Now with a sandbox!
It appears that many Nightmare Fuel pages have problems, including:
1. Listing non-scary things that made the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable at worst.
2. Having spoiler tags on them (which is against the page's guidelines).
3. Listing Fridge Horror and fan theories.
And much more!
On a few occasions, people from outside the site's community have pointed out our overly lax usage of Nightmare Fuel to make fun of us, meaning that it can legitimately harm our reputation to let this go unchecked.
The TRS thread
meant for redefining Nightmare Fuel started to become a place for cleaning up Nightmare Fuel pages in general, so we may as well move these discussions to Long Term Projects where they belong.
Here are the guidelines to determine whether something is Nightmare Fuel or not.
- This is a page whose name is intended to be taken more literally than most. It's not enough for material to be scary; to truly qualify, it has to be frightening enough to legitimately unnerve/disturb the viewer, with actually being nightmare-inducing as the ultimate endpoint.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- It left you feeling shaken even after the credits had rolled, you turned the last page, or are otherwise done with the work.
- You have a hard time falling asleep if you think about it at night, or have a literal nightmare about it.
- You dread that episode, scene, level, chapter, or song during re-watches, and consider skipping it.
- With that said, don't add something just because it happens to be your personal phobia. For example, spiders can be scary and many people have arachnophobia, but just because a spider happens to be in the work, it does not make a Nightmare Fuel entry. It needs to reasonably be scary to someone without the phobia.
- Don't confuse tension with fear. If the hero is in trouble, but you know he'll make it out okay at the end, it's probably not Nightmare Fuel unless the threat is especially disturbing.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- Explain WHY the entry scared you. Try to convey your sense of fear to your readers. Avoid putting up Zero-Context Examples.
- Remember that Weblinks Are Not Examples, and neither are quotes on their own. You should explain the horror in your own words, rather than rely on others to do so.
- Don't add things that might have scared someone. If it didn't scare you, and you don't personally know anyone else who was scared, you shouldn't be adding it to Nightmare Fuel.
- Nightmare Fuel should stick to you even after you're done with the work.
- If something is initially presented as scary but turns out to be harmless, it's most likely not Nightmare Fuel since The Reveal makes the scariness vanish.
- Jump Scares are a good source of Nightmare Fuel, but not all of them automatically qualify: being startled is not the same as being scared.
- Hypotheticals are not Nightmare Fuel:
- Remember that Trailers Always Lie: a scene that is presented as scary in the trailer could very well turn out to be inoffensive in the finished work. Only add examples from unreleased works if they were especially terrifying in the previews.
- Fan theories do not belong on the Nightmare Fuel page under any circumstance. No matter how much evidence they have to support them, don't add them until they've been officially confirmed. In the meanwhile, take them to Wild Mass Guessing.
- Fridge Horror goes on the Fridge page, not Nightmare Fuel. Don't add it unless it's Ascended Fridge Horror.
- Keep in mind the work's intended audience when considering whether or not something is Nightmare Fuel.
- If something is normal or expected in the genre, it does not automatically qualify. Violence in a Fighting Series or gore in a horror movie must be especially disturbing or gruesome by the work's standards to be Nightmare Fuel.
- Remember that Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films. If a work is rated PG-13 or higher but would only be scary to young children, it's not Nightmare Fuel.
- The standards on what qualifies as Nightmare Fuel are especially stringent on works aimed at children and pre-teens: kids have hyperactive imaginations, so even something benign can give them nightmares.
- Spoiler tags do not belong on Nightmare Fuel pages. Much of what scares us comes from inherently spoilery stuff such as death and the unknown, so finding spoilers on these pages should be expected.
- Nightmare Fuel is an Audience Reaction, so it needs to be scary for the audience. Describing how the characters react to something scary isn't needed. Just because something scares them, that doesn't mean it scares us as well.
- Nightmare Fuel is a No Real Life Examples, Please! page. Meta-examples involving the actors, production, or behind-the-scenes incidents are not allowed.
Guidelines when proposing cleanup of a page:
- Some rules are pretty objective. If you see a Zero-Context Example, Fridge Horror, Real Life example, speculation, In-Universe reaction that isn't scary to the viewers, examples that explicitly describe themselves as not being very scary (including "mildly creepy", "somewhat unnerving", and other synonymous phrases), or examples that are just scene summaries without going into detail about why it's so scary, you can (and should) remove them immediately without coming here to ask.
- You should also strip all spoiler tags from the page. Itty Bitty Wiki Tools has a tool for that, but it can cause problems, so if you use it be sure to preview the page and thoroughly look it over.
- Once you've fixed the objective issues with the page, bring it here so we can look at the more subjective problems, such as examples that may not be scary enough to qualify. If a consensus is reached that a certain entry does not qualify, it can be removed.
Edited by Zuxtron on Aug 1st 2020 at 9:40:30 AM
![]()
I'm leaning towards a cut, since I don't think there's nothing particularly nightmare-inducing about the way Seiros acts, as brutal as it may be.
The video in question is here, for those curious:
Based on this post
and this post
(from last November), does anyone mind if I ask the Edits thread if the following can be removed from NightmareFuel.RWBY?
- It's brief, but Ozpin losing it after Ruby asks the Knowledge Relic about what he's hiding from his allies counts as a serious O.O.C. Is Serious Business moment. He runs towards Ruby with the intent of stopping the Relic revealing his biggest secrets ... and fails. The episode ends as we learn that Salem was a human being.
SpongeBob SquarePants, Seasons 1 and 2:
- "Tea at the Treedome", which revolves around SpongeBob slowly dehydrating in Sandy's tree dome. The fact that Patrick gets trapped in the treedome towards the end as well doesn't help. This episode is played rather seriously. Keep.
- And all the while, he's convincing Sandy that he's fine, and also kinda giving into Patrick's peer pressure, until he can't stand it anymore. Remove, this is kind of Natter.
- SpongeBob's Madness Mantra of "I don't need it" before he finally snaps, complete with Heartbeat Soundtrack and Gross-Up Close-Up of his face. People were scared of this. Keep.
- Pretty intense when you realize that all that time he's been slowly suffocating to death. This is redundant and redundant.
- Sandy discovering SpongeBob and Patrick dried up is accompanied by a Smash Cut to a live-action sponge and starfish, respectively
◊ and a matching Scare Chord. It's especially jarring the first time you see it. This isn't scary. Delete.
- Near the beginning of "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," Squidward laughs as he's eating a meal, and due to getting distracted for a moment, he chokes on his fork. We're treated to a shot lasting several seconds of Squidward choking on the fork, which is painfully lodged in his throat, all while he makes painful choking sounds. Eventually, his face tuns blue and he passes out. If Patrick hadn't intervened, this situation wouldn't have ended well. Even worse is that some kids have choked like that. The last sentence is out of place. This entry is up for debate.
- The jellyfish stinging SpongeBob angrily after he stops their music in "Jellyfish Jam" is DAMN Shadow the Hedgehog, is that you? unsettling, and the disturbing music certainly doesn't help either. We see graphic, violent shots of SpongeBob being stung by the jellyfish in full detail and in one frame, after he gets stung, you can see that he's blue and ripped in half for a split second! (no pun intended). Keep?
- "Squeaky Boots", which is a parody of The Telltale Heart. Mr. Krabs becomes annoyed by the squeaky sound of these new boots he gave SpongeBob, so he steals them and hides them under the floorboard of the Krusty Krab. Back at the Krusty Krab, he has a disturbing hallucination sequence as a result of his guilt, in which he hears the squeaking everywhere and goes mad from it.
