We know he lives in a pineapple under the sea, but did you also know that he’s out and happily queer?
This whole situation started when popular children’s network Nickelodeon decided to do what all other big corporations do in June and tweet out a weird, cringey branded message about supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
“Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month,” tweeted the network.
The tweet was sent out with three photos of popular Nickelodeon characters that were made over with a rainbow design. The characters included Schwoz from Henry Danger, Korra from The Legend of Korra, and Spongebob from Spongebob Squarepants.
Now you might be thinking that one of these things is not like the other. Schwoz is played by trans actor Michael Cohen and Korra is bisexual, so they’re obviously both in the community – but what about Spongebob? Is he considered an ally or is Nickelodeon confirming the long-running rumors that Spongebob is a homo?
Twitter didn’t buy that he was just an ally and seemed to reach the consensus that this was Spongebob’s coming out party. Memes about Spongebob being gay immediately started rolling in and “Spongebob Gay” became a trending topic on Twitter. But little does Twitter know, we actually found out Spongebob was queer a long time ago. Back in 2005, Spongebob creator Stephen Hillenburg addressed rumors about the character’s sexuality after conservative groups accused the character and his friend Patrick Star of promoting the homosexual lifestyle.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with what we’re trying to do,” Hillenburg said. “We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We’re just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show.”
So, there you go! Spongebob puts the A in LGBTQIA! We have no choice but to stan.
Unfortunately, Nickelodeon didn’t seem too fond of everyone’s gay Spongebob memes, because after a couple hours of the post being up, they turned off the replies to their original tweet. That didn’t stop people from continuing to make jokes though! Take a look below at some of the funniest reactions to Spongebob’s coming out and let us know what you think down in the comments:
