
Has your child been scream-singing the words “SpongeBob, big guy, pants OK” at the top of their lungs? While you are not entitled to compensation at this time, you’re at least not alone: Ice Spice’s track “Big Guy,” from 2025’s The SpongeBob Movie: The Search for SquarePants, has exploded online, leading to viral dance videos and millions of streams.
“Big Guy” dropped in November 2025, ahead of The SpongeBob Movie hitting theaters in the following month and arriving on Paramount+ in February of this year. “Big Guy” immediately became an earworm, thanks to Ice Spice’s famous delivery of lines like “Ain’t a jellyfish but I’m a catch” and “I blow bubbles so big like Mrs. Puff.” (The perpetually nonchalant Ice Spice, who skyrocketed to fame in 2022 with songs like “Munch (Feelin' U),” also made her voice-over debut in the film.)
But it was its chant-like chorus that repeats “SpongeBob big guy pants OK” that instantly went viral, inspiring lots of memes. (My personal favorite combined a meme from the “Wicked” press tour: “People are taking the lyrics of ‘spongebob big guy pants ok’ and really holding space with that, and feeling power in that,” DJ Louie XIV, of the music podcast “Pop Pantheon,” joked on X.)

And the trend hasn’t died down. Today “Big Guy” is the No. 6 most popular music video on YouTube, boasting more than 141 million streams. (By comparison, Taylor Swift’s music video for “Opalite,” which dropped in March, has 19 million views.)
While The SpongeBob Movie’s quick Paramount+ release kept the film in the zeitgeist, another reason that “Big Guy” has stuck around is because it inspired its own easily copyable dance. TikToker Louis Da Silva created the meme when he posted a video of the dance in November 2025. The simple choreography includes a dancer flexing like the “big guy” that they are. It has since morphed into a two-person routine, with one person starting out hiding behind the other and sticking out their arms to look buff.
And people are still doing it. Earlier this week, a video of a group of children going absolutely wild over the dance went massively viral on TikTok, garnering more than 6 million likes and more than 59 million views.
The “Big Guy” frenzy is just one of many times SpongeBob-related content has taken off. In fact, the cartoon — which first launched on Nickelodeon in 1999 and continues to air new episodes — is one of the most frequently memed shows. Its more than 330 episodes have inspired viral formats (think comparing people to “Handsome Squidward,” for example) to countless clips and catchphrases that continue to circulate across social media.
Now, with “Big Guy,” the kids have a SpongeBob reference that’s very modern … and we all have an almost too catchy song to add to our playlist.
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