SpongeBob SquarePants followers have been experiencing an inflow of misery after NSFW drawings of the beloved characters hit their social media timelines. Whereas many, like myself, dismissed the lewd drawings as Rule 34 content material seeping into social media platforms, the drawings are apparently legit, based on the YouTuber who uncovered them.

On Wednesday, LSuperSonicQ, a YouTuber who focuses on unearthing and analyzing beforehand misplaced episodes of cartoons just like the Johnny Bravo and Dragon Ball Z cross-over episode, launched a video known as The Darkest SpongeBob Misplaced Media, Discovered, revealing a group of “crude drawings” of the SpongeBob characters by the official animators. Behind Closed Doorways, brief for Behind Closed Doorways: Horrible, Filthy, Vile, Disgusting, Inappropriate, Off-Mannequin Drawings By The Crew Of A Common Cartoon Present, is a group of…properly principally what the title says: a group of unhinged drawings storyboard artists would create to make as a goof to blow off steam.

“It’s undoubtedly one of many greatest items of misplaced media that I’ve ever seen, and one thing I by no means even thought of having existed. Apparently, this sort of factor occurs lots throughout content material creation, as a number of the artists have since talked about,” LSuperSonicQ instructed Kotaku through Twitter DMs. “However speaking about it with my supply paints a extra private image to me about why it exists and hopefully individuals will take that away from the video too. Whether or not it’s innocent enjoyable or one thing malicious, the ebook fuses each of those facets collectively and creates an unimaginable piece of animation historical past.”

In keeping with LSuperSonicQ, an nameless supply who labored at Nickelodeon Studios was gifted one among many copies of a pocket book that contained “a whole bunch” of lewd drawings. The nameless supply’s copy of Behind Closed Doorways sat of their attic amassing mud till they got here throughout a 2012 Hogan’s Alley interview with the parents from the SpongeBob crew who talked about the ebook in passing. That led them to share the pocket book with the YouTuber, based on LSuperSonicQ.

“My supply’s copy was given to them beneath the impression that it was one of many solely ones that existed and had been going to be disposed of apparently to eliminate it earlier than the brand new administration on the time,” LSuperSonicQ mentioned in his video.

How unhinged are these drawings, you ask? Nicely, some, that are viewable on the Web Archive when you’re not squeamish, depict SpongeBob enjoying his pores and skin flute, Mr. Krabs projectile shitting into a bathroom, and Squidward reimagined as a sentient penis with tentacles, amongst different obscene illustrations. In his video, LSuperSonicQ famous that the nameless supply deliberately didn’t share a number of the illustrations for his or her “distasteful” and “objectionable” content material.

“On the finish of the season, all of the storyboard artists would do these hilarious, crude drawings of SpongeBob on Put up-It notes simply to make everybody else chortle. And these drawings would go on the again of the door, as a result of if the door was open nobody would see them,” SpongeBob author and storyboard director Kent Osborne instructed Hogan’s Alley. “Sam Henderson took all of those Put up-Its and made them right into a ebook and gave a replica to all people. The identify of the ebook was Behind Closed Doorways. He didn’t need to put everybody’s names in case it fell into the unsuitable fingers, so he made anagrams of everybody’s identify and put them on the again of the ebook. They had been hilarious. The anagram for me was Tek Bonerson. To today, once I see Tom Kenny, he lights up and says, “Tek!”

Kotaku reached out to Nickelodeon for remark.

At this level, you’re most likely considering there’s no shot these obscene drawings are the true deal. LSuperSonicQ cites the Hogan’s Alley interview in addition to Behind Closed Doorways’ lewd storyboard iteration of the “Received Milk” tie-in business drawing and contours like Mr. Krab saying, “And now for the chaser” similar to he does in Plankton’s Military, albeit with out blowing his ass out, as proof of it doubtless being legit. Fellow YouTuber, Quinton Opinions, co-signed the validity of LSuperSonicQ’s video in a tweet saying “LSuperSonicQ is extraordinarily respecting within the L[ost] M[edia] scene, it’s actual.”

“The takeaway from Behind Closed Doorways will not be the truth that it merely exists for shock worth, however the truth that it exists as a remnant of a studio that has been plagued with controversy, even in the most effective of content material that has been produced for us,” LSuperSonicQ mentioned. “It’s such an enormous piece of misplaced media that, given this age of archival, is a vital piece to have and acts as a method to look again on an older iteration of the model that, hopefully, doesn’t exist anymore.”

Aye aye to that, captain. Let’s by no means do that once more.

Replace: 07/20/2023, 3:30 p.m. ET: This text was up to date with a quote from LSuperSonicQ about Behind Closed Doorways.