- “Another day, another migraine.”
- ―Squidward
Squidward Tentacles is one of the main characters from Nickelodeon's SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. He is voiced by Rodger Bumpass. Squidward is a cranky and unlucky octopus who is neighbors with two loud and immature residents: SpongeBob and Patrick.
Appearance[]
Squidward is a turquoise octopus with a very large nose, yellow eyes with red pupils, and wears a brown shirt. Unlike octopuses in real life, Squidward only has 6 tentacles but there is a reason behind this: the series animators believe if he had 8 tentacles, he'll be too hard to animate. The choice of giving him 6 arms left many people to think he was an actual squid. He is bald with blue dots on his forehead that is darker than his skin tone.
Personality[]
Squidward is a rude, snobby, sarcastic, ill-mannered, and short-tempered person. He is pessimistic as he views the world and everybody with negativity. He hates his job with a passion as he usually complains about the restaurant, annoying customers, and the treatment of his boss, Mr.Krabs. However, he is one more intelligent characters in the show as he is well-rounded in history and the arts. Combined with SpongeBob's boisterous behavior is one reason why he is so disrespectful and bad-tempered.
Squidward also believes he is extremely talented when it comes to visual and performing arts. Squidward's house is filled with paintings, sculptures, and most importantly his clarinet but not everyone views him like this. Squidward's artwork and clarinet skills are often received with poor reception. Because of this, he views himself as a failure. Being one of the more miserable characters in the show, Squidward is more susceptible to getting injured whether its by him, SpongeBob or outside forces.
He can also be villainous at moments such as manipulating SpongeBob and Patrick to do stuff for him due to their stupidity and ignorance. However, his plans usually backfire.
Despite all of his negative traits, Squidward is not a complete downer. He can be compassionate at times and is willing to step up and fix his problems and stand up for others. One good example of this is in "Pizza Delivery" where the fish yells at SpongeBob after forgetting his drink and then confronts him by throwing the pizza box in his face. In "April Fools", he apologizes to SpongeBob after playing a prank on him which caused him great pain and burst into tears.
Relationships[]
Spongebob[]
SpongeBob and Squidward rarely get along as Squidward's cannot stand SpongeBob's foolish, loud, and joyous side. He tries his best efforts to avoid SpongeBob but this hardly ever works, making their relationship one-sided. SpongeBob sees the grump octopus as his best friends. However, their relationship can be quite confusing as well. At times, Squidward occasionally helps SpongeBob whenever he is down or in danger. There are other moments in the show where he expresses his feelings for SpongeBob and considers him a true friend. However, none of these last of long as Squidward's hatred towards SpongeBob always revert. The first time Squidward showed kindness to Spongebob was in Pizza Delivery when Squidward slammed the pizza into the angry customer's face when he upset Spongebob. In "SpongeBob meats the Strangler" Squidward admits to SpongeBob that he aways somewhat liked him when they were just about to get killed by the Strangler, only for SpongeBob to say that "he used Squidward's clarinet to unclog his toilet".
Mr. Krabs[]
Squidward and Mr.Krabs are known for having a bitter relationship. Unlike SpongeBob, Squidward's maturity allows him to be fully aware of his boss's manipulative behavior. On the other hand, Mr.Krabs has little tolerance for Squidward's sarcasm and ill-mannered behavior. This causes the two to quarrel a lot. Their relationship has only worsened throughout seasons as in some episodes Squidward is not afraid of quitting the business. Very rarely, the two are seen getting along. This usually happens when the two are on the same page. In "Help Wanted" both agree that someone like SpongeBob wouldn't be capable of working at the Krusty Krab. In "Born Again Krabs", Squidward called out on Mr. krabs for selling over SpongeBob to the Flying Dutchman.
Patrick[]
Patrick's relationship with Squidward is on par with SpongeBob as he too cannot stand the starfish's stupidity and immature behavior. But just like SpongeBob, their relationship is unusual as well. There are some moments where Squidward considers Patrick to be less irritating than SpongeBob and vice versa. However, it is safe to say that Patrick and Squidward's relationships feel more one-sided than SpongeBob. Squidward tends to be more hostile towards Patrick thanks to his stupidity and Patrick's lack of intelligence and lack of self-control causes him to get hurt in many situations. Even though Patrick is the most dim-witted person in the show, he is more aware of Squidward's attitude than SpongeBob, and is far more likely to act rude towards him and decets his sarcasm far more often.
Plankton[]
With Mr.Krabs trying to defend the secret formula from Plankton, Squidward is one of Plankton's enemies. However, they barely interact with each other compared to Mr.Krabs and SpongeBob. However, in episodes "Chum Fricasse" and "Sweet and Sour Squid" they teamed up together to destroy Mr.Krab's business but this only happens when Squidward decides to quit the Krusty Krab. In the end, Squidward and Plankton remain enemies. In Planktons debut epsdioe "PLANKTON!", he (under Spongebob's control) called Squidward "a mediocre clarinet player".
