The rule is: Follow the innocence and avoid topical. Hillenburg incorporated character comedy rather than typical humor on the show to emphasize 'things that are more about humorous situations and about characters and their flaws.' He designed Patrick and SpongeBob as such because 'they're whipping themselves up into situations-that's always where the humor comes from. Patrick Star was conceived as a starfish to embody the animal's nature according to Hillenburg, starfish look 'dumb and slow,' but they are actually 'very active and aggressive' in reality, like Patrick. Īfter Martin Olson suggested that Hillenburg develop The Intertidal Zone into a television show, Hillenburg began fleshing out the characters. In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue a career in animation. This prototype starfish character was much more realistic than Patrick it had an eyespot on each arm and a large mouth in the center of its body. He created the character for The Intertidal Zone, an educational picture book used to teach young students at the Institute, which would eventually lead to the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Stephen Hillenburg first designed a prototypic starfish character while teaching marine science at the Ocean Institute in California.
