List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters

The characters in SpongeBob SquarePants were created by artist, animator and former marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg. In addition to the series' main cast, various celebrities have voiced roles in SpongeBob SquarePants. Notably, Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway voice the roles of recurring characters Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy respectively, while others have taken a cameo part.

Creation and conception

Stephen Hillenburg conceived the characters for SpongeBob SquarePants in 1984, while he was teaching and studying marine biology at what is now the Orange County Ocean Institute.^[1] During this period, Hillenburg became fascinated in animation, and wrote a comic book entitled The Intertidal Zone starring various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters,^[2] including "Bob the Sponge", who was the co-host of the comic and resembled an actual sea sponge as opposed to SpongeBob.^[3] In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue his dream of becoming an animator.^[2][3]

Main characters

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) is the title character and the main protagonist of the series of the same name. He is 25 years of age and is a sea sponge who physically resembles an artificial, kitchen-type sponge and lives in a pineapple house. He is often shown in the series working at a fast-food restaurant called the The Krusty Krab as a fry cook. He seems to worship the Krabby Patty. SpongeBob's hobbies in the show include practicing karate with Sandy, catching jellyfish and blowing intricate bubbles with Patrick. He attends Mrs. Puff's Boating School, but has never passed; his lack of a driver's license serves as a running gag throughout the series. He (so far) appears in every episode in the series. He is often seen at his job. It is implied that although he has no experience, he has talent in the arts. He also is on the feminine side due to trademark issues. Green and purple were early color choices for the character before his classic and current yellow was chosen. He is weak and fragile, shown in MuscleBob BuffPants when he can't lift a glass of tea, and he claim's to be "pumping iron" with his plush toys. His first appearance was in "Help Wanted".^[4] He is voiced by Tom Kenny.

===Patrick brain. His first appearance was in "Help Wanted". He is voiced by Bill Fagerbakke.

Sandy Cheeks

Sandy is the name of an anthropomorphic female squirrel from above the surface from Texas, and it is for this reason that she speaks with a Southern accent. She has shown a number of tomboyish interests, such as "sand-boarding" and karate, and is a rodeo champion. She also is a phenomenal scientist and inventor, and she resides in a tree inside of a glass air-bubble so she may breathe, and it is for this reason that she dons a space-suit and glass helmet when outside of her tree-dome so she can breathe underwater. Also, whenever any aquatic creatures from the series enter her home, they are required to wear glass helmets filled with water on top of their heads so they can breathe. Sandy's voice is provided by Carolyn Lawrence.

Squidward Tentacles

Squidward Tentacles is SpongeBob and Patrick's next-door neighbor; an ill-tempered, grouchy octopus with a large nose and a rather snobby attitude. He adores playing his cherished clarinet, which he has been shown to bring to bed with him at night sometimes, and loves to paint self-portraits in all sorts of different artistic styles, which he hangs up all around the walls of his Easter Island head house. He abhors SpongeBob and Patrick for their irritating, disruptive personalities and would rather lead a peaceful life as a famed musician and painter instead of as a cashier at the Krusty Krab, which is his current occupation. Squidward is voiced by Rodger Bumpass.

Mr. Krabs

Captain Eugene Harold "Armor Abs" Krabs (Clancy Brown) is an extremely cheap and greedy red crab.^[5] He lives in an anchor with his daughter Pearl. He is the owner of the Krusty Krab, as well as SpongeBob and Squidward's employer. He is 69 years old and is very self-contented and intelligent. He has a grandfather named Redbeard. The Krusty Krab was originally a retirement home called "The Rusty Krab" which Mr. Krabs bought after returning from fighting in the war. But then it went bankrupt, so he changed it into a restaurant and re-named it "The Krusty Krab". In some episodes, it is shown that he has a mutual crush on Mrs. Puff. It is revealed in the episode "Sleepy Time" that he was born November 30, 1942. His first appearance was in "Help Wanted". He is voiced by Clancy Brown.

Plankton

Sheldon James Plankton (Doug Lawrence) is owner of the Chum Bucket and arch enemy of Mr. Krabs. He is always trying to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula but is always unsuccessful. He often thinks and speaks of evil anarchist points of view and wishes to rule the world. He sells chum which is disgusting slop of innards and blood that is often used to attract sharks and other predatory fish. He has a computer wife named Karen, who is actually a "W.I.F.E." (Wired Integrated Female Electroencephalograph). Karen usually gives Plankton ideas to steal the Krabby Patty formula, which he often censors out and takes them as his. Plankton and Karen's marital relationship is often shown as very dysfunctional. His first appearance was in "Plankton!". He is voiced by Doug Lawrence.