"STOP IT!!! STOOOP IIIIT!!! Oh, oh, don't ya hear it?! Yes, I did it! I did it! I did it! I took the boots! They're heeere! Under the floor board! Oh, please! Make it stop! IT'S THE SQUEAKIN' OF THE HIDEOUS BOOTS!!! I found this Narmy instead of scary.
- Patrick going crazy in "Nature Pants" when he started to miss SpongeBob, who had decided to give up his old life and live among the jellyfish. Especially the scene where he takes a swing at SpongeBob with a jellyfish net, and as an Ominous Music Box Tune is heard in the background
, Patrick tearfully but angrily says "If I can't have you as a friend, I'm gonna make you a trophy!" He then shows SpongeBob a jar with SpongeBob's name on it and tells him "I even picked out this nice jar for you!" This scene is unsettling but not scary.
- All the chaos caused by the fish trying to 'do the sponge' in "The Chaperone" was really funny, but also kind of disturbing, such as breaking their own legs clean off, getting their bodies and heads swapped with each other, getting chased (for some reason) by a giant apple, and just straight up plopping unconscious willingly onto the paramedics' stretcher! This is all Played for Laughs. The entry even admits that it's funny.
- In "Scaredy Pants", SpongeBob wanted to dress as the Flying Dutchman for Halloween, but his square body didn't allow this. Patrick decided to give him a "haircut" for it to fit. It's not until after a botched attempt at a prank that the real Flying Dutchman tells him to take off the sheet, and flies off screaming. The camera then cuts to SpongeBob, where it turns out Patrick didn't just cut off his edges, he cut him down to his brain! It's no wonder everyone else runs away from him. Patrick doesn't realize why they all ran off at first, but when SpongeBob tells him why, Patrick immediately runs away too. Despite all this, as Sponge pointed out: "Don't worry-- it grows back". This is kind of a Jump Scare in how it's presented. Kids were scared of this, so keep.
- And if you thought that was scary, an unused close up of SpongeBob
◊ for this episode was once found online. It was most likely removed for a good reason. Yeah, this close up is scary. Keep.
- And if you thought that was scary, an unused close up of SpongeBob
- In "I Was A Teenage Gary" SpongeBob turns into a weresnail after being injected by snail plasma. Naturally, it was quite a painful transformation, and left him unable to talk. This is just someone trying to make it sound scarier. Delete or give more specific examples.
- Oh, he talks all right... by meowing. He even gets a deliriously happy grin and blissfully blank eyes. Basically, it's a human being acting like an animal while still sounding human, and it's unsettling.
SpongeBob: I take it back, Gary. Something's wrong with meeeeeeeeeow!- ...and the music that plays shortly afterward is absolutely horrifying
. ZCE? Does that apply to music?
- Near the beginning of the episode, SpongeBob leaves Gary in the care of Squidward, who ends up neglecting Gary by not remembering to give him food and water. And Squidward only realizes he forgot about Gary three days later with SpongeBob coming home! SpongeBob comes home to find Gary extremely weak and shriveled due to dehydration, prompting SpongeBob to burst into tears, thinking that Gary is going to die. Definitely a major Adult Fear for pet owners. Can an Adult Fear double as Nightmare Fuel? If so, keep.
- In "SB-129", Squidward travels through time and ends up in a blank white void. He remarks to himself that he can finally be alone... which is when the word manifests itself as a colorful caption. Then a series of disembodied voices start saying the word "alone", accompanied by more colorful representations of the word, until Squidward finally snaps and tries to get out. This isn't outright scary as much as just unsettling.
- What made that scene particularly nightmarish for some wasn't so much the surrealism of garishly-colored words appearing out of nowhere, but the Fridge Logic of being trapped alone, in a blank white void for all eternity. Close the window, you're letting the Fridge Horror in!
- There's also a major Fridge Horror factor to that. Were those voices coming from other people who had been trapped in the same void? Extra Fridge Horror: What if he really is alone?! They may be just projections from the void! Or for that matter, what if he's not alone after all...? FH.
- "SB-129" also has a mega case of Fridge Horror. Squidward is in the freezer for 2000 years, and then he gets sent back to the past, and eventually to his own time. Fair enough, right? But then you realise that there are now two Squidwards: the one that returned to the present, and the other which is still STUCK INSIDE THE KRUSTY KRAB'S FREEZER. Presumably it never gets discovered, hence why Squidward isn't freed for 2000 years, which essentially means that after that episode, there's a frozen replica of Squidward inside the freezer. Just as well none of the customers know that... FH.
- It kind of gets worse when you realize that in another episode SpongeBob says he checked every freezer in the Krusty Krab. Considering how stupid SpongeBob has been lately, it wouldn't be a shock if he saw the frozen Squidward and did nothing about it. FH. (Quadruple combo!)
- There is at least one other episode, "Nasty Patty," where the Krusty Krab freezer is seen again, completely empty. But it's funny, in that episode, they were trying to hide a body in there from the police (yeah...); but supposedly at least one body was already inside... Natter/FH.
- How about the Primitive Sponge and Star's massive freakout when they hear Squidward's awful clarinet music from afar? Eh, this isn't that scary. They just run at him and he escapes unharmed.
- What makes this moment possibly more unsettling is what could've happened to the latter if the former two had caught him before he could reach the time machine... [shudder] At least he was faster than the two idiot brothers, but still... SB-129 sure is a FH magnet.
- What made that scene particularly nightmarish for some wasn't so much the surrealism of garishly-colored words appearing out of nowhere, but the Fridge Logic of being trapped alone, in a blank white void for all eternity. Close the window, you're letting the Fridge Horror in!
- The face on the hot sauce drop
in "Karate Choppers". Uuuuugh... Weblinks != Examples.
"By the powers of naughtiness, I command this particular drop of hot sauce to be really, really HOT!"- Becomes Nightmare Retardant once you're old enough to realize that the face on the hot sauce drop is none other than Tom Kenny himself. Remove, this is trying to say that the point isn't scary.
- What about this
face when SpongeBob is having his heartwrenching breakdown? Not scary.
- SpongeBob's eye falling out in "Suds". Not scary. It just casually happens and he puts it back in.
- The rather horrifying face SpongeBob makes when he's at the Krusty Krab insisting to his boss that he's okay. Benign compared to other examples of this trope in the series, but still rather unsettling. Not scary.
- The fact that SpongeBob is so terrified of going to the doctor that he goes to Patrick, who ends up impersonating a doctor and literally torturing him. Patrick's methods are funny and not scary.
- And SpongeBob actually screams in agony as he sneezes and destroys the Krusty Krab, like the treatment hurt him and it hurts to sneeze now. Sandy was right - Patrick should've been arrested for being a quack. It's not a scream, it's a sneeze.
- In "Valentine's Day", Patrick goes on a rampage due to thinking SpongeBob didn't get him a Valentine. Eventually he corners everyone and prepares to apparently kill all of them, starting with his best friend, all while having bizarre swirling eyes. Not very scary and balanced out with funny moments. I wouldn't have bad dreams from it.
- The episode where SpongeBob is trapped overnight in Rock Bottom definitely plays to childhood — and adult — fears. ZCE.
- The things that come out of the bathroom. What makes it scarier is that all of those beings are based on real animals. ZCE and sinkhole to Body Horror.
- "Arrgh!" Mr. Krabs appearing right behind SpongeBob and Patrick without warning. Semi-ZCE and not scary.
