Squidward works as the cashier of the Krusty Krab, a job he absolutely hates. He is a very cynical, selfish individual and displays an unjustified air of superiority.
Squidward also has at least 492 self-portraits in his house[10] and is delusional about his talents, such as playing the clarinet, though almost everyone considers him to be terrible.
Although his name contains the word "squid," Squidward has been confirmed to be an octopus in many interviews and episodes.[11][12][13][14][15] In "Feral Friends," his exact species is identified: a giant Pacific octopus. The series' animators believed that giving him eight tentacles would have made him look burdened and would be too difficult to animate, which is why he is normally depicted with six limbs. Notable exceptions are the live-action sequence in "Pressure" and briefly in "Sold!," in which he is seen with eight legs. A squid has ten limbs, unlike Squidward.
Squidward J. Q. Tentacles is the tritagonist of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. He is an anthropomorphic octopus with light turquoise skin, purple suction cups at the end of his tentacles, and six limbs in total. He was born on October 9 and is best described as ill-tempered, pretentious, and cynical. He despises his neighbors for their noisy behavior but is still friends with SpongeBob and Patrick.
Provided by: Fandom
Is Squidward Tentacles a squid or octopus?
Squidward Tentacles is an anthropomorphic octopus, as confirmed by the series creators, despite his name containing the word "squid" and him having six legs instead of eight.
Provided by: Fandom
Why is Squidward an octopus if he has 6 legs?
Despite his name containing the word "squid" and him having six legs instead of eight, Squidward is an octopus according to the series creators. This is because series animators believe if he had 8 tentacles, he'll be too difficult to animate, and it was simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight. His species is still an octopus, however, and he has purple suction cups at the end of his six tentacles.
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What does the Q stand for in Squidward's name?
Squidward J. Q. Tentacles' middle initial "J" stands for Jeffrey and the "Q" stands for Quincy.
During his childhood, he always had to sit near the garbage cans at lunch, as he wasn't known as a friend by many people.[17] As a teenager, he was rivals with his band classmate Squilliam Fancyson.
In 1998 or January, 1999[18], he became part of the Krusty Krab along with Jim[19]. On the day Jim quit, Squidward spoke with him and instantly lost his long blonde hair, much to his dismay. Sometime later, he worked with a fry cook whose name has yet to be revealed. One day, Squidward was gardening when suddenly, a pineapple from a boat above fell on him and destroyed his garden while crushing him. A sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants then moved into the pineapple and Squidward has been grumpy ever since then.[20]
At one point, he tried to move out of his house out of intolerance for his neighbors, but the real estate agent refused to sell his home on account of SpongeBob and Patrick stealing his identity and deceiving her.[8]
At one point, he moved out of Bikini Bottom and into Tentacle Acres, a town filled with his own peers, other octopuses who share his tastes and outlook on life. Here, he was forced to face how boring and oppressive his desired lifestyle really is, and he was able to ultimately break free of its bonds with a bit of inspired silliness.[21]
On March 6, 2017, Squidward traveled 2,000 years into the future as a result of being thawed in the Krusty Krab freezer.[22][23]
Description
Concept art for Squidward as Sour Note, depicting him as a realistic giant Pacific octopus.
Squidward is a light turquoise octopus[24] with purple suction cups at the end of his tentacles. He has six limbs in total, two being arms, and four being legs, which tend to make the shape of a plus sign when he stands in place. Whenever he walks, his suction cups stick to the floor, meaning that he walks with a distinct squelching noise. Squidward has a large cranium with eight spots on the top of it. In the episode "The Original Fry Cook," it is shown that he once had long blonde hair. He also has a skinny body, a big droopy nose, a wide mouth, and yellow eyes with rectangular maroon irises. When he laughs, his nose appears to deflate and inflate repeatedly (in earlier episodes, this was matched with a sound effect.) He wears a brown polo shirt.
His color has changed slightly throughout the series. While he is shown to be bluish turquoise in earlier episodes (most noticeable in "Help Wanted"), he changes to a lighter shade in later episodes.
In the episode "Sandy's Rocket," Squidward is shown to be wearing an old version of his nightwear. It is pink with magenta-colored flowers on it. In newer episodes such as "Sentimental Sponge," Squidward is seen wearing his real nightgown. In this episode, he refers to it as a "nightshirt." It is a light purple nightgown that comes with a matching nightcap. It is the third version of his nightwear. The second version appears in "Employee of the Month" and "Funny Pants."
It is shown in the episode "Bulletin Board" that Squidward has a tattoo of a red rose on his right arm.
Personality
Squidward is rude, snobby, grumpy, miserable, sarcastic, cynical and sometimes sadistic. He views the world in such a negative light that he is rarely seen greeting anyone with a smile. He loathes his job at the Krusty Krab and is often seen sleeping or reading on the job.
In spite of his temper, he is still one of the most intelligent and educated characters. He has a sarcastic attitude and sees others as uncivilized morons, while failing to accept his own personal shortcomings. Squidward sees himself as misunderstood and unappreciated, blaming society for his failures.
Really happy Squidward
He is annoyingly pretentious in his pursuit of fame and is either unwilling or unable to spot talent and creativity, even belittling it. He lauds "cultivated taste" and accepted standards. In the episode "Artist Unknown," he insists that his pupil SpongeBob "show his method," even when it is painfully clear that SpongeBob has artistic genius. Furthermore, Squidward takes credit for creating the David statue when SpongeBob is the actual creator. His motive was to impress the art appraiser. In the episode "Bubblestand," he belittles SpongeBob's bubble blowing.
Squidward is also jealous of those who are more artistic than he is, for example, Nat Peterson, Patrick Star,[25]Mr. Krabs, Squilliam Fancyson, and even the puppet Big Nose. In "Slimy Dancing," Squidward cheats during the dance show by hiding in SpongeBob's body and using the latter's physical identity and talents to win the trophy. He attempts to steal the dance trophy after being criticized by the judges, only to be thrown out by the security. In "Professor Squidward," Squidward impersonates Squilliam Fancyson while exercising his power as a music teacher, preceding his arrest by the police. In "Sold!," after knowing that SpongeBob and Patrick think Nick Fishkins has bought their homes. Squidward lies that a 14-member family has moved into SpongeBob's pineapple and an 8-member rock band with several instruments has moved into Patrick's rock. When SpongeBob and Patrick come to their old houses, he puts on outfits to match the characters that he made up.
Squidward is generally portrayed as an overall failure. His musical skills with the clarinet are generally portrayed as sub-par, from mediocre to excruciatingly horrible. In "Sweet and Sour Squid," Squidward's disastrous clarinet playing creates a mass noise disturbance throughout town, prompting the authorities' arrival. However, there have been numerous exceptions - such as in "Bubblestand" and "Hello Bikini Bottom!" - where he plays nicely. At the end of "Christmas Who?," he manages to play great with the wooden clarinet SpongeBob carved for him. In "That's No Lady," he manages to play a nice tune to woo "Patricia." In addition, in "Best Day Ever," he even has a concert where he plays beautifully and receives thunderous applause from the audience. SpongeBob was even on the VIP list for it. It seems that he is actually capable of playing the clarinet very well by providing the full effort. He plays well enough in "Hello Bikini Bottom!" for a musical manager to offer him and SpongeBob a job. He also - if the player plays well - plays well in the Rock Bottom mini-game in Lights, Camera, Pants!, along with Beats Me. He is also first-chair in the Bikini Bottom Orchestra.[26]
He often lets this success go to his head. In "Skill Crane," Squidward's final success in winning from the toy claw machine goes to his head and influences him to use a construction crane; his out-of-control usage of said crane leads to the demolition of the future site of a mall, and eventually the Krusty Krab. In "Snowball Effect" After pelting SpongeBob and Patrick with snowballs, he takes the snowball fight too far and builds a massive Fort and throws a bunch of snowballs, believing he was dominating the snowball fight.
His overall artistic style is shown to be abstract and overly sophisticated, and his works are commonly panned by his audiences. His critical failure is shown to actually be due to his bad taste, rather than a genuine lack of talent. The entirety of his art centers on himself, apparently holding his very being to be an artistic wonder and never depicting anything else. In the episode "One Krabs Trash," Squidward is shown bringing flowers to a gravestone reading "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams." Despite his lack of success, Squidward is tireless in his pursuit of artistic achievement. In "Dunces and Dragons," Squidly, Squidward's medieval ancestor, vowed that if he could not learn to play the clarinet correctly, his seventh great-grandson would be cursed tenfold. In "Squilliam Returns," Squilliam mentions that Squidward was voted "Most Likely to Suck Eggs" in high school.
