Squidward Tentacles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| |
| General Information | |
| Gender: | Male |
|---|---|
| Color: | Pale Aquamarine |
| Eye Color: | Red |
| Species: | Octopus |
| Marital status: | Single |
| Aliases: | Squid, Squidwardier, Squiddy |
| Address: | 122 Conch Street, Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean |
| Occupation(s): | Head Cashier of The Krusty Krab Fry Cook of The Krusty Krab (Pickles, Hooky, The Algae's Always Greener) Briefly waiter at Krabby O'Mondays Manager of The Krusty Krab 2 (The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) |
| Family & Friends | |
| Family: | Mother (Mrs. Tentacles)(Seen in Fools in April, Krusty Towers, and Ghost Host Father (Mr. Tentacles) |
| Ancestors: | Squog Squidly (great-great-great-great- great-great-great-grandfather) |
| Pet(s): | Snellie (Short Time) |
| Friends: | SpongeBob SquarePants (Not real Friend) Patrick Star (Not real Friend) |
| Boss: | Eugene H. Krabs |
| Employees: | SpongeBob SquarePants (Squilliam Returns) Patrick Star (Squilliam Returns) Eugene H. Krabs (Squilliam Returns) |
| Enemies: | Squilliam Fancyson Sheldon J. Plankton |
| Favorites | |
| Food(s): | Krabby Patties Canned bread Chocolate |
| Song(s): | "Solitude in E Minor" |
| Series Information | |
| First appearance: | Help Wanted |
| Portrayer: | Rodger Bumpass Tom Kenny (laughing voice in Funny Pants) John Sterchi (Story Reader book, Grand Prize Winner!) Renzo Jiménez (Latin America) |
| Other Information | |
| Interests: | Art, Music, Dance, Reading, and Fancy Living. |
| Phobia(s): | claustrophobia <ref>as revealed in "Wishing You Well"</ref> |
Squidward Tentacles is a fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Although his name suggests that he is a squid, he is actually (officially) an octopus, and also a bit of a sourpuss. Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, says Squidward belongs to a rare type of octopus that only has six legs and is blue-green, although he also said eight tentacles would be quite difficult to animate, and also eight tentacles looked bulky[citation needed]. Although this was not specified in the series or movie, it was in the SpongeBob game SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! He is the grumpy and occasionally giddy cashier of the Krusty Krab. The character is voiced by Rodger Bumpass.
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[edit] Character
Squidward's character is a complex bundle of adult failings and successes, and, like the show, presents a rich social commentary. There is much to dislike about Squidward, and yet he is ultimately endearing. While his failings are of his own making, he is also a victim of modern society.
He is annoyingly pretentious in his pursuit of the arts, unable to spot raw 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's painfully clear that SpongeBob is creating works of artistic genius. In "Bubblestand", he belittles SpongeBob's brilliant bubble-blowing. Such episodes can be taken as a punch by the cartoonists at their pretentious but failed art-school classmates who, instead of being recognized masters, must now work at low, demeaning jobs.
In certain ways, Squidward's life is portrayed as a failure. In "One Krab's Trash", he visits a cemetery to lay flowers at a headstone that reads, "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams." Yet he has not sunk into despondency: he is tireless in his pursuit of music, his painting, his sculpture, oblivious to his lack of talent. This is because his Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Great-Grandfather Squidley could not play the clarinet right, and cursed Squidward ten-fold, as seen in "Dunces and Dragons".
Outwardly, he in fact shows signs of modest success: he lives in a nice, well-tended house, with no signs of slothfulness, and finds plenty of time to lead an active, involved life. Not conscious of his failings, he acknowledges them subconsciously by his outsized sarcasm. All of his most famous and most quotable lines are sarcastic.
He is well-educated, knows his history, and has a strong anti-capitalist bent. At work, he is not only careless, sloppy and lazy, but even occasionally engages in Marxist, labor-party sloganeering. In the episode "Squid on Strike", he organizes a worker's strike at the Krusty Krab, replete with talk of "the proletariat", working-class oppression, protest techniques and organization. He even incites labor unrest, resulting in the destruction of the Krusty Krab.
In the end, Squidward finds a way of redeeming himself. He has various endearing traits, and, despite himself, often manages to keep an open mind. In the episode "Squidville", he moves to a town filled with his own peers, other octopi who share his tastes and outlook on life. Here, he is forced to face how boring and oppressive his desired lifestyle really is, and he is able to ultimately break free of its bonds with a bit of inspired silliness.
He has somewhat of a sense of humor, but laughs only when others are not. Whenever he laughs, his nose inflates and deflates.
Upon impact on the ground, Squidward's feet make a slight comedic splat sound.
Squidward is a complex character, and offers much to learn from and can be quite repulsive if he is annoyed.
Even though Squidward has tentacles, it is revealed in the episode "Once Bitten" that he has both fingers and toes.
[edit] Residence
Squidward lives in a house resembling an Easter Island moai head, placed between SpongeBob and Patrick's houses at 122 Conch Street. Despite Squidward's wish for peace and quiet, his two neighbors, SpongeBob and Patrick, make it nearly impossible, due to their high level of childish immaturity and silliness. If Squidward had the choice, he would move. He did in "Squidville", but ultimately decided that he had moved somewhere even worse.
[edit] Occupation
Squidward Tentacles works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab restaurant, along with his co-worker, SpongeBob. Generally, he despises his job and loves the thought of getting fired, though he only attempts to quit in one episode. He doesn't take his work very seriously, being the exact opposite of SpongeBob. In "Just One Bite", it was revealed that Squidward had never eaten a Krabby Patty. He insists that they are disgusting, but after trying a bite of one, he falls in love with it. He also was the manager of the Krusty Krab 2 for six days in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
[edit] Leisure
An avid patron of the arts, Squidward has a strong affection for interpretive dance, sculpture, painting, and playing the clarinet, but seems to have almost no talent for any of them whatsoever. (Although he does play the clarinet beautifully at the end of the Christmas special) 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.All his artwork, from sculptures to paintings, depicts himself in a way (never very original) , even over-painting done works with his own face.
