When SpongeBob's perseverance shines through, and you root for him - that's when the show is working.
Stephen Hillenburg
One night, I was really beat; we worked really late and went to get food at some takeout place. And I leaned over against this gumball machine, just exhausted, and there was a SpongeBob looking back at me. And it's just, like, 'Oh, brother.'
I was planning on being a starving artist.
I wanted to create a small town underwater where the characters were more like us than like fish. They have fire. They take walks. They drive. They have pets and holidays.
I've always been interested in art and making things, but I chose not to go to art school because I thought I needed to do something else. Art was a tough way to make a living.
The essence of the show is that SpongeBob is an innocent in a world of jaded characters. The rest is absurd packaging.
The morality we all grew up with and are accustomed to is what feels right.
SpongeBob represents idiocy. He is dumb. Patrick is dumb. Mr. Krabs is greedy. Squidward is a snob and vain.
Twentysomethings thank me for their childhood... SpongeBob lives at the bottom of the sea, but he brings a lot of great stuff to the surface.
I see SpongeBob on ice-cream trucks a lot, and I've got bootleg SpongeBob merchandise from Mexico.
I am an ocean lover and fish watcher and had studied marine biology and even taught marine sciences before I got into animation.
Generally, we try not to write down to kids. We really just try to write a visual, character-driven cartoon that has a lot of slapstick and really appeals to us. I guess we are just lucky that other adults find that amusing, too.
A lot of things came out of my interest in marine biology, like the fact that there are scallops that fly in the air, and in SpongeBob's world, scallops swim the same way in the ocean.
I think it's amusing to watch a naive, well-meaning character kind of undo more cynical characters - kind of like watching Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin.
Anyone who knows me knows that I will continue to work on 'SpongeBob SquarePants' and my other passions for as long as I am able.
I wanted to do a show about a character that was an innocent, and so I focused on a sea sponge because it's a funny animal, a strange one.
SpongeBob is a kid living an adult life. He has a job. Kids think being a fry cook is a great job.
Laurel and Hardy are among my strongest influences, and I think they're perfect examples of two naive, kid-like characters that are still funny today. In fact, they're a lot like SpongeBob and Patrick, walking around in their own little world and causing a fine mess.
A natural sponge is not as funny. A square sponge also fit that squeaky-clean idea I was going for.
I do think that the attitude of the show is about tolerance. Everybody is different, and the show embraces that. The character SpongeBob is an oddball. He's kind of weird, but he's kind of special.
I thought, well, what about a show that stars undersea creatures, and some of the ones you rarely see animated. So, from there, I just started drawing different animals in a kind of a setting that was this nautical world. It's not realistic but sort of a fantastic environment.
You don't want to work on a job where you're looking at your watch.
I just kind of figured that the marine biology would be a career, and the art would be something I did for my own self-expression.
I'm hoping that fans will enjoy finally having a 'SpongeBob' comic book from me. All the stories will be original and always true to the humor, characters, and universe of the 'SpongeBob SquarePants' series.
In the show, the whole point of the fast food - the fact that SpongeBob loves being part of the fast-food chain and that being a manager is his ultimate dream - it's ironic. It's something that most people don't think is a great thing to try to achieve.
Our characters act silly, even totally ridiculous at times, and most of our jokes don't come out of pop cultural references. It seems like we're aiming at a child audience, but everyone can laugh at the basic human traits that are funny. It's playful, the humor is playful, the world is playful. You can kind of let go.
Everybody's got some fascination with undersea life, don't you think?
You have to imagine you write a show about a sponge and you think that maybe a few people will think it is funny, some college students, but it takes off. It is truly shocking - to the point where it is bizarre.
The main thing about SpongeBob is that he celebrates innocence. His outlook on life is very optimistic and earnest, and I think kids relate to that. He has a creative spark in the same way children are very creative from an open and naive perspective.
'The Simpsons' is a tough act to follow, so I thought it was best not to do what they do.
I never really imagined a show about a sponge going past our first season. I thought maybe we'd have a cult following, and we'd be gone after one season.
I eventually thought of SpongeBob, but he needed a last name - SquarePants came to mind.
I pitched the idea that SpongeBob and Patrick learn a swearword. Everyone said no. I couldn't even use a bleep. So I used a dolphin sound instead.
In the '70s, as a kid, someone took me to a Tournee of Animation festival at the L.A. County Museum of Art.
I always pushed back on doing long-form. I imagined SpongeBob as being simple, and I wanted to concentrate on character humor.
SpongeBob is a complete innocent - not an idiot. SpongeBob never fully realizes how stupid Patrick is. They're whipping themselves up into situations - that's always where the humor comes from.
A sponge is a funny animal to center a show on. At first, I drew a few natural sponges - amorphous shapes, blobs - which was the correct thing to do biologically as a marine science teacher. Then I drew a square sponge, and it looked so funny.
Most sponges in the ocean are sedentary: They attach themselves to a rock and sit and filter-feed the rest of their lives and reproduce, and that's about it. Not that they are not interesting, but they are not that kinetic. They are not mobile. They don't cook Krabbie Patties!
I wanted people to hear directly from me that I have been diagnosed with ALS.
To do a 75-minute movie about SpongeBob wanting to make some jellyfish jelly would be a mistake, I think.
I don't want to be the Pied Piper of fast food.
SpongeBob is just made of cellulose, but he has parents who are natural sponges - he got the square gene.
When I pitched the show, I made this special seashell. You could pick it up and hear me singing, 'Spongeboy, Spongeboy!' I also made an aquarium with Patrick planted on the side, SpongeBob sitting on a barrel, and Squidward inside. I wore a Hawaiian shirt. I don't know what they thought of it.
I knew I wanted to create a character who was nerdy and kind of square, so when I drew a square sponge, everything came together. And originally his name was SpongeBoy, but there we couldn't use that for trademark reasons.
I was just looking at a packet that had SpongeBob thong underwear, so it goes farther than I would imagine.
I was into Jacques Cousteau as a kid and started scuba-diving around 14, which blew my mind. It was all colour, another world.
I studied natural resources planning and thought I could get a job at some marine park. But I was great at art and so-so at marine biology. It's funny how the two eventually came together.
When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze. We just try to make ourselves laugh, then ask ourselves if it's appropriate for children.
SpongeBob is an innocent, and people respond to an innocent. I don't think it matters if you're young or old.
For me personally, snorkeling in a cove in Hawaii, floating along, and looking at all the animals and the colors - I mean, that's pretty peaceful.
