"Are You Happy?" episode of SpongeBob made me remember my depression.
It's basically about Squidward being really depressed, not even cartoonishly over-the-top depressed, just really fucking miserable and apathetic. Throughout the ep Spongebob tries to cheer him up but fails until the end where he makes a ton of carton replicas of himself and Squidward gleefuly destroys those and achieves "happiness" by doing so.
This episode doesn't really have any meaning and I shouldn't be thinking about it, but any person who's gone through depression knows that "the solution" in the end is not an actual long-term solution but just a cheap stimuly of happiness for a moment, after which Squidward is gonna spiral right back into hating everything. I know it's a silly cartoon not meant to be taken seriously, but it just made me think about how normal people perceive depression as a concept, as something that can just be brushed off with a single positive experience, and pass this view on to kids through media. That was just kinda sad.
