If you grew up in a very conservative household, there’s a pretty good chance that you weren’t allowed to watch SpongeBob Squarepants due to the conspiracy theory that the titular character was gay. Well, it turns out that there was some truth to the rumor all along! This past week, Nickelodeon tweeted out a Pride Month celebration that included SpongeBob among the ranks of those who should be celebrated.
Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month 🌈
(🎨: by @ramzymasri) pic.twitter.com/pENmTaQB0h— Nickelodeon (@Nickelodeon) June 13, 2020
Twitter, as it does, EXPLODED when the news came out, and #SpongeBobIsGay instantly started trending as people’s long-held suspicions were seemingly confirmed. Featured alongside Mr. SquarePants are Korra, the bisexual main character of Avatar: The last Airbender spinoff The Legend of Korra, and transgender actor Michael D. Cohen, who’s on some show called Henry Danger. While the other two characters/actors have long been known to be members of the LGBTQ community, the revelation of SpongeBob being gay has sent a shockwave through the entire internet. Reactions ranged from celebration to disgust, but the overall shock of it all was really something to behold. Nickelodeon even disabled replies for the tweet to discourage the inevitable hate that the post would receive, but the positive response was far and away the larger voice.
Naturally, this raises some other questions about the show. Namely, does this mean Patrick is also gay? If not, does SpongeBob have a partner? This could open up a whole new set of plot points if the writers decided to incorporate it, but incurring the wrath of very angry moms may not be worth it. Nickelodeon has yet to comment further on what exactly this Tweet means for the canon of SpongeBob, but prior to his passing, show creator Stephen Hillenburg dismissed all rumors of the character’s sexuality. Who knows if this was a change made by Nickelodeon or it was in the cards from the beginning, but it’s still very interesting to see!
