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    Setting 
Bikini Bottom is located near an undersea fault line.
This would explain why there is so much Chaos Architecture in the show; there are many underwater earthquakes which, while not big enough to cause wide scale damage, do have a habit of moving locations around further or closer to each other depending on the episode, such as how the Krusty Krab sometimes is just a hop, skip and a jump away from SpongeBob's house, while in other episodes such as Employee of the Month, it takes a whole morning to reach it, even while running.

SpongeBob SquarePants and Shark Tale take place in the same universe.
Both SBSP and ST take place in a underwater city populated by sea creatures.

SpongeBob SquarePants and Help! I'm a Fish are in the same universe.

Barely anything special ever happens in Bikini Bottom
Most of the time it's just normal, mundane days. The only time something considered special happens are the events of the actual episodes themselves.

SpongeBob SquarePants takes place in the 1970's/1980's
In the movie, SpongeBob says he has been Employee of the Month for 374 months. That's around 31 years, and considering the date the movie was made, it could be possible that the first episode ("Help Wanted", where he first got his job) took place in 1973. That explains why the shell phones are as big as normal phones (and why the normal phones look so dated), why the TVs look the way they do, and why the other technology isn't quite up-to-date.
  • Of course, that brings these episodes into question:
  • The first movie probably takes place in the future.

Bikini Bottom is the bottom of Bikini Atoll
Why is the show's setting called Bikini Bottom? Because it's the sea bottom of Bikini Atoll, the atomic bomb test site. This would explain a lot.
  • Word of God confirmed this.
  • It gives a Darker and Edgier tone to the show if you think about it too hard.
  • So how do you fit Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in?
    • A couple of the natives that were still there when the bomb went off. The nuclear energy mutated them into water-breathing superheros.
      • Then the IJLSA were natives, too?
      • Of course. They were all a family who got caught up in the blast during a get-together. The Elastic Wasteband had just finished a huge helping for his size, Miss-Appear was hiding under the table for some reason, Professor Magma was smacked in the face by a chunk of molten rock (or his bowl of chili) just before the nuclear energy hit, the Quickster (seen in the episode where the SpongeBob gang wore the super-costumes) was running from the blast, and Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were a father/son team scuba diving with some marine life and forgot their family relation afterward.
      • Similarly, the fish villains were wildlife who happened to be nearby, The Dirty Bubble was an algae-filled bubble, and Man Ray was with Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy when the blast hit and hates them because they shoved a stingray in his face as they tried to get away.
      • Ain't that a Shout-Out to Fantastic Four?
      • Yes. Or the X-Men. Or anything else involving mutants. Either way it's a great theory.
      • Maybe all of the residents of Bikini Bottom were once normal fish, who were mutated from the nuclear radiation, just like Godzilla.
      • "Pest of the West", "Dunces and Dragons", "SB-129", and "Ugh" joss that one.
      • Maybe, for them, time is faster than ours. 60 years for us is 6,000 years for them or something. This might have to do with the radiation.
      • Or only the ones with superpowers were the results of radiation.
      • Unless they had nuclear testing in the time of the trilobites, "SB-129" definitely shows humanoid sponges and starfish in our version of prehistoric times.
  • What about the Flying Dutchman? Perhaps toxic waste that became sentient over time and embodied itself by using the old legend of a disembodied pirate? He is green and glowy...
  • Perhaps this takes place in the Adventure Time universe. The bomb test? Precursor to the mutagenic Mushroom Bomb that spawned the Land Of Ooo and the Lich. Or possibly the bomb hit really close to Bikini Atoll(hey, if Adventure Time has Shelby the sentient worm, it could uplift fish). Adding to this, SpongeBob was Simon Petrikov's bath sponge.
  • How does this explain the Bubble Bowl, then? Is there really a football stadium in Bikini Atoll?

SpongeBob and pals live in prehistoric times.

