episode Squidward has had enough of all the attention he is receiving due to the fact that there is no a mob chasing him around because he is so handsome looking. He has SpongeBob try to change him back to normal by hitting him again with the door but that just ends up making him better looking. Eventually Squidward is pushed into a wooden pillar by SpongeBob and this returns him to the way that he previously looked. While an event like this may not have been the exact cultural influence that prompted the writers to make this ending there are surely a great deal of people who have wanted to change their looks due to what our culture says. In an article relating to body image the author says "This view is based on popular physiognomic assumptions that the body, especially the face, is a reflection of the self: that a person's inner character or personality will shine through the outer appearance." (Featherstone 1) Whether it be someone getting cosmetic surgery to look better for attention or someone hiding their good looks to avoid getting attention this kind of situation is something that the writers of SpongeBob clearly picked up on and included into the episode. Through all of these examples it can be clearly seen that culture both directly and indirectly influenced this episode of SpongeBob.

 If you have ever watched the show you will know that the characters of SpongeBob are all very unique and each play a specific role in the episode. The two characters that play large roles in this episode are Squidward and SpongeBob. Patrick, Mr.Krabs, and many minor characters all have smaller rolls that they play in the episode but are not included in the entirety of the story. This episode obviously revolves around Squidward and his transformation from an average looking character to a very handsome one. Through Squidward's various actions and struggles in this episode you can see the writers being influenced by and trying to address cultural beauty standards. SpongeBob plays into the story as someone who is both trying to help Squidward but at the same time keeps accidently causing bad things to happen to him. He is used by the writers of the episode as a catalyst for most every significant incident in the story but at the same time brings in the comedy that you would expect from a children's cartoon. Patrick really just serves the same role as SpongeBob in this episode due to the fact that he is there in the beginning to serve as a comedic source in the episode. He also serves to antagonize Squidward a little bit with SpongeBob so the events of the episode are set into motion. Mr.Krabs plays a part in forcing the episode to an end due to the fact that he says "Ah don't worry folks these plenty of Squidward to go around." (SpongeBob; S5; E19a; 13) Then proceeds to go on explaining how he will let everyone into the Krusty Krab so that they can touch Squidward for a fee. This forces Squidward to ask SpongeBob to try and return him back to normal so that he can escape the obsessed mob. Various other minor characters in the episode such as the doctor, nurse, and unnamed people are affected by Squidward all play the role of pushing the story forward. This serves to also push forward the examples of cultural influence that were worked into the episode with various scenes and stereotypical things happening. Each character adds a unique element to the episode and serves to show all of the different cultural influences that have been worked into the episode.

The writers of SpongeBob created each character so they specifically represented some kind of culturally stereotypical person in our society. The first example of a culturally influenced character in this episode of SpongeBob is Squidward. It can see by observing Squidward throughout the entirety of the episode it shows he is pretty much a representation of a middle aged person stuck in a dead end job. Squidward works at a fast food restaurant that he hates with younger workers that annoy him. He goes home to practice his clarinet due to the fact that he thinks that this will make him a famous musician. This comes from real cultural influences of people who decide to forgo school in pursuit of a musical career or an athletic career that ends up with them working a dead end job while they still hold onto the hope that they will become famous.  In a study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research " the report finds that people aged 25-54 hold the largest share of fast-food worker jobs in the U.S." This just shows how Squidward is a very realistic portrayal of someone stuck working a bad job. SpongeBob on the other hand represents a younger person who still has their life ahead of them. This is why he is such a happy character that loves his job and tries to be friends with everyone. This can just be seen in our culture when you interact with a child and see that they don't have any bitterness or cynicism of an adult. Mr.Krabs represents the people in our culture that focus on money and the exploitation of people for the gain of money. He even tries to charge people so they can get a chance to touch Squidward because he is handsome. This kind of person exists in society and with the character of Mr.Krabs the writers are trying to draw attention to how outrageous it seems that someone would be so obsessed with money. These three characters are really the large representations of different kinds of people in our culture that the writers addressed in this episode. 

SpongeBob was certainly influenced by the culture that it was written in but at the same time it served as a large cultural influence. Sponge Bob has become so culturally popular that it has a following of "15 million viewers per week" (J. Rice, 2009). This large following is made up of people from varying ages who all are influenced by the messages the writers of SpongeBob incorporate into each episode. Even if the message is only picked up by older viewers that is still a very large number of people being influenced by a cartoon. "Nielson Media Research reports that twenty-two percent of regular viewers of the SB show fall in the 18 -- 49-year-old age group" (Beatty A1). If someone wanted to see firsthand how SpongeBob has influenced our culture all they would have to do is just go ask a group of people and chances are that most likely they would all have either heard of the show or watched it themselves. With each episode there is always some small messages like, how it is important to share, are incorporated into the story which serves to try and be a good influence on society. 

With all of the evidence provided it would most likely be safe to say that Sponge Bob was influenced heavily by culture and in turn influenced culture itself. Through episodes like The Two Faces of Squidward and the use of characters to portray different kinds of people in society SpongeBob really sends a message. It tries to point out problems in society by using humor and animation to make these problems more understandable. Hopefully cartoons such as SpongeBob will be around for a long time so they can keep conveying the message we need to hear. 

  Works Cited

Featherstone, Mike. "Body, Image, and Affect in Consumer Culture." Body and Societ 16.1 (2010): 193-221. Academic Search Complete [EBSCO]. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

News, Fox. "Police: Gang of Celebrity-Obsessed Teens Robbed Stars' Homes." Fox News. FOX News Network, 29 Oct. 2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.

Strasser, Annie-Rose. "The Majority of Fast Food Workers Are Not Teenagers, Report Find." Think Progress. N.p., 08 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Bean, Charlie, and Aaron Springer. "The Two Faces of Squidward." SpongeBob SquarePants. Nickelodeon. 23 Nov. 2007. Television.

Beatty, Sally. There is Something About SpongeBob That Whispers 'Gay': Nickelodeon Cartoon Series, A Big Hit with Kids, Has an Adult Camp Following. Wall Street Journal (8 Oct. 2002) A.1.

            
