He described them as “somewhat asexual.” Nevertheless, The Journal story spawned countless “Is SpongeBob gay?” blog posts, foreshadowing the future of internet journalism. Hillenburg saying SpongeBob and friends were not intended to be gay. The story clarified that “Nickelodeon says SpongeBob is aimed at kids two to 11 years old, and isn’t intended to appeal to homosexuals” and quoted Mr. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, singled out SpongeBob for promoting a “pro-homosexual” agenda, The Times wrote.Įarlier, The Wall Street Journal had explained in 2002 that SpongeBob had become a popular camp figure among adult gay men. According to The Times in 2005, nothing in the video referenced sexual identity. SpongeBob appeared in it, alongside many other cartoon characters. How?Īt the center of the issue was a music video that used children’s television characters to promote tolerance and diversity. Well, for starters, in 2005, some religious conservatives accused SpongeBob of promoting a gay agenda. But the criticism spreads beyond “SpongeBob” haters and has placed the show at the center of the culture wars. Like most popular things, SpongeBob has drawn his fair share of detractors. So this show is really popular, remixed a ton and is universally beloved? And with its high episode count, the show offers a lot of cultural references. “SpongeBob” was so ubiquitous at the beginning of the 21st century that references to the show are widely understood. At one point in the late 2000s, the show even aired on late-night MTV, surrounded by psychedelic, tie-dye bumpers.Īll the while, the show continued to gain fans among new classes of kindergartners who eventually grew up to ruin the internet. As internet remix culture developed, so did they. Remember, “SpongeBob” really took off when many early online meme creators were children. (Fine, I’ll leave the jokes to the “SpongeBob” writers.) The other thing that happened: SpongeBob’s quirky underwater world saturated the internet just as it was rapidly expanding. When the musical was set to make its debut on Broadway in 2017, The New York Times reported that the “SpongeBob” franchise had been responsible for more than $13 billion in merchandise sales.
#SPONGEBOB YOUR GAY MEME MOVIE#
“SpongeBob” has also spawned video games, comic books and two movie adaptations. The cartoon is currently in its 11th season and has aired more than 230 episodes, making it Nickelodeon’s longest-running series. Nineteen years later, the show is still running. Who else is there?Īmong the principal characters in “SpongeBob SquarePants” are a dimwitted starfish named Patrick who lives under a rock, a surly octopus named Squidward Tentacles who resides in a moai statue, a parsimonious crab who owns a fast-food restaurant, a teenage sperm whale who is somehow the crab’s daughter, a Texan squirrel in scuba gear and a plankton bent on world domination who is married to an apparently waterproof supercomputer. The town is kind of an aquatic ecosystem unto itself, inhabited as it is by a colorful assortment of anthropomorphic marine animals that you wouldn’t expect to see cohabitating in a tank at your local aquarium. He also happens to live in a pineapple in the undersea city of Bikini Bottom. He’s naïve and fairly pure of heart, generally assuming the best in everyone. He is a rather cheerful, spirited fellow who works as a short-order cook. SquarePants, if you prefer - is theoretically a sea sponge, but he presents as a yellow kitchen sponge who wears a shirt, tie and, as his surname suggests, rectangular brown pants. SpongeBob SquarePants, the sea creature at the heart of the animated television show that bears his name, is an absorbent, yellow and porous sponge. (Be sure to share this story on Facebook before closing the tab.)
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If you’re not in that generation, or if you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed the continued cultural relevance of SpongeBob. The musical won for “Best Scenic Design of a Musical.” But in sharing the slate that year with “Mean Girls” and “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” it was almost as if one generation’s childhood had staged a friendly takeover.
#SPONGEBOB YOUR GAY MEME TV#
When a yellow sponge in rectangular pants came to children’s TV on May 1, 1999, who could have guessed that it would lead to “SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical,” which was nominated in 2018 for 12 Tony Awards? Or that so many would be mourning months later when his creator, Stephen Hillenburg, died at 57. This article was originally published in May 2018.
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“Spongebob Squarepants” debuted 20 years ago.