The Brief: SpongeBob SquarePants is the star of yet another meme, one where he travels the world in drag.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

There is no doubt that SpongeBob SquarePants is a meme icon. This weekend, the people of Twitter helped him embark on an international tour. By photoshopping images of SpongeBob dressed in drag in various international settings, Twitter memers created a myriad of images of Mr. SquarePants in different countries and cities with accompanying outfits and props. Most of the images of SpongeBob on his travels depict surface-level and stereotypical characteristics of each place he visits. These memes are usually captioned with clever titles for another layer of humor.

The first iteration of this meme by @DIXIENORMOUS shows SpongeBob in Paris:

Twitter user @afadisborn compiled a thread of SpongeBob traveling the world in drag memes:

SpongeBob in London:

SpongeBob in Mexico:

SpongeBob in South Korea:

SpongeBob in Italy:

Cleopatra SpongeBob in ancient Egypt:

SpongeBob in Spain:

SpongeBob in the Soviet Union:

Scottish SpongeBob:

SpongeBob in Kansas:

SpongeBob in Gerudo in The Legend Of Zelda:

A small sponge in the Big Apple:

It’s a small world (of SpongeBob in drag) after all!

In addition to SpongeB0b travel memes, this trend has inspired a number of other renditions including SpongeBob as female music stars:

And, of course, the meme has evolved into numerous spinoffs that can’t quite be categorized: