Tom Kenny is canonizing a popular” SpongeBob SquarePants” fan theory.
Kenny, who has voiced the active line ‘ sun towel since the movie’s premiere in 1999 and received two Daytime Emmy Awards for his performance, recently confirmed that his figure has dementia.
” SpongeBob’s kind of on the range, also, as a persona”, he said during a May Q&, A at Motor City Comic Con in Detroit. Images of the Q&, A reposted Tuesday on , X , has since gone popular.
During the panels, Kenny recalled the first time he was pressed on the subject:” A person who was evidently on the band came up to me and said,’ I have a problem for you, Tom Kenny, is SpongeBob disabled?'”
He answered,” Of course”! and told the supporter:” That’s his power, the same way that’s your power”.
Kenny recently spoke about SpongeBob’s neurodivergence in 2012 on , the “WTF” podcast, calling his personality” a little disabled. Obsessed with his job, quite enthusiastic, gets really truly strong into something”.
Enthusiasts have  , similarly pointed to , SpongeBob’s meltdowns, deafness to irony and inability to read social signals as curriculum signs of the developmental state.
Most likely, show creator Stephen Hillenburg — who , died in 2018 , — did n’t intentionally write SpongeBob as a character who has autism, Kenny told , Bleeding Cool , in 2017.
The voice actor said,” But when you put a creative work out there, it has different uses, and the autism issue comes up thus outrageously frequently that I wish someone would create a term paper or a book on it.”
” SpongeBob SquarePants” is in its 14th season on Nickelodeon and has been , renewed for Season 15.
The series ‘ fourth spinoff movie,  ,” Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie”  , — which follows 2021 ‘s ,” The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run”  , — premieres Aug. 2 on Netflix.
___
© 2024 Los Angeles Times
Distributed by , Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
