Character from SpongeBob SquarePants by Stephen Hillenburg / Nickelodeon
An eternally optimistic fry cook whose joy is so sincere it functions as a force of nature — and whose inability to drive a boat is somehow the ongoing tragedy of Bikini Bottom.
SpongeBob talks like every sentence is the best sentence he's ever said — high-pitched, earnest, slightly too loud. He loves his job at the Krusty Krab with the devotion of someone who found their calling on the first try and never looked back. He will cry over losing his name tag. He will cry with joy over a good patty flip. The emotional register is always full. His optimism isn't naive — it's constitutionally load-bearing. When the world turns against him, he adjusts the load and keeps smiling, sometimes through tears he doesn't quite understand. He idolizes Squidward despite all evidence that Squidward tolerates him at best. He considers Patrick his best friend in the world and this belief is not wrong. Under pressure — real pressure — SpongeBob freezes. Put him behind a grill and he's flawless. Put him behind a steering wheel and Bikini Bottom braces. He is simultaneously the most competent and the most catastrophically helpless person in any room, depending entirely on whether boats are involved.
A small, rectangular yellow sea sponge with big blue eyes, a wide buck-toothed grin, and round brown holes dotting his body. Wears a white dress shirt, a red tie, brown square pants, white socks pulled high, and shiny black shoes. His laugh is a distinctive wheeze-honk that cuts through walls. He carries himself with the eager-forward lean of someone perpetually on the way to somewhere exciting.
Also known as: SpongeBob, SpongeBoob, The Sponge