How Old Is Spongebob Squarepants? Answered

The animated characters are way different than the live-action ones we watch on our screens. The actors appearing in the live-action projects do age, and it isn’t a big task to figure out how old they are in real life. However, when it comes to the animated characters, their age seems to be a mystery. That’s because they look the same in every episode/season. Well, this article talks about Spongebob Squarepants, as his age has been a topic of debate for a long time.

Spongebob Squarepants Age Explained

While no episode of the animated series revealed Spongebob Squarepants’ real age, an episode of Season 1 spilled beans on the same. Do you remember how much did Spongebob suck during the driving lessons? The one giving him the lessons even freaked out and said that Spongebob was unteachable. However, the sea sponge didn’t lose hope and kept going until he received his driving license. That’s when we came to know about the real age of our beloved animated character. In the license, it was mentioned that Spongebob Squarepants was born on July 14, 1986. That means he is 38 years and 5 months old at the moment.

SpongeBob SquarePants Season 1 Episode 1 premiered on May 1, 1999, on the Nickelodeon television channel, and at that time, our sea sponge protagonist was 13 years old. Thank god the animated series was released at a time when people did not care much about what was shown on television shows. If it had been released today, the owner of the fast-food restaurant that hired the 13-year-old sea sponge would have received backlash from the global audience. Well, that’s how the time has changed, right?

The Animated Series Hinted at Spongebob’s Different Ages Multiple Times

Although the episode Sleepy Time did give us a clue about SpongeBob’s real age, the animated how didn’t stay true to that; sometimes, we were able to meet an adult SpongeBob and, at times, a younger one. It seems the creator wanted to be curious about his age.

In the second season’s episode, Grandma’s Kisses, SpongeBob’s grandmother reveals that he was an adult in the episode. The sea sponge loved his grandmother a lot, so he used to kiss her every now and then. However, after getting bullied by some Douchebags, when he avoids kissing his grandma, the elderly woman tells him that even though he is a grown-up, he can show love to her.

A spinoff series titled Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years premiered in 2021 on Paramount +, and it featured a 10-year-old SpongeBob. It showcased the sea sponge and his similar-age friends enjoying their time at a Summer Camp. Moreover, the spinoff also states that SpongeBob is 10 years older than Pearl, and in the original series’ fourth season, we see the latter celebrating her 16th birthday. That means at that time, our main protagonist was 26-years-old.