SpongeBob SquarePants Cast Celebrates 25th Anniversary Ahead of Super Bowl LVIII Takeover

Has It Sunk In?

NICK VALDEZ, COMICBOOK.COM: It's absolutely wild getting to speak with you because, I remember like it was just yesterday, learning to drink with my pinky up and calling myself "Dirty Dan" for the first time. Now it's been 25 years of SpongeBob SquarePants, and things are kicking off with a full [Super Bowl LVIII] takeover! So I do have to ask the three of you, has this huge milestone sunk in?

BILL FAGERBAKKE (Patrick Star): It's hard. It can't really sink in because there's no way to really grasp it completely. The way it resonates is-

TOM KENNY (SpongeBob SquarePants): Firmly grasp it.

FAGERBAKKE: I want to firmly grasp it. It's too unnatural. Nothing prepares you for it. Just the wide array of people that share their joy and their love for the cartoon in this incredible job we've had the good fortune of having a part. It's constantly a beautiful, fulfilling experience for me.

CAROLYN LAWRENCE (Sandy Cheeks): It's kind of surreal and mind-blowing. I can't really fully grasp any of it.

KENNY: Firmly grasp it. It's weird because stuff just kind of sneaks up on you. It's happening all the time. It's kind of theoretical, and SpongeBob universe, SpongeBob world is always kind of in full swing. I always say it's like a treadmill set on 11. You're just working on stuff every day. And then there's the stuff that isn't SpongeBob, and then there's kind of like this Super Bowl thing that they're like, "Hey, would you be interested? Do you have any interest in this?" And you're like, "Yeah, fine." And then before you know it, it's here.

Also, I think ComicBook.com is the one place that I would kind of admit this on this whole press junket is that for me, the Super Bowl isn't as huge as it is for most Americans. For me, the Super Bowl is a day where I can go to that restaurant that I have trouble getting into usually. So now to be a part of the biggest thing on Earth, I try to walk through a world where this giant thing is going on, and I'm like outside it looking in and going, "Oh yeah, that's today."

FAGERBAKKE: You get pulled in.

KENNY: You get pulled in. And now I'm in the thick of it. It's kind of like, "Okay, now it's all hands on deck."

When Did It Feel Special?

Speaking to the constantly moving at 11 and speeding along, was there a moment early on where it slowed down and really felt like, "Oh, I'm in something special?" Like, "SpongeBob's going to be here for a long time"?

FAGERBAKKE: I can tell you that for me, when the show debuted in '99, my children were five and 11. And so when I found myself a year later or so coming to pick the girls up after school and feeling like one of the Beatles, because there'd be this wave of six to eight-year-olds running at me going, "Patrick." What's happening? So that was crazy, definitely foreshadowing.

KENNY: You know what? I was just on my 20-year-old daughter's college campus to see her in a show at her college. And it was the same except those six-year-olds were 20-year-olds now, 21 year-olds. And they were pumped. My daughter was like, "Oh God." So yeah, it's kind of crazy, it's weird. Because we're all just kind of short-term employees generally. If you're on something that lasts a couple of seasons, you're lucky. That's a statistical anomaly if something lasts a season or two, or a year or two. And now here we are headed into the quarter-century mark, and it's really never abated. It's not a reboot. It's not like, "Oh, remember this cool thing?" It's not like, "Remember this weird old thing that you used to like when you were a kid? We're rebooting it."

It's the same cast, the same show, a lot of the same writers, same animators. And it is just kind of this nice comfort food constant in American life. And I think it's weird how long it's been on. As freelancers, we're not programmed to think of ourselves as part of stuff that's long-term. You're just kind of grateful for hopefully you'll have enough little poppy things that happen throughout your career that you don't have to be homeless and you get your medical benefits.

That's really all you care about. There's this thing. So yeah, it still hasn't sunk into me how big it is and multi-generational. When I go to Comic-Cons and stuff like that, that's when you really hear about that aspect of it from people. How many years they've been watching it, how many man hours they've spent watching it, how their kids watch it, they watch it with their parents. So that's when it kind of sinks in for me. Like, "Oh yeah, it's been longer than a couple months."

LAWRENCE: I know for me, I felt like early on, personally, I think it was special with the cast, right? With the creator and the cast with Stephen Hillenburg. Like it felt very special to me, but I didn't know if the rest of the world would feel the same way, because I've been on a lot of shows that I'm like, "Oh, this cast is tight." And then it never goes anywhere. So I think the first three seasons every week I was like, "Oh, are we still going to do this? Oh, are we still going to do this?"

KENNY: I still feel like that.

LAWRENCE: And then here we are 25 years later and I'm like, wow, we're still doing this.

Yeah, it's a full-on universe now too. I think they officially called it the SpongeBob Universe.

KENNY: Yeah, the SpongeBobiverse. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Nobody talked about the Popeyeverse, the Bugs Bunnyverse, I don't know. Everything's universe building now, I guess. That's kind of what the world is now.

Getting Ready for Super Bowl LVIII

Got to get in that door! SpongeBob has grown outside of its universe too. It's like with memes online that are just taking on a whole new life outside of that, and now with this [Super Bowl LVIII] takeover, you have to be on your toes because who knows what's going to happen? And then with SpongeBob's version, we're getting teases of Plankton and all sorts of wild shenanigans. So how are the three of you getting ready for the big game?

FAGERBAKKE: [in Patrick's voice] Well, I'm brushing up on my jellyfishing because I think a Jellyfishing tournament might break out. You don't know, maybe Patrick Mahomes likes Jellyfishing.

KENNY: That's what's happening in Allegiant Stadium on February 11th, the big jellyfishing game. After they clean up from the Super Bowl mess, they're bringing in the jellies. You got it right exactly. You've got to be on your toes. But there's sort of not a real way to prepare for being on your toes except to kind of know that you got to be on your toes. And sometimes when I start to freak out about this, I freak out about a lot of stuff. But when I start to freak out about this, it's like it's just us being our characters. We just are inhabiting our characters the way we've been doing it for 25 years. "You got this, Tom. Deep breaths, you got this Tom. Count to 10. You're just being SpongeBob and you're just being SpongeBob. You know how to do that." That might be the only thing I do know how to do in the whole world.

But you're just in character. You're ad-libbing in character, and you're reacting as this alter ego that's been sharing head space, brain space with you for over 25 years. So it's okay. And then the technology, whatever, the motion capture, all that, that should work flawlessly. But hey, there's always wild cards to everything. And if that happens, it happens. It's just always kind of hope for the best, prepare for the worst. But I'm not even preparing for the worst. I'm really excited about it. And just going, like you said, just being on your toes. I'm like, "How do you think the guys down there on the field feel?" Talk about pressure, and talking about all the pressure of being a tiny part of the Super Bowl. But the pressure those guys must be feeling, I can't even, my brain would just melt. I don't know. I'd have to call in sick.

FAGERBAKKE: And if it screws up for us, then it's just something dumb like you get to see a couple of old guys in fluorescent green tights. Instead of seeing the characters, you'll see the reality, and that'll be shocking.

KENNY: Which I do a lot of that on my OnlyFans page.

Super Bowl LVIII Predictions

On that note, I do have to say thank you for taking the time out to speak with me today. Just a final quick question, who's winning the Super Bowl?

LAWRENCE: The winner.

KENNY: Yeah, I think Bikini Bottom is taking it home. I think if there's a win, hopefully who's winning are the families that are going to be able to watch the Super Bowl together with this added element of cartoon silliness along with all the bone crunching, gladiatorial champion-shipping. So I think it's great. I think it's really cool. And it's amazing to be a part of the biggest sporting event that exists.

LAWRENCE: I can't think about it too much or I'll get totally freaked out.

FAGERBAKKE: I know.

KENNY: I've got my little exercises I do.

Super Bowl LVIII Live from Bikini Bottom airs exclusively on Nickelodeon on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. (ET)