Infamous SpongeBob SquarePants Controversies

Hillenberg was once asked if SpongeBob was gay, he answered that sponges are asexual

I remember the playground rumors of SpongeBob and Patrick being gay. I asked my parents about it once and both responded with "If anyone on that show is gay it's Squidward".

The SpongeBob being gay controversy is a prime example of adults creating problems out of nothing. As a kid I never wondered or cared about his sexuality I only ended hearing about the rumor from classmates who heard it from adults. Romance in general was never really a big point in the series. I only remember about 4 episodes dealing with romance and only one of those was with SpongeBob and it was with a krabby patty… The funny thing is I remember a lot of kids thinking SpongeBob was dating Sandy or at least shipped them

The irony of spongebob balloons being stolen. Maybe people just thought it was national free balloon day

I think it's really sad that we can't have a male character breaking out of stereotypical masculinity without people thinking he's gay :c

The "is spongebob gay" controversy was one of the dumbest things that my parents ever fell for along with the Pokemon is Satanic bullshit.

Thing is, the story about the child drowning at sea trying to find Spongebod reminds me of a much older story, about a family on a cruise ship with a kid and a newborn. The newborn would constantly cry, and the mother said that if the baby cried anymore she was going to throw him out of the porthole, with the other kid present to hear it. She goes to take care of something for a few minutes, hears the baby crying... and suddenly silence. She rushes back, to find the older kid just playing with some toy... and the porthole open.

Imagine being taken to court for taking an advertising balloon 💀

I grew up with SpongeBob, and I never even questioned if he was gay or anything. I just saw him as a fun little cartoon sponge who made me laugh. And, even if he were (he's actually asexual though, at least biologically), who cares? That doesn't make him any less funny or wholesome as a character, he just happens to not be hetero. Like, literally who cares 😕 [edit]: the Burger King commercial is so cursed, but its extremely funny FOR being cursed. It never aired here in México but I ended up watching it when I discovered what cursed commercials were lol

parents are 100% to blame if their kid doesn't understand that cartoons are fiction or if something like sand can suffocate someone.

I genuinely think the reason why so many people thought there was a squidward transformation scene was because there was one for spongebob. After all if he got one, why wouldn't squidward have one too? It's easy to imagine that idea in your head and make a false memory. I wasn't even old enough to see the original airing, but around the time the rumor circulated, I was able to imagine the scene as if it existed.

How is this for a controversy? SpongeBob isn't square at all, he's rectangular since four sides aren't equal lengths.

Squidward's transformation seems more like something that came from the mandela effect rather than simple lost media.

There is ONE more controversy and I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned. This one annoyed the crap out of me at the time. A group called "Commercial Free Childhood" not only lead a major pressure campaign, but also sued Nickelodeon for the existence of (get this) Spongebob cereal. Now while there's a point in how kid's food has a lot of sugar in it and marketing that junk food to kids, the way this group went about came off as lazy, inept parents that hated the fact their kids wanted things and had tantrums for not getting it. You know something kids generally tend to do with ANYTHING regardless of what the product was. And while their crusade also went after Happy Meals and such, this was the ONLY thing they sued over and technically won, because the cereal was pulled from shelves soon after. Though that's mostly because it was a cereal that tied into the movie, and another cereal managed to pop up a few years later.

If I remember correctly hillenberg himself said “we never intended the cast to be gay or straight. I consider them to be almost asexual. We’re just trying to be funny and this has nothing to do with the show” based answer imo 💀

This immediately made me remember that scene where sponge bob was told by Mr.Krabs that he looks like a girl in a demeaning manner and spongebob replied happly with a "Am i a pretty girl?" LMAO

There's one that I've heard a lot of people parrot which is that SpongeBob caused their kids ADHD. Most of the time people are half joking. That's not how ADHD works though.

No matter what time period it is there will always be people saying don’t expose kids to this it will turn them gay. Even though there’s never any evidence to back it up. Especially when people are grasping at straws to claim a character is evil for being gay

hearing lssq calmly describe the events and lyrics of the burger king "square butts" commercial without cracking up once is sending me rn

The "SpongeBob is gay" controversy is the most perfect example of looking for a reason to be upset