Is the favorite character from our childhood, SpongeBob Squarepants Gay? The debate about the sexuality of Nickelodeon’s buoyant character became huge news until the creator Stephen Hillenburg cleared all doubts about it. The notion about SpongeBob being gay arose when Nickelodeon tweeted the picture of the cartoon with the people of the community during Pride Month in 2020. People stated that the tweet was SpongeBob’s coming out.
The back story behind the anticipation of SpongeBob being Gay.
SpongeBob Squarepants is the main character the protagonist of American animated television series with the same name. He works as a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant named Krusty Krab making Krabby Patty under the sea as he is a sea sponge. He is an optimistic happy character having a childlike attitude. The cartoon character having a childlike attitude was marked as Gay and being a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The rumors of SpongeBob being gay came into being when Nickelodeon tweeted a picture of him along with actor Michael D. Cohen from “Henry Danger” who is transgender. In the tweet another picture was there that was the character of Avatar Korra from “The Legend of Korra” who is bisexual during the Pride month in 2020.
The tweet was captioned “Celebrating #Pride with LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month.” It so happened that SpongeBob’s character had a close relationship with his best friend Patrick Star, keeping this point in mind the internet has long ago decided that SpongeBob was gay.
As a result of this Nickelodeon had tweeted the picture of characters of the LGBTQ+ community consisting of SpongeBob as well. After the tweet was published #SpongeBobIsGay started trending and thus people decided the cartoon’s sexuality and were confirmed that SpongeBob was indeed Gay. The notion found itself among a lot of controversies.
What did the creator say?
The show SpongeBob Squarepants was created by Stephen Hillenburg who completely negated the fact of SpongeBob being gay. The creator dismissed the speculations regarding the cartoon character’s relationships and sexuality in 2005 only. As the issues regarding him being gay were raised back in 2002.
One being interviewed regarding the subject of SpongeBob being gay Stephen Hillenburg said that “It doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re trying to do. We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We’re just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show.”
He also added that people who are gay might understand the character and respond to it because the attitude of the show is not tolerance. Everybody in the show is different and the show embraces that, thus, no one is shut out on SpongeBob Squarepants. So, the community might be inspired by the point of view of the show.
It was back in 2002 when it was claimed that SpongeBob was officially “outed”. The playful cartoon character, who lived in a pineapple under the Pacific Ocean was “outed” as gay in 2002. It was reported that Nickelodeon TV show SpongeBob Squarepants spin-off merchandise was popular amongst gay people. Thus, an assumption was made regarding SpongeBob and Patrick Star.
The gay ideology mainly focused on the show as the Nickelodeon cartoon character drew a lot of gay fan’s attention for SpongeBob has a flamboyant lifestyle and a tolerant attitude. The more happens to be more accepting to all kinds of people. But as pointed out by the creator the show was made for kids and had a very asexual approach.
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