It’s like a whole Daisy Bell situation, everyone thinks this song is scary when in reality it is supposed to be a charming and whimsical tune to brighten up your day.
Traumatized? No. Unsettled? Yeah. There's specific reasons for this though, and you would've needed the experience of binge watching spongebob at night when your parents end up going to sleep. I used to do this in the basement with the TV on, and then when those credits rolled off, you knew damn well it was dark. And for me, I was terrified of the dark and the thought of a ghost popping up to scare the shit outta me.
U don't know how happy i am to see someone had the experience as me. But my room used to be in the attic, i had 2 windows facing my bed and the thought of smthing watching me terrified me.
I am hearing this a lot and it sounds like kids started to associate the end credits as a warning that the show is ending and everything is going to be dark in the next 30 seconds. Thinking of it that way is pretty scary.
For me my mom had spongebob on so I would go to sleep(I got upset whenever watching spongebob, I think it's because I related it to- Watching Spongebob=Go to sleep. I think I was a weirdo for not liking spongebob at my age.
I always felt like the End Credits was weird because it's such an innocent and simpatic song that i imagine would be playing when a group of friends or something similar is having a good time. A place where you would hear voices laughing, giggling, cheering. But there's none of that, there's just... *The silence of the song.* A song being played by someone i will never meet and will never know, a song that is actually made to represents the end of the good time i had watching Spongebob, when things stopped being that colorful fun world, bringing you back to reality.
I don't know why but when I was younger the end credits to SpongeBob always made me anxious. I always thought it was because of my anxiety disorder but I guess other kids were scared of it too. Also that intro made me feel like something was gonna jump out at me. Perfect vibe for the spongebob end credits.
@@MatheusF_Official I call it liminal ditty phenomenon. It feels as if there's a demonic, crytified version of the characters watching and secretly assessing your reaction to their performance. The same way we feel watched in a liminal space, liminal ditties are just as haunting. Like the credits turn your television screen into one way glass.
I think it’s the same affect like when you’re at a sleepover & everyone falls asleep first & you’re the last one up & it’s late at night & you feel “alone” but not in a sense of you’re the only one up, but like the only person on the planet. I think the end credits of a lot of movies trigger that because you’re sort of slapped in the face with reality again that you’re just watching it by yourself & when it’s over, there’s nothing else to distract your mind. I always got that feeling when I was younger when a movie that was directed at my age group was over. It’s weird.
:0 this definitely!! i would usually be the last one awake when watching spongebob with family at night, and it was always a super weird and empty feeling i would get being alone when the credits played!
This describes perfectly the experience I had when I was around 7 years old and watched the first nightmare on elm street film I started watching before dusk, it was scary for me but very enjoyable. When it ended it was dark outside, just the credits playing in a dark room with thr onr two freddys coming for you song. Recalling this sends shivers down my spine. Of course this was a horror film that i loved and have great memories watching because of the horror aspects, but holy shit now i remember i was incredibly terrified at the end when it was dark and i was alone after having watched that for the first time
I have never once thought the outro was creepy or unnerving, it was always so goofy to me! How interesting our perception of things can be so wildly different about stuff like that
Haven’t watched the video yet, but here is my personal experience. When I was younger, the spongebob outro gave me the sort of feeling you get when being alone after hanging out with family or friends. It emulates a feeling of loneliness, even knowing you should instead have a feeling of fulfillment and happiness at the end. But instead of reflecting on the good times had, you’re just alone. You’re no longer joking or having fun with people you enjoy, even if you just were a minute ago. You’re left to sit there by yourself and reflect on life. A realization that you might be emotionally lonelier than originally thought. It leaves a feeling of utter emptiness. In the outro of SpongeBob, the colourful and ecstatic characters are no longer on the screen joking and having their everyday fun. They were stripped away from you, and It’s over. The party is over. All you have left to do is stare at the screen, seeing yourself through the reflection, and wait for the next episode while a feeling of emptiness and realization hits you.
I remember watching this late as a kid by myself... it's funny how I didn't even realize I had this feeling then until I saw the thumbnail of this video.
This is also kinda like the rest of the winter after Christmas, all the excitement and buildup just disappears and there nothing to look forward too, and you have to wait till next year for it to come back.
I thought I was the only one who felt this way! I used to watch the SpongeBob DVDs at night when my parents were asleep, and I use to feel existential dread at random times and the end credits would kick start that feeling
@@GeronFletcherhe did not felt like that, it’s just a mass hysteria that the guy from the video created and now kids that watch him are creating stories that they didn’t live.
