So it seems our old Nickelodeon friend SpongeBob Squarepants is being blamed for causing little tykes to have attention problems. A research study being discussed out of the University of Virginia points out that preschoolers who watch fast paced fantasy cartoons before being tested for memory, problem solving, attention etc. perform significantly worse than the ones who watched a slower paced cartoon or who were asked to draw for nine minutes.
As if this should be a surprise to anyone. Patrick would be an MIT grad if he didn’t always hang around with SpongeBob.
Thoughts on this research? Are you dumber from the cartoons you watched as a kid?
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Comments
96 responses to “Editorial Cartoon – SpongeBob is Making Your Kid Stupid”
SpongeBob Squarepants? Blahahaha it’s the Teletubbies you got to fear 🙁
OMG…that is so slow, I think I got stupid from the reverse effect.
oh and is it me or does Patrick look like a dick?
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTPFbysP73GsWON5zw2ylWBWwoofYCe3P3WI8DkUW7Ogp0xQGljvg
The physical manifestation of one or personality wise. If the former, then I am wondering how they grow down in OZ
OK, this is just so I get three comments in a row…..Sheez!!!!!
Shall I go for four? Hell, why not 🙂
Who are you Nate Fakes? Only he spams his own posts to make it seem like more commenters than there actually are…haha
He told me to….honest!!!
Yes but only on his site or guest posts made by him
I don’t think Patrick looks like a dick.
But I’d bet any or all television makes anyone and everyone stupid.
I like to watch a little T.V. sometimes.
My family growing up called it letting our brains run out our ears.
It was relaxing.
I like how on The Sponge Bob Show you forget they are underwater but then some bubbles rise or a fish swims by and then you remember. Also sometimes they have a campfire going even though they are underwater. Otherwise it’s not too funny.
I like Spongebob but I keep telling my wife I must have had ADD before it was cool to have it.
You probably developed a lot of your traits before it was cool to have them.
I will tell the wife next time I am annoying her that I am just pre-cool
perhaps the Prequel to pre-cool?
Sponge Bob made me forget if Superman had a mullet pre or post wearing his white and electric blue suit.
I thought it was “electric boots, a mohair suit (You know I read it in a magazine) BbbbBennie and the Jets.”
SpongeBob SquarePants is just Gumby in disguise isn’t he? 😉
I don’t know the only Gumby I ever watched was Eddie Murphy.
I’ve never seen any other Gumby either.
Ya know, I put these bozos in the same class as those who decided back in the 90’s that Spongebob and Patrick were gay simply because they sometimes held hands.
Honestly if that was the case, then my attention span would’ve been (what was that? ooooh spider web) shot to pieces after (what was that? ooooh chipmunk) watching Bugs Bunny and friends.
I wasn’t such a big Bugs Fan but I liked Daffy. I always rooted for the underdog. Daffy, Wiley, Tom…
Most of the made for kids programs these days seem to destroy brain cells. Bring back Looney Toons. Even Scooby Doo beats the garbage they have on Saturday mornin’s now.
I blame looney too s for my lack of brain cells
Are you sure you can lay all the blame on one company. I have lost so many brain cells I have to spread the blame around.
Obviously yes because I can’t even type Looney Toons correctly.
Eh.
When I was a kid I built plenty of ‘ACME’ inspired stuff to drop on my head and I turned out just…
HEY! What’s that shiny thing over there…
🙂
I always was mad that my parents never got the acme catalog in the mail
I feel like this research is just one in a long line of many claiming that TV is bad for you. I actually agree but pinning this whole thing on Sponge Bob seems a bit extreme. I’m sure you could easily switch that yellow sponge for others like Pokemon, Adventure Time or what ever popular stuff is out right now and get the same results. But at the same time, I’m not too worried about this either.
Before Sponge Bob we had MTV with flashy music videos and we generally turned out ok. I just think parents (grand parents, day care, random people on the stree) need to take a bit more responsibility for their child’s development. I know TV is a nice way to get 24 minutes of peace and quiet, but after an episode is done, go do something fun and active to counter all the TV a young one has just watched.
I think they said pretty much any fast paced show would do it….not just the Bob
My parents wouldn’t let us watch tv before six on weekdays and after homework was done
In my day, cartoons only came on Saturdays from 6:30am-11:30am. After that, I had to watch live people. Yuck!
SpongeBob not make me stooopid.
Ha,ha,ha! SpongeBob is a hoot to sketch.
You must be watching too much George ford then…haha
I doubt that spongebob causes ADD, i agree they may mimic symptoms of ADD after watching but probably only cause they are excited and had fun watching it
That and they keep thinking “I’m Ready, I’m Ready” to themselves.
I was raised on “Ren & Stimpy” and “Rocko’s Modern Life”, and I turned out sane and normal.
…waitaminute…
That is veeeeeeerrrrrrrryyy questionable.
I loved Rockos Modern Life. My brother was addicted to Ren and Stimpy.
I don’t even know what Rockos Modern Life is.
I was on Nickelodeon, it was about an Australian Wallaby who moved to the states and had some weird friends. It was pretty funny.
Kids are being dumbed down on every level. It’s not just SpongeBob’s fault. When I was younger you had to read because there weren’t a lot of alternatives for entertainment.
Now, a kid’s world is filled with fun distractions. My own stepkids never go to the library and don’t read at all. Even when it comes to superheros, my son would rather watch a Spiderman cartoon than to read a Spiderman comic book, hands down.
It’s kinda sad to me.
