Is SpongeBob NoPants a danger to kids?

Commercials

By Tabloid Baby | Tuesday, April 24, 2007 | 11:30 am | 12 Comments

Maybe you’ve seen this Burger King spot that hangs on a very corny joke: a guy emerges from a bathtub with a sponge on his head. He says to his wife: “Hey, honey. Guess who I am. Come on. Who am I? SpongeBob!” Then he gestures downward, below the view of the camera. “No pants.” Mom stares. Cut to a full body shot. He’s covered in suds in all the important places.

Well guess what? A bunch of TV critics and watchdogs are saying the commercial uses “adult nudity” to appeal to children (the version posted above is a censored “above the waist” version).

As if Burger King burgers aren’t bad enough.Extremist yet influential conservative activist Donald Wildmon and his various groups, including one called One Million Moms are leading the charge against the spot:

Burger King is using cheap bathroom humor to promote its newest kid’s meal toy.

Click Here to see the ad for yourself, then take action!

Let Burger King know their ad is irresponsible and tasteless, especially when they know kids are watching television.

Wildmon and company– who, incidentially, had earlier outed SpongeBob as gay– they complain that the spot was shown during the NCAA championships– not exactly a primo kids’ demographic– but we’ve seen it everywhere.

So. SpongeBob NoPants. Bad taste? Taste good? What about the children?

(By the way, that Moms post begins with the promise: “This week, we begin monitoring the FX Network’s new season of sleaze and will let you know what companies are backing it.”)

–Tabloid Baby

12 Comments

  1. 1
    Shaun
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    Seriously – F*ck the children… its about time these watchdog groups started focusing on the fact that parents don’t actually parent anymore. If you don’t want your kids to watch a TV show or certain commercials – change the channel. That would of course require you to be in the same room with your child…

  2. 2
    silentfire
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 1:10 pm

    eff you tabloid baby and your burger king burger hatin. I come here for news not you opinion on fast food!!!!!!11 I swear i’m never coming back to tvgasm again bcause of you

  3. 3
    marysch
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 1:57 pm

    I find it much more disturbing that the children are allowed to run in and out of the bathroom while Dad’s in the bathtub and the man takes a bath in front of all those windows….with no shades. I’d be more concerned for those kids and the neighbors than I would about my kids…if I had any.

  4. 4
    shia0bundan
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 3:41 pm

    Wow peeps. I’m no TB fan but there is a reason all TB posts are under Newsgasm… a completely different section from Clipgasm and Recaps.

  5. 5
    katieshole
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 3:57 pm

    The real question is, who is typhoid baby, oops, meant tabloid baby, doing at TVgasm to get this type of job? And where do I apply?

    With all the fat kids in this country, Burger King is the last thing they need! They should stop watching TV and go ride bikes you fat assed brats!

    KH

  6. 6
    psychogala
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 5:31 pm

    I thought the commercial was just representative of how juvenile most men can be. No matter what their age.

    You want to see tasteless? What about the commercials they’re showing on MTV using literal toilet humor? A “pile” of excrement talking to a urinal. Absolutely no valid reason for it.

    Just remember, their viewers are the enlightened souls that will be running the country one day. If we don’t manage to get it blown up in time, that is. Keep your fingers crossed people!

    PEACE OUT!!!

  7. 7
    Donna Martin Graduates!
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 5:59 pm

    I’ve never been able to understand how touchy the issue of nudity is in this (repressed) society. When I was a kid I used to take baths with my Mum *all the time* and me and my sisters often saw her naked well into our teens.

    I even saw my Dad naked (only once, when I was 11 — I wanted to talk to him when he was getting out of the shower) and he was really nonchalant about it.

    I was not scarred by this experience.

    And I was brought up a devout Catholic. (That has its own set of scars!)

    WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL??

    If I had kids I would definitely teach them that nudity is not a crime/sin/something shameful/fill-in-the-blank.

  8. 8
    Jill
    Posted April 24, 2007 at 8:23 pm

    I don’t agree with this commercial because who cares about the neighbors ,or no window covers the thing that bothers me is that Burger King is trying to sell kids commercial for their food and the toy they get with the meal for a child not for adults to be in a bathroom with children they may not see anything but I dont allow my children in the bathroom when I’m doing whatever it is I’m doing they can wait until I’m done.Nudity isn’t wrong but it is unapproprite for a commercial for children.

  9. 9
    Farmer Ted
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 12:04 am

    I allow my children to watch Spongebob only if they’re sufficiently stoned beforehand.

  10. 10
    jexx
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 5:05 am

    Pssht. My nine-year-old son made that joke MONTHS ago. If only ad agencies hired elementary school children, then I could live off the labor of my child, rather than the other way around.

    Seriously? SpongeBob NoPants is scarring? These people need to put their considerable time and effort into poverty elimination.

  11. 11
    DeaconGTG
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 8:31 am

    Wow, the tvgasm staff is telling posters to fuck off? I’m done with this site.

  12. 12
    DA
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 11:24 am

    These watchdog groups need to spend more time watching their children and less time writing angry letters to FX.

    And stop coming to the site if you don’t like it…or don’t read Newsgasm, or Flipit’s recaps if you don’t like them. Or don’t spend time reading the posts, or commenting on them. It seems a little demented to be obsessing over a blogger you don’t like.

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