Trust us, it gets crazier than this.
Alex Bale, the creator behind Pizza Time Pizza and Promos, decided in the early 2020s to make a Web Video series about a beloved children's show in order to grow his YouTube channel. To do this, he became known as the spongebob guy and assembled elaborate conspiracy theories about of the lore of SpongeBob SquarePants. His theories are quite well-researched, using evidence from all seasons to prove outlandish theories that, by the end, seem scarily plausible.
As the theories continue, however, it's certain that not everything is as it seems. By the end of the third episode, it is revealed that Alex is not creating the theories on his own. In fact, some strange thing inside his house, referred only to as "The Muse" is giving him the materials necessary to craft theories into successful videos. And with each theory it creates, it begins to demand more to sustain itself...
The series itself is part of a larger Alternate Reality Game known as "The Muse ARG" tied to an assortment of other video series, such as The Cynical Critic, Conspiracy Carl, Sonc the Blue Rat, Happy Meat Farms (which was actually a sponsor of one of the videos), The Paradox Files (or Paradox1313), and Wesley Harold Films. The other shows are not required to understand the main plot, but they expand upon the world and the people living in it.
With the eighth episode of The SpongeBob Conspiracy completed, Alex Bale has stated that he will move on from making theory videos and will instead focus on the Muse story. According to him, this was always the plan, and the story itself is nearing its completion. He subsequently released a compilation video of the Framing Device thus far for the convenience of not needing to see the theories themselves to understand the story. Despite this claim, he would later release a teaser for a 9th theory, and while the trailer places heavy focus on the ARG itself, it makes clear another theory is coming. Said "theory" was posted that October 21, revealed to instead be Don't Feed the Muse II, a full short film showing the Muses expanding their power over their hosts, with the "ninth SpongeBob theory" being brief bumpers used to demonstrate that Alex is still stuck making the videos in-universe.
The series, and the Muse storyline as a whole, ended on October 29, 2023 with the release of Don't Feed the Muse III.
The playlist for the videos can be found here
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This series provides examples of:
- All for Nothing: Invoked by Alex in the seventh video, where he talks with Victoria about how he studied three years in film school, only for him to end up making SpongeBob videos.
- April Fools: Played for horror. For the "eighth theory", Alex had to set up an A.I. to do the work for him so that he wouldn't slave away like normal. The results start off just fine, presenting "The Squidward Theory"...but then the video starts changing, his voice starts to sound more robotic and Alex's face becomes more and more twisted. By the end of the video, the A.I. crashes, and Alex says he'll have the actual eighth theory a month from that day.
- Animated Actors: In "The Time Traveling Ghost Pirate Theory" Alex suggests that the In-Universe producers of SpongeBob used these to cover up Patchy's death.
- Arc Words: "Don't let us down!"
- Bait-and-Switch:
- In the sixth video, the cat that Alex gets is eaten by his muse. In the seventh video, Alex's friend Victoria enters the house, but he doesn't find her, implying she has suffered a similar fate. She turns out to be alright, though.
- In the eighth video's sponsorship plug...Alex: Now, before we begin, I just want to say how thankful I am for all the support on these SpongeBob theories. These videos have, uh... definitely changed my life, so to give a little bit back to the community, today I'd like to support a small independent company out there that you've probably never even heard of. That's why today's video was sponsored by a tiny little indie game called RAID: SHADOW LENGENDS!!!
- Big Bad:
- The main Muse is the one who provides Alex with the theories on SpongeBob in return for sustenance.
- Happy Meat Farms, for the ARG as a whole.
- Plankton is the main cause of the robot apocalypse in Alex's video about an impending robot invasion.
- Big Eater: The muse is constantly fed meat by Alex, whether it be raw steak or a living cat.
- Body Horror:
- The videos posted on the "This place is not happy" YouTube channel are filled with this. It turns out that Happy Meat Farms, the company that appears in all of the other channels and which have been sponsoring the channels as well, is conducting disturbing experiments on farm animals that turns them into grotesque monsters. It's also possible they are using these creatures for the meat they sell, and, according to their website, they have been putting diseases in their meat that people contract when eaten. It turns out that Cecile Mathew, Carl's wife and Mark's mother, contracted cancer from infected ground beef, being the catalyst for their start on the internet, with Mark becoming the Cynical Critic in order to get money to reinstate her health insurance, something his Muse helped with. Sadly, it later turns out she ended up succumbing to her cancer.
- The next leaked videos reveals that HMF has moved on to experimenting on humans, and considers the more mutated ones "successful".
- Canon Discontinuity: The end of the April Fools' Day episode, which is made up of an insane series of theories created by a malfunctioning AI, mentions that the episode is not canon.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Conspiracy Carl is one of these and most of his videos consist of him talking about them. If you find the archives for his website, it turns out that he used to be a completely normal middle-aged man, and his "Conspiracy Carl" persona was created by his own Muse.
- Deal with the Devil: It's implied Alex has done this with the muse, as after every time Alex gives him meat, he's given a new theory. Victoria has as well.
