My own theory on why the show is getting worse

[Afigitus the Wanderer]

I love SpongeBob theories and how they make the show a whole lot more interesting and deeper in its theme.

I have heard several theories about our favorite yellow sponge, and I have made one of my own.
I'm gonna share my theory on why the show is going downhill. I'm gonna warn you right now: This theory will change how you view the show...

Have you noticed that, in the early seasons, the citizens of Bikini Bottom appeared to have average intelligence but they're pretty dumb in the newer seasons? In case you didn't know, Bikini Bottom is located in Bikini Atoll, and in the 40s and 50s, nuclear testing has occurred there, and this would mean that the sea creatures in the SongeBob universe are mutants, and the radiation had anthropomorphized them and gave them human-like intelligence.

Now, with that in mind, this my theory on why the show is getting worse and worse:
The SpongeBob characters are mentally de-evolving, not like in Feral Friends, but in terms of their intelligence getting lower and lower as time passes. "How and why are these characters getting less and less intelligent?" you're probably asking. It's because the effects of the radiation caused by the nuclear testing is wearing off as fast. The level of intelligence probably reached its peak sometime before 1999, when the show first premiered and everybody was pretty well balanced, but it started to decline in 2004, when the first movie was released. the intelligence of the characters has gotten lower and lower ever since.

What do you think of this theory? This is the first part of my bigger theory of the show as a whole. The rest involves Sandy and how she's involved in all of this...

 

[durthblurth]

This is a pretty nice theory, but I personally don't believe that that is what could be causing this.

 

[Afigitus the Wanderer]

This is a pretty nice theory, but I personally don't believe that that is what could be causing this.

What do you think is happening, then?

 

[Lettuce Have Fun]

I'm about to get real wordy here because the writing/storyboarding is something that I know a lot about regarding Spongebob, I pretty much have nothing else to offer this forum lol


So, the validity of this theory relies on two unlikely scenarios:

1. That the show is objectively "getting worse" (My and others' opinions on the show contradict this--I promise you that no one working on the show is intentionally seeking to make anyone dislike the show)
2. That the writers/show runners for some reason have all decided to devolve the show intentionally because they want a few random people online to discover this self-destructive narrative taking place over the course of 10+ years is intentional, because radiation.

The truth about the "bad writing" is that it's a combination of many things: the writing and storyboarding situation behind the scenes genuinely was "tense" after the first movie because of the sudden change in how the show was being run (Since Stephen Hillenburg left, this inevitably changed a lot. No single individual was to blame here.)
There was also the fact that for how successful Spongebob was at the time (and still is), the writers/storyboard artists were getting kinda... bad pay. Blame the network. It's hard to put in that much work on a show that is more relevant than any other and then to still feel like you're kinda scraping by in an expensive city.

Now, things are completely different. A lot of pre-season 4 people have returned within the past few seasons, Stephen was back obviously for a good while there, and the unspoken rules of what works and what doesn't work in the Spongebob universe have completely changed. Instead of dialogue being written collaboratively between the main writer and the storyboard artists, it is now written entirely by the main writer. Storyboarding is purely visual now.
You can't expect the same person(s) to write using the exact same guidelines for 20 years, it's impossible and nothing but unfeeling, empty content would come out if that were the technique still being used. So yes, the show is different now, but it's a natural evolution and seriously... it's not bad. It's not even okay, it's good. You just have to watch it without preconceived expectations.

(Sorry for the wall of text)

 

[Sara SquarePants]

I'll tell you why SpongeBob is getting worse...

Nickelodeon has milked it for too long and it shows

The decline has nothing to do with radiation or anything

It has everything to do with refusing to go into the fridge & throwing out the spoiled milk!

 

[Lettuce Have Fun]

 

[Servo]

It Suffers from what i call, "The Simpsons Effect", it's basically when a show is Aired for too long and is begging for the axe at this point.

 

[EntertainmentFanatic]

I'm about to get real wordy here because the writing/storyboarding is something that I know a lot about regarding Spongebob, I pretty much have nothing else to offer this forum lol


So, the validity of this theory relies on two unlikely scenarios:

1. That the show is objectively "getting worse" (My and others' opinions on the show contradict this--I promise you that no one working on the show is intentionally seeking to make anyone dislike the show)
2. That the writers/show runners for some reason have all decided to devolve the show intentionally because they want a few random people online to discover this self-destructive narrative taking place over the course of 10+ years is intentional, because radiation.

The truth about the "bad writing" is that it's a combination of many things: the writing and storyboarding situation behind the scenes genuinely was "tense" after the first movie because of the sudden change in how the show was being run (Since Stephen Hillenburg left, this inevitably changed a lot. No single individual was to blame here.)
There was also the fact that for how successful Spongebob was at the time (and still is), the writers/storyboard artists were getting kinda... bad pay. Blame the network. It's hard to put in that much work on a show that is more relevant than any other and then to still feel like you're kinda scraping by in an expensive city.

Now, things are completely different. A lot of pre-season 4 people have returned within the past few seasons, Stephen was back obviously for a good while there, and the unspoken rules of what works and what doesn't work in the Spongebob universe have completely changed. Instead of dialogue being written collaboratively between the main writer and the storyboard artists, it is now written entirely by the main writer. Storyboarding is purely visual now.
You can't expect the same person(s) to write using the exact same guidelines for 20 years, it's impossible and nothing but unfeeling, empty content would come out if that were the technique still being used. So yes, the show is different now, but it's a natural evolution and seriously... it's not bad. It's not even okay, it's good. You just have to watch it without preconceived expectations.

(Sorry for the wall of text)

A+
With all of what Lettuce Have Fun has said I personally think the show could be like seasons 1 - 3, of course, that would be a lot harder now because of the passing of Stephen Hillenburg (r.i.p) but I think if they really try to emulate and go back to the old writing/storyboarding style and really just study those old seasons to get the feel back, the show could be amazing again. Some of the simplest plots were amazing in pre-movie. I mean they just have to nail the style really, which I'm not trying to make it sound like that is easy by any means but with a lot of the earlier crew members back, I think they have a good shot at it. But for right now it's still pretty good. As for the theory itself, it's not bad per say but it's really about what goes on behind the scenes that change things.

 

[RomNick]

if they really try to emulate and go back to the old writing/storyboarding style and really just study those old seasons to get the feel back, the show could be amazing again.

Really? You are one of these "Facebook commenter" people again?
Don't you think the former storyboarders could sue the current ones for copying them? And I really think they shouldn't study the first three seasons thoroughly. This is insane. They have their own tactic of running the show, they shouldn't copy what others did.

 

[Lettuce Have Fun]

 

[MegaSamurott]

IMO, Seasons 6-8 are basically just modern-era (Seasons 7-13) Family Guy, but as a kid's show. A shame, since both shows used to be so good.