SpongeBob SquarePants Fan Theories That Change The Way You’ll Watch – Looper

Mental illness is always a touchy subject to broach in media even at the best of times. While there have been many great examples over the years of respectful and nuanced takes in films, TV shows, and animation, there has also been a lot that missed the mark. And, given that “SpongeBob SquarePants” has such a fun, goofy, and irreverent tone, it would seem an unlikely candidate to depict characters suffering from deep mental issues, especially while being geared toward children.

However, a fan theory from Reddit user StrawberryUwUGirl, explains in great detail how all the various marine characters in “SpongeBob SquarePants” actually suffer from some form of mental illness. To be fair, there is actually a decent amount of textual evidence from various episodes that alludes to things like SpongeBob being addicted to co-dependency, Patrick having multiple personality disorder, and SpongeBob’s driver’s ed teacher, Mrs. Puff, showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Now, there’s a really strong possibility that none of this textual evidence was even purposefully done by the creators. In fact, the reason why there may be a lot of textual evidence may be due to the fact that these characters may have been based on real people in the creator and writers’ lives — or even based on themselves in some ways. For instance, “Community” showrunner Dan Harmon realized he may have been on the autistic spectrum while writing for the character of Abed. (via Vulture).