SpongeBob SquarePants

"♫Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? Sponge Bob Square Pants! Absorbent and yellow and porous is he. Sponge Bob Square Pants! If nautical nonsense be somethin' ya wish. Sponge Bob Square Pants! Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish. Sponge Bob Square Pants! Sponge Bob Square Paaants!♫"

- lyrics from the Spongebob's theme song

"I'm ready!"

- SpongeBob's catchphrase "I am just a kid. And you know, I've been through a lot in the past six days, five minutes, twenty-seven and a half seconds. And if I've learned anything during that time, It's that you are who you are. And no amount of mermaid magic... or managerial promotion... or some other third thing... can make me anything more than what I really am inside: A kid. But that's okay. Because I did what everyone said a kid couldn't do. I made it to Shell City, and I beat the Cyclops, and I rode the Hasselhoff, and I brought the crown back. So, yeah, I'm a kid. And I'm also a goofball. And a wing nut. And a Knucklehead McSpazatron! But most of all, I'm... I'm... I'm... I'm a goofy goober!"

- SpongeBob's speech in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie "Listen, you crustaceous cheapskate! Squidward's been living at my house, driving me crazy, and you're not going to hire him back all because of a stupid dime?!!"

- SpongeBob standing up to Mr. Krabs

SpongeBob SquarePants (born July 14, 1986) is the titular protagonist of the popular animated television series of the same name and is voiced by Tom Kenny. Mainly, he is the primary Fry Cook at the Krusty Krab.

Description
SpongeBob SquarePants is a cute sea sponge, but he is drawn to resemble a kitchen sponge, being rectangular and yellow with an outline. In earlier episodes, he is wider near the top and gets skinnier going farther down. However, in episodes that are more recent, he is more of a regular square shape. SpongeBob has light blue eyes, a long, slightly curved nose, a large mouth with two prominent front buck teeth, and dimples with three freckles on each cheek. In the comic strip Eye Drop, his left eye is called Eyebally. He typically wears a white shirt with a red necktie, black leather shoes with shoelaces, and brown rectangular pants with a black belt (the entire outfit is sometimes referred to as his pants, hence his name). While working at the Krusty Krab, he wears a tall, white hat with a small blue anchor on it as a uniform. SpongeBob sometimes sleeps in his underwear, and at other times pajamas (beginning in Season 5). Though SpongeBob has always been voiced by Tom Kenny, his voice has changed over the course of the series; his voice is lower than normal in the pilot episode, and after the the first movie, his voice gets slightly higher-pitched. In Season 8, his voice gets lower-pitched again. SpongeBob has never passed the driving test at Mrs. Puff's Boating School and is unable to drive a Boatmobile.

Personality
SpongeBob is a clueless, abnormal, immature, fun loving and hyperactive character with a happy-go-lucky personality. He is an extremely determined person, and will often stop at nothing to accomplish a task. He is also somewhat dramatic to the people who are kind to him, for example, to the mailfish. "Karate Island" shows that he is also over-confident. Sometimes, though, he shows his devious side when trying to get Mr. Krabs and Plankton to work together. He sometimes tends to make mountains out of molehills, such as losing his nametag. "Missing Identity."

SpongeBob is very kind-hearted and innocent, and very rarely acts openly mean to anyone, even his enemies. He is a very selfless and loyal person, especially towards those close to him. His selfless nature is most notably shown in "Best Day Ever," where he sacrifices his "perfect day" to help his friends. Despite his well-meaning intentions, SpongeBob's actions often annoy and cause trouble for those around him, most notably his next-door neighbor, Squidward Tentacles.

SpongeBob can become scared easily and usually panics when frightened. He is afraid of the dark (or what is in the dark) "Night Light" and clowns "Rodeo Daze." He also hates hot sauce. "Karate Choppers." Occasionally, SpongeBob is too ignorant to notice impending danger and his unworldly thinking may put himself or others in peril. He also cannot detect lies or malice information as easy as the other characters, mainly due to his naive nature.

