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.

Born with Autism (formerly classified as Asperger syndrome), Tyler B. Searle has been obsessed with storytelling since he was old enough to speak. He gravitated towards fairy tales, mythology, the ...