SpongeBob: A Comedy Masterpiece for All Ages

What gives SpongeBob SquarePants such longevity and reach is its humor, which can appeal to a wide range of audiences — from toddlers to children to kids at heart. Interestingly, Factsite reports that in 2024, around 25% of the show’s viewers were adults with no kids (1). 

In a 2018 feature for the Guardian, Stuart Heritage suggests that while Spongebob’s offbeat comedy, nestled among the zippy, whizz-bonk visuals, is first aimed at a younger audience, it is sophisticated enough to catch adults’ interest (2).

Audiences of different ages take different things from the animation. Heritage adds that very few shows can do that, and on that account, SpongeBob SquarePants is a masterpiece of perfect entertainment. 

Uncovering the Real-Life SpongeBob

Spongebob’s “heritage” goes way back. According to Aylin Woodward (Business Insider, 2019), there are more than 8,500 species of sponges, and the creatures have lived in the ocean for the last 600 million years (3). Their shapes and textures vary depending on whether they live on soft sand or hard, rocky surfaces.

There’s evidence that a specific type of sponge bears a striking resemblance to Spongebob himself. In fact, marine scientist Christopher Mah even came across a sponge-and-starfish duo during a diving expedition on July 28, 2021, at Retriever Seamount, an underwater mountain 200 miles east of New York City (4). 

Mah believes the square-shaped sponge belonged to the genus Hertwigia and the species of sponges. He was surprised by its bright yellow color, which is unusual for the deep sea. The scientist also noted that most things that far down are orange or white to help them camouflage in the dimly lit environment.

Similar to Spongebob, the rest of the comical characters of Bikini Bottom are inspired by actual creatures of the deep blue sea. That’s not surprising since the show’s creator, Stephen Hillenburg, trained initially as a marine biologist and then transitioned into science education before ultimately pursuing animation as his career path (The Guardian, 2018) (5).

Spongebob Was Formerly Called Spongeboy

When creator Stephen Hillenburg created the yellow sponge character from Bikini Bottom, Hillenburg named the main character Spongeboy, writes Brock Wells in Comic Book Resources in 2022 (6). 

This initial name coincided with what Nickelodeon wanted Spongboy to be: a boy who attended school. However, Hillenburg was adamant that he wished Spongeboy to be an adult and compromised by creating Ms Puff’s boarding school so that Spongeboy would still attend school. 

Eventually, due to trademark issues, Hillenburg had to change the character’s name to Spongebob, adding a last name to match the absurdity of the character and show.