He has tried several things to reach the fame he desires: hosting a talent show, starting his own astrology spin-off, forming a band, and so on, yet he can't seem to get much of a cult following (with the exception of SpongeBob, who really looks up to Squidward). Mr. Krabs and Patrick also seem to like him, though it may be argued that Mr. Krabs only likes Squidward because of his allegiance with the Krusty Krab. Squidward considers himself the greatest and most unrecognized clarinet player of all time, though most undersea life that hear him play will argue that he is 'a mediocre clarinet player', and his clarinet playing often gets him into trouble (or injured in a comic and brutal fashion).SpongeBob has told Squidward he doesn't play the clarinet well.
[edit] Squidward's neighbors
SpongeBob and Patrick always encourage Squidward to participate in their games, but this only annoys him. In particular, Patrick and SpongeBob often ask him to go jellyfishing with them. One time while he was trying to avoid Patrick and SpongeBob, he froze in the Krusty Krab's freezer and landed in the future, then went to the past. While in the past, he inadvertently invented jellyfishing.
While seemingly the eternal pessimist, he occasionally tries to be like SpongeBob (often with hopes that doing so will stop SpongeBob from bugging him), but does not ever get the hang of it. In one episode, however he finds himself putting a piece of paper on his nose and dancing a jig in insanity. When SpongeBob isn't looking, Squidward will start to act more like SpongeBob from time to time, especially in the earlier episodes like "Bubblestand" and "The Paper". Squidward's voice reveals a lot about his personality and attitude, much like SpongeBob's voice. In one episode, "Selling Out", he is forced to keep a smile glued to his face by the manager of Krabby O' Mondays which creates an interesting effect, as Squidward hardly ever smiles while showing his teeth.
[edit] Annoyance
Squidward finds SpongeBob a complete annoyance. He tends to let everyone annoy him, especially those who want to be his friend, although at many times his fear of the loud and overbearing SpongeBob is quite justified. His best friend is his clarinet, whose name is Clary (revealed in I Was a Teenage Gary). One of Squidward's greatest dreams and desires is to either have hair or to buy a wig. He seems to think he would look good with hair. Aside from his musical "talents", he enjoys painting several pictures of himself and hanging them up around his house. There are new paintings in his house in almost every episode, constantly changing and almost never the same. In the episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward assigns SpongeBob to man the cash register when Mr. Krabs is at the doctor's office receiving new crustacean pinchers. Meanwhile, Squidward leaves the Krusty Krab for a day of relaxation, but he foolishly had SpongeBob convinced that he was doing "very important boss-like errands."
[edit] Tentacle Acres
In one episode, he sees an ad on TV about a town called Tentacle Acres, also known as Squidville, where many octopi live in Easter Island heads just like him. He decides to move there, and for a while life is spectacular, as he finds a large community of like-minded octopuses into which he fits perfectly. Eventually, though, he starts to miss SpongeBob's reef blower games and the city of Bikini Bottom. In Tentacle Acres, daily life is all one big routine that Squidward tires of after a week or so. He begins to wreak havoc throughout the overly structured civilization of Tentacle Acres with a reef blower. Angry citizens corner him in an alleyway and demand that he leave. He obeyed their wishes, except he did so by launching himself into the open water above him via reef blower, screaming, "Woohoo! FREEDOM!".
[edit] Family
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[edit] Rivalry
His rival is Squilliam Fancyson, from high school band class, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Squidward, but wears a robe and has a unibrow. He is living Squidward's dream (with a private island, a private heliport, a private lake, a private boat, a private mansion and even a private hot-air balloon/casino) and succeeded in everything Squidward failed in. He is a wealthy six-legged squid (or octopus, like Squidward is said to be at the beginning of this article), usually with many admirers following his presence. He constantly shows up to make fun of Squidward, however Squidward makes a jerk out of Squilliam when his ragtag band plays for the Bubble Bowl and turns out to be much better than he ever expected. At this sight, Squilliam has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital to recover.
Squilliam unintentionally gets back at Squidward in the episode "Squilliam Returns" which he is featured, when Squid's plan to turn the Krusty Krab into a five star restaurant blows up in his face when SpongeBob (who, on Squidward's request, emptied his mind of everything "except fine dining and breathing") forgot his name and subsequently everything else, in addition to Mr. Krabs's "appetizer" coming to life.
[edit] Animation
Squidward's animation style has changed throughout the series. In the episode "Squid's Day Off", Squidward mentions his blueish glow. This was an obvious in-joke, about Squidward's random color changes. In the very first episodes, Squidward actually does have a blueish glow, and almost looks blue in a few of them. In Season 4 episodes, he is completely green.
[edit] Trivia
- Squidward's name is a combination of the word 'squid' and the name 'Edward' (Squilliam bears a similar combination of 'squid' and the name 'William'). According to one of the voice actors, it sounded better than "Octoward."
- Squidward is the last regular character to have called SpongeBob by his full name. He finally cracked in the episode "Funny Pants".
- Squidward owns a 'boat-mobile' (car), which can be seen briefly in "Band Geeks", "Pizza Delivery", "Dying for Pie" and "Fools in April". However, they look different in each episode, indicating he might trade them in yearly.
- Squidward looks and sounds similar to actor Ned Sparks (minus the cigar). Ironically Sparks was once caricatured as an underwater creature in a 1939 cartoon by Tex Avery.
[edit] Footnotes
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