SpongeBob LGBTQ+ Confirmation

Overview

SpongeBob LGBTQ+ Confirmation refers to the animation studio Nickelodeon confirming that cartoon character SpongeBob Squarepants is an LGBTQ+ character. The confirmation was followed by viral discussions online, with SpongeBob trending on Twitter.

Background

On June 13th, 2020, animation studio Nickelodeon made a tweet^[1] in support of the LGBTQ+ Pride Month, writing, "Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," along with the images of transitioned actor Michael D. Cohen, canonically bisexual Legend of Korra main character Korra and SpongeBob SquarePants titular main character. The tweet received over 107,300 retweets and 317,800 likes in two days (shown below).

Precursor

In October 2002, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants Stephen Hillenburg, when asked about SpongeBob being a popular character among the gay community, responded that he considered SpongeBob to be "somewhat asexual."

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 always think of them as being somewhat asexual.

Developments

Following the tweet, Nickelodeon temporarily disabled replies to the post.

Online Reactions

The tweet was sparked viral debate online, with SpongebBob being the top Twitter trend in the United States from 5pm to 7pm on June 13th.^[2]

The tweet was followed with multiple viral memes about the confirmation being posted on Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and other online platforms. For example, a June 13th tweet^[3] by @cconsumetherich received over 2,300 retweets and 14,400 likes in two days (shown below, left). A June 14th, post by Redditor^[4] Psych_Riot received over 13,800 upvotes in one day (shown below, center).

Search Interest

External References