Plankton

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Sheldon J. Plankton, more commonly known as Plankton, is one of the ten main characters of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise. He is a planktonic copepod who runs the Chum Bucket restaurant alongside Karen, a waterproof computer who is his sidekick and wife. The Chum Bucket is highly unpopular in Bikini Bottom because it serves chum, a type of bait made from fish meat.

Both Plankton and Karen are the two main villains of the franchise. There are also several episodes in which Plankton acts as a sympathetic anti-hero. Plankton despises his rival, Mr. Krabs, for running a successful restaurant because his own business rarely gets any customers. His main goal is to steal Krabs' secret formula for Krabby Patties and running Mr. Krabs out of business. Karen gives him a variety of plans to steal it, but their efforts always end up failing in the process.

Plankton is voiced by Mr. Lawrence, one of the show's staff writers. Stephen Hillenburg originally planned for Plankton and Karen to be one-time characters, but Lawrence wrote them into many episodes and proved that they could work as the main villains. Both Plankton and Karen first appear in the episode "Plankton!"

Plankton succeeds at stealing the formula in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, but his goal of world domination is eventually thwarted by SpongeBob. In "Friend or Foe," it is revealed that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were best friends during their childhood, but a dispute over the Krabby Patty secret formula ended their friendship for real, meaning that Plankton had a part in the creation of the Krabby Patty.

## Description

Plankton is, as his name suggests, a tiny deep green planktonic copepod who can fit in the palm of one's hand. He has some stubby appendages and one yellow eye with a red pupil. He has two long, skinny antennae with four small green spikes sticking out along them. He also has one black thick eyebrow. He has no ears or nose. In some episodes, he is shown without his skin, like in "Plankton's Regular" and "Single Cell Anniversary." His size constantly changes: in some episodes, he's the size of a Krabby Patty, meanwhile, in others, he can perfectly hide in a Krabby Patty. He also has no fingers or toes, but he can sprout four.

## Biography

Sheldon J. Plankton was born on the same day Mr. Krabs. His parents were Mama]] and Gordon Plankton, and he is the grandson of Lily Plankton and Grand Dad Plankton.

Plankton and Krabs were considered outcasts by other kids, most notably a school group led by Incidental K1 because Krabs was poor and Plankton was already very intelligent, which earned him the image of a nerd. When they discovered that money could bring them out of their poverty, they decided to make money selling hamburger patties and set up a mini-restaurant in the local dump.

At first, their burgers were not successful; the first of their patties were tried by Old Man Jenkins, who was knocked out by the contaminated burger. Plankton started complaining about how Jenkins had been old and not able to handle the patty. Offended by this, Krabs tried to take the recipe from Plankton to improve upon. Plankton wanted to do this himself and both he and Krabs argued, but he only ended up with the corner of the recipe, which read: "And a pinch of chum."

Plankton stormed out of the restaurant and went to create his recipe, using only his memory, the corner of the recipe, and science. At school, Plankton tried to sell his chum burgers in a chum bucket and failed, while Krabs succeeded with his Krabby Patties, which he had created by accident when Plankton had forcefully slammed the door. Ingredients fell in the patty batter, thus creating the patty. Plankton later named his restaurant the Chum Bucket, after the secret ingredient of the original unsuccessful patty recipe. Mr. Krabs named his restaurant the Krusty Krab, after himself. He met a female sentient calculator named Karen and fell in love with her slowly turning her into a computer.

He would later become the chef of a summer camp named Camp Coral where Krabs was the chancellor of the camp. There he worked with Karen and he met for the first time SpongeBob SquarePants but, as seen in their first interaction in *Plankton!*, they apparently forgot about their encounters. He also tasted for the first time a Krabby Patty which showed him how delicious they are and made him decide to steal the formula.

At some point of his life he also married Karen and has an hipster outfit.

To this very day, Plankton has been single-mindedly obsessed with obtaining the Krabby Patty formula and running the Krusty Krab out of business. He often goes to incredible and quite ridiculous lengths to do so. In "SpongeBob's Last Stand]]," for example, he builds a massive highway that goes straight through Jellyfish Fields]] and over the Krusty Krab, leading right to his restaurant.

