sbroxman-autisticquestions:

So during 2016, an episode of SpongeBob aired entitled “Bulletin Board”. It had a rather basic plot at first sight, but once you got further into the episode, it became clear what they were trying to tackle

So it starts off with an elderly woman saying how much she loved her Krabby Patty meal. Mr. Krabs recommends she tell everybody in the restaurant, which she responds by saying she has no time for. In response, SpongeBob puts up a bulletin board on the window for the people to express themselves on. The lady takes the opportunity to post a review of the meal

So this results in a bunch of other people going to the bulletin board to post their work. Everything is positive and people respond with really kind and encouraging comments

Then there comes one comment that people misinterpreted to be a negative review, prompting a series of hateful comments to follow

So yeah, by now you can probably see where this episode is going. They’re using the bulletin board as a representation of social media and online trolling. Thing is, I think they’re doing it right. They’re making the references obvious, but they’re not poking fun at anything or anyone. However, they do make it clear what they think about trolls….

So the situation worsens. The Krusty Krab continues to get horrible anonymous reviews which affects its business, whilst the residents are sending hateful comments to each other. Such as insulting the way they look, insulting their work, or just making nasty comments in general. SpongeBob begins to wonder if the bulletin itself is what’s making people act so horribly to each other

Until at the very end, SpongeBob realises it was never truly the bulletin board’s fault, but the peoples’ for the way they were treating it

Oh, and as an added bonus as to why I think this episode is so great, they made Bubble Bass (the guy who said SpongeBob forgot the pickles) one of the trolls!