“Back in the day—we enjoyed watching SpongeBob...until one bizarre episode in which Patrick Star played the lazy no good husband, and SpongeBob was the nagging “wife”. They actually had a baby. It was a disturbing episode. We discontinued watching the series after that weird stunt.”
That was definitely a homosexual/deviant show; at the end of the movie itself, Patrick shows up wearing fishnets and whore boots (with no explanation or reason), and in another episode he cross-dresses to work as a waitress. Definitely bizarre for a children’s program...
You know last year I was at a parents/teacher meeting with my kid’s teacher (this was not in the US) and the teacher suggested to my wife and I that we needed to take a firmer hand with our boy’s TV viewing. I agreed as I had long objected to a particular nihilistic, amoral cartoon called “Adventure Time” that Nickelodeon (I think) aired.
The teacher agreed that this and a few other violent cartoons should be off-limits but when she suggested that “Spongebob” was a problem I admit I laughed out loud. In all seriousness she explained that the cartoon gave out confusing and inappropriate gender signals and cited the marriage episode you mention (I did tell you this wasn’t a US school).
I had no idea that Spongebob was problematical but what you say is interesting, these things are never simply meaningless, anyone who believes that the producers of these hugely expensive programs haven’t put a lot of thought into every scene and the message they are trying to inculcate in young minds may well be very naive.
It’s worth bearing in mind.