Nickelodeon Resignation Incident (2009)
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On July 17, 2009, Nickelodeon organized an event on their cable channel known as "The Ultimate SpongeBob SpongeBash" marathon. The marathon was conducted approximately 10 years after the airing of the first SpongeBob episode, as it was meant to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the series. At the time, there were thirteen brand new episodes along with twenty reruns that ran for around two days. Not only that, but even during Nick@Nite hours, episodes of SpongeBob would continue to air until July 19 when the final premiere was shown.
However, at the time this marathon had begun, witnesses began to notice various bugs and screen issues with the channel in question. Viewers, from kids and adults alike, would rewind and record certain bugs that occurred such as "The Paper" suddenly switching to the next episode halfway through its screen time and "Help Wanted" suddenly skipping two minutes forward after the scene introducing SpongeBob himself was shown. These were assumed to be technical glitches as one of the occurrences resulted in an on-screen graphic being placed on the screen. The graphic read:
"Something has gone wrong and we are trying to fix it. We will be back to normal as soon as we can. Sorry!"
These bugs would only last three hours after the marathon started. They would suddenly stop after the third hour and quality would resume back to normal for the next 21 hours. The next day came. Nick@Nite's programming would switch to Nickelodeon for the day, leaving one more day for the marathon to be finished.
Overtime, viewers would make out very strange, almost frightening occurrences during the second day. These occurrences would come by every three to four episodes, as if it were a specific pattern set up by someone before they had aired. The first instance of this happening was sighted during the episode "To SquarePants or Not To SquarePants." On a specific frame showing SpongeBob's face, the screen would freeze, and complete silence could be heard for at least eleven seconds. After that time was over, the frame would immediately cut to a heavily edited version. The outcome was disturbing.
SpongeBob's facial expression was swapped to a threateningly angry, out of character grin for him. His pupils were constricted, replaced with small dots completely devoid of iris color. His mouth was unnaturally wide, and his teeth were tightly clenched. Lastly, his eyes were pinkened and inflamed, with black bags forming around his lower eyelids. A distorted rumbling noise could be heard as the edited image was shown. These edited images would be shown only for one and a half seconds before resuming back to the episode. These happenings continued at least six more times.
Fans of SpongeBob would turn to social media or online fan forums after seeing them, with most of them talking about contacting Nickelodeon somehow and explaining what exactly was happening with proof. Most of the people who investigated did this via email, while others went out of their way to contact corporate.
As mentioned before, six of these incidents would occur, and during the final episode airing, the same incident would occur one more time. Though this time, instead of switching back to the episode that was currently showing, the screen cut to a plain white background. After a short moment, a transparent image of a SpongeBob doodle faded in at the bottom of the screen. In a slideshow-type format, text would appear on-screen, showcasing insulting and degrading messages that were seemingly unproofread, theorized to be targeting the Nickelodeon staff. The transcript read as follows:
"You are all so goddamn negative all the time, day after day hour after hour you're always upset expecting better. I wish you would for once shut your mouth and act like a decent human being for once in your life, think of the poor kids you brainwash with your festering attitudes, I'm ashamed to even be in the same room- no. The same planet as you are! Oh you poor poor baby, poor pitiful you, sad over the truth? You are an adult acting like an infant and it makes me sick.
Well boo hoo! Fuck all of you! Fuck it all! You're the reason art is DEAD. You're all the reason I relapsed! I'm done...
Ugly sick disgusting abhorrent, horrid- you make me want to vomit!"
Once the last line of text appeared on screen, a loud, yet poor quality recording would play of what sounded like a real mental breakdown. Recounts of the incident told that the sounds consisted of a middle-aged man grunting and groaning, with glass shattering and assorted objects being smashed near the microphone. This would last for around twenty seconds before cutting to the same on-screen graphic mentioned previously.
It was soon revealed that these incidents were meant to be a sick joke concocted by a disgruntled employee, named Armond Raphael Ramsey. It was speculated that he planned to quit working for Nick, but wanted to show the viewers how he felt. Armond was restrained in the Nickelodeon corporate office and arrested on July 19, 2009. He was soon charged with computer tampering, sentenced to four years of probation, and fined $2000 for the signal intrusions.
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