- Disguised Horror Story:
- What initially seems like a series of harmless SpongeBob fan theories paves the way to a story about a Horror Hunger series that comments on the corrupting influence that can come with fame by the end of the third episode and beyond.
- The April Fools' Day video is this in and of itself. Initially beginning with a handful of outlandish theories from an AI, the video turns into a nightmarish vision over time as the AI breaks down, making for one of the most unsettling watches out of any videos in the series.
- Doing It for the Art: In-Universe. Alex desperately wants to go back to making short films instead of SpongeBob videos, but can't due to the immense views he receives. And the muse knows it.
- Downer Ending: Alex suvessfully stops the digestion process and escapes and kills his muse. However all of the other characters (Conspiracy Carl, Cynical Critic, Antonio, Wesley, Victoria) have all been assimilated, and Ramona Bynes has been captured by Jared, with her channel taken over by HMF. Even though Alex (and his cat) survived, HMF and MOTHER are still undefeated and have an army of muses.
- Eldritch Abomination: Mother, a strange, hidden flesh thing within Happy Meat Farms. Extracting DNA from her turns anything infused with it into a Genetic Abomination.
- Establishing Series Moment: It isn't until the third theory that the true nature of the series is revealed.
- The Evils of Free Will: According to the Happy Meat Farms HR page the company thinks humans are violent and need to be subjugated.
- Evil, Inc.: Happy Meat Farms, to an absurd degree. Not only do they conduct unethical genome experiments on animals and people (many of which are volunteers most likely unaware of their true intent or noncompliant employees and journalists) that turn them into horrific examples of Body Horror, but they also are heavily implied to be allies of the Muse species (including a larger version known as MOTHER), and are able to consistently cover up their misdeeds with schemes such as The Paradox Files, a fictional movie series based on aliens. And if all that wasn't enough, they are even explicitly aiming towards putting the world under a New World Order.
- Forced Creativity: Alex gets all of his video ideas from his "muse"... which is a carnivorous tentacle monster living in his basement and refusing to let him make non-SpongeBob-related content.
- Fridge Logic: In-Universe. The theories heavily rely on the logic and implications that a lot of the gags and situations in SpongeBob bring and that they all mean more than just being a quick for laughs gag.
- In-Universe Nickname: As mentioned above, Alex has started calling himself "the SpongeBob guy".
- Kick the Dog: Or in the case of the muse, eating the cat.
- Kill the Parent, Raise the Child: In "The Evolution Theory", Alex claims that during the war between evolved and unevolved fish, Mr. Krabs killed Pearl's unevolved mother, but then took pity on the evolved child and raised her as his own. At first this seems like a Pet the Dog moment, but then he describes how Krabs needs a source of krabby patty meat, and reveals that it's Pearl's mother — now being desecrated and sold to the masses. He also hints that this is what Krabs eventually has in mind for Pearl herself, subverting any chance he may be a good father despite it all.
- Logging On To The Fourth Wall: Subverted In "Don't Feed the Muse II", which opens with what is apparently the ninth SpongeBob theory, "The Alien Jellyfish Invasion Theory", only for the camera to pan out and reveal it's an in-universe YouTube video Alex is watching. The camera pans out far enough for the audience to see the address bar of the browser, but the URL for the video only says "youtube.com/watch?v=". The omission of the hash prevents viewers from seeing the full 27:17 unlisted video for themselves.
- Meaningful Name: A muse in Greek mythology is a goddess of science, literature and art, who gives inspiration to writers, scientists, and artists. The Muse literally gives Alex the theories, from which he makes the videos out of.
- Mood Whiplash: After the utterly nightmarish visuals near the end of the April Fools video, Alex's computer crashes and, in the calmest voice possible, explains that this was just an AI test and that he's gonna next start to work on the next video. Just an AI test.
- The Muse: A very twisted example comes with the muses, as they give people ideas on what creative endeavor they should go on. For Alex, it's SpongeBob theories. For Carl, it's over-the-top conspiracies. For Mark, it's controversial opinions on media. For Wesley, it's a Dolled-Up Installment of the Paradox franchise.
- No-Sell: In the ninth episode, when Alex tries to shine his flashlight on his Muse. Turns out light has no effect on them.The Muse: The Darkness is not for my protection. It is for yours.
- Not Quite Dead: Alex's cat turns out to have still been alive after being eaten. This allows it to help Alex escape from his Muse's body.
- Robot War: Alex posits that, because of Plankton's tampering, robots eventually overthrow the Bikini Bottomites and replace them with robotic duplicates.
- Serial Escalation: The events of the Don't Feed the Muse segments get bigger and bigger.
- In the first instance, Alex just hands the Muse some meat, who in return rolls a theory in a bottle to Alex.
- In the second instance, the muse speaks for the first time.
- In the third, the muse is nowhere to be seen in the garage. When Alex goes to write a SpongeBob theory, it shows up on the ceiling.
