The world's most popular invertebrate tv-cartoon star, spongebob square pants was the brainchild of stephen hillenburg A cheerful, yellow-skinned denizen of deep who was shaped like a common bathroom sponge and who wore a shirt, necktie and belted shorts, spongebob square pants lived in a pineapple shell in the underwater community of bikini bottom Sponge bob worked at the krusty krab restaurant and sometimes commiserated with a land squirrel who lived in a nearby biodome, and whose name was sandy cheeks Relentlessly cheerful spongebob had a habit of coming up with the most complex of solutions to the simplest of problems--in direct contrast with his best friend patrick star the starfish, who was not the brightest bulb under the sea Spongebob square pants made its nickelodeon cable network debut on july 17, 1999,