Meme Analysis Digital Essay
Mocking Spongebob: Analyzed
Why the viral 2017 meme was able to go, well, viral.
The Meme’s Birth
Mocking Spongebob was created in the 2012 episode of Spongebob Squarepants titled, “Little Yellow Book”. In this episode, Spongebob isn’t actually mocking anybody. The concept, however, is that Squidward gets his tentacles on Spongebob’s diary and discovers that he has the uncontrollable urge to act like a chicken anytime he sees plaid clothing. So when Mr.Krabs emerges from his office wearing a kilt, the new internet-breaking meme was formed.
Five years later in early May of 2017, Twitter user @OGBEARD tweeted the first screenshot of Mocking Spongebob intended as a meme with the caption, “How I stare back at little kids when they stare for too long.” In just over a day, the tweet had over 100,000 likes. Soon after this tweet, more would follow as the meme began to evolve.
Evolution to Mainstream
After @OGBEARD’s tweet quickly went viral, so did the meme. Later that same day, another Twitter user @Lexysaeyang posted a “call-and-response element to the meme,” (KnowYourMeme) using it alongside another image of a bird crossing their arms. For the first time, the Spongebob image was paired with a variety of upper and lower case letters implying that there is a mocking or sarcastic tone to the sentence. Again, with the new format, the meme blew up gaining nearly 85,000 likes.
Fast forward another day and yet another user used this format, albeit without the bird image. @Danilevyyy tweeted another iteration showing Mocking Spongebob alongside the caption, “Americans: I need healthcare because I have cancer and I’m dying. Republicans: I NeEd hEaLtHcArE bEcAuSe I hAvE caNcEr aNd iM dYinG.” Like wildfire, the tweet stormed its way to popularity quickly garnishing 200,000 likes. Soon news sites and companies were catching on and in the next few days, it was everywhere.
Like all memes, this one came and went. It was popular for much of the early months of 2017, but towards the end it was pretty rare to find. What did stay in some aspect however, was the text format of the meme. In comment sections across all social media platforms, you still see the variety of upper and lowercase letters when users are mocking something or someone. It’s a very useful tool in the comments and just another way to “troll” for many. While the picture all but died out, over a year and a half later a small re-emergence occurred in the form of real-life people mocking the Mocking Spongebob meme itself. Posted by Corporate Bro in the midst of the meme’s shelf-life in June 2017, it spread over a year later. The most popular photo was a businessman in a suit acting like a chicken, but some photoshopped celebrities have made their way across the internet. This was a very-short fad and soon fell to the same fate as its predecessor.
Copy Fidelity, Fecundity, and Longevity
In terms of copy fidelity, whether the meme can be copied effectively, Mocking Spongebob is a home run. In the time just before the insanely quick rise of Tik Tok and Reels, picture heavy sites likes Instagram and Twitter were the common ground for memes. Based on this platform, pictures that were flexible in terms of the situation it can be used and its ability to be a meme on its own were necessary for a viral meme. For this meme, simply posting its image and a unique sentence with a mix of capital and lowercase letters does the trick. This simplicity, even with just one of the image or sentence, is empowering to a meme and allows others to use it without having to worry about whether it was used the correct way. Don’t agree with a post on your Twitter feed? Insert Mocking Spongebob and await the responses. Simple makes better in the culture of memes.
As mentioned before, Mocking Spongebob is flexible which aids its fecundity. The mocking face can be rehashed in various different means. For example, the picture of the man in casual attire copying the meme’s image. It’s awkward and odd to see outside of its Spongebob form, but easy to mimic as well. This is just one of many examples of this, as the other picture depicts former President Donald Trump in the “mocking/chicken form” we’ve seen prior. This gives the meme a lot of leeway as both of these mimic’d images were easy to distinguish as parodies of the original Mocking Spongebob. Also, by keeping the mimic format and changing it to something that relates to a stance in the joke (like Trump and politics), it can add more depth to the meme.
Lastly, with both the fidelity and fecundity more than covered by Mocking Spongebob, it’s no surprise its longevity would stretch for an extended period of time. Popular for a number of months and lingering for even longer, its simple meaning and ability to be altered without changing the original point of the image serves it wonders. Even now, without the image, the text it aligned with still frequents many comment sections. With the internet a hot place for debate, especially on image sharing sites, a meme seen as the poster child of mocking is a perfect tool in thread arguments. Different images and unique captions kept Mocking Spongebob from falling to the wayside quickly and keeping it fresh. All these factors played in to the meme’s impressive longevity and shelf life.
What Type of Meme is Mocking Spongebob?
Mocking Spongebob is a viral meme due to its widespread popularity and influence across different online communities and platforms. However, it is not either an egalitarian meme nor a founder-based meme. It fails to meet the criteria to be classified as an egalitarian meme because not many other versions went mainstream and, egalitarian memes tending to be more open ended, this meme is more tied to specific instances of use and adaptation by individual users. It cannot be a founder-based meme because no single person or group takes credit for its creation or spread. Unlike “Bad Luck Brian” or “Scumbag Steve”, which are attributed to specific individuals or groups, Mocking Spongebob just fits the criteria for a viral meme.
What about Arguments? Content? Form? Stance?
The Mocking Spongebob doesn’t originate any argument by itself. It’s visual communication through an image that depicts a distorted facial expression, usually to mock or ridicule. Now, depending on the caption, which usually goes hand-in-hand with this meme, a specific argument can be conveyed. Mocking Spongebob benefits from this aspect, making it flexible and adaptable to be used for a variety of different arguments. However, the argument comes from the user creating the caption not from the meme itself.
Any user can alter the content, form, and stance of Mocking Spongebob to make new arguments or expand its boundaries. Manipulating content, users can modify the caption or the image itself to convey a different message or a new argument. For instance, they might replace the original caption with a new one that makes a political statement, such as “When the government doesn’t listen to the people.” Alternatively, they might change the image to show SpongeBob mocking a different target, such as a politician. Changing up the meme’s form, however, isn’t as simple. The meme’s original form is by far the most mainstream, but the Trump example and casual attire dude are two examples of manipulating the form to better serve a certain argument or demographic. The memes stance can be altered, by users creating a caption that pushes a topic or argument. For instance, they might use the meme to challenge a social norm or promote a new perspective on a controversial issue. It can also be used to express personal opinions as well.
All these specific factors played into Mocking Spongebob’s place at the top of the meme hierarchy for just a few months and what makes it forever…
Iconic.
Sources:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/mocking-spongebob
https://keene.instructure.com/courses/2031374/files/260238261?module_item_id=96196297