What SpongeBob Got Right About Life

A philosophy of radical optimism

By today’s standards, SpongeBob SquarePants isn’t exactly a success. He lives alone in a pineapple. He works at a fast-food restaurant. He has no impressive résumé, no status, no ambition to climb. And most people around him see him as a fool, which, by the way, doesn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.

SpongeBob lives in a curious little town named Bikini Bottom. At first sight, it seems like an idyllic tropical paradise, but when we look more closely, it’s actually a pretty imperfect place full of broken people. And it’s not very safe either, considering the natural disasters it faces, like volcanoes and earthquakes, as well as many external threats, like the Alaskan Bullworm or King Neptune, which led to the town’s destruction.

Also, Bikini Bottom’s inhabitants seem to be in constant struggle with themselves and each other. We see this constant danger of a megalomaniac trying to seize power, a greedy businessman trying to enrich himself in any way he can, and a cynical, failed artist who mainly isolates himself, yearning for recognition. Add to this the mass hysteria that often sets in the little town, usually over trivial matters, and we see that Bikini Bottom is a volatile place.

But the constant adversity and the irrational (sometimes downright malicious) people around him rarely seem to bring SpongeBob down. On the contrary, SpongeBob seems to be the happiest character in the entire show, even when things around him fall apart. He seems an absurd character, sure, a fool who makes us laugh. But could it be that, behind the ridiculousness, lies a secret to living well?

I recently came across an essay by Nicole R. Pramik, an author and former lecturer, who suggests that SpongeBob may resemble what Aristotle considered a happy, flourishing person.

Intrigued by the idea, I examined Pramik’s essay, the Aristotelian ideas about what a happy life means, and revisited SpongeBob SquarePants as a show to see what SpongeBob and his environment can teach us about true happiness.

The pursuit of happiness

In our lives, we’re being fed the idea that happiness comes through external factors, such as achievement or material possessions. We believe that if we finally have the success we’re fantasizing about, or the house, or the car, or the kid, that we’ll be happy. And we assume we can only truly enjoy work when we land our ‘dream job’ that provides ample meaning, and we dread the idea of working as a dishwasher at McDonald’s or mopping the floors at Walmart.

We seem to believe that happiness comes from acquiring a specific external source. Hence, we see people pursue constant achievements, money and expensive things, or fame and status (or relevance, as it’s called in today’s social media age). Happiness becomes something that lies somewhere in the future, just beyond the next achievement or acquisition.

The pursuit of happiness through external outcomes or conditions is clearly visible in the world of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Consider a few prominent examples: Mr. Krabs, the owner of the fast-food restaurant, The Krusty Krab, who treats wealth as the ultimate good. Or Squidward, who seeks happiness through recognition as a great artist. Or Plankton, longing for power and success. All of them constantly strive for happiness through these pursuits, yet never really seem to arrive there.

But then, there’s SpongeBob. A fool, in many people’s eyes, as he seems to be happy without pursuing any of the things others do. He’s not interested in wealth, fame, or power. Yet he’s always just…so happy. And this may seem weird to people. How can you find so much enjoyment in a life that’s so…ordinary, without much of the stuff society tells us to pursue to be complete and happy people? What’s his secret?

Here’s where ancient Greek philosophy comes in. In her essay, Pramik makes an interesting observation. She recognizes in SpongeBob ideas about happiness that were already described more than two thousand years ago by one of antiquity’s greatest philosophers: Aristotle.

Let’s take a look at what happiness entails according to Aristotle, and how SpongeBob seems to embody it.

What is happiness? Ask Aristotle…

If happiness is not equal to wealth or recognition or power or anything like that, what is it then? To find an answer to this question, let’s go back to Ancient Greece. More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle asked a simple but radical question: What does it mean to live well? He came up with a very different answer than the one we’re used to.

When Aristotle walked around Athens, he saw his contemporaries pursuing different goals in life. In his work, the Nicomachean Ethics, he describes how the masses pursue lives of pleasure, aiming for nothing higher than enjoyment. Aristotle wasn’t fond of such pursuits of pleasure, comparing them to the life of “brute beasts” and calling them “slavish.”

