What a Square! An Actor's Life as SpongeBob

Nov. 19, 2004 — -- What's it like to be yellow, absorbent and porous? Don't ask Tom Kenny, the man better known as SpongeBob SquarePants.

"I've never actually put on the SpongeBob costume," says Kenny, the 42-year-old comic who voices the cartoon character who lives in a pineapple under the sea in the hyper-stylized land of Bikini Bottom.

Nevertheless, Kenny has seen what happens when actors in SpongeBob suits appear at Nickelodeon events. They get mobbed by kids and adults who act like kids.

"Those people should get combat pay," Kenny says. "That's why they never let a SpongeBob go around without a handler.

"You'll see a guy in a big yellow suit with a kid dangling from each arm. There's another kid grabbing on to his buck teeth. It's like they are killing SpongeBob with love. And the guy in the costume is running around like he's looking for the last chopper out of Saigon."

Now, the Nickelodeon Network is going to try to parlay its hit TV cartoon into a full-length feature. "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie" hits theaters today, and it will be interesting to see how many adults show up at ticket windows without kids -- effectively coming out of the closet as SpongeBob fans.

"Anyone who watches cartoons instantly becomes a nerd," says Kenny. "And that's when they become my people."

Certainly, as "The Simpsons" and "South Park" have proved, there are cartoons just for adults and quasi-adults. "SpongeBob SquarePants," however, was created for Nickelodeon's rugrat audience.

Somehow, the 11-minute romps through Bikini Bottom captured a cult following with grown-ups, mixing madcap humor backed with sly cultural references that hearken back to Looney Tunes classics.

In the new film, SpongeBob and his dimwitted starfish pal, Patrick, cross the ocean floor in an oversized sandwich. They're off to find King Neptune's crown, which has been stolen by Plankton, the speck-sized evildoer with long-range plans of ruling the world, even if he's occasionally stepped on and scraped off a shoe.

Joining the fun are Alec Baldwin as the voice of Plankton's hit man, Scarlett Johansson as Mindy the Mermaid and Jeffrey Tambor as Neptune, the follicle-challenged ruler who needs his crown to cover his bald spot.

But if SpongeBob's fate hangs on anyone's shoulders, it will be those of David Hasselhoff, who spoofs his "Baywatch" lifeguard persona in a live-action sequence where he swims our hero to safety on his back.