SpongeBob's innocence also makes him overly trusting and very gullible, and he is easily manipulated by people who intend to use and/or harm him, such as Squidward, Mr. Krabs and Plankton; most noticeably, he is always easily fooled by Plankton no matter how bizarre or obvious his disguises are. Even though he is generally good-natured and easygoing, when frustrated and angered, SpongeBob can be sarcastic, rude arrogant and 'foul-mouthed' to his friends, even Mr. Krabs, whom he treats as a father figure. Ironically, Squidward is the only character that SpongeBob never insults when he is angry; with the exception of the episodes "Can You Spare a Dime?" and "Breath of Fresh Squidward."

Although SpongeBob has several friends, and many of the citizens of Bikini Bottom often treat him quite friendly, most, if not all, citizens of Bikini Bottom have been shown to have some degree of dislike for him. In the episode "Gone," it is shown that a holiday called "National No SpongeBob Day" has been started by the citizens of Bikini Bottom. As its name suggests, it is an entire day dedicated to getting away from SpongeBob, where the people leave Bikini Bottom for the day. Even Patrick goes, stating that everyone needs at least one day away from SpongeBob's laughter. In the ceremony, they build a giant wooden effigy of SpongeBob, burn it down, dance on the ashes (though some, like Squidward, are actually shown kicking the ashes), and depart Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob is more honored than insulted by this, as he was the "inspiration" for the holiday.

Sometimes, SpongeBob is a nudist. In which he has a tendency to take off his clothes whenever he wants to. He was shown naked in "Ripped Pants," "Nature Pants," "The Paper," "Hooky," "Pranks a Lot," "All That Glitters," "Rise and Shine," "Overbooked," "Stuck in the Wringer," "Model Sponge," and "Gramma's Secret Recipe." SpongeBob got nude when he wanted to live with the jellyfish in "Nature Pants." In addition, in "Model Sponge," SpongeBob got undressed when he is used in a sponge commercial. In "Pranks a Lot," SpongeBob and Patrick had to strip in order to use the Invisible Spray. In "Overbooked," during the presentation, he is requested to undress and enter the machine.

About
He first appeared on television in the series' pilot episode Help Wanted on May 1, 1999. Spongebob was created and designed by the late cartoonist Stephen Hillenburg shortly after the cancellation of Rocko's Modern Life in 1996. Hillenburg intended to create a series about an over-optimistic sponge that annoys other characters. Hillenburg compared the concept to Laurel and Hardy and Pee-wee Herman. As he drew the character, he decided that a "squeaky-clean square" (like a kitchen sponge) fits the concept. His name is derived from "Bob the Sponge", the host of Hillenburg's comic strip The Intertidal Zone that he originally drew in 1989 while studying at the California Institute of Arts.

SpongeBob is dimwitted (although he is smarter than his starfish friend). However, he is goofy and loyal. He lives in a pineapple house in the fictional underwater town of Bikini Bottom.

SpongeBob has achieved popularity with both children and adults, though he has been involved in public controversy. The character appeared in a We Are Family Foundation video promoting tolerance, which was criticized by James Dobson of Focus on the Family because of the foundation's link to homosexuality. SpongeBob is an anthropomorphic kitchen-type sponge with two buck teeth, blue eyes, wears brown rectangular-like pants (probably attached to the white shirt with the red tie), black shoes, and red/blue-striped socks.

SpongeBob is hyper, clueless, honest, kind-hearted, naive, friendly and optimistic. He works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab Resturant in the underwater town of Bikini Bottom. He is also a leader, he loves his job very much and performs it very well, even though his greedy cheap boss Mr. Krabs pays him poorly if not rarely. He can also get very overly reacted. Like from the episode The Bully, he started getting real petrified of getting his butt kicked from new student Flatts the Flounder. But it was turned out that as a sponge, he did not get hurt much after all. SpongeBob also cares for his loyal pet snail, Gary, who only meows like a cat, and loves hanging out with his best brainless friend, Patrick Star, a friendly but dim-witted pink sea star who lives under rock. Their middle neighbor is Squidward Tentacles, a grumpy, ill-tempered and self-centered octopus who lives in an Easter Island Tiki head-shaped house and hates both SpongeBob and Patrick with a passion because of their annoying antics, maturity you would expect from a sponge and starfish, and them always ruining his day. However, they are both unaware of this and believe him to be their closest friend. SpongeBob's other best friend is Sandy Cheeks, an anthropomorphic female squirrel from Texas, who is a highly scientist and karate expert.

