Over 30,000 ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ Fans Petition NFL to Play Beloved Song at Super Bowl

To honor the life of SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg, who tragically passed away this week after a long battle with ALS, a group of fans has started a petition to bring one of the show’s most memorable musical performances to the biggest stage in the country.

A few days after Hillenburg’s passing, a petition on Change.org called for the NFL to play “Sweet Victory” during the halftime show of February’s Super Bowl. At the time of writing this article, just two days after the petition went live, it has already earned more than 31,000 signatures.

“As some of you may or may not know, Stephen Hillenburg – the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants – has passed away recently,” writes Isreal Colunga who started the petition. “As a tribute to his legacy, his contributions to a generation of children, and to truly showcase the greatness of this song, we call for Sweet Victory to be performed at the Halftime Show.”

This may seem like a strange request if you’ve never watched an episode of SpongeBob, but if you’re a fan, this makes all the sense in the world. If you recall, SpongeBob and his friends performed “Sweet Victory” in a Season 2 episode of the series called “Band Geeks.” In the episode, their marching band, conducted by Squidward, went above the surface to perform in front of a human audience at the Bubble Bowl, a football game made to emulate the Super Bowl.

While Squidward didn’t expect the band to be able to do anything, since he lied about their talents in the first place, he was shocked when they started performing an intense, ’80s inspired rock ballad, complete with fire effects and lasers. The “Sweet Victory” ballad was sung by SpongeBob on the show, but the actual performer of the track is David Glen Eisley. He co-wrote the song with Bob Kulick.

The NFL may not recognize this petition, no matter how many signatures it gets, but the support of this cause alone is a testament to the massive number of people Hillenburg has impacted with his work. If you want to sign the petition, you can head over to Change.org. The full clip of SpongeBob performing “Sweet Victory” is available on the Nickelodeon website.