Editing SpongeBob SquarePants (seasons 1-5, 9-present) (section)

===Legacy===
In July 2009, Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York launched a wax sculpture of SpongeBob in celebration of the series' 10th anniversary. SpongeBob became the first animated character sculpted entirely out of wax

The character has also become a trend in Egypt at Cairo's Tahrir Square. After the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, SpongeBob became a fashion phenomenon, appearing on various merchandise items from hijabs to boxer shorts. The phenomenon led to the creation of the Tumblr project called "SpongeBob on the Nile". The project was founded by American students Andrew Leber and Elisabeth Jaquette and attempts to document every appearance of SpongeBob in Egypt. Sherief Elkeshta cited the phenomenon in an essay about the incoherent state of politics in Egypt in an independent monthly paper titled ''Midan Masr''. He wrote, "Why isn't he [SpongeBob] at least holding a Molotov cocktail? Or raising a fist?" The phenomenon has even spread to Libya, where a Libyan rebel in SpongeBob dress was photographed celebrating the revolution. Although ''The Guardian'' and ''Vice'' have asserted that the trend has little to no political significance, "joke" presidential campaigns have been undertaken for SpongeBob in Egypt and Syria.

A clip was posted to [[YouTube (2005-2016)|You]][[YouTube (2017-present)|Tube]] in February 2013 that features soldiers in the Russian army and navy singing the ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' theme song as they march. According to the website that uploaded the video, this is one of the "most popular marching songs" in the Russian military.

Following Hillenburg's death in November 2018, more than 1.2 million fans signed a petition for the National Football League to have the song "Sweet Victory" from the season 2 episode "Band Geeks" performed in his honor at the Super Bowl LIII halftime show. Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium's Twitter account, the venue of the show, tweeted a GIF of SpongeBob dancing in "Band Geeks" in December. Maroon 5 who were performing at the game, included a brief clip of SpongeBob in a preview video, leading fans to believe the song would be performed. While the song's opening was ultimately included, it served as a transition into artist Travis Scott's set, which left many fans disappointed. In response to fans' disappointment at not hearing the complete "Sweet Victory" song during the halftime show at the Super Bowl LIII, the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League showed a clip of the full "Sweet Victory" song during a game at the American Airlines Center. In the clip, the characters' band uniforms are recolored green after the Stars.

Several species of organism have been named after ''SpongeBob''. In May 2011, a new species of mushroom, ''Spongiforma squarepantsii'', was described and named after the series' title character. In 2019, a species of sea sponge, ''Clathria hillenburgi'', was named in honor of Hillenburg, also referencing his creation of ''SpongeBob SquarePants''. In 2020, a species of abyssal sea star, ''Astrolirus patricki'', was described and named after Patrick Star; individuals of this species were found to be closely associated with hexactinellid sponges, and it was thus named after Patrick as a reference to the character's friendship with SpongeBob.

In honor of Stephen Hillenburg, a non-profit fan project, titled ''The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Rehydrated'', was released online on May 1, 2022. It consists of a recreation of ''[[The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]'' reanimated by 300 people with re-recorded music and dialogue. Amid the YouTube premiere, the video was taken down by Paramount Global due to copyright laws. As a result, the hashtag #JusticeForSpongeBob became trending on Twitter against Paramount Global's action. The video was restored the following day.