@@EricNonelessI didn't have any experiences with SpongeBob specifically lol, but I certainly know the feeling of absolute dread and existential terror caused by the most silly things. Thinking of the feeling almost vaguely invokes it back in me. Surely you've experienced something like this at SOME point? Either way, ridiculous to assume everyone's lying just because you haven't experienced it. Kids are weird, we feel weird things idk what to tell you
It made me feel so alone. I had very bad insomnia when I was little and it gave me the exact same feeling id get that made me not be able to sleep. It feels like your heart is heavy.
I remember vividly that as a kid I didn’t have many fears, but for some reason, I was terrified of any and every credit scene. I’d audibly run and cry whenever a movie ended or something, and the explanations you applied made sense to an extent - I also think there’s the uneasiness of breaking the fourth wall, in a way. Children have the capacity to get sucked in whatever activity they’re doing, see that reality as their own until they get broken off from it, and credits are a great example of that. You’re pulling a mind forcefully from what it just now believed is real. Maybe I’m overanalysing it, but I do think it’s an interesting phenomenon to wonder about 😭
For me, personaly, quite the contrary in fact. I always felt at ease watching the outro and it gave a warm feeling cause of how chill and laid-back it is.
I don't get why ppl find the end credit "scary" or "unsettling", I've listened to them at night/in the dark and nothing, this song is a bop, I don't understand
Nostalgic blind? Nah, maybe attention for the sake of "ooo spoopy childhood spooky?" Perhaps. I kinda see what they're coming from, but at the end of the day, I still don't get it, and I don't care.
People are scared of weird stuff as kids. I was scared of the 20th Century Fox logo and refused to watch Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King when I was little after my first viewing of it (oddly enough I wasn't afraid of the first four direct-to-video Scooby movies despite those being classic entries on "childhood trauma" videos).
I had many existential crises throughout my childhood. I can maybe explain a little of this. I loved the song by it's sound, but it reminded me of those existential fears of end and death and pain. I for as many years as I can possibly think of, have had moments of becoming disconnected to reality. Thinking about life and how I almost wasn't me? Basically, what I'm explaining is, is that I personally experienced these feelings because of certain issues I've lived with since I was 3 or younger, which I'm getting help with through therapy. So, if others felt afraid of the end credits, it may have been the existentialism I also experienced. Or maybe something else entirely! It is a great song, but if you're not in the best state of mind, it's gonna remind you of things that disconnect you from life. At least, that's how it is for me. I hope that properly explained it. :D
11:43 I would honestly give up everything my money, soul everything just so I could hear that ending theme and feel something anything other than fear and sadness just filling the room
In my experience, one outro that always made feel uneasy was the one at the end of Jimmy Neutron with the monkey saying "Hi! I'm Paul" or something like that
Okay, I'll give you that one. That three-eyed monkey and the trees swirling abnormally was disturbing af. (When I reached middle school, I realize the trees were turning in a double helix, and the company was called DNA Productions. Doesn't explain the creepy monkey, thought.)
I've never heard of it as being creepy or heard of people being scared by it. I've always been nostalgic when I hear it. I will say, the dissonance and environment theories are definately it. The melodies of the theme and the fact that it's just a still image at the end of the show, and you likely played it in a dark room during night time as a kid. It does have a liminal feeling to it, like imagine hearing that as the last thing you hear during the end of the world.
I've never felt scared by the Spongebob credits theme. Recently it's actually begun to make me both comfortable and sad at the same time, cause it's nostalgic and it just feels like "the end", you know what I mean? Especially after the decline in quality and Hillenburg's death.
Imagine waking up at 3 in the morning completely dark with the light from your phone on the other side of the room, playing this music so quietly it’s loud.
I thought this SpongeBob outro would play only on special episodes other than that. I've never had an outro watching SpongeBob. I've heard this melody, and yes, I've seen this end credit but never be scared of it. Also, the regular outro would just be the end credit with the pitcure of all the planktons holding hands with the sounds of the ocean and the seagulls sqaucking.
Nah the credits was my favorite part, song went hard 🔥. On the other hand, when getting on the topic of video games, one thing that would leave me Squamish (only word I can describe it) is when you fall out the map into a glitch and you see nothing but a void. That would make me feel so weird
Do you remember that episode from Rugrats when Chucky wanted to run away and it was a parody of It's a Wonderful Life. They had a specific background sound that they use for the alternative timeline and then they use that same background sound for the ending credits. I woke up to that sound when I was a child and that creeped me out. If you read this comment I just want to know your opinion on it.
