The Aristocrats, But With A Yellow Sponge

July 20, 2023 4:43 PM

An offhand comment in an interview revealed the existence of a piece of rather adult SpongeBob SquarePants lost media - Behind Closed Doors, a collection of decidedly NC-17 drawings made by and for the animation crew. But the book had never been made available to the public - until now (SLYT, potentially NSFW.)

More details on Behind Closed Doors are available at Kotaku, including a link to an Internet Archive gallery of the book's images (definitely NSFW.)

posted by NoxAeternum (19 comments total)

WHY ARE ALL MEFI POSTS SO CLICK-BAITY NOW? The link takes you to a youtube video with 30+ minutes of preamble. I gave up before they got to the actual content. I'm sure someone got paid for the ad views. Ban.
posted by metametamind at 5:39 PM on July 20, 2023 [14 favorites]

Not as funny as one would think they might be... ( to me )
posted by MikeHoegeman at 5:43 PM on July 20, 2023

After looking through the archived pages, most of them are a bit bland, like they're just nsfw to be nsfw. But I really did get a kick out of "it only does that around you Squidward".
posted by traveler_ at 5:44 PM on July 20, 2023 [3 favorites]

This is unsurprising to me. Way, way back in the day there were any number of filthy and raunchy Disney things that were created after hours by designers and animators as a way to blow off steam and bond over terrible deadlines and pressure.

I’m fairly certain any of it would get you fired now.
posted by drewbage1847 at 5:48 PM on July 20, 2023 [4 favorites]

WHY ARE ALL MEFI POSTS SO CLICK-BAITY NOW? The link takes you to a youtube video with 30+ minutes of preamble. I gave up before they got to the actual content. I'm sure someone got paid for the ad views. Ban.

If you want skip the preamble and go straight to the filth, here is the wildly NSFW archive.org link
posted by Dr. Twist at 5:55 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

"wildly" NSFW... I've seen better with ol' SpongeRobert
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 6:19 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

The way I'm reading the phrase "Horribly, filthy, vile, disgusting, inappropriate, off-model drawings..." the "off-model" is emphasized most and that amuses me.
posted by Zalzidrax at 6:36 PM on July 20, 2023

All I really know about Spongebob Squarepants is that Sam Henderson worked on it for a while, and all you need to know about Sam Henderson is that he writes The Magic Whistle. I'd always assumed that the show was pure, gurgling filth just out of frame.
posted by phooky at 6:50 PM on July 20, 2023

Rule 34 strikes again...
posted by Windopaene at 7:44 PM on July 20, 2023

Spoogebob Squirtpants
posted by Termite at 8:27 PM on July 20, 2023

All I really know about Spongebob Squarepants is that Sam Henderson worked on it for a while, and all you need to know about Sam Henderson is that he writes The Magic Whistle.

Guess who compiled the book?
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:26 PM on July 20, 2023 [1 favorite]

Way, way back in the day there were any number of filthy and raunchy Disney things that were created after hours by designers and animators as a way to blow off steam and bond over terrible deadlines and pressure.

... and before that there were Tijuana Bibles.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:59 PM on July 20, 2023 [2 favorites]

The dirty not-so-secret secret is this goes on in every studio-cum-factory where artists work, especially on cartoon and/or licensed characters. It’s one of the favorite ways to break the monotony and imposed limits of what you’re allowed to do with the characters in the official product.

We had binders of such stuff in the art-studio-for-a-very-popular-cartoon-character I worked at. Creative sessions almost always started with stuff like this being drawn. It kind of got the imaginations really loosened-up so we could easily dial it back a bit to come up with fun, yet appropriate, material.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:50 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

studio-cum-factory

I see what you did there.
posted by briank at 4:54 AM on July 21, 2023 [3 favorites]

this goes on in every studio-cum-factory

I don't think I've ever seen any from the classic Warner Brothers cartoons (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc). I'm not saying they don't exist - just that I can't recall seeing any.
posted by Paul Slade at 6:00 AM on July 21, 2023

"In fact, when you think of the holy grails of Spongebob lost media, what comes to mind?"

I have absolutely no idea how to engage with that concept.
posted by Naberius at 6:47 AM on July 21, 2023 [2 favorites]

I love how the Kotaku piece on this has an embedded tweet from someone who doubts it’s real because it’s “not anywhere on the Lost Media wiki”. Man if only you knew how much goofy shit like this gets doodled in the margins of stuff, or on scratch paper. Animation produces *so much* discarded art in the quest for the Right Drawing.
posted by egypturnash at 8:29 AM on July 21, 2023 [1 favorite]

"WHY ARE ALL MEFI POSTS SO CLICK-BAITY NOW? "


A thought that often has come to my mind of late What next -- This is what [1990s Celebrity] Looks Like Now?
posted by y2karl at 11:33 AM on July 21, 2023

Not Warner Bros illicit studio porn, but some years ago, I saw an art exhibit that includes art by Chuck Jones, and it included non-Looney Toons stuff including a sketch or maybe line drawing of a naked woman. I found it amusing as hell to have that *very* distinctive Jones style mashed up with a normal sort of "nude woman reclining" painting. Just delightful.
posted by rmd1023 at 3:00 PM on July 25, 2023