Character

Squidward[4] J.[5] Q.[6] Tentacles[7] is one of the ten main characters of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise.[8] He is SpongeBob's grumpy neighbor and coworker who lives in an Easter Island head. He is an arrogant artist and musician, and his favorite hobbies are painting self-portraits and playing the clarinet.

Squidward is an octopus, not a squid, as confirmed in many interviews and episodes.[9][10][11][12][13] 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 "Pressure" 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, stick-in-the-mud individual. He works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab, a job he hates. Squidward is frequently annoyed by SpongeBob's loud and cheerful behavior, but he sometimes sticks up for SpongeBob and sees him as a friend on occasion.

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Biography

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

His father raised him right and loved him very much.[14]

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.[15] 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.[7]

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.[18]

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.

At one point, he, along with SpongeBob, Patrick, Mr. Krabs, Plankton, and Sandy went on land to retrieve the Krabby Patty secret formula from Burger Beard.

In "Lame and Fortune," he won the most miserable cashier in the Bikini Bottom contest. Unfortunately, Mr. Krabs immediately purloins the cash prize.

On March 6, 2017, Squidward traveled 2,000 years into the future as a result of being thawed in the Krusty Krab freezer for 2,000 years.[19][20]

Description

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.

In the episode "Sandy's Rocket," Squidward is shown to be wearing an old version of his nightwear. It is pink with magenta-colored flowers on it. In newer episodes such as "Sentimental Sponge," Squidward is seen wearing his real nightgown. In this episode, he refers to it as a "nightshirt." It is a light purple nightgown that comes with a matching nightcap. It is the third version of his nightwear. The second version appears in "Employee of the Month" and "Funny Pants."

It is shown in the episode "Bulletin Board" that Squidward has a tattoo of a red rose on his right arm.

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,[21] 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.[22]

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. 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."

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 "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.

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.

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 "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, 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 Grandma Tentacles that Squidward took shortcuts and undercooked her fricassee, thus poisoning the customers, since he all he cared about was the fame, rather than actual results of the cooking. In "Accidents Will Happen," he fakes his injury and lies to Mr. Krabs for the sole purpose of seeking sympathy and having an excuse to not work. 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. 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 pushy mooch and consistently and deliberately ignores SpongeBob's hints for him to at least attempt to look for a new job. 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. The most recent 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 boisterous 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 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. 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. In "Scavenger Pants," Squidward makes up a really difficult scavenger hunt in hopes of getting SpongeBob and Patrick harmed.

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.

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.

His lack of talent seems to go back to when he was a kid: in "Lost and Found," it is revealed in a flashback that Squidward was a kazoo player in elementary school and that his classmates found his music so bad that they all ran out of school, despite Squidward thinking he excelled in playing the instrument.

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.

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.

Occupation

Squidward works as the cashier at the Krusty Krab, along with his co-worker, SpongeBob SquarePants. He not only hates his duties but the Krusty Krab itself, and he performs his job rather poorly and with a lack of enthusiasm. He also frequently behaves rudely to the customers. He has often expressed a desire to be fired or simply quit, but never makes good on it. While he initially only seems to work there because he needs the money, he seems to only be there out of pure laziness of getting a different job as the series progresses.

In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, Squidward is the manager of the Krusty Krab 2 for six days, although due to Plankton's invasion of Bikini Bottom, the new restaurant is not in service during this time. It is also shown here that Squidward cares about what happens to the Krusty Krab and the Krabby Patty formula when he discovers Plankton selling Krabby Patties and threatens to report him to King Neptune. In "Selling Out," Squidward works as the waiter for Krabby O'Monday's. He was forced to maintain a false state of happiness, or else face "Human Resources," a thug in the back of the building.

Squidward has also been:

Creation and development

Stephen Hillenburg first became fascinated with the ocean and began developing his artistic abilities as a child. During college, he majored in marine biology and minored in art. After graduating in 1984, he joined the Ocean Institute, an ocean education organization, where he had the idea to create a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which led to the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants.[23][24][25] In 1987, Hillenburg left the Institute to pursue a career in animation.[25][26]

Several years after studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts,[26] Hillenburg met Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, at an animation festival. Murray offered Hillenburg a job as a director of the series.[25][27][28] Martin Olson, one of the writers for Rocko's Modern Life, read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. At that point, Hillenburg had not considered creating his own series, but soon realized that this was his chance.[24][24]

Hillenburg used some character designs from his comic book. He designed "SpongeBob's grumpy next-door neighbor" like an octopus because the species' large head; octopuses, he said, "have such a large bulbous head and Squidward thinks he's an intellectual so of course, he's gonna have a large bulbous head."[29] Hillenburg drew Squidward with six tentacles because "it was just simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight."[29] Show writer and storyboard artist Vincent Waller said:

Squidward is hard to draw-he has a very odd-shaped head. Fortunately, his emotions are pretty even, but to get a whole lot of big emoting out of him is a challenge. His nose splits everything in half, so it's always like, 'OK, how am I going to work this and still make it read?'[30]

Hillenburg thought of making jokes with Squidward ejecting ink but retired it because, according to him, "it always looks like he's pooping his pants."[29] However, it occurs in The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and the episodes "Giant Squidward" and "Ink Lemonade."

