Twitch chat turns Spongebob text-to-speech mod into a nightmare

Turning text-to-speech (TTS) for donations on during a Twitch stream always has a high potential for shenanigans. While streamers frequently get more donations when they have it enabled, it can also lead to bizarre moments, and Super Mario gamer Squeex found that out the hard way yesterday.

During a stream yesterday, Squeex had TTS turned on for bit donations, and viewers started to make donations that included a voice modulation that turned the TTS voice into that of everyone’s favorite Porifera: Spongebob Squarepants.

By putting “spongebob:” at the beginning of a TTS message, viewers were delivering audio to the stream that was up for interpretation, but it was through the distinct voice of Spongebob himself.

The exact message, which was repeatedly donated was: “spongebob: O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh O? O? auhh spongebob: auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh auhh spongebob: O? O? O? O? O? O? O? O? O_?”

When translated from text to audio, the auhh’s and O’s sounded like Spongebob was either being beaten or was in the middle of some sexually suggestive act. Based on the reactions of many people in the chat, it’s likely that the viewers donating were intending for it to sound like the latter.

Squeex himself didn’t know how to respond to the messages. Initially trying to ignore them, he couldn’t help but crack up toward the end of the audio clips as the TTS Spongebob loudly yelled in a way that you’d expect from a fan during a pivotal moment at a sporting event.