He may be served as Nickelodeon's mascot, while being one of the most, if not the most popular fictional character distributed by Nickelodeon.

Strengths
Like many other cartoon characters, SpongeBob has been shown to have numerous extraordinary abilities and attributes over the course of the series (even though physically weak).
 * Soft Pliable Body: Due to his soft, pliable frame, he is capable of shape shifting, has some degree of invulnerability, being able to absorb any type of physical impact, though there are also limits which depend on the plot of episodes he featured in.
 * Regeneration: It is shown that he can quickly regenerate parts of his body that are injured or removed, but given that there are some instance where he shown treated in hospital, how good his regeneration depend on the plot of episodes he featured in.
 * Boneless: SpongeBob mostly portrayed without any bones in his body, but sometimes otherwise depend on the plot of episodes he featured in.
 * Absorbent: Being a sponge, he is also absorbent, and can expand his body by absorbing liquids. When he cries, he often re-absorbs his tears. Like in "The Bully" when Flats kept on hitting him, but SpongeBob just absorbed all of his blows. Although, how good his body can absorb and endure physical trauma still depend on the plot of episodes he featured in. For an instance, with a precise hit, Patrick caused SpongeBob had bruise all over on one of his eyes.
 * Leadership: SpongeBob is a great natural leader for all of his friends in Bikini Bottom.
 * Singing and Nose Playing: SpongeBob is shown to possess a fantastic singing voice and thanks to his physiology, his nose can be used as a flute.
 * Fry Cooking: SpongeBob is highly skillful in cooking Krabby patties at the Krusty Krab as a chef of the said restaurant.
 * Jellyfishing: He has impressive skills in Jellyfishing, and he also has a code to release the captured Jellyfishes everytime he managed to captured one.
 * Tongue Boarding: SpongeBob's tongue can be expanded large enough to be used as the makeshift board.
 * Survival Skills: SpongeBob had remarkable survival skill, where he and Patrick almost ate each other to survive.
 * Bubble Blowing: SpongeBob can perform extraordinary moves with bubbles and even capable to create spectacular variations of bubbles includes bubbles-based constructs which unfortunately, ridiculed by Squidward(perhaps he was the only one) due to their different views about art in general.
 * Enhanced Bubble Blowing: As Invincibubble, his bubble blowing skill improved into superhuman level, as he can conjure destructive bubble tsunami (with help of Plank-Ton), a jet of bubbles for transportation, and bubbles that can carry objects as heavy as cannon balls.
 * Driving: He actually capable in driving, but unfortunately, when SpongeBob drives, the chance of the accident occurs are relatively high, especially in episodes that features Mrs. Puff.
 * Karate: He trains in Karate perfectly, but he rarely mixes them up/performed them properly.
 * Destruction: SpongeBob  has a degree of talent in destruction, but most of the cases shown that he mostly performed this involuntary due to his gullible and reckless personalty. In "Sandy's Rocket", Sandy mentioned that SpongeBob was responsible for accidental death of numerous fishes when his attempt on tampering whirlybird went wrong.


 * Super Speed: As The Quickster, he can moves very fast, but unfortunately lacks any proper training in mastering this ability. Although, he is certainly able to run faster than Patrick when he's about to tell Mr. Krabs in "Sailor Mouth" and Squidward when he's about to chase SpongeBob about the pizza in "Pizza Delivery".


 * Teleportation: SpongeBob is to capable to teleport in various episodes (though merely implied since he teleported off screen). Like in "The Wreck of the Mauna Loa" When he was chasing Patrick in a game of tag, Patrick was looking back at SpongeBob in the other direction, when he imminently bumped into spongebob in front of him.
 * Dreamwalking: In "Sleepy Time", a freak accident during his nightmare when sees his supposed driving license torn by Mrs. Puff to bits resulting his dream self accidentally projected to real world and enable him to enter the others' dreams and even interact within them, revealed that he possesses the ability to dreamwalking. His friends seems to aware with his said powers, as by the end of the said episode, they demand him not to tamper their dream anymore.
 * Ghost Physiology: After he and Patrick accidently shave Flying Dutchman's beard, the powerful ghost cursed SpongeBob and Patrick by stripping them from their flesh and blood, turned them into ghosts. This gave them various ghost powers including intangibility, flight, ectoplasm creation, and turned inanimate object into the said object's ghost version (SpongeBob created ghost version of his spatula by broke the original one, in which ghost version of the said spatula materialized from its remains). Although, Flying Dutchman eventually have to restore SpongeBob and Patrick back to normal due to their newfound cursed powers proved too much for them to handle (SpongeBob can't interact with realm of the living as much as when still normal and accidently made himself passed deeper through earth's crust when sleeping).
 * Climbing Skills: SpongeBob can actually climb on his own house in "Party Pooper Pants".