Others, he observed, pursue honor and money. But the problem with honor is that it depends heavily on what other people think of you and can be taken away in a heartbeat. And the problem with money is that it isn’t really an end in itself; it’s always pursued for the sake of something else.

Aristotle in The Story of Philosophy (Will Durant)

According to Aristotle, such things cannot be life’s highest goal. The highest goal must be something desirable for its own sake; something we pursue not as a means, but as an end. And for Aristotle, all our efforts, whether making money like Mr. Krabs, striving for recognition like Squidward, or seeking power like Plankton, ultimately point toward that one thing: happiness. As he wrote:

Thus it seems that happiness is something final and self-sufficing, and is the end of all that man does.

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (p. 20). Public Domain Library.

For Aristotle, happiness is the goal in life. We should be more precise here, though, because he actually talks about ‘eudaimonia’. Eudaimonia is often translated as “flourishing,” meaning it is more than a passing emotion or feeling, even though happiness and joy are certainly part of it, more or less as byproducts.

So, how do we reach eudaimonia?

The answer lies not in what we achieve, but in how we live day to day. Eudaimonia arises when we live well, when we live virtuously. And here’s where our hero, SpongeBob, comes in. For most of his life, SpongeBob flourishes. He isn’t always cheerful; he isn’t perfect, and he isn’t an angel, as Pramik points out in her essay. But, and I quote:

When SpongeBob wakes up each morning and greets the day, he does so with a smile simply because he is living a moral, happy life.

Foy, Joseph J.. SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea! (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 60) (p. 5). Open Court.

According to Pramik, SpongeBob is living pretty well in an Aristotelian sense. But that raises two important questions: what does living a virtuous life actually mean? And how does SpongeBob embody it?

Of virtuous sponges

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle distinguishes a series of character traits, such as honesty, generosity, and anger. Pramik’s essay examines these traits and connects them to real examples from the series. I’d like to do something similar here, using some of Pramik’s examples as well as examples I found myself, to strengthen the idea of SpongeBob as an Aristotelian example (however imperfect) of a happy, virtuous, flourishing… sponge.

Central to Aristotle’s ethics is the “Golden Mean,” the idea that virtue lies between two extremes: excess and deficiency.

So, for every virtue, there’s a corresponding excess or deficiency. For example, the deficiency of the virtue ‘courage’ is ‘cowardice’, but its excess is ‘recklessness.’ So, Aristotle encourages us to avoid cowardice and recklessness and to aim for the golden middle way: courage.

Now, what about SpongeBob? Despite his absurdness and even though he can be highly expressive and occasionally overenthusiastic, does he, by and large, follow the Golden Mean? Most of the time, he does, according to Pramik, and I’ll share one of her examples that illustrates this.

Sandy Cheeks, the tough, tomboyish Texan squirrel in an astronaut suit, doesn’t shy away from adventure. In the episode “Pre-Hibernation Week” (S2:E7), Sandy recruits SpongeBob to participate in a series of extreme challenges, such as finding a piece of hay in a needlestack and riding a bike in a toxic industrial park. Eventually, SpongeBob becomes disillusioned with Sandy’s recklessness and calls it quits, thus avoiding the extreme side of courage.

But SpongeBob isn’t a coward either. He repeatedly shows courage in situations that matter to him. One of the best examples comes from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, when Plankton steals King Neptune’s crown and frames his rival, Mr. Krabs, for the theft, which, of course, evokes the wrath of Neptune. SpongeBob then courageously sets out for Shell City to retrieve the crown and save Mr. Krabs’s life.

We can find more examples of SpongeBob following the Golden Mean. Another one is from an episode that stuck with me personally, and that I believe is an interesting case of SpongeBob being virtuous, but also going off the rails.

I’m talking about the episode “Can you spare a dime?” (S3:E7) in which Squidward quits his job due to an argument with his boss, Mr. Krabs, who accuses him of stealing his cherished first dime. When SpongeBob discovers that Squidward has become homeless, he feels bad for him and offers to let him stay at his house until he finds a job. Squidward accepts the offer. Soon enough, we see SpongeBob treating his guest with massages and breakfast in bed.

