SpongeBob Bootleg Episode Creepypasta

About

The SpongeBob Bootleg Episode is a creepypasta story about a corrupted bootleg of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Dumped" found in an abandoned mental institution's trash can consisting of nothing but an image of SpongeBob with wide, bloodshot eyes and no mouth under static and droning, distorted audio. According to the story, if you stare at the image long enough you will see SpongeBob blink. A reading of the copypasta over the image was posted to YouTube in 2011 along with a link to the original creepypasta, although the page has since been deleted.

Origin

On October 8th, 2011, YouTuber^[1] Trumuzicfan192 posted a video reading the "SpongeBob Bootleg Episode" creepypasta, providing a link to creepypasta.wikia in the description that now leads to a blank page (shown below). The video gained over 8,100 views in 12 years. The creepypasta text was reposted to LostEpisodeCreepypasta.Fandom^[2] on December 11th, 2013.

The creepypasta claims that there was a corrupted bootleg of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Dumped" found in an abandoned mental institution trash can in December 2004 that consisted only of a still image of SpongeBob with no mouth and wide, bloodshot eyes. According to the story, if you stare at the image long enough, SpongeBob will blink.

This image was taken from a split-second frame in a corrupted bootleg of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Dumped". Other than the image, the rest of the video is composed of incomprehensible jumbles of colors, static, or just black screens.

The audio seems to be a heavily distorted version of the audio from the original episode, with loud, droning buzzes occasionally interrupting it. The bootleg tape itself was found in December 2004 by a group of 5 teenagers from the city rummaging around in a trash can within an abandoned mental institution.

Of these 5 individuals, 2 have committed suicide, 1 has gone missing, 1 refuses to comment on the tape, and the last hastily agreed to give paranormal investigators the tape shortly after being interviewed about the suicide and disappearances of the other 3 persons. The current whereabouts of the tape are unknown, and many who stare at this image for a long enough period of time claim to see SpongeBob blink…

Spread

The story became increasingly popular throughout the 2010s and early 2020s, inspiring videos recreating the supposed bootleg, fan art and other content referencing it. On October 24th and 29th, 2012, DeviantArt^[3][4] users DanteVergilLoverAR and Hakama-goru posted fan art of the creepypasta. On July 19th, 2013, YouTuber^[5] MrAvgnfan12 posted a video that claims to be footage of the bootleg, garnering over 91,000 views in 10 years (shown below).

On April 2nd, 2021, YouTuber^[6] Carlos 505 posted a video reading the story, garnering over 140,000 views in two years. On March 31st, 2022, YouTuber^[10] Ivan! posted a video creating the image of SpongeBob, garnering over 100,000 views in a year (shown below, left). On March 28th, 2023, YouTuber^[7] VibingLeaf posted an extended video inspired by the creepypasta, garnering over 677,000 views in two months (shown below, right).

On April 11th, YouTuber^[8] PigPigGamer posted a video explaining the creepypasta, garnering over 234,000 views in a month (shown below). On April 20th, TikToker^[9] @mjthrillme2020 reposted VibingLeaf's video, garnering over 1.1 million views in three weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References