Highlights From The ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ 25th Anniversary Panel At New York Comic Con
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Are ya ready, kids? At New York Comic Con this year, one of the panels was a SpongeBob SquarePants 25th anniversary panel. It’s crazy to think that this show is 25 years old and is still going to this day. The panel consisted of the show’s voice actors, Tom Kenny (SpongeBob), Bill Fagerbakke (Patrick Star), Carolyn Lawrence (Sandy Cheeks), Rodger Bumpass (Squidward Tentacles), Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs), Mr. Lawrence (Plankton), and executive producers, Mark Ceceralli and Vincent Waller. The panel was a nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up on the cartoon.
One of the first questions asked was how long did it take them to realize that this show was something special. Bill told a story about when he was picking his daughter up from school, and a bunch of children ran over to him because they were fans of Patrick. Clancy said he knew immediately, and Carolyn when she saw merch of the show at Target.
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Is their bond a product of time, or did they hit it off immediately? Tom Kenny talked about how their shared experience is extraordinary and that they hit it off immediately. One of them jokes that, instead, it took them 25 years to despise each other. Supposedly, there was talk about how intimidating Clancy Brown was when people would first meet him. He said he never picked up on it. Tom Kenny jokes that Clancy is a wuss and that Tom was never intimidated by him.
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They then go into talking about the SpongeBob spinoff, The Patrick Star Show. Bill says how he was nervous because Patrick has only ever existed in reference to SpongeBob. Mark and Vincent, however, relished the opportunity to look at Bikini Bottom from Patrick’s perspective. They were a bit worried, however, as fans are very protective of the property and didn’t know how the spinoff would be received. Fans eventually gave it a chance and grew to love it. They showed a clip from the upcoming Thanksgiving special that features Patrick’s extended family. It’s about the awkwardness of the extended family getting together. There will also officially be a season 4 and season 5 of The Patrick Star Show.
They talk about their favorite episodes to make, and a few agree that the best ones were with Mermaid Man (Ernest Borgnine) and Barnacle Boy (Tim Conway) actors. They didn’t get to record with them all the time. The actors were both on the TV show McHale’s Navy but hadn’t worked together in a while, so it was fun to watch them play their characters. They did agree that their favorite episode is "Band Geeks". Fans were treated to a live table read of "Band Geeks" as well.
SpongeBob has become very popular in the meme sector recently, so the cast was asked about moments that surprised them with how popular they have become. The moments were, “the inner machinations of my mind are an enigma”, “future”, “I went to college”, and “I’m ugly and I’m proud”.
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Even after all these years, they can stay true to the characters. There is a rich world and a variety of characters with many different personalities to mix and match. This enables them to keep it fresh with how the show embraces creativity.
Finally, they talked about their favorite quotes, and all of them are iconic. “Am I a pretty girl?”, “Happy Hopping Moron Day?”, “That’s not my wallet”, “you’re a mystery SpongeBob”, and “Which one of you is the real Dirty Dan?”. They each did their favorite quote in the voices, and it was great to see them in person.
This panel was definitely a highlight of the con. As someone who grew up with the show and is even older than the show, it was surreal to see the cast in person. It’s also crazy how much the show is referenced all these years later and the impact it has had.
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