Gary

Garold "Gary" The Snail (Tom Kenny) is SpongeBob's pet sea snail. Within the series, snails are analogous to cats, so Gary almost always vocalizes like a feline.^[6] Despite this, other characters can understand and communicate with him. Depicted as a level-headed character, Gary sometimes serves as a voice of reason for SpongeBob, and solves problems that his owner cannot. He is sometimes nicknamed "Gare-Bear" by SpongeBob, and it is revealed in "A Pal for Gary" that his full first name is Garold. He's voiced by Tom Kenny.

Recurring characters

• Mrs. Puff (Mary Jo Catlett) - A pufferfish with blonde hair, who is the owner and teacher of a boating school (analogous to driving school, as the "boats" are underwater equivalents to cars). She dreads instructing SpongeBob due to his inability to drive without crashing. As shown in the episode "Krusty Love", Mrs. Puff once dated Mr. Krabs.
• Pearl Krabs (Lori Alan) is Mr. Krab's 16-year-old (as of the episode "Whale of a Birthday") sperm whale daughter. The series has yet to explain their disparity in species, although in the book SpongeBob's Trivia Book, Mr. Krabs explains that Pearl takes after her mother, meaning her mother was a whale, too. Pearl is frequently embarrassed by her father's cheap attitude, and often forces him to try and change his habits.
• Karen (Jill Talley) is Plankton's nagging computer "WIFE" (as in an acronym for "Wired Integrated Female Electroencephalograph"). She apparently has a mind of her own, to the point of making fun of Plankton. Karen usually helps Plankton in his schemes to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula although on occasions Plankton rejects her ideas and then takes them as if they were his own. It is revealed in the movie that she never agreed to marry Plankton. Karen also made a cameo in an episode of The Fairly OddParents called "Love Triangle". She is the monitor at the hospital after Foop catches a disease.
• Mermaid Man (Old: Ernest Borgnine, Young: Adam West) and Barnacle Boy (Old: Tim Conway, Young: Burt Ward)^[7] are two elderly and partially senile superheroes who live in a retirement home, whom SpongeBob and Patrick watch on television. Mermaid Man is the older of the two and is the leader, while Barnacle Boy is his sidekick. It is most likely that they are parodies of Aquaman and Aqualad, although the fact that their young versions are sometimes voiced by Adam West and Burt Ward hints that they parody Batman and Robin. Mermaid Man is known for completely forgetting things, yelling "EVILLLLL!" whenever he hears the word, and Barnacle Boy seems to be the smartest of the two. It is implied in an episode that they are brothers. The male counterpart to a mermaid is a merman; Borgnine was briefly married to Ethel Merman.
• Larry the Lobster (Doug Lawrence) is a lobster lifeguard of the Goo Lagoon. Larry is a bodybuilder and workout fanatic. He was considered a lifeguard on "SpongeGuard on Duty", but in other episodes, he is not and simply just hangs out at the beach. Despite his large and muscular physique, he is sometimes shown to be somewhat of a coward.
• Scooter (Carlos Alazraqui/Clancy Brown) - A lavender-colored fish who enjoys surfing. He allegedly died and became an angel in the second-season episode "Bubble Buddy", except he also returned in future episodes. Scooter talks like a stereotypical surfer dude, but in future episodes he had different voices each episode he appeared in. He is mainly seen at Goo Lagoon.
• Nat Peterson (Dee Bradley Baker & Tom Kenny) - A male yellow fish that is a common background character on the show. His last name is revealed in "Missing Identity" and his first name was revealed in "Plankton's Regular". He first apppeared on the fifth episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, "Ripped Pants", as a cameo. He appears in many episodes, especially the newer ones. His biggest role is in "Plankton's Regular".
• The Flying Dutchman (Brian Doyle-Murray) is an irascible pirate ghost named after a ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman. He lives underwater in a giant ship, and collects souls. He has supernatural powers, such was intangibility, levitation, teleportation, energy projection, shapeshifting, interdimensional travel, matter transmutation, and wish granting.He is known for having numerous awards in tying loops but however does not know how to tie shoelaces as reveald in " Loop De Loop" and hangs a sock on his ghostly tail. It is revealed in "Shanghaied" that he cannot eat without his sock.
• The French Narrator (Tom Kenny) speaks at the start of some episodes and during intertitles in American English with a French accent. He is shown in the series as a scuba diver with a TV camera. On the November 16, 2004 episode of the NPR program Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Kenny admitted that Jacques Cousteau was the inspiration for the French narrator, as series creator Stephen Hillenburg considered him an idol.
• Patchy the Pirate (Tom Kenny) is a live-action character who is a pirate and the president of the SpongeBob fan club who lives in the city of Encino, California. He is shown whenever there are spongebob specials as he most often host them. Although sometimes it is just a title sequence of him saying "this is a spongebob special". He made a special guest star appearance on Big Time Rush in the episode "Big Time Beach Party" with Carlos Pena, Jr. and Logan Henderson.
