What Are The Flowers Clouds in SpongeBob?

Gng just because I referred to them as flowers doesn't mean they are I just didn't know what else to call them 😭🙏

I have a theory that the flowers in the sky could be algae, phytoplankton or cyanobacteria.

i always thought they were stylized plants, and you could say them moving and stuff is just simple cartoon logic (since it's common for cartoons to make inanimate objects seem alive)

what the Flowers actually are is just random details Hillenburg put in so the backgrounds weren't just blue gradients, SPF-129 doesn't have them cuz the background is already detailed enough

The flower cloud's design just looks so 70's.

My theory is that they are algal blooms. Algae form amorphous, blobby shapes, float through the water near the surface, come in many colors, and are alive. They aren't solid but they only appear solid in a few specific gags and, well, Spongebob is Spongebob.

Why cant stylistic choices just be stylistic choices? They’re meant to look like designs seen on those Hawaiian shirts

The flowers are simply another species of sentient sea life living in the Bikini Bottom area. Instead of living on the ocean floor like the other Bikini Bottomites, they live nearer to the surface.

Ifs just a floral design to make it look tropical.

Maybe there’s no flower clouds in sb-129 because of the fog and maybe the sky is muddied up

I always thought they were added mainly for artistic reasons- breaking up spaces in the backgrounds that would otherwise be large voids of blue also early spongebob backgrounds were often much more abstract than the backgrounds have become in more recent seasons. if you look around in old episodes, you'll often notice highly stylized objects. I'd say that the flowers are one of the last surviving holdovers from that era, mainly because you can't get rid of them without greatly changing the look of outdoor spaces in spongebob

Siphonophores

I think it's some kind of an amoeba that in real life actually looks similar and it's in the sky to make it look not bland

I thought that was coral for some reason

Boat person to clarify, Typically you don't want your Engine on when trying not to disturb fish, that would explain why they seem to gather when the "Flowers" aren't spinning, and each scene transition is a bubble screen, so that could be the boats spinning up and "Scaring all the fish away" so to speak

Dudes over here asking the real questions

I always thought that these were some abstract representation of various sea organisms, like cnidarians, cnethophors, or plankton, etc.

Pretty sure its alge taking the form of an orchid/hibiscus flower given the fact that its the pacific ocean that spongebob takes place in for the majority of the series. Hibiscus flowers are also popular when it comes to decorating. The flowers are nothing more than a stylized decoration for the background itself.

I just think they are flowers that float on the water surface

Spongebob is a weird show, but yet it works. So many mysteries, theories, and secrets. Also their was a theory about the fishes houses, like it being part of an engine, IDK 😅. Also, keep up the good work 👏.