Squidward, Carl, and Super Frank

My kids and I get into these heated discussions every now and then about some complete nonsense. I love the passion with which they discuss some of these topics so I do my best to give them my best effort to the contrary. I love taking the ridiculous side of an argument with them, especially when their best counter is something on the order of "Is NOT!" or "yaHUH" or "WAY!" Today we got on the topic of Squidward, who to me is the only character in the cast of the Spongebob cartoon with any redeeming qualities. Namely, he plays the clarinet and, like me, seems opposed to any of the shenanigans that happen on the whole ridiculously twisted show. I'm convinced that some guy about my age was indulging in some pharmaceutical extractions one day and got particularly baked. How baked? So baked that he thought he was having a conversaton with a sponge and the rest is history. How he came up with an underwater squirrel with a scuba suit on, i'll never know.

Squidward must've been his conscience, or his english teacher, or his mother or somebody that served as the unwelcomed voice of reason and common sense in his waste of a life. Anyway, we were driving in the car towards San Jose discussing the only episode of Spongebob that I don't mind (like would be WAY to strong a word) and also rating the worst characters in the other shows that they watch. One such character that really irks me is Carl from the Jimmy Neutron series. Jimmy is not exactly a cat that I look forward to either, but Carl is just awful. He's Jimmy's whiny friend that complains about everything, is a worry-wart, and his voice is just terrible. But, I digress.

The only decent episode of Spongebob, and there's only about 4 of them that they loop over and over again, is the one where they have a talent show. So riveting is Squidward's virtuoso performance on the clarinet that the crowd was absolutely moved to silence. Literally. I'm talkin' crickets. The curtain just happens to come up while Spongebob is mopping the stage, and the crowd goes wild. In utter disbelief, Squidward comes back to the stage to play, thinking that the crowd is calling for an encore.

Crickets.

Spongebob returns with his mop and the crowd erupts. Squidward returns. Crickets. Spongebob returns, applause. Squidward? Crickets. You get the idea. Don't get me wrong, I would in no way be watching this nonsense if my kids didn't have control of the TV. Bugs Bunny is my guy. That's a real cartoon.

At last, we'll get to Superfrank. Apparently, I made some clever reference yesterday that I had completely forgotten about until my son reminded me today. I guess we were discussing Chuck E. Cheese like places at which they'd like to play for my daughter's birthday. Boomer's came up, as did John's Incredible Pizza, and The Jungle. My son brought up some place called Super Frank's that I hadn't heard of which prompted me to say, "Super Frank? what is he...some kinda hot dog super hero?" My kids were in stitches. Like I said, I totally forgot about this randomness, although upon being reminded, I laughed about it again too. Riding in the car got that much better.