My leg! (running gag)

If you were looking for the article about the episode, then see My Leg!.

If you were looking for the article about the song, then see My Leg Is In Love!.

Sample from "Arrgh!"

"My leg!" is a stock sound effect provided by Doug Lawrence that consists of the titular exclamation and is mostly associated with the character Fred. The effect has been used throughout SpongeBob SquarePants as a running gag akin to the Wilhelm scream. The Season 11 episode "My Leg!" pays homage to this gag.

List of instances

Season 1

• "Boating School" — SpongeBob crashes a boat into a lighthouse causing it to fall over twice.
• "Hall Monitor" — SpongeBob makes the cars at an intersection crash together.
• "Culture Shock" — Pearl finishes her act.
• "The Chaperone" — Chaos erupts thanks to SpongeBob and Pearl at Bikini Bottom High School.
• "Karate Choppers" — SpongeBob beats up Fred after mistaking him for Sandy.
• "Sleepy Time" — Plankton zaps the town with his eye in his dream.
• "Suds" — Chaos erupts at the Krusty Krab when the customers thought a suds-infected SpongeBob sneezed in their Krabby Patties.
• "Arrgh!" — Mr. Krabs throws Fred out of the Krusty Krab.
• "Walking Small" — SpongeBob spreads sand on people with a towel at Goo Lagoon. This is the most nonsensical use of the gag as Fred only got sand in his eyes. However, it is possible he hurt one of his legs escaping the onslaught.

Season 2

• "Something Smells" — SpongeBob inadvertently uses a cloud of bad breath as a bowling ball to knock down a marching band like bowling pins.
• "Wormy" — Chaos in Bikini Bottom comes with the arrival of Sandy's new butterfly.
• "No Free Rides" — Mrs. Puff imagines SpongeBob running over a birthday party with a boat.

Season 3

• "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV" — SpongeBob tries to put everyone he shrunk with Mermaid Man's utility belt in a jar.
• "As Seen on TV" — After Mr. Krabs orders the commercial crew to leave Fred is seen holding a giant leg along with others.

Season 5

• "Boat Smarts" - Heard after SpongeBob runs down some boaters.
• "Mermaid Man vs. SpongeBob" – Faintly heard as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are destroying the Shady Shoals Rest Home while under Plankton's control.

Season 6

• "Krusty Krushers" — Every wrestler except the champions have been defeated.
• "Shuffleboarding" — The Bikini Bottom Jail explodes after SpongeBob and Patrick (disguised as Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy) stuff most of the Bikini Bottomites inside.

Season 8

• "Glove World R.I.P." - One fish says "Oh, my leg can't feel me" after he and a group of other fish fall off the Glove World! pole.

Season 9

• "Squid Baby" — After getting his face drawn on by a baby-minded Squidward, Nat Peterson says "My face! My face! Also my leg, but mostly my face!"
• "Larry's Gym" — Frankie Billy gets hit with a grill causing him to say "My legs!"
• "Lame and Fortune" — A piano falls on Ivy's legs making him say "My legs!"
• "Pineapple Invasion" — Plankton's fake leg breaks.
• "Mutiny on the Krusty" — A blade goes out in the middle of the Krusty Krab.

Season 10

• "Code Yellow" — After getting run over by SpongeBob, Bikini Bottom Marathon Number Seven screams "My legs!"
• "Plankton Retires" — Heard faintly when SpongeBob, Mr. Krabs, Plankton and various Bikini Bottomites are fighting in a dust cloud.

Season 11

• "Larry the Floor Manager" — Fred falls off a treadmill.
• "Pat the Horse" — A kid says "My little leg!" when he crashes to the ground after Pat the Horse tosses him off. And after the kid gets run over by Pat the Horse he says, "My other little leg!"
• "Grandmum's the Word" — Everyone fights for a Krabby Patty.
• "My Leg!" — Most of the episode with 73 mentions of just "leg" and 43 of those being "My leg":
  • 12 are heard in the compilation at the start of the episode.
  • 6 while the doctor cuts off Fred's cast.
  • The flashback to where Fred gets his leg run over by SpongeBob's toy freight train.
  • Any time "My leg", "Your leg", "His leg" or "Fred's leg" is heard it is spoken in a loud and exaggerated way.
  • Patrick says this twice when showing SpongeBob his leg after having a few bites taken out of it.
  • SpongeBob accidentally hits a convict's foot.
  • Tom gains SpongeBob's leg to replace his missing leg.
  • SpongeBob says this after his leg grows back.
  • 8 are heard in the My Leg! song.
  • Fred's leg snaps off at the ending.
• "Shopping List" — Fred screams this as the Krusty Krab floor turns to the other side, revealing a shopping cart containing a bag full of the real secret ingredients.
• "ChefBob" — Fred screams this when Mr. Krabs told SpongeBob to break a leg during his cooking show. Mr. Krabs then responds, yelling "Shut up, Fred!"
• "Call the Cops" — Fred screams this in the background while Plankton is looking for the secret formula in the evidence room.
• "Bubbletown" — A bubble version of Fred says this when SpongeBob accidentally pops the bottom half of his body. Because of that Bubble Fred screams "My bubble legs!"

"My Leg, of my PANTS!" The Bikini Bottomites are naked.

