Tom Kenny News

That funny man from down under the sea has a Christmas message for all good little girls and boys.

"Don't Be a Jerk ," SpongeBob SquarePants' first holiday song, was released this week in the United States.

REASON TO WATCH: Culmination of the 10th anniversary 'Bob party, plus lots of special appearances, and ... are you ready, kids? ... a new, stop-motion opener, by Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley.

The popularity of SpongeBob SquarePants amongst kids is almost beyond explanation.

I had heard enough about good ol' Spongebob SquarePants over the years that I knew I was going to have to see what his eponymous animated series looked like one of these days.

Q What can you tell me about the voice behind the zany SpongeBob Squarepants? - Fred Daniels, Hillsboro, Ore.

Actor Tom Kenny poses with the happy-go-lucky sponge he's voiced for the last 10 years.

The man behind the sponge When Tom Kenny took on the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants a decade ago, he didna t expect the cartoon to become a counterculture icon.

"SpongeBob SquarePants" has a connection to the city. Tom Kenny stands next to a replica of SpongeBob SquarePants.

He's yellow, square, lives underwater and resembles a kitchen sponge. How an animated sea sponge - otherwise known as SpongeBob SquarePants - has become a trademark character loved by millions around the globe, and the backbone of a hit TV series is a question a lot of industry people have likely asked themselves.

Boston Herald Features Reporter Tenley Woodman is a feature writer for the Boston Herald.

Tom Kenny, who voices the character of "SpongeBob SquarePants,'' says the show's creator, Steve Hillenburg, is a prime lesson in the importance of following your passions.

Nickelodeon celebrates 10 years of pop culture icon SpongeBob SquarePants this weekend.

SpongeBob Squarepants is celebrating its 10th birthday with a marathon starting at 8pm Friday night on Nickelodeon.

Tom Kenny, voice of SpongeBob SquarePants, is to be among the guests at Madame Tussauds' Wax Museum in New York on Wednesday when SpongeBob becomes the first animated "personality" to be immortalized in wax.

Tom Kenny poses with Spongebob Squarepants wax figure after it is unveiled at Madame Tussauds in New York on July 15, 2009.

Poll a preschooler or a parent and both will tell you who lives in a pineapple under the sea.

At a festival in Germany, when six women walked by wearing specially-created "SpongeBob SquarePants" shirts, Stephen Hillenburg's wife nudged him: Why don't you tell them who you are? Hillenburg, who created SpongeBob and all his undersea friends at the Krusty Krab, declined.

The surreal world of Bikini Bottom, where a yellow sponge wears tightie-whities and a crab begets a shark, celebrates a decade of TV goofiness.

Catch Tom Kenny on a typical afternoon - when we speak, he's halfway between chauffeuring kids to activities and recording the voice of a talking lawn mower in a TV commercial - and you might not guess this is the voice that powers a decade-long cartoon juggernaut.