• Potty the Parrot (Stephen Hillenburg and Paul Tibbitt) is Patchy the Pirate's marionette parrot. He is shown to pull pranks on Patchy and shuns him at almost every episode they appear on.
• Erain (Doug Lawrence) is a live-action announcer and news anchorfish, resembling a cut-out of a bass fish. Erain appears in numerous episodes, including the beginning intro theme of the show. His name is revealed to be Erain in "The Great Patty Caper", though he is known as Johnny in Battle for Bikini Bottom.
• Harold SquarePants (Tom Kenny) and Margret Bubblebottem SquarePants (Sirena Irwin) are SpongeBob's parents, who more resemble sea sponges rather than SpongeBob's shape as a kitchen sponge. It is implied in the episode "A Squarepants Family Vacation" that Harold is not Spongebob's real father and could possibly be his stepfather.
• Squilliam Fancyson III (Dee Bradley Baker) is Squidward Tentacles's wealthy arch-rival who has been able to succeed in everything Squidward has only dreamed of doing. He and Squidward compete in the series on many reasons and Squidward normally does not wins their competition(s), although there are some episodes where Squidward is triumphant. Squidward and Squilliam are also cousins.
• Mrs. Krabs (Paul Tibbitt/Sirena Irwin) is Eugene's overbearing mother first appearing in "Sailor Mouth". Plankton has a small crush on her in "Enemy in Law". but it is later revealed he is only dating her for the Krabby Patty formula. She is also shown to be quite poor while raising her son through his childhood, as shown the episode "Friend or Foe?".
• Man Ray (John Rhys-Davies & Guy Siner/Bob Joles) and the Dirty Bubble (Charles Nelson Reilly/Tom Kenny) are villains against Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. Man Ray (not the famous photographer of the same name) has a man's body with a ray shaped mask and helmet, while the Dirty Bubble is portrayed as a literal giant bubble with a face. Charles Nelson Reilly was the primary voice actor for the Dirty Bubble, but Tom Kenny has portrayed the character in one episode after Reilly's death in 2007.
• Perch Perkins (Dee Bradley Baker) is a news reporter. He first appeared in "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" as an announcer for the Krusty Krab 2. He appears as a minor character in the series afterwards having his purple color from the movie changed to orange.
• Dr. Forrest (Rodger Bumpass) is Bikini Bottom's doctor, often seen in the hospital. His name is revealed in "Slide Whistle Stooges" and "Shuffleboarding". He is mostly purple, and has occasional appearances throughout the series, but in the episode "Once Bitten", there is a similar looking doctor that looks like Dr. Forrest, except he is orange and goes by the name Dr. Gill Gilliam.
• Officers Nancy and John (Sirena Irwin & Dee Bradley Baker) – Officer Nancy (a purple female cop fish with blonde hair) and her partner John (an orange fish) are the two most commonly seen cops in Bikini Bottom, most prominently in Season 3. The two officers, especially Officer Nancy, are seen less in recent episodes, but their latest appearance was in "Mr. Krabs Takes a Vacation" where thanks to Mr. Krabs two bank robbers crash through the roof of their police car and land in their backseat without them having to do anything.
• Nancy Suzy Fish (Sirena Irwin) is an often seen, but infrequently heard, yellow dress-wearing, white-haired fish. Her name was revealed in "Good Old Whatshisname".
• Old Man Jenkins (Doug Lawrence, Tom Kenny, and Dee Bradley Baker) - An elderly fish who used to live in the Rusty Krab rest home before it became the Krusty Krab restaurant, and currently resides at Shady Shoals Retirement Home along with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. His appearance changes in almost every episode he appears. His most memorable appearance is in "The Sponge Who Could Fly" as the antagonist when he becomes Sailor Jenkins and Cannonball Jenkins after giving up farming. He is friends with Mama Krabs as seen in "Sailor Mouth" and his first major appearance, "Friend or Foe?".
• Fred (Doug Lawrence), better known as the guy who shouts "MY LEG!", is a brown fish who was the first of the regular generic character models to appear in the series. He first appears in "Reef Blower" but the famous quote does not come until "Boating School". Fred is most often seen at the Krusty Krab, such as in "Arrgh!", when he screams "MY LEG!" after Mr. Krabs throws him out of the Krusty Krab, and in "Jellyfish Hunter", when he sings about a jelly sandwich he eats. Fred's name is revealed in "Patty Hype".
• Tom (Mr. Lawrence) – Tom is a green fish who wears a purple shirt. He is always seen walking around Bikini Bottom. His most memorable appearance is in "Chocolate With Nuts" when he chases SpongeBob and Patrick all over town screaming crazily, "CHOCOLAAAATTTE!". Finally he catches up with them but just wanted to buy all of their chocolate. Episodes such as "Pizza Delivery" and "Fools in April" show that he has a habit to obsess over his drinks, often to a violent extent.
• Tina Fran is a pretty light red fish who wears a blue dress and skirt. She is one of Pearl Krabs's friends seen in Squeaky Boots. Her name was revealed in "Hall Monitor," where she attended Mrs. Puff's Boating School.
• Mary (Sirena Irwin) – Mary (or "Lazy Mary" as she's called by her mother) is an eldery fish who lives in Bikini Bottom with her even more elderly, grumpy mother. She is very annoyed about having to take care of her mother who is very mean to her.