- "Fools in April". After one too many a prank by SpongeBob, Squidward sets him up a prank that crosses the line, sending SpongeBob home crying. That in itself is horrifying, but that's not what gets most people about this episode. Earlier in the episode, SpongeBob, as part of one of his pranks, pretends to lose his tongue, which turns out to be a fake. But the part that gets scary is that the tongue is alive, laughing cheerfully and innocently with SpongeBob. It's never explained what it/he/whatever is exactly, which makes it a bit creepy. The scene is somewhat mitigated by the fact the tongue looks like Patrick, however. '''You aren't meant to think about it this much. The tongue doesn't look visually scary and just laughs along with SpongeBob, so it doesn't qualify.
- A lot of that episode went WAY beyond Tear Jerker, and became disturbing. First of all, Squidward laughing like a freaking SADIST as he pranks SpongeBob, who runs off crying. Squidward's hallucinations caused by his own guilt are REALLY unsettling. Especially when he imagines his mother scolding him. (Which becomes Nightmare Retardant when you hear the voice come out of her. "YOU STINK!") And it's the stuff that post-movie seasons are notorious for! Inappropriate post-movie hate, ZCE, not scary.
- Oh, and Squidward tries to say sorry, but his face turns into a hideous donkey (or ass) for a few seconds. Then his head explodes! Played for Laughs and not scary.
- In "Hooky", while Patrick and SpongeBob walk towards the hook infested area, Patrick mentions there was a kid who came by earlier, and then cue the scene of a pair of children's shoes lying beside a rock. This is a background detail and probably wouldn't scare anyone that much.
- "Your Shoe's Untied" has a scene where SpongeBob, who doesn't know how to tie his shoes, tries to give Squidward a Krabby Patty. He hallucinates his shoelaces as hideous-looking snakes who choke him! This is worsened by the background slowly melting as it happens. This is more of a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment than anything. This could scare very young children, so maybe it could stay.
- "Squid's Day Off" where SpongeBob is left in charge of the Krusty Krab while Squidward goes out to do some "errands". After running back and forth Squidward finally barricades himself in his house. "I'm not going to think about you know who, at the who know what, doing I don't care." Cut to creepy laugh and a psycho-looking Squidward
◊ with wide bloodshot eyes. Keep.
- The music
that plays in the scene mentioned above. It's very demented, creepy music box music and a kettle drum, ending with a loud "Psycho" Strings sting. What's even scarier is that no one had found out what the song was called or where to find it until the spring of 2014! That last sentence isn't needed, but the song does qualify.
- He gets progressively MORE psycho-looking until he ends up running back to the Krusty Krab with the most horrifying, off-model expression
◊ ever seen on the show until at least Season 5. Is that last bit really needed? I think they're overexaggerating how scary it is.
- In the nude, save for some bubbles from his bath cut short. Yeah, but the focus is on the face he's making. Cut.
- The music
- In "Bubble Buddy", a man asks SpongeBob to bury him in the sand. He does and then asks Bubble Buddy to dig him out and walks away. The tide comes in and we later see him as an angel/ghost. Talk about Fridge Horror. Talk about Fridge Horror all you want on the Fridge page.
- Also, Bubble Buddy is shown to be fully sentient at the end of the episode, after making the fish experience high tide. So he was sentient the whole time and could have helped the fish, but he just watched the fish drown. FH.
- Well he is still just a bubble, any exerting force of lifting someone would pop him so he could only wish for the best. FH.
- Though presumably, he could have tried to get help from somebody else to dig him out if he wanted to, be it Spongebob or otherwise. Even if he was actually shy and did not want to reveal himself to anyone besides Spongebob, it does not say a lot for Buddle Buddy's ethics that he would callously let someone else perish, while only lifting a finger to save his own skin toward the end of the episode. Anyway, inconsistent Toon Physics seems to be in operation here, since (speaking of which) he was seemingly able to physically stop Squidward's arm when the latter tried to pop him, likely rendering the whole point about him not being able to dig the fish out moot. FH and ridiculous Natter.
- Also, Bubble Buddy is shown to be fully sentient at the end of the episode, after making the fish experience high tide. So he was sentient the whole time and could have helped the fish, but he just watched the fish drown. FH.
- In "Dying For Pie" when Squidward is doing all of the things SpongeBob wanted to do with him, there's a part where SpongeBob is doing surgery on Squidward and poking Squidward's heart while Squidward is still conscious. A few moments later, BLOOD STARTS SQUIRTING OUT. You know, for kids! This is more Nausea Fuel than Nightmare Fuel. And is that radar link really needed?
- The entire premise of that episode is nightmare fuel. The concept of a bomb being hidden in food so there is no way to see it or defuse it? Jeez. FH.
- Wormy. The live-action bug close-ups were horrible and must've made some kids develop mottephobia. ZCE. I have heard that many kids were scared of this, so keep with expansion.
- It's not the horsefly that gets some (yes, that's what it is), but the loud buzzing that drones when it pops up, followed by the ensuing screams that follow. Merge with above part.
- Knowledge that real life people can fear horseflies (their bites HURT!) make it less Idiot Ball-like that the residents of Bikini Bottom think it's a monster. And why is this needed?
- "Survival of the Idiots", has SpongeBob and Patrick being trapped in Sandy's treedome while she's hibernating for the winter, and nearly freezing to death. If that's not bad enough, Sandy has eaten so much to prepare for winter that she's transformed into a big aggressive beast that looks (and sounds) more like a bear than a squirrel. Many would fear the inevitable moment when she is going to wake up... Debatable.
- And the second time she wakes up, she rips Patrick's scalp off! Non-graphic cartoon violence. Cut.
- Also frightening is Sandy's Berserk Button at the end when she finds out SpongeBob and Patrick took all her fur for themselves. Not very scary.
- Patrick demonstrates "disturbing" by producing a talking face from his back and having it proclaim it's "Pat-BACK!". SpongeBob Lampshades this:
"Hah, that really is disturbing!" This is not scary or even very disturbing. - "Squid on Strike" ends up with SpongeBob and Squidward having to work for Mr. Krabs "FOREVER". The next scene cuts to them being reduced to skeletons and they are still working. Not scary. More of a Gainax Ending.
- In an earlier scene, SpongeBob is stuck to a window. When Squidward tries to pull him away, HE TEARS HIS ENTIRE FACE OFF AND YOU CAN SEE HIS INTERNAL ORGANS. Not scary. It's a joke.
- The ALASKAN BULL WORM! Memes aside, the lead-up to this thing is pretty creepy, and it's all capped off with the big reveal right as Sandy is celebrating allegedly defeating it:
SpongeBob: That's not the worm.Sandy: (eyes narrow suspiciously) Pardon?SpongeBob: That's not the worm. That's its tongue.(cut to a distance, revealing that the entire cave is actually the mouth of a gigantic worm)Sandy: Oh. This is the tongue… and the whole thing is the... worm. RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!! I don't think this is very scary, but weak keep.
- "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" ends with dorky Jellyfish catcher Kevin's scalp ripped off and worn as a hat. Not scary, cartoon violence.
- It gets worse. Said "scalp" is shaped like a crown, and in marine biology, a sea cucumber's crown corresponds to its anus. Thank you for the science fact, but what does this have to do with anything?
- In "Pressure", Sandy gets into an argument with the other main characters about which is better: land animals or sea animals. They taunt her until she tries to prove her superiority by ripping her suit off and taking off her helmet and smashing it, leaving her wearing nothing but a bikini. The scene is frightening because her smashed helmet releases an air bubble which quickly floats away, and you can't help but think, "That was her only air!" The worst part is that her friends laugh at her as she begins drowning, until her lungs shrivel up and break off of her airways in an x-ray. Once she realizes she's about to die, she quickly finds a pickle jar which inexplicably has air in it and sticks her head into it. Definitely counts.
