Queerness has historically played a deep role in cartoons, from Ursula in The Little Mermaid being heavily influenced by the drag queen Divine, to the covert queer undertones of characters like Fred and Velma in Scooby-Doo. Then earlier this month, we saw it again as a Pride tweet from Nickelodeon that contained a picture of SpongeBob was jokingly taken as him coming out as unequivocally queer, leading the fight for LGBTQ+ rights and being true to his authentic self. The subsequent Pride season saw the internet joke make the crossover to IRL, with Babadook cosplays, signs and flags. We saw it in the spring of 2017 when Australian horror film The Babadook was mistakenly added to Netflix’s LGBTQ+ films section, setting the internet ablaze with memes about the top-hat wearing monster (who honestly did spend a large amount of time in closets) finally coming out.
