SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star Going to Announce Super Bowl Broadcast

Sports Illustrated

Legendary actors Tom Kenny and Bill Fagerbakke, the voices behind Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star are joining CBS Sports analyst Nate Burleson and play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle live in the booth to call the game.

Transcript

00:00 Ladies and gentlemen, I have two of Bikini Bottom's most legendary people.

00:07 I have Bill Fogerbakke right here, voice of Patrick Starr, and I have Tom Kenny.

00:12 One... I'm good at counting. One...

00:15 Two and a half!

00:17 Yeah! Sorry, go ahead.

00:19 So, okay. We are in Super Bowl Las Vegas.

00:23 This year, we're doing the first Slimecast.

00:27 We got you guys talking during the football game.

00:30 How excited are you guys to talk about football this weekend?

00:35 We're really excited to irritate serious football fans all over the world.

00:40 What are they even... Why are they doing... Shut those people up!

00:45 I'm trying to watch the game here.

00:47 But, yeah, we're really excited.

00:49 Yes, CBS and, you know, the NFL and Nickelodeon have teamed up to do

00:55 kind of like an alternate Earth 2 version broadcast of the Super Bowl.

01:01 So, it's the same game, obviously, but there's this overlay of Nickelodeon wackiness.

01:06 So, SpongeBob and Patrick are... which is us in motion capture suits.

01:10 Don't worry, you won't be seeing us. Don't worry about it. Don't get scared.

01:14 Nor will... Yeah, you won't see us in our leotards and tights.

01:17 You won't see us in our green leotard motion capture suits with the weird bulges.

01:22 No, it's going to be... So, yeah.

01:27 So, Nate Burleson and Noah Eagle are going to be handling the real game calling.

01:33 They are professionals.

01:34 Yeah, don't worry.

01:35 They are talented.

01:36 Boy, do they have our backs big time.

01:38 So, the conceit is that the stadium, Allegiant Stadium here in beautiful Las Vegas,

01:43 has been dropped into beautiful bikini bottom.

01:46 And these people that have never seen football before,

01:49 SpongeBob and Patrick and Sandy and Plankton,

01:52 are seeing a football game for the first time.

01:55 And, yeah, it's going to be... Yeah, it's weird.

01:58 It's kind of like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" in real time.

02:00 We're not there to enlighten anyone.

02:02 We just want to have fun and we want to make it a great environment for kids

02:07 to enjoy the game and process all that crazy stuff that happens in a football game.

02:13 And Nate and Noah are so good at that.

02:15 They've done it a few times.

02:17 So, our job is to have fun.

02:20 Yeah, so family will be watching it together.

02:23 I was thinking it would be an interesting experience to do the screen-in-screen thing.

02:27 You've got the real Super Bowl and then you've got the crazy Nickelodeon.

02:30 Well, the Nickelodeon was the real game too,

02:32 but the CBS version won't have jellyfish and bubbles coming out of guys' butts

02:37 when they're running down the field.

02:40 Only we have that.

02:41 So, yeah, watch it on Nickelodeon.

02:43 I think you'll find it hopefully pretty entertaining.

02:47 Spongebob, what position would you play if you were to play in the Super Bowl?

02:51 Oh, boy, let's see.

02:52 There's a tight end.

02:53 I would be the soft end.

02:55 I would be the soft end because my fanny is very spongy.

02:59 What about you, Patrick?

03:01 I'd be in charge of the snacks.

03:04 There are snacks, right?

03:06 Yeah, there's a lot of snacks.

03:07 Okay, well, that's my game.

03:09 A lot of peanut butter jelly.

03:10 I'd be an all pro, pro bowl snack master.

03:14 Yes.

03:15 He thinks the Super Bowl--he thinks the bowl in Super Bowl actually is full of snacks.

03:19 Okay, so who do you think is the snack master in the game this weekend, Patrick?

03:25 Is it Travis Kelce?

03:27 Is it George Kittle?

03:28 Is it Chris Jones?

03:29 Is it Patrick Mahomes?

03:30 Is it Brock Purdy?

03:32 Brock Purdy sounds like a--that's like a Flintstones character name.

03:38 Brock Purdy.

03:39 Yeah, B. Rock Purdy.

03:40 Patrick Mahomes.

03:43 My home is a pineapple and your home is a rock, so we both have--we each have Mahomes, respectively.

03:51 Okay, let's talk--let's go--let's jump over into something else right now.

03:55 So they said Tiger Woods is playing in his first golf tournament this season at the Genesis Open.

04:03 Do you have any tips for Tiger this week?

04:05 Wow.

04:06 You know, I don't know who this Tiger Woods is, but I know a Tiger Fish.

04:10 I wonder if they know each other.

04:14 Oh, man.

04:15 Any golf advice, Bill?

04:16 Take care of that leg, man.

04:18 Yeah, yeah, take care of that.

04:19 I got to say, the only golf I've ever played involves windmills.

04:23 You know, if there's not a windmill, I'm not on that course.

04:26 I like the mini golf.

04:27 I'm all about the mini golf.

04:29 Don't have to pay a caddy.

04:30 Super Bowl prediction.

04:31 Yes.

04:32 Who survives the Chiefs or the Niners in Bikini Bottom?

04:36 Which team survives in--

04:38 Well, let's see.

