- I’m ready! - I’m ready!
She’s perfect!
- She’s gonna take my job. - Oh my god!
[laughing]
Alright, so Megan Wilson is our dreamer today.
So, Megan take it away.
Hi! My name is Megan and I am obsessed with SpongeBob Squarepants!
Same, girl.
My friends… and… I… in
high school… talked
in… fluent… SpongeBob quotes.
Oh. Clearly we have a huge SpongeBob fan on our hands.
I think we can definitely surprise her with something SpongeBob related.
Oh my God! Is that Joey Graceffa?
- Hi! How’s it going? - Good! How are you?
-I’m Megan, nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you as well.
I guess I’d just love to start out with favorite show.
Favorite show? SpongeBob Squarepants.
When did that start?
Like, when we would watch shows in the living room growing up,
SpongeBob was our family show.
- Really? - So, yeah. We already kind of have
potty humor as a family and so, all of those jokes just
- fit perfectly. - Yeah.
Actually, I think I saw your mom was here.
- Yes. - Mom, where are you?
- Hey! - Hello! So,
your daughter’s been telling me a lot about her love for SpongeBob.
And then I think it’s important to note that not all of the kids
could watch SpongeBob when you were growing up.
‘Cause it was you know… - Because they showed his crack.
- Is that what it was? - Yeah.
So you also mention that you’re like super curious about
- the behind the scenes. - Well, I’ve always been really into
- acting and doing weird voices. - Well.
- I have news for you! - What?
We’re going to make that dream come true today! And you are going to see
the behind the scenes of what it takes to make a SpongeBob episode.
- No way. - Yes! Are you ready?
- I am so ready. Yes! - Alright, let’s go.
- Okay well, this is it. - Wow.
Uh hello! Anybody here?
Hi!
Hi, I’m Joanne, Production Assistant on SpongeBob.
- I’m Megan. Nice to meet you. - Nice to meet you.
- You guys ready to see the work space? - Yes!
- Alright. - Well actually, I have to go
run and take care of something.
But you’re in great hands. I will see you in a little bit.
- I have a little surprise. - Alright.
Cool.
- Alright, ready? Let’s go. - Yes.
So one of our first stops is right here. This is where our rough board artists
- actually… - Oh my God!
And you’ll see that they started off like a really fun sticky note war.
With all their cool doodles and everything,
And it just started accumulating.
Oh, my favorite.
I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!
- Alright. Here we have a Tiki Hut. - Kelp shake anyone?
- Oh my God! - Oh! Were you there the whole time?
No.
- Alright great! - See ya at work.
- You want one? - Sure.
- Thank you. - You’re welcome.
Oh my gosh. Wonder what it tastes like.
Muah! Sorry Mr. Krabs!
It's just that this Kelp Shake tastes so good!
Not great!
I’m gonna put that back down. This is for you okay.
[laughing]
Alright, I’m gonna bring you around here.
- Take a look at our fan mail wall. - Ooh!
Yeah. So these are fan mails from all over the world.
Some of them are directed directly at the characters too.
Like, you can’t open this until Patrick is there to open this and read.
My favorite one is, “Dear Patrick, I love your shows. You’re weird.”
Really weird.
“Love, Maggie Pizza.”
That’s great.
Well, do you wanna see how we actually make the shows?
- I’m gonna cry, yes. - Alright. Let’s go.
So, generally for a production we’re basically just making everything happen.
If you look over here. We usually have scripts.
And from there they become then animatic with the records and everything. And then
with the notes they cycle to this clean board you see over here.
Alright, so we’re gonna go visit Post Production.
Give me like a quick little spiel of like what your job is.
I’ll take all the animation that comes in. And but by the time it gets here,
there’s some times where you wanna have things go faster or slower or pause.
And so our color stylist will go through all of these and
and match ‘em to the background based off the scene they’re in and color them
- like this as you see on screen. Yeah. - Oh my gosh.
You see like a little chum going in the mouth there?
Yeah!
I’ve actually pulled some frames out of it to make it feel faster.
- To make it… instead of… - Yeah. Exactly.
- So you all know how to draw SpongeBob, I’m assuming?
- I believe we all do. Yeah. - Wow.
- Know it by heart. - At different levels?
They’re all… you know, episode ready SpongeBob?
- They’re episode ready SpongeBob. - Okay, I believe you.
Well, I think there is someone here that can actually teach you.
- Oh really? - Yeah.
So, we’ll start off by uh, we’re gonna draw this square.
One of the things we do with SpongeBob’s eyes, is they’re always in the center.
- Okay. - So, sometimes what we do is we’ll do
a little light line down the middle as kinda like a guide.
Like for example, here you can see where we added a hold,
And...
Because we need a little bit more time to kinda let something sink in.
