As he drew a sea sponge character, he originally wanted to use the shape of a natural sponge, but later decided that a "squeaky-clean square" would better portray a nerdy personality.Īn early colored sketch portrayed SpongeBob as wearing a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. "What's the weirdest animal? The sponge came to mind," he recalled in 2012. He wanted the title character to be an under-represented creature, with the rest of the main characters being iconic and easily recognizable sea animals: a crab, a whale, and a starfish.
Hillenburg revisited the concept of The Intertidal Zone in 1996 when he started sketching concepts for a cartoon series about undersea life. Bob the Sponge, a natural sea sponge with sunglasses, was the "host" of the book. The book was intended for children and taught about the behaviors of different sea creatures. While Stephen Hillenburg worked as a teacher of marine science at the Ocean Institute in California, he authored an educational book called The Intertidal Zone. SpongeBob with his real-life counterpart, as seen in the book Underwater Friends. In this promo art, he is shown with his scientific classification. SpongeBob is a poriferan, better known as a sea sponge. SpongeBob and sometimes his family appears or is mentioned in every episode of the series, beginning with the series' pilot episode " Help Wanted." He is voiced by Tom Kenny, who is married to Karen Plankton's voice actress, Jill Talley. In The SpongeBob Musical, SpongeBob's exact species of sea sponge is identified: Aplysina fistularis, a yellow sea sponge who's commonly found in open waters. SpongeBob is very good-natured and loves to hang out with his best friend Patrick.
Unfortunately, he tenses up whenever he has to drive a boatmobile, and he drives recklessly. Puff's Boating School, and his greatest dream in life is to receive his boating license. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab, a job which he is exceptionally skilled at and enjoys thoroughly. SpongeBob is a childish, joyful, dim-witted, and clumsy sea sponge who lives in a pineapple with his pet snail Gary in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Hillenburg based SpongeBob on Bob the Sponge, a character he had created for his educational book " The Intertidal Zone" in the late 1980s. He was designed by the former marine biologist, Stephen Hillenburg. SpongeBob SquarePants (born J) is the main character of the animated series of the same name.
Looking for more TV recommendations and discussion? Head over to our Facebook Group to see new picks every day, and chat with other readers about what they're watching right now. SpongeBob SquarePants airs on Nickelodeon, with some episodes also available on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.ĭigital Spy now has a newsletter – sign up to get it sent straight to your inbox. SpongeBob Squarepants is many things to many people, and asexual is one of the most important of all.
While it's not clear which specific form of queerness best describes SpongeBob, it's vital that the conversation surrounding him acknowledges his character's asexuality regardless. SpongeBob and Patrick aren't even from the same species, but that hasn't stopped them from holding hands, dressing up in drag together, and even raising a clam baby as their very own. Why Good Omens boss won't label characters as gayĪfter all, the queer gender politics of SpongeBob Squarepants are more complex than most, and that's thanks largely to how each character connects in fluid and often homoerotic ways.