They star Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob with such comic flair. He plays Patchy the Pirate, who’s throwing a sea-themed party too, in an offbeat, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse”-type abode.

In 2002, Hillenburg clarified that SpongeBob is not gay but rather asexual. “Everybody is different, and the show embraces that,” he explained. “The character SpongeBob is an oddball.

Although widely rumored for years, creator Stephen Hillenberg denied SpongeBob was gay in a 2002 interview, stating that the cartoon character was ‘asexual.’ Hillenburg died in 2018.