I've never really liked Spongebob -- I don't bare it any ill will, and I appreciate that a lot of people enjoy it for the very same reasons that I love lots of other shows... but I can't help but feel that there's something wrong on some level when they can't sell a cartoon about fish to something who loves little greater than saturday morning TV and marine life.
I rhink it's a stylistic thing -- a lot of the Nickelodeon cartoons, both now and in the eighties, have had this (for the lack of a better word) "outrageous" style that's always grated on me personally.