Squidward Tentacles

**Squidward** **J.** **Q.** **Tentacles** (born October 9) is one of the ten main characters of the *SpongeBob SquarePants* franchise. He is SpongeBob and Patrick's grumpy neighbor and the former's coworker at the Krusty Krab who lives in an Easter Island head. He is a mostly unpleasant artist and musician, and his favorite hobbies are painting self-portraits and playing the clarinet.

Even though Squidward's name contains the word "squid," he is an octopus, not a squid, as confirmed in many interviews and episodes. He has the traits of an octopus—a round bulbous head and rectangular pupils—while a squid has a long triangular head and circular eyes, unlike Squidward. Squids have *ten* limbs, many more than Squidward. The series' animators believed that giving him eight limbs would be too burdensome and difficult to animate, which is why he is usually depicted with six limbs. Notable exceptions are brief scenes in "Naughty Nautical Neighbors" and "Sold!," in which he has a full set of eight legs. In "Feral Friends," his exact species is identified: a giant Pacific octopus.

He is a very cynical, selfish, sassy, introverted (as he stated himself), and a stick-in-the-mud individual. He works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab, a job he usually hates, most likely due to SpongeBob's annoyance and Mr. Krabs' cheapness. Squidward is frequently annoyed by SpongeBob's loud and cheerful behavior, but he sometimes sticks up for SpongeBob and sees him as a friend. He can also have a supportive side for his boss on occasion. Patrick also annoys him due to his stupidity and both Patrick and SpongeBob unknowingly annoy and trespass into his house.

## Background

Squidward is considered rude, sassy, introverted, unhappy, stubborn, snobby, grumpy, bad-tempered, egotistical, miserable, sarcastic, apathetic, pessimistic, hypocritical, and sometimes sadistic, but this can be explained by his work ethic. He views the world in such a negative light that he is rarely seen greeting anyone with a smile. He hates his job at the Krusty Krab and is often seen sleeping or reading on the job instead of working as he is continually lazy on the job. Despite his bad temper, he is still one of the most intelligent and educated characters. He has a cynical attitude, a grandiose sense of self, and sees others as uncivilized morons while failing to accept his shortcomings. He often believes that Patrick and SpongeBob are morons due to their annoying behavior. Squidward sees himself as misunderstood and unappreciated, blaming society for his failures. Often times his anger happens due to SpongeBob and Patrick annoying him even though they don't see how annoying they are. He is often a jerk due to this, though Squilliam is often even more of one than Squidward is.

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 or talented than he is, for example, Incidental 41, Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Squilliam Fancyson, and even the puppet Mini Squidward which SpongeBob created. 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. SpongeBob and Patrick would both fall for this lie until they find out that they still own their houses. 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 the 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”. who he doesn’t know that it is Patrick in disguise until the end of the episode. Also, 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 capable of playing the clarinet very well by providing a 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.

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 failure is shown to be due to his bad taste and arrogance, rather than a genuine lack of talent as he thinks he is a good artist. The entirety of his art centers on himself, apparently holding his very being to be an artistic wonder and never even considers 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", with Mr. Krab's responding "What A Baby".

Because of this, he is portrayed to be the failure of an artist. In "Out of the Picture" an art dealer mentions that none of Squidward's artwork will ever have any monetary value unless he was "Out of the picture.", in which Mr. Krabs takes literally and attempts to kill him. In "The Googly Artiste" When Squidward showed an art dealer one of his artistic creations, the art dealer was repulsed by it. In "Can You Spare a Dime?" When Squidward went homeless after quitting his job, he mentions that no one would take his paintings so he had to eat them. However, in "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost" he has shown to make good art in some artistic mediums, including wax-sculpting, pottery, and even paintings, but gets no recognition for them. Despite his lack of success, Squidward is tireless in his pursuit of artistic achievement. Squidward does have artistic talent, but he’s just too lazy and arrogant to practice.

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 just to humiliate him.

Given how Squidward is depicted as a loser in most regards, it is likely that his narcissism is a defense mechanism to make him feel as if he has some form of self-worth. Outwardly, he shows signs of modest success: he lives in a big, well-tended house, with no signs of slothfulness, and finds plenty of time to lead an active, involved life.

