SpongeBob SquarePants is the principal character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, which first aired on May 1, 1999 on Nickelodeon. The character was designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, and is voiced by Tom Kenny.
SpongeBob SquarePants character | |
SpongeBob SquarePants | |
---|---|
Gender | Male |
Color | Yellow/Green holes |
Eye Color | Blue |
Species | Sea Sponge |
Genus | Porifera |
Birthday | July 14 |
Height | 4 inches (10 centimeters) |
Weight | 1 ounce (30 grams) |
Address | 124 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean |
Occupation(s) | - Krusty Krab Fry Cook - Krusty Krab Co-Cashier (The Algae's Always Greener) - Krusty Krab waiter (Squilliam Returns), (Enemy In-Law) - The Krusty Krab 2 Manager (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) |
First appearance | Help Wanted |
Family | Father (Mr. SquarePants) Mother (Mrs. SquarePants) Grandfather (Grandpa SquarePants) Grandmother (Grandma SquarePants) Uncle (Sherm SquarePants) Cousin (Todd SquarePants), |
Pets | Gary the Snail Lary the Snail (Short Time) Jerry the Snail (Short Time) Rex the Worm (Short Time) Mystery the Seahorse (Short Time) A jellyfish (Short Time) Shelly the Scallop |
Ancestors | Primitive SpongeBob (SB-129) SpongeGar (SpongeBob B.C.). |
Descendants | SpongeTron (SB-129) |
Friends | Patrick Star Squidward Tentacles Sandy Cheeks Larry Lobster Pearl Krabs Eugene Krabs Sheldon J. Plankton (F.U.N.) Bubble Buddy Chip Penny Used Napkin Krusty Krab Hat Squeaky Boots (short time) Righty (his right hand) Soda Drinking Hat |
Boss | Eugene H. Krabs |
Enemies | Sheldon J. Plankton Dirty Bubble Man Ray Sneaky Hermit Flats Strangler Bubble Bass |
Portrayer | Tom Kenny |
Interests | Jellyfishing, bubble blowing, Fry Cooking, Singing, and Karate. |
Favorite TV Shows | The Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy |
Favorite Foods | All Krusty Krab Menu items, Krabby Patties with Jellyfish Jelly, seanut butter sandwiches, kelp bread, sundaes, including union sundaes, Kelpo cereal, Bran Flakes cereal, cookies, and seahorse milk. |
Favorite Holiday | April Fool's Day |
Awards | 374 Employee of the Months Outstanding Achievement in Achievement 74 Good Noodle Stars |
Appearance
SpongeBob is a porous sea sponge with eyes, a mouth with prominant front teeth and dimples, arms, legs, hands and feet. He resembles a kitchen sponge more than a sea sponge, to emphasise the image of a "squeaky-clean" nerd. SpongeBob has the ability to morph into other shapes at will, and reassemble pieces which fall off of him. His arms can become variable in length and shape at will and are retractable.
SpongeBob typically wears a white shirt, a tie and brown trousers although he has been known to run naked (or in his underwear). As a part of the attire, his shoes are shining black, with a spheric bulge at the front (although still a part of the shoe proper, unlike the balls of clown shoes). He usually wears a pair of white briefs underneath his pants, although he has been seen wearing blue, green, and red briefs (all at the same time, nonetheless) and even pink to honour his best friend, Patrick. At night, he sometimes has a green bathrobe on but mostly goes to sleep with his underwear, socks and shoes. When he goes "swimming", he wears a pair of blue swimming trunks (although he still wears his underpants and shoes, and his arm sleeves come on and off from time to time) and occasionally a black speedo. He also wears a red bow tie in exchange for his necktie on special occasions. SpongeBob can be seen naked in Ripped Pants, Hooky, Nature Pants, Pranks a Lot, and more recently, naked with bare feet in All That Glitters because he sold everything he owned (including his shoes and socks) for a fancy spatula.
General
SpongeBob is described as extremely sweet, kind, funny, generous, cheerful, friendly, happy, loving, hard-working, annoying (according to Squidward) and most of all, trusting. He has a buck-toothed grin, tremendously expressive face and square body that complements his pure and good nature. SpongeBob will rarely knowingly do wrong or harm to anyone except on April Fools Day and never without remorse. However, he has been known to shout and curse (even "obscenities") when angry or frustrated. Although he is an adult, he has a very childish nature, shown to great effect in the episode Grandma's Kisses, at which he is at his most childish.
