Spongebob Squarepants and The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility

The So-Called Post 4th-Season Decline of Spongebob Squarepantsis simply fans who have moved on or have simply outgrown the show. It is merely a law of economics, not the declining quality of the show that has upset some of the fans. As a consumerincreases consumption of a product, there is a decline in the marginal utility that person derives from consuming each additional unit of that product. It's why you have to change cat food brands, when your cat suddenly grows tired of its food.

I have searched for examples of this "decline" of SBSP for years, by watching whenever I can (usually two shows a week, and I always try to watch the new ones) and finding whatever I can on the internet. So far there has no quantifiable evidence that the show has declined in artistic quality and acting, only feelings without examples.

When I saw the SBSP movie, I had a sinking feeling at the end of the movie and feared that another show would lose its luster. So far, with the exception of only two episodes in the fifth season, every episode since the 4th season has been funnier, the acting is better and the animation gags are quicker and more creative. The two episodes I dislikes were the mattress episode and the Plankton going to court episode (though it has a very cute scene where SB becomes amissile to open up a briefcase) Those were way back in the fifth season, after everyone had come back from making the movie. Since then, my fears have been unfounded.

I admit that I probably am not objective, because I spat coffee out of my mouth right on the light green carpet in the living room when viewing an episode. The show has focused more on Patrick and Squidward and Plankton and their weird struggles. There seems to be a continuity on the show, now, that revolves around SB's failure to aquire his driving license.

I find it odd that nobody says "The Old Dora the Explorer is so much better than the New Dora", even though that show has changed a little in the past few years, butDora still makes me laugh. This reveals that many fans of SBSPare simply anxious about a fatal mistake and as a result are petitioning for the show to change as little as possible. It reminds me of people who won't play the new SOTC games because they don't have the special essence of the old one.

However the feelings of having outgrown SBSP are normal for a lot of people, but they are afraid to admit that they have changed, moved on to other interests, shows, etc. Instead they want to attack the show itself for not giving them the same enjoyment it has in the past. The show has not declined, the fans have simply changed.

Outgrowing Spongebob isOk, but it's not right to say SB has been declining since the 4th season, as if it's an aphorism.

Two questions: Why are you watching Dora The Explorer and shouldn't this be a blog?

One more question: is it strange that i was slightly aroused by this post?

One more question: is it strange that i was slightly aroused by this post?

QuetzaIcoatl

No, it's a part of growing up. You will soon notice you are growing hair in strange places and tiny teeth will grow in your nostrils called "denticles".

Uhmm okay i am not quite sure what you are talking about but okay.:?

This post was in response to other posts on the "Off-Topic Discussion". I didn't want to look like I was personally attacking any one blogger on this discussion page. After four years of reading things from the "SB isn't the same as it was in the Good Ol' Days" crowd, I wanted to post something different to counter this.

No, the 4th season and up of Spongebob Squarepants just aren't funny to me.

If I truly outgrew the show, I should not be able to laugh at the older episodes, yet I am able to still.

Spongebob actually has gone downhill. They made all of the characters dumb as rocks for "comedic" purposes.

I can still watch the older episodes and enjoy them. I don't think I've outgrown Spongebob.

You hit the nail right on the head.

Unfortunately, many feel compelled to consume a certain product long after losing much of the utility they used to derive form it.

These poor souls do so out of habbit, or they have found utility in the act of complaining about said product, diminishing utility others may get from it.

I never really know when each season ends and begins, until the full season videos come out for sale or on Netflix.

Volume one of Season Five (years ago) is finally on sale. ("google" Amazon, I can't cut and paste it here)Now that I think about it, the irate fans probably just don't have the seasons in order either. The new episodes originally came out on all these videos that were scrambled in with old episodes, because Nickelodeon is still a business with profits in mind. It's like the way records (I vaguely recall records) came out with "the Greatest Hits" of a particular artist with their songs from different records on them.

Wikipedia, (though sometimes not the most reliable source of information on things) is a good place to find the order of episodes of SB, or records, etc.

You brought up something I never thought of before.The harshest critics of SBSP seem to know exactly when each season starts when they start their spam-page of "You know, Spongebob was never the same after the fourth season" rants.

To Smitty Peppers, see above. :)

Good point, Cybrcatter.

Thanks for all your responses.