I distinctly remember popping in a DVD my nana got for me of I think the episode where Squidward moved to a town full of other squids and I distinctly remember the end credits weirding me out. It felt really ominous and I ran out of the room to see what my parents were doing to get away from the credits.
Personally my theory is that its just because it was never seen that often, so when it was it stood out. When you're watching spongebob on tv, the credits just scroll on the bottom and transition to the next episode. So whenever you see the credits (probably on VHS), you know its something you've seen before, but it doesn't feel familiar., so it sort of puts you in a liminal space
Where i live, they played the outro each time the show finished. My theory why it may sound distressing to some people has to do with technology. TV speakers were never great, especially not the ones of lower end CRT sets with mono speakers and flimys plastic shells. Most children i know had this type of TV set in their rooms. This song has low frequency and high pitch beeps, the sort of frequencies that tend to distort and vibrate. I can see how this may cause distress.
@@hyperturbotechnomike I call it liminal ditty phenomenon. It feels as if there's a demonic, crytified version of the characters watching and secretly assessing your reaction to their performance. The same way we feel watched in a liminal space, liminal ditties are just as haunting. Like the credits turn your television screen into one way glass. I do like your theory though. It adds an extra layer of liminalisation. Like an empty hospital hallway feels liminal, but some of the lights turned off, yellowed and/or flickering feels both liminal and haunting.
Remember it playing at the dead of night, I would watch it after Rugrats. And I would be alone in my room in the dark as a kid watching SpongeBob on Nick Toons at night before bed and when the end credits came on I just had a sudden urge to run out the room cause it made me feel alone. So weird
I was never SCARED of this outro persay but I do kinda see where you’re coming from. It was always a little strange to see it though since they’d never play the full credits on tv, so I mostly saw them on my Spongebob DVDs. I think seeing them on a DVD might have that liminal effect as well, since they’d be followed by silence and the disk whirring before going back to the menu.
I remember when I was a kid and my mom would put SpongeBob on before I went to sleep, and then waking up in the middle of the night to this outro playing , and then id just feel so empty and scared. So I can relate to this video.😥
Honestly, I’m happy that I’m not one who feels this way. Back then, SpongeBob, Danny Phantom, and Fairly OddParents had these type of outro end credits. ( Billy and Mandy. They also got something similar.) And for some reason, they always bothered me. The uneventful music with the basic or bland backgrounds with the very uninterest text creates this very simple, but isolating feeling and kind of paranoid feeling. (and it doesn’t help when the show has a more upbeat vibe to it compared to the outro of it.) But I think the most important way to understand why the unsettled people is to get an idea of what they picture when they hear the stuff and I think I’m willing to give you an idea of what I think of when I hear this stuff: “I think of myself being in a dark semi cramped room, all alone, with no signs of other life insight, sitting down, watching this very unsettling outro play out while I’m in my thoughts and having the feeling someone’s watching me as well.” That’s definitely not a very good feeling but that’s not the only thing I imagined when it comes to this stuff and how it makes me feel, another two examples would be: 1. Being all alone after the party ended, and everyone went home, all alone. 2. End of the world scenario, except you’re the last man on earth, sort of thing. All these thoughts in mind create the sense of uneasiness. The truth is though I feel like I can’t really explain why I feel like that, but it does put into perspective why I may feel like that when hearing this type of stuff.
I remember waking up in my parents bedroom (they had a tv in there) whenever i was sick id sleep in there. I remember the blow horn or thr seagulls waking me up. I would get sick and uneasy whenever that yellow background was there. And the very low volumed song.
This is just the nostalgia depression we feel when we try to enjoy something we used to love. It brings a sort of nausea and reminds us that we are getting older and slowly dying. This happens to me if I try to go back and watch anything that i used to enjoy from my childhood.
I have always been terrified of this song and can't explain why. When I was little I remember hiding behind one of my chairs and sobbing when this song would play even during the day time. The intro to this video made me so scared like to the point where I had my computer almost shut. It just doesn't make sense, all I know is that the outro and intro to the show have always scared me.
