US Marine biologist finds 'real life' SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick, netizens react

In an inadvertently serendipitous encounter, a US based marine biologist discovered what he termed as “real life” SpongeBob and his companion Patrick. The rare encounter took place at 1,885 metre deep down in the Atlantic ocean where Christopher Mah found the brightly tinted sea sponge resting alongside a starfish. Sharing the photograph on microblogging website Twitter, Mah revealed that the picture was captured earlier this week while adding their scientific names- Hertwigia and Chrondraster respectively. 

Later reports revealed that the discovery was made by a remotely operated deep-sea vehicle on the side of  an underwater mountain called Retriever Seamount, located 200 miles east of New York City. In the viral social media photograph, the real life lookalikes of the Bikini Bottom BFFs could be seen resting on a large rock. Later, speaking to Insider, Mah said that he initially thought that making that comparison would be “funny”. Stating his experience as a marine scientist, he also opined that most of the comparisons that are made turn out to be“incorrect”.

'Bikini rockbottom'

Meanwhile, the photograph has created a stir on multiple social media platforms. On Twitter, it has garnered over 4,000 retweets, over 600 quote tweets and more than 12 thousand likes. “You just know they were cutting it up right before the camera came... they were like FREEZE,” joked a user. While another added, “1885m?!?! God DAMN that is Bikini BOTTOM, that’s Bikini Rock Bottom, Bikini BEDROCK, Bikini Basal Zone….” Yet a third person wrote, “This makes me so happy.” 

Recently, the animated cartoon caught eyeballs after Nickelodeon and Paramount + stopped airing a few episodes over the controversial storyline. SpongeBob SquarePants' episodes were stopped by the channel over the viral-themed episode titled Kwarantined Krab, from the currently airing 12th season. The episode drew inspiration from real-life incidents, and thus the makers decided not to air the episodes due to sensitivities surrounding the global, real-world Pandemic. SpongeBob SquarePants' deleted episodes were supposed to be featuring an underwater health inspector at Spongebob's workplace, the Krusty Krab, under immediate quarantine after an outbreak of Clam Flu. The episode was supposed to be aired in the US while clips in the Spanish language have been found on YouTube. 

Image: Echinoblog/Twitter/Spongebob.and.Patrick./Instagram