Skills
Like many other cartoon characters, SpongeBob has been shown to have numerous extraordinary abilities and attributes over the course of the series (even though physically weak).
 * Soft Pliable Body: Due to his soft, pliable frame, he is capable of shape shifting, has some degree of invulnerability, being able to absorb any type of physical impact, shown most notably in the episode "The Bully."
 * Regeneration: It is shown that he can quickly regenerate parts of his body that are injured or removed.
 * Boneless: SpongeBob is usually shown to be boneless (sea sponges being invertebrates), however in some episodes such as "I Had an Accident," bones are shown on his X-rays. He also had bones when he ripped his skin off in "Atlantis SquarePantis," and "The Splinter."
 * Absorbent: Being a sponge, he is also absorbent, and can expand his body by absorbing liquids. When he cries, he often re-absorbs his tears. Like in "The Bully" when Flats the Flounder kept on hitting him, but SpongeBob just absorbed all of his blows. Also, in I Had An Accident, he filter fed through his holes as he was a sponge.
 * Singing and Nose Playing: SpongeBob is shown to possess a fantastic singing voice. He uses his nose as a flute, which he is very good. He was also the lead singer in "Band Geeks." Later he uses his nose flute in "Best Day Ever" to drive away the Nematodes from the Krusty Krab.
 * Fry Cooking: SpongeBob has a job cooking Krabby Patties at the Krusty Krab.
 * Jellyfishing: SpongeBob and Patrick jellyfish in several episodes, in "Jellyfish Hunter"; he caught every single jellyfish in the fields.
 * Tongue Boarding: SpongeBob tongue-boarded in "Pre-Hibernation Week," he can also do it in the Battle for Bikini Bottom video game.
 * Survival Skills: In "To Save a Squirrel," SpongeBob and Patrick almost ate each other to survive.
 * Bubble Blowing: SpongeBob can perform extraordinary moves with bubbles.
 * Driving: He drives perfectly in various episodes, but he drives recklessly on the episodes, which are the appearances of Mrs. Puff.
 * Karate: He trains in Karate perfectly, but he rarely mixes them up.
 * Destruction: Although, he does not know it and thanks to his poor driving skills, SpongeBob is actually skilled at Demolition Derbies. This was shown in "Demolition Doofus" as SpongeBob (who was using the name Le Squish) managed to defeat five other competitors (also surviving against Mrs. Puff.
 * Slide Whistle: SpongeBob has the ability to use the all powerful slide whistle. The Slide Whistle has the ability to teleport, and control either Spongebob or other objects. The whistle also grants SpongeBob the ability to control others slightly like what direction they walk in and other miniscule things. It cannot teleport other people, only the user. The downside of the whistle is that you need both hands to use it, and it can break. The slide whistle is basically the nerfed infinity gauntlet when paired with the infamous pencil.
 * The Pencil: The pencil grants the user god like abilities. The user can create anything and earase anything at will.

Weaknesses

 * Lack of Physical Strength: Due to his physiology, SpongeBob's natural physical strength is appeared to be below average. Even one instance exaggerated this where upon close inspection, his hand was depicted in emaciated state as if it was only skin and bone. Although, SpongeBob can also build up his strengths several times he normally capable to by sheer force of will, with his prowess depend on the writers of the episode.
 * Gullibility: Spongebob's gullible personality made him prone to manipulation of others whom used him for their gain or made him unknowingly hurt others, physically and emotionally. The most controversial of this is in A Pal for Gary, where he was too gullible by Puffy Fluffy's manipulation that made him mistreate Gary and igorant with the fact that Puffy Fluffy was in fact, one of most dangerous sea predators.
 * Driving: He is not good at driving because he always crashes into buildings and or hits people with his boat.

