The Chum Bucket

The Chum Bucket is the restaurant owned by Sheldon and Karen Plankton in SpongeBob SquarePants. The Chum Bucket is incredibly unpopular, and its lack of business is due primarily to the good food sold at the Krusty Krab and the awful and disgusting food sold at the Chum Bucket.
To increase the restaurant's business, Plankton and Karen are constantly trying to steal the "secret recipe" for the Krusty Krab's popular Krabby Patty burger. They always fail, except in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, when Karen gives Plankton the first-ever successful plan to steal the secret formula.
Although both Plankton and Karen operate the restaurant, episodes such as "Krabby Road" and "Plankton Gets the Boot" show that Karen is the one in charge of the building. She has used her authority to kick Plankton out of the Chum Bucket on several occasions.
== Description ==
It is located directly across the street from the Krusty Krab, which is far more successful than the Chum Bucket. It is part of "Sheldon Plankton Enterprises, a division of No Fun Incorporated." The Chum Bucket's lack of business is not just because of the good food served at the Krusty Krab, but the result of awful and potentially poisonous food served at the restaurant.
=== Exterior ===
The restaurant looks like a bucket with a giant blue glove holding on to the handle of it. Double doors are placed at the front of the structure. The design of the doors is similar to the way doors in hospitals and intelligence buildings are designed. It also has a drive-thru, as seen in the episode "Komputer Overload."
=== Interior ===
The Chum Bucket features a cafeteria, where food is ordered and eaten. A door in the cafeteria leads to the lab room in which Plankton has his pet Labrador retriever on a computer screen. From here, the doors lead to the actual laboratory, which is labeled as the "kitchen" from the outside. The laboratory is where Karen's wall form is situated. It is the main living quarters and the most commonly-seen area of the Chum Bucket. It is also where Plankton does his evil experiments and builds his inventions.
In Battle for Bikini Bottom and Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated, it is suggested that the Chum Bucket may have a much larger laboratory than what is on the surface. Plankton also has an office, where he sleeps and writes his evil plans to steal the Krabby Patty formula from Mr. Krabs. As revealed in the episode "Evil Spatula," Plankton has a room filled with different spatulas.
In "One Coarse Meal," Plankton sleeps on a block of metal with a blanket. However, Plankton and Karen are later shown to have an entire bedroom in "Bottle Burglars" and "Gary & Spot." They sleep in two matching twin beds with purple blankets on them. There are photos of ballet dancers on the wall behind them.
In "Komputer Overload," the Chum Bucket is revealed to have a hallway with a door on the right side and a water fountain on the left side.
In a deleted scene of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, the Chum Bucket's living room was going to be revealed. It features the same metallic walls as the rest of the restaurant, but Karen designed it to be much homier and welcoming. It has floral curtains on the windows, a purple plush carpet, a coffee table with a vase of flowers on top, and a comfy green couch. There are also framed photos of Karen and Plankton. The room did not end up appearing, but its design was recycled into their bedroom.
==Food/Drinks==
All of the food served at the Chum Bucket is made of chum (chopped fish used as fishing bait), where the name of the restaurant comes from. Most items on the restaurant's menu begin with the word "chum" (e.g. chumbalaya instead of jambalaya).
===Menu===
*Chum Burger
*Chum Fries
*Chum Shake
*Chum on a Stick
*Chumbalaya
*Chum Chili
*Chum Pie
*Chum Stir Fry
*Chummy Joes
*Spicy Chum Surprise
*Chum Cherry Blast
*Bucket Bubbler
*Chum Nuggets
*Chum Bucket Supreme
*Chum Yum!
*Chum Puddle
*Chum Loaf
*Chum Balls
*Chummy Patties
*Crispity Crunchities
*Chum Fricassee
*Raspberry Iced Tea
*Bran Muffin
*Prune Danish
==Established==
Plankton first opened the Chum Bucket after arch-rival Eugene Krabs discovered the Krabby Patty secret recipe and converted an ailing nursing home into a popular undersea burger joint that it is today. It is not known why he opened his restaurant following these significant events, however, judging by his evil ways, it is presumed that Plankton wanted to rule the world and wanted to do this by stealing and selling the Krabby Patties, therefore bringing lots of people into the restaurant and ultimately ruling the world (as depicted in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie).
Another theory was that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were once college roommates and that Krabs accidentally squished Plankton constantly (according to a two-page comic strip titled Plankton: The College Years printed in "Nickelodeon Magazine Presents the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie"). It is estimated that Plankton thought that his future enemy was trying to kill him and due to Krabs' greediness and advantages over Plankton (particularly when he discovered the Krabby Patty secret formula and decided to sell it), Plankton's jealousy of Krabs only grew stronger and when The Krusty Krab first came into being, The Chum Bucket was somehow built and opened by Plankton, so that he could start stealing the secret formula which Krabs refused to give away and soon start an ever-lasting rivalry between the two restaurants. This may be the reason why he hates his arch-rival so much and why he constantly reminds him that "he went to college". It is unknown where Plankton had lived before his restaurant first opened.
==Past employees==
*SpongeBob SquarePants - recruited from The Krusty Krab after Mr. Krabs lost a card game to Plankton. He was later returned to the rival restaurant after SpongeBob became too much for Plankton.
*Patrick Star - hired by Plankton five minutes before the Fry Cook Games after a dispute with SpongeBob. He abandoned the job at the end of the event after SpongeBob and Patrick both found out that they really cared about each other.
*Stanley SquarePants - A cousin of SpongeBob's that screws up everything he touches that was hired by Plankton to work at the Chum Bucket.
==Customers==
The Chum Bucket usually barely has any customers due to Plankton's evil ways and because the Krusty Krab is much better than his ailing restaurant. Who knows how Plankton keeps his restaurant open, in which it is also his residence with his computer wife, Karen.
In the beginning of the episode "Enemy In-Law", a giant Plankton-shaped robot named Chum-Bot kidnaps citizens of Bikini Bottom and deposits them into the Chum Bucket so that Plankton can sell them his food.
However, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie was the only time that The Chum Bucket was highly popular, after a series of incidents planned and caused by him which involved the near-execution of Mr. Krabs by King Neptune left Plankton to steal the Krabby Patty secret formula and sell Krabby Patties, therefore filling the void left by The Krusty Krab and even selling bucket helmets, only to turn them into his slaves as soon as Squidward exposed his evil plans. It is not known what happened to his restaurant after he was arrested.
==Opening hours==
The Chum Bucket opens 8am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and closed on Sunday (the same as the Krusty Krab) with the exception of the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Fear of a Krabby Patty" when the restaurant opened 23 hours a day, resulting in its major competitor to stay open for 24 hours.
==Appearances in video games==
*The SpongeBob joystick game by Jakks Pacific has a Chum Bucket minigame.
*In SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, SpongeBob battles robotic versions of himself and Plankton in the Chum Bucket.
*There are three mini-games in SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! that take place at the Chum Bucket: "Machine Meltdown", "Surface Tension", and "Charge!"
==Videos==
Chum-pocalypse! 💥 Every Time The Chum Bucket Was Destroyed - SpongeBob
Chum Bucket Timeline! 🪣 Moments That Changed The Chum Bucket Forever - SpongeBob
==External links==
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Category:SpongeBob SquarePants locations
Category:Restaurants