Recent Progress in SpongeBob SquarePants® Studies

 

From The Journal of Improbable Research:

SpongeBob SquarePants first made a public appearance in 1999, but it took quite some time for the emergence of a scholarly work which directly cited the character as a primary focus for study. This one, from 2005, is a likely candidate as the first:

■ A More Porous Postmodernity: Absurdity, Politics, Consumerism and the Cultural Authority of Spongebob Squarepants

Since then, SpongeBob SquarePants has definitely not been ignored by academia.

– More Examples –