- In the same episode, SpongeBob demonstrates his "sponginess" by budding off several new heads. Not scary. This is a joke.
- "Shanghaied" features Squidward being thrown by the Flying Dutchman into the "Fly of Despair," an apparently endless abyss filled with terrifying imagery and sounds. Keep.
- Look closely at some of the things in the tunnel as Squidward falls. Some of the things (including a skull-snake with wings) are downright horrifying and can only be described as "what is that thing?"...or "That'd make a good death metal album cover." Unneeded Natter.
- It does have an end, actually. Marked by spaghetti and meatballs within the rift. Fact-correcting.
- Not to mention the incredibly dark ending with SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward being turned into fruit running away from the hungry Flying Dutchman. Being trapped in his dimension it would only be a matter of time until they were in fact eaten. This is a joke ending and FH.
- There are also the alternate endings
you could take a look at. They're even darker than the original ending; basically, what happens is that Patrick and Squidward both screw up the last wish and lead the trio to getting eaten for sure, not to mention that they're still alive, trapped in the Dutchman's stomach for all eternity. And with a voting poll being held the day the episode had originally aired, one of these endings could've been made official (they weren't, thankfully). The alternate endings are more Tear Jerker and just bleak than scary. Remove the last part.
- There are also the alternate endings
- According to The Other Wiki, the episode
was banned in Australia and Britain for its dark tone and disturbing scenes. The episode it was paired with ("Gary Takes A Bath") was also banned for the popular "subliminal messages" part (its punchline being a picture of a bizarrely-giggling cowgirl). The first part is Trivia. The Gary Takes a Bath part is a Jump Scare, and while startling, is more silly than scary.
- "Welcome to the Chum Bucket". Plankton has SpongeBob working for him, and SpongeBob doesn't want to cook any Krabby Patties for Plankton. So Plankton takes SpongeBob's brain and makes a robot version of him. At the end, SpongeBob's head is bandaged, and his face is all messed up, implying Plankton didn't put his brain back in right. His face is "messed up" because the bandage is between his eyes, so they're spaced apart as to not obscure it. Remove.
- In that same episode SpongeBob was trying to cook in the Chum Bucket kitchen and opened the oven (or whatever it was) to reveal a mutated burger. The meat part of it actually formed into a hand which it used to pull itself forward in an attempt to get at SpongeBob all the while muttering something incoherently (and creepily). I don't think this is gonna give anyone nightmares, but it is scary. Debatable.
- The concept of the episode is filled with Fridge Horror. If Plankton planned to take out SpongeBob's brain and put it into a robot, that would most likely mean killing SpongeBob and leaving his lifeless body somewhere. Off-screen, this is most likely what occurred. Fridge Horror, what a wonderful phrase. It's so wonderful it has its own page.
- And at the very end of the episode, SpongeBob has a band-aid on his forehead where Plankton took his brain out. Not very scary.
- "Frankendoodle". For some, it's not scary at all, but for others, that babbling, raving voice, its violent intentions, and the way it's drawn are deeply disturbing. Weak keep.
- "YOU DOODLE! ME SPONGEBOB!" YOU ZCE! ME TROPER!
- The episode "Graveyard Shift" ended with all the scary things being explained rationally. But it turns out the lights had been going on and off because the vampire from Nosferatu had been flipping the light-switch. He's not even animated! Keep, this is nightmare-inducing.
- The way Squidward and SpongeBob's eyelashes reacted to the visitor in that episode was creepy. They just grow absurdly long for the scene and start wiggling, it's not scary.
- SpongeBob repeatedly eating his own arms as Squidward tells the tale of the Hash-Slinging Slasher. It's played for comedy, with no real consequences... but he was still eating his own arms. Full of skin, bones, blood and who knows what else. Played for Laughs, this is Fridge Horror.
- As a sea sponge, his arms only contain the last one. Thank you, Dr. Science.
- Except Artistic License – Biology is in effect, so we've already seen that he (sometimes) has organs that a real sea sponge shouldn't have. Off topic Natter.
- Nosferatu's smile at the end
◊. Brrrrr. Merge with the other Nosferatu part.
- This line from "The Secret Box": "Or maybe Patrick's a deranged maniac who keeps his victim's severed heads in a box!" How did they get away with that?! I don't think anybody will have bad dreams over that, but it is a scary idea.
- "Band Geeks" has a scene where two members of Squidward's marching band propel themselves into the air and hit a blimp, causing it to explode. To make matters worse, this episode aired four days before 9/11. This doesn't count.
- In "Procrastination", SpongeBob dreams that his house catches on fire as a result of SpongeBob putting off doing a report, and it suddenly becomes sentient, using its door for a mouth and port-hole window for an eye, and screams in agony as it burns. There's also the snail clock coming to life and saying in a sinister deep voice "Time's up, SpongeBob!" Keep.
- The moment that got some was when the power goes out in SpongeBob's house. He lights a candle and hears someone cooing out his name. He turns around and sees his chair has gained a horrific-looking mouth and eyes and is coaxing him to "put his feet up" in a obscenely creepy voice. Keep.
- The candle flame coming to life, saying "Only 799 words to go!", giving an Evil Laugh, and burning the report. Keep, but merge this all into one paragraph.
- The cut scene, in which we see a lovely shot of a REAL LIFE violent car crash. *shudder* I'm *shudder*ing at that *shudder*. This is a deleted scene in some releases and the car crash isn't very violent.
- The episode "Jellyfish Hunter", in addition to siccing the nightmarish "Moar Krabs" upon us, contains a genuinely disturbing scene in which SpongeBob is being stalked by a jellyfish, including an infamous "heavy breathing" phone call. It's even worse when No Name, the jellyfish who was stalking SpongeBob, takes him to Mr. Krabs factory where we see the jellyfish SpongeBob had caught for Mr. Krabs are inside tubes, and being forcibly drained of their jelly like they were oranges. The dried out/dead ones are even put into trash cans. Unsettling is not the same as scary.
- Very likely to be a reference to real life commercial cows and how inhumanely and horrifyingly they are treated to get their milk. And what does this have to do with anything?
Edited by Grotadmorv on Jul 15th 2019 at 6:52:03 AM
Make it so we never die, and take the pain awayAlright, gonna play catch-up on the newest clean-up targets.
- Spongebob:
- General: Yeah, I agree with everything here.
- Season 1: Remove the blatant misuse and shoe-horns for sure, but I would keep most other examples on the basis that they could be legitimately scary to children. My rule of thumb is, if it's scary in a way that's atypical of the work's usual standards, it counts.
- Season 2: Same thing here.
- Fire Emblem: Unfamiliar with the work, but yeah, the scene doesn't seem to be scary more than it is sad. Had the scene been gory or whatnot, that would've made it scary.
- RWBY: Yeah, remove or re-write.
Continuing the SpongeBob SquarePants page:
- From the episode "Just One Bite": "Does this look unsure to you?!" This is a Gross-Up Close-Up, and more gross than scary.
- And this:
SpongeBob: But it's good for you!Squidward: Good for you? That thing is a heart attack on a bun!SpongeBob: No, Squidward... I meant, good for your soul...(angelic background and singing)Squidward: Oh, puh-leeze... I have no soul!(hellish background and evil music)Demonic Voice: Bwahahahahahaaa!(Squidward's eyes widen, music stops short and he walks away) This is Played for Laughs. I don't think this is scary.- The creepily insane look on Squidward's face after he eats the patty he buried underground and runs back to the Krusty Krab. That face
◊ is hilarious, not scary.