  • Most of the cast of the show is just many ancient species that evolved into our current ones (or, possibly monkeys, which is why they seem so humanoid). They found some elements like metal underwater and used them to build various things, and no humans have ever been seen on the show—even when the characters went above water in one episode, all they saw was what could be considered prehistoric wildlife. The Movie takes place thousands of years later, where many characters, like Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, have died out, and humans are just evolving. The man SpongeBob and Patrick found at the beach was actually named David HasselhoffRule of Perception just had him wear a swimsuit and look like the actual David Hasselhoff.
    • Jossed. Remember the episode "Frankendoodle"? That artist at sea who dropped the pencil? He was a human!
    • Annother joss. There are several examples in many episodes of hints that the show takes place in the present.A lot of live-action sequences in the series do not reveal any prehistoric elements, as well as the many live-action scenes featuring fully developed humans in a present day environment. Plus, SB-129 and SpongeBob B.C. (Before Comedy) showed the caveman ancestors of SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward. Also, how could all the characters stay the same for over a thousand years in the movie? All I could see why that would make sense is SpongeBob's millions of Employee of the Month awards at the near start, but that wasn't explained or mentioned any further. Plus, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were perfectly developed humans already, so how would they even be there if the show is in prehistoric events? Also, the year settings for some episodes were near this generation.

SpongeBob SquarePants could count as a work of Speculative Biology.
  • For one, the show depicts sea creatures on the same intelligence level as humans do today. It is likely that the show takes place in an alternate timeline where intelligent life emerged as early as either the late Precambrian era (A couple million years before the Cambrian Explosion to the Ordovician period (485-443 million years ago), depending on which is more likely since during SB-129 and Ugh, we see that both Primitive Sponge and Spongegar have an intelligence level similar to that of prehistoric humans and we also see Ammonites and Orthocones during those periods and later early soft-shelled cephalopods called "Coleoidea" (the taxonomic family Squidward's kind descended from) in the Carboniferous period (359-299 million years ago) where Ugh probably takes place in.
  • Assuming that the Ordovician Extinction and all of the other Mass Extinctions after took place in this timeline as well, it meant that after every extinction event, these early sea animal civilizations would've been set back by thousands, if not, millions of years, especially with the Great Dying. It wouldn't be only until the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs when these sapient sea animals would finally be able start to build a stable civilization with the same complexity as humans.
  • If we were to go by the fact that Bikini Bottom is located at or near Bikini Atoll, The resulting radiation and fallout from the nuclear testing would've sped up the process of becoming a modern civilization for Bikini Bottom since some of the mutations ended up making fish there smarter, making the show one of the few speculative works that portrays that Humans Are NOT Bastards since they actually helped the fish get smarter, albeit indirectly.
  • We also see fantastical animals that only exist in this timeline such as a species of Jellyfish that can make zombie clones of their prey and jellyfish in genral adapting to make jelly which is pretty much their equivalent of milk as well as generating electricity, giant worms far larger than normal worms that could swallow cities whole, Piranhas that have bearlike heads, etc.

The show takes place around fifty years in the future.
In the episode "20,000 Patties Under the Sea" (2007), the thing in the abyss mentions that it had its last meal 79 years ago. Then, moments later, it mentions that the Krabby Patty tastes better than a sewage line back in the '76. Assuming it isn't referring to the 1876, that would mean that the show's setting would be about 50 years in the future.

Bikini Bottom is in fact Purgatory
...and SpongeBob and Patrick are the managers of this Purgatory.
  • Alternatively, it serves as Purgatory for some of the residents, and Hell for others. The latter group is comprised of Squidward, Plankton, Gary, and Mrs. Puff. Think about it- Squidward was a Jerkass or worse) in life, so now he is in his own personal Hell where he is constantly physically or mentally hurt by SpongeBob and Patrick. Mr. Krabs is also a manager of Purgatory/Hell, and his job is to make both Squidward and Plankton's lives miserable. Plankton was a master thief in life, so now he is there to fail one attempted theft for every successful one he perpetrated while he was alive. He finally runs of crimes to make up for during The Finale. I've no clue what Gary did, but he's been tormented by Mr. Krabs, tormented by SpongeBob, especially in that episode where SpongeBob bought that "Mr. Puffy Fluffy" pet, etc. He and Squidward also seem to sympathize with each other over the stupid things SpongeBob causes to both of them. Mrs. Puff is self explanatory.
    • Maybe some of the denizens are Sonic Characters.
      • Sandy: Chip/Light Gaia. Sandy is The Ace, Chip is a god
      • Gary: Emerl. Both very inteliggent despite being mute and treated as a pet.
      • Mermaid Man: E-102 Gamma. Both have lots of projectile weapons
      • Barnacle Boy: Mighty The Armadillo. Both are put upon and forgotten.
      • Dennis: Mephiles The Dark.
      • Man Ray: Nack/ Fang
      • Dirty Bubble: E-101 beta. Arch enemy of Mermaidman/Gamma.

