Sunday, January 11, 2009
SpongeBob
SpongeBob SquarePants is the main character in the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants, which first aired on May 1, 1999 on Nickelodeon. The character was designed by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg, and is voiced by Tom Kenny.
SpongeBob is a sea sponge who lives in a pineapple in the Bikini Bottom, with his pet snail Gary. He works as a fry cook at the fast food restraunt, the Krusty Krab, alongside his neighbor, Squidward Tentacles. SpongeBob is best friends with Patrick Star, and enjoys bubble blowing and jellyfishing. SpongeBob is a boating school student at Mrs. Puff's Boating School.
'SpongeBob' is a porous yellow sponge with large blue eyes, a mouth with prominent front teeth, dimples and freckles. He resembles a kitchen sponge more than a sea sponge, as when the show was only a rough idea, Stephen Hillenburg decided that he looked funnier as an ordinary kitchen sponge. SpongeBob can morph into other shapes at will, and can grow back pieces that fall off of him. His limbs can become variable in length and shape at will and are retractable as well as detachable. In the episode, Graveyard Shift, it is revealed that SpongeBob's limbs can seemingly regenerate instantaneously. Also, they are somewhat edible, as SpongeBob was seen munching on a barrel of them whilst listening to Squidward's tale of the Hash-Slinging Slasher.He is 22, and likes to drive Squidward crazy.
SpongeBob typically wears shiny black shoes that squeak when he walks, with an almost spheric bulge at the front (although still a part of the shoe proper, unlike the balls of clown shoes). He usually wears a pair of white underwear underneath his pants, although he has been seen wearing blue, green, and red underwear with hearts on them (all at the same time, nonetheless) and even pink to honor his best friend, Patrick. At night, he sometimes wears a green bathrobe, but mostly goes to sleep with his underwear, socks and shoes. When he goes swimming at the Goo Lagoon, he wears a pair of blue swimming trunks (although he still wears his underpants, socks and shoes). He also wears a red bow tie in exchange for his necktie on special occasions.
Although sponges are invertebrates, SpongeBob has been shown to have bones in several episodes.
SpongeBob is described as sweet, kind, funny, cheerful, hard-working, and trusting. He has a buck-toothed grin, an expressive face and square body that compliments his pure and good nature. SpongeBob will rarely knowingly do wrong or harm to anyone except on April Fool's Day and never without remorse. However, he has been known to shout and use "bad words" such as Tartar Sauce, Fish Paste, or Barnacles) when angry or frustrated. Although he is an adult, he has a very childish nature, shown to great effect in the episode "Grandma's Kisses", at which he is at his most childish, as well as in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
SpongeBob is very easily overexcited about almost anything, like simple daily tasks and things of which he does not know of (such as when Squidward invited him to strike at the Krusty Krab, SpongeBob celebrated for it although he did not know the meaning of the word strike). This, along with his repetitive talking and loud, annoying laughter makes him a huge annoyance to others, especially Mrs. Puff, Squidward and Plankton.
Perhaps the most long-running paradox of this character is his strength. He has been known to have enormous difficulty lifting even the lightest of objects. While he cannot lift light things like stuffed animals, he can still flip Krabby Patties and has been known to tote Patrick around (which cannot be an easy task).
There is also the matter of his limited invincibility. When viciously pummeled by a bully, SpongeBob is not hurt; rather than fighting back, he continues to go through his day normally, until the bully is too worn out to keep punching. However, in "I Had an Accident", SpongeBob broke his butt in a skiing accident.
SpongeBob loves his pet snail Gary dearly and cannot do without him, as shown in "Have You Seen This Snail?". Gary usually has solutions to help SpongeBob out of his dilemmas. Gary and SpongeBob live together in a pineapple under the sea at 124 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom (this address was seen on SpongeBob's driver's license in the episodes "Sleepy Time" and "No Free Rides").
Also in multiple episodes he seems to have a knack for singing. SpongeBob is ambidextrous; in Procrastination and I'm with Stupid, he can be seen using his left hand to write. And in I Was a Teenage Gary, he remarks that he's "lefty anyway" when he loses his right arm. In other episodes he uses his right hand as his dominant.
SpongeBob has been in jail for ninety days for littering as a result of taking Patrick Star's driving license and ripping it up after Patrick got it his license after his first try (SpongeBob has never been able to obtain a license even after multiple times) as seen in the episode "Driven to Tears" (Wikia.com)