Well you are the parent. LIMIT THEM….oh wait, they have to drag the remote and the computer time away from you.
What do you expect from an organism that has no nervous, digestive or circulatory system? Talk about veggin’!
You mean he doesn’t actually eat the crabby patties. And what exactly is in the crabby patty?
Why does Tony, in your free ad space, have the same pose as SpongBob?
note: it’s probably not a good idea to watch SpongeBob just before going in for a job interview.
double note: there should be a study on driving skills after adults watch their favourite sports team get bumped from the playoffs.
I use Tony as my drawing muse.
Unless that job interview is to write for SpongeBob
Don’t know about their driving but their use of the finger to other drivers probably increases.
Hey will you look at that, I never noticed that before!!! Maybe Spongebob’s my long lost twin brother who I was separated from at birth when the nurse thought he was a sponge & threw him into the medical waste bin for sterilization. That would sure explain a lot…
Are you sure you weren’t the one thrown away…hahah
That’s possible, that’s very possible…
It all makes sense! now I know why I didn’t get into Harvard! damn you Spongeboooooooob! (Haha, naw it was because of my SAT score 😉 )
Well you could have been watching before the SAT. What kept me from Harvard….$$$$$$$$
Cartoons and comic strips, specifically ones about wombats, have been scientifically proven to increase your IQ by at least 20 points, while simultaneously making you more attentive, easier to get along with, and more responsible, too. For the best effect, read at least one Wombie-based comic strip every day.
Luckily for you and your web traffic, you have the lock on Wombat cartoons.
I guess I need to replace Mildred’s sign with a picture of you.
Or a Rat comic…
Or a rat comic.
or both…
but I do love Mildred.
Spongebob is an educational cartoon. His carrere is what most of the youth of today will be doing for the rest of there lives.
haha….JB. Too funny
Tom and Jerry
Wile E Coyote & Roadrunner
Them’s the buggers that retarded my development !!!
😆
Was I off for always rooting for Tom and Wiley??
That Spongebob bloke looks like a chunk of cheese to me. Can I have him??? I will love him & hug him & call him Geor… Errrm… Yummy, I will call him Yummy!!!
George is just a big hunk of cheese.
I don’t think it would have too much effect but then again you never really know for sure with modern kids. Cartoons were a lot funnier in the good ol’ days. I grew up watching Bugs & Daffy, & Elmer & Foghorn & Wile E & Roadrunner & Sylvester & Tweety & I’m a regular well adjusted bloke with no psychological problems.
Ummm…
Well I do have a mental illness but I’m on medication. Other than that the cartoons didn’t affect me. That’s all folks!!!
I think more kids have mental illness today because we now know what to call it. When I was a kid, we were just known as hyperactive.
I threw a party when my kids grew out of Barney…talk about detrimental to mental health…I’m borderline retarded now. Since we’ve switched to SpongBob, I’ve stopped drooling.
Really…because Patrick and Spongebob are notorious droolers.
I hate effing spongebob.
one of the many reasons i’ve prolonged the child making.
You will soon run out of excuses when you have the shot gun wedding.
It’s probably the schools that make our kids dumber. And the universities too. Brained washing is pretty much what some of them do. I so remember as I made my way through college. Had to bite my tongue all the time.
Have a terrific day. 🙂
I never did bite my tongue in college. As much as I embarrassed my profs, there was only one time it bit me in the ass.
There are certain types of learning styles that simply don’t do well in school. Better to not judge a person’s intelligence by the grades they get. There are many different kinds of intelligence.
Now she tells me. I could have worked a lot less in college.
Settle down preschoolers and take your equilibrium. Remember imagination is one step away from insanity.
I like that…imagination is one step from insanity. That is why some artists that I think were insane did what is considered beautiful work.
That’s very true, and explains a lot of people around here!
Not me, of course.
Explains me.
Great cartoon. Interesting study. probably being misquoted by the media.
Nope…heard the researcher on the radio. No misquote.
No sh*t. Just looking at Spongebob makes me want to start climbing the walls.
For me, it was Scooby Doo. Actually, it was more Shaggy than Scooby. I got tired just listening to him.
Most people got contact high listening to him.
boob tube, vast wasteland have described TV shows in the past. This is nothing really new. It’s not a problem if it is used correctly.
Maybe sponge bob should only be allowed after your bath.
–or during it. Though I would rather bob for apples. ;`)
And everyone thought Beavis and Butthead would be the ones to make us stupid.
Have you ever read the book “Plug-In Drug”? I watch a lot less TV since reading it. I can’t guarantee I’m a lot less stupid though.
No…did they make it into a movie that I can watch?
[…] Sides? Really? That’s cartoonish, like this editorial visual statement at Beartoons.com at […]
“Patrick would be an MIT grad if he didn’t always hang around with SpongeBob.” That is the king of all retorts – thanks for the Bearman!
I do what I do.
All I watched was He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.
I still find the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull hot!
hahah.
I watch SpongeBob all the time and It has not effected my atten… Uh! Shine!…….
Well, well, another TV fantasmical I have never had the dubious pleasure of watching or inflicting on my children… Does he really look like that? Scary!
no in reality he looks worse O_O and that laugh of his makes your IQ drop with 1 point everytime you hear it D:
how could you not end up more stupide from watching a sponge being a retard? i mean kids mimick
thats why i grew up on dexters lab and, cow and chicken they cept my genius and retard balanced 😀
Dexter was a mad genius.
doesn’t that explain alot?:P