Squidward Tentacles

Squidward Tentacles is a protagonist and a member of The New Action Squad.

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Squidward J. Q. Tentacles was born to Jeff and Mrs. Tentacles.

His father raised him right and loved him very much.

When he was a kid, Squidward was enrolled in the Bikini Bottom School.

During his childhood, he always had to sit near the garbage cans at lunch, as he wasn't known as a friend by many people. As a teenager, he was rivals with his band classmate Squilliam Fancyson.

In 1998 or January 1999, he became part of the Krusty Krab along with Jim. On the day Jim quit, Squidward spoke with him and instantly lost his long blonde hair, much to his dismay. Sometime later, he worked with a fry cook whose name has yet to be revealed. One day, Squidward was gardening when suddenly, a pineapple from a boat above fell on him and destroyed his garden while crushing him. A sponge named SpongeBob SquarePants then moved into the pineapple and Squidward has been grumpy ever since then.

At one point, he tried to move out of his house out of intolerance for his neighbors, but the real estate agent refused to sell his home on account of SpongeBob and Patrick stealing his identity and deceiving her.

At one point, he moved out of Bikini Bottom and into Tentacle Acres, a town filled with his peers, other octopuses who share his tastes and outlook on life. Here, he was forced to face how boring and oppressive his desired lifestyle is, and he was able to ultimately break free of its bonds with a few inspired silliness.

In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V," it is implied that Squidward at one point had a significant other when he remembered the good times he had at Make-Out Reef.

In "Love That Squid," it revealed that he has not dated for a long time before Squilvia came into his life.

Outside of Bikini Bottom, he is also a member of The New Action Squad. He has grown a sense of sympathy and kindness since.

## **APPEARANCE**

Squidward is a light turquoise octopus with purple suction cups at the end of his tentacles. He has six limbs in total, two being arms, and four being legs, which tend to make the shape of a plus sign when he stands in place. Whenever he walks, his suction cups stick to the floor, meaning that he walks with a distinct squelching noise. Squidward has a large cranium with eight spots on the top of it. In the episode "The Original Fry Cook," it is shown that he had long blonde hair when he was young, but lost it all. He also has a nasal voice, a skinny body, a big droopy nose, a wide mouth, and yellow eyes with rectangular maroon irises. When he laughs, his nose appears to deflate and inflate repeatedly (in earlier episodes, this was matched with a sound effect.) He wears a brown polo shirt.

His color has changed slightly throughout the series. While he is shown to be bluish turquoise in earlier episodes (most noticeable in "Help Wanted"), he changes to a lighter shade in later episodes.

## **PERSONALITY**

Squidward is rude, stubborn, snobby, grumpy, bad-tempered, egotistical, miserable, sarcastic, apathetic, pessimistic, hypocritical, and sometimes sadistic. He views the world in such a negative light that he is rarely seen greeting anyone with a smile. He loathes his job at the Krusty Krab and is often seen sleeping or reading on the job instead of working. Despite his 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. Squidward sees himself as misunderstood and unappreciated, blaming society for his failures.

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, Nat Peterson, Patrick Star, Mr. Krabs, Squilliam Fancyson, and even the puppet Big Nose. 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. 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." 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.

## **TRIVIA**

* In "Help Wanted," Squidward's skin color is light turquoise, but he became a bit of a darker turquoise for every episode after.
* "The Paper" is the first episode where Squidward is seen shirtless.
* SpongeBob is seen imitating Squidward in "Opposite Day, "Gone," "Mimic Madness," and "SpongeBob's Bad Habit."
* It is implied that his pessimistic personality is a racial trait. However, he ultimately didn’t enjoy living in Squidville.
* 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 turquoise.
* 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.
* 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.