Squidward Tentacles

Squidward Tentacles
SpongeBob SquarePants character
File:Squidward.png
First appearance	"Help Wanted" (May 1, 1999)
Portrayed by	Rodger Bumpass Rokurō Naya (Japanese)
In-universe information
Species	Octopus
Occupation	Cashier at the Krusty Krab
Relatives	Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Tentacles Grandfather: Grandpa Tentacles Grandmother: Grandmama Tentacles (mostly used when Squidward says it) Cousin: Squeeze Ancestors: Squog Squidley Hopalong

Squidward Quincy Tentacles is a fictional character on the television cartoon series SpongeBob SquarePants. He is voiced by Rodger Bumpass. Squidward appears in 270 episodes of the series, second only to SpongeBob's 305.

Personality

Unlike most characters in the series, Squidward is generally grumpy, tactless, short-tempered, sarcastic, and narcissistic. He dislikes many things, including his consistently annoying neighbors SpongeBob and Patrick, his job at the Krusty Krab, and is constantly aloof towards the citizens of Bikini Bottom. He is very open about his dissatisfaction with his job, and has frequently displayed unprofessional behavior such as sleeping at his counter, failing to clean his workplace, and reading art magazines instead of attending to customers. Squidward enjoys playing his clarinet (at an elementary level with frequent missed notes and poor intonation, though Squidward considers himself a brilliant musical prodigy), modern dance, abstract art, relaxing, public radio, select television programs, and just about anything else that he considers "fancy". He does not like anyone, except his mother. In Truth or Square, it was revealed that Squidward was a happy and laid back person with a secret garden, but it changes when a pineapple falls over him and his garden, and SpongeBob bought the "house". The years of irritation with SpongeBob have turned Squidward into the sarcastic and grumpy character that he is now. However, he still employs a unique laugh that appears occasionally, with a strong accent on the second part of the syllable- "aHAH".

Although Squidward likes to consider himself as above the mundane and often immature activities of his peers, he has constantly exhibited an unhealthy obsession with and dedication to such activities when exposed to them. In the episode Just One Bite, for instance, it is revealed that he has never had a Krabby Patty. When he deigns to finally eat one, he discovers he actually enjoys them and proceeds to eat so many of them that he gains weight and explodes. In another episode, Idiot Box, he initially scoffs at Spongebob and Patrick's attempt to have fun just by playing in a cardboard box, but obsesses over how they are able to "make the box work" when he hears noises coming from inside the box. In yet another episode, Snowball Effect, he grudgingly participates in a snowball fight with Spongebob and Patrick, but becomes so engrossed in the game that he builds a huge snow fort and continues to throw snowballs long after his neighbors have gone inside.

Squidward was introduced in the series premiere of the show, as the cashier of the Krusty Krab restaurant. He has held this position for the entire series, and serves as the co-worker of SpongeBob, who is the establishment's fry cook. His home is a stone tiki head designed to look like the Moai found on Easter Island. The "eyes" of the tiki head consist of the house's only windows on the second floor. A running gag is that his house gets destroyed in nearly every episode that it has appeared in. He has sought more prestigious and lucrative careers in the arts but has largely failed, as his arch-rival, a similarly designed but much more successful cephalopod named "Squilliam Fancyson," regularly notes whenever he appears. Only in one episode of the series ("Band Geeks") does Squidward ever approach the level of success he desires, when he (much to his surprise) conducts a band composed of Bikini Bottom residents in a performance of "Sweet Victory" in front of a large crowd at the Bubble Bowl (an American football game), causing Squilliam to go into shock.

Character

Creation

The character of Squidward was designed with a large, bulbous head to emphasize the head shape of octopuses.

The basis for SpongeBob SquarePants was envisioned by Stephen Hillenburg in 1984 while teaching and studying marine biology at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, where he wrote the comic strip The Intertidal Zone, which starred various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters. He left the institute to become an animator in 1987, and later attended the California Institute of Arts in 1992. In the institute, he made his thesis film Wormholes (1992), which led to his hiring as a director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and executive producer of the series Rocko's Modern Life by creator Joe Murray. He started to develop the series in 1996 following Rocko's Modern Life's, and pitched the series to Nickelodeon in 1998 and was later green-lit for a first season.

Creator Stephen Hillenburg designed Squidward with a large, bulbous head to emphasize the head shape of octopuses, as well as that of his rather large ego.

Name

Although the character is named Squidward, there is dispute over whether he is an octopus or a squid due to conflicting statements between the show creator and Nickelodeon's official website. Creator Stephen Hillenburg named him as such since the name Octoward failed to "sound catchy", and animated him with six tentacles as opposed to eight since he found the latter made the character's animation "look bulky". The name, Squidward, is derived from the English name, Edward.

Appearance

Squidward is a light teal colored humanoid cephalopod with yellow eyes and red pupils. He has six arms, four of which are used as legs, and each arm has several blue suction cups on the end. Squidward also has a distinctively large 'nose' and a round, bald head. He is also the tallest of the main characters. He usually has no pants, similar to Donald Duck not wearing pants. He appears to have suction cups at the end of his tentacles and also He has a brown T-shirt.

Voice

The voice of Squidward is played by Rodger Bumpass. Squidward is known for his distinctive, repetitive laugh. Arthur Brown, author of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!, has compared Squidward's voice to that of Jack Benny's.

Family

For more information, see: or Tentacles Family

• Mama "Mrs" Tentacles - Mother
• Mr Tentacles - Father

Squidward's father has been explored in several episodes; in the episode "Krab Borg" (season three, 2002), he mentions a father; said character later makes an appearance in the book Hooray for Dads!, where he is shown to possess a personality similar to his son.

• Squeeze Tentacles - Cousin
• Squog - Ancestor
• Hopalong Tentacles - Ancestor
• Squidley Tentacles - great-great-great-great-great-great-great Uncle
• Grandma Tentacles - Grandma
• Grandpa Tentacles - Grandpa

See also

{{{inline}}}

• List of SpongeBob SquarePants characters

References

• Banks, Steven (September 24, 2004). SpongeBob Exposed! The Insider's Guide to SpongeBob SquarePants. Gregg Schigiel(Illustrator). New York City, New York: Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon. ISBN 978-0689868702. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
• Neuwirth, Allan (2003). Makin' Toons: Inside the Most Popular Animated TV Shows and Movies. Allworth Communications, Inc. pp. 50, 252–253. ISBN 1581152698.