Plankton (character)

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 fictional character in the Nickelodeon animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Although initially depicted as the show's antagonist, he has, in recent years, been 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.

Role in SpongeBob SquarePants

Plankton is the nemesis, but the 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). In his earliest appearances, his catchphrase was "I went to college!", uttered when Mr. Krabs was escorting him from the Krusty Krab, though it has only appeared occasionally since then.

Many fans have observed Plankton becoming noticeably less evil and villain-like overtime, and many new episodes cast him in a sympathetic light. This is in sharp contrast to Mr. Krabs; most of the newer episodes centering on him are either about making money at any cost (which has brought him to committing crime more than once) or spitefully trying to make life miserable for Plankton. This is often done by bragging about his own success and reminding Plankton of his failures, even preventing Plankton from having any success of his own; episodes such as Plankton's Regular and One Coarse Meal are prime examples of this.

As such, even though he is still considered to be the primary villain of the show, creator Stephen Hillenburg has stated that he and Mr. Krabs share the main antagonist role together, with Mr. Krabs being highly respected because of his success despite his greed and tyrannic ways of making more money, and Plankton being frowned upon primarily due to his failure as a business owner while continuing to resort to stealing the Krabby Patty formula in his desperate thirst for success on par with that of Mr. Krabs.

Movie

Plankton is the main antagonist in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004). In the film, Plankton steals King Neptune's crown, sends it away to a store known as Shell City, and frames Mr. Krabs for the theft as part of his plan to steal the Krabby Patty formula. Plankton hires a hitman named Dennis to prevent SpongeBob and Patrick Star from retrieving the crown, although they manage to succeed and return to find that Plankton has turned Bikini Bottom into a dystopia and has slaved its citizens. SpongeBob frees everyone, and Plankton attempts to flee, but is trampled by a large amount of people and subsequently arrested while screaming that he will destroy everyone.

Karen

Karen Plankton
SpongeBob SquarePants character
First appearance	"Plankton!"
Created by	Stephen Hillenburg
Voiced by	Jill Talley
Information
Species	Supercomputer
Gender	Female
Occupation	Plankton's W.I.F.E.
Spouse(s)	Plankton

Sheldon Plankton is married to a supercomputer named Karen Plankton (voiced by Jill Talley). She is his Mark-3 Surplus Computer W.I.F.E. (both as an acronym for "Wired Integrated Female Electroencephalograph" and in the sense of a female spouse) [-O.-M.A.T.I.C.].^[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 known to have parasitic behavior towards other sea creatures larger than itself.

References

External links

• Plankton at the Internet Movie Database
• Plankton on Facebook