Sheldon Plankton

Sheldon Plankton is a protagonist and a member of The New Action Squad.

## **BIOGRAPHY**

Sheldon J. Plankton was born on the same day as 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 Billy 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 chumburgers 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.

Outside of Bikini Bottom, he is also a member of The New Action Squad. He used to be a villain, but after learning the true ways of being good, he has since then decided to continue being a hero.

## **APPEARANCE**

Plankton is, as his name suggests, a tiny 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.

## **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 one episode 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.

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.

## **TRIVIA**

* According to "Bottle Burglars," Plankton has a dimple on his chin.
* Though he does not have a visible nose, he is capable of smelling.
* In "It Came From Goo Lagoon," Plankton is called a "creepy bacteria" by Sandy.
* Although absent from the final product, Plankton appears in a deleted scene from "Sandy's Rocket," where he is captured by SpongeBob and Patrick when trying to sneak into the Krusty Krab. In a chapter book adaptation of the episode, which was based on the original script, this scene is used. [1]
* There is a running gag in many episodes he appears in where he is squished by a person.
	+ Another running gag is him being projected through the air back to the Chum Bucket, typically by Mr. Krabs, often screaming a sentence or a prolonged word meanwhile.
* It is revealed in "Single Cell Anniversary" that Plankton is not green; his outfit is. Karen removes the green and the viewer sees an underwear-clad pink Plankton embarrassed by his nakedness. He also has a rack with identical green suits.
* In "Fear of a Krabby Patty," it is revealed that Plankton has a phone.
* Plankton and Mr. Krabs were born exactly on the same date, as revealed in "Friend or Foe."
* Plankton appears in the United Plankton Pictures logo, which is typically displayed at the end of an episode's credits.
* He is called "Shelly" by Mr. Krabs in "SpongeBob's Last Stand."
* Plankton is college-educated, which has become a running gag throughout the series, as he would usually shout "I went to college!"
* Plankton is afraid of whales in "One Coarse Meal" and "The Ghost of Plankton", but not in "The Algae's Always Greener," "Jailbreak!," or "Married to Money."
* Out of his whole family, he is the smartest, as the rest of his family is shown to be clueless and unintelligent.
* Plankton's family is made up of hillbillies, and he appears to have forgotten their stereotype after all these years, as in their episode, he believes they are "criminal masterminds" but when he sees them, he is shocked and says "I've been away from home longer than I thought."