Bikini Bottom takes place somewhere either on the Pacific coast or on the Gulf of Mexico coast somewhere in the distant future.

  • It could go either way. There is a tar pit that was shown in "Ditch'n" that could have either come from the BP oil spill or when prehistoric dinasours walked on what used to be earth before it became Bikini Bottom.
    • But it could also be the Pacific because of the moive. It appeared the Shell City was either Australia, right by the California coast, or near area where Mexico and California share a boarder.
    • Word of God says that it's under Bikini Atoll, which is in the middle of the Pacific.

Bikini Bottom is an official part of the Marshall Islands.
That means that SpongeBob and co. are citizens of the Marshall Islands. This also explains why they use dollar as a currency, since the Real Life Marshall Islands country also uses the US dollar as their currency.
  • That depends on if Bikini Atoll is part of the Marshall Islands
    • Bikini Atoll is indeed part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, which would explain why the characters speak English, as it (as well as Marshallese) is an official language of the Marshall Islands.

Bikini Bottom is the former capital city of a much larger ocean country of the same name
Notice how Bikini Bottom apparently has a national anthem (during the segment where Plankton in a Krabs robot tries to pry the formula out of SpongeBob), but major government offices are not by default located there (SpongeBob wonders if "the president" is in town during a police chase and most of the Neptune incarnations' residences are implied to not be near the area, implying neither of them is usually there), and has a number of distant historical objects and events that took place in the approximate area (the cleanliness war reenactment and the statue of SpongeBob's western ancestor buried beneath years of jellyfish wastes), the presence of many things that would likely fit better in a city of decent size and age (the numerous attractions like the Goo Lagoon beach, multiple large banks, Glove World/Glove Universe, several distinct stores, the fancy ship-in-a-bottle themed restaurant, museums, gathering areas, the Mermalair, though these all could show up individually and the last one just has to be in a convenient location to stop supervillains while still making sense), plus the presence of different cities like Rock Bottom and Tentacle Acres and culturally themed areas (shown in the pet store search for Snail Bites, either the Russian or artic pet store is in the icy wastes shown in the episode where Plankton sends everyone on a race to hold a distraction) and other decent travel distances without anything remotely mentioning international travel or borders, besides the county line in the movie separating the area closer to Shell City, and of course the numerous large roads traversed by bus.

  • This all leads me to believe Bikini Bottom is just a larger and older and former capitol kind of city in an oceanic network.

    • While the country is still named after it they decided to relocate government due to safety issues like fishing, the nearby volcanic activity, relatively close proximity to dangerous areas like the near-to-Shell-City county with its high crime rate and fish-catching raids by the cyclops-figure, supervillain crime (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy appear to have stopped the very real attacks by their rogues gallery several times before going into partial retirement, and at some point more superheroes were needed), dangerous ruins (Two of the videogames show an area where multiple shipwrecks occured, and a submarine and radioactive waste and a hibernating abyss-inhabiting monster are shown to be just sitting there for who knows how long in the show), hostile environment (Sea-bears and a sea-rhinoceros roam the streets unimpeded at one point, plus the within-catapult-range jungle and occasional large-scale weather episodes), and such madness.

Bikini Bottom takes place somewhere either on the Pacific coast or on the Gulf of Mexico coast somewhere in the distant future.

  • It could go either way. There is a tar pit that was shown in "Ditch'n" that could have either come from the BP oil spill or when prehistoric dinasours walked on what used to be earth before it became Bikini Bottom.
    • But it could also be the Pacific because of the movie. It appeared the Shell City was either Australia, right by the California coast, or near area where Mexico and California share a boarder.
    • Word of God says that it's under Bikini Atoll, which is in the middle of the Pacific

In the SpongeBob version of Italy, people (fish?) speak by whistling
Explains why, when Patrick was whistling, he called it Italian.

Contact with “Neptune’s Moon” causes permanent devolution
Which explains the handful of fish in the series that are... normal fishes, like in “SpongeBob’s Big Birthday Blowout” and “Neptune’s Spatula”. From there, it is possible Neptune himself also has the ability to devolve creatures, which explains the swordfish and seahorses who serve him.

    Episodes and Continuity 
.

Employee of the Month is set in season 3.
If you count the plagues on the wall, there are 26. Season 1 is set in SpongeBob's first year at the Krusty Krab, so accounting the time, this would be at least two years after "Help Wanted".