Minor characters

• Painty the Pirate (Patrick Pinney) – A painting of a pirate head that sings the SpongeBob SquarePants theme. Painty also makes minor appearances in several episodes.
• Bubble Bass (Dee Bradley Baker) – An obese Bass who is SpongeBob's rival since he is picky about food. He made his first appearance in "Pickles," and also appears in "F.U.N." when SpongeBob and Plankton are at the movie theatre. He made a third appearance in "Plankton's Good Eye" where he is saved from his burning house by Plankton.
• Bubble Buddy (Brad Abrell) – A bubble friend that SpongeBob makes himself after Patrick, Sandy and Squidward were too busy to play with him. He causes a lot of trouble in Bikini Bottom such as fussing over his order at the Krusty Krab, paying Mr. Krabs with bubble money and hogging the porta potty at Goo Lagoon. He leaves Bikini Bottom at the end of the episode but returns when he wants SpongeBob to babysit his son, Shiny who causes even more trouble than his father.
• Stanley S. SquarePants (Christopher Guest) – SpongeBob's cousin who has a similar appearance to SpongeBob, but is much taller. SpongeBob and Stanley try to help each other whenever possible. Stanley is accident-prone and causes destruction wherever he goes.^[8]
• Flatts (Thomas F. Wilson) – A mean flounder who went to boating school with Patrick and bullies SpongeBob at Mrs. Puff's boating school in the episode "The Bully," for whom Poppy (Mary Jo Catlett) appreciates for that decision. He was first seen in "Sandy's Rocket," and later "Texas".
• Grandma SquarePants (Marion Ross) and Grandpa SquarePants (Tom Kenny) – SpongeBob's grandparents. Grandpa SquarePants is mentioned in past tense and Grandma SquarePants lives alone and sometimes treats SpongeBob like he is still a little sponge. Grandma SquarePants made her first appearance in the episode "Grandma's Kisses". She did not make her next appearance until the 2007 episode "Blackjack". She made two more appearances in the episodes "The Abrasive Side" and "Pet Sitter Pat".
• Neptune XIV of the Pacific (Paul Tibbitt/John O'Hurley (series) and Jeffrey Tambor (movie))^[7][9] – The king of the ocean, King Neptune is a massive magical green merman with red glowing hair, although he looks slightly different from one appearance to another. Neptune also appears as one of the movie's characters, although with a very different appearance, including a blindingly bald head; in the movie, he is also shown to have a daughter named Mindy. In "SpongeBob and the Clash of Triton", it is shown that he has a son named Triton and is married to Queen Amphitrite. His name is also used frequently as a substitute for "God" in colloquial phrases (e.g. "Sweet mother of Neptune!" and "What in Neptune's name is that?").
• Jack Kahuna Laguna (JKL) (Johnny Depp) – A surfer who prefers to be called JKL, and helps SpongeBob, Patrick and Squidward get home by teaching them how to surf.^[10] He only appears in the special episode "SpongeBob vs. The Big One". His initials are most likely a parody of Matthew McConaughey's mantra of "Just Keep Livin'" from his role in Dazed and Confused.
• Jim the Former Frycook (Patton Oswalt) – A rich fry cook who formerly worked at the Krusty Krab and later quit because Eugene did not give him a raise in his pay. He now works at the finest restaurants of Bikini Bottom and visits the Krusty Krab sometimes. He is much wealthier than Mr. Krabs. He appears in "The Original Fry Cook".
• Lord Royal Highness (David Bowie) – The king of the lost city Atlantis. L.R.H seems to have somewhat of an extraterrestrial appearance. He only appeared in the special SpongeBob's Atlantis SquarePantis .
• Lord Poltergeist (Tim Curry) – A pirate ghost who is the former first mate of the Flying Dutchman. He took the Dutchman's treasure while going for a pizza and never returned. He now haunts a boat house in Bikini Bottom with 3 of his own mates. In "Ghoul Fools" the Dutchman returned to take back his stolen treasure and punish Poltergeist and his crew with eternal torment.
• Janet (Clea Lewis) and Marty (Thomas F. Wilson) – Patrick mistakes them for his parents. They appear in the episode "I'm With Stupid".
• Kelpy G (Rodger Bumpass) – Squidward's favorite smooth jazz clarinet player. He first appears in "The Thing" and makes another appearance in "Smoothe Jazz at Bikini Bottom" when SpongeBob and Squidward sneak backstage at one of his concerts. SpongeBob ends up playing ukelele with Kelpy on stage after he was so impressed with SpongeBob's talent. The character is a cephalopod version of saxophonist Kenny G.
• Nicolas Withers (Alton Brown) – The host of the House Fancy television show, in which Squidward and his rival Squilliam were competing against each other over whose house was better.
