Indonesia’s TV Channel Warned for Broadcasting SpongeBob SquarePants Movie As It Was ‘Too Violent’


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Everyone knows this iconic character, right?

Image: Amazon

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!

He taught us about love, loyalty, the campfire song and what it really means to go on adventures with your crazy best friend.

Image: Den of Geek

You’ve heard of people calling Spongebob lame, nostalgic and sometimes, stupid (in a good way).

But this is probably the first time you’ve heard of the show being accused of violence.

Source: Tenor

Yes, violence.

That was what the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) thought.

Broadcasting Station Warned For Airing Spongebob

On 15 Sep, the Jakarta Post reported that the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) issued a warning letter to television station GTV.

The reason? For airing The Spongebob Squarepants Movie on the channel.

Contains Acts Of Violence

GTV had aired the movie on two separate occasions: one on 6 Aug at 11.14 am, and once more on 22 Aug at 3.02 pm.

For the first movie run, KPI said that the show exhibited the following acts of violence:

  • Hitting a face with a board
  • Dropping a bowling ball on the head
  • Throwing a hammer at a face
  • And throwing a pot of cactus with the help of a racket

The second run reportedly includes:

  • Throwing a cake at a face
  • Hitting with the use of wood

Violations

The movie was judged to have potentially violated Article 14 of the KPI’s code of conduct.

The article states that a broadcasting unit must accommodate the interests of children in every aspect of broadcasting production.

In addition, they pointed out that a broadcasting program with the classification of R is not allowed to be shown as it might influence children and teenagers into learning about unacceptable behaviours.

Image: The Loud House Encyclopedia

Not The Only Station To Be Warned

The warning letter was only one out of fourteen letters sent out by KPI.


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Broadcasting channels like Trans 7, ANTV, TV One, Metro TV, Trans TV and radio station Gen FM also received warning letters.

Range of violations include:

  • Acts of violence
  • Horror and supernatural scenes
  • Sexual dialogue and gestures
  • Private conflicts
  • Harassment

Blackpink Wasn’t Spared

More famously, broadcasting stations were warned previously for airing the Shopee advertisement with Blackpink:

They said that the video was “a number of women singing and dancing while wearing little clothing in the commercial”.

Huh, that’s pretty…accurate, actually.


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But Spongebob’s not violent, damnit. Go after Happy Tree friends or something.