Is Spongebob a fictional character with autism?

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Spongebob is one of my favorite shows, but what actually is quite remarkable to me is that Spongebob seems to show some signs of autism:

- He doesn't realise that people hate him and keeps being happy
- His behaviour is annoying and he doesn't realise it (is the case for some autistic people)
- Nobody really understands him
- People mistreat him (Mr Crabs doesn't pay him well on purpose)
- Spongebob wants to help everyone and everyone makes bad use of this, for instance Mr Crabs who uses him to earn money at the expense of others, even if he has good intentions and doesn't want to hurt other people (this is one of the most obvious Autism traits in Spongebob)
- He is very focused on his job and wants to do it well
- If Squidward yells at him or is annoyed by him, he ignores it or doesn't realise it lol
- He isn't good in practical stuff
- He isn't very independent, because he always need help of other people or forgets to do certain stuff
- He doesn't have a lot of friends (although that could have to do with the script lol, because it isn't possible for the writers to make complex stories with a lot of friends)
- He acts strange

Is it on purpose that Spongebob is like this or are these traits just coincidences?

Btw, this is actually a serious post, but in some way it's funny too, which is why I wonder if the writers did it on purpose.

I haven't watched it enough to know.

But I'm damn sure that Forrest Gump was.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

I think he was designed to do weird off the wall things to entertain. I don't think autism portrayal was intended. I think this is overanalizing.

Hmm, I'm not sure he's autistic as such, perhaps ADHD, or William's syndrome. William's is pretty much the opposite of autism where you have a below average IQ but you absolutely love everyone, and love to be around them and be helpful and useful, and it's often hard to tell when people don't want to hang out with you any more. If I had to give Spongebob a diagnosis, I'd probably go with that.

Well, I have been known to comment that autistic kids' behaviors become more pronounced when watching SpongeBob because autistic kids are imitators and SpongeBob is basically an autistic kid...

Other than that, I'll refrain from diagnosing an animated CellO sponge. Much as it is impossible for SpongeBob to have a sexual orientation, it is also impossible for him to have a developmental disability.

Cornflake where are you when a thread needs moving to Random!

No way.

No, SpongeBob is a REAL autistic person.
Where did you get the idea that he is fictional??

Mental Disorders of Cartoon Characters

So this is a hilarious article. And there diagnosis of spongebob was Williams Syndrome.

I'm not sure about sponge bob but I'd say that Patrick definitely has ADHD, he has the attention span of a cabbage haha

First of all, I'll say that I don't believe in diagnosing fictional characters with mental disorders. They deliberately have exaggerated character traits, which is what makes them funny. So no, I don't think SpongeBob is autistic.

Having said that, he does have an interesting set of character traits. Apart from the ones you mentioned:
- He gets stuck on phrases and repeats them over and over. ("I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready"/"Soiled it! Soiled it! Soiled it!")
- He doesn't understand sarcasm. (Remember the wig episode?)
- He takes things literally.
- Changes to routine (losing name tag, new item on menu etc) cause anxiety to the point of "meltdown" or passing out.

SpongeBob is my special interest BTW.

Patrick too.

Patrick would be on the lowfunctioning end of the spectrum while squidward would be an aspie.

This whole thread is stupid. Spongebob can't have Autism. Sea Sponges have neither a brain nor a central nervous system. Your theory is fundementally flawed.