Squidward is well-educated and knows his history. He is intelligent and has a lot of worldly knowledge, especially compared to those of SpongeBob and Patrick. Squidward is also a skilled driver, as he manages to drive virtually everything, from a traditional bike, a boat, car, and even a tractor. Squidward is a good-natured and caring person; he just does not like to get too involved in things and is really apathetic.
Squidward sleeping at work.
When he is at the Krusty Krab, he is a lazy, sloppy employee who has an intense dislike of the restaurant and its management, which is best exemplified in the "Krusty Krab Training Video." He is considered "inattentive, impatient," with "a glazed look in the eye." In episodes where Squidward is put behind the grill whenever SpongeBob is missing, he has shown himself to be an incompetent fry cook, often burning the food instead of cooking it, which affects the health of its consumers. This is shown in "Pickles," "Hooky," and "SpongeBob LongPants." In "Chum Fricassee," it is revealed by Grandma Tentacles that Squidward took shortcuts and undercooked her fricassee, thus poisoning the customers, since all he cared about was the fame, rather than actual results of the cooking. In "Accidents Will Happen," he fakes his injury and lies to Mr. Krabs for the sole purpose of seeking sympathy and having an excuse to not work. He does this again in "Squiditis," where he lies to Mr. Krabs about having the eponymous disease to have a day off. In the episode "Squid on Strike," he organizes a worker's strike at the Krusty Krab. He even causes the destruction of the Krusty Krab, although indirectly and accidentally.
However, despite his hatred for his job and the constant abuse and misfortune from having it, he very rarely ever quits and never considers looking for better employment. He puts up with it out of pure laziness and stubborn pride out of the fact that he expects to let benefits come to him rather than actually trying, such as in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" and "New Leaf" when Mr. Krabs threatens to fire him and Squidward lets this threaten him to go along with what he's getting dragged into against his will.
It is revealed in a flashback of "The Original Fry Cook" that he insists on remaining at the Krusty Krab until his clarinet career pays off, even though it never does. Other examples include "Can You Spare a Dime?," in which he quits the Krusty Krab and becomes homeless due to not finding a new job. After being taken in by SpongeBob, Squidward becomes a pushy mooch and consistently ignores by choice to SpongeBob's hints for him to at least attempt to look for a new job. In "Banned in Bikini Bottom," after the Krusty Krab is closed down, rather than trying to search for a new job, he waits around with SpongeBob watching Mr. Krabs wallow in depression. In "Goodbye, Krabby Patty," after getting officially fired from the Krusty Krab, Squidward takes pettiness to this, but sees this as an opportunity to follow his dreams, only to find out that he needs better experience than 17 years as a cashier. Yet rather than trying to actually search for a better job, he begs for SpongeBob help him get employed at the Krusty Krab Museum. The most recent example is "The Check-Up" when a nurse threatens to have the Krusty Krab permanently closed, Squidward ends up deciding to help SpongeBob rather than ditching to let him do it himself, stating that if the Krusty Krab is closed down, he would "have to get a real job."
As it all turns out, one of the reasons why Squidward is often arrogant and bad-tempered, especially the fact that he's rude and hateful to most people, is having to put up with SpongeBob and Patrick's boisterous and irritating behaviors, which sometimes leads him to make plans to get him to stop, although sometimes, either as a result of his own arrogance or carelessness, his plans backfire on him. This is shown in "Jellyfishing" where Squidward unleashes a jellyfish in a jar with the intent to make it sting SpongeBob and Patrick, in retaliation for making him get stung by the Queen Jellyfish. In "Fools in April," Squidward pulls a very cruel and harmful prank on SpongeBob that physically assaults him while under the manipulation of a rope tied to him. In "Suction Cup Symphony," Squidward kicks SpongeBob and Patrick out of his window so hard to the point of fracturing the latter's buttock bones. In "Dying for Pie," Squidward buys an explosive pie to give to SpongeBob for Employee Brotherhood Day, oblivious to the fact that it is infused with a bomb; SpongeBob allegedly consumes it, only to reveal toward the ending that he had it in his pocket the whole time to share with Squidward. Although Squidward tried to make the last hours of SpongeBob's life meaningful and felt guilty for causing his doom, he expresses anger upon discovering that SpongeBob never actually ate the pie. In "The Lost Mattress," Squidward tries to get SpongeBob and Patrick eaten by the guard worm at the dump by having them trespass the fence while dressed up in steak suits. In "The Curse of Bikini Bottom," Squidward lends his lawn mower to SpongeBob and Patrick out of hope that they injure themselves with it. In "Sportz?," he creates a malicious sports game for them to play in an attempt to harm them. In "Scavenger Pants," Squidward makes up a really difficult scavenger hunt in hopes of getting SpongeBob and Patrick harmed.
Despite his grumpy nature, Squidward does have a caring heart deep down, and when he realizes his plans have caused either harm or emotional pain to those he ridiculed, he is quick to realize the error of his ways and make up for it while he can. Occasionally, such as in "Krab Borg," Squidward is seen teaming up with SpongeBob, or even caring about him.
Squidward has a considerable antagonistic side, and he frequently takes advantage of the situation to keep his neighbor SpongeBob from tormenting him, which only backfires and worsens.
In "Help Wanted," he and Mr. Krabs tricking SpongeBob into buying a legendary spatula.
In "Bubblestand" He scolds SpongeBob for blowing bubbles, and belittles his bubble blowing technique.
In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," Squidward destroys SpongeBob and Patrick's friendship, which leads them fight over him until he plans to make them reconcile.
In "Home Sweet Pineapple" When SpongeBob's house gets eaten by nematodes, Squidward gets happy and is excited that SpongeBob was going to move back with his parents, he celebrates a sings a song about SpongeBob leaving, and kicks him and Gary out of his house for wanting to stay the night.
In "Squidward, the Unfriendly Ghost," when SpongeBob and Patrick believe they have killed Squidward and that he is now a ghost, he takes advantage of this by making them his slaves. Eventually, SpongeBob and Patrick, after reading a magazine about the Flying Dutchman's death, get the idea that Squidward is being mean and angry because he was never put to rest. SpongeBob and Patrick attempt to bury Squidward, which ultimately brings him to confess that he is actually alive. However, SpongeBob and Patrick still think that Squidward is a ghost in denial and send him to the "great beyond" by trapping him in a bubble, which floats up into the sky where the pelicans are.
In "Employee of the Month," both Squidward and SpongeBob viciously compete to see who will hold the new Employee of the Month award, also setting up traps for one another.
In "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" After finding out that SpongeBob and Patrick believed he was a ghost, Squidward takes advantage of this and forces them to spoil him and do many difficult tasks, such as making SpongeBob play a song with a piece of tissue paper and making him do it overnight.
In "I Was a Teenage Gary" Squidward is happy about SpongeBob leaving to the jellyfishing convention for the weekend. SpongeBob asks Squidward to feed Gary, and Squidward promises to feed Gary. When SpongeBob leaves, however, Squidward is negligent towards Gary to the point where he nearly died from hunger and thirst. He also accidentally injected SpongeBob with snail plasma, turning him into a snail.
In "Fools in April," Squidward gets annoyed with SpongeBob pulling playful and harmless pranks on people at the Krusty Krab, and pulls a very cruel and harmful prank on SpongeBob in retaliation.
Squidward then laughs at him when he comes out of the trash, which makes SpongeBob run out of the restaurant sobbing hysterically, and the Bikini Bottomites turn on him. Squidward tries to apologize, but he is physically unable to apologize until the very end of the episode, where SpongeBob has the last laugh: all of his friends were standing behind him in his house and witnessed Squidward's apology. As a result, Squidward suffers a mental breakdown and runs off back to his house laughing maniacally after shouting that he had just fooled them as well.
In "Patty Hype" Squidward was ridiculing Spongebob's pretty patties idea with Mr Krabs.
In "Grandma's Kisses" Squidward and the customers at the Krusty Krab ruthlessly tease SpongeBob for having a kiss on his forehead given by his grandma. At the end of the episode, it is shown that they have been spying on SpongeBob with his grandma through her house's window and laughing at them.
