Squidward Tentacles

Squidward J. Q. Tentacles is one of the main characters of the SpongeBob SquarePants franchise.

Squidward is the neighbor between SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star. He is a turquoise octopus who lives in a house shaped like an Easter Island head.

Squidward works as the cashier of the Krusty Krab, a job he absolutely loathes. He is a very selfish individual and displays an unjustified air of superiority.

Squidward also has at least 492 self-portraits in his house and is delusional about his talents, such as playing the clarinet, though almost everyone considers him to be very terrible.

Although his name contains the word "squid," Squidward has been confirmed to be an octopus in many interviews and episodes. The series' animators believed that giving him eight tentacles would have made him look burdened and would be too difficult to animate, which is why he is normally depicted with six limbs.

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 once had long blonde hair. He also has 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. 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, snobby, grumpy, 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.

In spite of his temper, he is still one of the most intelligent and educated characters. He has a sarcastic attitude and sees others as uncivilized morons, while failing to accept his own personal 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 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 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." In addition, 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 actually capable of playing the clarinet very well by providing the 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.

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.

His overall artistic style is shown to be abstract and overly sophisticated, and his works are commonly panned by his audiences. His critical failure is shown to be more due to his bad taste, rather than a genuine lack of talent. The majority of his art centers on himself, apparently holding his very being to be an artistic wonder. In the episode "One Krabs Trash," Squidward is shown bringing flowers to a gravestone reading "Here Lies Squidward's Hopes and Dreams." Despite his lack of success, Squidward is tireless in his pursuit of artistic achievement. 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.

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. Squidward is a good-natured and caring person; he just does not like to get too involved in things.

When he is at the Krusty Krab, he is a lazy, sloppy 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 undercooked her fricassee, thus poisoning the customers. 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 causes the destruction of 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 actually 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, regardless of if 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 ignores by choice to 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 himself 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 actually search for a better job, he begs for SpongeBob 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 own 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, 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 lawn mower 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.

Trivia

 * In "Help Wanted," Squidward's skin color is light turquoise, but he became a bit of a darker turquoise for every episode after.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Squidward is right-handed. This can be seen in several episodes, including "Artist Unknown" during the scene in which he tries to draw a circle.
 * Squidward has a distinct laugh, which always makes his nose inflate and deflate, much likely being a reference to the octopus's contractile mantle.
 * Squidward's height relative to Mr. Krabs changes depending on the episode. He occasionally appears to be much taller, but they are the same height counting Krabs' eyestalks in some other scenes.
 * In the Krusty Krab, Squidward sometimes has different jobs from his regular cashier job, usually replacing SpongeBob as fry cook when he is absent.


 * A character resembling Squidward makes a cameo appearance in the Japanese anime Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
 * It is revealed that Squidward used to have a full head of blonde hair in "The Original Fry Cook."
 * In the episodes "Employee of the Month," "Sweet and Sour Squid," "The Good Krabby Name," and "Super Evil Aquatic Villain Team Up is Go!," Squidward can successfully cook Krabby Patties. However, he does it unprofessionally in "Pickles," "Hooky," and "The Algae's Always Greener."
 * In some episodes, Squidward reads magazines during his job.
 * In Japanese, Squidward's name has been changed to "Ikardo Tentacles," Ikardo being a portmanteau of ikara (the Japanese word for "squid") and Ricardo.
 * Squidward is allergic to seaberries, snail slime, and nuts.
 * It is revealed in "The Fish Bowl" that Squidward's favorite food is ice cream.
 * Squidward reveals that he has a father in "Krab Borg," although his father has never been seen in the series.
 * His father appears in the book Hooray for Dads!, where he is shown to have a similar personality to his son.
 * In "The Absorbing Tale Behind The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," Squidward is referred to as Squidward J. Tentacles by his voice actor, Rodger Bumpass.
 * In the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War, Tony Stark insults Ebony Maw by calling him "Squidward."
 * In 2000, a spin-off series of SpongeBob shorts was made called Astrology with Squidward. It focused on Squidward as a psychic telling audiences about different zodiac signs using other SpongeBob characters.
 * Squidward earned his given name from a pun on "squid" and "Edward."
 * He is the first SpongeBob character to appear in a flash animation.