Who Lives in a Pineapple in the Twitter Comments?
Who knew that the titular childhood icon, Spongebob Squarepants, would stay within media long past its 20th anniversary and within Western media circles as memes? To see such a show morph into online culture so seemingly throughout the decades is laudable. Many people, if asked, would probably recognize a gif or a screen still of the square sponge in a comment section or Youtube video; perhaps being seen at least twice a week online. But how did this simple porous filled creature become such a staple of online culture, and how do people use this show’s images as memes?
Early meme culture was very simple and in its infancy around 2009–2011. Through bolden white text both on the top and bottom of the image, of which the creator uses to express a profound opinion, many images such as the following were the heart of meme culture. You may recognize this meme format through Facebook from its many political opinion posts. In the early 2000’s, posting an image of a character or person like Bad Luck Brian or Overly Obsessed Girlfriend was sure to win you internet fame and the sweet dopamine of likes and shares.
If you were online around said time period, you may recognize this image.
This screen shot of Spongebob holding his index finger out to make a commentary on how tough he is by only weeping for 20 or so minutes after stubbing his toe, trying to get into the Salty Spitoon, the “roughest, toughest place in Bikini Bottom”, made rounds on the internet. This image was used to share a commentary, starting with “I’ll have you know that ______, and I _________.” Filling the blanks with the authors own well thought out joke. While simple, this is what meme culture was about back in the day, and Spongebob capitalized on that. The mere image of Spongebob casually stating his opinion with a direct look gave many the enjoyment and self expression people were looking forward to finding on the internet.
Nowadays, you’d find a more evolved expression of meme usage through nonsensical imagery of Spongebob and other images in Twitter comments used to show reactionary applause or astonishment to invoke a laugh or two to those whom view it.
But HOW and WHY did Spongebob remain relevant in the media in the following passing years, and why are these “shitposts” — memes, reactions, and posts of purposefully low quality to cause the biggest reaction with “ the least effort imaginable” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shitposting) so influential and internationally recognizable?
The answer is simple; Spongebob memes are spawned from the source of many founding opinions and senses of humour, the childhood. Spongebob is central to many people’s starting years in entertainment and is very recognizable and well-loved by audiences of all ages, but especially the zoomer and millennial generation that circulates the images. In the heat of exchanges online, a simple shitpost can connect many people simply because they related to the source material and are let in on an inside joke; of which can be discovered upon watching the show.
Meme formats have changed over the years, and the two following generational divides are responsible for honing it into the format that it is today. Memes that have went from a critical format that lays out a joke through text, to simply being relatable from the sheer raw emotion an image possesses. Memes are now centered around reactionary usage. It’s quite possible that there are several who don’t understand HOW a single image with no text accompanying it would be able to influence someone.
Let’s take this image, for example. The Spongebob character Squidward is seen being assaulted with a yellow substance with a smile on his face. Of course, if this were animated, it would show poor Squidward’s eyes burning red with pain with a well deserved scream.
But this image is purposefully paused at this exact frame to show a certain emotion or how someone is feeling. As you can infer, this image is probably used to show a negative emotion such as disgust or regret. This is through implying that the reader or reactor’s eyes were assaulted through whatever the following content they read, as if their eyes were being sprayed by whatever Squidward was targeted with. The smile Squidward has can indicate that either the poster was hit with the previous post unguarded, or that they felt like a happy emotion was taken away from them upon reading the OP — Original Poster ‘s post.
In this era of the internet, this is how Spongebob has stayed within the circle of internet culture. Younger and older generations can catch on through the simplest of shitposts and circulate the in-joke even farther than previously intended. That’s how many memes such as Caveman Spongebob were able to stay around for as long as they could.
Through screenshots such as this, Caveman Spongebob was around to indicate surprise in many rhetorical situations that the poster could think of, and was engaged in many Twitter comments at the height of its popularity.
Since Spongebob is still a running show, it has an endless supply of content that viewers and shitposters can take and create memes that influence how a person responds to another through online debate and exchange. Even without context, such a simple image can change how a society communicates to each other online, even if for a fleeting amount of time. With format and design so simple, anyone can engage and spread the joke and keep the spirit of Spongebob alive, even when the show and the current memes die out. And if there’s a possible future where Spongebob is no longer in meme hierarchy or internet culture, it will always be a stepping stone within history’s linguistic library.