In "Dunces and Dragons]]," it is implied that the fight between the Plankton and Krabs families began centuries ago when Plankton's evil overlord ancestor, Planktonamor, was vanquished by a Krabby Patty. Plankton's other ancestor, Dead Eye Plankton]], who appears in "Pest of the West]]," terrorized Dead Eye Gulch. SpongeBob's ancestor, SpongeBuck SquarePants]], defeated him.

Even in the present day of the series, Eugene and Plankton are occasionally shown to get along somewhat, such as in "New Leaf]]" and "Best Frenemies]]," though these moments of mutuality tend not to last very long.

The major on Plankton's degree is Tank Driving and is seen driving a tank in "Teacher's Pests]]" as well.

Later, when Plankton was an adult, he married Karen. In "Girls' Night Out," Karen says that she and Plankton have been married for 26 years. Plankton is very ashamed of his first name, Sheldon, and gets embarrassed when Karen makes fun of it in "Plankton's Army." However, she calls him Sheldon in many other episodes and he does not seem to mind. It is revealed in "Walking the Plankton," that even though he's married to Karen, they never had a honeymoon.

In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, Plankton has exhausted all his diabolical plans and was forced to resort to "Plan Z." As per its instructions, he stole the crown]] of King Neptune and sold it to Shell City, framing Mr. Krabs for the deed. With Krabs cryogenically frozen by Neptune, Plankton took the Krabby Patty secret formula and became highly successful from producing the burgers. Using mind-controlling bucket helmets, Plankton turned Bikini Bottom into a Stalin-like dystopia named Planktopolis, where everyone serves the minuscule menace. However, he was suddenly stopped by SpongeBob and Patrick, who destroyed the mind-controlling helmets, thus freeing the Bikini Bottomites, and returned Neptune's crown to its rightful owner. Plankton was left crippled from being stepped on by the townsfolk, who incarcerated him in the Institution for the Criminally Tiny.

## Personality

Plankton is egotistical, aggressive, and power-hungry. He is very jealous of Krabs and his success. His only goal throughout the series is stealing the Krabby Patty secret formula and running Krabs out of business, a desire that has led him to destroy The Krusty Krab on more than one occasion. He is manipulative, as he manipulated SpongeBob into becoming "assertive" in "Walking Small" to drive everyone in the beach away so he could build another Chum Bucket. He also manipulated SpongeBob in "F.U.N." by pretending to be his friend to get a Krabby Patty. He is also deceitful, as he is always trying to convince SpongeBob and the others that he can be trusted, only to use their goodwill to get closer to the formula. Either way, he's too busy plotting revenge to interact with most of the characters. Being a villain might be lonely, but Plankton seems to like it that way.

He also has an obsession with "world domination" as he is always mentioning that he will rule the world once he steals the Krabby Patty formula and becomes more successful. He teamed up with Man Ray in "Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!" and claimed he will rule the world with him, and in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie he enslaved the entirety of Bikini Bottom and created a dictatorship.

He has a minuscule size and overcompensates by being evil and manipulative. He has tried everything from constructing an evil robot to hiring an assassin to kill SpongeBob and Patrick, but all his plans end up failing in the long run.

Plankton's restaurant, the Chum Bucket, has always been extremely unsuccessful, not only because of competition from the Krusty Krab and Plankton's rude and cruel treatment of the people in Bikini Bottom but also due to the extremely poor quality of the food and Plankton's constant failure to clean the place up. As its name implies, the Chum Bucket serves chum-based foods, all of which are shown to taste terrible. In "Plankton's Regular," the Krusty Krab adds chum to its menu in an attempt to steal Plankton's single regular customer.

The customer is disgusted by their chum and says that it is the second foulest thing he has ever tasted. This implies that chum is inherently disgusting, and cannot be made to taste good, although this is shown to be false in the episodes "Greasy Buffoons" and "Chum Fricassee." In the former, Plankton uses excess grease from the Krusty Krab's grease trap that was dumped near the Chum Bucket, to make his sales skyrocket, a goal which he succeeded in. However, his business is lost when the health inspector comes to investigate both the Krusty Krab and the Chum Bucket due to the grease trend.

