Talk:SpongeBob SquarePants

Since the article's criticism section has a tag, I think we should start a discussion on how we should handle this particular section, taking WP:NPOV into account. Thoughts on what we should do here? Lord Sjones23 (talk - contributions) 06:04, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

Just skimmed through it. The subsection around perceived decline in quality could do with a rewrite, the rest looks fine to me. Rosaece ♡ talk ♡ contribs 09:43, 7 October 2025 (UTC)

The redirect SpongeBob SquareShorts has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 December 18 § SpongeBob SquareShorts until a consensus is reached. Thepharoah17 (talk) 01:45, 18 December 2025 (UTC)

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed the following:

• There are lots of uncited statements, including entire paragraphs.
• There is a lot of detail in this article that is too detailed or could be summarised more effectively. For this to meet the GA criteria some information will need to be spun out or summarised more effectively.

Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 04:37, 27 January 2026 (UTC)

Z1720, some information should indeed be spun out have more efficient summaries. While I've also requested a copyedit for this article at WP:GOCER, which sections should we consider splitting and which uncited statements should be looked at? Also, should we consider bringing it up for a peer review?

I've also posted neutral notices on the relevant WikiProjects for their thoughts how we should improve it. sjones23 (talk - contributions) 06:19, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

• @Sjones23: I have added citation needed tags to the article at places where I think a citation is needed. Before copyediting the article, I suggest figuring out what can be spun out or removed. The sections that I think are too long right now are "Characters", "Development", "Voice actors", "Anniversaries", "Reception", "Films" and "Merchandise". I have also added a "duplicate citations" template to the article as there are a lot of those. If the article needs work, we should consider bringing it to WP:GAR: if the problems are resolved, this can go to WP:PR to get it ready for an FAC nom, if editors want. Z1720 (talk) 14:53, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

  For starters, since we have a character article at List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters, we can trim down this article's character section and move some of the relevant information there. sjones23 (talk - contributions) 18:14, 30 January 2026 (UTC)

Well, the duplicate reference issues have been solved and some of the citation overkill has been dealt with. So now, while I've provided some sources such as TVGuide to the first sentence of the voice actors section, what should we do about the characters and voice actor sections? Also, should we bundle the relevant citations and add a note saying "Attributed to multiple sources/references"? sjones23 (talk - contributions) 05:14, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

Here's a quick update: I've also asked an uninvolved user with experience in trimming down and copyediting articles, OrdinaryOtter (talk · contribs), to help look into this article. Hopefully, this will satisfy our article review concerns. sjones23 (talk - contributions) 17:43, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for reaching out. I've started condensing a few sections with excessive detail and long block quotes. Feel free to give feedback on my edits. I will try to find citations for unsourced content as I go. I may be a poor judge of which sections could be spun out, as I don't have much experience with that. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 18:32, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

@sjones23, Z1720: I've completed a thorough copyedit of roughly the first half of the page. I did a lot of rewriting, trimmed a lot of rambling summaries and long direct quotes, and overall sharpened up the prose and cut lots of excessive detail. I think it's miles better than it was, but this might be my stopping point—I've realized that when I'm working on an article about a show or movie, I enjoy editing the sections about creation (roughly the first half of the page) far more than I enjoy editing the sections about reception (the second half). I may return to do some work on the second half, but I'm not sure. I trimmed the page down from 13,000 words to 10,000, so we probably don't need to spin out any content into new pages, although there are some sections I barely touched—such as Merchandise—which almost certainly need trimming. I believe the sections I worked on are now fully sourced, or very close. Please feel free to get in touch with me with any questions or concerns. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 17:13, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

• @OrdinaryOtter: Thanks for all of the work you have done. I think the Merchandising section does need to be copyedited and trimmed before I feel comfortable with this meeting the GA criteria. "PR Newswire" should also possibly be removed as a source, as it can be seen as promotional. "SB Nation" should also be removed. Z1720 (talk) 02:17, 11 March 2026 (UTC)

In the section about the spin-off criticism, two quotes were originally in the article to give context, before being randomly removed. These quotes were: what Paul Tibbitt said (now it just says he criticized it without actually giving his quote), and the Longreads “SpongeBob Babies” quote. The way the article is written now is misleading, because it only quotes one 2009 article, which does not give the entirety of the context. With that said, can these two quotes be added back to give more context of the situation? CNReel (talk) 22:17, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Hi there! I sent a message to Magical Golden Whip asking them to please provide an explanation for the revert. Have a great day. 😊 OrdinaryOtter^(talk) 18:14, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Hello again! I've been doing a copyedit of the article, starting at the top. When I get to the section you edited, if you haven't received an explanation about the revert, I'll reach out and we can discuss your edit and the revert, and decide if any of your changes can be restored. Be well. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 21:38, 21 February 2026 (UTC)

