Mass Hysteria In Spongebob Squarepants Episode 'Wormy'

Mass hysteria illustrates situations where people’s psychological distress is converted into physical symptoms. Whereas, due to a stressful or alarming event, people are filled with fear and anxiety, which makes them vulnerable to become captivated by the actions and feelings of others around them. This causes them adopt those same feelings, symptoms, or beliefs, whether they are actually true or not. Representations of mass hysteria are evident in many forms, whether it is in a cartoon, a picture, a piece of literature, or everyday life. Sometimes, through those forms, the idea of mass hysteria is used to satirize an event and convey a message. Mass hysteria is a psychological and neurological issue that instills fear within the minds of people,

creates and wreaks havoc, and controls the emotions and reactions of those people.
Mass hysteria starts when someone, something, or a group of people create or perceive false or inaccurate accusations, statements, or events. According to journalist John Waller, epidemics of hysteria tend to rely on the power of suggestion, and are nourished by fear, sadness and anxiety. Sometimes this may occur unintentionally or intentionally. The effects of mixing fear and anxiety within a group of people often leads to mass hysteria. This can be seen in real life or in fiction, such as cartoons –political or comical–, novels, television shows, or social media.
For instance, a great example of mass hysteria caused by fear is a SpongeBob Squarepants episode called “Wormy”.

During the episode, SpongeBob and Patrick have to house sit for Sandy the Squirrel who has a pet caterpillar, a land creature that they have never seen before. After a few days of house sitting, the caterpillar transitions into a butterfly and SpongeBob and Patrick are confronted with the new being. They have never seen such a thing and immediately begin to fear that this “unknown creature” will eat them and the entire town as well. In the end, SpongeBob and Patrick alert the town about the terrifying and mysterious beast, thus causing everyone to go into a complete panic. They begin to fear for their lives and begin to burn down the buildings, run around crazily, and ransack businesses (“Wormy”). This episode is a cogent example of how people’s fear creates hysteria. Since no one knew any facts about the butterfly, they immediately became afraid and speculated the worst. The only reason the towns people acted in such a way was because they saw how frightened SpongeBob and Patrick were, so they did so as well, thus creating a frenzy fueled by fear within the community

(“Wormy”).
There are many detrimental consequences due to mass hysteria. One being that it causes havoc. When people begin to contribute to the elements that cause mass hysteria they do things that aren’t sensible or logical. Further evidence can be seen in the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller, where innocent people are persecuted and hanged because of irrational actions of the court. The play consists of a time in Salem Massachusetts, where a young, devious girl by the name of Abigail coerces a group of girls to lie and blame innocent people of witch craft for her own personal gain. Because of these accusations, the courts in Salem, falsely arrest and penalize blameless individuals. “I'll tell you what's walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (2.4.63). John Proctor alludes that the so called “god appointed court” is taking the accusations of children as the only form of evidence and are being irrational for not collecting evidence and gathering the truth. Everyone, including the court officials, create havoc as a result of mass hysteria because they killed innocent people and turned their peaceful town on its head. This consequence of mass hysteria causes people to act without regard for logic and rationality.
There have been instances in the world where people have proven that in hysterical situations their emotions and actions are influenced by others around them. Thus, making them experience things physically that may only be psychological. For instance, in 1965, in Blackburn, England, several females attending a boarding school all of a suddenly reported being dizzy and some had even fainted (Waller). By the middle of the day, about 140 more students were also complaining of feeling those same symptoms. The authorities had even gone as far as to take about 85 of them to the hospital(Waller). Originally, it was recorded as a serious and very contagious disease that was rapidly spreading. But, after the medical official conducted several test nothing seemed to be physically wrong with any of the students (Waller). This instance thus concludes to the fact that because a few people began to experience sudden feelings of faintness and dizziness, other people allowed that to sway them as well, making them think that they were actually undergoing those symptoms when they were not.
There are many more cases of mass hysteria that date far back into history and into the events of today. An example would be McCarthyism, which is where Joseph McCarthy made accusations claiming that many Americans were communist. This caused the nation to become frightened of the threat that their next door neighbor may be a communist. Not only that, those people were also afraid of being falsely accused of having any hand in communism. So, people began to contribute to the mass hysteria by accusing and attacking people in order to either help the campaign of McCarthyism or divert it away from themselves.
Another instance of mass hysteria would be the 2012 crisis of the world ending. According to a Mayan calendar, a 5,125 cycle called the Long Count signaled the ending of the world (Barry). Through this sudden realization, people around the world began to act hysterically. In a Russian prison anxiety over the coming doomsday had gotten so intense that the inmates were having seizures and becoming sick (Barry). Although there was no actual scientific proof of these accusations, people were so fear stricken by the mere thought of the world ending that they began to drive themselves to illness. According to Dr. Leonid Ogul, people should not even speak of the concept of the world ending, simply because “everyone has a different nervous system, and this kind of information affects them differently. Information acts subconsciously. Some people are provoked to laughter, some to heart attacks, and some — to some negative actions” (Barry). This statement further qualifies that people’s rash and reckless actions can further heighten the intensity of mass hysteria.
Moreover, a very recent example of mass hysteria would be the outbreak of Ebola.

There has been an enormous commotion because the disease has invaded the U.S. and closely affected its citizens. In a political cartoon, drawn by Mike Luckovich, there are four United States citizens acting hysterically due to the broadcasting of the outbreak of Ebola. One citizen says “Folks with Ebola are in the U.S. for treatment.” Other people begin to comment, “They’ll infect us; We’re gonna die; Run!” (Luckovich). This cartoon demonstrates the fear that creates mass hysteria because the citizens immediately come to the conclusion that since someone with the disease has entered their community, they’ll die. Furthermore, havoc is created because the last citizen yells “Run”, which that action in itself could cause an entirely new issue (Luckovich). That one word being yelled could cause people to be hurt or even killed, just because of the speculations and fear of Ebola. Likewise, their emotions of fear and being in danger are deepening the hysterics of the situation because they feel as if they will be infected as well. Without finding the facts of the disease and understanding its elements, people subject themselves to sense of idiocy, according to the CDC (Luckovich). This instance is a reference of how the fears, actions, and emotions of supposedly sane and reasonable citizens are beginning to make them run around and act like chickens with their heads cut

off.
The implications that create mass hysteria are often decisions people make out of fear or ignorance. In the sense that, because a person or people are not knowledgeable about a situation or occurrence, they create delusions in order to ease their minds. The consequences of those actions though, lead to an even bigger issue. Mass hysteria spreads quickly, like that of a burning match in a bountiful forest. It is easy for one tree to catch fire then suddenly, there are twenty more trees on fire. Mass hysteria acts in a similar way. One person begins to generate fear and act irrationally then suddenly ten other people catch on to those same fears and actions creating a detrimental domino affect.
The effects that cause mass hysteria have a huge impact on the well-being of people as a whole. Simply because, after people get over their hysterical fits, they have to deal with the consequences of their actions that created the hysteria in the first place. Sometimes mass hysteria acts as a dark cloak that covers peoples sense of intelligence, heightens their ignorance and changes their conceptions of reality. According to Waller, “It takes only the right kind of fear, suggestion and false belief to trigger epidemic hysteria or mass delusions.” Mass hysteria is an event caused by the actions and heightened emotions of people; it generates havoc, and is built from fear simply because of something unknown.