Setting
Much of the series' events take place in Bikini Bottom, an underwater city located in the Pacific Ocean beneath the real life tropical isle of Bikini Atoll. Stephen Hillenburg has stated that much of Bikini Bottom was based on the real life city of Seattle. Much of this is supported within the context of the episodes themselves; however, despite implications of the city's location as well as analogies to real life, Hillenburg has stated that he wishes to leave the city isolated from the real world, explaining the Baywatch parody scene from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie as simply a reference to his favorite show of all time. The citizens of Bikini Bottom live in mostly aquatic-themed buildings, and use "boatmobiles", an amalgamation of cars and boats, as a mode of transportation.
Each episode of SpongeBob SquarePants is self-contained, with references to previous episodes being rare. Episodes have ended with the entire town being destroyed, the entire cast being irreparably harmed (Some of which being surprisingly dark for a children's show), characters (particularly Squidward) being sentenced to extended prison or community service sentences, or other catastrophic events, only for everything to return to normal the next episode without any mention of what happened before.
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