R.I.P. Stephen Hillenburg

[MetManMas]

Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of Spongebob SquarePants, died from ALS on Monday. He was 57.

[Phantoon]

Ugh, that's young. Spongebob is a tremendous cartoon, he made something wonderful.

[Falselogic]

In my early twenties I found SpongeBob after drifting away from the Simpsons. This was a hard time in my life, I was not in a good place, and the constant upbeat cheeriness of SpongeBob and the colorful, optimistic outlook of the show in general were a blessing in disguise. Always clever, heartful, and a bit surreal. I don't know if any cartoon has meant as much to me as Squarepants did. I loved it then and I love it now. Such a loss.

[ArugulaZ]

One thing that's worth mentioning: Spike TV (a division of Viacom, like Nickelodeon) pressured Stephen Hillenburg to make an adult version of Spongebob, similar to the Ren and Stimpy Adult Party Cartoon. He refused, convinced that it would be contrary to his vision of the characters but perhaps also knowing that such a show would be poison to the franchise. Turned out he was right... Spongebob has been on Nick for nearly twenty years and has made the network billions of dollars, while Ren and Stimpy has vanished from public consciousness.

[Kazin]

He also did a lot of work on Rocko's Modern Life, another show that ruled. RIP.

[Tegan]

I watched a bunch of early Spongebob last night after posting about this in the Cartoon thread. It holds up incredibly well, partially because of how antithetical it is to its contemporary smarmy nineties bastard cartoons: Spongebob is a relentlessly sincere, positive, pacifist who gets the better of all the negative people in his life without ever actually realizing he's even in conflict with them.

[muteKi]

Originally Posted by Tegan

I watched a bunch of early Spongebob last night after posting about this in the Cartoon thread. It holds up incredibly well, partially because of how antithetical it is to its contemporary smarmy nineties bastard cartoons: Spongebob is a relentlessly sincere, positive, pacifist who gets the better of all the negative people in his life without ever actually realizing he's even in conflict with them.

I think this is why it was so much more enjoyable than all those other shows on the air at the time -- like with the old WB cartoons (Sylvester and the coyote in particular), you definitely feel for Squidward, but deep in your heart you know that Spongebob deserves to be happy and so you delight in the fact that he gets to be.

[MetManMas]

Oh yes, I love that about Spongebob. He's such a nice guy who just wants to do good things. This was very welcome during a time when so many comedy cartoon protagonists were just straight up assholes.

Also I think Squidward is the perfect foil to Spongebob. Their relationship is very reminiscent of Bert and Ernie, if they were next-door neighbors instead of sharing an apartment and Bert's frustration at Ernie's antics were dialed up to eleven. Squidward just wants to play his clarinet and read his Boring Stories in peace while Spongebob annoys the hell out of him, forever oblivious to how much he is pissing Squidward off.

Also much like Bert and Ernie there are signs that Squidward really does care about Spongebob, like during the pizza delivery episode he made that jerk who yelled at Spongebob for forgetting his drink "take the pizza" he ordered, and the times he's tried to do right for Spongebob when he realized he went too far.

[WisteriaHysteria]

Spongebob is the greatest kids cartoon of all time. This is a bummer

[Daikaiju]

This needs to be here.

I just realized; somewhere there's an actual Goofy Goober guitar. Someone put that in the Smithsonian

[muteKi]

Here's a petition to have Sweet Victory (the song used in the band geeks episode) performed at the super bowl

My thoughts?

Originally Posted by Kylie

[BEAT]

He was an incredible creative force that brought joy to millions, if not billions of people around the world.

His work and impact deeply mattered, and he will be dearly missed.

Rest In Peace