Blog #2 Spongebob

The other day I decided to sit down and watch a Christmas episode of Spongebob. Personally I don’t hate the show but I can’t exactly say that it made my day. In that episode Sandy introduced the concept of Christmas and Santa Claus to Spongebob and in turn told the whole Bikini Bottom. Later that day everyone wrote a letter to Santa expect for Squidward being too mature and sophisticated for it. Towards the end of the day everyone (except for Squidward) gathered around their coral tree and sang The Very First Christmas as they waited for Santa. Sadly, he didn’t show and they all left angry at Spongebob for lying. Squidward of course had to gloat about being right but like usual guilt gets the better of him and he takes it upon himself to cheer up the poor sponge. His one act of kindness turns into many as he ends up giving majority of his possessions away. And the show ends on a positive note.

In the show majority of the characters are adults yet their behavior is that of a child. Squidward is one of the few characters (if not only) that is differently tends to be a negative character. His skepticism, grumpy attitude, and jadeness makes him more mature and adult-like though he tends to get past his opposition in many of the opposition such as when he moves into a closed off home filled with many other squids like him. The moral/lesson of the episode, like all Christmas shows was to encourage Christmas spirit no matter how the age, intelligence or even species. But why keep the Christmas spirit alive? I doubt that it’s for the good of mankind. When Christmas comes along one of the first things that pop into our minds is shopping (and vacation) and in the end that is the goal of the media. More consumers to fill their wallets. Sure those christmas specials are instilling values of warmth and community in us but in another perspective it could be seen as a clever way to brainwash the population into mass shopping sprees to create their perfect Christmas.