It should be noted that in real life, chum is made of grounded-up fish parts that are inedible to humans, such as heads and guts, and is used as bait for sharks and similar creatures. This would mean that Plankton is killing fish, or at least collecting dead fish, and serving their remains to other fish, thus promoting cannibalism. This has only ever been touched upon in "The Krabby Kronicle," where SpongeBob prints a story claiming this. However, SpongeBob was being tricked by Mr. Krabs into printing absurd lies to appeal to customers, so this story was supposedly false. As mentioned in the episode "Spongicus," Plankton uses many odd things to spice up his chum.

Plankton has no regular employees, and runs the Chum Bucket entirely by himself, although he spends most of his time in his laboratory, due to having no customers. Plankton runs the restaurant only when he has potential customers, but is shown to be a failure fast-food owner. Also, when he does have customers, he uses artificially intelligent machines to cover the other positions.

Plankton is also highly intelligent and is one of, if not, the smartest citizen in Bikini Bottom, with his intellect being on par with only Sandy. Unfortunately, he often shows himself to be short-sighted and impulsive, and often lacking common sense. This is shown when all his plans of obtaining the Krabby Patty formula often fail, usually due to oversights, and he doesn't think beforehand of what might go wrong. He also seems unaware the biggest barrier to his success is his insistence on serving food nobody wants to eat, rather than serving something appetizing.

Despite being a villain, Plankton is shown to have a soft side, as he seems to care deeply about his wife Karen, his pet Spot and his son Chip. In "Plankton's Pet," Plankton adopts an amoeba which he named "Spot" and takes the time to train it, take care of it, etc. and was genuinely sad when it ran away, only to be reunited with it later thanks to SpongeBob.

Plankton has an expansive history of deception and committing misdemeanors, all while attempting to obtain the Krabby Patty recipe and do away with Mr. Krabs' business. He has been arrested five times: in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, "Krabby Road," "Sweet and Sour Squid," "Fiasco!," and "Call the Cops." Plankton's personality traits and actions that came from those include, but are not limited to:

* **Deception:** Plankton has engaged in many unusual acts of kindness in the name of personal gain:
	+ In "F.U.N.," Plankton pretends to be in a friendship with SpongeBob to obtain the formula from him.
	+ In "Walking Small]]," Plankton deceives SpongeBob in believing that berating the beach attendants is done with kindness so he can make an unauthorized development to the property.
	+ In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie]]*, Plankton acts disloyally to the king of Bikini Bottom by stealing his crown and eventually enslaving him with a mind-control helmet. Additionally, he betrays the town of Bikini Bottom by renaming it to suit himself]] and making the city revolve purely around him.
	+ In "Krabs vs. Plankton]]," Plankton fakes his injuries in an attempt to sue Krabs.
	+ In "New Leaf]]," Plankton claims he's changed his ways and showcases that by turning the Chum Bucket into a gift shop, but this was just a way of deceiving Mr. Krabs.
	+ In "Krabby Road]]," Plankton forms a band with SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward with the intent to obtain the secret formula.
	+ Plankton has used many people's identities to steal the formula, namely, Krabs in "Imitation Krabs]]," Sandy in "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy]]," SpongeBob's great grandmother in "Gramma's Secret Recipe]]," and Gary in "Shellback Shenanigans]]."
	+ As a means of deception, Plankton has posed under many job titles without having the license required or official permission to hold such occupations; he impersonates a therapist in "Fear of a Krabby Patty]]," a salesman in "Shellback Shenanigans]]," and a Girl Scout in "Pineapple Invasion]]."
	+ Plankton has disguised himself under many fake identities to deceive others and obtain the formula; he uses the identity "robot game show host]]" in "Imitation Krabs]]" and "Cashina Krabs]]" in "Married to Money]]."
* **Taking advantage of others:** When Plankton enslaves Bikini Bottom in the first movie, he forces Gary to pull a several-ton block of stone. In "Walking Small]]" Plankton uses SpongeBob for unauthorized land development and manipulates him into following his orders, deceiving him in believing that they are acts of kindness.
* **The need for power:** As well as wanting the Krabby Patty secret formula, Plankton had a personality based on wanting power over others.
	+ In the video game *Battle for Bikini Bottom]]*, Plankton creates a spade of robots to vandalize and threaten Bikini Bottom to increase his possibility of stealing the formula.
	+ In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, Plankton brainwashes the citizens into worshiping him; once SpongeBob frees all the citizens from the bucket helmets, the police discover his motive and deal with him.
	+ In "Chum Caverns]]," Plankton enslaves a group of cave dwellers.
	+ In "Jailbreak!" his chum is used by criminals as knockout gas and disguises, both for robbery.
	+ In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, to prevent SpongeBob and Patrick from making it to Shell City, Plankton hires an agent by the name of Dennis to deal with the duo. Dennis is eventually hit by a boat.
	+ In "Spongicus]]," Plankton arranges for Patrick to be eaten by a group of lions for the entertainment of others.
* **Getting what he wants no matter what:** Plankton breaks into SpongeBob's house in "Plankton!]]" to enter his brain. He also invades Patrick's house in "Salsa Imbecilicus]]" to get a copy of his DNA.
	+ Plankton escapes from jail in the episodes "Krabby Road]]" and "Jailbreak!]]"
	+ In *The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, he finally gets a hold on the Krabby Patty formula.
	+ He also steals Sandy's fur pelt in "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy" and—albeit unintentionally—a piece of famous art in "Fiasco!," the latter instance of which lands him in jail with Squidward.
* **Cutting corners:** Plankton has poisoned his customers with his chum in numerous episodes, such as in "Plankton's Regular]]," "Spongicus]]," and "For Here or to Go]]."
	+ In "Friend or Foe]]" he and Mr. Krabs poisoned Old Man Jenkins]] with their Plabs Burger]].
* **Disturbing the peace:** In "Sweet and Sour Squid]]," Plankton is arrested for playing clarinet that caused a disturbance throughout the town, even though it is Squidward's fault.

