Was Patrick Star secretely a Sociopath?

Was Patrick Star secretly a Sociopath?

SpongeBob Square Pants was a happy childhood show of mine. I was blissfully unaware of what was going on back then and while I missed many adult jokes including a scene of SpongeBob watching sea urchin porn and a joke about prison rape looking back I can laugh at how this stuff was put in such a show. Some things are not a laughing matter however, this thing being the monster that is Patrick.

 

First things first in the title I used the word sociopath for a reason. The reason I use sociopath is because I think Patrick has antisocial personality disorder which means the person has a long term pattern of manipulating, exploiting or violating the rights of others. Let’s take a closer look at Patrick and prove this accusation.

 

First things first Patricks’ most defining characteristic is stupidity. Sure there was a time where you could describe it as charming and often it wasn’t particularly destructive. The key thing here is manipulation is clearly mentioned in the definition of antisocial personality disorder. Someone with this disorder would manipulate people into believing they’re harmless and what they’re doing has no malicious intent.

 

That being said maybe things are more questionable when Patrick becomes malicious, destructive cruel. I’m going to discuss a few examples although it should be noted that I could never possibly go over every example of Patrick’s monstrosities in one blog post. I will talk about what I think are some of the worst however starting with an episode I actually remember disliking for its mean spirited nature as a child, I’m With Stupid. As an adult I like to over analyse everything and look into connotations and implications of everything but as a child I was kind of easily pleased and hence an episode that bugged me back then shows the evil intentions of Patrick.

 

The episode starts with Patrick preparing for his parents coming over. He’s worried because they think he’s stupid so SpongeBob offers to act stupid to make Patrick look better. This starts off okay but eventually Patrick supposedly forgets (Although could purposefully be ignoring) that SpongeBob is just acting. The levels of verbal abuse thrown at SpongeBob, Patricks supposed best friend aren’t funny and are kind of uncomfortable to watch. SpongeBob eventually snaps and runs away and some strange ending happens where these aren’t Patrick’s real parents. The important thing however is Patrick gets away with all his bullying towards SpongeBob free of any consequence or repercussions.

 

My next example is another episode I remember from when I was younger, Valentine’s Day. Patrick thinks SpongeBob hasn’t got him a present despite the fact that he gave SpongeBob a broken up rock and the gift is on its way Patrick goes insane and threaten innocent civilians and nearly destroys an amusement park. He threaten random people because he can’t get what he wants. Guess what, at the end he gets his gift and faces no consequences.

 

There’s one more example that I want to talk about, it’s an episode called Karate Star. As the title suggests Patrick learns karate and becomes an expert as he can karate chop through anything. Naturally he nearly destroys the town but this is not the worst part. He walks over the pram with an infant inside and if he had not been stopped by SpongeBob would have murdered a baby. HE NEARLY MURDERED A BABY! Later on he apparently feels guilty and it’s supposed to be redeemable. I’ll repeat, we’re supposed to accept his redemption AFTER HE NEARLY MURDERED A BABY!

 

Those are three big examples and believe me there are many more. I know what you’re thinking (Yes I can read minds) you’re thinking that Patrick is just stupid and doesn’t realise what he’s doing. I’d argue that this shows he has no concept of right and wrong and simply does what he pleases out of selfish desires but the argument that he’s really that stupid is just as valid … if it wasn’t for one more episode called the card. In this episode Patrick has a valuable trading card SpongeBob wants. At one point Patrick walks into goo lagoon with the card and SpongeBob lifts up Patrick too keep the card undamaged. Afterwards SpongeBob asks why Patrick walked into the lagoon. Patricks reply says it all, he says SpongeBob you can’t always expect my usual brand of stupidity, I like to mix it up, keep ye on yer toes. He’s fully aware of how stupid he acts, it’s all a ruse.

 

I think this proof is blatant of Patrick’s intentions, he causes destruction and misery because he wants to. His stupidity has been a façade all along to allow him to get away with his malicious acts. I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s a sociopath. Of course some of you are thinking that I’m taking this kids cartoon too seriously. It’s not like you need to put effort in during a Kids Cartoon right? Wrong, kid’s television can really influence a child, after all children watching SpongeBob can often be at an age where they are innocent and easily influenced. A good morale with characters they can relate to is important as cartoons can be a good way to teach children important lessons in a fun and colourful way. Having a character act selfishly is fine as long as it is portrayed as wrong and they face consequences for what they’re done.

 

You’ll often hear people say something along the lines of “it’s just a kids show, you don’t really need to try”. Patrick was a loveably stupid character at first but whether it was intentional or not he became a sociopath and he’s now a very evil man … Star. Is this what we should be showing our kinds, the attempted murder of a Baby, I’ll let you make up your own mind on that.

 

 

 

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