Sounds good. CNReel (talk) 04:33, 25 February 2026 (UTC)

I took a look at the segment in question and all the sources, and I wrote a new version, which is now in the Franchise section under "Spin-offs". Your version may have been reverted due to its heavy reliance on direct quotes, but I'm not certain. To maintain a consistent, encyclopedic tone and style on Wikipedia, we are encouraged to use direct quotes sparingly, and to turn them into sentence prose whenever possible. In the new version I wrote, I attempted to capture the essence and meaning of the quotes in sentence form. Please let me know what you think. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 17:56, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Hello! I was asked by QuestFour to explain why I think some content should be removed from the lead. This is the segment in question as it exists now on the page:

"Many of the series' ideas originated in The Intertidal Zone, an unpublished educational comic book Hillenburg created in the 1980s to teach his students about undersea life. Hillenburg joined Nickelodeon in 1992 as an artist on Rocko's Modern Life. After Rocko was cancelled in 1996, he began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series, and in 1997, a seven-minute pilot was pitched to Nickelodeon. The network's executives wanted SpongeBob to be a child in school, but Hillenburg preferred SpongeBob to be an adult character. He was prepared to abandon the series, but compromised by creating a boating school so SpongeBob could attend school as an adult."

I suggest that the segment be shortened to this:

"Many of the series' ideas originated in The Intertidal Zone, an unpublished educational comic book Hillenburg created in the 1980s to teach his students about undersea life. In 1992, Hillenburg was hired as a director on the series Rocko's Modern Life. After Rocko was cancelled in 1996, he began developing SpongeBob SquarePants into a television series. He pitched the idea to Nickelodeon in 1997, and the network immediately funded the show."

To me, the first version seems like it has too much detail for the lead. I removed the segment starting with "The network's executives..." because it strikes me as an important event in the development of the show, but not such a core event that it needs to be in the lead.

Far less important is my change to Hillenburg's title from "artist" to "director." I made this change after looking at how he is credited on the page List of Rocko's Modern Life episodes. But we should use whatever title is most prevalent in reliable sources, which I haven't looked into.

I would love to hear others' thoughts on this segment. Thanks in advance. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 04:08, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

• I think the proposed change is better, as it is more succinct. The lead does not need information about the adult vs. kid discussion, and that can go in the article body. Z1720 (talk) 15:14, 13 March 2026 (UTC)

  @QuestFour, what are your thoughts? OrdinaryOtter (talk) 07:31, 14 March 2026 (UTC)

The first version could be trimmed, but I think the kid vs. adult segment should remain in the lead. It was famously the main hurdle in the show's development that almost led to the show not being produced. The new version's statement "immediately funded the show" is a little misleading (the listed Hogan's Alley source mentions that Nick offered to make the pilot immediately, not the full series). There are many sources that mention the opposite, how Nickelodeon was hesitant to greenlight the full series because they wanted SpongeBob to have a teacher/school. Some examples of sources:

• Time Magazine: "Although Nickelodeon liked Stephen Hillenburg’s initial SpongeBob pitch, the network was hesitant to green-light a series in which the main character was not a student. So company execs and Hillenburg came up with a solution: enrolling SpongeBob in a boating school..."
• The Art of an Undersea World: "having SpongeBob be a student became a studio mandate for series approval" Squittens (talk) 00:47, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

This is super helpful feedback, thank you! OrdinaryOtter (talk) 00:53, 16 March 2026 (UTC)

Looks good to me; the changes to the third paragraph are unneeded, however. QuestFour (talk) 01:39, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I made changes to the third paragraph of the lead because those statements were unsourced. If you would like us to keep the current version, please point out the evidence for those statements on the page. For example, if we want to say the series "received widespread critical acclaim in its early years", we need a reliable source that says that. OrdinaryOtter (talk) 01:59, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

They're covered in the sources cited in the "Perceived decline in quality" subsection. QuestFour (talk) 04:59, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

I read through those sources, and only the Vulture one makes reference to the critical appraisal of SpongeBob's early years, citing that period as its "critical heydey." Do you think that's enough to support a claim in the lead that it "received widespread critical acclaim in its early years"? Also, none of those sources point out specific elements of the show that were praised by critics, such as those listed in the current lead. Squittens and Z1720, any thoughts? OrdinaryOtter (talk) 05:31, 18 March 2026 (UTC)

• @OrdinaryOtter: I think that is enough to say that the show received critical acclaim in the early years. If information cannot be verified by a source, it should be removed from the article. Z1720 (talk) 15:34, 18 March 2026 (UTC)