By Allison Butz / The Jambar
Growing up, I always enjoyed watching my early morning and late afternoon cartoons. My all time favorite when I was young was “Spongebob Squarepants.” The show’s early seasons had the best humor, but the show has gone downhill since the sixth season debuted in 2008.
“Spongebob Squarepants” follows the story of a sponge working at the Krusty Krab. A plankton who owns the Chum Bucket attempts to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula throughout the show.
The plot of the show is oftentimes muddied with filler episodes. However, there are many episodes where Spongebob and his best friend Patrick are just hanging out. These were my favorite because it set expectations for what I wanted in my friendships.
Granted — after maturing and realizing that Spongebob and Patrick were not at all great friends to each other — they always somehow ended up back as friends, which is heartwarming.
Ultimately, I believe Patrick is hands down one of the smartest characters on the show. There are many cases in the show where he has some great ideas. While he literally lives under a rock, he is often smarter than he — and the audience — thinks.
There is a great example that lies in the episode “The Secret Box” where Patrick tricks Spongebob into believing that the box did not contain anything embarrassing, but it did after all. In that same episode, it is revealed that Patrick had gone to community college. So really, how dumb is Patrick?
Patrick also said one critical sentence in this episode. “The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma,” he said. You’re telling me that Patrick — the character that is supposed to be the dumbest — is able to understand big words like that, no less putting them in a sentence?
This makes me believe that Patrick truly just acts dumb to get free things all the time. There are countless occasions where Spongebob ends up paying for Patrick’s food.
While Patrick may not be book smart, he obviously has to be smart enough to be able to get his boating license. Unlike Spongebob, Patrick was able to attend boating school and pass on the first try in the episode “Driven to Tears.”
This again goes to show that you don’t always have to be the smartest in the room to be able to live your life. Patrick always knows how to get by in life, and I love that for him.