In "Christmas Who?," he coldly rebuffs SpongeBob in his stories about Christmas, Santa Claus, and the spirit of the holiday season because he thinks he's telling everyone lies. He even shouts at SpongeBob that he doesn't believe in Santa Claus. On Christmas Day, the next morning, he snapped a photo of a depressed SpongeBob and cruelly laughed and scoffed at his humiliation. Things blow up in Squidward's face when SpongeBob gave him a wooden clarinet as a Christmas present. After receiving this act of kindness, Squidward realized what a foolish jerk he's been and his grouchy attitude literally ruined Christmas for everybody. To atone for his actions and apologize to SpongeBob, he dresses up as Santa Claus and brings the spirit of Christmas back to everyone in Bikini Bottom.
In "Artist Unknown" When SpongeBob joins Squidward's art class, he creates a perfect sculpture from a block of marble. Squidward is amazed but out of jealousy, he scoffs his sculpture which makes SpongeBob feel ashamed, and he throws himself into a dumpster and being hauled away to the city dump. Then someone from the museum came to want to purchase it, saying that whoever made it will have fame and fortune, and Squidward takes credit for it.
In "Can You Spare a Dime?," Squidward accepts SpongeBob's offer to live in his house until he finds a new job. However, he takes advantage of SpongeBob's hospitality by lying in bed all day and essentially making SpongeBob his domestic slave, staying so long that he not even attempts to find a job. This eventually proves too much for SpongeBob, who becomes angry with Squidward, who soon begins aggressively giving Squidward obvious hints to get a job, which Squidward deliberately ignores. Eventually, SpongeBob confronts Mr. Krabs in an attempt to force him to give Squidward his job back, and in the process accidentally reveals that Mr. Krabs' first "dime" was in his pants the whole time, and that Squidward did not steal it.
In "The Great Snail Race" When Squidward enters his snail into the snail race, he tells SpongeBob that Gary can't win because he's a "mutt" and that his snail is better because she's a purebred of the highest pedigree. This makes SpongeBob enter Gary in the race and trains him too hard, and after Gary explodes Squidward becomes happy and really wanted to win the race.
In "The Lost Mattress," while retrieving the mattress, Squidward nearly threatened to murder SpongeBob, and then he used him and Patrick as "worm bait." However, Squidward becomes the worm's prey.
In "Skill Crane" He becomes obsessed over a skill crane, and practically spends all his money on it until he went broke. But after SpongeBob told him the secret to winning, Squidward wins and shows it off to everyone, and even viciously mocks a kid for losing at the game. Later he sees a crane and thinks he can control it, but after controlling it he destroys a mall and The Krusty Krab, and hits one of the construction workers.
In "Good Neighbors," Squidward unreasonably deems that SpongeBob and Patrick are the worst neighbors ever instead of understanding that they want to have fun, not only because he wanted to relax and they ruined his day, but largely due to his unreasonable hatred of their antics. He even goes as far as to hinder their attempt to get into his house and reconcile with him by installing a security system that would kill them if they dare make their way in.
In "Funny Pants," SpongeBob's laughing annoys him to no end, so Squidward tells SpongeBob that he had a "laugh box" that would burn up if he laughed within 24 hours and could never laugh again. SpongeBob eventually thinks he lost his laugh and goes into "spiraling depression," which proves to be too much for Squidward to handle.
In "Krusty Towers," he makes several ridiculous requests with the purpose of driving Mr. Krabs crazy.
In "All That Glitters" Squidward was laughing at Spongebob when he came into work without his suit.
In "Wishing You Well" Squidward becomes happy and laughs at Spongebob and Pstrick for being stuck at the bottom of the well, and later beats up Patrick.
In "Wigstruck" He was one of the many who mocked SpongeBob for wearing a wig.
In "Good Ol' Whatshisname," Squidward steals What Zit Tooya's wallet, runs a red light in front of a police officer, gets arrested, and is sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In "Spongicus", Squidward laughs and gets happy that the lion fish was chasing Patrick and later SpongeBob.
In "What Ever Happened to Spongebob" Squidward is genuinely happy and laughs in joy that SpongeBob left Bikini Bottom, and even destroys a device that was meant to track SpongeBob. Mr Krabs was furious, and outs Squidward in charge of finding him. Squidward refuses, even after Mr Krabs threatens to fire him. Mr Krabs persuades Squidward to find SpongeBob by giving him a jewelled egg as a retirement gift. Later he finds SpongeBob and brings him back to the Krusty Krab only for SpongeBob to almost leave again twice, which makes Squidward happy, but then Spongebob decides to stay in Bikini Bottom, much to Squidward's dismay.
In "Not Normal" Squidward insists that SpongeBob is abnormal, and scolds him for not being normal. This caused SpongeBob to become "normal", which makes Squidward very happy. This episode shows Squidward's hypocritical side, as he accuses SpongeBob of not being normal when he has shown himself to have abnormalities as well.
In "The Splinter," Squidward tells SpongeBob that Mr. Krabs will have to kick him out for getting a splinter at work.
In "Slide Whistle Stooges" he becomes obsessive of the slide whistle and plays it all over town, which destroys Bikini Bottom and caused a lot of disruption.
In "Sun Bleached" Squidward laughed at SpongeBob after finding out he was sun bleached.
In "Professor Squidward" Squidward impersonates Squilliam, but the principal finds a real Squilliam and then Squidward is arrested and thus sent to jail. However, Squidward didn't start the whole charade to begin with. He did tell the headmistress that he wasn't Squilliam Fancyson but the job offer tempted him to correct her again.
In "Gullible Pants" Sponngebob gets put in charge of the Krusty Krab for 10 minutes when Squidward finds out SpongeBob is gullible, he takes advantage of this by getting SpongeBob to ruin The Krusty Krab by telling him a bunch of lies of how he should do his job (ex. serving food with feet, keeping Krusty Krab a dump etc..) which almost destroys the Krusty Krab and scares away all it's customers.
In "I ♥ Dancing," Squidward gets jealous that SpongeBob has an audition in a musical, and "teaches" him how to dance to steal the spot for himself, training SpongeBob to the point of exhaustion. While he wins, he is to star in Squilliam's musical and is forced to prepare to perform a dance that SpongeBob had performed earlier, with Squilliam planning to run him ragged just as Squidward had done to SpongeBob.
In "Sponge-Cano!," he scolds everyone in the Krusty Krab and yells at SpongeBob for humming.
In "That Sinking Feeling," he tries to separate SpongeBob and Patrick by drawing a line, and later, he threatens to kill them on the count of three if his house is not back to normal.
In "New Fish in Town," Squidward pushes SpongeBob's, Patrick's, and Howard's houses down a trench.
In "Accidents Will Happen" He fakes an injury at work and forces Mr Krabs to pamper him and threatens to call the OWS if he doesn't.
In "Frozen Face Off" Squidward laughed at enjoyed seeing SpongeBob and Patrick get the face freeze and later Mr Krabs.
In "Squidward's School for Grown Ups" Squidward tries to get Patrick to be grown up and Squidward tells him that he shouldn't like his new look. SpongeBob believes that Patrick is being brainwashed and Squidward tells him that they are through with him. During the opera, Squidward also tells everyone that the show is horrible, everyone agrees and they through food at him.
In "Restraining SpongeBob," Squidward has a restraining order placed on SpongeBob to keep him away from him. When Patrick begins to annoy Squidward far worse than SpongeBob, he releases SpongeBob and adds Patrick to said restraining order.
In "Little Yellow Book," Squidward reads SpongeBob's work diary in front of the customers, which hurts SpongeBob's feelings. He sees that he has been known as a "diary thief," but does not feel bad until his house is repossessed. Later, he even reads SpongeBob's personal diary.
In "InSPONGEiac" After Mr Krabs makes SpongeBob cry to produce the perfect amount of mustard, Squidward enjoys seeing it.
In "Squiditis" He creates a fake illness called "Squid's disease" to skip work, and later makes SpongeBob convinced that he caught it.
In "Move It Or Lose It" After Mr Krabs and SpongeBob believe the Krusty Krab is getting destroyed, Squidward takes pleasure in the situation. He refused to take a signature to save the Krusty Krab and abandons SpongeBob and Mr Krabs when they stand their ground.
