Squidward Tentacles
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| SpongeBob SquarePants character | |
| Image:Squid.jpg | |
| Squidward Johannsen Tentacles | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Color | Pale Aqua |
| Eye Color | Yellow |
| Species | Octopus |
| Address | 122 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean |
| Occupation | Head Cashier of The Krusty Krab Fry Cook of The Krusty Krab (Pickles, Hooky, The Algae's Always Greener) Manager of The Krusty Krab 2 (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) |
| First appearance | Help Wanted |
| Family | Mother (Mrs. Tentacles) Father (Mr. Tentacles) |
| Pets | Snellie (Only a Short Time) |
| Ancestors | Squog Squidley (great-great-great-great-great-great -great-great-grandfather) |
| Friends | SpongeBob SquarePants Patrick Star Sandy Cheeks |
| Boss | Eugene Krabs |
| Enemies | Squilliam Fancyson Sheldon J. Plankton |
| Portrayer | Rodger Bumpass Tom Kenny (laughing voice in Funny Pants) John Sterchi (Story Reader book, Grand Prize Winner!) |
| Interests | Art, Music, Dance, Reading, and Fancy Living. |
Squidward Johannsen Tentacles is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is an octopus, thought to be a squid because of his misleading name, (and also a "sourpus") and has 6 tentacles. He uses two of them as arms and the other four as legs. (Note that in the past it has been written that he has 8) Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, says Squidward is a rare type of octopus that only have 6 legs and are blue-green, although he also said 8 tentacles would be quite difficult to animate, and also 8 tentacles looked bulky so he could've chosen that type of octopus. Squidward is believed to be born on October 23, 1975. He is the grumpy and occasionally giddy cashier of the Krusty Krab. The character is voiced by Rodger Bumpass.
Contents |
Residence
Squidward lives in a house resembling an Easter Island moai head, placed between SpongeBob and Patrick's houses. 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. His address is 122 Conch Street.
Occupation
Squidward works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab restaurant, along with SpongeBob. Generally, he despises his job and loves the thought of getting fired, though he only attempts to quit in one episode. He doesn't take his work very seriously, being the exact opposite of SpongeBob. In "Just One Bite", it was revealed that Squidward had never eaten a Krabby Patty. He insists that they are disgusting, but after trying a bite of one, he falls in love with it. He also was the manager of the Krusty Krab 2 for six days in "The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie".
Squidward's neighbors
SpongeBob and Patrick always encourage Squidward to participate in their games, but this only annoys him. In particular, SpongeBob and Patrick often ask him to go jellyfishing with them. While seemingly the eternal pessimist, he occasionally tries to be like SpongeBob (often with hopes that doing so will stop SpongeBob from bugging him), but does not ever get the hang of it. In one episode, however he finds himself putting a piece of paper on his nose and dancing a jig in insanity. When SpongeBob isn't looking, Squidward will start to act more like SpongeBob from time to time, especially in the earlier episodes like Bubblestand and The Paper. Squidward's voice reveals a lot about his personality and attitude, much like SpongeBob's voice. In one episode, Selling Out, he is forced to keep a smile glued to his face by the manager of Krabby O' Mondays which creates an interesting effect, as Squidward hardly ever smiles while showing his teeth.
Leisure
Image:Squidward in SB-129.jpgAn avid patron of the arts, Squidward has a strong affection for interpretive dance, sculpture, painting, and playing the clarinet, but shows no significant talent for any of them. 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.
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 can't seem to get much of a cult following (with the exception of SpongeBob, who really looks up to Squidward) Mr. Krabs and Patrick also seem to like him, though it may be argued that Mr. Krabs only likes Squidward because of his allegiance with the Krusty Krab. Squidward considers himself the greatest and most unrecognized clarinet player of all time, though most undersea life that hear him play will argue that he is horrible. His clarinet playing often gets him into trouble.
Annoyance
Squidward finds SpongeBob a complete annoyance. He tends to let everyone annoy him, especially those who want to be his friend, although at many times his fear of the loud and overbearing SpongeBob is quite justified. His best friend is his clarinet, whose name is Clary. One of Squidward's greatest dreams and desires is to either have hair or to buy a wig. He seems to think he would look good with hair. Aside from his musical "talents", he enjoys painting several pictures of himself and hanging them up around his house. There are new paintings in his house in almost every episode, constantly changing and almost never the same. In the episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward assigns SpongeBob to man the cash register when Mr. Krabs is at the doctor's office recieving new crustacean pinchers. Meanwhile, Squidward leaves the Krusty Krab for a day of relaxation, but he foolishly had SpongeBob convinced he was doing "very important boss-like errands".
