45 Funny Facts About SpongeBob That Nobody Will Tell You!

The popular animated character of SpongeBob SquarePants is instantly recognized by all Americans, regardless of their age.

The character is not only enjoyed by children, but even grownups who want to take a leap into nostalgia watching their favorite cartoon on screen. SpongeBob and his antics have been providing us entertainment since 1999 when the character was first seen on the television.

SpongeBob and his supporting characters – Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Gary, Squidward Tentacles, Sandy Cheeks – gained even more popularity after the first movie came out in 2004.

The concept of making a yellow sea sponge the main character of an animated series was the brainchild of Stephen Hillenburg, a marine science teacher who had wanted to develop a series for children.

The cynical characters in the show appealed to adults because of underlying motifs which cannot be understood by the target audience – children – who found the show funny. The show is so famous that when a fungus was discovered in 2011 with a slight resemblance to a sea sponge, it was named Spongiforma squarepantsii.

Tom Kenny voices SpongeBob who once laughed so hard while recording an episode that he fell on the floor laughing.

SpongeBob SquarePants is very popular even outside the United States of America. Children from all over the world line up outside toy shops for figures of the characters and storybooks featuring them. Movies are still being made as episodes of the show continue pouring out for fans.

Fasten your seatbelts as we dive into the fascinating world of SpongeBob and his friends. We only have one question for you: ‘Are you ready, kids?’

The Creation Details Of SpongeBob

SpongeBob SquarePants first came out as a television series in 1999. But have you ever stopped to wonder how a sponge came into fruition to keep thousands of eyes glued to the screen? Let us take you into the creative journey of one of the greatest animated characters of all time.

The creator of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenburg, pursued marine science as his major and art as his minor. While growing up, he developed quite a fascination for the sea and sea life, as well as a passion for art. Both of these helped in the founding of SpongeBob SquarePants later on in his life.

Hillenburg completed his bachelor’s degree in marine science from Humboldt State University located in Arcata, California in 1984. His subject was natural resource planning with an emphasis on marine resources.

Besides drawing, Stephen Hillenburg worked as a teacher and loved educating students at the Ocean Institute, which was previously called the Orange County Marine Institute located in California.

Viewers of the television series are well aware of the fact that SpongeBob is employed at Krusty Krab as a fry cook. It is a fact that Stephen Hillenburg himself had once worked as a fry cook.

A few years after his graduation from high school, he worked as a lobster boiler and a fry cook at an eatery in Maine.

Many figures in the show are based on an unpublished comic book by Hillenburg. When he was teaching in the Ocean Institute, a director of the institution asked him to create an educational comic book regarding tidal pools and the organisms living in them.

This is how the comic book ‘The Intertidal Zone’ came out in 1984, which featured anthropomorphic sea creatures. These would later go on to become popular figures in the future.

A prominent character in the book was Bob the Sponge who was a co-host of the comic. He was the favorite character of Hillenburg, a sea sponge that later inspired him to make SpongeBob.

The difference lay in the shape of the two. While SpongeBob has the shape of a kitchen sponge, Bob the Sponge looked like a round sponge. Hillenburg wanted to publish his book but failed to do so due to facing rejection by publishers.

The scientist gained admission to the California Institute of the Arts and pursued the animation program after he realized he wanted to focus more on art than marine science. He completed his Master of Fine Arts in the field of experimental animation, and this is when his animation career took off.

He was initially the director of 'Rocko’s Modern Life' and began developing the soon-to-be-famous 'SpongeBob SquarePants' series after the former show got canceled.

Stephen Hillenburg and his crew developed the idea for SpongeBob, but they needed to pitch it to Nickelodeon to finance the show and air it. The job of the crew involved convincing the executives at Nickelodeon that the show was worthy of being telecast on television.

The team decided to risk everything during the pitching. Stephen wore a Hawaiian shirt and brought a boom box to play Hawaiian music.