Stephen Hillenburg named him Squidward because of the name Octoward—in the words of Squidward's voice actor Rodger Bumpass—"just didn't work."[31] The sound of Squidward's footsteps is produced by rubbing hot water bottles. The footsteps, and those of the rest of the main characters, are recorded by the show's foley crew. Sound designer Jeff Hutchins said that footstep sounds "[help] tell which character it is and what surface they're stepping on."[32] However, his footsteps are usually accompanied by a couple of stock sound effects from the Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends library from the sound effects company Sound Ideas, SPURT, CARTOON - OIL SPURT 01 and 02. Bumpass inspired the idea of having Squidward ride a recumbent bicycle; Bumpass owns one of these bicycles, which he rides around Burbank, California.[33] Bumpass described it as his "little inside joke."[31]

Voice

Squidward's voice is provided by actor Rodger Bumpass, who voices several other SpongeBob SquarePants characters, including Squidward's mother. In "Funny Pants," Tom Kenny voices Squidward's laughter at the end of the episode. While creating the show and writing its pilot episode in 1997, Hillenburg and the show's then-creative director Derek Drymon were also conducting voice auditions.[34] Mr. Lawrence, who had worked with Hillenburg and Drymon on Rocko's Modern Life, was Hillenburg's first choice for the role. Hillenburg had invited Lawrence to audition for all the show's characters.[35] Instead of Squidward, Hillenburg decided to give Lawrence the part of Plankton, the series' villain.[34] According to Everybody's Talking: The Voices Behind SpongeBob SquarePants, while Tom Kenny was practicing the voice of SpongeBob, Stephen Hillenburg read several of Squidward's lines since his voice actor (Rodger Bumpass) had not been cast yet.[36]

According to Bumpass, Squidward was "a very nasally, monotone kind of guy." He said the character became interesting to perform because of "his sarcasm, and then his frustration, and then his apoplexy, and so he became a wide spectrum of emotions."[37] Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, describes Bumpass recording his lines in the studio, saying, "I love watching Rodger ... He's right next to me." According to Kenny, when Bumpass "goes apoplectic" as Squidward while recording, his head turns red, "and you're afraid he's going to have an embolism."[33]

Several of the show's crew praise Bumpass for his performance and similitude to the character. Kenny called Bumpass "brilliant" and said, "[he] is sort of like Squidward."[33] Staff writer Kent Osborne said, "I remember thinking about how much Rodger talks and acts like Squidward. That's why it's such a good voice—he's so connected to it."[38] However, Bumpass said, "I'm not him and he's not me, but what I'm required to do for him and what I am enabled to do for him is what makes it like me. It fits my particular talents and skills very well. So in that respect, yeah, he is me, but I am not the cranky, sarcastic, underachieving kind of guy that he is. He's easy to fall in, I will say that."[37]

Squidward's voice has been compared to that of Jack Benny's. Kenny said, "To me, there's something just so funny about that Jack-Benny-loyal-to-nobody character that Rodger Bumpass does such a great job of playing [...] Squidward."[39] Arthur Brown, author of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!, said that Squidward "sounds a lot like Jack Benny."[40] Bumpass repudiated the relationship, saying "Jack Benny, no. Although he does have this observational sarcasm he occasionally brought out."[37]

Relationships

SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob is the character Squidward interacts with the most and is also the one he dislikes more than the rest, often trying to avoid him at all costs.

The main reason for Squidward's massive dislike for SpongeBob's existence is because SpongeBob can be extremely annoying towards Squidward, but SpongeBob is unaware of this, and thus continues to irritate him. It was revealed in "Truth or Square," that SpongeBob's pineapple house landed on Squidward's old garden and when SpongeBob moved in Squidward started to resent him even though SpongeBob didn't do anything to make Squidward hate him. Squidward and SpongeBob are opposites, which seems to be the reason why Squidward dislikes him at times when SpongeBob has not done anything to make Squidward dislike him.

