Just when you thought 2025 couldn’t get any wilder, the timeline just got hit with a full-on nostalgia nuke: Cardi B’s pre-fame braiding era is going mega-viral again, and the internet has officially lost it. A 2013–2015 photo dump of young Belcalis rocking sky-high, perfectly-sectioned cornrows, colorful rubber bands, and those signature “door-knocker” ballies has resurfaced on X and TikTok, racking up 28 million views in under 24 hours. But the reason everyone is wheezing, crying-laughing, and making side-by-side edits? The braids are so tall, so square, and so perfectly geometric that fans swear on everything Cardi B looked like the one and only… SpongeBob SquarePants in his natural Bikini Bottom habitat.

Yes, you read that right. #CardiBob, #SpongeBardi, and #BelcalisFromBikiniBottom are all trending worldwide, with over 4.1 million posts and climbing.

The photos in question:

Cardi (around 20–22 years old) in the Bronx, standing in front of bodega gates and project staircases.
Hair braided straight back into six to eight ultra-neat, ultra-tall cornrows that literally form a perfect yellow rectangle on top of her head.
Ends secured with multicolored balls (red, blue, green, yellow) that look suspiciously like the holes in SpongeBob’s porous body.
One infamous pic even has her wearing a bright yellow hoodie, unintentionally completing the SpongeBob cosplay.

The comparisons are ruthless and hilarious:

One viral edit slaps Cardi’s face onto SpongeBob’s body mid “I’m ready!” pose: 11 million likes.
Another syncs her old Vine “A hoe never gets cold” clip to the SpongeBob theme song: 9 million stitches.
Top comment on X with 2025: “She didn’t have box braids… she had SPONGE braids 😭🧽” – 380k likes.
Even Patrick Star got dragged in: “That second picture with the pink shirt? That’s Patrick in drag, I’m sorry.”

Cardi herself caught wind of the second it blew up. Within hours she hopped on Instagram Live, dying laughing, rocking fresh waist-length red braids:

“Y’all are SICK for this one! 🤣🤣🤣 I was out here looking like a whole kitchen sponge with the scouring pad on top! But guess what? That SpongeBob money paid for my first pair of red bottoms, so who’s really winning? Aight, I’m ready… I’m ready… I’m readyyyyy!”

She then posted the best throwback yet: a 2014 selfie with the caption “Before the fame, I was just a yellow sponge tryna soak up the game 🧽💛 #CardiBob.”

The timeline has been pure chaos ever since:

SpongeBob’s official Twitter account quote-tweeted her with the eyes emoji and “Are ya ready, kids?” – 1.2M likes.
Nicki Minaj commented “😂😂😂🧽” on the post (instant 800k likes).
Offset slid in with “Still finer than Patrick tho 👀”
A$AP Rocky reposted the meme with “My wife a whole cartoon character and I’m here for it.”

Hairstylists are having a field day too. Top braider Tokyo Stylez wrote: “Those 2013 Cardi rows were so sharp they could slice pineapple under the sea. Respect the blueprint 🧽👑”

The resurgence even sparked a mini trend: thousands of girls recreating “SpongeBob braids” with the tall square shape and colorful ballies, and the hashtag #SpongeBardiChallenge already has 1.4 million videos.

At the end of the day, it’s peak Cardi: turning a random throwback roast into a full-blown cultural moment, making everyone laugh with her instead of at her, and proving once again that whether she’s in 2013 project hallways or 2025 Art Basel, Belcalis Almánzar stays undefeated, sponge or not.

Absorb the glow-up, besties. 🧽💛