EVER since the cartoon Spongebob Squarepants exploded in popularity, some fans have noticed that its setting of Bikini Bottom also shares its name with one of the first nuclear weapon test sites in the Pacific.
Is there a link between the two?
VERDICT:
TRUE
There is truth to this, as Bikini Bottom shares a name with Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands – a real location that was used by the United States for nuclear weapons tests going back to the 1940s.
This history of the island chain located about halfway between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea is addressed in a 2019 article published by the University of Washington-linked Burke Museum on its official website.
In the article, its curator for Oceanic and Asian culture Holly Barker explains that testing began after the United Nations gave the United States control of a large chunk of the northern Pacific, including the Marshall Islands.
"The United States subsequently used Bikini as one of two locations to test and develop advancements in nuclear weapons. Between 1946 and 1958, the US government detonated 67 nuclear weapons on these islands," writes Barker.
As for the in-cartoon link between the two places, it has to be first said that while a direct connection has not been definitively declared by the producers – and this was mentioned to cracked.com by a staff member of Nickelodeon, the channel that airs the series.
"According to one member of Nickelodeon's creative promotions department who spoke under the condition of anonymity out of fear of professional retribution, the highly-popular Bikini Atoll theory is unofficial canon, finding 'casual mentions' in discussions between colleagues working on or adjacent to the show," said Cracked writer Carly Tennes in a 2021 article.
Tennes, however, adds in the same article that an official email sent by Nickelodeon directly states that the series is set in Bikini Bottom and plays down the connection with the real-life test site.
So on the balance of things, it would seem that there is indeed a link between a pineapple under the sea and mushroom clouds above the waves.
SOURCES:
https://www.burkemuseum.org/
https://www.nickalive.net/