- The deleted scene is also frankly disturbing. See, Squidward first checks if the Krusty Krab has security measures for the Patty Vault. He realizes that it's just a bucket of water placed on top of the door. He laughs about it, opens the door, and the bucket spills over the floor. He steps on the puddle and comments that it's too easy. He then sniffs the liquid and realizes that the 'water' is really gas. A robotic arm then appears and drops a lit match into the gas, resulting in a huge explosion (made scarier by Squidward's realistic screaming). Squidward then opens the kitchen door, setting off another gas explosion. At least they didn't show that scene since the premiere, since Nickelodeon Standards and Practices thought it was too much for a kids' show. However, the scene is still shown is some countries outside of the USA. Nobody can seem to have an exact reason why the scene was cut. But most kids won't ever see it (it was always cut the last times I watched the episode), so debatable.
- "Nasty Patty". SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs believe the health inspector at the Krusty Krab to be a phony who's faking it for free food, so they serve him the a disgusting, moldy Krabby Patty which apparently kills him. The rest of the episode is creepily monochromatic, and about them hiding the battered body from the police. This episode has a lot of funny moments that distract from the dark tone. And it stays just "dark" and never goes into nightmare territory.
- The health inspector choking on a fly and SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs begin laughing at his expense, thinking he ate the Nasty Patty. Funny, right? Wrong. He was choking to death and SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs were (possibly) watching him die and laughing at him. FH.
- Squidward's attempt at making a Krabby Patty in "The Algae's Always Greener". Besides being a filthy concoction that could rival the Nasty Patty in sheer nastiness, it has an eyeball hanging from it! Even Plankton is shocked at the sight of it! More gross than creepy.
- The fourth Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episode takes Body Horror to a new level; when trying to reverse the ray, SpongeBob puts Squidward through an increasingly painful series of agonizing morphs — catching fire, being cut in half by scissors, having no skin... the worst transformations happened offscreen, with hideous gurgling sound effects that left the true horror to the viewer's imagination, which only made it worse. Keep.
- Even more startling is when you realize that these were on Mermaid Man's belt! What's startling about that? And startling does not equal scary.
- And then there's the part where the shrunken citizens attack SpongeBob from the inside. The especially jarring highlights include Squidward sawing a blood vessel and Nancy Suzy Fish chopping off a lung. Yeesh. Keep, but remove the "yeesh."
- "Doing Time", which Ms. Puff is blamed for SpongeBob's inept driving and winds up in jail, which to her is a respite from the hell of her normal life. SpongeBob and Patrick, failing to understand, repeatedly try to rescue her, but instead make the guards think she's insane and throw her in an isolation cell. In the cell, she goes insane for real and starts hallucinating that the padded walls are made of sponge, and that each has SpongeBob's laughing face on it. Then she starts hallucinating the beginning of the episode over and over, each time a little different and a little weirder. The episode ends with her giving up on deciding what's real and what's not and resigning herself to insanity. Good thing for Negative Continuity. Keep?
- It is actually implied that the entire jail episode was just a hallucination Mrs. Puff had while still falling off the cliff, which makes it all the more disturbing. After the solitary confinement scene and Mrs. Puff is shown falling off the cliff again, she has two more hallucinations, and the episode ends with her still falling off the cliff, her fate left ambiguous. Ten times more disturbing in that context. Good thing for Negative Continuity indeed. Remove, not needed.
- What leads to Mrs. Puff getting tossed into an isolation cell. SpongeBob and Patrick reveal to Mrs. Puff that they're disguised as prison guards and Mrs. Puff begins freaking out and the two walk away. Then the real guards come, but Mrs. Puff believes them to be "SpongeBob and that guy who likes the chili" and rips off their faces. Not scary.
- "Can You Spare a Dime?":
"We're like brothers— only closer." Thank you for the ZCE. This is more gross than scary.
- "No Weenies Allowed". A tough-looking fish describes how tough you have to be to get in:
Fish: You need to have muscles. (flexes) You need to have muscles on your muscles. (flexes again) You need to have muscles on your eyeballs! (HIS EYES FLEX)SpongeBob: (disgusted) Ew. Not scary.
- At least there's Nightmare Retardant if you remember "Did you stretch your eyeball muscles to warm up?" Not needed.
- Not to mention Sandy tearing off Reg's tattoo. Not in the cartoony sense where the tattoo itself would come off like a sticker. She literally tore his skin off, and we can hear him scream in pain as she does so. Is there a different trope for this? Reality Ensues, maybe?
- The "appetizer" Mr. Krabs serves as food in "Squilliam Returns". Squidward, and later everyone else, was freaked out by it. Who'd eat something with fly wings on it?! Not scary, Played for Laughs.
- The face Squidward makes when he says "T-t-t-tonight?", while hilarious, can be freaky to some. Or not really.
- There was a scene in the episode "Wet Painters" where SpongeBob sees a microscopic drop of paint on Mr. Krabs' first dollar and his eyes crack open, causing his irises to ooze out. Not scary.
- The scene in "Krab Borg" where Mr. Krabs accidentally gets salt in his eyes is rather disturbing, what with his red eyes and him screaming in pain. This never scared me.
- SpongeBob's "OVERTIME?!" face from "Rock-A-Bye-Bivalve", while absolutely hilarious for some, can be considered rather unsettling due to his squinty eyes and huge teeth. Not scary.
- In the same episode, a sentient worm emerges from an apple proclaiming "Greetings from Apple World!" only to be promptly Eaten Alive by Junior. And why is this scary?
- Mary the young lady's mother in "Chocolate with Nuts". Looking like a mummified corpse with no hair or eyes, and she was literally just a head with a spine! It was supposed to be funny, but it was a little jarring... A bit of Nightmare Retardant is provided when she says she hated chocolate. Not scary.
- Tom the "Chocolate Maniac". His loud, psychotic screams of "CHOCOLATE!!! CHOCOLATE!!!", while funny and popular, are more than a little unnerving. Unnerving is not nightmare inducing.
- The story that the con artist comes up with while he's in the full body cast is both terrifying and heartbreaking.note
"I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs, and every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lie awake in agony until my heart attacks put me to sleep." But he's lying so it isn't scary.- With that said, the story largely Crosses the Line Twice into being hilarious, due to his description of his condition and suffering being so ludicrously over-the-top it's hard to take it seriously. Thank you for trying to make it not scary, even though it isn't in the first place.
- "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V", the episode where Barnacle Boy becomes evil and forms a league of supervillains after feeling under-appreciated. To stop the league of supervillains, Mermaid Man loans the costumes of retired superheroes to SpongeBob, Sandy, Patrick, and Squidward. Each costume gives them the superpowers of the hero that wore it. During the fight with Barnacle Boy and the other villains, everyone's superpower backfires in horrible ways (Squidward, as Captain Magma, thanks to a mis-aimed water-ball shot by Mermaid Man, ending up burning him to cinders, and SpongeBob, as The Quickster, getting caught running in a circle with his super speed and DISINTEGRATING are two of the most jarring). In the end it is revealed that everyone is still alive, albeit injured. These are Amusing Injuries. Not scary.