There was also an underwater terrarium filled with character models from the show. A cartoon drawing of the main protagonist was dropped into the fish tank by Hillenburg, and he said, 'This is the star of your new show.'

The resounding success of the pitch can be ascertained from the fact that two of the executives were forced leave the room during the pitch as they needed to compose themselves from too much laughter. The team received funding from Nickelodeon and was given two weeks for developing the pilot episode.

The pilot episode titled ‘Help Wanted’ was loved by the Nickelodeon executives so much that immediately after screening, they wanted to watch it once again due to its unique humor.

Character Features Of SpongeBob

The character of SpongeBob was inspired by sea sponges in the oceans. The creator, Stephen Hillenburg, having a marine science background, knew about the environment under the water and made proper use of his knowledge when he developed the show for Nickelodeon. Let’s look at some of the features of SpongeBob.

Viewers have often found it difficult to find out the age of SpongeBob and whether he is an adult or a teenager. He is seen in driver’s ed at all times and is quite immature in the episodes. But he also has a place of his own and even has a full-time job.

The confusion gets cleared in one episode when his driver’s license is seen on screen and now fans know everything – kind of. The license says that SpongeBob was born on July 14, 1986, and that means he is a teenager of 13 years when the series first aired in 1999.

That means he is 35 years old now. The license also shows that he had yellow hair and clears up another confusion that he indeed has hair and is not only a solid piece of yellow sponge.

The title character of SpongeBob SquarePants is voiced by Tom Kenny. He has won many awards through the years such as the Annie Award in 2010 for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production.

He has even won two Daytime Emmy Awards. Tom Kenny has voiced many other famous characters, like The Mayor and The Narrator in 'PowerPuff Girls', Ice King in 'Adventure Time' and Dog in 'CatDog'. His wife, Jill Talley, provides the voice of Karen, the computer wife of Plankton in SpongeBob SquarePants.

Tom has also given the voice of Patchy the Pirate, the live-action host in some episodes of SpongeBob. The difference in the voices shows the versatility in the voice of Tom Kenny.

The Friends Of SpongeBob

The various characters in SpongeBob SquarePants have elevated the show to the standards for which it has become so popular all across the globe. The quirkiness in them makes the show enjoyable for viewers. Some of the interesting facts about these characters are discussed in the following section.

The character of Mr. Krabs was inspired by a specific person in the life of Stephen Hillenburg. While he worked as a fry cook in the seafood restaurant, he had a hot-tempered manager who was also a former army cook.

He had a strong Maine accent which sounded like a pirate to Hillenburg. All of these traits can be found in the character of Eugene Krabs in SpongeBob. The fixation of Mr. Krabs on money was added by Hillenburg to give him a distinctive personality.

The Krabby Patty is the main item of the Krusty Krab, and Mr. Krabs never revealed the secret ingredient for it.

Plankton had only one thing in mind – to find the secret formula. Fans have theorized that crab meat is used in the Krabby Patty due to its name, and also because of the fact that the building of the Krusty Krab resembles a lobster trap.

It has since been clarified by the creator of the show that the food item is vegetarian and is not made with any meat.

The always grumpy Squidward Tentacles is not a squid as his name suggests. He is actually an octopus but with six limbs instead of the normal eight. The reason for portraying him like this is that eight legs would have hampered the visual portrayal of the character.

Patrick Star is the best friend of SpongeBob who is one of the favorite figures among fans of the show. He is portrayed as ignorant of the world and is used for a humorous purpose.

He is a pink starfish character and gets into trouble regularly as he is not very bright. Before the show was finally developed, Hillenburg created the character as an angry bar owner. Later his personality was changed to resemble an actual starfish – slow and dull, but can be quite aggressive if it wants.

Hillenburg did not want to use celebrities to provide voices for characters as he feared people might compare the show to ‘The Simpsons.’ Tim Conway and Ernest Borgnine were two exceptions to this rule when the first three seasons aired as they played superheroes, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.