Although a good-natured and loving sponge, many characters seem to avoid him. SpongeBob is very easily overexcited about almost anything, like simple daily tasks and things of which he doesn't know of (such as when Squidward invited him to strike at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob celebrated for it although he never heard the word before). This, along with his repetitive talking and loud dolphin-like laughter makes him a huge annoyance to others, especially Mrs. Puff, Squidward,and Plankton.
He has been known to have enormous difficulty lifting even the lightest of objects. Normally though, he can function at a reasonable level. SpongeBob's insides and skeleton have been shown various times (eg. when he appears 'dead' in some future 'flashbacks'), but every time they appear different. His skeleton varies from a simple spine, although he is an invertebrate, to a perfect square. He cannot be harmed in fights due to the fact that he is a sponge; this is depicted in the episode The Bully when SpongeBob is being bullied. When the bully actually fights him, SpongeBob does not feel a thing, and, rather than fighting back, continues to go through his day normally, until the bully is too worn out to keep fighting. However, in Safety Freak, he broke his backside in a skiing accident.
SpongeBob has one pet, a snail named Gary (analogous to a cat on land. In comparison, a worm is analogous to a dog on land). Gary's meows are generally understood by most of the residents of Bikini Bottom. Despite a few unusual/unexpected quarells, SpongeBob loves Gary dearly and enormously and can't do without him. Gary usually has solutions to help SpongeBob out of his dillemas. Gary and SpongeBob live together in a pineapple under the sea at 124 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom (this address was seen on SpongeBob's driver's license in the episodes Sleepy Time and No Free Rides).
SpongeBob also is suggested to have very good mathematical skills and thus, knows many calculations involving money, as hinted in Squid's Day Off.
Career
SpongeBob has a career as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab restaurant, home of the Krabby Patty. He takes his job seriously and is very good at it. He was employee of the month over twenty six times, which would mean he has worked there for two years and two months. Then, in The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, he has had 374 consecutive employee-of-the-month awards, which would mean he has worked there for thirty-one years and two months. According to U.S. labor laws, this would put his minimum age at around fifty two years, two months, but in the episode Sleepy Time, his 'driver's license' says he was born on July 14, 1986. He works alongside Squidward (much to Squidward's dismay), who manages the cash register for his money obsessed boss, Mr. Eugene Krabs. SpongeBob, in some episodes, seems to have attained a celebrity like status in Bikini Bottom for his masterful fry cooking. In an episode where SpongeBob and Squidward go on strike, he is referred to as a "legend" by a young fry cook who wants to take his job and is asked to sign the young boy’s spatula. In another episode, he is offered a job as Neptune's fry cook, but turns it down because Patrick was forbidden to go with him. SpongeBob has never been a minute late for his job (except in Hooky - he was two minutes late because he got hooked - and in Have You Seen This Snail? - he was fifteen minutes late because he was so tired after searching for Gary). SpongeBob also failed to attend on time in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, where he was several minutes late after eating ice cream all night with Patrick at Goofy Goobers, and being passed over for a promotion. He often prizes his punctuality as in "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler", where he has a party for his 100 percent ontime percentage, and another party 20 seconds later for his birthday.
Leisure
He spends his free time with his best friend Patrick Star, and especially enjoys practicing karate with his other friend Sandy Cheeks (a squirrel from Texas who wears a space suit to breathe underwater), as well as catching jellyfish at Jellyfish Fields. To date, he has caught, named, and let go every jellyfish in Jellyfish Fields at least once, except the blue jellyfish, No name(A.K.A. Friend) until later in the episode: "Jellyfish Hunter."
SpongeBob has yet to keep a boating license (analogous to a driver's license) because he fails every driver's test at Mrs. Puff's Boating School, mainly due to a tendency to become nervous once behind the wheel (he has been shown to know what he's doing everywhere but inside the boat). Despite this, he perpetually and continuously attends boating school in an attempt to get his license (and because he enjoys it), much to the woe and frustration of his boating instructor Mrs. Puff. At one point, Mrs. Puff becomes so frustrated she gives SpongeBob his boating license by allowing him to do "extra credit". She then takes it back realizing how much chaos he could cause with his license. When Mrs. Puff is fired in Mrs. Puff, You're Fired, SpongeBob's new teacher actually trains him so much, that SpongeBob can drive very well, but only if he is blindfolded.
