SpongeBob SquarePants (character)

*This article is about the character. For the series, see SpongeBob SquarePants.*

## Series information

### Portrayer:

Tom Kenny

SpongeBob SquarePants is a yellow sea sponge and the protagonist of SpongeBob SquarePants.

SpongeBob SquarePants was created and designed by cartoonist and marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg, who began developing the show shortly after the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life in 1996. Hillenburg intended to create a series about an over-optimistic sea sponge living in an underwater town.

The character's name is derived from "Bob the Sponge", the host of Hillenburg's comic strip The Intertidal Zone that he originally drew in the 1980s while teaching marine biology to visitors of the Ocean Institute. SpongeBob is a naïve and goofy sponge who works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab.

SpongeBob is depicted as being a good-natured, optimistic, naïve, and enthusiastic yellow sea sponge living in the undersea city of Bikini Bottom alongside an array of anthropomorphic aquatic creatures. He works as a fry cook at a local fast food restaurant, the Krusty Krab, to which he is attached to. At work, SpongeBob answers to Eugene Krabs, a greedy crab who shows SpongeBob favor and loves money, alongside his ill-tempered, snobbish next-door neighbor Squidward Tentacles. His hobbies include jellyfishing, practicing karate at an elementary level, and blowing bubbles.

SpongeBob is often seen hanging around with his best friend Patrick, who lives on the same street as him. SpongeBob's unlimited optimistic cheer often leads him to perceive the outcome of numerous endeavors and the personalities of those around him as happier than they actually are; for instance, he believes that Squidward enjoys his company in spite of the fact that he clearly loathes him.[16] SpongeBob's greatest goal in life is to receive his driver's license from Mrs. Puff's boat driving school, but he panics and crashes whenever he is in a boat.[17] He lives in a submerged pineapple with his pet snail Gary.

## Character

Stephen Hillenburg, a marine biologist and artist, was amazed and fascinated about the ocean and its inhabitants. He started drawing as a child. Later, he created a comic called The Intertidal Zone, starring Bob the Sponge. In 1996, he started to make the series. The host of the comic was "Bob the Sponge" who, unlike SpongeBob, resembled an actual sea sponge. In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue an animation career.

For the show characters, Hillenburg started drawing and took some of the characters from his comic—like starfish, crab, and sponge. At the time, Hillenburg knew that "everybody was doing buddy shows"—like The Ren & Stimpy Show—and thought that "I can't do a buddy show," so he decided to do a "one character" show instead. He conceived a sponge as the title character because, according to him, it is "the weirdest animal." Hillenburg derived the character's name from Bob the Sponge, the host of his comic strip The Intertidal Zone, after changing it from SpongeBoy due to trademark issues.

Hillenburg had made several "horrible impersonations" before he finally conceived his character. Hillenburg compared the concept to Laurel and Hardy and Pee-wee Herman. He said "I think SpongeBob [was] born out of my love of Laurel and Hardy shorts. You've got that kind of idiot-buddy situation – that was a huge influence. SpongeBob was inspired by that kind of character: the Innocent – a la Stan Laurel.

The first concept sketch portrayed the character as wearing a red hat with a green base and a white business shirt with a tie. SpongeBob's look gradually progressed to brown pants that was used in the final design. SpongeBob was designed to be a child-like character who was goofy and optimistic in a style similar to that made famous by Jerry Lewis.

Originally the character was to be named SpongeBoy but this name was already in use. This was discovered after voice acting for the original seven-minute pilot was recorded in 1997. The Nickelodeon legal department discovered that the name was already in use for a mop product. Upon finding this out, Hillenburg decided that the character's given name still had to contain "Sponge" so viewers would not mistake the character for a "Cheese Man." Hillenburg decided to use the name "SpongeBob." He chose "SquarePants" as a family name as it referred to the character's square shape and it had a "nice ring to it".

Although SpongeBob's driver's license says his birthdate is July 14, 1986, Hillenburg joked that he is fifty in "sponge years". He explained that SpongeBob actually has no specific age, but that he is old enough to be on his own and still be going to boating school. The decision to have SpongeBob attend a boat driving school was made due to a request from Nickelodeon that the character attend a school.

## Personality

SpongeBob is mostly shown to be a very eager character and very nautical. SpongeBob is very whimsicle and has a positive attitude and remains positive in the most unpositive and frustrating problems.

## Voice

The voice of SpongeBob was originally used by Kenny for a minor background character in Rocko's Modern Life. Kenny forgot the voice initially as he created it only for that single use. Hillenburg, however, remembered it when he was coming up with SpongeBob and used a video clip of the episode to remind Kenny of the voice. When Hillenburg heard Kenny do the voice, he said, "That's it—I don't want to hear anybody else do the voice. We've got SpongeBob." He said that to Nickelodeon; however, the network said, "Well, let's just listen to 100 more people." Kenny said, "But one of the advantages of having a strong creator is that the creator can say, 'No, I like that—I don't care about celebrities.'" Kenny says that SpongeBob's high pitched laugh was specifically aimed at being unique, stating that they wanted an annoying laugh in the tradition of Popeye and Woody Woodpecker.

SpongeBob's voice evolved from "low-key" to high-pitched. Kenny said, "I hear the change. I hear it. It's mostly a question of pitch." He said that "It's unconscious on my part" because "I don't wake up and think, 'Hmm, I'm going to change SpongeBob's voice today, just for the hell of it." He described it that "It's like erosion: a very slow process. As time goes on, you need to bring him to different places and more places, the more stories and scripts you do." Contrasting first-season episodes to those of the seventh season, Kenny said that "there's a bit of a change [in voice], but I don't think it's that extreme at all."

When SpongeBob SquarePants is broadcast in non-English languages, the voice actors dubbing SpongeBob's voice use Tom Kenny's rendition of the character as a starting point but also add unique elements. For example, in the French version of the series, SpongeBob speaks with a slight Daffy Duck-style lisp.

## Biography

On May 1, 1999, SpongeBob first appeared in episode Help Wanted. He got a job in that episode. He was soon to be a popular fry cook.

On November 14, 2004, SpongeBob starred in his first movie. He and Patrick Star traveled to get King Neptune’s crown in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.

On February 6, 2015, around the time of SBSP season 9, a second movie was made, called The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. They used 3D CGI animation and mixed it with live action recordings.