From SpongeBob’s deed, we can derive at least three virtues: friendliness, generosity, and hospitality. He’s friendly enough to offer his former colleague and neighbor a place to stay, and generous with his time and energy, doing everything he can to make his guest feel comfortable, which is hospitality. So far, so good. Although the massages and breakfast in bed already suggest that SpongeBob is balancing on the edge between virtue and excess.

As Pramik mentioned, SpongeBob isn’t perfect. He makes mistakes. But he ultimately strives to do the right thing. Squidward, on the other hand, quickly begins to misuse SpongeBob’s virtuous nature, exploiting it by treating him like a servant, day and night.

And so we see SpongeBob drifting away from the Golden Mean. Friendliness becomes obsequiousness: instead of relating to others as an equal, he turns into a people-pleaser, a doormat. Generosity becomes prodigality: an excessive sacrifice of one’s own time, energy, and well-being for the sake of someone else. And hospitality becomes servility as he effectively becomes a servant in his own home, surrendering his domain to his guest.

It doesn’t take long before SpongeBob realizes something isn’t right. He has drifted away from the Golden Mean. Therefore, this whole situation with Squidward requires correction. Squidward proves a difficult nut to crack, as SpongeBob’s patience, another virtue he demonstrates, doesn’t seem to change his increasingly lazy behavior.

So harsher measures are needed. SpongeBob doesn’t get angry quickly, but he finally erupts after Squidward repeatedly crosses his boundaries: he kicks him out of the house and escorts him back to The Krusty Krab.

But isn’t anger a bad thing? According to Aristotle, anger isn’t bad when it’s righteous; a view later criticized by the Stoic Seneca the Younger, who argued that there’s no righteous anger; anger is bad, period. But Aristotle believed that “to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way,” as he stated it, can actually be a good thing.

SpongeBob’s outburst of anger may not have been exemplary; it was certainly functional. It corrected a toxic situation that clearly impeded his eudaimonia and led him back to virtue.

Most of what SpongeBob does seems to align with the Golden Mean. He’s wealthy enough to flourish, not excessive nor poor. He’s friendly enough to maintain a fulfilling social life, without becoming quarrelsome on the one hand or a brownnoser on the other. He’s ambitious, as in, he strives for excellence in his work and improvement where needed, but he’s not overly ambitious nor is he lazy or unmotivated.

To find more elaborate examples of SpongeBob’s virtues, I’d advise you to read the essay by Pramik, which you can find in the book SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea!.

But there is another ingredient of SpongeBob’s virtue that deserves closer attention. What ingredient, you ask? Krabby Patties.

The joy of Krabby Patties

When we think of ‘dream jobs’, we usually think of becoming a pilot, doctor, entrepreneur, or lawyer. And, apparently, ‘content creator’ is also high on several lists I came across, so lucky me. But flipping burgers in a fast-food joint, working with an insufferable, unmotivated colleague, and a stingy, greedy boss? That isn’t exactly what most people aspire to. It’s usually hard, repetitive work with low pay, and it doesn’t particularly exude status and prestige.

Nevertheless, we cannot deny that SpongeBob loves his job.

Every morning when he wakes up, he can’t wait to be behind the grill in The Krusty Krab, to make Krabby Patties. When SpongeBob is working, he gives it 110 percent. He’s determined to do as good a job as possible, improve wherever he can, and support anything that benefits The Krusty Krab and its customer experience, be it a new drive-thru to serve more people or participating in a training video that teaches how to make the perfect Krabby Patty. It’s no surprise that SpongeBob has been on a long streak of being employee of the month.

Krabby Patty from SpongeBob Squarepants

According to Aristotle, happiness lies in performing our activities with excellence. He observed that everything we do has a goal. The goal of medicine is health, the goal of war is victory, and the goal of building is a house. As mentioned before, Aristoteles believed that happiness is the goal of human life. But this happiness doesn’t come automatically.

Aristotle illustrates this with an example. The difference between a harpist and a good harpist is that the former merely plays the harp, while the latter plays it well. And so it is with life. We can simply go through life, or we can live life well.

Living well means exercising virtue in whatever we do. And this is exactly what we see in SpongeBob’s work, flipping burgers. He approaches his job with enthusiasm and dedication and takes pride in doing it well.

