From the outset we see a particularly shocking corruption of a human form in the shape of a pirate (let us recall these people historically raped, pillaged and murdered) that wills the viewer, regardless of actual age, to prepare themselves, and also to acknowledge their technocratic submission through the subconscious admission that they are ‘kids’.

After what seems to be unnervingly large number of assurances we are thrust into the depths of reality, presented in all stark brutality with the home of the protagonist. In an almost Camusesque expression of absurdity the protagonist inhabits a pineapple. Make of it what you will.

We then see the protagonist dressed by the omnipotent hands of what the viewer would assume is the haunting pirate from earlier. His apparent omniscience only pairs with his power to intervene in the lives of those who dwell in this dystopia, together rendering this mysterious individual practically God-like. Also implied is the sense that the very fabric of reality is controlled by him, paraphrased in the way the hyper-realistic hand dresses our protagonist. 

Another, perhaps more Huxlian, interpretation exists in the fact that the protagonist seems concerned at his nudity at the start of the scene. Many claim this represents the a typical human’s inability to deal with the crushing implications of mortality - truth. However, the omnipotent hand, now seen in a benevolent light, conceals this. Not unlike The Matrix this suggests that the horror of reality is concealed by a ruler who sees the benefit of maintaining a calm, docile, population that is more likely in this state to achieve what ever corrupt objectives the malignant deity sets. Thus we see the corruption of truth and the manufactured naivety that develops into a core theme of the show.

These two interpretations subscribe respectively to the dystopias created in the novel 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. In the former the population was a slave to what they feared, and in the latter the the population was a slave to what they loved. This adheres, depending on individual opinion, to the interpretations of the inexplicable hand as being either maliciously benevolent, or maliciously malignant.

The next sick contortion of reality is without a doubt the most obvious allusion to the perverse intentions of dystopian governance. The 'porous’ nature of the protagonist allows him to soak up all the water in a bathtub that seems to succumb to sentience and fill itself up alone, most likely the hand of our dominant pirate God figure from earlier. This fact becomes important when considering the imagery that is created. The porous nature of a docile population. The ease at which the population is filled with state approved knowledge. The protagonist fills to bursting with this 'water’, swelling to gross proportions, losing all sense of aesthetic form. A deeply unpleasant implication.

This scene now falls neatly into place. The literal drawing together of the many metiers which form society simultaneously reflects the application of the previously indoctrinated figure cloned into each role in turn representing the comprehensive penetration of society achieved by the state. On an individual level we can also see the twisted personality conflicts within the protagonist, an allusion to the long running theme of mental illness within the show.

Another Camusesque expression of absurdity. Again the abruptness almost touches upon an existential theme whilst maintaining the absurdest undertone. This now self-aware absurdity is now very disconcerting for the clued-up viewer, who may now be undergoing either some form of solipsistic depression or just having a minor metaphysical experience. 

Self-explanatory scene, now a cheap trick against the jangled nerves of the disturbed viewer. The visceral and graphic dismemberment and reconstruction of the protagonist represents in all clarity the fullest extent of natural conditioning possible in Hillenberg’s society. Nevertheless, once properly constructed in the 'correct’ way the protagonist’s countenance shows an expression of contrived joy, sick joviality. False, false, false. Conditioned reality existing in syncopation with a conditioned humanity may draw one to the society within Brave New World but this Hillenbergian dystopia doesn’t fully conform to the Huxlian dystopia for the very same reason: humanity is not only conditioned to conform to a painful reality (e.g. amiability towards death, acceptance of pain) as in Huxley’s imaginations, but reality itself is conditioned to conform to the ideals of our hypnagogic despot, mysterious mister pirate. The horrific regime knows no boundaries, and therefore the cataclysmic dread of waking life inhabits every corner of reality, rendering the potential subversive thoughts of characters the end to which the despot is working. The clear metaphysical theme persists in every aspect of the show.  

The final sequence of the title credits merely affirms the conclusions of the disturbed observer. Again we see the use of the protagonist’s clothing as a mechanism to convey the concealment of truth, but this time the omnipotent hand of God is not present. When the truth reveals itself as a product of the struggles of the protagonist throughout his perilous life (represent by a linearly comical sequence of the protagonist bumping along and losing his clothing) the protagonist becomes desperately concerned and doesn’t embrace his escape from the false reality that his forced clothing represented. Instead he viciously searches for his clothing, smiling with relief as he nestles back into the hammock of manufactured truth. This confirms the suspicion that not only does God control what the protagonist does through force, but controls the protagonist himself, manipulating his desires as he pleases. This therefore begs the question that the protagonist may actually be the antagonist. And furthermore shaking the existential foundations of all existence we must question whether a reality in which the very slightest subconscious flinch of the 'free’ individual as well as the state and nature of things is controlled by an unseen yet omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent being is indeed an alternative reality at all. A further paradoxical contradiction is the fact that God’s complete power is rendered redundant by his own ability to control everything. Why did he intervene when he himself is the author of reality? Does this imply that there may even be an internal conflict within God himself? Or is it just simply done as a sick way of entertaining himself? Either way, we are played into whatever sick dystopian parable Messur Hillenberg has created by the grotesque nasal meat flute of the protagonist.

And a sour taste lingers in our mouth as we are filled with the poison that is yet to come, but our minds are sharpened, fearful, but ready to answer the ultimate question. Are we actually living ?