SpongeBob didn't actually curse in "Krusty Love".
Nothing he said to Mr. Krabs was censored out by dolphin chirps or anything like that. What he said to Mr. Krabs was harsh and insulting, but not actually profane, hence Mrs. Puff's shocked reaction.

The sand war scenes in the episode "Sand Castles in the Sand" is nothing but a representation of SpongeBob and Patrick's imaginations during their sexual roleplay.
  • Just watch the episode with this theory in mind. There are many, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY, MANY Ho Yay moments.
    • For example, the part where SpongeBob bends over and pulls the frisbee out of his butt, and before that it looked like it was his bulging crotch in his pants. There are a few others I don't remember now, just like there are in most post-movie episodes.
    • Anyway, they are both bored when they have nothing to do but sit in the sand, and so they begin to build sand castles.
      • It starts out realistic, but then it seems to become more and more fantastic and seemingly imaginary.
    • So, they're bored and forced to sit around. You do the math.
    • The imagined sand castle segments turn into a war, with SpongeBob and Patrick against each other. Aggressive, dominating sex play is not uncommon with male couples, so it makes sense that it'd get kind of rough and they'd end up in pain in the end.
    • I think this an incredibly broken theory. Wordof God never said they were even homosexuals...

The episode "Procrastination" where SpongeBob had an assignment on writing an essay is actually Mrs. Puff's revenge plot
Ok, here goes like this. Mrs. Puff knew SpongeBob was dumb and perfectionist, so she thought an essay would be the perfect way of shattering his psyche. Before, Mrs. Puff told everyone that there is no essay, and when SpongeBob came, everyone pretended that there was an essay. To make the plot more successful, Mrs. Puff cancelled all classes following the essay writing under the guise of a teachers' conference.
  • It is implied that this was a case in episode itself: if you watch the episode, look around from 00:20 to 00:40, you will notice that Mrs. Puff is giggling while giving the assingment and when she specifically says that essay was to be written next day and she said that there should be no goofing off, she looked suspiciously happy and sported a Slasher Smile/Psychotic Smirk while saying it. Especially when she said no goofing off, knowing that SpongeBob is a perfectionist and would not goof off if he was told to.

Wormy is actually an Eldritch Abomination with the ability to create illusions.
  • Wormy is a simple monarch caterpillar/butterfly, but at least that's what it wants Sandy and the viewers to believe. It is actually an Eldritch Abomination who cannot be seen and is only depicted through illusions. The buzzing horsefly head is Wormy's Game Face when it uses its disturbing illusions on the viewers, but it mostly masquerades as a butterfly to let our guards down. It is more willing to use its illusory powers to scare SpongeBob and Patrick, as they thought the "monster" ate the original Wormy, simply because Wormy projected an illusion of its original caterpillar self being gruesomely devoured. Then, after Wormy escaped from Sandy's dome, it terrified the citizens of Bikini Bottom by projecting itself as a gigantic monster and possibly tormenting them to break them. Luckily, Sandy was able to tame and capture it after its rampage, but it didn't seem to use its powers on Sandy, signifying that she managed to befriend it in some way. However, even after Wormy's capture, the buildings are still charred, signifying that the destruction Wormy did was actually real. And everyone seems to go back to normal afterwards, signifying that Wormy's capture brought them back to their senses. I mean, why else would anyone fear the butterfly?

"Greasy Buffoons", "One Coarse Meal", and "The Cent Of Money" compromise a story arc.
The episodes have a similar plot. Mr. Krabs going over the Moral Event Horizon and not jumping back like he did in "The Krusty Sponge" and other episodes. The Cent Of Money causes even SpongeBob to turn against him.
  • It would be sort of Odd for them to make Krabs a villain and then make him a good guy in the movie, unless the theory about Krabs suffering a Disney Villain Death in the true finale actually happens.
  • If "Greasy Buffoons" and "One Coarse Meal" are part of a story arc, then "The Other Patty" represents the end of this arc, as SpongeBob (sort of) rekindles the friendship between Plankton and Krabs.

The episode "Club SpongeBob" is 1984 told in a (massively) Lighter and Softer way.
Squidward is Winston, who is systematically broken mentally by the Party / the Club until he loves Big Brother / the Magic Conch Shell.

SpongeBob Meets the Strangler was a Batman Gambit by SpongeBob.
SpongeBob knew he couldn't find a bodyguard, so he pretended to hire a disguised Strangler. He almost gave it away when he said "Don't mention it, Strangler! I mean bodyguard."