While not for the spongebob end credits I’ve experienced this sort of empty horror before. I find it beautiful, it reminds me of long forgotten dreams, nightmares, fears and imagination I had, it’s why I like low polygon 3D graphics, it’s creepy, empty, uncanny But there’s a beauty to it, portraying a void both empty and filled, both dark and bright. Like my old dreams I still remember the feeling of staring at infinity
This is such an interesting phenomenon as someone who just finds the outro nostalgic and pleasant. I've never felt unsettled by the outro, even as a kid waking up at 2am to the song blasting through our CRT TV's speakers. I'd just be comforted like "oh ok it's just SpongeBob" and go back to sleep peacefully. Varied human experiences are so cool!!
i remember once waking up in the middle of the dark and the sponge bob ending credits where looping at the time everyone was sleeping i felt had a really eerie and uncomfortable feeling that night it was so long ago but watching this reminded me of that memory long ago
I’m honestly so glad I wasn’t the only one scared by the SpongeBob ending. I remember being so uncomfortable by it as a child, almost scared. I didn’t know why, and I felt silly for it.
There’s another song that uses the first four notes of the ending, it’s becomes wacky and crazy! We’re so used to hearing it, that it feels odd that it’s not playing that part in the ending version, it’s kind of like playing the Friends theme but you don’t hear the claps. It becomes unsettling because of expectation!
Yeah the normal outro is unsettling, but the one that scares me most is the end credits for the episode "Spongebob B.C." it sounds so weird and unnatural.
The normal credits can be off-putting in the wrong context, but the but prehistoric variant is too goofy to be creepy. Reminds me of cavemen so stupid they're drooling over themselves, trying their best to play but failing.
Im pretty sure in one epsidoe of Spongebob (Naughty Nautical Neighbours i think) the outro music plays during a scene of Spongebob and Patrick blowing bubbles. In my opoinon, it didnt feel creepy or unsettling, even though there wasnt mu h action going on in the scene. So I think the sudden absence of action and characters that makes the outro as creepy as it is, rather than just the music.
Wow! I'm double your age. There are a couple of 1960s TV show outros that give me a melancholy, sad, and empty feeling. You eloquently and incredibly identify why. Appreciate you addressing this haunting feeling with words and emotions!
I miss the outro because he never see it anymore. It’ll always be a big black screen with the credits and then some loud thing promoting the next show.
I never experienced this.... With any tv outro. But i HAVE experienced this feeling, but it was this little red light on my tv that shows its "off"(still have it) but my imagination going wild made me more afraid of it. But eventually overtime i just... Stared at it, (and also trying to see two of them at once by looking at my nose, but focusing on the dot) for about 2-3 years this fear of the tv randomly turning on and talking to me haunted me, but i did get good sleep. Sometimes, if there ISN'T a thunderstorm, that red light is the only light in the room. Im still unsure of it "traumatized" me because, i don't get the feeling anymore because i now am into a liking of this creepy, horror, depressing stuff.
I wouldn't say the Spongebob outro is scary. It's more like it's expecting you to turn it off because the show is over, but since you're a child and you most likely love Spongebob, you don't really want to. The outro is like an end to the good times... and no kid wants that.
This shares some similarities to geometric nightmares, something about anything changing rapidly vibe, size or something was just so terrifying and unexplainable to our child minds.
I didn't understand the feeling you were trying to describe at first, but while you talked about feeling the same on some video games, i realised that it's what i felt during the covid 19 pandemic, while playing Nintendo in my room all alone, and since my Nintendo have always been broken, sometimes the audio stopped working, and that gave me an incredible sense of loneliness and void, it was so creepy
What's also so strange and fascinating is how liminality really plays into this for me personally. I feel the SpongeBob end credits are just so liminal sounding to me for some reason, and maybe thats why liminal horror really resaonates with me. It's very unsettling, and just triggers something in me that I can't exactly explain. For whatever reason, the Backyardigans intro/outro of all things honestly is unsettling to me too...Its so silly but it just feels super off for some reason. I wonder if anyone feels the same about that particular show, too.
For me The intro scared me Way More than The Outro. For some Reason It Always Made me Uncomfortable and Uneasy. Idk I just remember Having Nightmares About the intro as a kid. Who else Feels that way?
I didn't grow up with Spongebob, but from what I've seen of it as an adult, it has that same zany Loony Tunes vibe that delighted and entertained several previous generations. May your happy Spongebob viewing never come to an END!
WHEN I WAS YOUNG USED TO WATCH SPONGEBOB WHILE EVERY ONE WAS ASLEEP THE FUNNY PART IS ONCE THE END credits I started jamming and enjoying it I'd like to get the context to see why and how
I loved SpongeBob as a kid, but that ending theme really did get me. I remember waking up in my cousins basement during a trip to the theme playing cause we had a dvd in the player. It felt like it got progressively louder.
Shout out to all my traumatized homies out there. Especially what you bring up with the environment theory. This is still an unending cause for anxiety for me. I’m 25, but when I wake up without my wife next to me and the tv is playing. Legit feel scared like I did as a kid.
