Just call him SpongeBob ScarePants. Panic-stricken TikTokers are tracing their fear of butterflies to a crucial episode of the cartoon “SpongeBob SquarePants,” which premiered on Nickelodeon in 1999.

I knew about Nosferatu from Nosferatu decades before watching the movie, and became familiar with the beats of horror films from the show as well. In “Rock Bottom,” Spongebob gets stranded in a creepy ...