Biography
SpongeBob SquarePants was born on July 14, 1986 to Harold SquarePants and Margaret BubbleBottom.

He lives with his pet snail Gary in a large pineapple-shaped house on 124 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom. His next-door neighbor, Squidward Tentacles, who lives in an Easter Island head, hates SpongeBob and is constantly annoyed by his antics. SpongeBob is oblivious to this, and believes Squidward to be his friend. Beside Squidward's house is the home of SpongeBob's best friend, Patrick Star, who literally lives under a rock.

SpongeBob works at the Krusty Krab, Bikini Bottom's most popular restaurant, where he is a fry cook and prepares all food served at the Krusty Krab, most notably Krabby Patties. The first episode of the series depicts SpongeBob applying for and being hired to this job. He says that it has been his lifelong dream to join the Krusty Crew, and that only now is he "ready." When he applies for the job, Squidward and Mr. Krabs, wanting no part of him, send him on a fool's errand for a "hydrodynamic spatula with port and starboard attachments and turbo drive." While he is out searching for one, several hundred hungry anchovies arrive and overwhelm Squidward and Mr. Krabs. SpongeBob soon returns, having actually found a hydrodynamic spatula, and saves their lives by feeding the anchovies, showing off his amazing cooking skills in the process.

SpongeBob's house is an orange pineapple with fully furnished windows and doors and even a gas pipe. Apparently when he first moved to Bikini Bottom, he viewed many different houses, but none seem to his liking. Just as he was about to give up, a pineapple from a boat above the water, falls into the sea and land onto the space that was Squidward’s garden where Squidward was still gardening in. He loves the house and buys it, leaving Squidward in misery by losing his garden and having SpongeBob living next to him.

SpongeBob is not only extremely good at his job, being able to produce a Krabby Patty within seconds, but has a strong passion and an abnormal love for it; something of a workaholic, he enjoys his job more than any other activity, and is saddened whenever he cannot be at work. He is also obsessed with Krabby Patties themselves; on numerous occasions, he has proclaimed them the best food in the world and in "Just One Bite" and "Shuffleboarding," he is shocked and horrified to see one thrown away. He is apparently very good at his job because he is the Vice Assistant General Manager of Certain Things ("Stanley S. SquarePants"). He also has been shown making a perfect Krabby Patty on his first try when he was a baby.

SpongeBob's skills as a fry cook could accurately be described as superhuman; in episodes such as "Help Wanted" and "Employee of the Month," he is seen making them at rates of hundreds or even thousands per minute. He has won 374 consecutive Employee of the Month awards at the Krusty Krab. In "Friend or Foe," it is shown that SpongeBob, as an infant, made a perfect patty on his first attempt. In "Neptune's Spatula," he is able to pull the Golden Spatula from the grease, making him the "chosen one" of King Neptune. In that same episode, it is shown that the burgers made by Neptune himself are horrible compared to SpongeBob's.

Squidward, the restaurant's only other employee, runs the cashier and takes orders. Squidward is the polar opposite of SpongeBob; he hates his job (as well as the Krusty Krab itself) and performs it poorly. The employer of SpongeBob and Squidward, Eugene H. Krabs, is extremely greedy, selfish and abusive of his employees. He pays them extremely poorly, far below legal minimum wage, and is unhealthily obsessed with money. Despite this, SpongeBob is unquestioning of Mr. Krabs and looks up to him as an authority figure.

While not working, SpongeBob spends much of his time playing with his best friend, Patrick Star. Like SpongeBob, Patrick is childish, moronic and fun loving. The two have known each other since early childhood, and are members of the "Best Friends Forever Club."

Their usual activities include Jellyfishing, bubble blowing, and various others. Their antics are of constant annoyance to their neighbor, Squidward, on numerous occasions, has been put in harm's way as a direct result of their actions. Despite Squidward openly hating SpongeBob and Patrick, they are completely oblivious to this and believe they are his best friends. SpongeBob and Patrick's favorite superheroes are Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, who they convinced to come out of retirement.