I still can’t turn off the thrusters in games like no man’s sky. Sitting in the void floating to the next is terrifying. Despite me wanting to spend most of my time alone. What a way to live for us xD
Listening to the end credits while staring at the TV in a dark room while everyone was asleep would send me down a rabbit hole of existential dread when I was younger, and it still does sometimes.
I can't say end credits ever scared me, but certain end credits used to make me really sad, sometimes to the point of even crying when I was little. I'm Autistic and my vhs tapes were essentially my solace, my escapism from an otherwise loud and confusing world. The end credits symbolised, well, the end, and served as a stark reminder that the comfort and joy I gained from my videos was finite. The main one that springs to mind was Gummi Bears, particularly because I'd rent the tapes - they weren't mine to keep and the end would eventually be a lot more final - and also because the credits would play all together on loop rather than at the end of each individual episode, yet for whatever reason I'd sit through them in case they'd somehow added more content since the last time I'd rented the tape (yeah I don't know what's wrong with me either lol). Occasionally, I still get an inkling of that same sadness today. (Edit: I wrote this comment before actually watching all of the video, and it's pretty much exactly what you said 🤣 )
You were scared of the outro? The explaination is reasonable, but the opening theme for Spongebob TERRIFIES me to this day, I was scared of the opening theme since I was 3,4, or 5, I'm 16 years old now and I still can't watch the opening theme without having a panic attack, I don't know why it scares me, it just does.
What a wonderful world and Beyond the sea both gave me the unsettling feeling. it’s like what you said about dissonance when it’s played in a beautiful setting they might sound beautiful but when you hear them in a Dark and Scary setting they are the creepiest songs ever.
Funny enough they never played the Spongebob credits on Nick when I was growing up. I didn't discover the credits until I watched Spongebob on VHS for the first time
Sounds like some of this stems from falling asleep with the TV on, now I'm glad my mom never let me fall asleep with the tv on as a kid. Also glad that nick never really allowed you to enjoy a shows outro, they always played ads of other nick shows or something nick related with the outro muted in the bsckground.
Even Patrick seemed traumatized and upset when he saw these credits at the end of a Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episode because he didn't want it to end
When I was around 6 or 7 I have a core memory of waking up in the middle of the night to this end credit and started sobbing. I never thought there was a connection but now I’m thinking maybe there is 🤨
I never thought of this as scary at all. It's nostalgic for me 😊 What scared me as a kid was hearing the Star-Spangled Banner all of a sudden after falling asleep watching TV. Channels used to sign off with a call sign and the national anthem. Then you'd see the multicolored bars with the long beep. You don't see that anymore. Most channels run 24 hours now or put infomercials on. I kinda understand what you mean, though.
I know it's probably just for click bait, but I think it's a stretch to say an "entire generation" got traumatised by this, because kid me would sit there dancing away to the guitar either waiting for the next episode to start or for whatever was on next to start.
When I was young, I was terrified of the X-Files intro song/video. At this time, I also went through a phase of sleep walking. Well…one night I woke up when no one else was awake in the house and I was standing in front of the TV. Guess what was playing…The intro to the X-Files. By far one of the weirdest/scariest experiences of my childhood.
I personally don't even interpret the the SpongeBob end credits theme as being unsettling, I mean sure it may feel a bit empty and bland but it doesn't creep me out. In fact during my childhood, I used watch things on TV in pitch black and late at night until midnight whilst being completely alone in my room. Yet I don't have any memories of ever being scared by SpongeBob end credits or anything on the TV late at night, even when I fell sleep whilst watching something. There again back then I always had the volume low. Plus I was usually watching something on DVD and lot of the time DVDs had either silent menus that it would return to when it finishes or it automatically stop when it finishes.
As a child, I don't remember finding the end credits disturbing or creepy - not consciously, anyway. Then again, I wouldn't describe my childhood as chaotic. It had its problems, but it was relatively peaceful and predictable. That said, the suggested feeling of loneliness completely checks out in my mind. That's what drew me to this video. I'm autistic, so I never had that many friends. I probably formed parasocial friendships with the characters in that show, just as young people today form parasocial friendships with their favourite RU-vidrs. With that in mind, the end credits were probably the equivalent of the parents telling us it was time to go home. You've just sent me down a massive rabbit hole, haven't you?
I know that the SpongeBob outro credits is creepy but even if you’re alone the thing is that you’re afraid of the dark and the unknown just by staring at the credits you think that you are scared because of the setting
