SpongeBob's pants are pants worn by SpongeBob SquarePants in almost every single episode, beginning with "Help Wanted."
Description[]
SpongeBob's pants are, as his surname implies, square pants worn by SpongeBob to fit the shape of his body. They are brown and contain a red tie in the middle, a black belt, and white clothing behind at the upper top with parts of them folded. In "Little Yellow Book," it is revealed that the pants are formed up of individual clothing - a white shirt, red tie, and black belt - hence the interchangeability of the terms "shirt" and "pants." Underneath them, he has been shown to wear an average white pair of underwear.
The pants are also inflatable, which is a plot element of "The Sponge Who Could Fly." The inflatable variant also appear in the games Lights, Camera, Pants! and Dancin' Tentacles.
Another interesting variant is in the The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, in which they are a form of foldable cardboard.
Role in series[]
SpongeBob's pants play a crucial role as a defining trait of his character, even being his last name. The singing part of the theme song begins with Hans putting the pants on SpongeBob after he walks out of his pineapple house in his underwear.
The first instance of his pants being a central theme of an episode is "The Sponge Who Could Fly," in which inserting a hair dryer into them causes him to reach the sky and become capable of flying. Although he initially dreams of flying with the jellyfish in Jellyfish Fields, he becomes a superhero to the Bikini Bottomites, saving them in dangerous situations, though the constant requested assistance with every minor task eventually annoys him and causes him to make a move to Jellyfish Fields to pursue his dreams. An angry mob chases him, and during the process, Canonball Jenkins flies through SpongeBob's pants and rips them apart, thus deflating them.
SpongeBob's closet.
SpongeBob is shown to have a closet full of varieties of the same pants, as seen in "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants," "A Day Without Tears," and "Bad Luck Bob."
SpongeBob flying with his pants.
Trivia[]
- Despite SpongeBob's family sharing his surname, very few of them actually wear square pants like him. The only living SquarePants family member who wears square pants is SpongeBob's cousin Stanley.
- SpongeBob's pants are seen coming to life during the dream in "Procrastination."
- SpongeBob usually does not sleep with his pants on; he sleeps in his underwear or, starting with season 5, his night gear.
- However, he does sleep with his pants on in "Sleepy Time."
- SpongeBob has the ability to hide in his pants, as seen in "No Free Rides" and "The Smoking Peanut."
- The first episode where SpongeBob is shown wearing attire other than his square pants is "Ripped Pants." This is also the first episode where his pants are not seen.
SpongeBob live-action costume with his normal clothes.
SpongeBob briefly seen in his normal outfit.
- SpongeBob's pants are usually absent in episodes that feature him wearing a different costume throughout the entire story or which take place at Goo Lagoon. They have been absent from nine episodes: "Ripped Pants," "Walking Small," "Mermaid Man vs. SpongeBob," "The Inmates of Summer," "Jailbreak!," "Don't Wake Patrick," "High Sea Diving," "Under the Small Top," and "Welcome to Binary Bottom."
- There are four additional episodes where SpongeBob himself does not wear his usual pants, but they are seen otherwise:
- In "SpongeGuard on Duty," he wears swim trunks but his pants are seen on a live-action SpongeBob costume.
- In "Krusty Krushers," he wears a wrestling uniform, but he briefly appears wearing his regular clothes during an error scene where Patrick and SpongeBob are spinning in the air and about to get shred into pieces.
- In "Goons on the Moon," SpongeBob wears a Science Scout outfit, but his nerdy photo shows him in his pants.
- In "A Skin Wrinkle in Time," SpongeBob is only seen in his underwear, but his pants are worn by GrandPat during the "GrandPat Sea Star" intro sequence.
- There are four additional episodes where SpongeBob himself does not wear his usual pants, but they are seen otherwise:
- When cloning SpongeBob in "CopyBob DittoPants," all of the SpongeBob clones have white or blue ties on their pants instead of red.
- The first character other than SpongeBob to wear these pants was Patrick in "Boating School."
- It is revealed in "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants” by the clerk that SpongeBob's pants are only shipped to Bikini Bottom every few times a year.
- SpongeBob's pants are covered by a belt in two episodes: "Hall Monitor" and "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV."
- There have been two variants of SpongeBob's pants, such as "To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants" where he wears a round version of his original pants, and "SpongeBob LongPants" where SpongeBob wears a long pants version of his original pants. These both changed SpongeBob's personality.