If you are a regular adult sports enjoyer, you probably watched the Super Bowl the straightforward way, on CBS. But for the young and the young at heart, there was an alternate option: Super Bowl LVIII Live From Bikini Bottom, Nickelodeon’s version of the big game. In a moment of corporate synergy, Paramount Global opened all its Super Bowl broadcasts with SpongeBob’s rendition of “Sweet Victory” (from the fan-favorite episode “Band Geeks”). Then SpongeBob and friends peeled off for their own spirited and strange presentation of the NFL’s biggest night.
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This was not the colorful and comforting 2D animation that SpongeBob SquarePants fans know and love. The denizens of Bikini Bottom were brought to you by the power of “reality-augmented animation.” That means Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, the voice actors of SpongeBob and Patrick Star respectively, were on hand and actually providing commentary alongside sports commentators Noah Eagle and Nate Burleson. The result is severely uncanny valley 3D recreations of the characters with strangely stilted movements and subtle little glitches like twitching eyelids.
The broadcast was stamped with goofy Nickelodeon hallmarks, like giant animations of Plankton attacking the field and appearances from other non-SpongeBob stars, like Dora the Explorer popping up as a rules expert. Celebrity attendees got a Bikini Bottom makeover as the camera cut to folks like “Herring Styles,” “Snoop Fishy Dogfish,” and “Shrimpothee Chalamet.” The lower third identified Travis Kelce as “Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, Good at football,” and roasted the Chiefs with the very SpongeBob note, “3 hours later… finally scored a TD!”
Most impressive is that the event was an exercise in improv for the SpongeBob gang, leading to moments ranging from delightful to deranged. When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Leonardo appeared, SpongeBob made a crack about Leonardo DiCaprio dating 25-year-olds and later gave a shout-out to the Krusty Krab workers’ union. He joked with Patrick about their IQs and Taylor Swift. At one point, Larry the Lobster took the field after a play and announced he was “so excited I just did a personal foul in my shorts.” And what the hell is that supposed to mean, Larry?! This is supposed to be the Super Bowl for kids!
All in all, it was an interesting experiment and one that captured some of the zaniness of ’90s Nick promotional deals. The kids of yesterday had scratch-’n’-sniff Smell-O-Vision; the kids of today have augmented reality SpongeBob Super Bowl. What brave new innovations will children’s entertainment come up with next?