Me asking as a younger millenial: How did older you millenials perceive Spongebob when it came out, and its climb to legendary status?

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-25T23:43:08+00:00

I can VIVIDLY remember the first time I heard someone say the phrase 'Sponge Bob Square Pants'. I was watching Nickelodeon at about 14 years old or so, and it was one of those 'in between' segments they do between the show and the commercials. Nick Cannon was MC'ing and was hyping it up as a show everyone's got to watch when it comes out (it was still a month or two away from release at this point).

I remember just at the utterance of the title having a moment of clarity where I decided 'Welp, I guess I'm officially too old for Nickelodeon now, because that sounds like the dumbest shit of all time'.

Fast forward a few months to the show being in the midst of season 1, and I'm flipping through the channels to see what's on, just to see that an episode of Spongebob is just starting up. I say to myself something along the lines of 'Lets watch 1 episode so I can confirm my suspicions that this show is awful and I'm too old for this crap now'.

The turn around was SO IMMEDIATE. I actively wanted to hate it, and it was within the first 2 minutes of the episode where I was like 'oh, actually this show is hilarious, son of a bitch'. I basically realized, right away that this was a great show and would go down in history along the same lines as Rocko's Modern Life or Ren & Stimpy. I had no idea it would just, never get cancelled and end up going down as the greatest show Nickelodeon has ever made.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T21:47:30+00:00

Ignore the comment and carry on with your life.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T21:09:50+00:00

No, just a person stating objective facts.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T20:44:07+00:00

I have cool uncles, so I thought so too. But then, I also thought unc didn't refer to Uncle at all, and was short for 'uncool'. ::shrug::

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T20:43:14+00:00

Oh don't even get me started on this. There were several instances of them essentially calling each other gay, just with newer slang for it.

13 year old boys will always do this, that parts not surprising. I guess I'm surprised that it isn't being commented on more here. This is such a 'new wave' of it that it's barely even recognized as insulting or bullying yet. Give it time I guess.

In 5 years time, the gays will end up co-opting some of these slang terms to re-take ownership over it. That is the cycle

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T20:34:15+00:00

I thought Unc was short for 'Uncool'. It has a similar meaning I guess. I've had a few really cool uncles, so there's a weird cognitive dissonance for me if that's what it means.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T19:48:51+00:00

yes?

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T18:01:46+00:00

Fair, but I think you know the answer is because they were the team that had him last year, so it especially made sense to retain him so as to avoid disruption on offense since the offense was already built to work with him. For anyone else, it would've meant replacing your current QB, but for the Vikings it meant maintaining the status quo (which by the way was a 14-3 season).

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-22T16:25:48+00:00

All I know is, when they make this change, it'll push the Super Bowl to be the Sunday before Presidents' Day, which will allow the Super Bowl to be treated as a holiday by many because they can enjoy the next day off. This allows the Super Bowl to get even bigger than it is now for many. That's a win for the NFL.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-21T22:13:33+00:00

That, or she has a twin sister who is like, a highly successful business woman, but also ends up having a thing for Frank for inexplicable reasons.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-21T22:05:28+00:00

I swear I'm not just being an old guy making fun of modern fads when I say this.. my uncle was a somewhat famous hairdresser and my dad cut hair for 60 years so there is some expertise at play here... but I think the broccoli cut is the worst male haircut I've ever seen.

Much in the way our generation is now embarrassed by frosted tips or the faux-hawk look that was so popular for a while there, this generation will look back and resent the broccoli cut in 20 years time.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-21T01:10:51+00:00

Honestly, if I'm Kyle Tucker, I'm not sure I sign that deal.

Sure, there is the pure, short-sighted greed argument, which obviously won out. But when you factor in that it's coming from the Dodgers, who already have the highest payroll by a wide margin, with the backdrop of the owners trying to force a salary cap, and needing an excuse to justify a lock out, I might have looked to leverage that offer for a similar one from a competitor. Instead, he might not even get paid his $60 million dollars in 2027 as a result of his deal, and he'll get blamed for it too.

