A Study of the Impact of Caillou and Spongebob on Children

SpongeBob Squarepants created by Marine Biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg is an animated TV series about a yellow sea sponge that lives underwater in a pineapple in this town called Bikini Bottom. He is energetic and has a pet snail named Gary. His best friend, Patrick Star, lives two houses down from him in a rock. Right next door to SpongeBob is his co-worker and neighbor Squidward Tentacles who hates SpongeBob, Patrick, and working at the Krusty Krabs. SpongeBob loves his job at the Krusty Krabs and bothering Squidward. The Krusty Krabs is the world to SpongeBob that he would even work at that place for free. The show is a fast paced program. According to Psychology Today, it said that the University of Virginia did a study with four year old children. They have one group watch SpongeBob; they have another group watch Caillou, and then another group draw. They did a test right after the programs were done. The children that watched SpongeBob did poorly compared to the other two groups.

I will be using textual analysis to analyze this artifact. In one of the episodes called Not Normal, SpongeBob and Squidward got into a fight like they always due. Squidward told SpongeBob that he wasn’t normal. He was super upset that he decided to change himself into normal. He changed himself completely that also affected his work and friends. After losing almost everything SpongeBob has he decided that normal wasn’t for him. He went to Patrick for help so that he can be abnormal again. They basically humiliated themselves and have the public laughing at them.

This episode promotes that it is okay to hurt other people’s feelings and do dumb things in the public eye and that it is okay. Squidward telling SpongeBob that he is not normal causing him to change into a whole different person. That is hurtful and can cause a lot of damage to one person such as their self-esteem. Patrick helps SpongeBob to be abnormal again by sliding down the sidewalk and licking sand. They are having fun while doing these things. And children want fun things to do.