Why was SpongeBob Squarepants episode Mid-Life Crustacean banned on TV? Details explored 

Aashna
SpongeBob Squarepants (Image via SpongeBob Squarepants Official/YouTube)
SpongeBob Squarepants (Image via SpongeBob Squarepants Official/YouTube)

Nickelodeon's animated cartoon SpongeBob Squarepants was created by Stephen Hillenburg in 1999, and it has been one of the most popular kids' cartoons.

The series follows SpongeBob Squarepants, a sea sponge who lives in a pineapple house and works as a fry cook at a fast food restaurant. The episodes follow his adventures with his aquatic friends like Krusty Crab, Patrick, and Squidward.

Many fans of the show would know that one of its episodes, Mid-Life Crustacean, is banned because of its s*xual references and inappropriate scenes for a child.

It was officially removed from Nickelodeon and Paramount Plus in 2018 and has been out of rotation since then.

More on the SpongeBob Squarepants episode ban in our story.


Why was SpongeBob Squarepants episode Mid-Life Crustacean banned on TV?

The 11-minute episode is a part of Season 3 Episode 15's second segment, and it was removed from Nickelodeon in 2018.

In the episode, as the name suggests, Mr. Krabs has a mid-life crisis and wants to feel young again. So, he goes to Spongebob and Patrick about his problem, and they suggest that they do a 'panty-raid.' Yes, now you see why the ban!

So, as suggested by his two friends, all three go on this bizarre raid where they enter a woman's house and steal a pair of underwear from them. The woman is later revealed to be none other than Mr. Krabs' mother, which implies that he actually stole his mother's underwear with his two friends.

When the three friends are stealing the underwear, Mr. Krabs' mother catches them and asks, 'What are you doing with my bloomers?' to which he replies that he didn't know it was his mother's house.

The episode ends with Mr. Krabs' mother grounding him in his childhood room for the night, which makes him feel young again. So mission successful, was it?


Reddit reactions to the SpongeBob Squarepants episode ban

Considering that Nickelodeon stopped it from rotation in 2018 means that it was airing before, and a considerable amount of people have already watched it on air or various other sources.

Some Reddit users like, u/StellaSutkiewicz119, think that banning the episode was not done because cartoons do not shy away from showing violence in kids' cartoons, so why natural things related to s*x:

''There are tons of Acts of cartoon violence in every episode of a surrealistic cartoon like spongebob. But violence get to pass in this country and anything vaguely to do with sex that a kid might see people, some people, assume is going to scar them for life.''

Another user, u/flclhack, thinks that while the Spongebob Squarepants episode was inappropriate, it should not have been banned:

''i understand why they pulled the episode, but they’re trying to scrub it out of existence and i’m never in favor of that.''

While there are also users like, u/WhatNoFnZiti, who think that having such kind of scenes in a kid's cartoon was inappropriate and should not have been a part:

''Yeah it makes total sense. An episode encouraging kids to steal girls’ underwear makes no sense in a kid’s show.''

While the internet seems divided, the network is sure of their decision, and the episode is not available to stream on any official sites as of now.


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Edited by Sezal Srivastava
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