- In "Clams" after Mr. Krabs loses his millionth dollar we see him slowly go completely insane. The cut back to Mr. Krabs, who begins giggling maniacally and tears his two eyes out, using them as a jumprope is genuinely disturbing and shows Mr. Krabs's true colors as a greedy boss. Keep but remove the last part.
- Additionally, right after the clam eats his millionth dollar, we cut to Mr. Krabs' tear-filled eyes staring right at the viewer in rather grotesque detail. There's just something genuinely disconcerting about an extreme closeup of someone's eyes staring right at the viewer like that. He's not meant to be staring at you specifically. Remove.
- "The Great Snail Race" has two moments that qualify for this trope. First, the part where SpongeBob overworks Gary, causing the latter's shell and eye stalks to burst in the middle of the race. Then there's the part where Gary crashes in a giant fireball against a wall of tires. Keep?
- Or the part where the crowd cheers after Gary explodes against the wall? Sure, it's a parody of people who only watch NASCAR to see the drivers crash, but most NASCAR crashes don't end in giant fireballs, and the ones that do...aren't to be cheered. Remove.
- The live-action gorilla, emerging from his animated Patrick suit in I Had An Accident and proceeding to beat the snot out of Patrick and Sandy. He even tears SpongeBob in half! Keep.
- The scene in "SpongeBob Meets The Strangler" where SpongeBob gets really pointy cleats to jump on the Strangler's shoulders to go to a window, but misses and lands into the strangler's eyes. Amusing Injuries that are only disturbing if you think about it. It disturbs me but I don't have nightmares about it.
- "Get your feet out of my eye sockets!" "I'm trying, but my cleats are stuck in your corneas!" Okay, and what does this add?
- While it's generally Played for Laughs, the episode's plot revolves around somebody trying to murder SpongeBob. But it's funny and this is barely touched upon.
- "The Bully" features Flatts the Flounder transferring into boating school and threatening to bully SpongeBob. The Running Gag of "I'm gonna kick your butt!" aside, he constantly stalks and harangues SpongeBob at every turn, reminding him of what eventually awaits him. To make matters worse, when SpongeBob tries to tell Mrs. Puff about Flatts's threatening remarks, she doesn't buy it, and falls for Flatts's lie of "I'm gonna kick your butt!" being a regional gesture of friendship. He spends the whole episode fearing for the eventual beatdown from Flatts. Perhaps worst of all, at the end of the episode when Flatts delivers said "butt kicking", only for SpongeBob to be immune to the bully's punches and Flatts to wear himself out and collapse, Mrs. Puff sees the result and believes that SpongeBob beat up Flatts rather than the other way around! Obviously, the episode is meant to be funny, but Flatts's continuous psychological torment of SpongeBob and Mrs. Puff's misguided siding with the bully can hit too close to home for victims of real-life school bullying, something that can and will scar the victim for life if it's not dealt with accordingly. Thanks for the essay! This is really not nightmare fuel. It's more Adult Fear-y than anything.
- Fridge Horror sets in when you consider that Mrs. Puff could have known exactly what Flatts was going to do to SpongeBob but purposely ignored it due to her hatred of SpongeBob in later episodes. In other words, Flatts wasn't the only bully in this episode. FH.
- Believe it or not, the "cheap walk cycles" Fake-Out Opening in "The Sponge Who Could Fly" actually creeped out some younger audiences. This is mostly because SpongeBob acted really, really strange where he goes from being happy, to being goofy, to acting paranoid about being followed, to explosive shock, over and over again without any explanation whatsoever. Sure, the scene is just for laughs, but even for this series and for that time (it was aired in 2003, before the movie), the comedy in this scene is so bizarre that young audiences can't help but feel creeped out by it. Patchy's Heroic BSoD afterwards doesn't help matters. Keep.
Edited by Grotadmorv on Jul 16th 2019 at 1:35:04 AM
Make it so we never die, and take the pain awayThis was added to the SpongeBob page in the Season 3 folder:
- The "Krusty Krab Training Video" has:
- The electric chair seen in the "Interfacing With Your Boss" slide. Even worse that we don't know why they drew it. What's that last sentence? The electric chair isn't in used, is obscured by the text, and appears for so little that it's a Freeze-Frame Bonus.
- Worse that the Klasky-Csupo would appear when it wasn't supposed to! Uh, what?
- "Fear of a Krabby Patty." SpongeBob hallucinating? Check. Uncanny, giant talking Krabby Patty that speaks only in horrifying gurgles? Check. SpongeBob terrified? Check. Disturbing allusions to real life psychiatric practices involving convincing patients they are sick just to squeeze more money out of them? Check. CHECK. CHECK! Rewrite and keep.
- The "Where's Gary?" episode. Seeing those empty shells in Grandma's closet. . . Keep and elaborate.
- All those spiders crawling out of that damn crumb. Arachnophobics beware! You have to be scared of spiders for this to be remotely creepy, and specific fear-based things don't count.
- Gary's stomach growing a face and moaning! Not scary.
- The granny. Sweet Mother of God, the granny. Amy Poehler truly makes her sound terrifying! "Grandma knows just how hungry you are, Miss Tuffsie." Merge and expand.
- "RUUUNNNNN!" ZCE.
- Carl from "Selling Out" is rather creepy, especially considering how happy he is during his every line. Or, not really.
- Mr. Krabs: (after witnessing Squidward as a Stepford Smiler) What have you done to the real Squidward?
Carl: The less you know, Eugene, the better.
- Just prior to the lines above, Squidward absolutely insists that Mr. Krabs take a look at a certain page of the employee handbook. The page he indicates has a piece of paper taped to it with the words "HELP ME" written on it. Just to add a little nightmare fuel to the fire, that creepy, plastered-on smile never leaves Squidward's face. Keep.
- "Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy VI: The Motion Picture". When SpongeBob was shooting the movie, after a scene (specifically, Pearl falling off the cliff) destroys the whole set, SpongeBob is disappointed but still relieved that they got the footage. Patrick agrees, but then SpongeBob notices something blocking the lens. Patrick then reveals that it's a lens cap, and that he put it on right before they started filming, therefore rendering the whole movie useless. SpongeBob then goes insane by breaking off a big chunk of the pavement and slurping the worms under it!! Even the characters were shocked. Granted, he gets better, but still... This is not scary.
- People in Bikini Bottom keep worms as pets, and the worms even act like dogs. Think about it... FH.
- "And they're using...actors." ZCE and more of a Jump Scare than anything.
- Let's not forget Squidward doing...*ahem*..."make-up" for Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy
. Links are not examples and this isn't scary.
- The episode "SquidBob TentaclePants" features Squidward and SpongeBob becoming biologically fused due to one of Sandy's inventions. It's not so bad at first, but once everything seems to be resolved, Squidward wanted to be fused again, just so he could be a star... It ends with all the characters becoming trapped in an AKIRA-esque hideous flesh-colored blob with random moaning heads sticking out of it. It's probably one of the most crowning Nightmare Fuel moments in the show: in fact, it was so bad that some countries removed the scene entirely, thus leaving the episode with No Ending. Keep.
- You know what's worse? There is an eyeball. A huge one, too! Who did it belong to? (Probably Plankton, who wasn't in the previous scene...) FH.
- "Ghost Host", in which the Flying Dutchman's ship breaks down, forcing him to take up residence in SpongeBob's pineapple. The Dutchman tried several mildly scary things in order to disturb SpongeBob, and, towards the climax of the episode, appeared as a huge snake with a huge, grotesque baby's head, which melted, turning into an effigy of SpongeBob, whose eyes elongated into hideous wiggling white worms and squiggled onto the floor while spiders crawled out of his eye sockets and mouth. Also among his forms are a clown's head on the same worm-like creature, and a giant, disturbingly realistic (for this show) insect. It was intended to be a parody of an over-the-top horror movie, but managed to be incredibly horrifying. Keep.