SpongeBob's other best friend is a squirrel from Texas named Sandy Cheeks, who wears a special suit and helmet to survive underwater. SpongeBob first met Sandy when he saw her wrestling a giant clam, which he helped her defeat. Sandy then invited SpongeBob to her home, an airtight terrarium known as the Treedome, and SpongeBob, not knowing what air is, accepts. When he comes to the Treedome and realizes that there is no water, he begins drying up and attempts to survive without water, telling himself that he does not need it and that "Water is for quitters!" Eventually, however, he gives in and starts panicking. Eventually, Sandy gives SpongeBob and Patrick bowls of water to wear over their heads, which they typically wear whenever they visit the Treedome.

Unlike Patrick, Sandy is very intelligent, both technologically and practically, but is tolerant of SpongeBob's stupidity and enjoys his company, and in some episodes, it is implied that Sandy has even raised SpongeBob's intelligence considerably. They enjoy doing extreme sports together, most notably Karate. SpongeBob's skill in karate is shown to vary considerably between episodes. At times, he equals and even outmatches Sandy in skill, while at other times he is incompetent to the point where Sandy can send him flying a considerable distance with a single punch; in "Karate Island," Sandy openly states that her karate skills are better than SpongeBob's by "a country mile." SpongeBob on various occasions, has been hinted to have a crush on Sandy, even though SpongeBob staff disproves this.

SpongeBob also attends Mrs. Puff's Boating School, where he is periodically tested for his driver's license. However, he becomes extremely nervous and reckless when behind the wheel of a boat, and has consistently failed his test countless times, often injuring Mrs. Puff and/or damaging the school and/or the entirety of Bikini Bottom in the process. According to the episode "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired," SpongeBob has failed the exam 1,258,056 times, and is the only creature in the history of the school to fail the test. In that same episode, Mrs. Puff describes SpongeBob as "unteachable." Despite his inability to drive a boat properly, SpongeBob has been shown to be able to drive/ride various other things capably, including a rock, a rocket ship, a sandwich car, and a submarine. SpongeBob claims that he does know how to drive, but simply panics behind the wheel and cannot concentrate. In "Mrs. Puff, You're Fired," SpongeBob receives extremely good training from Mrs. Puff's extremely tough military-esque replacement and learns how to drive capably, but can only do so while blindfolded due to the teacher's strict drills and very specific teaching methods.

Family
SpongeBob has many relatives, most notably his parents, who appear in several episodes. Unlike SpongeBob, who has the appearance of a kitchen sponge, most of SpongeBob's relatives, while still cartoony, resemble actual sea sponges, being round in shape and brownish in color.

In "SB-129," a robotic descendant of SpongeBob named "SpongeTron" is seen, as well as a primitive ancestor. "Ugh" features a caveman version of SpongeBob known as "SpongeGar." SpongeGar is distinctly different from the primitive sponge seen in "SB-129," being more evolved and closer to his modern counterpart. "Pest of the West" features SpongeBuck SquarePants; an ancestor who saved Dead Eye Gulch in what is now Bikini Bottom from Dead Eye Plankton in 1882.

Occupation
For the majority of the series, SpongeBob takes the job of fry cook in the Krusty Krab. Acting like a workaholic, he treats his job seriously and with dignity. Primarily, he works as the janitor and fry cook, but occasionally takes the role of the cashier and manager.

SpongeBob also has been shown to take other jobs such as Mayor of New Kelp City after saving the denizens from The Bubble Poppin' Boys. He created the Pretty Patties and opened his own store, which was highly successful. Later, the painted food poisoned the many consumers that admired the creation. In "Welcome to the Chum Bucket," he was briefly employed at the Chum Bucket, but failed to do any successful work. In "Model Sponge," SpongeBob seemingly hears he was to be let go, but he has mistaken himself as the person to vacate his current life. Throughout his unemployed life during that episode, he tries to apply for many jobs, but he was not qualified for them as he was meant for a fry cook role at the Krusty Krab. He has also worked at Fancy! during the worker switch.

