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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.

“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.”

As the other poster indicated, the two of them were raising a “baby” (a clam of some sort). The messages were: two guys can raise a kid like anyone else, and it was implied that the “husband” was a lazy POS (towards the end it was shown that while he was claiming to go to work every day, he was actually going to his house next door and watching TV). If you can “translate” these for the kids while they’re watching, then I wouldn’t worry; nobody should assume that their children aren’t being indoctrinated by “kids’ shows”.

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