One of the great things about having kids is that you get to watch cartoons without anyone thinking you are weird. One of our family’s favorites the past few years (it first aired in 1999) has been SpongeBob SquarePants. He’s such a sweet nerdy character, and the writing on the show is very clever.

I used to think that I was a truly odd duck – thanks to the Internet, I have discovered that there are a WHOLE lot of people out there who share my nerdy, offbeat humor. It’s been great! The best part is that I am able to surf the net and find lots of quirky stuff that I never would have known about otherwise.

I recently ran across a wonderful blog written by a delightful young lady named Vi Hart. She makes math FUN (my Aunt Gloria – a high school Calculus teacher who saw “math” everywhere she went – would have loved her). I had a great time looking through her YouTube videos, but these are extra special:
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“Why so special?”, you may ask – well, after she made these videos, she sent them to the SpongeBob “people”.  Kenny P. (the BG Layout Supervisor of SpongeBob SquarePants) responded to her via his blog.

Kenny is one cool dude:

Hi Vi,

OK, I guess the jig is up. It only took 14 years, 8 months, and about 16 days since I designed SpongeBob’s house before I was called out on its fraudulence. And, to be honest with you, I’m tired of living a lie. It’s time to come clean and make some changes for the better.

So, in the interest of truth and justice, I’ve made some slight alterations to the design (see attachment). Also, I’ve attempted to ferret out a few interesting proportions and relationships that have existed in the geometry of the design since the beginning. The one obvious correction that I’ve made is to the angles of ascension of the clockwise and counterclockwise spirals. You will find that they now follow their proper, naturalistic course. Also, notice that the third, implied spiral formed by the intersections of these spirals is now also correct.

Throughout the course of the show, the number of rivets on the windows has varied between 5 and 6, so I’ve standardized it to 5 (see design notes for explanation). And, the number of rivets on the doorframe fluctuates wildly. So, I’ve standardized that number to 13 (see notes).

Anyway, keep up the good work! Come by for a tour of the studio the next time you find yourself in Burbank.
-Kenny P.

P.S. I love your videos, and, you just happened to have posted the SpongeBob video on my birthday. Synchronicity!

Oh, and I forgot to point out that I laid the design out on a golden rectangle! Oops.

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The comments to his post are funny, as well – I almost spewed out my Coke when I read this one:

Kenny and Vi;
After examining the effort and due diligence put into the standardization of Sponge Bob Square Pant’s house, the Canadian Standards Association feels that it would be prudent on our part to adopt this as the new standard for ALL underwater dwellings (both salt water and fresh water) built primarily of pineapple based building materials. We would be happy to send you a sticker that you can affix to the dwelling showing that it now complies with the newly adopted standard.
Thanks for this great contribution to standardization in the construction trades.

Rob Rashotte
Director of Learning Services
Canadian Standards Association

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Then there is this poor chap, whose life will never be the same:

Vince Deporter said…
And I have been copying your mistake for over 12 years. How can you defend yourself? My career is now in shambles and nobody will ever want to work with me again! Snif. I gave my LIFE to you! Snif! Snort! (lip trembling…) 😀

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Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the Internet?
Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!
Have a great day –

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