• "The String" — Fred screams this when SpongeBob unravels everyone's clothes with a loose thread. This time he quickly corrects himself by saying "Of my pants!"

Season 12

• "The Nitwitting" – Appears as graffiti on a pipe in the alley with other gag references also in graffiti.
• "Gary's Got Legs" - When Gary starts kicking everyone in the Snail Park with his legs Fred exits and yells "His legs!"
• "One Trick Sponge" - Fred accidentally chops his leg off with a door.
• "Squid's on a Bus" - Fred says this while SpongeBob and Patrick fight in the bus aisles. He is later seen walking out of a bus with crutches and a cast on his leg.
• "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout" – Plankton ties up Fred's leg and forces him to say it.
• "Lighthouse Louie" - Perch Perkins shouts "Your legs!" when asking Fred if they were injured from Boating School.

Movies

• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water — Mr. Krabs throws away a large stone bun that was going to be used to execute SpongeBob and it hits Fred offscreen.

SpongeBob SquarePants 4-D: The Great Jelly Rescue!

Someone says this when SpongeBob, Patrick and Sandy are flying through Goo Lagoon on jellyfish.

The SpongeBob Musical

• When the Electric Skates gives Squidward a list of demands, the list is so long that it unravels and crashes into the orchestra pit causing chaos among the musicians, one of whom spouts this classic sound bite.

SpongeBob's Game Frenzy

• If you fail the "Yank the Yacht" level this soundbite is heard.

Drawings

• In a drawing Patrick sits on Fred's leg.

Related gags

"My eye(s)!"

• "Something Smells" — When SpongeBob asks a passing fish in a boat through the windshield if he's "ugly" the stench of SpongeBob's breath burns his face causing him to scream "My eyes! My eyes!" before he loses control and comes to a stop only to spontaneously combust after throwing SpongeBob off.
• "Best Frenemies" - Plankton gets sprayed with cleaning material in a Kelpshake restaurant.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie — Both times King Neptune has the paper bag taken off his head everyone screams "Bald! Bald! Bald!" multiple times followed by Fred screaming "My eyes!" During the final confrontation with Dennis, SpongeBob once again tries to beg for mercy using bubbles as his next offer but the liquid bubble soap in his wand goes flying straight into Dennis's face making him exclaim "My eyes!" as he covers them, though throwing SpongeBob behind him in the process.
• The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water — After Plankton introduces himself as "Plank-Ton," he flips Burger Beard the Pirate's ship over and pokes his head into one of the opened windows and as he scans for Burger Beard the pirate shoots a bottle of mustard in his face forcing him to drop the ship as he exclaims "My eye! My eye!"

"My foot!"

• In "Stuck in the Wringer" Ivy says "My foot!" when the cash register falls on his foot.

"My nails!"

• In "SpongeBob's Bad Habit" Fred says "My nails!" when SpongeBob bites them.

Other media

TV

• The sound effect appeared in Nickelodeon's CatDog episode "Vexed of Kin."
• The sound effect was barely audible in the Camp Lazlo episode "7 Deadly Sandwiches".
• In Cartoon Network's “Teen Titans Go!" Robin screams ”My leg!” in ”Bottle Episode” when he attempts to free the rest of the Titans from the glass bottle by kicking the cork. In “Arm Race with Legs” Cyborg screams “My legs!” when Raven kicks them.

Films

• In the 2006 film The Pink Panther when Inspector Clouseau accidentally rolls a large globe off its stand and it goes down a flight of stairs the background voice of a man is heard exclaiming "My leg! It's caught my leg!"
• In the 2018 film Solo: A Star Wars Story, you can hear a Stormtrooper yell "My Leg!" during a battle on Mimban.

Web Series

• In the HOW2 segments of Annoying Orange the HOW2 referencer sometimes says it.

Trivia

• Oddly in seasons 9 and above the voice is different than the rest of the series barring "Culture Shock," "The Chaperone" and "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV", heard more as a direct saying instead of a sound effect.
• Seasons 1 and 11 are currently tied with having the most amount of episodes that use the "My leg!" gag with a total of nine episodes that had it in those seasons.
• The gag was never used in Seasons 4 or 7.
• There's even an episode of Season 11 of the same name.
  • As stated above and true to its name, the "My Leg!" episode obviously uses the gag more times than the rest of the series, movies and musical combined with a grand total of 43.
• On the topic of the gag, Doug Lawrence said "and if you've ever wondered where the show's often-used exclamation of "My leg!" came from, Mr. Lawrence (voice of Plankton) had a definitive answer: "It was an ad-lib. [The scene called for] everyone writhing in pain and I said it and I kept saying it. Fans started talking about it and named him Fred. He has his own episode."

Videos

Running Gag My Leg

The Spongebob episode "My Leg!" but only the parts where they mention someones leg

SpongeBob SquarePants MY LEG! (THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION!)-1

"My leg!" Compilation Updated for Season 9

"My leg!" Compilation

SpongeBob - My Leg Compilation-1

SpongeBob "My Leg!" Compilation Updated for Season 11

SpongeBob SquarePants - Fred's Leg Remix Nickelodeon

"My Leg!" 💥 Animatic SpongeBob SquarePants