The hit children’s television show, SpongeBob SquarePants, has been around for two decades of fun, entertaining, exciting, and breathtaking episodes. Many of the students at Robinson, including myself, have grown up watching SpongeBob throughout our childhood. In recent years, the show has been going through some changes to become more entertaining, but there are some flaws. I want to give my opinion on if the show got better or worse. 

SpongeBob’s Early Years 

SpongeBob is a show created by Stephen Hillenburg, who got the show’s idea from when he wrote a comic book called “The Intertidal Zone”. This comic featured many sea creatures that would be the basis of the characters in SpongeBob; the comic, which included a character named Bob the Sponge, which would eventually be called SpongeBob for his new show. The first episode of SpongeBob, called “Help Wanted”, aired on May 1, 1999, where SpongeBob gets a job at the Krusty Krab, while Mr. Krabs and Squidward secretly try to get rid of him. Ever since the first episode was aired, the show became very popular for kids around the world, with it being voted “Favorite Cartoon” from 2003 to 2021. 

During the early years of SpongeBob, he did many things, like make new friends like Sandy Cheeks and Larry Lobster, work at the Krusty Krab, annoying his co-worker Squidward and his boss Mr. Krabs, going on silly adventures with his best friend Patrick, defending the Krabby Patty secret formula from Plankton, and going to boating school with his teacher Ms. Puff. When the first season ended on March 3, 2001, it had already gained worldwide popularity and it became the favorite show for kids. These are arguably the best years of Spongebob, because the show already had great ideas for episodes, with a variety of scenes that made the episodes more entertaining to watch.  

SpongeBob in the 2010s

In the beginning of the 2010s, SpongeBob had already established itself as the top show for kids around the world, and with the start of the decade, the show would try and use some different, but unique plots, upgrading the animations of the characters, and more character development. During the 2010s, the show SpongeBob released seasons 8 and 9, and the producers of the show hoped that those seasons would help the show be even better than the early 2000s version of SpongeBob. 

After seasons 8 and 9 were released, a lot of people had mixed reviews about the show, with most people saying that they prefer SpongeBob in the early 2000s to SpongeBob in the 2010s because they said that the animations weren’t very good, the scripts for each episode weren’t that good, and it made the show less entertaining. They also said that episode was very predictable and that they knew what the characters are going to say or do. The 2010s were arguably the worst years for the show, because the episodes during that time weren’t really entertaining to watch and the characters in the episodes didn’t really do anything that interesting to make me watch the episodes, and the script for each episode seemed very bland. 

SpongeBob’s 20th Anniversary

On July 12th, 2019, the show SpongeBob turned 20 years old, and to celebrate it, the producers of the show made a special birthday celebration episode for SpongeBob, called “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout.” In the episode, the residents and SpongeBob’s friends try to throw a surprise birthday celebration for SpongeBob, and they assign Patrick, SpongeBob’s true best friend, to go with SpongeBob on a tour so everyone can set up the party. While on the tour, SpongeBob and Patrick saw many interesting things while being above the surface, like seeing many people party at the beach, people in suits working in office buildings, who go to a place called the Trusty Slab. 

At the Trusty Slab, the people that were in there were the actors of their voices; the voice actor for SpongeBob is in the kitchen, the voice actor of Squidward at the cash register, the voice actor for Mr. Krabs as the boss, and the voice actors for Sandy and Patrick as the customers. When the tour bus got into the kitchen, SpongeBob was so intrigued as to how his voice actor flipped the krabby patties, he decided to get out of the tour bus to get a closer look. Unfortunately, he was mistaken for a patty, and he got stuck in a sandwich, which made Patrick get out of the tour bus and save him. After Patrick saves SpongeBob, a scene broke out at the Trusty Slab where the actor of Plankton threatens to steal the “slabby patty” secret sauce recipe, but the voice actor of Sandy got in the way and stopped him. The voice actor of Mr. Krabs then kicks the voice actor of Plankton out of the Trusty Slab, and then the tour bus leaves.

After the tour was over, the tour bus returned to Bikini Bottom, but when the tour bus got back to SpongeBob’s house, the house was a mess and everyone was sleeping on the floor. After the tour bus left, SpongeBob got a surprise visit from Patchy the Pirate, a huge fan of SpongeBob, and then everyone, including Patchy, sang “Happy Birthday” to SpongeBob, before a montage of stars from Hollywood was shown, saying ‘Happy Birthday” to SpongeBob. Finally, at the end, a tribute to the late Stephen Hillenburg (who died of ALS in 2018) was shown, with the quote saying, “Thank you Stephen Hillenburg!” It was a very good tribute episode because SpongeBob is a very iconic show which has been around for two decades, and since the show has entertained kids for so long, the show deserves to have a tribute episode for the kids to embrace the SpongeBob turning 20 years old. 

SpongeBob’s Current Status 

For two decades, SpongeBob has been a staple of what kid’s TV should be like, and in my opinion, it’s been one of the most consistent shows on TV. Right now, SpongeBob is currently going strong with season 12 and 13 through 2018-2022 and 2020-2022. I believe that SpongeBob will always be the go-to show for kids for years to come. Even though there are other shows out there for kids to watch, SpongeBob will always have a special place in a kid’s heart. I believe that the show will still be good for many more years to come because the show SpongeBob has a good reputation for always having quality episodes. 

Overall, the show got worse because the plot for the episodes are very bland and not very creative. For example, in the earlier episodes, SpongeBob would always go on adventures with Patrick, go jelly fishing, play around to annoy their neighbor Squidward, or go to work at the Krusty Krab. In the episodes now, SpongeBob does the same thing over and over again, making the episodes more predictable and less entertaining. Also, without Stephen Hillenburg in charge during seasons 12-13, the show became worse. At the start of season 12, the producers were left in charge of the show, and overall, they didn’t really have great ideas for what each episode will be about. Back then when Hillenburg was in charge during seasons 1-11, he had so many great ideas for what each episode would be about, that when the episodes were released, I would watch every episode because it came from his ideas. Overall, the show got worse. 

Writer’s Note

It is truly sad that the show SpongeBob has gotten worse over the years because I used to watch the show every day when I was a kid and I felt so happy and excited every time the theme song would play before every episode. Now, when I hear the theme song being played, I don’t feel as happy and excited for the episodes as I was back then. I know it’s sad, but I realized that times have changed and that the show will go through its ups and downs, and eventually the show might be good again in the future.