Stephen Hillenburg and the sponge that became the language of a generation

A marine biologist who wanted to teach children about the ocean — and created one of the greatest cultural phenomena of the 21st century.

Stephen Hillenburg never planned a career as an animator — he was a marine biologist and a teacher. At the Ocean Institute in California he taught coastal ecology and made comics about creatures from the tide-pool rocks — “The Intertidal Zone” — to get children interested in life underwater. Those same characters became the seed of SpongeBob SquarePants. For his pitch to Nickelodeon in 1997, Hillenburg turned up in a Hawaiian shirt, with a terrarium full of character models and Hawaiian music playing in the background. Nickelodeon gave the green light immediately. On 17 July 1999 SpongeBob debuted on air and changed popular culture forever.

Born in 1961 in Oklahoma and raised in Anaheim, Hillenburg loved the ocean from childhood — inspired by the films of Jacques Cousteau. He studied marine biology, then animation at the California Institute of the Arts. He created SpongeBob as a character full of innocence and positivity, because he believed such a philosophy was rare in pop culture. In 2017 he was diagnosed with ALS; he died on 26 November 2018, at the age of 57.

Bikini Bottom

SpongeBob lives in a pineapple at the bottom of the ocean, in the town of Bikini Bottom. He works as a cook at the Krusty Krab, blows soap bubbles and is friends with the starfish Patrick. Hillenburg chose a sponge because it’s one of the most malleable and shape-shifting creatures of the ocean — it can transform, regenerate, do impossible things. Squidward was given the name of Hillenburg’s wife, Karen — the same Karen as Karen Plankton.

The movie as a finale

Hillenburg made The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004) as the planned ending of the series. Nickelodeon refused — the show was too lucrative. Hillenburg stepped down as showrunner, but returned for the second film in 2015. Fans still consider seasons 1–3 the golden age. SpongeBob also became one of the biggest meme phenomena in history — Mocking SpongeBob, Surprised Patrick and Imagination Rainbow entered the language of the global internet.

The residents of Bikini Bottom

Follow: SpongeBob