- In all fairness, the point is that the Dutchman has been in SpongeBob's house so long by that point, and pulling so many scary stunts each day, that SpongeBob has become immune to and bias about them. Yeah. What does this have to do with it.
- One of the Dutchman's forms is inexplicably J. R. "Bob" Dobbs, who comes from the satirical religion of the Church of the SubGenius. While "Bob" is usually funny, if strange, the reference is so out-of-place that his presence is a bit disconcerting. Merge.
- The Flying Dutchman also did the same thing to scare Squidward in the end because Squidward didn't believe in ghosts. He also manifested himself as a vision of Squid's mother moaning "Why haven't you called meeeee?" and then melting, prompting Squidward to run out of his house screaming. Keep.
- Actually, what caused Squidward to run away screaming was when the Dutchman did a parlor trick that made it look like he was pulling his thumb off one hand. Correction, merge.
- At one part, SpongeBob opens a fridge and a huge monster head suddenly pops out and screams. Jump Scare, startling is not scary.
- In "All That Glitters", SpongeBob breaks his spatula in the beginning when trying to lift a massive glob of patty meat. As SpongeBob is screaming in terror, we get a lovely shot of the half of the spatula's body squirming around in pain under the meat, the Spatula supposedly 'dying'. Or you're looking too far into it.
- Fridge Horror kicks in with other times his spatula was damaged if you believe that the spatula has always been sentient. FH.
- In the episode "Once Bitten", Gary gets "Mad Snail Disease" and goes on a biting spree, turning everyone into zombies. Some "survivors" are barricaded in the Krusty Krab, and when SpongeBob arrives (followed by a horde of zombies), the survivors refuse to let him in (although he manages to anyway). But Gary appears out of nowhere and SpongeBob protects him when the survivors decide to kill him "for his own good." However, there was no disease in the first place, and Gary was acting strangely because of a "splinter" stuck in him. Even so, the episode still ends with Gary biting Mr. Krabs for no reason whatsoever. Keep?
- In one scene in the episode "Bummer Vacation", SpongeBob's sitting in Patrick's house after being forced by Mr. Krabs to take a vacation and hiring Patrick as his temporary replacement. When Patrick finds him, SpongeBob looks (and acts) completely insane! Look!
Keep.
- "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, PATRICK." I'VE BEEN WAITING TO ADD THIS TO THE CUT LIST.
- Then, in the next scene, it's implied that SpongeBob killed Patrick and is wearing his skin. He's not, but just the thought that SpongeBob would prioritize his job over his best friend in the creepiest way imaginable... Not sure about this. The FH link can go.
- "I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, PATRICK." I'VE BEEN WAITING TO ADD THIS TO THE CUT LIST.
- The entirety of "Squidtastic Voyage", where SpongeBob and Patrick go inside Squidward to get his clarinet reed out of his throat. During which they are screwing around with his bodily functions and at the end they end up GROWING inside of him...submarine and all. Played for Laughs, not scary, sink hole to And I Must Scream.
- At the end of the episode, Patrick uses the submarine's toilet INSIDE SQUIDWARD. This may seem funny at first, but then you realize that's gotta go somewhere... FH.
- The scene where they went into Squidward's brain! They messed around with his brain and made him spaz out against his will. One YouTube commenter actually said this episode made her paranoid that her brain hurt due to someone being in it. However, the brain cannot feel pain, so she'd be fine, but still, this episode can cause Paranoia Fuel! Because You Tube comments are reliable sources. Paranoia Fuel is not Nightmare Fuel.
- The end of "Wishing You Well". Yeah... ""Yeah..." this CZE can go. Here's what happens: Mr. Krabs tries to prove that magic isn't real by wishing that he's "steamed with a side of butter." He gets his wish and is about to be eaten while trying to take it back.
- In "The Gift of Gum", Patrick has given SpongeBob his prized possession: a house sized collection of gum that he's had for years, which apparently has all sorts of stuff like pizza, clothing and OTHER PEOPLE (they were living in it though). A good moment is when a pair of underpants comes out of the wad and it crawls to SpongeBob until it reaches his face, then it FUCKING TALKS TO HIM!!! Remove unneeded swear, keep.
Underpants: YOU'RE... NOT... PATRICK...!!
- Gummy is an Eldritch Abomination made out of gum and junk. Keep.
SpongeBob: (to Sandy in a weak voice) The more you touch it, the angrier it gets.Sandy: Oh, that's just crazy talk. HI-YAH! (She attempts to chop a strand of gum, causing her hand to be caught in it. As Sandy pulls away, Gummy rumbles...)
- There is some Nightmare Retardant, though, if you remember one thing... I don't remember.
- Gummy is an Eldritch Abomination made out of gum and junk. Keep.
- "Rule of Dumb" has "King Patrick's" Villainous Breakdown. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this episode is that Patrick's IQ seems to go up with his evilness. Keep.
Patrick: My loyal subjects have deserted me! And it's all because of that horrible Squidward! This is all his fault! His, his! Not mine! HIS! (a spring seems to pop out of Patrick's head)SpongeBob: Patrick, what's happened to you?Patrick: I don't know what you mean.SpongeBob: Um...(chuckles nervously) You know, actually, Mr. Krabs is probably wondering where I am, and—-Patrick: (threateningly) "And" what?SpongeBob: (meekly) And...well, it's...just that...um...you're kinda bein' a...jerk.Patrick: Heheh...I thought you were going to say I was abusing my power...SpongeBob: (Nervous laughter) Well, I—-Patrick: WHO'S SAYING I'M ABUSING MY POWER!? I'LL PUT THE WHOLE TOWN IN PRISON! QUESTIONING MY AUTHORITY IS TREASON!!!SpongeBob shrinks and high-tails it while Patrick is screaming
- The entire The Man in the Mirror Talks Back scene. Patrick looks like a monster!
Mirror Patrick: I am you, and you are me. - In "New Leaf", when Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob and Squidward to keep their eyes peeled for any tricks Plankton's playing, SpongeBob takes Mr. Krabs literally and peels his eyes. Played for Laughs.
- This is followed by Mr. Krabs saying "Now there's an employee who follows orders!" See? It's a joke.
- "Money Talks". Mr. Krabs wishes he could talk to money, so the Flying Dutchman grants him that ability. However, the money wants to be spent, and Mr. Krabs, having a Money Fetish, refuses to do so. During the night, the money moan, "Speeeeeennnnnnd uuuuuuuuusssss..." in the creepiest tone possible. Keep.
- Forgot to mention the fact that Mr. Krabs sold his soul for that to happen. Then it turns out he had already sold his soul to at least 20 other demonic entities, and SpongeBob to weasel out of a paycheck. What the hell is wrong with you, Mr. Krabs?! Eh, this isn't very scary.
- "The Ick". It's a virus that causes green ooze to grow all over the victim's body. It's contagious on both touch and ingestion. Somehow, Squidward doesn't realize he's scratching a Ick-y spot, and a restaurant full of diners don't notice they're eating it. The only other known symptom is itchiness, but you have to wonder why Krabs called the SWAT team. And why they called the HAZMAT squad. This is more gross than scary. Remove the FH.
- Ich is a real fish disease. The best way to explain it is that it's the equivalent of a flea to dogs and cats. It reproduces like crazy and feeds on blood and dead skin cells. However, it doesn't manifest itself as green fuzz, rather, it looks like somebody sprinkled salt on the fish. Thank you for the science facts.
