SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 6b and 7)

SpongeBob SquarePants is the main character from the American children's animated television series of the same name. He is an optimistic yellow sea sponge who works as a fry cook and goes to a boat-driving school. Unfortunately, he suffered from a bad case of flanderization and some character derailment in Seasons 6 and 7.

Why He Wasn't Always Ready
NOTE: This article only focuses on how he was portrayed in the second half of Season 6 and the entirety of Season 7.
 * 1) He got horrendously flanderized, going from being an optimistic, funny, and somewhat childish adult to a very obnoxious, immature, unfunny, troublemaking, melodramatic, and straight-up man-child.
 * 2) *He has lost all of his charm and likability from the first three seasons, though it varies whether he's in character or not in Seasons 4-5 & 8, depending on the episode.
 * 3) He is either too happy or too emotional.
 * 4) He mostly has clumsy/accident-prone moments and a Butt-Monkey in the series. Doesn't this sound incredibly familiar?
 * 5) He tends to be a crybaby over things that aren't a big deal at all whatsoever, with "A Day Without Tears" being the worst offender of such. Heck, not even Pearl, Mr. Krabs' daughter, is that much of a crybaby in this season in comparison to the first three seasons!
 * 6) He also has the tendency to do terrible things, and never gets any consequence for them, such as:
 * 7) Acting very worried and a complete moron about Sandy going on a rodeo as very dangerous by kidnapping the townspeople in trapping them with bubbles and bringing them to his house instead of doing it by himself or with only Patrick (it makes sense in context) in "Rodeo Daze".
 * 8) Apparently lacking in empathy.
 * 9) Horribly mistreating Gary by gratingly scolding and blaming him for things he clearly didn't do and telling him "what do you have to say for yourself?" instead of thanking him when he saves his life (in the same episode, by the way; and not to mention, he also stole a pet from a store, and also ignored the pet saleswoman's warnings about Puffy Fluffy's own species getting along with other animals) in "A Pal for Gary".
 * 10) Him and Patrick framing Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy by disguising as them by assaulting and throwing everyone they see in jail for completely unjustified reasons in "Shuffleboarding".
 * 11) Flooded Bikini Bottom with his crybaby tears in "A Day Without Tears".
 * 12) Betrayed Plankton in "One Coarse Meal".
 * 13) Inviting Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks, Mr. Krabs, Pearl Krabs, Plankton, Larry the Lobster, and Bikini Bottomites to go as far as tarnishing Squidward's TV show, idiotically acting like it was a playground, and not to mention; they were the ones responsible for Squidward being kicked out of his house and his own TV show shut down in "Tentacle Vision".
 * 14) He can be mean-spirited and act like a jerk to people at times, though not as bad as Patrick, which is a character downgrade that was unexpected, especially for SpongeBob.
 * 15) His gags have gone from funny and entertaining to irritating and unintelligent.
 * 16) His infamous and hypocritical quote from "One Coarse Meal", which is "I'm sorry Plankton, but that flies in the face of my good nature.".
 * 17) He is extremely immature and never acts his age. Before flanderization, it was admittedly rare for him to act like an adult, but he still had some levels of maturity. However, during these seasons, he never does.
 * 18) *He is supposed to be an adult, but he has the mentality of a toddler.
 * 19) His voice in these seasons is annoyingly high pitched to the point where he sounds like he is on helium, possibly due to Tom Kenny's aging.
 * 20) He has also turned into a punching bag for the writers in some episodes, most notably "Stuck in the Wringer", which was the only episode when he ever did stand up for himself even when everyone are mean-spirited towards him.
 * 21) *Because of this, he generally acts very spineless and barely stands up for himself when he gets pushed around by his friends.
 * He, along with Patrick, are more destructive in their antics around Bikini Bottom than ever before.
 * 1) While his design is the same as ever, it looks a bit downgraded compared to the other seasons since it can range from mediocre (in most episodes) to downright ugly (like when he makes overly detailed facial expressions or when he's off-model).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) In Season 6, he was decent during the first half. It wasn't until "Choir Boys" when his flanderization really kicked in.
 * 2) He occasionally has his original personality in some episodes.
 * 3) He still cares about his friends, despite everything he has done.
 * 4) He spawned some post-movie memes like "Who put you on the planet?".
 * 5) His design still looks cute, despite the fact that it is a bit mediocre.
 * 6) He was a much better character in the first five seasons and has gotten his original personality back since Season 8.
 * 7) *His voice has also returned to its original pitch since Season 8.
 * 8) Despite his voice being rather high-pitched during this era, Tom Kenny still does his best with his performance - at least when he isn't crying or screaming.
 * 9) *Not surprisingly enough in "Stuck in the Wringer", the screaming from Tom Kenny in the scene where Spongebob snaps at and blames Patrick for his suffering is actually justified here since he needed anger for that to happen and this one is very tolerable.