SpongeBob Thinking
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About
SpongeBob Thinking or SpongeBob "Come On, Think!" refers to a GIF, image macro and reaction image meme from the Nickelodeon children's show SpongeBob SquarePants, which shows the titular character sticking his tongue out and tapping his head with a pencil while looking at a notepad and saying, "Come on, think!" The image is typically used to joke about thinking hard about something. The format is sometimes used in combination with the Patrick's To-Do List meme.
Origin
The scene showing SpongeBob thinking comes from an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants titled, "SpongeGuard on Duty." The episode shows SpongeBob entertaining beachgoers as a lifeguard and noting down that pretending to drown does not elicit laughs. The episode originally aired on March 22nd, 2002, and the specific scene was reposted to YouTube[1] on June 22nd, 2018.
According to a reverse image search on TinEye,[12] images of the SpongeBob Thinking scene began seeing usage on sites like LiveJournal as early as December 17th, 2007, though not as a meme format.[13]
On September 3rd, 2014, the Tumblr[2] page SpongeBob posted a GIF of SpongeBob tapping his head with a pencil alongside text that read, "Trying to remember everything you learned in school last year." The post gathered over 2,000 notes in 10 years.
The GIF was subsequently used in AminoApps Anime and K-pop threads in 2015,[3][4] and a September 16th, 2015, Tumblr[5] thread by @diabolikasks.
Spread
On September 16th, 2017, Tumblr[6] user @trilllizard666 posted a thread of SpongeBob reaction images, including the "Come on, think!" image, gathering over 16,000 notes in eight years.
On May 6th, 2018, an unknown Redditor[7] posted a version of the meme that read, "me thinking about what I'm gonna say I did over the weekend to the chatty coworker on Monday," gathering over 180 upvotes in seven years.
On April 4th, 2019, a user on the TalkBass[8] messageboard posted a version of the meme that read, "Trying to figure out the band leader's "chord charts."
On July 27th, 2020, Redditor[9] /u/EINHAMMER posted a version of the meme that read, "The Red Hot Chilli Peppers trying to write a song without the word 'California' in it," to the subreddit /r/BikiniBottomTwitter. The post gathered over 30,000 upvotes in five years.
On February 23rd, 2025, billionaire Elon Musk and U.S. President Donald Trump both posted a version of the meme to X[10] / Twitter and Truth Social,[11] respectively. The meme combined stills from SpongeBob Come On, Think and Patrick's To-Do List, poking fun at federal workers complaining about Musk's directive that they send him a list of activities from the week prior regarding the Department of Government Efficiency.
Various Examples
Templates
Search Interest
External References
[1] YouTube – SpongeBob 'Come On, Think!'
[5] Tumblr – diabolikasks
[6] Tumblr – shiningneedlecastle
[7] Reddit – /r/BikiniBottomTwitter
[8] TalkBass – Bass Meme War Go
[9] Reddit – BikiniBottomTwitter
[11] TruthSocial – realDonaldTrump
[12] TinEye – SpongeBob Thinking Reverse Image Search
[13] LiveJournal – stillwithhope
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