Nickelodeon Includes SpongeBob in LGBTQ+ Pride Post, Twitter Goes Wild

Over the weekend, the official Twitter account for Nickelodeon shared a message celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride Month and included SpongeBob SquarePants in its post, leading many people to believe that the cartoon character is a member of the community.

"Celebrating #Pride with the LGBTQ+ community and their allies this month and every month," the children's network tweeted. The post also included a picture of SpongeBob, trans actor Michael Cohen (a star on "Henry Danger") and the bisexual character Korra from the cartoon "The Legend of Korra."

It didn't take long before SpongeBob began trending on Twitter with many fans discussing the Bikini Bottom citizen's sexuality. Nickelodeon eventually had to turn off the comments and replies to their tweet, E! Online notes.

"SpongeBob SquarePants" creator Stephen Hillenburg, who died in 2018, spoke about the character's sexuality, along with SpongeBob's best friend Patrick Starfish, telling Reuters (via People magazine) in 2005 that he "never intended them to be gay."

"I consider them to be almost asexual," he said.

Twitter was quick to react to Nickelodeon's latest post. Find some of the best responses below.