Reception
Throughout the run of SpongeBob SquarePants, the SpongeBob characters have 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, including college campuses and celebrities such as Sigourney Weaver and Bruce Willis. Salon.com indicates that the unadulterated innocence of SpongeBob is what makes the character so appealing. SpongeBob has also become popular with gay men, despite Stephen Hillenburg saying that none of the characters are homosexual. The character draws fans due to his flamboyant lifestyle and tolerant attitude.

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.[34] SpongeBob has gained popularity in Japan, specifically with Japanese women. Parent company Viacom purposefully targeted marketing at women in the country as a method of building the SpongeBob SquarePants brand. Skeptics initially doubted that SpongeBob could be popular in Japan as the character's design is very different from already popular designs.

However, not all reception for SpongeBob has been positive. AskMen's Top 10: Irritating '90s Cartoon Characters ranked SpongeBob at number four. The publication said that his well-meaning attitude is "extremely annoying."

Multiverse
An alternate SpongeBob exists in a world where Plankton was successful. Like his mainstream counterpart, he likes his career, likes promotions and gets sad when he makes an error in someone's order. The most significant difference is that he was made co-cashier by Plankton and is employed by him.

An alternate SpongeBob is mentioned in every short of the series, "What if SpongeBob was gone," without SpongeBob, Gary threw a humongous party that ended in disaster; Patrick in this universe cannot hunt jellyfish properly; Sandy gets injured when playing karate and the Krusty Krab ends in ruins and all would say except Gary, everything's better with SpongeBob.

Other SpongeBobs exist throughout non-TV media (see SpongeBob SquarePants in popular culture).

SpongeBob also has friends from other universes as shown in the video game Nicktoons Unite and its other sequels, Nicktoons: Battle for Volcano Island, Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots and SpongeBob SquarePants featuring Nicktoons: Globs of Doom. In these games, he and Patrick befriend Timmy Turner (as well as his fairy godparents Cosmo and Wanda), Danny Phantom, Sam Manson, Tak, ZIM, XJ9/Jenny, Stimpy, Jimmy Neutron, Tucker Foley, Goddard, Rocko, and Gir (See List of crossover characters for more information).

Relatives

 * Gary - Pet
 * Harold SquarePants - Father
 * Margaret SquarePants - Mother
 * Grandpa SquarePants - Grandfather
 * Grandma SquarePants - Grandmother
 * Sherm SquarePants - Uncle
 * Capt. Blue SquarePants- Uncle
 * Stanley SquarePants - Cousin
 * BlackJack SquarePants- Cousin
 * Larry SquarePants - Cousin
 * Todd SquarePants - Cousin
 * SpongeBuck SquarePants - Ancestor
 * SpongeGar - Ancestor
 * Primitive Sponge- Ancestor

Friends

 * Patrick Star - Best Friend, Neighbor and Sidekick
 * Sandy Cheeks - Friend
 * Squidward Tentacles - Best Friend, Neighbor, Workmate
 * Gary the Snail - Pet and Best Friend
 * Mr. Krabs - Boss, Friend and Mentor
 * Sheldon J. Plankton - Enemy Turned Friend
 * Karen Plankton - Enemy Turned Friend and Ally
 * Pearl Krabs - Friend
 * Larry the Lobster - Close Friend and Arch-Rival
 * Mrs. Puff - Teacher and Friend
 * Mermaid Man &amp; Barnacle Boy - Idols, Mentors and Friends
 * The Flying Dutchman - Friend
 * Princess Mindy - Close Friend
 * Neptune - Enemy Turned Friend and Ally
 * Bubbles - Enemy Turned Friend and Ally

Rivals

 * Larry the Lobster - Arch-Rival
 * Patrick Star - Friendly Rival
 * Squiliam Fancyson
 * The Flying Dutchman
 * Neptune - Friendly Rival

Enemies

 * Man Ray-Enemy
 * The Dirty Bubble - Enemy
 * Squiliam Fancyson - Rival
 * Plankton-Friendly Rival

Trivia

 * As with the rest of main casts, SpongeBob's portrayal in post first movie seasons (Season 4-Season 9) became increasingly negative as result of his worst traits exaggerated through the show's flanderization, with his portrayal in A Pal for Gary where he was at his worst. Fortunately, this has since revised following the end of Season 9 which re-earned the fan's love for the character.