- In the fourth, he gets a kitten that gets eaten alive as the muse's meal.
- In the sixth, Victoria reveals she also has a muse in her house.
- In the eighth, the Muse actually stings Alex, and corrupts him in some way. He ends up birthing another Muse, which goes on to give ideas to Wesley. Also, Victoria is implied to have given birth to Alex's Muse.
- The SpongeBob theories themselves also have this:
- The first one starts off rather tame with the idea being Squilliam was a fraud who resented Squidward because they had dated years before.
- The second video theorizes that the entire show is staged with Sandy Cheeks herself assisting in keeping up the illusion.
- Mrs. Puff, according to the third theory, accidentally causes the death of a powerful lawyer's relative and as revenge, she is forced to continue to teach SpongeBob to her chagrin and at the cost of her mental health.
- There are two separate varieties of sea creatures: the ones who had "evolved" thanks to Neptune's magic, and the non-sapient feral ones. A war ensued resulting in Mr. Krabs adopting Pearl after killing her mother. Oh, and the Krabby Patty secret formula has the whale meat of Pearl's dead mother as an ingredient.
- The fifth video suggests that King Neptune usurped King Poseidon, taking his kingdom and his wife, after being given powers and technological abilities by the alien Atlanteans so that Poseidon couldn't steal their wealth and exterminate their people.
- Goofy Goober's Ice Cream is posited to be a front for a cult that brainwashes its members using mind-altering ice cream, and the cult believes not only in aliens, but also in apocalypse. This also drastically changes the story of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie from being a story about SpongeBob self-realizing himself and accepting his inner kid to being fully indoctrinated into a dangerous cult.
- Plankton, desiring to rule the world, modifies robots and distributes them throughout Bikini Bottom whilst also trying to replace normal citizens by removing their brains. The theory also suggests that Patrick is actually a robot himself having become one after the events of "Patrick SmartPants."
- Patchy the Pirate not only dies never meeting SpongeBob, but reincarnates as the vengeful Flying Dutchman, who gains multiple powerful abilities, including time travel, and uses them to harass and haunt SpongeBob for wronging him in his mortal life. Patchy also experiences time separately than the others, traveling through time and encountering people for the first time in the future. Oh, and he eats Potty.
- Sickening Slaughterhouse: Exaggerated in the case of Happy Meat Farms, which performs grotesque experiments on farm animals just to get more meat out of them. Then they start using human beings for meat.
- Significant Wardrobe Shift: It eventually becomes clear that if someone is wearing a black shirt, they're someone who has been completely subverted by a Muse, or is very close to being subverted.
- Spanner in the Works: Alex's cat ends up being the one to help him escape his Muse after it eats him.
- Surreal Horror: The April Fools video falls utterly under this. While the video starts kind of off, it soon devolves when the video-making AI utterly breaks down, turning the entire latter half of the video into a series of nightmarish visuals that devolve more and more.
- Take a Third Option: In a community post, Alex holds a poll asking the audience if his fourth theory would feature either nuclear evolution, Pearl's mother, or the Krabby Patty secret formula, claiming the losing ideas will be utterly abandoned. In the teaser for the theory, he looks at the results and decides to do All of Them.
- Take That!: The teaser for the Robot Invasion Theory is a potshot at the "main characters represent the Seven Deadly Sins" theory and how overdone it is (showing clips from four other videos to make its point).
- Took a Level in Cynic: It turns out that Mark, the Cynical Critic, used to have a lot more positive and nuanced reviews on media out of passion, but after his mother contracted cancer, he became a lot more depressed, and now
deliberately posts controversial takes to get ad revenue. -
Trolling Creator:- In late July 2021, Alex began teasing his sixth theory, claiming it's about the "Bubble Illuminati" and posting SpongeBob screenshots related to bubbles. The video teaser even had bubbles featured in its thumbnail, even though it revealed the Goofy Goober Alien Death Cult as the true focus.
- Soon after the sixth theory's premiere, Alex claims a different theory will be featured as the seventh, such as the Seven Deadly Sins, the Secret Box, Rock Bottom Purgatory, the actual theory, the Bubble Illuminati (again), a theory blatantly stolen from The Theorizer, and a sequel to his Mrs. Puff theory.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: The structure of the later videos. After every theory segment, a part in real life is shown, after which the theory continues and so on.
- Unseen Evil: The "Muse" inside Alex's house, is always hidden in the dark. The only thing we see from it is its tentacles.
- Wham Line: Victoria gets two in a row in the seventh theory video — the first of which discusses an Internal Reveal, and the second of which expands the scope of what this story is.
- Wham Shot:
- After about three videos consisting of theories, the third one ends with Alex picking up some raw meat, entering a garage and throwing the meat next to the darkness. Then something drags into the darkness, after which a theory in a bottle rolls next to Alex's feet.
- In the ninth episode we finally see the Muse's true form, and it is terrifying.
- Another in that same episode: The Muse has Alex cornered, when it suddenly morphs into... a clone of Alex.