Their relationship is somewhat complicated. While SpongeBob sees Squidward as one of his best friends, this is mostly one-sided, although Squidward occasionally shows sympathy towards him; this is seen in episodes such as "Pizza Delivery," "Dying For Pie," and "Christmas Who?" Squidward also admired SpongeBob's selfless bravery against the Flying Dutchman in "Born Again Krabs." Squidward has also teamed up with SpongeBob and helped him on a few occasions, such as in "Krab Borg" and "Squid on Strike." Later, in "SpongeBob You're Fired," Squidward fought off four crazed restaurant owners to rescue SpongeBob and later admitted that as much he hates him, he hates the smell of burnt Krabby Patties more before giving him a heartfelt plea to return to the being the fry cook at the Krusty Krab. In the episode "SB-129," Squidward says that he misses everything, including SpongeBob. He also admitted that he likes SpongeBob in "Graveyard Shift" and "Fools in April." Sometimes, he needs SpongeBob's help, as shown in "Skill Crane" and "Sponge-Cano!" where he desperately told SpongeBob how grateful he was so SpongeBob could save him from falling in the volcano.

Mr. Krabs

Patrick Star

Squidward despises Mr. Krabs and has little tolerance for him. Unlike SpongeBob, Squidward is much more aware of Mr. Krabs' greedy and cheap nature. Mr. Krabs also thinks very lowly of Squidward and gets tired of his lazy tendencies and often blames him for mishaps, though he does see him as a valued employee on occasion. There have been times where Squidward scolded Mr. Krabs. In " Born Again Krabs ," he chastises Mr. Krabs for selling SpongeBob's soul for pocket change. In " Clams " he gets mad at Krabs for taking them on a fishing trip and berates him for making them stay on the boat over a dollar. He also gets outraged when Mr. Krabs blames something on him, like when Squidward got mad and quit his job because Mr. Krabs accused him of stealing his first dime in " Can You Spare a Dime? ." However, the two do sometimes get along and Squidward has been working at the Krusty Krab for a long time and does sometimes respect and listen to Mr. Krabs' authority, so the two have developed a somewhat decent relationship. However, their relationship has taken a turn for the worst as the series progressed, with Mr. Krabs becoming more greedy and immoral, and Squidward becoming angrier and grumpier.

Throughout the series, Squidward is shown to have a considerable dislike towards Patrick. As with Mr. Krabs, this hatred overall seems to have taken a turn for the worse in later seasons. In "Restraining SpongeBob," Squidward is very annoyed with Patrick when he would stalk him, ask stupid questions, and use his clarinet to clean the bathroom.

Their relationship, in general, is awkward; unlike SpongeBob, Patrick notices Squidward's malice more often and tends to contradict him more. Squidward in return is also more rude and disrespectful to Patrick than to SpongeBob. The two have even fought each other in some episodes due to their differences. However, Squidward sometimes hints he can tolerate Patrick more than SpongeBob.

While Squidward holds a massive hatred towards Patrick, he didn't seem to mind him before SpongeBob's arrival to their neighborhood. As shown in the TV special "Truth or Square," Squidward lived a happy life in Bikini Bottom, and even enjoyed his job at the Krusty Krab, only turning bitter and frustrated after SpongeBob moved. Additionally, in "No Hat for Pat," he wishes Patrick was SpongeBob before he tries to push him off the platform into an urchin bucket, hinting that even though he dislikes Patrick a lot, he hates SpongeBob far more.

In "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," he befriends him, because he saved his life, but quickly ditches him later. He also stops Mr. Krabs from conning him in "Patrick's Coupon."

Plankton

Squidward and Plankton barely interact since Squidward doesn't usually care about the secret formula. When they do interact they usually dislike each other. However, in the episodes "Sweet and Sour Squid" and "Chum Fricassee," they team up, although they remain enemies in the end.

Gary the Snail

Gary and Squidward have a complicated relationship. Gary annoys Squidward while Gary thinks Squidward is a jerk. However, Squidward does seem to have feelings for Gary as seen in "I Was a Teenage Gary." And they seem to sometimes share the same opinion about SpongeBob's annoying antics as Squidward once replied "Oh, tell me about it!" in "Giant Squidward." In "Are You Happy Now?," Gary seemed to be concerned for Squidward like SpongeBob was. In "That Sinking Feeling," Squidward was searching SpongeBob in his house and when he spotted Gary on the roof, he said "Hey, Gary." to him.

Sandy Cheeks

Squidward and Sandy usually do not talk to each other, but in "SquidBob TentaclePants," she transformed Squidward and SpongeBob after being stuck together, and Squidward begs Sandy to separate them. Sandy is one of the few characters Squidward seems to have no problems with, although Sandy does seem to sometimes to find Squidward intolerable, such as his recent assault on a creepy crawler with karate for revenge instead of self-defense in "Squid Defense." She can also get a little rough because in "Patrick! The Game" when he was about to quit Sandy scolded him to get back in. She even drew the line before with Squidward and some of his antics, such as when she beat up Squidward in "Sportz?" for making SpongeBob and Patrick injure themselves by playing dangerous sports and wouldn't let them stop.