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 compared to SpongeBob who can't really do so with a boat due to his nervousness.

When he is at the Krusty Krab, he is a lazy, sloppy, somewhat incompetent employee who has an intense dislike of the restaurant and its management, which is best exemplified in the episode "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 who doesn't know how to cook behind a grill, 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 Granny 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 (how it happened) and lies to Mr. Krabs for the sole purpose of seeking sympathy and having an excuse to not work and to sleep on the job as revealed on the camera. 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 destroys 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, as he is too lazy to do so. 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 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 leech and consistently and deliberately ignores SpongeBob's hints for him to at least attempt to look for a new job and becomes very lazy refusing to get out of bed and even quit asking for favors for SpongeBob. 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 search for a better job, he begs for SpongeBob to help him get employed at the Krusty Krab Museum which Mr. Krabs denies. One 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 loud and irritating behaviors, which sometimes leads him to make plans to get him to stop, although sometimes, either as a result of his arrogance or carelessness, his plans backfire on him. This is also due to the fact that they often don’t see how annoying they are even when Squidward asks for piece and quiet. 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, though he would apologize at the end of the episode. 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 lawnmower 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 and they both fell for it hurting themselves for the game. In "Scavenger Pants," Squidward makes up a really difficult scavenger hunt in hopes of getting SpongeBob and Patrick harmed. In "Gary's Got Legs" and "Broken Alarm," Squidward is excited by the thought of SpongeBob's death.

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. In "No Nose Knows," he also happily helps Mr. Krabs in his instructions to destroy Patrick's nose.

## Artistic side

#### Leisure

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.

All of his artwork, from sculptures to paintings, depicts himself in a way, even repainting existing works to include his 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.

Squidward has appeared on television multiple times. His talk show, *Squidward Chat*, is quickly retooled by a producer into *Squidward's House Party*. Later on, his editorial *Everyone is Horrible* is canceled after the first minute and replaced with *Fun-Believable with Rube*. However, his house has been featured on a one-house special of *House Fancy*.

He has tried several things to reach the fame he desires: hosting a talent show, starting his astrology spin-off, forming a band, and so on, yet he cannot seem to get much of a following.

## Alter-egos

* Reflecto - "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy"
* Squidward's ghost - "Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost"
* The Flying Dutchman - "Scaredy Pants"
* Wolfgang Amadeus Tentacles - "Sleepy Time"
* Santa Claus - "Christmas Who?"
* Jen - "As Seen on TV"
* Captain Magma - "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V"
* SquidBob TentaclePants - "SquidBob TentaclePants"
* Smelly - "The Thing"
* New Squidward - "Breath of Fresh Squidward"
* Handsome Squidward - "The Two Faces of Squidward" and "Squidward's Sick Daze
* Normal Squidward - "Not Normal"
* Gerhard Fishtrap - "Sold!"
* Hedvig Fishtrap - "Sold!"
* Sour Note - *The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water*
* Doctor Negative - "Mermaid Pants" and "Appointment TV"
* King of Sports - "Sportz?"
* Um Tentacles - "Scavenger Pants"
* Squid the Horse - "Pat the Horse"
* Bunny Squidward - "Bunny Hunt"
* Squog - *The Cosmic Shake*
* Jelly Squidward - *The Cosmic Shake*
* Squid-O The World's Sadest Clown - "Big Top Flop"

## Trivia

* Squidward makes the second-most appearances in the show, even more than Patrick.
* 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 seafoam green.
* 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 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 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.
* 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."
* Squidward is allergic to snail slime, seaberries, nuts, soda,﻿[*citation needed*] 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," *The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie*, and *Behind the Scenes: The Voices of SpongeBob & Friends*, Squidward is referred to as Squidward J. Tentacles by his voice actor, Rodger Bumpass.
* 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.
* According to the series pitch bible, Squidward was originally going to play the oboe, instead of the clarinet.
* In the movie *Sponge Out of Water*, it is canonically known that Squidward now has rock hard abs as given by SpongeBob.
* In some episodes, there are cases where Squidward's house is shown, but Squidward himself is absent from the episode. It happens in some episodes like "Dumped" and "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve."
* Squidward is an introvert, as referenced in most episodes and directly mentioned in "Squid Plus One."