"Best Day Ever" was about SpongeBob doing exstacy
In the long version of the song, he mentions a great deal of things that only a doped up person would do or say.
1."Just spent an hour tying my shoe".
  • He has no dexterity, due to drugs.
2." Those clouds can't hurt me"
  • Almost like some fear of clouds was clouding his view of the day.
3."Every flower, every grain of sand, is reaching out to shake my hand"
  • Is there really anything else that needs to be said, about a guy who comminicates with sand.
4. Not to mention he missed various parts of the Big Day. Namely the finale, Squidward's show.
  • Squidward never has any fans so to have a full house, and an applause, has to be within the mind of a junkie.


X, Coke, Heroine, Weed, 'Shrooms. You choose, point is he was higher than a Homerun on the moon

What about "sea"weed ?

"Just One Bite" is a parody or at least a reference of how kids get other kids to do drugs.
I'm not ripping off anything off the "Krabby patties are made of Cocaine theory". Despite it being to true and more apparently very obscene for Nickolodeon's taste I won't contradict it. I got that idea when I first watched that show. Squidward was the stoic protagonist and SpongeBob is the antagonist. After the episode Squidward must of went to rehab, because how else did he go back to hating Krabby Patties?
  • After his major O Ding on Krabby Patties and subsequent exploding, Squidward probably decided he'd had more than enough of the things.

The episode "SquidBob TentaclePants" is an allusion to CatDog.
Not the actually 'being fused together-part' by itself, but think about it. The two characters who are combined are Squidward (smart, sophisticated, but not so cheery and easily annoyed) and SpongeBob (hyperactive Manchild who is overly optimistic and ruins the other person's life continually). Sound familiar?

Also: "We're like brothers...only closer."

Well, I'd say the episode is more like a Shout-Out to The Fly. Well, not the part with Squidward and SpongeBob of course, but the end with that weird Squidward-SpongeBob-Patrick-Sandy-Pearl-Mr. Krabs-Mrs. Puff abomination, which could probably make some people imagine what would've happened if Stathis hadn't shot out the cables to the telepod Veronica was trapped in. And Sandy's teleportation device seems to bear a slight resemblance to Brundle's telepods.

  • Well both SpongeBob and Dog are voiced by Tom Kenny.

"Karate Choppers" was not a metaphor for anything
Alternatively, SpongeBob should have caused more of an uproar when he attacked that customer. And Mr. Krabs.
  • Sorry but you're not making any sense here. Can you elaborate a lot more or at least elaborate at all.
    • In other words, Freud Was Wrong.
  • The hot sauce drop was probably the results of SB getting stoned the night before.

Episodes "Chum Bucket Supreme", "Chum Caverns" are possibly Author's Saving Throw
In episodes "Plankton's Regular", Plankton gets one single customer, but Mr. Krabs won't allow him to have one and in the end the said costumer didn't like Plankton's food in the first place and Mr. Krabs laughed at Plankton's misery, but after that episode there were episodes like "Chum Bucket Supreme", where Plankton gets a lot of costumers, but Krabs is not so antagonistic as he was in "Plankton's Regular" and in "Chum Caverns" where Plankton also gets a lot of costumers, Mr. Krabs is not as antagonistic as he would be in "Plankton's Regular". While both episodes end with Plankton losing, the fact remains that Plankton gets a lot of costumers and Mr. Krabs wasn't outright evil like in other episodes. In "Greasy Buffons", Plankton also got a lot of customers and while Mr. Krabs was villainous, he still didn't want to make Plankton as miserable as he tried to do in "Plankton's regular".

The writers probably realized that in "Plankton's Regular" Mr. Krabs was too mean and Plankton's misery was too cruel, so they intentionally made Plankton to get a lot of costumers in later episodes to compensate for his misery in "Plankton's Regular" and they made Mr. Krabs nicer in those episodes, after realizing that he was too cruel in that episode, they intended for Plankton to lose, but due to his shortcomings and not of torment from Mr.Krabs, so they have satisfied their viewers: have bad guy lose, but still throwing him bone and have Mr. Krabs remain a hero and not outright evil.

