The curious, compelling, and somewhat addictive case of Modest Bob

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The curious, compelling, and somewhat addictive case of Modest Bob

May 1, 2025

By Lili Luna Cruz and Mikayla King

When students returned to campus in September, Modest Bob was already here, his bright, yellow face smiling at the students as they passed, peeking out from the beneath the Communication Lawn's Stadium Piece stair sculpture or behind the red steel beams of "For Handel" on the PAC Plaza.

Modest Bob is more than just a picture of SpongeBob SquarePants wearing a tuxedo - he's an interactive, campus-wide project that has appeared, disappeared, and reappeared over the course of the school year. He is cerebral. He is earnest. He is inevitable. He has tasks for you to accomplish, and puzzles for you to solve.

Modest Bob began as a spin-off of the "Freaky Bob" meme and represented a classier, more sophisticated side to SpongeBob across the internet. Now, he serves as a vehicle for an interactive art installation across Western's campus.

Modest Bob leads anyone determined enough to follow his clues on a scavenger hunt across Bellingham, from the Sehome Hill Arboretum to the Western campus to Bloedel Donovan Park. Clues and cryptic posts on the WWU subreddit spawn expeditions for evidence and online alliances to share what they know.

"I found it on Western's subreddit initially and didn't even see a picture of a poster or anything," said Soren Althoff, a Behavioral Neuroscience major from Seattle. "I love weird internet rabbit holes. So, when I stumbled across another person just being weird and creative with a hint of mystery, it caught my attention immediately."

Modest Bob's resurgence in spring quarter prompted students to begin placing their own posters, but this time recruiting others to help solve the mystery.

"There was a poster in my dorm hall from someone wanting to learn more about it so we kind of picked it up from there," said first-year student Gabriel Wysgoll of Wenatchee. Wysgoll and two others began following clues left behind by Modest Bob, a task that quickly turned into a expedition full of twists, turns and dead ends.

The journey begins when you find one of Bob's laminated posters. The poster asks, "Who is this respectable gentleman?" and answers, "'Modest Bob' I'm obliged to answer." It also features a sentence encoded in Wingdings. Once decoded, it reads "Look for the drivers license."

The driver's license was found on Stadium Piece, where a handful of cards were scattered in the center of the sculpture. Modest Bob's driver's license features his photo and his home address - "2214 Electric Ave, Bikini Bottom." Eagle-eyed readers may recognize that address as Bloedel Boat Rentals on Lake Whatcom. Is there anything to be found at Electric Avenue, or is this a clue to come? Or is it a wild goose chase?

Also found at the "stairs to nowhere" is a mix tape - a burned CD labeled "Grungus Spongus" and "Jeezy Crust's Jams." When played, the CD plays the song "Grungus Spungus and the Magic Fungus," which is can be found on YouTube from an account named Vulmera. The channel boasts 34 subscribers and uploaded the album in March 2022. Is this a link to Bob's real identity or just another rabbit hole?

The CD's and posters had one more clue for investigators. Scrawled in blue sharpie is a website: modestbob.gay.

"What does modestbob.gay even mean and who even is Modest Bob?" Althoff said. "It was deeply confusing, but so odd that I just had to try and figure out who was behind it, or, like, what the purpose is."

These questions may never be answered.

In September, Modest Bob's quest led to the same website where users are prompted to enter a password. At the time, the password was "Super Ghostbusters." For this journey, Bob was looking for another answer: Grungus Spongus. When entered, the website spat out a set of coordinates and instructions to bring along a UV light. The coordinates led to a spot in the arboretum.

"There was mini shrine up there full of SpongeBob decorations," Wysgoll said. "Among that, there was a tiny SpongeBob metal lunch box with a note pad you could write your name in."

And one day, almost as quickly as he had arrived, Modest Bob was gone.

The website no longer accepted the Grungus Spongus password, posters across campus were removed, and suddenly the trail had grown cold. It seems that once one person solved the clues, Bob's mission was over, and we were left still wondering just who was behind the curtain, pulling the strings.

Does WWU have its own Banksy? Will Modest Bob return, or will he fade into an obscure urban legend students will one day tell their own Vikings-to-be while touring campus?

"I was honestly surprised anyone knew what it was," Althoff said. "But it was fun to get to share our findings with each other, hear other people's experiences with Bob and just enjoy the bizarre mystery we had all found," Althoff said.

Is there another adventure in store of Western's Modest Bob-obsessed students? Will Modest Bob ever reveal who they really are? Is it better to never know? More questions without answers. But maybe that's the way it should be.