Posted on 01/28/2005 7:38:34 AM PST by presidio9
SpongeBob SquarePants, the wacky cartoon character who sparked a gay alert warning by U.S. Christian conservative groups, is neither gay nor straight.
He is asexual, says his creator.
At least two Christian activist groups said the innocent and hugely popular cartoon character SpongeBob and his best mate Patrick Starfish are being exploited to promote the acceptance of homosexuality.
SpongeBob's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, 43, said the allegations are far-fetched and his agenda does not go beyond fun and entertainment.
"It doesn't have anything to do with what we're trying to do," Hillenburg told Reuters in an interview on Friday, two days before the Asian premiere of the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in Singapore.
"We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We're just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show."
Naive SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the Pacific Ocean, was "outed" by the U.S. media in 2002 after reports that the Nickelodeon TV show and its merchandise were popular with gays.
Influential U.S. radio evangelist James Dobson, among whose top political issues are opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion rights, said last week SpongeBob had been included in a "pro-homosexual video."
"Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary but it crosses a moral line," said Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.
"MORE IMPORTANT ISSUES"
SpongeBob is one of the stars of a music video due to be sent to 61,000 U.S. schools in March. The makers -- the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation -- say the video is designed to encourage tolerance and diversity.
Hillenburg, a marine-science-teacher-turned-animator who lives in Hollywood and is married with a 6-year-old son, says he thinks there are "more important issues to worry about."
"I really don't pay much attention to this."
Such allegations were common in the history of cartoon and children's entertainment, he said.
"Just think of 'Laurel and Hardy' or 'Ernie and Bert'," he said, referring to two popular American comic icons -- the former from the 1930s and latter from the U.S. television series "Sesame Street."
In 1999, Britain's Teletubbies were cast into sexual controversy by a U.S. religious leader who warned parents to be alert to subtle messages from Tinky Winky, one of the four androgynous characters, singled out for his purple color and a triangular antenna on his head, both symbolising gay pride.
Nickelodeon, part of global media firm Viacom Inc., has made 60 episodes since SpongeBob's birth in 1996 and is working on another 20. It says the series is a big hit in Indonesia and has been translated into Hindi, Korean and Japanese.
Hillenburg, who produced and directed his first SpongeBob movie, has employed stars such as Alec Baldwin (news) and Scarlett Johansson to voice some of the characters while Baywatch personality David Hasselhoff (news) has made a non-cartoon appearance.
1) Spongebob Squarepants is a well-liked and well-known cartoon character in a cartoon appropriate for children
2) Radical homosexual organizations are specifically targeting children by taking a character from said childrens' cartoon and infusing it with homosexual propaganda where there was none before.
3) Ergo, the homosexuals are openly trying to recruit children into their perversion.
IMO we should have drawn the line with homosexual childrens' books, at the very least. Having not done so it was inevitable that the homosexual lobby would take this next step, since it is inherent in their nature to escalate recruitment until forcibly prevented from doing so.
Just because the homos want to claim Spongebob as one of their doesn't mean we should all go along with it. Are we gonna bend over and let the gays take whatever cartoon characters they want and leave us with ... Captain Planet?
Pineapples and David Hasselhoff - need I say more?
ping
Comedy Central last night had an episode of Shorties Watching Shorties which refered to Spongebob as the "gay" sponge. As in the character is a homosexual. They also showed an image of Spongebob with a homosexual type character.
The MSM is hiding behind their fingers.
The AFA did not call the characters homosexuals, the liberal/leftists did it themselves!
| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
For the zillionth time: It's not about SpongeBob. It's about the pro-gay, pro-feminist curriculum that is to accompany the video to 61,000 public schools. The curriculum is far worse than the pledge, though the pledge is a very bad idea. Do you really want innocent, vulnerable elementary school children pledging to tolerate everyone's sexual identity? There are a lot of sexual predators out their who prey specifically on children. Should the kids tolerate their sexual identity?
My 9 year old son likes SpongeBob and I must admit that I find the cartoon pretty funny.
Having said that, I did not appreciate the fishnet stockings and high heeled boots on Patrick in the final scene of the full featured film.
This controversy never was and never will be about whether the characters themselves are gay, any more than the Clinton impeachment was about sex. The MSM is trying to focus attention on that idea to trivialize the true point, which is that there is an agenda to indoctrinate our youth to accept homosexuality as normal. It isn't.
There is a major equivalence drive going on in the media to make all lifestyles appear normal. I'd rather let my kids wait and make their own minds up for themselves when they are old enough to handle the gray areas of life.
Apparently you realized that my post WAS about SpongeBob. It is not allowed to comment on SpongeBob in a story regarding SpongeBob? Is addressing any point other than the one you choose to focus on not allowed?
Having said that, I did not appreciate the fishnet stockings and high heeled boots on Patrick in the final scene of the full featured film.
I thought it was the funniest moment in the movie.
A man (or male in this case) dressed as a woman can be very funny and is not a sign of recent moral decay in our society. Drag humor goes back through MASH, Bugs Bunny, Some Like it Hot, Monty Python, Milton Berle, all the way to Shakespeare and the ancient Greek comedies.
Besides, Patrick had some great gams!
My family loves Spongebob. As far as this video to appear in March, that is another story. My only question regarding Spongebobs is: why did they make a PG rated movie instead of G rated movie?
I think this has more to do with getting caught peddling an agenda, then trying to cover both sides of the street than anything else.
If you're marketing a "product" to parents, and kids of this age group, "Gay" is the last thing you want to be associated with.
From fashionable minority to Childhood Insult in ein augen blick, nice work Homos.
Gay is so over.
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