Twentysomethings thank me for their childhood... SpongeBob lives at the bottom of the sea, but he brings a lot of great stuff to the surface.

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• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I eventually thought of SpongeBob, but he needed a last name - SquarePants came to mind.

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  'The Simpsons' is a tough act to follow, so I thought it was best not to do what they do.

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I knew I wanted to create a character who was nerdy and kind of square, so when I drew a square spo

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I was just looking at a packet that had SpongeBob thong underwear, so it goes farther than I would

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I was into Jacques Cousteau as a kid and started scuba-diving around 14, which blew my mind. It was

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I studied natural resources planning and thought I could get a job at some marine park. But I was g

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I pitched the idea that SpongeBob and Patrick learn a swearword. Everyone said no. I couldn't even

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  I see SpongeBob on ice-cream trucks a lot, and I've got bootleg SpongeBob merchandise from Mexico.

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  The essence of the show is that SpongeBob is an innocent in a world of jaded characters. The rest i

• Stephen Hillenburg:

  When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can't anticipate this kind of craze. We just try