So, for him, something as ordinary as making Krabby Patties every day becomes an opportunity to excel. He flourishes at work not because he has a dream job, but because he performs an ordinary job with excellence and finds joy in doing so. Or how Pramik puts it:

It’s no mistake SpongeBob prefers to stay at a rather thankless job. Being a fry cook certainly comes with no special benefits other than sweating over a hot, greasy grill for hours on end. SpongeBob, however, remains, not for monetary benefits but because it is what he loves to do and it brings him happiness.

Foy, Joseph J.. SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea! (Popular Culture and Philosophy Book 60) (p. 16). Open Court.

Again, according to Aristotle, a virtuous life is a happy life, and happiness lies not in what we have but in how we live; it’s a matter of activity rather than possession.

But there’s an important nuance here. Even though external conditions are not virtues in themselves, they still play a role in living a happy, flourishing life. Let’s take a closer look.

Furniture of fortune

But nevertheless happiness plainly requires external goods too, as we said; for it is impossible, or at least not easy, to act nobly without some furniture of fortune.

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics (p. 25). Public Domain Library.

..wrote Aristotle. He argued that we need at least some external goods to flourish. For example, we need political influence to improve our communities (at least via politics). We need friends because a good life is not lived in isolation, and they support us in difficult times and share in the activities we enjoy and find meaningful.

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the absence of some things in our lives takes the “bloom off our happiness”. He mentions good birth, the blessing of children, and personal beauty. Somewhat harshly, he also suggests that misfortune, such as poverty, isolation, childlessness, having bad friends or no friends at all, and even ugliness, can stand in the way of happiness.

Aristotle lived many centuries ago in a very different society, so his examples of necessary externals might not be exactly what we need today in technologically advanced, often individualistic cultures with different norms and values. But I don’t think it’s far-fetched to say that some “furniture of fortune,” as he calls it, makes it easier to flourish in life.

When it comes to SpongeBob, we see that he doesn’t have all the things Aristotle sees as conducive to happiness, at least, not optimally. SpongeBob has no kids; he generally doesn’t have much power or influence in the community, and he wasn’t born in a rich family, nor does he have an extensive social life.

But on the flip side (pun intended), he does have a best friend, Patrick Star, and a beloved pet, Gary. He’s also friends with Sandy Cheeks and is somewhat befriended by Squidward, although it’s complicated. He’s cordial and involved with his community, and he knows many people in Bikini Bottom. He has his job, a stable home, and food on the table. He enjoys activities like jellyfishing and blowing bubbles, preferably with friends. So, when we look at it, SpongeBob’s furniture of fortune is actually pretty extensive; it allows for a happy life.

***

So far, we’ve examined SpongeBob through Aristotle’s framework to see whether he lives a virtuous and flourishing life. And by that standard, he appears to be doing remarkably well, much as Pramik suggested. But what does the life of a happy, virtuous sponge look like in practice? What does his “flourishing” mean in everyday life?

Let’s take a look.

I’m ready!

Every day seems a gift to SpongeBob; something beautiful to be happy about. We see his tendency to celebrate every new day clearly in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run, where he wakes up full of enthusiasm and joy, a behavior most SpongeBob fans would probably recognize as typical.

He then wakes up Patrick, who, infected by his friend’s enthusiasm, greets him back with the same elation, resulting in a joyous exchange of wishing each other good morning (to the profound irritation of Squidward). In the same scene, we see SpongeBob being affectionate to Gary before he leaves the house with his iconic smile, as he always does when he goes to work. Often, he chants “I’m ready” as some kind of ‘pre-work mantra’.

For many of us, the mere experience of waking up on a working day is nothing to be excited about. It’s just another day, isn’t it? Moreover, many find it dreadful, possibly because they don’t like to go to work.

When we’re just employees trying to pay the bills, going through the motions, days become heavy, long, and nothing to look forward to, which is the case for Squidward. But for SpongeBob, seeing every day as another opportunity for excellence, his work is a source of happiness. And it shows, if only by how happy he is to start the day before work.

Radical optimism

Another thing that stands out, and probably lies at the core of his character, is his radical optimism, particularly when something goes wrong.

