 Martin Olson , one of the writers for Rocko 's Modern Life , read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept . At that point , Hillenburg had not even considered creating his own series . However , he realized that if he ever did , this would be the best approach . He began to further develop some of the characters from The Intertidal Zone , including the comic 's " announcer " , Bob the Sponge . He wanted his series to stand out from most popular cartoons of the time , which he felt were exemplified by buddy comedies such as The Ren & Stimpy Show . As a result , Hillenburg decided to focus on one main character : the weirdest sea creature that he could think of . This led him to the sponge . Bob the Sponge resembles an actual sea sponge , and at first Hillenburg continued this design . In determining the new character 's personality , Hillenburg drew inspiration from innocent , childlike figures that he enjoyed , such as Charlie Chaplin , Laurel and Hardy , Jerry Lewis , and Pee @-@ wee Herman . He then considered modeling the character after a kitchen sponge and realized that this idea would perfectly match the character 's square personality . 