## Family

Plankton is married to Karen, a waterproof supercomputer. Plankton built Karen himself out of a calculator and a mass of wires. She was originally a simple security system, as revealed in "Friend or Foe," but has become more advanced as Plankton upgrades her and his other inventions with new technology. Karen lives in the Chum Bucket laboratory and is the source of his evil plans to steal the Krabby Patty formula.

In season 12, Plankton and Karen finally have a child: a son named Chip Plankton II. Plankton initially wants nothing to do with Chip, but he changes his mind after Chip saves him. Chip later grows up to serve as an ATM at the bank. His grandmother Lily Plankton appears in "Gramma's Secret Recipe" and "Grandmum's the Word." Through an experiment, Plankton is also a DNA donor of the combined clone PlanKrab. Being a microscopic organism, Plankton's biological family numbers are in the thousands. In "Plankton's Army," he recruits his entire family to help him steal the formula, thinking them all to be criminal masterminds like himself. However, much to his surprise, his family consists entirely of uneducated, red-necked hillbillies. These relatives include, but are not limited to: Clem, Zeke, Rufus, Jeke, Billy Bob, Billy Jim, Billy Billy Bo Billy Banana Fana Fo Filly, Doug Plankton, Enis, and Rainchild, who are the only ones named.

Plankton has two known ancestors. One is the evil wizard Planktonamor, who lived during the medieval times and appears in "Dunces and Dragons." Another is Dead Eye Plankton, a wealthy citizen who attempted a hostile takeover of Bikini Gulch but was defeated by Sheriff SpongeBuck SquarePants. Dead Eye Plankton lived during the Wild-West era and appears in "Pest of the West."

## Role in the Series

Plankton reprises his role in Punch Time Exploders and the SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. However, due to his status as a Lord in the Three Lords Alliance, he was broken out of the Institution for the Criminally Tiny, but was demoted to Lord Candidate to make way for the Evil Syndicate.

## Role Outside the Series

### Masked Toon Singer

Before his official appearance, this version of Plankton used a robot called the Mask-o-tron 2000 to infiltrate HeavyHitterConnor's version of The Masked Toon Singer during its second season, but was quickly found out and disqualified.

#### Clues

 His future performances would've contained other clues, similar to the "wrong side" in Operation: Krabby Patty.