Is SpongeBob autistic?

[a_random_person.]

Why are the comments saying that being autistic is bad? It's not an insult.

[hairtie]

Okay, when Tom says it's a superpower for SpongeBob, he also means that it's a superpower for people who are neurodivergent/autistic. He's not insulting the fan, he's just making it clear that it's totally fine if you're autistic

[PolyStarSys]

i love kenny and i dont think he meant any harm but the idea that autism is a superpower is harmful. its a disability, it doesnt give you any extra abilities. its not a superpower that i cry when i touch a certain type of plastic. the only thing close to an extra ability is pattern recognition, but not every autistic person has that, and many allistic people have it, and more often than not pattern recognition gets us in social trouble bc we can see signs of a bad person before theyre outed doing anything bad, so people just think we’re being rude when we dont like that person all that much.

[TheDreadedZero]

He already had to retract his statement and apologize

[ZacharyDietze]

I don’t think anyone will read this since this came out over a month ago, and I’m not sure if this will be a controversial take or not, but I think it would be more fair to try and explain *why* I don’t buy it, as a person who has autism and ADHD myself and has watched the show back when I was very young.

…Where do I even begin? I suppose the best place to start would be with autism + ADHD themselves and their symptoms. The *only* one that lines up perfectly is his hyperactivity. He is not "obsessed" about his job the same way an autistic + ADHD person would be, he’s just very passionate about his talents and his worth to it. Otherwise, basically all of the others are the exact opposite. Examples include, but are not limited to, the following:

-He is never anxious

-He rarely ever has self doubt

-He’s very good at communicating with absolutely everyone 90% of the time, including social cues (Even strangers and people he doesn’t know that well)

-He rarely shows signs of stimming (Unless you count some dancing, which everyone likes to do)

-He’s very good at listening and paying attention (He’s an *excellent* fry cook for crying out loud)

-He fully understands how other people emotionally feel despite trying to go against it for more positivity

-He does not have delayed cognitive skills (The most he does is forget what he has already learned, which everyone has moments of)

-He does not just have seemingly random panic attacks, meltdowns, shutdowns, etc. unless it is plainly obvious that something bad has actually happened (He also doesn’t often show sarcasm or purposeful ignorance since those get used by autistic people to cope with stress)

-His mood swings are not nearly as prevalent or easy to trigger, you have to go through a lot of effort to make him have a negative emotion

-He does not show much compulsion unless it is for something he and his friends *know* they will have fun with (Jellyfishing for example, although that is clearly a hobby)

-He does not typically have obsessions for things even if they seem largely uninteresting unless he has known of and plans for them in advance (That one later episode of him with the cereal toy does not count, it is a retroactive episode made when others were inconsistent and without direct involvement from most of the older writers/creators)

-Etc. etc., honestly I could go on for much longer if I wanted to. I think you get the point though.

…You wanna know of a character that *does* show all of these symptoms consistently throughout the show itself since the beginning?

*Gumball*

He often tries to act like a pretty positive fellow too, but you can really *tell* that he is someone that actually deals with a lot more problems than a neurotypical person. For those who have connected the dots, it’s just *apparent, * and for those who haven’t, it does not change their views of Gumball being a good character, *which is the entire point.* (This is a show about being true to yourself and accepting how you are after all)

I think what makes this all the more powerful for him is that despite several positivity impactful reveals in the show itself throughout 13+ years, not a single one of them tackled how he is neurodivergent yet. And I fully believe that this is on purpose, because the day that the show *does* have someone confronting him about suspecting he had autism all along, (Probably Penny, with others like Darwin and Anais chiming in) it will be very joyfully emotional both for the characters and audience members who have been waiting for that validation to be said for so long. And it’s not like it needs to be brought up often afterwards either, because autism is not a disability, and it’s not a superpower, it’s just a different way of how we operate.