Squilvia is Squidward's girlfriend in " Love That Squid ." In the episode, Squilvia visits the Krusty Krab and Squidward falls in love with her and gets nervous around her, so SpongeBob has to act as his wingman. SpongeBob tells Squilvia that Squidward likes her and manages to get Squidward a date with her. However, Squidward is unprepared to go on a date because he has not gone on one in years. Therefore, SpongeBob teaches Squidward how to act on a date by pretending to be his girlfriend and going on a simulated date.

After Squidward cannot take it anymore, he yells at SpongeBob. However, he does not realize that Squilvia has arrived for their date. Squidward then thinks that she would not go out with him because he yelled at SpongeBob. However, she likes that he stood up for himself. They then go on their date.

Since she's confirmed a minor character, their relationship is considered over.[41]

Family

Main article: Tentacles family

Rivalry

Squidward's arch-rival is Squilliam Fancyson , whom he first met in high school in band class, who, like all other octopuses on the show, looks and acts similar to Squidward, but wears a robe and has a unibrow. However, unlike Squidward, Squilliam is extremely successful in everything that Squidward has failed in, and is living Squidward's dream of being a wealthy celebrity artist with crowds of adoring fans, usually with many admirers following his presence. In Squilliam's debut episode, " Band Geeks ," he calls Squidward, at his home, to once again, rub his success in his face, saying that his band is signed to play at the Bubble Bowl but cannot come, and sarcastically asks Squidward for his "band" to cover for them. Squidward, caught in the moment, claims that he does have a band and will play at the Bubble Bowl, forcing him to put together a band from the residents of Bikini Bottom. Thanks to SpongeBob, their performance turns out to be much better than Squilliam could have ever expected, causing him to have a heart attack.

Squilliam returns in the aptly named episode "Squilliam Returns," in which Squidward meets him and a crowd of his fans. Squilliam tries to embarrass Squidward by showing the crowd his lowly position as a cashier, but Squidward claims to own a five-star restaurant, and Squilliam agrees to take the group to dinner there, expecting this claim to be exposed as a lie. Squidward's attempts at converting the Krusty Krab into a five-star restaurant are initially unsuccessful until he gets SpongeBob to clear his mind of everything "except fine dining and breathing." SpongeBob can turn the Krusty Krab into an extremely extravagant and fancy diner. Everything goes well until Squilliam, who is admittedly impressed, asks his waiter, SpongeBob, his name. SpongeBob, having erased everything else from his mind, forgets his name and subsequently everything else, going insane and destroying the "fancy restaurant" environment, with the help of Mr. Krabs' disgusting "appetizer" coming to life.

Squilliam appears again in "House Fancy" where Squilliam calls Squidward to boast about how his enormous house was chosen as the fanciest house on the show House Fancy. Squidward then calls the show's host and claims his house is better. Then with the help of SpongeBob, he attempts to make it look better but ultimately ends up destroying his house. The show's host thinks this is a revolutionary house design, and for the second time, Squidward can beat Squilliam.

Love interests

In "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V," Squidward says "Ah, make out reef... good times, good times...," meaning he had been there when he was young with a love interest.

In "That's No Lady," Squidward and Mr. Krabs fall for Patrick, who was posing as a woman named Patricia because Patrick thought someone was trying to force him to leave Bikini Bottom.

In "Love That Squid," Squidward makes a date with another octopus named "Squilvia."

Residence

Squidward lives in a house resembling an Easter Island moai. It is placed in between SpongeBob and Patrick's houses at Squidward Tentacles' House, and the address was revealed in "Slide Whistle Stooges." It has been personified several times, such as in the episode "The Secret Box," where it seems to be peeking at SpongeBob and Patrick's talk. 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 does so in "Squidville," but ultimately decides that he had moved somewhere even worse. In "Opposite Day," Squidward tried to move, but SpongeBob and Patrick caused the real estate agent who was originally trying to sell Squidward's house to leave angrily, so Squidward had to stay. He also moved out in "Stanley S. SquarePants," because he had realized that there were "two of them" and he became horrified.

Squidward usually lives alone, but in "The Great Snail Race," he adopts a pet named Snellie. In "Can You Spare a Dime?," Squidward winds up homeless after quitting his job until SpongeBob finds him living in a cardboard box and takes him into his house. Squidward almost becomes homeless again in "Giant Squidward," when he turns into a giant. In the episode "Good Neighbors," Squidward's house becomes a living robot (due to a security system) and terrorizes Bikini Bottom.

Trivia