Following Congress' passing of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which requires the release of the government's files on its investigation into the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, a number of internet rumors spread claiming unexpected things were linked to his trafficking scheme. Among them was the TV show "SpongeBob SquarePants," which posts claimed was created in order to entertain children trafficked by Epstein and his associates. Snopes readers wrote in looking to find out whether the rumor was true.
Posts spreading the claim justified it using two pieces of evidence — first, that the address on SpongeBob's driver's license was a valid address on Little St. James Island, which Epstein owned and used in his trafficking operation — and second, that Nickelodeon, which broadcasts "SpongeBob SquarePants," uses a logo with the same shape as Little St. James.
Unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, Snopes previously fact-checked both of those claims. They're both false. The more broad claim, that "SpongeBob" was created to entertain Epstein's victims, is false too.
Since the government's collection of files on Epstein has now been (mostly) released, it stands to reason that if "SpongeBob SquarePants" was indeed created in connection with Epstein, the files would likely mention the show or its creator, Stephen Hillenburg.
So, Snopes looked through the files, searching for the terms "SpongeBob" and "Stephen Hillenburg." There were seven references to "SpongeBob" in the files. Those seven references included a New York Times article, an academic paper, a business pitch, an email newsletter and three separate versions of the same crime report, which featured a screenshotted MySpace page containing an advertisement for a SpongeBob screensaver.
Meanwhile, there were no references to Hillenburg in the files. If Hillenburg had ever met Epstein, the intense amount of scrutiny and deep collection of publicized records on Epstein would be public knowledge at this point. There was no evidence the two had ever met.
In reality, Hillenburg, who died in 2018, was a former marine biology teacher with an interest in art when he initially came up with the idea for SpongeBob. He pitched the show to Nickelodeon with only a few years of animation work under his belt. A Los Aangeles Times piece published after his death described him as a "private person" who was fond of "surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving and playing music."