Spongebob's Dysfunctional (Chosen) Family

  Spongebob Squarepants is a wild show for kids that may or may not have lots of subliminal messages.  But instead of taking a deep dive into existentialism in Spongebob, I want to look at how family is shown in the series.  First, we can look at his chosen family of Gary, Patrick, Squidward, Sandy, and Mr. Krabs (and maybe even Plankton).  Spongebob’s best friend is Patrick, but he also thinks that Squidward is friends with him and forces him to do things that he doesn’t want to do.  This forms a one-sided relationship where Squidward can’t really escape because Spongebob is his coworker and he needs his job.  This is fairly common with Spongebob and the people he meets.  There is one episode where it turns out for the better and that is the episode “F.U.N.” where Spongebob is able to teach Plankton about friendship.  In most other episodes, Spongebob drags his “friends” with him on some sort of adventure.  This is very easily seen in the episode “Club Spongebob” where he brings Patrick and Squidward to the kelp forest to camp out.  This eventually leads to everyone going insane and talking to a “magic conch”.  Squidward never wants to go on these adventures with Spongebob, but he may feel obligated to and continues to entertain him anyway, even if it hurts his mental health.  Spongebob seems like a terrible influence on children and how they should be approaching friendship and chosen families, but I don’t think that a funny little sponge talking to a starfish and a squid will make too much of an impact on children’s relationships.