Spengbab

About

Spengbab (also known as Spengbob, Sprengebrob, Splenborg, and various other charming names) is a name given to grotesquely deformed fanart of Spongebob Squarepants. Spengebab is a frequent character in YouTube Poop and other Internet parody.

Origin

Spengbab's origin is unknown, but some of the first known appearances of this type of fanart, as well as uses of the word, come from 2006. The first recorded use of "Spengbab" is in a DeviantArt post from December, 2006 by the user LusoSkav, who drew a piece of grotesque Spongebob fanart.

But a month earlier, user russxl had posted a video entitled "spongebab" to YouTube, which also featured many instances of deformed Spongebobs. It is unclear if these were drawn by the YouTube user or not; the video has acquired more than 350,000 views as of March, 2016.

However, other sources, including Encyclopedia Dramatica, point to 4chan's /b/ board as the origin of the meme. An archive of 4chan-based memes on Wikipedia claims that the term was first used in a YouTube video, but then popularized via 4chan.

Spread

Throughout 2007 and 2008, several videos featuring strange or deformed Spengbab characters were posted to YouTube (below left). These videos, over time, have acquired tens of thousands of views; one related video, by animator OneyG, received more than 4 million views as of March 2016 (below right).

The Encyclopedia Dramatica entry, created in 2011, expanded upon and codified a backstory that had developed for the character, which presented Spengbab as a type of creepypasta.

Spengbab is like Spongebob, except not. Y'see, once upon a time, Spongebob got lost on his way to a Russian bath-house and ended up in an unknown location after consulting MapQuest for directions. Upon arrival he was welcomed by the locals with a complete MS Paint makeover so's he'd fit in better. However, like The Picture of Dorian Gray, the moar he lurked, the moar his likeness became gruesomely disfigured and hideous.

A Myspace page was created around 2007, and more drawings began appearing on DeviantArt shortly thereafter. As of March 2016, Spengbab images can be found throughout DeviantArt and Tumblr, and the character is a frequent presence in Youtube Poop. An entry in the Youtube Poop Wikia was created in late 2014, coinciding with the creation of this entry and a renewed general interest in the character, as shown in the search interest.

Notable Examples

Fanart

Videos

Search Interest

External References