Stuff Arabs Like #16: SpongeBob SquarePants

It's blurry, but it says I ::heart:: SpongeBob & ...Emo SpongeBob? I don't understand why you would love either of them...especially enough to put it on the back of a blouse!

This might be something just Saudis like, so I apologize to any non-Saudi Arabs reading this and feeling mislabeled. I know this is a popular cartoon in the States, but "popular" doesn't quite do justice to the Saudi obsession with this hyperactive porifera. I literally see SpongeBob SquarePants everywhere. In the mall, in the souq, in the grocery store, in the bookstore, at school, on car bumpers. It's. ridiculous.

So. Annoying.

I've asked my students and co-workers why SpongeBob is so loved here, and I get the same answer as I got in the States: "I dunno. He's just funny. We just like him."

a lot.

I am definitely a bit biased on this matter because I can't stand SpongeBob. His voice, the "plot" of the show, that laugh! Ugh. It drives me absolutely crazy. It's only fitting that I'm now surrounded by that yellow cheese-like smiling block of sponge everywhere I go.

Vicariously yours,