Later, many celebrities have made guest appearances in either episodes or movies. These include the names of David Hasselhoff, Johnny Depp, LeBron James, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, David Bowie, and Scarlett Johannson, among many others.

Some of them were fans of the show themselves, or their children love the show. Big names like Victoria Beckham, Pink, and Amy Poehler have also starred as voice actors on the show.

The Personality Of SpongeBob

SpongeBob’s personality was developed by Hillenburg while he was writing his comic book. The beloved talking sponge achieved stardom on an international level after the series was shown in many countries. The personality of SpongeBob SquarePants has its own traits.

The cheerful and optimistic personality of SpongeBob has drawn millions of fans to the show. Hillenburg drew inspiration from many of his favorite figures for the character. This includes Jerry Lewis, Charlie Chaplin, Pee-wee Herman, and Stan Laurel.

The square shape of SpongeBob represents his square personality. He is a childlike figure who is very energetic.

Nickelodeon had originally wanted SpongeBob to be a school-going child for their target audience. This went against the vision of Hillenburg as he has imagined SpongeBob to be an adult with childlike innocence. He almost quit before he reached a compromise with Nickelodeon, and SpongeBob was developed as an adult going to boating school.

The original name of SpongeBob was SpongeBoy, and the title of the show was ‘SpongeBoy Ahoy!’. However, the name was already copyrighted for a mop name, but Hillenburg kept the ‘sponge’ in the name because he worried that kids may mistake SpongeBob for a block of cheese.

SpongeBob has a pet snail whose name is Gary. SpongeBob likes to go out blowing bubbles and jelly fishing with his best friend Patrick. He is a cheerful character who is ambidextrous, meaning he can write with both hands.

SpongeBob constantly fails to pass his driving test. It does not matter the number of times he has tried. He is very much scared of the dark and cannot swim, although he lives in the ocean.

SpongeBob lives in a pineapple home as Hillenburg imagined he would like the smell of the fruit, and smell is a significant sense for all sea animals. His body has 27 holes.

SpongeBob is employed at the Krusty Krab, and he has a Krusty Krab play set with accessories and action figures.

More Facts About SpongeBob

The show, 'SpongeBob SquarePants' is set mostly in Bikini Bottom, an underwater city dominated by SpongeBob and his friends. The fictitious location is inspired by Bikini Atoll, a real location in the Pacific Ocean.

It is a former nuclear test site in the USA. Apart from sea animals and fish, nobody goes near the place. Many fans have theorized that the figures in the show have come up as an after-effect of nuclear testing.

A fungus was named after SpongeBob SquarePants in 2011. American mycologists Kabir Peay, Thomas Bruns and Dennis E. Desjardin first discovered it in Lambir Hills National Park located in Malaysia. It has a sponge life body and a musty smell.

It was found that the genus of the fungus is Spongiforma, thus it was given the name Spongiforma squarepantsii. You can see the resemblance of the name with SpongeBob SquarePants. The fruit bodies of the fungus are very similar to SpongeBob, thus, the name.

'The SpongeBob SquarePants' movie of 2004 had David Hasselhoff appear as himself who rescued Patrick and SpongeBob. A larger-than-life replica of the actor was used in the film, which was about 12 ft (3.6 m) in height. Hasselhoff acquired it later, which cost about $100,000 of the total budget of the movie.

Avril Lavigne sang the theme song in the SpongeBob movie in a Canadian punk-pop style. ‘SpongeBob And Patrick Confront The Psychic Wall Of Energy’ is a song sung by the Flaming Lips. The song ‘Ocean Man’ was provided by Ween, which originally was used in their album ‘The Mollusk’ that came out in 1997.

Robin Williams was friends with Tom Kenny, and he was a huge fan of the show. It is regrettable that the legendary actor could not give his voice for SpongeBob, but he made a live-action appearance on the tenth anniversary of the show – the double-length episode ‘Truth Or Square.’

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