there's a great chance that you're familiar with

SpongeBob SquarePants,

but what have I told you that this beloved show

is the product of man's most evil, horrific history.

For the last 23 years SpongeBob SquarePants

has infiltrated the hearts and minds

of children and adults all over the world.

It's legacy includes, hundreds of episodes,

made for TV movies, feature films,

and even a live Broadway musical.

But many believe that the funny little characters

who call Bikini Bottom home

are not merely products of one man's innocent imagination,

but instead born from something much, much darker,

nuclear war.

The basis of this theory is the claim that

the region of the ocean SpongeBob takes place in,

Bikini Bottom is based on a Bikini Atoll,

a real group of islands housed within the Marshall Islands,

which were used for nuclear testing in the 1940s and 50s.

This lore, if intended by the creators

would mean that SpongeBob and his colorful friends

aren't just cartoon characters.

Instead, it would make them mutated beings

forever changed by radioactive fallout

who can now live and think like people,

all side effects of man's most horrific achievement.

But was this always the intention of the creator

or is it simply a (beep) up fan theory?

To start let's briefly discuss the history of Bikini Atoll.

Previously called Pikini Atoll,

Bikini Atoll specifically refers to a small group of islands

located within the Marshall Islands,

located about halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea.

Atoll refers to the shape of the island, which is ring like

with a central body of water called a lagoon.

after taking the Marshall Islands following World War II,

the US decided to use Bikini Atoll and a few other islands,

not for a fun beach getaway,

but as testing sites for nuclear weapons

during the Cold War.

in 1946, 167 Bikinians were removed from the island

and relocated by the US government

in order to begin nuclear testing in the area.

67 explosives were detonated

during various tests between 1946 and 1958.

Bikini Atoll alone was the site of 23 nuclear tests.

On March 1st, 1954, the Castle Bravo bomb was tested.

Castle Bravo was 1,000 times

the size of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima

and was the largest hydrogen bomb ever tested.

But was the site of such horrific destruction

used as inspiration or perhaps even the setting

for the lighthearted world of imagination

that SpongeBob would call home?

SpongeBob SquarePants was created by Steven Hillenburg.

Before his career was focused on the show,

he worked as a teacher and artist

at the Orange County Marine Institute in 1989.

That year he created a comic book to teach children

about intertidal pools,

which featured a cartoon sea sponge

with black sunglasses and no arms or legs.

His name was Bob the sponge.

Eventually Hillenburg moved into animation.

He said, quote, "I studied natural resources planning

and thought I could get a job at some marine park.

But I was great at art and so-so at marine biology.

It's funny how the two eventually came together."

Hillenburg attended California Institute of the Arts

to study Experimental Animation and earned his MFA in 1992.

Hillenburg was eventually hired to work

on the Nickelodeon show, Rocko's Modern Life,

where he would meet voice actor, Tom Kenny.

One of his coworkers saw the educational comic book

and told Hillenburg he should develop it into his own show.

He created a cast of characters and made some changes

to the original educational comic book.

For example, Hillenburg made SpongeBob

an artificial sponge instead of a natural sponge

and of course changed his name.

But surprisingly, no mention of Bikini Atoll at all.

So how did this fan theory become so popular?

Well, the internet.

According to Screen Rant the theory began on Reddit.

One user pointed out the similarity between the names

of Bikini Bottom and Bikini Atoll.

Another user commented that chipmunks

were once kept on board small Navy ships

during the testing period,

drawing a connection to the SpongeBob character, Sandy,

a squirrel who wears a protective suit.

Another user posited that Rock Bottom,

another location near Bikini Bottom

may be a crater explaining why those that lived there

were even stranger and more mutated than the creatures

in Bikini Bottom.

There are also believers of this theory

that point out an explosion in one episode

resembling a mushroom cloud.

Some point to the overall aesthetic of the show

somewhat resembling that of the 1940s and 50s.

This shows up in Hillenburg's own appreciation

and use of the Tiki style.

It's worth pointing out that some argue

that using these elements in this way

normalizes settler colonialism,

which was happening in the region at the time.

Scientific studies can help explore this fan theory as well.

In 2019, a study confirmed that there are still

elevated levels of gamma radiation

in the Bikini Atoll area over 60 years later.

The level of radiation found is almost double

the maximum exposure limit for the area,

meaning the area is still uninhabitable.

However, some people still elect to live on the island

as contract workers for the US and local governments.

Overall, the Marshall Islands registered

as having as much as 10 times more radiation

than the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.

There is even a compensation fund

through the National Cancer Benefit Center

for those who have been exposed

to the radiation in the region.

And short term and long term radioactive elements

can reach marine life through phytoplankton,

zoo plankton and kelp.

Fish consume these

and if they have absorbed radioactive elements,

the fish themselves have now absorbed radioactive elements.

This can eventually impact the entire food chain.

Though how an animal is exposed to radiation impacts

how it is impacted.

Animals who are exposed to radiation

through their lungs or gills are likely to develop cancer

and genetic damage, possibly even die.

Animals who are exposed to radiation through the food chain

are more likely to see those levels concentrate

as they pass from animal to animal.

Traditionally though, and this might go without saying,

the radiation would more than likely mean

that most of the animals would be more prone to dying

than perhaps opening a burger joint

or taking up the clarinet.

But of course it is a cartoon.

According to a Cracked article,

an anonymous staffer supposedly referred

to the Bikini Atoll theory as quote

unofficial cannon and quote, well accepted fanfic.

The staffer who is allegedly a member

of the Nickelodeon promotions team

stated quote, "Within my team, it's generally known about,

but not often talked about.

Mostly because we promote all the shows

and don't have much time for enjoying ourselves at all."

However, when Cracked reach out to Nickelodeon,

they disputed this theory simply stating that quote,

"The show is set in Bikini Bottom."

So is Bikini Bottom only a few leagues under the site

of one of humanity's most brutal displays of inhumanity

and forever changed by generations of radioactive mutation?

With only circumstantial evidence to suggest

the theory has any merit to it

and with many other possible explanations available,

it appears that no,

SpongeBob SquarePants was not based

on the Bikini Atoll nuclear experiments in the 1940s and 50s

and the theory is simply the internet getting swept away

with the tide of mystery.

But what do you think?

(dramatic music)