This is a little small detail that matters to a lot of people,
are the freckles, these three little freckles on each cheek.
See mine looks just like that. I’m basically a pro.
- Yeah. You did fantastic. - Thank you.
- Are you available to start at all, like next week?
- Um yeah! Monday, Monday. I’ll be here. - Okay, great.
- So now that you’ve mastered SpongeBob. - Yep.
Let’s see what we can do in 30 seconds.
You know exactly what to do with these characters now.
You’ve got the holes, the ridges, the freckles. You know it all now.
- I’m up for it. I think I can handle it. - So, let’s do this.
- Okay. Yep. - Are you ready? Okay. Let’s go.
I’m ready!
Alright, well uh, we think we know who’s getting a hired now at Nickelodeon Studios
and it would be me. This is looking a little bit like Doodlebob,
but Doodlebob can come back for an episode don’t you think?
I mean, you got the ridges and the holes and freckles. They’re all there.
- I do, I do. - You went the extra mile.
- Thank you so much. - You did get the holes actually.
I did! I got… kinda.
I do need to get back. I have an episode I need to finish.
It’s an episode where we find out that (bleep) actually the uh (bleep)
(bleep) who was in a secret relationship with (bleep) and (bleep)
actually is the nephew of (bleep)
- I gotta go. - Oh! Okay.
- Nice meeting you. - Yeah!
- Hey Megan. - Hey!
- Hi! So, that surprise I mentioned... - Yes?
- It’s ready. Do you wanna come with me? - Yeah! Yeah, let’s go!
Now, one thing that we haven’t explored is voiceover.
Yeah!
- Does that sound interesting to you? - Yes it does.
Alright, cool.
- Hi! - Hi! Come on in!
- Nice to meet you! - Hi Megan! Sorry, I just bonked you
- in the eye with the headphone. - Oh, you’re fine!
-Megan-Meh-Meh-Meh Megan Wilson. - Oh that was good.
- See pretty good. - Yep.
Well it was not my first rodeo. But hey! It looks like they got a mic
- all set up for you over there! - Awesome!
We’ll just walk you through some SpongeBob catchphrases.
Is your SpongeBob pretty good?
- Mmm not great. - Wait!
Just the way you said mmm, that was SpongeBob right there. She’s perfect!
- She’s gonna take my job. - Oh my God.
So um, I always say you gotta make a noise like this.
Like the one you just did.
[SpongeBob laugh]
Perfect! Ya got it!
And then they give you money.
There’s some SpongeBob phrases that just get you
snapped right into SpongeBob’s psyche.
- This is probably the number one thing. - Alright.
These are almost the first words SpongeBob spoke on screen 20 years ago.
I'm ready!
- I’m ready! - I’m ready!
- I’m ready! - I’m ready eddy eddy!
- I’m ready eddy eddy! - I’m ready eddy eddy!
I’m ready eddy eddy!
I’m just torturing her at this point.
[laughing]
- Who’s ready? - I’m ready!
- So, Megan! - Yes.
As a 90s Nick kid who got in just under the wire...
Yeah, '98.
Same as SpongeBob. You know, I’m barely a 90s Nick… thing.
How has this day been for you? What was it like for you?
- What were you feeling? - It's been insane!
It’s literally my favorite show like to this day.
So, it’s been so cool to just like go behind the scenes and like
see how all of it is made about like something that I love so much.
It’s been so much fun.
- Yeah! - Hey Joey come on in here! Come on in!
- Joey! - Joey, Joey, Joey!
He’s been hanging out watching you be brilliant.
- Yes. - How’s your day been, Joey?
Well, it's been so iconic because just to see you do the voice in real life
- has been a dream come true for me! - Yeah!
So, honestly it’s my dream come true. Sorry, I’ve taken over the episode.
- It’s all about me. - It’s Joey!
I thought it was all about me! No, it’s all about Megan!
- Megan, Megan, Megan! - It truly is.
- May I give you some parting gifts first? - Yes!
- You’ll like, there’s some swag! - Oh my gosh! Oh my new school backpack!
It’s perfect!
I actually took if off a 4 year-old that was outside…
- Oh, they don’t need it. - on the street, I just took it off.
- No, it’s actually official merch! - Okay, you have your swag.
But there’s one more thing that I have to surprise you with so.
- Come on let’s go. - Alright.
- Well, bye Megan! Good to see you! - Bye! Nice to meet you!
- Glad your Nick dreams came true! - Yes!
- Good to see you Joey! - You as well.
- Good to see you guys. - Bye.
Wow! She’s moving on to other things, other dreams.
Me… I stay here because I live here in the dark.
Twenty years later Tom was still standing in the dark room.
Waiting.
There’s one more thing.
[music playing]
My name is Megan and my Nickelodeon dreams just came true!
[music playing]