Al Roker’s SpongeBob Squarepants Impression Has Macy’s Parade Fans Rolling

Al Roker has Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade viewers cracking up over what people are calling a “surprisingly good” impression of SpongeBob Squarepants. Roker showed off his imitation of the iconic cartoon character during Thursday morning’s broadcast of the parade, dipping into a recognizable nasally tone while announcing the arrival of the SpongeBob balloon on the New York City streets. 

The accuracy at which Roker matched SpongeBob voice actor Tom Kenny came as a shock to people watching from home. “Al is now doing a surprisingly good Spongebob impression,” one person tweeted, as another weighed in, “Al Roker is doing a SpongeBob voice and it’s great.”

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“Today belongs to Al Roker and his SpongeBob impression and Al Roker and his SpongeBob impression only,” another person joked on Twitter, as someone else pointed out, “That’s actually not a bad Spongebob impersonation … Terrifying, but not bad.” One fan of the impression declared, “Al Roker’s Spongebob voice gives me life,” as another added, “Holy crap. Al Roker does a good SpongeBob!”

Beyond prompting Roker’s uncanny impression, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade SpongeBob balloon is kind of a big deal. The Nickelodeon show revealed on Twitter during the parade that not only is it a fan favorite balloon, SpongeBob was also the first-ever square balloon ever to fly in the parade. “Happy thanksgiving spongebob love love your balloon by the way,” one person replied to the fun fact, as another added, “It was great seeing you & Gary at the #MacysParade. You two stole the show. Happy Thanksgiving you two and everyone in Bikini Bottom.”

The SpongeBob love knows no bounds, and earlier this year, Nickelodeon confirmed 50 new episodes of SpongeBob franchise shows were on the way, including a new season of Kamp Koral and new episodes of The Patrick Star Show. “SpongeBob is the centerpiece of our franchise strategy to expand the worlds of our characters and grow our global reach even further,” said Ramsey Naito, President of Nickelodeon Animation, in a statement. “It’s a property that wins on every platform because the richness of the characters and the comedy intrinsic to the storytelling continue to appeal to so many fans around the world.”