Tentacle Acres
In one episode, he sees an ad on TV about a town called Tentacle Acres, also known as Squidville, where many octopi live in Easter Island heads just like him. He decides to move there, and for a while life is spectacular, as he finds a large community of like-minded octopi into which he fits perfectly. Eventually, though, he starts to miss SpongeBob's reef blower games and the city of Bikini Bottom. In Tentacle Acres, daily life is all one big routine that Squidward tires of after a week or so. He begins to wreak havoc throughout the overly structured civilization of Tentacle Acres with a reef blower. Angry citizens corner him in an alleyway and demand that he leave. He obeyed their wishes, except he did so by launching himself into the air via reef blower, screaming, "Woohoo! FREEDOM!".
Rivalry
His rival is Squilliam Fancyson, from Band Class, and high school, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Squidward, but wears a robe and has a unibrow. Squilliam is a wealthy six-legged octopus, usually with many admirers following his presence. He constantly shows up to make fun of Squidward, however Squidward makes a jerk out of Squilliam when his ragtag band plays for the Bubble Bowl and turns out to be much better than he ever expected.
Squilliam unintentionally gets back at Squidward in the only other episode in which he is featured, when Squid's plan to turn the Krusty Krab into a five star restaurant blows up in his face when SpongeBob (who, on Squidward's request, emptied his mind of everything "except fine dining and breathing") forgot his name and subsequently everything else, in addition to Mr. Krabs' "appetizer" coming to life.
Character
Squidward's character is a complex bundle of adult failings and successes, and, like the show, presents a rich social commentary. There is much to dislike about Squidward, and yet he is ultimately endearing. While his failings are of his own making, he is also a victim of modern society.
He is annoyingly pretentious in his pursuit of the arts, unable to spot raw talent and creativity, and 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 its painfully clear that SpongeBob is creating works of artistic genius. In Bubblestand, he belittles SpongeBob's brilliant bubble-blowing. Such episodes can be taken as a punch by the cartoonists at their pretenious but failed art-school classmates who, instead of being recognized masters, must now work at low, demeaning jobs.
In certain ways, Squidward's life is portrayed as a failure. In one episode, he visits a cemetery to lay flowers at a headstone that reads, "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams." Yet he has not sunk into despondancy: he is tireless in his pursuit of music, his painting, his sculpture, oblivious to his lack of talent.
Outwardly, he in fact shows signs of modest success: he lives in a nice, well-tended house, with no signs of slothfulness, and finds plenty of time to lead an active, involved life. Not conscious of his failings, he acknowledges them subconsciously by his outsized sarcasm. All of his most famous and most quotable lines are sarcastic.
He is well-educated, knows his history, and has a strong anti-capitalist bent. At work, he is not only careless, sloppy and lazy, but even occasionally engages in Marxist, labor-party sloganeering. In the episode Squid on Strike, he organizes a worker's strike at the Krusty Krab, replete with talk of "the proletariat", working-class oppression, protest techniques and organization. He even incites labor unrest, resulting in the destruction of the Krusty Krab.
In the end, Squidward finds a way of redeeming himself. He has various endearing traits, and, despite himself, often manages to keep an open mind. In the episode Squidville, he moves to a town filled with his own peers, other octopi who share his tastes and outlook on life. Here, he is forced to face how boring and oppresive his desired lifestyle really is, and he is able to ultimately break free of its bonds with a bit of inspired silliness.
Squidward is a complex character, and offers much to learn from and can be quite repulsive if he is annoyed.
Trivia
- Squidward's name is a combination of the word 'squid' and the name 'Edward' (Squilliam bears a similar combination of his name).
- Squidward's name in other languages:
- Squidward once had his own astrology spin-off series that is still rarely shown on Nicktoons TV. It was named "Astronamy with Squidward."
- In the episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward mentions his blueish glow. This was an obvious in-joke, about Squidward's random color changes. In the very first episodes, Squidward actually does have a blueish glow, and almost looks blue in a few of them. In Season 4 episodes, he is completely green.
- In three episodes, Squidward takes SpongeBob's place as fry cook of the Krusty Krab. Squidward usually burns the food, such as in "Pickles" and "Hooky", but cooks them fine in the episode "Bubble Buddy".
- Squidward worked at the Krusty Krab for years and didn't eat a Krabby Patty until SpongeBob made him try one, and he liked it. (Just One Bite)
- Squidward's favorite song is "Solitude in E Minor".
- Squidward lives in an Easter Island head. Tentacle Acres is made up of a community of octopi who all live in Easter Island heads.
- Squidward plays the clarinet.
- Squidward is actually purple when not underwater, as shown in Reef Blower (although this was retconned later).
- In one episode, SpongeBob made Squidward a shirt. The hole for the head was measured with a watermelon, and Squidward still had a very difficult time getting it on.
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