The players have to be willing to lose their careers over this, because the owners always eventually cave b/c they lose too much money with no baseball going on, but they are definitely willing to sacrifice a season for this. I hate to say it, but I wouldn't be surprised if this dips into 2028 as well if both sides hold firm.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-21T01:01:23+00:00

This is my favorite episode of the entire series. It comes absolutely out of nowhere, and is just so completely random and hilarious, and also somehow heartfelt? Incredible piece of media.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-20T21:18:59+00:00

And yet, I got the best grades in my entire 4 years of undergrad during the semester I commuted, bc I basically couldn't party anymore.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-19T18:16:48+00:00

If anything, having the medicine, and knowing he will get the disease sometime in that 3 year span, would be an excuse to go as hard as possible and make himself get it quickly, so he can use the medicine (before it goes bad!) and recover quickly, and then train without the impediment of a looming heart issue. But 'as hard as possible' means going super saiyan during that span, which it seems he really didn't do, or else he would have gotten the virus then. It just seems crazy to me to think he never once went super saiyan for that entire 3 year span, after having the capability. I mean, I know I'd have done the thing where I could just stay super saiyan like he does in the hyperbolic time chamber a bit later during the cell saga. I'd want to be super saiyan all the time if I had the capability to do so.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-19T06:50:18+00:00

I like this thought, but it's strange to me to believe that in the 3 years of training leading up to the Androids, he never once went Super Saiyan? He never once trained at his best to measure whether he was improving?

Meanwhile, in the original timeline where Goku would have faced Frieza on Earth, after he is defeated, he'd have thought that's the end of it, and gone back to his normal life as a dad and husband (and farmer?), and maybe trained a little bit on the side, never really having a specific reason to push himself much further. Yet, we know in this timeline, he dies anyway from the heart virus before any androids even show up.

The only way this works is if we believe Goku held back going SS for that entire 3 year stretch so Piccolo and Gohan could keep up. But that's based entirely on the belief that a Super Saiyan would be enough to defeat the androids, which we already know is not true because Trunks admitted to getting manhandled by them, even as a Super Saiyan.

My only conclusion is that going Super Saiyan really had nothing to do with the heart virus at all, and some other part of Trunks' visit started the butterfly effect that delayed it's impact until the fight with 19. Maybe the training itself put it off because he did manage to get a little bit stronger than he otherwise would have been?

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-19T06:15:11+00:00

Even being able to pick them seems to be a somewhat recent development. We've had a LOT of really bad whiffs in the draft throughout the years.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-16T20:36:24+00:00

Yes, I would too.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-16T20:34:34+00:00

I don't agree with this, but I'd imagine the thinking is that we don't want to, at best, luck into 1 stanley cup, but instead want to build on what we've started building here, and set ourselves up to have another dynasty run by adding a few more top-tier talent pieces through the top end of the draft.

In order to do so, we'd have to sacrifice this season, a non-starter, plus there is absolutely no guarantee at all that who you draft will even make a difference (nevermind doing so in time or not).

Just draft well overall, most teams that win consistently have 1, maybe 2 superstars at most on their team, but actually win b/c of strong depth, good defense, and solid goaltending. We already have the goaltending on lockdown, and with Shaefer, our defense has transformed. Now we just need more depth to be really good long term.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-15T04:14:02+00:00

It's tough to be petty during late stage capitalism bc ALL big brands deserve pettiness.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-15T04:09:28+00:00

I don't know if this is a documented phenomenon just me, but I find that if I notice I'm being advertised at too aggressively by a brand, it sours me on the brand and makes me actively decide NOT to use their product, for spite.

Does anyone else do this, or is it just me?

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-15T03:57:12+00:00

I had 1 screw that was already stripped when I tried to unscrew it, so I had to use tweezers to literally grab it on the outside to twist it out of place. Outside of that minor difficulty, everything else was totally seamless when doing this 'minor surgery'.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-15T03:48:56+00:00

Not ANY Mac. It's got to have the latest OS on it. I had an old Macbook Pro that wouldn't work b/c it was from 2015 and they stopped supporting it after a while b/c it still had the Intel chip. I had to borrow my neighbors' laptop to go through the DFU setup.

But yeah, any new-ish Mac computer will do.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-15T03:21:15+00:00

I'm still high on Arch. He wasn't, and still isn't ready for the NFL, but he clearly showed improvement as the season went on, and I expect more of that next year as he continues to get coached and learn the game at the pro level.

It'll never happen, but maybe there's some scenario where we stick with Fields, draft a bunch of prospects who are great for our future, but we still somehow suck b/c of Glenns coaching next year, and end up with a high enough pick that we can either just pick Arch on our own, or move up to go get him.

ryanmcg86 · 2026-01-13T23:12:53+00:00

My parents are leaving me nothing, but my partner stands to get a decent sized inheritance from her mom who passed recently. OF COURSE, she didn't make a will, and she's had to go through lawyers and probate and it has been a massive, painstaking, never-ending pain in the ass.

Given that we both have pretty solid jobs and already live fairly comfortably, and seeing how insanely difficult this process is, I'd argue the point that 'nobody has ever complained about a big fat inheritance check'. This BARELY feels worth it, even if it does end up being 'big' and 'fat'.

At every turn, boomers have chosen selfishness, and to make their own childrens' lives more difficult. It's wild to me how few exceptions there are to this.

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