Unless you’ve been living in a pineapple under the sea since 1999, you know who SpongeBob SquarePants is.
And you know the beloved cartoon sponge looks like this:
You may also be aware that SpongeBob has a friend, a starfish named Patrick, who looks like this:
You may not know, however, who Miguel Vasquez is.
He is a 21-year-old 3D artist from Ontario, California, who decided to take it upon himself to digitally sculpt what SpongeBob and Patrick would look like if they were real-life humans.
Let’s just say that his rendering is quite a bit to take in.
Vasquez told HuffPost that he’s always had an obsession “with popular fictional characters turned into somewhat realistic alternative versions.”
He said he would find himself Google image-searching things like “real life Homer Simpson” or “SpongeBob human form” and would stumble upon a few portrayals, but they never pleased what he describes as his “erratic taste.”
So, in April he decided to take it upon himself to create his own interpretations using 3D sculpting software.
Vasquez uploaded his creepy creations to ArtStation, an online showcase platform for artists, just last week. Thanks to a Twitter user named Max Goof, the photos made their way on to the popular social media platform on Wednesday and, needless to say, some people were taken aback.
Others pointed out a relevant flaw in Vasquez’s designs.
But Vasquez doesn’t seem to mind these kinds of reactions. He told HuffPost that the project was done purely for fun and freaking people out was the “plan all along.”
He does have one regret, however.
“My first initial take was to give SpongeBob pimples instead of holes on his face, since he is portrayed human here,” he said. “But I went with the holes instead.”
Oh, thank Squidward he didn’t!