We see a strong demonstration of his radical optimism in the episode “Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!” (S8:E24), when he witnesses Plankton complaining about life, saying, “Oh, what’s the use. Every day the same old thing. Life is an endless succession of failures and disappointments.” SpongeBob then replies by saying, “Well, look on the bright side, Plankton. If all your hopes and dreams finally came true, then you wouldn’t have anything left to look forward to.”

SpongeBob could have gone along with Plankton’s cynicism, but he didn’t. He remained positive.

We see another example in the episode “Drive Thru” (S8:E2), where The Krusty Krab is destroyed by Mr. Krabs himself after making too many holes in the building used as a drive-thru. SpongeBob immediately concludes, “We can fix it,” showing that he focuses on solutions and possibilities rather than lingering in negative emotions when facing adversity.

Another example is when Gary covers him in slime. At first, SpongeBob doesn’t like it, but he quickly concludes, “It’s relaxing,” showing how naturally he finds the silver lining in everyday inconveniences.

In The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, he even dedicates a whole song to positivity, “The Positivity Song”, that starts with the words: “Be positive, that’s the way to live!”

Joy in the ordinary

Another thing that stands out is SpongeBob’s joy in the ordinary. It’s not just work that he enjoys on a typical day. He feels excited about almost any activity he engages in. Take his biggest hobby, jellyfishing, for example, which involves running after jellyfish with a net. Or how about blowing bubbles, making music with his nose, eating ice cream, playing with reefblowers, and just… walking around in Bikini Bottom.

In one instance, he even delights in simply “pressing things.” And his idea of nightlife includes partying at the laundromat, picking up litter, going to the dentist, and visiting the library. But things get really exciting in the episode “Idiot Box” (S3:E4), when he acquires an empty television box, which lets him and Patrick embark on countless adventures using their “imagination”. SpongeBob doesn’t need much to enjoy himself; he finds joy in the ordinary.

In the episode “Best Day Ever” (S4:E20), SpongeBob shares with Gary what he has planned for the upcoming day: making Krabby Patties, a karate session with Sandy, jellyfishing with Patrick, and, finally, watching Squidward’s clarinet performance. “I’m so excited, I think I’m gonna explode!” he says. He even sings a song about it, called “The Best Day Ever”, in which he makes his high expectations for the day clear.

Resilience

Unfortunately, what SpongeBob expects to be the best day ever doesn’t go as planned. Everything goes wrong: The Krusty Krab is shut down by a nematode infestation, Sandy’s treedome is leaking, Patrick breaks their jellyfishing nets, and then he misses most of Squidward’s concert.

But as disappointed and upset as he is, he quickly recovers from his misfortunes when his friends cheer him up. He realizes that life isn’t about having the best day ever, but about having friends. His realization, ironically, makes his day the best day ever, after all. Because, let’s face it, is there anything better than singing the Best Day Ever song with friends?

So, here we see SpongeBob isn’t perfect; he can be upset and disappointed at misfortune, but he shows resilience and quickly bounces back to his positive attitude.

Loving friendliness

Friendship is central to SpongeBob’s life, as the F.U.N. song makes clear: “F is for friends who do stuff together, U is for you and me, N is for anywhere and anytime at all, down here in the deep blue sea.” In many of his activities, the activity itself seems almost secondary; what truly matters is sharing it with others.

His closest friend is Patrick Star, and the ‘friendship rings’ seen in the episode “The Secret Box” (S2:E15) symbolize their bond.

Throughout the series, SpongeBob shows how deeply he cares about his friends. He stands up for them when they are in trouble and openly expresses his affection.

But his appreciation for friendship goes even further. He not only enjoys having friends himself, but he also delights in seeing others become friends. In the episode “The Other Patty” (S8:E1), for example, he even tries to reconcile the archenemies Mr. Krabs and Plankton through an elaborate scheme.

Yet SpongeBob’s kindness is not limited to his close circle. He generally wishes others well and wants them to flourish just as he does. He tends to see the good in people. Even when someone mocks him (such as in the episode “Mid-Life Crustacean” (S3:E15), when a tough guy ridicules his tandem bike), he remains friendly and largely unaffected by the insult.

There are many, many more examples of SpongeBob’s behavior that point toward him being a happy, flourishing individual, steadfast in his radical optimism and determination to do good. Sure, he isn’t perfect. He’s not a sage or philosopher. But he surely tries to make the best of each day and live well.