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.

Cultural phenomena aren’t often yellow and seldom absorbent, and almost never live in a pineapple under the sea. In those and many other ways, SpongeBob SquarePants is exceptional. Since the ...