movies/tv Is Spongebob slowly dying out?

[Shift 4,272]

Spongebob died in 2005 or 2006, and nothing shall convince me otherwise.

[Castle Bleck 19,296]

SpongeBob's new theme should be:

 

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

There are two ways this question can be interpreted.

 

Is SpongeBob slowly degrading in quality? Are there 24 hours in a day? Does the apple not fall far from the tree? This is a well-known fact that due to a change in writing staff after the first movie, SpongeBob's quality is not slowly degrading. It has completely slipped and is a mere shell (excuse the pun) of what it once was.

 

Is SpongeBob's popularity going down? That's one that warrants a longer answer. Despite the degrading quality, all the negative publicity going around about the new episodes, and increased competition by newer, better cartoons, SpongeBob is still often the number one cartoon on television. Part of this is because Nickelodeon isn't even trying anymore. Most of their new cartoons are complete garbage for anyone outside of the target audience, or anyone who doesn't appreciate crude humor. Another part is that the standards of cartoons on the whole have gone down so much that the early episodes of SpongeBob seem even better by comparison, which motivates Nickelodeon to sit on their hands and let them drive their success with the family demographic.

 

Unfortunately, few other cartoons on these days can match the broad cross-generational appeal that early SpongeBob had. MLP, for example, comes close, but unfortunately has a twofold barrier to overcome: one being the social stigmas of being aimed at girls, and the other being the Hub Network's limited distribution and brand recognition compared to its competition. Even with better cartoons that can make a shot at taking over SpongeBob's old audiences, Nick is too spoiled by success to even continue trying with their best efforts.