In "Squid Defense" After Squidward gets a approached by a large looking thug, he gets scared and asks Sandy to teach him karate. Sandy tells Squidward that karate is only for self defense and not revenge, and tells Squidward to promise to use it only for protection. After Squidward sucessfully learns karate, he beats up SpongeBob and Sandy gives him his belt. He then goes to get revenge on the thug he saw by beating him up, but then he found out he was just trying to give him back the groceries he dropped. Sandy is disappointed at Squidward for using his karate for revenge and takes away his belt, and Squidward gets his comeuppance by getting arrested.
In "Don't Look Now," SpongeBob and Patrick saw a scary horror movie; Squidward pretends to be the Fisherman from said movie to play a cruel joke on them. As a result, SpongeBob and Patrick misinterpret the Fisherman eating Squidward, they in reality end up injuring Squidward.
In "Yeti Krabs," Squidward arrogantly attacks the Yeti Krab when he thinks it is Mr. Krabs in disguise and nearly puts Mr. Krabs, SpongeBob, and himself in danger.
In "Spongebob, You're Fired" When Mr Krabs fired Spongebob, Squidward gets happy and enjoyed seeing Spongebob cry over losing his job. He later physically assaults Spongebob for stepping in his garden.
In "Squid Plus One" When SpongeBob knocks at Squidwards door, Squidward shouts and him and scolds him and tells him to go away because he's busy. After getting another knock he accidentally yells at the mailman and he gives him a flyer to a gallery opening where you can bring a guest. SpongeBob desperately asks Squidward to take him as his plus one, but Squidward refuses. He attemps to get the mailman to come with him by befriending him, but ditched him after he said he hates the sound of clarinets. He then attempts to get Larry to come with him, but angered him after mocking Larry for having protein shakes. He finally asks SpongeBob to come with him, but makes him dress up as a ninja and carry a mirror with his reflection as his plus one.
In "The Executive Treatment" Patrick notices that the customers are eating "The Executive Treatment Sandwich" which makes Patrick order one, but Squidward tells Patrick that only executives can it. Squidward then tells Patrick that "The Executive Treatment" is really just a Krabby Patty that costs more but is served specially with SpongeBob wearing a different tie. Squidward then gets Patrick to wear glasses and tie, and after ordering it the executives believe he is an executive and takes him away, much to Squidward's delight. Squidward also attempts to throw away the Krabby Patty Patrick already bought, with Krabs stopping him.
In "Patrick! The Game" Patrick creates a new game. He invites SpongeBob, Sandy and Squidward to play. Squidward gets angered that he keeps losing and gets jealous that Patrick keeps winning. He then destroys Patrick's property and physically assaults Patrick, but gets arrested by the police.
In "Sold!," after knowing that SpongeBob and Patrick think Nick Fishkins has bought their homes, Squidward lies that a 14-member family has moved into SpongeBob's pineapple and an eight-member rock band with several instruments has moved into Patrick's rock. When SpongeBob and Patrick come to their old houses, he puts on outfits to match the characters that he made up. This exhausts him, and SpongeBob and Patrick flip Squidward's house. Nick Fishkins later comes by, and Squidward's house is "Not Sold." SpongeBob and Patrick then return to their homes.
In "The Whole Tooth," Squidward antagonizes SpongeBob and Patrick's belief in the tooth fairy. At night when SpongeBob tries to take Patrick's baby tooth to the tooth fairy, Squidward attempts to trick Patrick into thinking that SpongeBob betrayed him. But his plan fails when SpongeBob shows them who the tooth fairy really is. As punishment for trying to ruin their friendship, Squidward is forced to eat chum meat, which makes him lose all of his teeth.
In "Mermaid Pants," SpongeBob and Patrick made a supervillain lair for Squidward and Mr. Krabs as part of their game of Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy. However, Squidward takes advantage of his supervillain role and tries to kill SpongeBob and Patrick by dipping them into the fryer in a desperate attempt to get them out of his life. But luckily, SpongeBob and Patrick foil his plan at the last moment and make Squidward fall into the fryer instead.
In "Unreal Estate," Squidward breaks into SpongeBob's house at night to infest it with pepper so that SpongeBob will think he's allergic to his house, which he aims that SpongeBob will leave to another house. However, this changes when he himself finds the perfect house for him, which makes him stay in that house and makes SpongeBob stay in his old neighborhood, away from his new house.
In "Mimic Madness," Squidward, along with Plankton, intended on hurting SpongeBob in order to make him stop mimicking others. However, Patrick demanded them to leave him alone.
In "Life Insurance," SpongeBob and Patrick think that life insurance will protect them for injuries, so Squidward makes them hurt themselves, but in the end, they don't get hurt despite the fact Squidward is the one who always gets injured.
In "Sportz?" he makes SpongeBob and Patrick play games which hurt them. In the end, they get very injured, but Squidward doesn't care about it, in fact, he finds it entertaining. However, Sandy challenges him to play sports, and these make Squidward as injured as SpongeBob and Patrick.
In "Scavenger Pants," he makes SpongeBob and Patrick go to dangerous places. However, they don't get harmed, and instead, Squidward is the one who gets hurt throughout the episode.
In "Chatterbox Gary," after Gary insults him, he takes the translation collar and talks instead of Gary. He makes SpongeBob push his house to a hill, and his house falls off. However, he gets his punishment when he swallows the collar, and because he makes meow noises, worms attack him.
In "Ink Lemonade," he insults Patrick for no reason in the beginning, and throws a rotten lemon at him which makes his eye red.
Despite Squidward's antagonist side, he has been blamed many times for things that were not his fault.
In "Your Shoe's Untied," SpongeBob keeps tripping over his untied shoelaces, making dozens of Krabby Patties fly into Squidward's mouth. The customers blame him for eating the food, even when Squidward tells them it was SpongeBob's fault.
In "Squid on Strike," Squidward is outraged, and goes on strike due to Mr. Krabs instead of paying him for his "work" made him pay Mr. Krabs. SpongeBob tags along so as to get their jobs back but he destroys the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs then makes both of them work to pay off the damages, despite the fact that Squidward did not play a part in demolishing the Krusty Krab.
In "Krab Borg," Mr. Krabs yells at Squidward for tying him up and destroying his items, even though SpongeBob had a hand in it and was the one who convinced Squidward that Mr. Krabs was a robot in the first place. In fact, the only reason SpongeBob is let off the hook was that he had to "feed Gary."
No one gives a care about the fate of labor as long as they can get their instant gratification.
In "Can You Spare a Dime?," Mr. Krabs blames Squidward for stealing his missing dime since he was near the cash register. This causes Squidward to quit his job, lose everything, and drive SpongeBob mad. It is soon revealed that Mr. Krabs' dime was in his pocket the entire time, and Squidward was hired back. Even so, he later accused Squidward for putting the dime in his pants, and history repeated itself.
In "The Lost Mattress," he wrote Mr. Krabs a card saying that he got him a new mattress even though it was all SpongeBob and Patrick's idea. However, he actually caused Krabs to go into a "Cash Coma" because all his money was in the old mattress. He was then forced by the police to get the mattress back. However, this could count as karmic punishment, since he wanted to take credit for SpongeBob and Patrick's work.
In "Good Neighbors," SpongeBob and Patrick interrupt Squidward's Sunday morning by trying to be "good neighbors." Squidward then installs a security system to keep them away from him. However, it malfunctions causing his house to come to life and destroy the town. After it had been turned off, he was given a sentence to community service every Sunday despite how he had little control over his house's actions.
In "Cephalopod Lodge," SpongeBob and Patrick follow Squidward to a secret club of his thus causing him to be kicked out, when he really did not know they were even coming. In fact, he carefully checked his surroundings to try to avoid this.
Squidward annoyed because of SpongeBob's deliberate insulting
In "Boating Buddies," Squidward was being annoyed by SpongeBob, so he got in his boat and attempted to drive away. However, SpongeBob accidentally causes Squidward to crash, thus sending him to Mrs. Puff's Boating School. He was then injured many times due to SpongeBob's bad driving, thus he was unable to take the test despite the fact that he knew the right answers.
In "Truth or Square," he, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs were stuck in the air vents. Patrick then took out a radio that he "borrowed" from Sandy. He then tried calling for help, but he did not know how to use it. Therefore, Squidward used it to call Sandy. However, Sandy then accused him of stealing it from her.