In many episodes, and most SpongeBob video games, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, it is suggested he has brilliant guitar and singing skills. He also likes to blow bubbles, surf, sun bathe, play the ukulele, watch his favorite TV show, The New Adventures of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and work at the Krusty Krab.
Controversy
SpongeBob SquarePants, like many other Nickelodeon shows, has had to endure controversy at one point or another. However, due to the show's almost "extreme" popularity, the controversy surrounding it has been proportionally less than with other programs.
Trivia
- SpongeBob's welcome mat in front of his house says "Ahoy!".
- Different Languages
- In the German version of the show, SpongeBob's name is SpongeBob Schwammkopf which means "SpongeBob SpongeHead".
- In the French version of the show, SpongeBob's name is Bob L'eponge, which means "Bob the Sponge".
- In the Norwegian and Danish version of the show, SpongeBob's name is SvampeBob Firkant, which means "SpongeBob Square".
- In the Korean version of the show, SpongeBob's name is 네모네모 스폰지밥 (Nemonemo SpongeBob), which means "SquareSquare SpongeBob".
- In the Latin American version of the show, SpongeBob's name is "Bob Esponja" (pronounced Bob Espon-haa), which is a literal translation of the English name. It should be noted, however, that in this case "Esponja" is the character's last name, while the "SquarePants" portion of the original English name is dropped altogether (except in Brazil, where his surname is "Calça-quadrada", also a literal translation of the English surname).
- In the Greek version, he is called Μπομπ Σφουγγαρακης Τετραγωνοπαντελονης (Bob Sfougarakis Tetragonopantelonis). Tetragonopantelonis is a literal rendering of SquarePants, while 'Bob Sfougarakis' means 'Bob the little sponge'. Due to this, he is mostly referred to simply as Bob in the Greek version, rather than his full name.
- SpongeBob's name is written in the Carbon Block word style.
- SpongeBob's voice is described as a combination of the mayor of Munchkinland from The Wizard of Oz and Elroy Jetson from The Jetsons.
- SpongeBob's character was influenced by Jerry Lewis, Pee Wee Herman, and Charlie Chaplin.
- SpongeBob was originally going to be called SpongeBoy, but the name was already trademarked.
- The creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, Stephen Hillenburg says he didn't want SpongeBob to just be named Bob, because then people would confuse him with a piece of cheese.
- SpongeBob wasn't always a square. Before he was depicted as a luffa.
- The Spanish theme song on the British SpongeBob DVD is not the same as the American DVD Spanish version of the theme song.
- SpongeBob's first words: "May I take your order?"
- In some language versions SpongeGar and SpongeTron's names appear as BobGar and BobTron.
- The LEGO SpongeBob SquarePants building sets made by LEGO will include a minifigure version of SpongeBob as well as other characters from the show. One of the sets includes a sculpture of SpongeBob.
- It is rumored that SpongeBob's birthday could be July 14, 1986. His 'driver's license' (either fake or temporary) is seen in the season 1 episode, Sleepy Time, from Mrs. Puff; as well as in the season 2 episode, No Free Rides, both with the same date. However, the show's creator, Stephen Hillenburg has mentioned that he wishes for SpongeBob to remain ageless, like other classic cartoon characters
- SpongeBob cannot lift two stuffed animals or even two marshmallows; however he can lift a spatula, shovel, garbage, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, and other large objects.
- Although SpongeBob has claimed several times he's an invertebrate, when his skeleton has been shown on certain occasions it appears to have a backbone.
- In the episode Procrastination, when SpongeBob is shown staring at his paper, the title reads "What not to do at a Spotlight" rather than the correct "What not to do at a Stoplight".
- In particular SpongeBob Season 4 episodes, SpongeBob appears more green than yellow if observed closely.
- To create SpongeBob's laugh, Tom Kenny hits his throat with his hand repeatedly while saying, "Ahh."
Cultural References on SpongeBob
- In the Fat Man and Little Boy episode of Matt Groening's The Simpsons, there is a satire of SpongeBob named ScratchBob ItchPants.
- In Sleepover, Julie calls Russell "SpongeBob" three times.
- In Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, there is a scene in which a family in a foreign country is watching the episode Jellyfishing in their own language.
- Wooldoor Sockbat's character in the Comedy Central TV show Drawn Together is a parody of SpongeBob SquarePants.