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Longtime SpongeBob Squarepants voice actor Tom Kenny has suggested that the famous Nickelodeon cartoon character is neurodivergent.
At the 2024 Motor City Comic Con in Detroit earlier this year, Kenny recalled being approached by a fan “on the spectrum” who asked him if SpongeBob was autistic. Footage of Kenny sharing the anecdote was posted by ToonHive on X/Twitter on Tuesday (July 23).
“SpongeBob’s kind of on the spectrum too as a character,” Kenny says in the clip. “It was the first time I’d ever been asked this question – a person who was obviously on the spectrum came up to me and said, ‘I have a question for you, Tom Kenny. Is SpongeBob autistic?’”
He recalled answering: “‘Of course!’ I said, ‘You know what? That’s his superpower, the same way that’s your superpower.’”
The audience applauds and cheers in response to his explanation.
It’s not the first time the voice actor, who has voiced SpongeBob since 1999, has spoken about the character being neurodivergent.
Kenny previously told Marc Maron’s WTF podcast in October 2012: “I don’t know what there is in that show that talks to kids that are on the autism spectrum, but more than other cartoons... because SpongeBob as a character is a little autistic. Obsessed with his job, very hardworking, gets really really deep into something.”
In 2018 and 2020, Kenny received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his work on SpongeBob.
He has also voiced the Ice King in Adventure Time and its spinoff Fionna and Cake, the Narrator and Mayor in The Powerpuff Girls, Carl Chryniszzswics in Johnny Bravo and Spyro from the Spyro video game series.
Last year, Kenny’s wife was forced to clarify that her husband wasn’t dating pop superstar Ariana Grande.
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Grande has reportedly been dating Ethan Slater – who played SpongeBob in SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical from 2017 to 2019 – since the summer of 2023.
Jill Talley, who’s been married to Kenny since 1996, took to Instagram to say: “Hi everyone, I’m married to Tom Kenny (who voices SpongeBob on the TV show). He is not dating Ariana Grande.”
“Just wanted to set the record straight,” she wrote. “PS as for me and Tom Kenny - we are celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary today.”
