Happy Sunday everyone, especially to one Mr SpongeBob SquarePants who appears to have come out as gay today.
As Buzzfeed reported earlier this morning, the iconic cartoon character – who lives in a pineapple under the sea – was included in a special Pride-themed tweet from Nickelodeon. The tweet which reads “Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month”.
Along with these words, Nickelodeon included pictures of Korra from The Legend of Korra, actor Michael D. Cohen from Henry Danger, and SpongeBob. Buzzfeed pointed out that Korra is a bisexual character, and that Michael D. Cohen is a man who has had a transgender experience. Each of these snaps has been coated over in a rainbow-filter of sorts, implying that they are each members of the LGBTQ+ community.
While Nickelodeon has blocked replies to their tweet from anyone other than the accounts they follow (no homophobic backlash welcome here, folks) the news has still exploded all over the Internet.
Credit: Nickelodeon
With that said, we can’t exactly say that many fans seem all that surprised by the possible announcement. People have responded to the tweet by pointing to SpongeBob’s flirtation with Squidward and his clam baby with Patrick Star – calling them fairly obvious hints with respect to his sexual orientation.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time SpongeBob’s sexuality has been publicly discussed. Back in 2005, creator Stephen Hillenburg pointed out that he felt both SpongeBob and Patrick were asexual.
The Daily News quotes Hillenburg:
“We never intended them to be gay,” he said.
“I consider them to be almost asexual.”
In any case, SpongeBob seems comfortable in his skin and his sexuality – and that’s all we can hope for, really. Irrespective of where this little yellow sponge lands on the spectrum of sexuality, it’s powerful and important to see a giant brand like Nickelodeon proudly celebrate its LGBTQ+ community in such a public way.
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