• Triton (Sebastian Bach) – King Neptune and Queen Amphitrite's son. He is also the brother of Mindy even though Mindy was not shown in the episode "Clash of Triton". Triton was always fascinated by the "mortal" world. When King Neptune destroyed Triton's cure for all "mortal" diseases, Triton confronts King Neptune, forcing King Neptune to lock him away in a cell that shrinks 7% of the way. Triton's first appearance was on the episode "Clash of Triton".
• Mindy (Scarlett Johansson) – King Neptune's and Queen Amphitrite's daughter (who has so far only appeared in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) who tends to be sweeter and kinder than her dad, and helped SpongeBob and Patrick with their journey in the movie. Unlike her father King Neptune, brother Triton and mother Queen Amphitrite, Mindy has never been seen using magical powers. Patrick seems to have a crush on Mindy, often calling her pretty and hot. Interestingly, she does not appear alongside her family in "Clash of Triton". This absence is unexplained.
• Queen Amphitrite (Victoria Beckham) – The wife of King Neptune, and the mother of Triton and Mindy. She tends to be very caring of her husband, even though it is not proven she shows a minor dislike for Mr. Krabs, after he called her a prankster on the phone pretending to be Amphitrite.
• Blackjack SquarePants (John DiMaggio) – SpongeBob's older and meaner cousin who used to bully SpongeBob as a child in the episode "Blackjack". He was arrested for littering and then released. SpongeBob had thought Blackjack would be a huge brutish sponge who was planning to murder his parents, and set out to find them by visiting members of his family. When SpongeBob had reunited with Blackjack, it is shown that he had apparently not grown since he and SpongeBob last saw each other (when SpongeBob was a toddler), making him about as tall as SpongeBob's foot.
• Dennis (Alec Baldwin (Mercenary) and unknown (SpongeBob's classmate)) – an assassin hired by Plankton to kill SpongeBob and Patrick in the movie. His last battle with the two was on David Hasselhoff and most likely died when about to squash SpongeBob, hit by a passing boat and fell to the bottom of the sea. There is also another more recurring character with the same name who was one of SpongeBob's former Elementary school classmates.
• Redbeard Krabs (Dennis Quaid) – The pirate grandfather of Mr. Krabs who only appeared in the episode Grandpappy the Pirate. His desire was for Mr. Krabs to follow the family tradition and grow up to be a pirate.
• Lord Reginald (Rik Mayall), Dr. Marmalade (Nigel Planer) and Professor Percy (Christopher Ryan) – Sandy's chimp bosses who come to check on her in "Chimps Ahoy."
• Master Udon (Pat Morita) – A real estate con man who tried to get Sandy and SpongeBob to buy into his vacation condo scheme on "Karate Island". Despite having large muscles Sandy is easily able to defeat him (after he captures SpongeBob) by kicking him out a window and falling into the water. He survives and returns at the end of the episode when Squidward shows up at what is now "Clarinet Island."
• Gordon (Ian McShane) – The leader of the Vikings that visit the Krusty Krab, after receiving a letter from SpongeBob in "Dear Vikings."
• Madame Hagfish (Kristen Wig) – An old fortune teller who supposedly curses the Krusty Krab after Mr. Krabs refuses to sell her a patty after the Krusty Krab is closed in "Curse of the Hex." It turns out she didn't curse the Krusty Krab at all and just puts a closed sign out front.
• Grandma (Amy Poehler/Tom Kenny/Sirena Irwin) - An elderly woman who mistakes Gary for her snail, Miss Tufsy after finding him in an alley in "Have You Seen This Snail?." She also appears in "Shuffleboarding" where she is arrested for being too old by SpongeBob and Patrick (working as Mermaidman and Barnacleboy) and "Choir Boys" where she plays the piano for the men's choir. She also makes cameos in "Boating Buddies" and "Gramma's Secret Recipe".
• Sergeant Roderick (Robin Sachse) – An extremely strict driving instructor (He is a Shark) who took Mrs. Puff's place in the episode "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired". Even though Roderick is considered the best driving teacher by the Boating Teachers Creditation Bureau he was still unable to get SpongeBob to pass his class.
• Health Inspector Yellowtail (Dee Bradley Baker) – A Health Inspector that visits the Krusty Krab in "Nasty Patty." SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs think they killed him after they serve him a tainted patty that they prepair for him when they think he is a fake. He makes a second appearance in "The Krabby Kronicle" when he shuts down the Chum Bucket after Mr. Krabs prints a fake story in his newspaper about Plankton.
• Alternate-Universe SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) - An "alternative universe" variation of SpongeBob SquarePants who appeares normally confined in mirrors. He has only been named on-screen in one episode, but has appeared roughly five times.
• Raargh is a blue coral monster who befriends SpongeBob and Patrick in The Monster Who came to Bikini Bottom. He says his name by shouting it out.