Now… call me a conspiracy theorist all you want, but I think the higher ups responsible for overseeing SpongeBob knew about all of this. They wanted to strike early on this idea while they still could because:

1. SpngeBob as a show has been on a major decline both in terms of quality and fanbase, so they needed to find a way to gain some unearned positivity brownie points

2. Gumball is the exact rival of this show from a rival network, so they thought that "getting ahead" would help make their inevitable reveal seem more "unoriginal" for when they actually commit to it

3. They do not have the capability of writing nuances into the show itself, but rather than wasting the idea entirely, they allowed Tom Kenny to be their mouthpiece (I’m sure he means well, but if this was true it would’ve either been evident in the show itself through signs or said by him a long time ago)

What makes this all the more offensive for me personally though is that they did this around the exact same time when SpongeBob as a character himself is now absolutely at his lowest creatively and respectfully with stuff like the Sandy Cheeks movie. It’s bad enough that SpongeBob himself has already been degraded so much, but to add the whole "By the way he is autistic you were just never smart to notice it lol" angle to it is insulting. SpongeBob has been made into a complete bumbling moron and a fetish freak who does not know how to stand up for himself and others anymore. (I kid you not, he tries to tickle people a lot and enjoys the smell of poop in that Sandy movie)

Gumball is not is not like this at all. He makes mistakes and dumb decisions occasionally sure, but are the rest of us so different with that? Especially as an impressionable kid made even easier to sway with his autism + ADHD? Do you even *know* how hard it is for him to keep himself composed with his emotions, regardless if they are positive or negative? I think a good example of him showing both at the same time is with his relationship with Penny. He *knows* that they both love each other, but he is often absolutely flustered and embarrassed to admit to it because he is afraid of showing his appreciation too much, despite the fact that Penny arguably shows more of it (Maybe even loves him more) with the constant support and reassurance that she always tries to give him when things seem hopeless, even as she desperately tries to fix the smallest mistakes that, ironically, Gumball likely wouldn’t have noticed otherwise despite the reverse also being true due to his actual over-obsession with other details himself. And keep in mind that this is just *one* example of his intense emotions in the sea of many others, let alone other signs of autism and ADHD.

The Amazing World of Gumball has full capacity for its writers to be completely careful with this subject at all times. SpongeBob, after the first few seasons and movie, *does not.* (Especially not with the death of Stephen Hillenburg and not with other talented writers who need to be consulted on how to approach it)

Everyone I have ever interacted with for both communities over many years have agreed to these points. I even asked ChatGPT about all of this in several differently formatted ways to see if I was being hyperbolic and for it to point out any flaws with my points according to data from the two shows themselves. It *also* agrees and has pointed out details by itself that SpongeBob does not show signs of autism, and that this claim where he does have it is contentious. Meanwhile it has not objected to a *single* symptom for Gumball when I have listed them out, both in short and in detail. The only thing it "objected" to is that both have not been canonically diagnosed within the shows at this point in time, which… yeah, *duh.*

…Overall I am not trying to completely convince everyone that everything I am saying is right, and I still respect Tom Kenny. I’m just trying to point out why I think this is all wrong (In more ways than one) from *my* perspective. SpongeBob shouldn’t have to be retroactively labeled as autistic without anything backing it up just to make him seem more interesting, he was already interesting when he series was in its "golden era". Him and his show deserve to have a lot more respect and care put into it than what he has been getting for the vast majority of the past 20+ years. It’s disingenuous.

*It’s tragic. :(*

[maxbro]

I played spongebob in our school play my 9th grade year and I loved it. I have the play on recording and it was great

[mystZER]

Wait. Was the fan who asked autistic? Or did they just got called autistic Infront of a crowd of people who clapped?

[nickga]

Yap. Just say, "yes sponge is"

[princianorvz]

SpongeBob! Being autistic is a superpower!!!

[PopstarDracula]

He's a voice actor, not a writer

[אוראלזר-עת]

autistic or not - one thing is for sure: spongebob

[That_kid]

Bro, why are there only two comments on this video?

[Iuvfortnite]

What does he mean by autisk being his super power, does that mean he is orrr idk im confused