In "Keep Bikini Bottom Beautiful," Squidward was given eight tickets to community service by the end of the episode even though he never actually littered.
In "Sentimental Sponge," SpongeBob becomes a hoarder off the idea that random garbage holds valuable memories. He later throws it into Squidward's yard. This angers Squidward, and he ends up calling the police on SpongeBob. They then condemn SpongeBob's house for being unsanitary, and then Squidward's for being covered in his garbage even though none of it was Squidward's, nor was he a hoarder.
In "The Googly Artiste," Patrick becomes famous off his "art," and Mr. Krabs becomes mad at him for making his art from Krabby Patties in which he sold for more money than he bought them for. He then said he was just following Squidward's advice, thus getting Squidward into trouble. However, that was not what Squidward meant when he was giving "advice."
In "Fiasco!," he was sent to prison when he really did not do anything bad at all. He led the police to SpongeBob's house saying that SpongeBob, Patrick, and Gary are making noise. In fact, he actually did the police a favor by leading them to Plankton, who stole the famous art piece Fiasco.
In "Out of the Picture," after Mr. Krabs hears that Squidward's art can actually be valuable if he is "out of the picture," he sends Squidward to dangerous places in an attempt to get him killed, but he always comes back. He even chases Squidward with a hammer. In the end, they both get crushed by the Krusty Krab's ceiling, even though Squidward barely deserved it.
In "Bunny Hunt," he tries to protect his own garden from a sea bunny, but the bunny continuously traps him and tortures him. In the end, he goes insane and thinks that he's a bunny which leads to an animal control guy chasing after him.
In "Ink Lemonade," Patrick realizes that he can sell the ink Squidward produces as lemonade, but he has to scare Squidward, because he can only produce ink that way. He rips his own skin off just to scare him, makes a sea spider go into his house and even makes Squidward's own house a haunted place. Squidward gets repeatedly scared throughout the episode, but Patrick doesn't care about it. When Squidward tries to sell lemonade, he is unsuccessful, even though he does the same things SpongeBob and Patrick did. In the end, he eats cookies, but it turns out that they are made out of spider eggs, which makes him produce even more ink, and spiders crawl out of his mouth.
Artistic side
Leisure
Squidward playing his clarinet.
An avid patron of the arts, Squidward has a strong affection for interpretive dance, sculpting, painting, and playing the clarinet. However, he seems to have almost no talent for any of them whatsoever, although he does play the clarinet beautifully at the end of the "Christmas Who?," at the end of "Bubblestand," and in "The Two Faces of Squidward." He has often tried to impress the public with his artistic exhibitions, but is always either unrecognized, mocked by his audience, or upstaged by SpongeBob. Squidward always wants to be the center of attention but rarely ever is. In "Best Day Ever," he had a concert where he played beautifully and received thunderous applause from the audience. SpongeBob was on the VIP list for it, which is ironic, considering Squidward's intense hatred for him. Squidward also misses many chances to become famous, even in his dreams.
His lack of talent seems to go all the way back to when he was a kid: in "Lost and Found," it is revealed in a flashback that Squidward was a kazoo player in elementary school and that his classmates found his music so bad that they all ran out of school, despite Squidward thinking he excelled in playing the instrument.
All of his artwork, from sculptures to paintings, depicts himself in a way, even repainting existing works to include his own face. He surrounds himself with said art throughout his house, a clear indication of his narcissist tendencies. These arts have occasionally been admired greatly by Patrick and SpongeBob, but are universally hated by the rest of Bikini Bottom.
He has tried several things to reach the fame he desires: hosting a talent show, starting his own astrology spin-off, forming a band, and so on, yet he cannot seem to get much of a following.
Bad but good art
Despite Squidward said to be a bad talentless artist, his art has been turned down many times for something that ironically was not as good.
In "Sleepy Time," Squidward is in his dream playing his clarinet to the king. SpongeBob then causes Squidward to break his clarinet by accident, and thus Squidward is forced to use SpongeBob as a replacement. It sounds horrible but everyone loves it.
In "Squid Wood," Squidward becomes jealous of Mini Squidward when he was "stealing his life" by doing all the same artistic things Squidward himself did, but Squidward was always turned down for Mini Squidward despite the fact that they were both doing exactly the same things.
In "The Masterpiece," Squidward made a large statue of Mr. Krabs to eliminate the competition of the Sea Chicken Shack; however, it was turned down, and was replaced by the real Mr. Krabs.
In "The Googly Artiste," Squidward made a statue of himself, which was turned down by an art critic. Patrick then made a pet rock and Squidward was turned down for said rock.
Good art
Squidward's excellent bubble.
Despite his reputation for being a "bad artist," Squidward has made art that people have actually enjoyed.
In "Bubblestand," Squidward blew a huge bubble by using the "technique," and successfully played the clarinet by playing jazz music.
In "Band Geeks," his band performs well in the Bubble Bowl, and people seem to enjoy the experience. However, that isn't really due to Squidward's teaching.
In "Artist Unknown," Squidward goes crazy in the end, and creates a great statue in the process.
In "Best Day Ever," Squidward does a clarinet concert in which people seem to enjoy.
In "Giant Squidward," Squidward gets a new clarinet that sounds good.
In "Suction Cup Symphony," Squidward has an orchestra perform a song he wrote to Bikini Bottom.
Squidward almost freezing to death.
Occupation
Squidward works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab, along with his co-worker, SpongeBob SquarePants. He not only hates his duties but the Krusty Krab itself, and he performs his job rather poorly and with a lack of enthusiasm. He also frequently behaves rudely to the customers. He has often expressed a desire to be fired or simply quit, but never makes good on it. While he initially only seems to work there because he needs the money, he seems to only be there out of pure laziness of getting a different job as the series progresses.
In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Squidward is manager of the Krusty Krab 2 for six days, although due to Plankton's invasion of Bikini Bottom, the new restaurant is not in service during this time. It is also shown here that Squidward actually cares about what happens to the Krusty Krab and the Krabby Patty formula when he discovers Plankton selling Krabby Patties and threatens to report him to King Neptune. In "Selling Out," Squidward works as the waiter for Krabby O'Monday's. He was forced to maintain a false state of happiness, or else face "Human Resources," a thug in the back of the building.
Main article: List of near-death experiences#Squidward Tentacles
Squidward has had many injuries and near-death experiences. He is one of the most unfortunate characters, and is in some way hurt in a majority of his appearances. He is shown to be an underdog, a person who almost never wins. In some episodes, he caused his own near-death experiences, such as breaking his own "laugh box," falling into a volcano, freezing himself almost to death, suffocating himself with three pillows on his head, and eating too many Krabby Patties and exploding. He almost froze to death in "Frozen Face-Off." He is also almost always injured by his bad karma. An example of this is in "My Pretty Seahorse" when he says "Remember your karma," while being upset at SpongeBob. He quickly has a bike wreck, falls off a cliff, and then explodes. He is also allergic to seaberries, as seen in "Restraining SpongeBob."
Squidward ate too many patties.
Help Wanted: He and Mr. Krabs are nearly beaten by countless anchovies.
Reef Blower: Almost dies from lack of water after SpongeBob accidentally drains the ocean.
Bubblestand: His house gets trapped in a giant bubble with him inside, which he didn't know about until he looked out of the window and floated away until the bubble exploded.
Jellyfishing: A jellyfish stings Squidward while he is riding his bike, causing him to lose control and ride off a cliff, with an unusual and unexplained nuclear explosion as he hits the ground. The incident leaves Squidward in an electric wheelchair with a full body cast that prevents him from any body movement. During the welcome party SpongeBob and Patrick had thrown, the latter blows piping hot soup in his face. Then during when SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward are at Jellyfish Fields for jellyfishing, Patrick stabs a jellyfish net through his casted hand to make sure he firmly grasps it. When Squidward catches a jellyfish, he gets zapped by a giant jellyfish. This leaves him in an even fuller body cast on an electric bed. At the end of the episode the giant jellyfish returns and zaps Squidward again, thus breaking his body cast.
Naughty Nautical Neighbors: Nearly chokes to death on a fork, but is saved by Patrick. Then he hurts his back only to be saved by SpongeBob. At the end, after SpongeBob and Patrick destroy Squidward's house, a bubble pops near the door, collapsing it and crushing Squidward, breaking his back again.
