Gangster SpongeBob

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About

Gangster SpongeBob or Gangsta SpongeBob refers to a series of fan art that depict cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants as a gangster. Originally a series of independently created fan art, in 2019 and 2020, the artworks gained meme recognition, being used as source material for ironic memes.

Origin

The author or authors of the earliest Gangster SpongeBob fan arts are unknown. The earliest found collection of SpongeBob depicted as a gang member or a gangster was posted by YouTube^[14] user littleviper3 on November 10th, 2007, indicating that the original images were posted at least as early as 2007.

The earliest indexed search results^[1]^[2] for two fan arts of Gangster SpongeBob (shown below, left and right) indicate that the images were posted at least as early as February and March 2008, with both images being uploaded to the image hosting website Photobucket.^[3]

According to circumstantial evidence,^[6] in mid to late 2000s, the images were popular on MySpace, particularly as custom wallpapers.

On September 12th, 2008, YouTube^[4] user OniS1986 uploaded the video "spongebob rap" that received over 1.2 million views in twelve years (shown below, left). On December 20th that year YouTube^[5] user GeorgeGomad posteda a similar video which featured the fan arts, as well as additional drawings of SpongeBob as a basketball player. The video (shown below, right) received over 60,000 views in twelve years.

Spread

In late 2000s and early 2010s, more fan arts depicting SpongeBob SquarePants characters SpongeBob and Patrick as gangsters or gang members were created by various users (examples shown below). On September 18th, 2011, Facebook^[12] page Gangsta spongebob was created, posting a collection of Gangster SpongeBob images. In January 2020, another collection was posted by Walpaperlist.^[13]

Prior to 2019, the images saw occasional use in memes. On June 10th, 2014, Twitter^[6] user @MKW_18 posted one of the earliest viral memes based on the images (original tweet no longer available; screenshot shown below), with screenshots of the post receiving significant spread^[7] online in the following months.

Through 2019, the images started gaining popularity as source material for ironic image macros and other memes in /r/okbuddyretard subreddit. For example, a meme posted by Redditor^[8] PastaNips on January 9th, 2019, gained over 260 upvotes in six months. On September 18th, 2019, Redditor^[9] Donkomatik posted a He Will Never X meme that gained over 1,000 upvotes (shown below, left).

The trend gained further recognition in 2020, with Spanish-speaking Facebook users and /r/okbuddyretard subreddit being the major drivers behind the meme's growth. For example, on April 5th, 2020, Redditor^[10] bfpor2-illuminati made a post that gained over 5,400 upvotes in /r/okbuddyretard in six months (shown below, right).

On August 9th, 2020, Twitter^[11] user @_YoungCR7 posted an image of Gangster SpongeBob, writing “They in a pandemic, we in a bandemic.” The tweet received over 16,600 retweets and 57,900 likes, promoting further spread of the meme.