8 Things You Might Not Know About SpongeBob

In the year 2000, the cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants debuted in Brazil, on the channel Nickelodeon . The animated series of a marine character and his entire class has been a huge blockbuster since the premiere and went on TV in 2003.

Fun and funny, the cartoon of the anthropomorphic sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea has become an icon not only for children but for people of all ages. If you're a SpongeBob fan, you know what we're talking about.

But there are some curiosities that not everyone knows. Below you can check out 8 things you may not know about this amazing character and his Bikini Bottom crowd, according to an article by Roger Cormier of Mental Floss:

1 - The idea came from a marine biologist

Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of the series, is a natural resources graduate with an emphasis on marine biology and also studied arts. After college, he taught at the Ocean Institute, a California-based organization dedicated to educating the public about maritime science and history.

While working at this place, Stephen was inspired to unite his two passions: drawing and marine life, creating a comic book called The Intertidal Zone, which was used by the institute to teach students about wildlife in natural pools. .

Stephen's story had several characters, who were beings from underwater life transformed into fun creatures to make understanding easier and more pleasurable. And the main character was "SpongeBob", which once looked like a sea sponge itself, and not like Square Pants is, like a kitchen sponge.

After leaving the Ocean Institute in 1987, Stephen pursued his dream of being entertaining with his marine life characters, but it would still be more than ten years before SpongeBob became a hit.

2 - The original name was Sponge Boy

Prior to "SpongeBob" (which later became SpongeBob), Stephen Hillenburg named the Sponge Boy character . The problem was that this was a registered name of a cleaning mop and it needed to change.

However, Stephen kept the "sponge" in the protagonist's name, as he was concerned that the children thought the character was a piece of cheese (due to its yellow color and body texture).

3 - His personality was influenced by some comedy actors

According to the character's creator, SpongeBob was inspired by the celebrated comedy actors Jerry Lewis, Stan Lauren and Paul Reubens (performer of Pee-wee Herman). Derek Drymon, the show's creative director, recalled that Stephen wanted to create a character with a youthful "boyish" attitude, as were the roles of Lewis, Laurel and Herman, which he had in mind.

According to Mental Floss, Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, said Hillenburg initially described the character speaking as a half-boy, half-adult person, as a kind of dwarf.

4 - Patrick was meant to be a grumpy bar owner

Bob does not live without his best friend, Patrick, who is a kind of lazy, slightly ignorant starfish, with little intelligence, but with a good heart and even lapses of cleverness. He lives under a rock and has Bob and Squid as his neighbors.

Patrick Estrela first entered the scene while Hillenburg and Drymon were making the pilot's storyboard. But before the character's final personality emerged, he was at first a roadside bar owner, being grumpy and tough.

5 - Squid Mollusc is not technically a squid

Squid Mollusc is not a squid, but an octopus, only with six tentacles. Drawing creator Stephen Hillenburg decided to build it with six members because he said that with eight the look could be too heavy.

6 - The fish that always screams “my leg!” Has a name

Whenever there is chaos in an episode, there is a fish that screams "my leg!" You can watch and hear this phrase several times in this video above. Contrary to popular belief, this fish is named after Fred. His name was revealed in the episode "Patty Hype".

7 - There is a parody of drawing related to cannabis

In 2003 and 2004, an animation studio called Camp Chaos produced a two-season series for VH1 and MTV2 called ILL-ustrated .

One of the animated shorts created for the show, SpongeBong HempPants (something like Sponge Pipe Marijuana Pants), was a not-too-subtle reinvention of SpongeBob SquarePants, and the characters were in the form of leaf and cigarette marijuana, as well as “gadgets”. ”For drug use.

However, the shorts were never aired on television due to concerns about the Nickelodeon network. However, the episodes ended up on YouTube, where they were viewed over 6, 300, 000 times. But that in no way affected the success and prestige of the real SpongeBob.

8 - Big celebrities have already made voices in the drawing

Stephen Hillenburg was against celebrities making guest voices for his cartoon for fear of a comparison with The Simpsons. However, during the first three seasons, there were exceptions where veteran actors Tim Conway and Ernest Borgnine played the voices of SpongeBob's two favorite superheroes, Mermaid Man and Little Mussel.

After Hillenburg resigned as general design director, Bikini Slit also received the voices of Will Ferrel, Tina Fey, Robin Williams, Amy Poehler, Johnny Depp, Victoria Beckham, LeBron James, Pink and other celebrities to attract more adults to the audience.

* Posted on 11/20/2014

***

Did you know that Curious Mega is also on Instagram? Click here to follow us and stay on top of exclusive curiosities!