Reception

The characters of SpongeBoob SquarePants have been well-received overall. The titular character SpongeBob has become very popular with both children and adults. The character's popularity has spread from Nickelodeon's original demographic of two to eleven-year-olds, to teenagers and adults,^[11] including college campuses and celebrities such as Sigourney Weaver and Bruce Willis.^[12] The popularity of SpongeBob translated well into sales figures. In 2002, SpongeBob SquarePants dolls sold at a rate of 75,000 per week, which was faster than Tickle Me Elmo dolls were selling at the time.^[13] SpongeBob has gained popularity in Japan, specifically with Japanese women. Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom purposefully targeted marketing at women in the country as a method of building the SpongeBob SquarePants brand. Sceptics initially doubted that SpongeBob could be popular in Japan as the character's design is very different from already popular designs for Hello Kitty and Pikachu.^[14] However, the characters have also attracted negative reception, including SpongeBob himself, who was listed as number four on AskMen's Top 10: Irritating '90s Cartoon Characters. SpongeBob SquarePants was ranked on TV Guide's top 50 cartoon characters.^[15]

Arthur Brown, author of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!, has compared Squidward's voice to that of Jack Benny's.^[16]

Appearances in other media

The characters of SpongeBob SquarePants have been parodied various times in popular culture. In 2007, the Amsterdam-based company Boom Chicago created a SpongeBob parody called "Back to Work!" in which a Chinese Patrick refuses to go to work and advocates freedom of speech and rights of leisure and income.^[17] During the same year, production company Camp Chaos created a SpongeBob parody entitled SpongeBong HempPants which features five of the series' characters parodied in the form of various drugs.^[18] The series has received mixed reviews from television critics; Adam Finley of TV Squad believed the series sounded "hilarious on paper", but ultimately did not demonstrate its full potential.^[18] SpongeBob and Patrick have a root were also referenced in Phineas and Ferb when they dug a hole and found a sponge and a seastar. SpongeBob and Patrick also have an appearance in the Disney show Good Luck Charlie when Charlie's parents have a pink square and a yellow star puppet and are performing a potty training show on a fake television set.

References

General

• Banks, Steven (September 24, 2004). SpongeBob Exposed! The Insider's Guide to SpongeBob SquarePants. Schigiel, Gregg (Illustrator). Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon. ISBN 978-0689868702. 

Specific

External links

• List of characters at SpongePedia
• Full list of SpongeBob SquarePants characters at the SpongeBob SquarePants Wiki