Steve imbued ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ with a unique sense of humor and innocence that has brought joy to generations of kids and families everywhere.
He was a beloved friend and long-time creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon, and our hearts go out to his entire family. "We are incredibly saddened by the news that Steve Hillenburg has passed away following a battle with ALS. Meanwhile, Nickelodeon released a statement giving their condolences to Hillenburg's family, while praising the "unique sense of humor and innocence" he brought to Spongebob Squarepants: The following day, the official account posted a tweet in Hillenburg's memory (shown below).
On November 26th, Hillenburg died at the age of 57 due to complications from the progressive neurodegenerative disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The announcement led to an outpouring of support on Twitter from fans of the series. Hillenburg, 55, promised that he would continue working on Spongebob. It is because of your dedication to exposing the fraudulence of late-stage Pride capitalism and your willingness to make a ton of jokes that only like five queer people can understand, that I, a sarcastic gay person, will be able to make it to the end of the month with a smile on my face.On March 14th, 2017, creator Stephen Hillenberg released a statement that he had been diagnosed with ALS, colloquially known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Without you, I would have had to confront Pride Month earnestly and head-on. To the meme community: Thank you for making this rainbow-saturated month truly special. Who cares if no one else is in on the joke? Nonetheless, I appreciate the sentimental value they most hold for others.Īll of these memes share one thing in common: they're here to celebrate the LGBTQ community. Then there are jokes that are so niche and so obscure I can barely understand them. Many address issues of serious and current concern in the queer community, including whether or not it's acceptable to invite the police, who have a historically conflicted relationship with the LGBTQ community, to Pride parades. These memes aren't necessarily for a general audience, and that's totally OK. Extremely pro-gay memesĮxtremely pro-gay memes are memes that only people in the LGBTQ community will likely understand. They're also just one type of Pride meme. Alternatively, meme artists will slam corporations for shilling useless rainbow merchandise while refusing to help the LGBTQ community with any money or structural support.Īnti-corporate Pride Month memes are a blessing. Memes will sometimes mock corporations for changing their logo to rainbow for Pride Month while ignoring LGBTQ rights the rest of the year. Anti-corporate pride memesĪnti-corporate memes typically target corporations who exploit Pride Month for their personal gain and profit, a phenomenon known as rainbow capitalism or gay capitalism.Ĭritics and meme artists often accuse corporations of demonstrating superficial support for the queer and trans community. Here are the best Pride memes from 2019 in both categories. If I were to classify Pride memes scientifically, I'd say that they tend to fall into one of two categories: anti-corporate Pride memes, which mock corporations for their participation in Pride Month, or extremely niche pro-gay Pride memes, which are far more affirming and serve the LGBTQ community directly. Memes of Meryl Streep's 'Big Little Lies' scream are so good you'll scream