Sandy[]
While Squidward and Sandy barely interact, Sandy is the only main character that Squidward doesn't have any problem with. The first time they spoke to each other was in "Scardey Pants" whey they talked on their Halloween costumes.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Despite being the tritagonist, Squidward appears in more episodes than Patrick (the deuteragonist).
- In "Help Wanted," Squidward's skin color is PMS 332, but he became PMS 333 for every episode after.
- "The Paper" is the first episode where Squidward is seen shirtless.
- SpongeBob is seen imitating Squidward in "Ripped Pants," "Opposite Day," "I Had an Accident," "Gone," "Mimic Madness," "CopyBob DittoPants," "The Getaway," and "SpongeBob's Bad Habit."
- He is acrophobic/afraid of heights in "Are You Happy Now?," but in "No Hat for Pat," he is not when he is on the diving board with Patrick.
- Squidward sometimes uses a recumbent cycle for transport, such as in "Choir Boys." This alludes to his voice actor, Rodger Bumpass, who also owns a recumbent cycle.
- Squidward is claustrophobic, as revealed in the episode "Wishing You Well."
- 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 PMS 333.
- 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 October 2007, 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.
- In "Feral Friends," it is revealed that Squidward is allergic to nuts.
- Is also revealed that Squidward is allergic to Seaberry Pie ("Restraining SpongeBob") and Snails ("Sanctuary!").
- Squidward appeared or was mentioned in every episode between 21 and 28. Ironically, he did not appear for six episodes from the 29 to 31 duo.
- Squidward often breaks the fourth wall by referencing 11 minutes, the usual length of a SpongeBob SquarePants episode.
- 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' 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.
- At the Krusty Krab, Squidward sometimes has different jobs from his regular cashier job, usually replacing SpongeBob as fry cook when he is absent.
- 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 the episodes "Employee of the Month," "Bubble Buddy," "Breath of Fresh Squidward," "The Good Krabby Name," and "Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!," Squidward can successfully cook Krabby Patties. However, he does it unprofessionally in "Pickles," "Hooky," and "The Algae's Always Greener."
- In some episodes, Squidward reads magazines during his job.
- In the French dub, Squidward's first name has been changed to "Carlo."
- In Japanese, Squidward's name has been changed to "Ikarudo Tentacles" (イカルド・テンタクルズ, Hepburn: Ikarudo Tentakuruzu). Ikarudo is a portmanteau of ika (the Japanese word for "squid") and the presumably technical romanization of "Squidward" (su-ku-i-do-wa-ru-do).
- Squidward is allergic to seaberries, snail slime, nuts, soda, and pets.
- It is revealed in "The Fish Bowl" that Squidward's favorite food is ice cream.
- Squidward reveals that he has a father in "Krab Borg," although his father has never been seen in the series.
His father appears in the book Hooray for Dads!, where he is shown to have a similar personality to his son.
- In the audio commentary for "Karate Choppers" and The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Squidward is referred to as Squidward J. Tentacles by his voice actor, Rodger Bumpass.
- In the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, Tony Stark insults Ebony Maw by calling him "Squidward."
- 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."
- He is the first SpongeBob character to appear in a flash animation in the short Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show short.
- The Book of Silly Stuff lists Squidward's middle name as Quincy.
- Squidward is shown to be reading numerous magazines, each episode has Squidward reading a different magazine.
- In Spain and Latin America, his name is "Calamardo." That is because in Spanish "squid" is "calamar" and "Edward" is "Eduardo."
- In the episode "SpongeBob's Bad Habit," it is revealed that Squidward has a nail-biting problem.
When Squidward blushes, his nose also has a red tint like his cheeks.
- In the episode "Are You Happy Now?," it is revealed that Squidward owns a fax machine.
- In the episode "Jolly Lodgers," it is revealed that Squidward likes conga music.
- Google bought the domain "squidward.com," and to this day, it redirects to google.com.
- According to the series pitch bible, Squidward was originally going to play the oboe, instead of the clarinet.
- Squidward's voice actor, Rodger Bumpass, is more than 10 years older than SpongeBob's voice actor, Tom Kenny.
- In a 2002 promo, Squidward joked about being the new host of Blue's Clues before Joe responds with "Squidward, stop telling people that."
- In the episode "Drive Thru," it is revealed that Squidward never went to college.
- In the movie Sponge Out of Water, it is canonically known that Squidward now has rock hard abs as given by SpongeBob.
- Squidward has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (along with Yogi Bear and Samurai Jack) in the Disney+ film Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers.
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