Top 10 Reasons Why SpongeBob SquarePants Doesn't Deserve to Be Ranked #1 on Best Nicktoons Lists

Controversial as this opinion may be, you simply can't deny it.
The items in this list have been selected by the author of the list for you to vote and comment on.
The Top Ten
1 It self-demonstrates and often completely embodies exactly why television shows should prioritize quality over quantity in all of its aspects

The animation style is pretty much just a lack thereof

The writing is Rocko but with WAY less creative improv
The character cast is only barely tolerable at best
The humor is largely just a dull and tame version of its predecessors; whenever it tries to prove itself otherwise, it almost always comes across as being just plain cringy and forced
The soundtrack is great but still lame overall when compared to most of 90s Nick (Ren & Stimpy and Rocko most especially)
The show's overall run is one of Nickelodeon's worst to date

2 Almost everything about the show is just plain bland and annoying, and quite a lot of the worst and/or most disappointing cartoons of the 21st century were blatantly inspired by it (Camp Lazlo, Buzz On Maggie, Johnny Test, Fish Hooks, Coconut Fred, etc)

Camp Lazlo, while still a great (shameless kiddie) show in its own right, was horribly disappointing coming from Joe Murray (the creator of Rocko),

Buzz On Maggie actually had a potentially REALLY interesting and creative concept and setting (cartoon sitcom about weirdly attractive flies that live in a literal garbage dump while persistently dreaming of being rich and famous all the while) but wasted it in favor of making itself one of THE most ridiculously clichéd and stereotypical tween girl shows to ever exist (if nothing else, at least my horrifically disgusting Maggie X Flecko brain-fetish fanfic fixed that),
Johnny Test was basically just horribly butchered Dexter's Laboratory but with a really badly executed imitation of Spongebob's "LOL, so random" humor thrown on top of it,
Fish Hooks was literally just boring tween Spongebob,
and Coconut Fred was Spongebob without any of the redeeming qualities

3 Even at its best, it's basically just a watered-down and way less funny version of Rocko's Modern Life, with barely any of Rocko's world-renowned adult appeal and satire still present; at its worst, it's a downright terrible ripoff of Ren & Stimpy

And of course, Nick completely ignores its history regardless
(at least Rocko's going to be featured in the upcoming Nicktoons movie, I suppose, but it still DEFINITELY doesn't make up for how the channel treated his show, let me tell you)

4 It is actually a pretty mediocre overall series in general when you look at a lot of the stuff it put out during its Modern era (and even the Classic era, nostalgia aside); by contrast, Rocko, Avatar and Zim all had near-flawless runs for the most part

Though it didn't really kick off action-wise until the Earth book, Avatar was a shining example of children's western anime done right through and through; Invader Zim speaks for itself; Rocko is often claimed by its fans to have jumped the shark in Season 4 just because it became more kid-friendly when compared to the first three seasons, but I can assure you that those fans are exaggerating quite a bit to say the least; seriously, what is Spongebob's excuse?

5 It caused a whole multitude of massively more fleshed-out and interesting shows that came out during its run (Avatar, Invader Zim, My Life As A Teenage Robot) to get prematurely cancelled due to its largely undeserved popularity

"Kids know d*ck" - Wayne's World

6 It is poorly written to say the least and somehow tries even harder to be funny than Invader Zim did to be edgy

Now THAT'S an accomplishment right there (shudders)

7 Nearly every element of it has been done way better by other Nicktoons (its surrealism and satire by Rocko and golden-age Ren & Stimpy, its brain fetish by Jimmy Neutron, its purposely annoying protags by Angry Beavers and early Fairly Odd Parents, etc)

Also, it's theme of life constantly beating down on the main character by Hey Arnold and Rocko (and, looking at it from the perspective of the babies' parents, Rugrats as well)

8 It's basically "Forced Memes: The Show", possibly to an even greater extent than Ren & Stimpy and Invader Zim

"IT'S GOT CHICKEN LEGS! " - Gir

9 Basically every top-tier 1990s Nicktoon (early Rugrats, John K Ren & Stimpy, Rocko, Angry Beavers, Hey Arnold) was at the very least way more genuinely charming and unique than it is

As well as, in many ways, more relatable

10 It's a huge part of the reason why Nickelodeon's brain-dead censorship laws have somehow gotten even worse than they were back in the 1990s, yet it also managed to put out episodes like One Coarse Meal and The Splinter at the same time

Meanwhile, Rocko's legendary Wacky Delly episode gets censored just for having a sentient (technically male) piece of salami hit a (technically female) piece of baloney a few times with a telephone (did I mention that the Nickelodeon moderators are quite nearly as bad as the YouTube ones at times, as in the guys that allow scum like the Paul brothers to be featured in YouTube Rewind, but not actual top-tier YouTubers like I Hate Everything because they think that his content is "controversial" when the only thing about it that really fits that description is other people's ridiculously overblown reactions to it and how incredibly pretentious he is in general? )