Pizza Delivery: Nearly hit by a truck along with SpongeBob and is buried in the sand. When he tries to chase SpongeBob in pursuit of the pizza, they are lifted by a tornado and get smashed into the ground. When SpongeBob drives the giant rock, Squidward is run over by the rock.
Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost: Patrick drops a massive watermelon in his mouth. At the end of the episode, he is lifted by a bubble into a swarm of seagulls.
I Was a Teenage Gary: Turns into a snail and gets knocked off the fence by Patrick.
SB-129: He swallowed his clarinet and is then frozen for 2,000 years, mutilated by a can opener room, and nearly attacked by Primitive Sponge and Star.
Karate Choppers: When Squidward startles SpongeBob, he was karate-chopped in the head.
Dying for Pie: SpongeBob performs unlicensed open-heart surgery on him, causing Squidward's heart to puss. Then SpongeBob trips on a rock, causing the explosive pie to hit Squidward in the face; the bomb then detonates in his face.
Christmas Who?: Falls from the roof of his house while dressed as Santa Claus.
Pressure: He, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs are nearly eaten by seagulls.
Shanghaied: Gets electrocuted by the Flying Dutchman multiple times, and is thrown into the Fly Of Despair. He, SpongeBob, and Patrick are either chased or eaten by the Flying Dutchman depending on the ending.
Band Geeks: He gets pinned to the wall by drumsticks and the loud noise of the instruments distorts his face, and shattering the windows.
Club SpongeBob: When he tries to get out, the vine snaps, and SpongeBob, Patrick, and him are flung into the Kelp Forest. He starves when the Magic Conch Shell refuses to feed him.
My Pretty Seahorse: He doesn't watch where he is going on his bike, so he falls of a cliff and gets caught in a nuclear explosion, similar to "Jellyfishing."
Just One Bite: In a deleted scene he is incinerated twice because of security traps. Then consumes almost all of the Krabby Patties inside the patty vault, which goes straight to his thighs, causing him to literally explode. He ends up in an ambulance, with his tentacles in a bucket and only his head remaining intact.
Idiot Box: Tumbles down a mountain of trash and lands face first into a pie, with the box landing on top of him.
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy IV: Gets tortured repeatedly by misuse of Mermaid Man's belt. He is later shrunk by it but SpongeBob shrunk Bikini Bottom including himself.
Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V: When he errupts, the magma falls on SpongeBob and then Mermaid Man mistakenly uses his water ball attack on Squidward, and bearing the likeness and powers of Captain Magma, he disintegrates. Later comes to the Krusty Krab in a dog collar.
Clams: SpongeBob hooks his nose with the fishing line, ripping it off. He and SpongeBob are nearly eaten by the giant clam when Mr. Krabs ties them up as bait. He and SpongeBob almost starve to death when Mr. Krabs drops the sandwiches and the fridge into the lagoon.
Skill Crane: The episode ends with the thug builders ready to beat Squidward up.
Good Neighbors: Has polka-dot paint squirted in his eyes. A couple almost runs him over with their car in order to bring Squidward to the hospital for the red polka-dot paint has been mistaken for chicken pox. Squidward is kicked out of his house--which is living--then it nearly stomps him. Lastly, he gets crushed by his own house.
Funny Pants: He broke his "laugh box" and was hospitalized. He had his laugh box replaced with a part of SpongeBob's, making his laugh sound just like the latter's, and in a fit of insanity, he runs through a hospital wall.
Krusty Towers: He, SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs are almost killed in the Krusty Towers' destruction.
Wishing You Well: Falls down the well with SpongeBob and Patrick for company. When he climbs up the walls in the well he falls back down. He then fights with Patrick as the latter sits on him. Then when he escapes the well he wishes be to far away from Bikini Bottom. A speeding bus promptly hits him with him clinging on the front of the bus which is going to his destination.
Squidtastic Voyage: His life was in jeopardy through this episode, as SpongeBob and Patrick were inside his body while searching for a clarinet reed stuck in his throat. Sandy even gets him to sign his waiver.
Rule of Dumb: His house is lifted by a crane and dropped with him still inside.
Giant Squidward: Stands on a giant rake and nearly traps his finger in a bear trap and crushed by the giant clarinet. He is also attacked by an angry mob, similar to Gulliver's Travels.
Boat Smarts: Flies into and gets crushed by a steamroller, crashes into a brick wall, and along with Mrs. Puff, is sent into the air and crashes into the pile-up of boatmobiles due to SpongeBob's reckless driving.
Krabs à la Mode: Slips and slides across the icy floor, almost impaled by icicles with SpongeBob, gets run over by skating hockey players and SpongeBob, is hit by the Clamboni, and is frozen by Plankton but defrosted by Mr. Krabs afterwards.
Breath of Fresh Squidward: Gets electrocuted by his electric fence in the beginning and end of the episode.
Atlantis SquarePantis: He, SpongeBob, Patrick, Sandy and Mr. Krabs are chased by Atlantis guards and nearly killed by Plankton's massive tank but the tank fires ice cream instead of missiles.
The Two Faces of Squidward: SpongeBob slams the door into him numerous times, which enhances his appearance. He gets injuries when Mr. Krabs whacks his face with the door.
Squidward in Clarinetland: Swallowed by the Keeper of the Hornet Forest head and melts. He is then tortured by SpongeBob in various worlds. He is hit several times on the SpongeBob SquarePants Pinball Game by Patrick. He is also sucked up by a giant vacuum cleaner.
Slide Whistle Stooges: Crashes his gasoline truck off a cliff. This is followed by a huge explosion, which lodges Squidward's slide whistle in his throat.
Boating Buddies: He, SpongeBob, and Mrs. Puff are sent through a wild spin on an out-of-control boatmobile. He also gets beaten up twice by a muscular fish.
Choir Boys: His recumbent bicycle gets trapped in a pothole which SpongeBob dug, flinging Squidward to Jellyfish Fields where he is zapped by a group of jellyfish. Then he almost lost his voice due to his reckless singing.
Cephalopod Lodge: He gets thrown out of the Cephalopod Lodge twice, gets crushed by Patrick and then gets zapped on the tongue by a jellyfish twice by Patrick for the initiation. His tongue gets electrocuted at the end of the episode while off-screen.
Frozen Face Off: Chased by Mr. Krabs' pet worms, nearly eaten by the abominable snow mollusk, frozen in a block of ice twice, and falls out of the sleigh while frozen. He is nearly boiled alive in the deep-fryer by Plankton as a trap near the end.
A Friendly Game: He nearly gets killed by the destruction of his house.
Bubble Troubles: Burnt into pieces by SpongeBob and Patrick's hot sauce bubble.
Restraining SpongeBob: Smacked in the face by his loose windowpane, fell in deep fryer, flies across the Krusty Krab, accidentally eaten by Harold, injured numerous times by Patrick's bumbling, and flung into a seaberry pie, giving him an allergic reaction. Patrick then attacks him when he thinks Squidward is a monster due to Squidward's allergic reaction.
Home Sweet Rubble: Nearly gets killed by the destruction of SpongeBob's house.
Are You Happy Now?: Accidentally hit in the eye with a violin bow, foot speared with a flagpole, caught in an avalanche with SpongeBob, squirted in the eye by his pet clam, and falls off a stool.
Planet of the Jellyfish: Eaten and morphed into Jellien Squidward. He is released soon afterward.
Yeti Krabs: Squidward, along with Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob, almost gets eaten by the Yeti Krab after he arrogantly attacked it when he thought it was Mr. Krabs in a costume.
Tutor Sauce: Near-death by boatmobiles flying into the Krusty Krab then exploding.
Stuck on the Roof: He gets accidentally kicked by Sandy and explodes. He also at the end gets buried in mud in the other now underground Krusty Krab.
Scavenger Pants: Gets his nose bitten by the Sand Witch's sandwich, brutally beaten by the Boxing Begonia, and gets eaten by the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
Chatterbox Gary: He gets mauled by a group of worms after Gary shoves a walkie-talkie down his throat.
Bottle Burglars: Get severely injured by the traps Plankton set up.