- It becomes more disturbing if you've ever dealt with Ich in aquarium fish. Ich is extremely contagious among fish because it has a fast breeding cycle and the fact that once the parasite encysts, it can stick to just about anything in the tank. If someone doesn't treat Ich, it's 100% fatal among fish. Who are you, Bill Nye?
- May be more Nausea Fuel, but there's the GREEN PUS that was SPEWING from SpongeBob! Well, it was, so if you watch the episode it's not there anymore. Just kidding, this doesn't count.
- Ich is a real fish disease. The best way to explain it is that it's the equivalent of a flea to dogs and cats. It reproduces like crazy and feeds on blood and dead skin cells. However, it doesn't manifest itself as green fuzz, rather, it looks like somebody sprinkled salt on the fish. Thank you for the science facts.
- In "To Love a Patty", SpongeBob destroys a bunch of scallops trying to eat the Krabby Patty he falls in love with. This includes smashing them into pieces and RIPPING ONE IN HALF. This is pretty disturbing on its own, but couple in the fact that they spent an episode raising a baby scallop and it's just doubled. Indeed, as The Mysterious Mr. Enter pointed out, one of those scallops could've been Junior! Except it isn't Junior because he doesn't like Krabby Patties. Keep?
- How "pretty" Patty looks
◊ when she's not eaten for a while. Simply put, it makes the Nasty Patty look appetizing! It also counts as Nausea Fuel when he eats it. '''This page is for scary stuff, not gross stuff.
- How "pretty" Patty looks
- "A Flea in Her Dome": In this episode Sandy brings a flea back from Texas. There's only one flea at first, but then it multiplies... and multiplies... until there's a huge WAVE of fleas inside the tree dome. Not very scary. More gross.
- The worst part was seeing the details of the flea. And the screech...sweet mother of God, the screech. ZCE.
- The episode where Plankton brainwashes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy into hating the Krusty Krab. At one point, Plankton does what he did in his debut appearance and goes INSIDE OF MERMAID MAN'S HEAD THROUGH HIS EAR, STOPPING BEHIND HIS EYE! Not scary.
- "To Save a Squirrel": "Eat... or be eaten..." ZCE.
- SpongeBob's crazed look as his sanity slips. The scene quickly changes to being funny. The only real nightmare fuel-y part in the episode is the end that implies that SpongeBob and Patrick are going to eat Sandy.
- When pulling down a photo album in "Have You Seen This Snail?" we see a gloomy-looking Sponge Bob staring right into the camera. Not scary.
- At least that image isn't on TV Tropes much? Guess again... Is this kind of writing even allowed?
- In "20,000 Patties Under the Sea", SpongeBob and Patrick unearth a submarine apparently buried in SpongeBob's yard. Upon entering, SpongeBob shoves aside a human skeleton to flip the engine switch. How is this scary?
- The demented shot of SpongeBob's face from "WhoBob WhatPants", quite possibly the most terrifying thing to have ever come out of the show, arguably more scary than the "Moar Krabs" and "Sure Squidward" faces. If you're truly feeling brave enough, here's the image.
◊ Keep, even though it's more Nausea Fuel.
SpongeBob: Is there something wrong with me?- It once was the main image for this page, but you can probably guess why it was removed. Random trivia.
- "Spongehenge". Most of that episode is pretty funny, but the ending — where a bearded, crazed SpongeBob heads back to the Krusty Krab only to find it a derelict ruin, evoking the finales of both Planet of the Apes and the original ending of Army of Darkness — is unsettling: And the final shot of the far-future alien tourists examining the now-abandoned, eerily-piping huge stone SpongeBobs even more so. It was all somehow reminiscent of the ending of the original The Wicker Man... Keep.
- A somewhat not-so-scary example, but the sun and moon with live-action faces. There is some Nightmare Retardant if you remember one thing... They aren't scary.
Moon: My shift's over.Sun: Time for work, SpongeBob!- In the final seconds, we close in on one of the happily-smiling, piping SpongeBobs, and we hear - over it - SpongeBob's usual merry laughter. But it now sounds completely crazed. Is the implication that a now-maddened-with-loneliness SquarePants has retreated to a recluse's existence inside it? This is not the implication I got from it. It sounds normal. Also, this is littered with WMG.
- The echo that SpongeBob's Big "NO!" created! Delete.
- In "Two Faces of Squidward", an incident causes Squidward to become handsome, however, when SpongeBob tries making him look back to normal in the end, but it makes him more handsome. Needless to say, he looks rather disturbing. A fan looped the clip with Mega Man music. This is what he looks like.
Handsome Squidward is a meme because he looks so weird. Delete.
I'm suspect of Spongebob even HAVING a page to begin with, as even the goriest, most unnerving things are played for laughs. Like the scene in SDO where Squidward goes insane. We're supposed to be laughing. Black Comedy, yes, but still comedy.
I still think Black Comedy examples can count if they're sufficiently dark and jarring enough. Just because something is funny doesn't mean it can't be scary, it's just usually that the comedy overshadows the horror aspect, to the point where people aren't scared. However, the audience needs to be accounted for. Spongebob being a kid's show, it's absolutely possible for younger kids to be genuinely scared of some of the creepier, gorier moments.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I mentioned this before, but you don't have to report here to get rid of examples that blatantly don't belong. Fridge Horror, Zero-Context Examples, Natter, and examples that describe themselves as not very scary can be purged without having to ask. It's probably better to get rid of them before posting here to ask about the remaining examples that aren't blatantly infringing the rules.
Any comments on this example from NightmareFuel.Amphibia? It sounds like an overreaction to me, the face isn't that scary.
- Sprig makes a downright evil
◊ Nightmare Face when he gets the idea to have Sylvia pick the blue flowers (that are on top of a giant crab) for Hop Pop.
Edited by Zuxtron on Jul 18th 2019 at 5:48:33 AM
Same; while some things are easy cuts, I still prefer consensus before I act on a page.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I saw that page mentioned in Ask The Tropers and was thinking about bringing it up here.
Yeah, that's where I found it, too.
Is anything mentioned on the page scary? Mario Party is so cartoony.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallOkay, that's two examples worth keeping. I say we slash the others, if nobody else sees anything worth keeping.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallMy thoughts on Mario Party:
- Wigglers are common enemies, and you probably know that they get mad easily. It getting scary seems more like a Jump Scare and just startling than something that'd give you bad dreams.
- Most of the bad things are cartoony enough to not be scary, and the characters are always fine on the results screen. The Bowser Party mode in particular is full of cartoon violence that shouldn't scare anyone over the age of four.
- Bowser's Big Blast is just them making a Luck-Based Mission sound scary.
- Pedal Power's music is a rearrangement of the already creepy Ice Land theme from SMB3. I did feel a little shiver after listening to it, so keep.
- The Options House music, on the other hand, is not scary at all! It's a funky jazz beat that's a remix of the classic underground theme.
- "If you are afraid of anything Halloween" That's "based on a certain fear" which does not count.
- The Tug-of-War animation is super jerky, but not scary. It's just ridiculous.
Edited by Grotadmorv on Jul 18th 2019 at 8:00:59 AM
Make it so we never die, and take the pain awayWell, if the comments are anything to go by, people do find the Options House music scary, so I say that's good enough to keep the example.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall

20TH anniversary? This is the Simpsons all over again, isn't it?
Now that IS scary.
Hope shines brightest in the darkest times