After 10 years, Spongebob still absorbs

Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, is to be among the guests at Madame Tussauds’ Wax Museum in New York on Wednesday when SpongeBob becomes the first animated “personality” to be immortalized in wax.

“It’s a dream job,“ says Kenny, a comic, former singer and voiceover artist who will forever be associated with the yellow guy in shorts. “Being an iconic character that makes people laugh isn’t so bad,“ he says.

Ten years ago this Friday, Nickelodeon launched “SpongeBob SquarePants.“ It drew immediate attention because of its absurd premise.

It’s about an innocent, happy little soaker who looks more like a kitchen sponge than a sea sponge.

SpongeBob lives in a pineapple in the undersea town of Bikini Bottom and works as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab restaurant, where his grumpy neighbor, Squidward the squid, is the cashier. His best friend is a dim-witted starfish named Patrick.

The show was an instant hit with Nickelodeon’s kid audience and the appeal quickly expanded to adults. “SpongeBob” has become a worldwide phenomenon. Airing in 25 languages and 170 countries, the series generates an estimated $8 billion annually in merchandising revenue alone.

Nickelodeon is celebrating the show’s 10-year milestone with a marathon Friday through Sunday.

“SpongeBob” creator Stephen Hillenburg is a former marine biologist with a talent for art and animation. He developed most of the characters in the 1980s in drawings used to amuse and educate kids at the Orange County Marine Institute in California.

When his artistic talents led him to a career in animation, the “SpongeBob” series was born. He left the show in 2004.

“SpongeBob” executive producer Paul Tibbitt, who has been with the show the entire run, says the character’s “good-natured disposition and innocence” make him a winner with the viewers.

“You don’t have to be nasty to be funny, and he’s good-hearted,“ he said in a telephone interview. “

“The secret ingredient of ‘SpongeBob’ is the heart,“ notes TV historian Robert Thompson of Syracuse University’s Center for Television and Popular Culture. “But it’s the heart of a 4-year-old, and a heart doesn’t get much purer than that,“ he says in the special.

Tibbitt says SpongeBob tries to find the bright side in every situation, which often leads to wacky misadventures such as a new episode Friday in which his famed square pants are shrunk in a dryer and he is forced to become SpongeBob RoundPants.