Stephen Hillenburg first became fascinated with the ocean and began developing his artistic abilities as a child. During college, he majored in marine biology and minored in art. After graduating in 1984, he joined the Ocean Institute, an ocean education organization, where he had the idea to create a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which led to the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants.[27][28][29] In 1987, Hillenburg left the Institute to pursue a career in animation.[29][30]
Several years after studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts,[30] Hillenburg met Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, at an animation festival. Murray offered Hillenburg a job as a director of the series.[29][31][32]Martin Olson, one of the writers for Rocko's Modern Life, read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. At that point, Hillenburg had not considered creating his own series, but soon realized that this was his chance.[28][28]
Hillenburg used some character designs from his comic book. He designed "SpongeBob's grumpy next door neighbor" as an octopus because the species' large head; octopuses, he said, "have such a large bulbous head and Squidward thinks he's an intellectual so of course, he's gonna have a large bulbous head."[33] Hillenburg drew Squidward with six tentacles because "it was really just simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight".[33] Show writer and storyboard artist Vincent Waller said:
Squidward is hard to draw-he has a very odd-shaped head. Fortunately, his emotions are pretty even, but to get a whole lot of big emoting out of him is a challenge. His nose splits everything in half, so it's always like, 'OK, how am I going to work this and still make it read?'[34]
Stephen Hillenburg named him Squidward because the name Octoward—in the words of Squidward's voice actor Rodger Bumpass—"just didn't work."[35] The sound of Squidward's footsteps is produced by rubbing hot water bottles. The footsteps, and those of the rest of the main characters, are recorded by the show's foley crew. Sound designer Jeff Hutchins said that footstep sounds "[help] tell which character it is and what surface they're stepping on".[36] Bumpass inspired the idea of having Squidward ride a recumbent bicycle; Bumpass owns one of these bicycles, which he rides around Burbank, California.[37] Bumpass described it as his "little inside joke".[35]
Voice
Squidward's voice is provided by actor Rodger Bumpass, who voices several other SpongeBob SquarePants characters, including Squidward's mother. While creating the show and writing its pilot episode in 1997, Hillenburg and the show's then-creative director Derek Drymon were also conducting voice auditions.[38]Mr. Lawrence, who had worked with Hillenburg and Drymon on Rocko's Modern Life, was Hillenburg's first choice for the role. Hillenburg had invited Lawrence to audition for all the show's characters.[39] Instead of Squidward, Hillenburg decided to give Lawrence the part of Plankton, the series' villain.[38]
According to Bumpass, Squidward was "a very nasally, monotone kind of guy." He said the character became interesting to perform because of "his sarcasm, and then his frustration, and then his apoplexy, and so he became a wide spectrum of emotions."[40]Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, describes Bumpass recording his lines in the studio, saying, "I love watching Rodger ... He's right next to me". According to Kenny, when Bumpass "goes apoplectic" as Squidward while recording, his head turns red, "and you're afraid he's going to have an embolism."[37]
Several of the show's crew praise Bumpass for his performance and similitude to the character. Kenny called Bumpass "brilliant" and said, "[he] is sort of like Squidward".[37] Staff writer Kent Osborne said, "I remember thinking about how much Rodger talks and acts like Squidward. That's why it's such a good voice—he's so connected to it".[41] However, Bumpass said, "I'm not him and he's not me, but what I'm required to do for him and what I am enabled to do for him is what makes it like me. It fits my particular talents and skills very well. So in that respect, yeah, he is me, but I am not the cranky, sarcastic, underachieving kind of guy that he is. He's easy to fall in, I will say that."[40]
Squidward's voice has been compared to that of Jack Benny's. Kenny said, "To me, there's something just so funny about that Jack-Benny-loyal-to-nobody character that Rodger Bumpass does such a great job of playing [...] Squidward".[42] Arthur Brown, author of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!, said that Squidward "sounds a lot like Jack Benny".[43] Bumpass repudiated the relationship, saying "Jack Benny, no. Although he does have this observational sarcasm he occasionally brought out."[40]
Relationships
SpongeBob SquarePants
Squidward kicks SpongeBob and Patrick out of his destroyed house.
SpongeBob is the character Squidward interacts with the most, and is also the one he dislikes more than the rest, often trying to avoid him at all costs.
The main reason for Squidward's massive dislike for SpongeBob's existence is because SpongeBob can be extremely annoying towards Squidward, but SpongeBob is unaware of this, and thus continues to irritate him. It was revealed in "Truth or Square," that SpongeBob's pineapple house landed on Squidward's old garden and when SpongeBob moved in Squidward started to resent him even though SpongeBob didn't do anything to make Squidward to hate him.
Their relationship is somewhat complicated. While SpongeBob sees Squidward as one of his best friends, this is mostly one-sided, although Squidward occasionally shows sympathy towards him; this is seen in episodes such as "Pizza Delivery", "Dying For Pie" and "Christmas Who?." Squidward also admired SpongeBob's selfless bravery against the Flying Dutchman in "Born Again Krabs." Squidward has also teamed up with SpongeBob and helped him on a few occasions, such as in "Krab Borg" and "Squid on Strike". Later, in "SpongeBob, You're Fired!," Squidward fought off four crazed restaurant owners to rescue SpongeBob and later admitted that as much he hates him, he hates the smell of burnt Krabby Patties more before giving him a heartfelt plea to return to the being the fry cook at the Krusty Krab. In the episode "SB-129," Squidward says that he misses everything, including SpongeBob. He also admitted that he likes SpongeBob in "Graveyard Shift" and "Fools in April". Sometimes, he is in need of SpongeBob's help, as shown in "Skill Crane."
Mr. Krabs
Squidward is angry at Mr. Krabs.
Squidward despises Mr. Krabs and has little tolerance for him. Unlike SpongeBob, Squidward is much more aware of Mr Krabs's greedy and cheap nature. Mr Krabs also thinks very lowly of Squidward and gets tired of his lazy tendencies and often blames him for mishaps, though he does see him as a valued employee on occasion. There have been times where Squidward scolded Mr Krabs. In "Born Again Krabs," he chastises Mr. Krabs for selling SpongeBob's soul for pocket change. In "Clams" He gets mad at Krabs for taking them on a fishing trip and berates him for making them stay on the boat over a dollar. He also gets outraged when Mr. Krabs blames something on him, like when Squidward got mad and quit his job because Mr Krabs accused him of stealing his first dime in "Can You Spare a Dime". However, the two do sometimes get along and Squidward has been working at the Krusty Krab for a long time and does sometimes respect and listen to Mr Krabs's authority, so the two have developed a somewhat decent relationship. However, their relationship has took a turn for the worst as the series progressed, with Mr Krabs becoming more greedy and immoral, and Squidward becoming angrier and grumpier.
Patrick Star
Throughout the series, Squidward is shown to have a considerable dislike towards Patrick. As with Mr. Krabs, this hatred overall seems to have taken a turn for the worse in later seasons. In "Restraining SpongeBob," Squidward is very annoyed with Patrick when he would stalk him, ask stupid questions, and use his clarinet to clean the bathroom.
Their relationship, in general, is awkward; unlike SpongeBob, Patrick notices Squidward's malice more often, and tends to contradict him more. Squidward in return is also more rude and disrespectful to Patrick than to SpongeBob. The two have even fought each other in some episodes due to their differences. However, Squidward sometimes hints he can tolerate Patrick more than SpongeBob.
While Squidward holds a massive hatred towards Patrick, he didn't seem to mind him before SpongeBob's arrival to their neighborhood. As shown in the TV special "Truth or Square," Squidward lived a happy life in Bikini Bottom, and even enjoyed his job at the Krusty Krab, only turning bitter and frustrated after SpongeBob moved. Additionally, in "No Hat for Pat," he wishes Patrick was SpongeBob before he tries to push him off the platform into an urchin bucket, hinting that even though he dislikes Patrick a lot, he hates SpongeBob far more.
In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," he befriends him, because he saved his life, but quickly ditches him later.
Plankton
Squidward and Plankton barely interact since Squidward doesn't care about the secret formula. When they do interact they usually dislike each other. However, in the episodes "Sweet and Sour Squid" and "Chum Fricassee," they team up, although they remain enemies in the end.
Gary the Snail
Gary and Squidward have a complicated relationship. Gary annoys Squidward while Gary thinks Squidward is a jerk. However, Squidward does seem to have feelings for Gary as seen in "I Was a Teenage Gary." And they seem to sometimes share the same opinion about SpongeBob's annoying antics as Squidward once replied "Oh, tell me about it!" in "Giant Squidward." In "Are You Happy Now?," Gary seemed to be concerned for Squidward like SpongeBob was. In "That Sinking Feeling," Squidward was searching SpongeBob in his house and when he spotted Gary on the roof, he said "hi" to him.
