SpongeBob Is Officially on the Spectrum
“It was the first time I’d ever been asked this question,” Tom Kenny, longtime voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, recently told fans at the 2024 Motor City Comic Con. “A person who was obviously on the spectrum came up to me and said, ‘I have a question for you, Tom Kenny. Is SpongeBob autistic? Is SpongeBob himself autistic as a character?’”
“Of course!” Kenny told the fan. “I said, ‘You know what? That’s his superpower, the same way that’s your superpower.’”
Entertainment Weekly reported that this isn’t the first time that Kenny has discussed the neurodiversity of our absorbent, porous, yellow hero. In 2012, he tackled the subject on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast. “I don’t know what there is in that show that talks to kids that are on the autism spectrum,” he said. “But more than other cartoons, SpongeBob as a character is a little autistic. Obsessed with his job, very hardworking, gets really, really deep into something.”
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And Kenny has had similar interactions with other fans at comic conventions. Redditor and-meggy-hash posted a story earlier this year about a conversation they had with the voice actor at Central Florida Comic Con. “I was telling (Kenny) that, even tho I didn’t know it at the time because I was diagnosed at 17 (I’m 23 now), I think I related so much to SpongeBob because of my autism. And you know what he said without any hesitation? He said, and I quote: ‘Oh yeah, SpongeBob is autistic, no doubt about it.’”
“Literally one of the coolest moments of my life thus far,” and-meggy-hash continued, “and so many things hit different knowing that now!!”
Kenny has voiced SpongeBob since the character moved into his pineapple under the sea in 1999, earning two Daytime Emmy Awards for his work. According to an Entertainment Weekly oral history, he felt an affinity with SpongeBob right away. “I just got SpongeBob. (Creator Stephen Hillenburg) did such a good job with it. Everything was right there,” Kenny explained. “You go, ‘Oh, I know this guy. I can embody this guy.’ I feel like there’s some shared DNA between me and this character. We’ve all felt that way. That’s part of Steve’s brilliance. He seemed to be pretty sure of his decisions once he made them, and couldn’t be dissuaded.”
Sounds like SpongeBob’s neurodiversity was baked into the character from the start.
