Plankton (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Plankton
SpongeBob SquarePants character
First appearance	"Plankton!"
Created by	Stephen Hillenburg
Voiced by	Mr. Lawrence
Information
Species	Copepod [1]
Gender	Male
Occupation	Owner and founder of the Chum Bucket (traded as: CB or CHUM)
Spouse(s)	Karen

Sheldon James Plankton, or simply Plankton, is a character in the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Although usually an antagonist, he is frequently shown as a protagonist or an antihero. He is voiced by Mr. Lawrence and first appeared in the episode "Plankton!" on July 31, 1999. Plankton was created and designed by Stephen Hillenburg. The character has also appeared in video games and other merchandise based on the series. Mostly, he has been featured on countless toys, games, plushies, and other popular toys and games.

Role in SpongeBob SquarePants

Plankton is the nemesis, but former best friend, of Mr. Krabs.^[2] He operates the Chum Bucket,^[3] located directly across the street from Krabs' restaurant, the Krusty Krab.^[4] The restaurant primarily sells chum, considered mostly inedible by the residents of Bikini Bottom, and as a result, his restaurant is a total commercial failure. His primary goal in the series is to put Krabs out of business (thus gaining a monopoly on the restaurant business) by stealing the "Krabby Patty formula", a secret recipe used to make the Krusty Krab's flagship sandwich; however, every attempt to do so has ultimately failed. The only time he has successfully stolen it and made perfect Krabby Patties to expand his business was in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, though this was short-lived. He is often stepped on while trying to leave the Krusty Krab with the formula. It has been stated that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were once best friends, but a dispute over the Krabby Patty recipe ended their friendship.^[2]

A running gag throughout the series is the fact that Plankton is much smaller than the other main characters; he is easily stepped on and/or sent flying back to the Chum Bucket with a mere flick of the finger. Usually right after trying to steal the Krabby Patty Formula is another gag. His small size has led to him developing a Napoleon complex, which is occasionally manifested as a desire for global domination (the most prominent illustration of this is in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie).

Karen, Plankton's W.I.F.E.

Sheldon Plankton is married to a supercomputer named Karen (voiced by Jill Talley). She is his W.I.F.E. (both as an acronym for "Wired Integrated Female Electroencephalograph" and in the sense of a female spouse).^[5] She appears to have her own sentient mind and enjoys putting him down, though it's shown that they love each other. She sometimes gets fed up with his antics and forbids him from returning home.^[6] She tends to give Plankton most of his ideas to steal the Krabby Patty, but he usually takes them as his own ideas, and when he fails, he usually blames Karen.^[7]

Merchandising

Plankton has been featured in various merchandises such as plush toys. In 2006, Ty Inc.'s Beanie Babies introduced a plush toy based on the character as part of the SpongeBob SquarePants series.^[8][9][10]

Species of Plankton

Plankton is a Copepod. Copepods are a microscopic species of crustaceans that lives in the ocean floor, open ocean, freshwater habitats, sinkholes, etc. It was mentioned in one episode that Plankton is a protozoa but that is obviously false. Protozoans are single-celled organisms that usually don't have appendages, or antenna. Copepods, like Plankton, can have a singular (compound) eye. In the times that Plankton has gone into SpongeBob, he took SpongeBob's natural benefits for his own use without giving anything to SpongeBob. This is an allusion to reality because Copepods have been know to have parasitic behavior towards other sea creatures larger than itself.

References

External links

• Plankton at the Internet Movie Database
• Plankton on Facebook