Sandy Cheeks
Squidward and Sandy usually do not talk to each other, but in "SquidBob TentaclePants," she transformed Squidward and SpongeBob after being stuck together, and Squidward begs Sandy to seperate them. Sandy is one of the few characters Squidward seems to have no problems with, although Sandy does seem to sometimes to find Squidward intolerable, such as his recent assault on a creepy crawler with karate for revenge instead of self-defense in "Squid Defense." She can also get a little rough because in "Patrick! The Game" when he was about to quit Sandy scolded him to get back in. She even drew the line before with Squidward and some of his antics, such as when she beat up Squidward in "Sportz" for making Spongebob and Patrick injure themselves by playing dangerous sports and wouldn't let them stop.
Squilvia is Squidward's girlfriend in "Love that Squid." In the episode, Squilvia visits the Krusty Krab and Squidward falls in love with her and gets nervous around her, so SpongeBob has to act as his wingman. SpongeBob tells Squilvia that Squidward likes her and manages to get Squidward a date with her. However, Squidward is unprepared to go on a date because he has not gone on one in years. Therefore, SpongeBob teaches Squidward how to act on a date by pretending to be his girlfriend and going on a simulated date.
After Squidward cannot take it anymore, he yells at SpongeBob. However, he does not realize that Squilvia has arrived for their date. Squidward then thinks that she would not go out with him because he yelled at SpongeBob. However, she likes that he stood up for himself. They then go on their date.
Since she's confirmed a minor character, their relationship is considered over.[44]
Squidward's arch-rival is Squilliam Fancyson, whom he first met in high school in band class, who, like all other octopuses on the show, looks and acts similar to Squidward, but wears a robe and has a unibrow. However, unlike Squidward, Squilliam is extremely successful in everything that Squidward has failed in, and is living Squidward's dream of being a wealthy celebrity artist with crowds of adoring fans, usually with many admirers following his presence. In Squilliam's debut episode, "Band Geeks," he calls Squidward, at his home, to once again, rub his success in his face, saying that his band is signed to play at the Bubble Bowl but cannot come, and sarcastically asks Squidward for his "band" to cover for them. Squidward, caught in the moment, claims that he does have a band and will play at the Bubble Bowl, forcing him to put together a band from the residents of Bikini Bottom. Thanks to SpongeBob, their performance turns out to be much better than Squilliam could have ever expected, causing him to have a heart attack.
Squilliam returns in the aptly named episode "Squilliam Returns," in which Squidward meets him and a crowd of his fans. Squilliam tries to embarrass Squidward by showing the crowd his lowly position as a cashier, but Squidward claims to own a five-star restaurant, and Squilliam agrees to take the group to dinner there, expecting this claim to be exposed as a lie. Squidward's attempts at converting the Krusty Krab into a five-star restaurant are initially unsuccessful, until he gets SpongeBob to clear his mind of everything "except fine dining and breathing." SpongeBob is able to turn the Krusty Krab into an extremely extravagant and fancy diner. Everything goes well until Squilliam, who is admittedly impressed, asks his waiter, SpongeBob, his name. SpongeBob, having erased everything else from his mind, forgets his own name and subsequently everything else, going insane and destroying the "fancy restaurant" environment, with the help of Mr. Krabs' disgusting "appetizer" coming to life.
Squilliam appears again in "House Fancy" where Squilliam calls Squidward to boast about how his enormous house was chosen as the fanciest house on the show House Fancy. Squidward then calls the show's host and claims his house is better. Then with the help of SpongeBob, he attempts to make it look better but ultimately ends up destroying his house. The show's host thinks this is a revolutionary house design, and for the second time, Squidward is able to beat Squilliam.
Love interests
In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V," Squidward says "Ah, make out reef... good times, good times...," meaning he had been there when he was young with a love interest.
In "That's No Lady," Squidward and Mr. Krabs fall for Patrick, who was posing as a woman named Patricia because Patrick thought someone was trying to force him to leave Bikini Bottom.
In "Love That Squid," Squidward makes a date with another octopus named "Squilvia."
Squidward lives in a house resembling an Easter Island moai. It is placed in between SpongeBob and Patrick's houses at Squidward Tentacles' House, and the address was revealed in "Slide Whistle Stooges." It has been personified several times, such as in the episode "The Secret Box," where it seems to be peeking at SpongeBob and Patrick's talk. Despite Squidward's wish for peace and quiet, his two neighbors, SpongeBob and Patrick, make it nearly impossible, due to their high level of childish immaturity and silliness. If Squidward had the choice, he would move. He does so in "Squidville," but ultimately decides that he had moved somewhere even worse. In "Opposite Day," Squidward tried to move, but SpongeBob and Patrick caused the real estate agent who was originally trying to sell Squidward's house to leave angrily, so Squidward had to stay. He also moved in "Stanley S. SquarePants," because he had realized that there were "two of them" and he became horrified.
Squidward usually lives alone, but in "The Great Snail Race," he adopts a pet named Snellie. In "Can You Spare a Dime?," Squidward winds up homeless after quitting his job, until SpongeBob finds him living in a cardboard box and takes him into his house. Squidward almost becomes homeless again in "Giant Squidward," when he turns into a giant. In the episode "Good Neighbors," Squidward's house becomes a living robot (due to a security system) and terrorizes Bikini Bottom.
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Trivia
In "Help Wanted," Squidward's skin color is light turquoise, but he became a bit of a darker turquoise for every episode after.
In the episode "Reef Blower," when SpongeBob sucks the water out of the ocean he is shown to be a shade of purple, but in other out of water appearances, such as The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, he is his normal shade of turquoise.
In early concept art for The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Squidward's superhero form (Sour Note) depicted him as a realistic giant Pacific octopus. In the final version of the film, this gag was given to Sandy instead, and she becomes an overly realistic squirrel.
During October2007, where Nickelodeon characters were shown dressed up as various monsters during commercial breaks, Squidward was dressed as what appears to be the Phantom of the Opera.
Squidward can also be seen dressed in a Santa costume during a "Happy Ha Ha Holidays" commercial, due to his portrayal of Santa Claus in "Christmas Who?" to avoid hurting SpongeBob's feelings.
Squidward is right-handed. This can be seen in several episodes, including "Artist Unknown" during the scene in which he tries to draw a circle.
Squidward has a distinct laugh, which always makes his nose inflate and deflate, much likely being a reference to the octopus's contractile mantle.
Squidward's height relative to Mr. Krabs changes depending on the episode. He occasionally appears to be much taller, but they are the same height counting Krabs' eyestalks in some other scenes.
In the Krusty Krab, Squidward sometimes has different jobs from his regular cashier job, usually replacing SpongeBob as fry cook when he is absent.
A cameo of Squidward in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
A character resembling Squidward makes a cameo appearance in the Japanese anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
It is revealed that Squidward used to have a full head of blonde hair in "The Original Fry Cook."
In 2000, a spin-off series of SpongeBob shorts was made called Astrology with Squidward. It focused on Squidward as a psychic telling audiences about different zodiac signs using other SpongeBob characters.
Squidward earned his given name from a pun on "squid" and "Edward."
^"Patrick! The Game" - Squidward: "But I don't have a finbone! I'm an octopus!"
^"Lame and Fortune" - Customer: (looking at Squidward) "The octopus with the big nose just spit in your food?!"
^"Case of the Sponge "Bob"" - Hillenburg: "This is Squidward the octopus... I liked the octopus for this character because they have such a large, bulbous head."
^ abcHillenburg, Stephen (2003). The Origin of SpongeBob SquarePants. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete First Season (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment.
^ ab>Banks, Steven (September 24, 2004). SpongeBob Exposed! The Insider's Guide to SpongeBob SquarePants, Gregg Schigiel (Illustrator), New York City, New York: Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon, 9. ISBN 978-0-689-86870-2.
^Murray, Joe (2003). The Origin of SpongeBob SquarePants. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete First Season (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment.
^ abcHillenburg, Stephen. (March 1, 2005). The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (The Case of the Sponge "Bob") (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment/Nickelodeon.
^ abBumpass, Rodger. (March 1, 2005). The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment/Nickelodeon.
^Kenny, Tom. (March 1, 2005). The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) (DVD). Paramount Home Entertainment/Nickelodeon.
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