04:39 As long as their helmets enable them to breathe water--breathe air underwater, I think everybody's going to survive.

04:45 Everybody's going to come out of this alive.

04:48 Everybody.

04:49 We got this.

04:50 Don't worry, Taylor.

04:51 You're not going to--it's going to be good.

04:52 So, man, let's see.

04:54 Let's see who is going to survive.

04:56 I think we're all going to survive.

04:57 We're all going to survive, but someone's going to be more happy than someone else.

05:03 That is a bold prediction.

05:04 I predict that one of the teams--

05:06 It just came to me.

05:07 One of the teams that has big guys, large men, with logos on their helmets is going to take this thing home.

05:12 One of the two.

05:13 That is my bold prediction.

05:15 I got a question for Tom and Bill.

05:17 You guys have been doing SpongeBob for a long time.

05:20 I grew up watching it.

05:21 My kids are watching it.

05:22 What does it mean for you guys to be doing it this long?

05:26 Because this show is still rocking.

05:29 I'm laughing hearing you guys.

05:31 When you enter this ridiculous industry, you understand it's inherently transient.

05:38 And you're at both--maybe you'll get to work with the same people for a couple months.

05:43 Maybe if you're lucky, for a year, you work with the same people.

05:46 We've had this wonderful stability in our lives for over 25 years.

05:52 Plus, we love what we're doing.

05:55 You never anticipate it.

05:58 You never expect it because it's so rare.

06:01 It's funny.

06:04 Your stint on Coach--

06:06 Nine years.

06:07 That's nine years.

06:08 In show business, that's a lottery scratcher.

06:11 And then here's SpongeBob that's almost triple that now.

06:16 It's pretty insane.

06:18 Nine years and 25.

06:20 Stability, doing characters we really like, working with people that we really like,

06:26 we really get along, we really are friends.

06:27 And everybody on the show is beautiful.

06:29 It's the same cast that it's always been.

06:31 So you get to know people very well.

06:33 And we like that, which is fortunate because that would be terrible to spend a quarter century with people you detest.

06:40 But no, it's really a beautiful thing.

06:43 And then the generational, multi-generational footprint like you talked about, like you watch it now, your kids watch it.

06:50 That's incredible.

06:51 That's really a gift.

06:52 Like when people come up and tell us that, I mean it sounds corny, but it really is the best part of the job.

06:59 When people say, "Hey, I grew up on this. Now my kids are watching it."

07:02 We laugh at it.

07:03 And hopefully this Super Bowl broadcast will be that similar family group viewing for people

07:11 that maybe have not had a chance to watch a Super Bowl that way before.

07:15 Hopefully Spongebob and the whole Nickelodeon thing can kind of be the on-ramp for kids who are new to football

07:23 and maybe haven't really dipped their toe in it yet.

07:25 But maybe the cartoon aspect will be the thing that draws them in.

07:29 Right. Would you say that doing the Super Bowl broadcast this week is like, I don't want to say a bucket list,

07:36 but is it something that you guys ever thought that it would happen?

07:39 Well, as a lifetime football fan, I wouldn't have even dared to put this on my bucket list.

07:45 No, just the experience I had doing the game last year, the Nickelodeon broadcast on Christmas Day,

07:50 was an exhilarating, incredible experience.

07:55 This is just, I'm still struggling to actually completely...

08:00 Take it all in.

08:01 Yeah, take it all in.

08:02 Me too. Me too.

08:03 Because we haven't really been on the stage.

08:04 We haven't even tried out the technology yet, which is going to transpose Tom and Bill messing around

08:11 into Spongebob and Patrick sitting at a table.

08:13 We haven't even seen that yet, except for kind of some test footage and mock-ups and stuff like that.

08:17 So, I'm with Bill. It kind of hasn't really percolated into my spongy brain yet, what this is.

08:26 But one thing that we are seeing that's really gratifying and exciting

08:31 is that people are kind of freaking out in a good way about the prospect of it.

08:35 Like, "Spongebob's doing a Super Bowl!"

08:37 I'm amazed how much crossover there is between intense sports fans, like football fandom, and animation.

08:45 Sure.

08:46 There's a lot of crowd. People are like, "My two favorite things in life are the 49ers or the Chiefs and Spongebob."

08:53 Like, this is a harmonic convergence of all time.

08:56 So, that kind of surprised me, how often I'm hearing that.

09:01 "I love these two things and know they're together!"

09:04 It's like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

09:07 Exactly.

09:08 "Hey, you got Super Bowl in my Spongebob. Hey, you got Spongebob in my Super Bowl.

09:12 Don't worry, it tastes pretty good."

09:14 We can't say Reese's.

09:16 I want to thank Spongebob and Patrick for coming on to talk to me.

09:21 I appreciate it. I feel blessed.

09:23 Awesome.

09:24 I appreciate it. I can't wait to watch the game.

09:26 Brayden, my son, Liana, my daughter, you are watching the podcast of the Spongebob crew.

09:33 Don't let him forget, Brayden!

09:35 We want to thank you and your beautiful family for letting us into your lives.

09:40 Thank you so much for that.

09:42 Sports Illustrated, Patrick, Spongebob.

09:46 I don't have nothing else to say.

09:48 (laughing)

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