Episodes after Plankton's Regular where Mr. Krabs is also villainous are another possible Author's Saving Throw and possible Deconstruction
The same troper continues the idea above. If you noticed up until "Plankton's Regular", SpongeBob was an extreme doormat to Mr. Krabs, but after that episode SpongeBob began to question Mr. Krabs' methods and objected to his evil schemes and is disgusted by Mr. Krabs's behavior in later episodes where Mr. Krabs is a villain. After "Plankton's Regular" came "The Krabby Kronicle" where Mr. Krabs forces SpongeBob to write lies about his friends in newspaper and those lies ruins their lifes and forces SpongeBob to work to death on the newspaper. SpongeBob becomes disgusted by this and writes a story about Mr. Krabs and his cruelty and how he forced him to work to death and writes lies about his friends. In "No Hat For Pat", he is disgusted by Mr. Krabs treatment of Patrick, in "Greasy Buffons" he is disgusted by Krabs, who was selling rotten and poisonous greasy food for profit and it hurt Patrick, in "One Coarse Meal" SpongeBob was disgusted by Mr. Krabs dressing as Pearl and scaring Plankton and laughing when he found out that Plankton was going to commit suicide because of him and SpongeBob tells it to Plankton and tells Mr. Krabs own secret fear and he was absolutely furious at Mr. Krabs in "The Cent Of Money" where he dragged him around town, continuously injuring Gary with the bombardment of magnetically attracted coins, all the while stealing from people. Finally, when we saw how injured Gary had became, Krabs didn't care and said he looked fine and went to attract a wave of coins before SpongeBob arrived, crushing Krabs into hospitalization. The writers probably realized that SpongeBob was also too mean in "Plankton's Regular" and wanted to make SpongeBob a nicer character and not to make him as evil as Krabs. Keep in mind that SpongeBob is the main character and we should see everything he does as good things and writers realized that SpongeBob was just as much of a villain as Mr. Krabs in Plankton's Regular and didn't want to make children's favorite hero a villainous follower of his Jerkass boss, so all the objections and disgust from SpongeBob of Mr. Krabs' tactics in following episodes is a compensation for his actions in "Plankton's Regular" an attempt to make SpongeBob a clear hero and not an extreme doormat and make him more likable and heroic and to satisfy their viewers. Later episodes like "One Coarse Meal", "The Krabby Kronicle", "No Hat For Pat", :The Cent Of Money" and "Greasy Buffons" are possibly [[Deconstruction deconstructions]] of Mr. Krabs's evil, showing that Mr. Krabs is so evil and cruel, that his evil ruins everyone's lives around him and that even his best frycook and loyal friend is disgusted by his acts. The writers could have made Mr. Krabs nicer, but instead wanted to show that Mr. Krabs' pursuit of money and his treatment of Plankton has turned him into a worse person and his actions ruin everyone's lives and even his own loyal friend and frycook hates his behavior. The writers wanted to show the consenquences of Mr. Krabs' behavior and after "One Coarse Meal", possibly the most hated episode of the series, they realized that they made Mr. Krabs too mean and wanted to make him much nicer, so Mr. Krabs becoming much nicer in recent episodes is another Author's Saving Throw to make Mr. Krabs likable and show his nice side, as is Mr. Krabs finally getting karma in "The Cent Of Money" (crushed by a tidal wave of money) and "No Hat For Pat" (clothes ripped off). "Plankton's Regular" could be considered the turning point of the series, due to this theory and the one above.

Every episode of SpongeBob takes place in an alternate universe.
This would explain the complete lack of continuity.
  • Jossed in "New Leaf".

The episode Selling Out is a commentary on the show's changes.
  • Mr. Krabs represents Stephen Hillenberg
  • Carl represents Paul Tibbit
  • Howard Blandy and his cronies represent the Nickelodeon executives
  • SpongeBob and Squidward represent either the fans or the voice actors.
  • The Krabby O'Monday's represents the post-movie seasons.

"One Coarse Meal" is displayed as a Mook Horror Show
Here we have Mr. Krabs torturing Plankton for seventeen days by stalking him in a whale costume. Plankton is driven to the point where he refuses to leave his post and even when he attempts to get himself run over on the road. Complete with a nightmare about being chased, swallowed, and even digested by Pearl prior to this.
  • Did the writers read about this trope and make an episode of it?

"A Pal for Gary" was actually just a bad dream
"A Pal for Gary" is one episode you would never want to see again (and if you haven't seen it, don't bother looking). It left many fans outraged and embittered, mainly due to SpongeBob's stupidity being flanderized beyond all belief at that time.
  • I say this event didn't really happen. Rather, it was a glimpse of a nightmare from Gary, who feared about the consequences of SpongeBob getting another pet, as well as his owner's naive tendencies.
  • Not just that, but the ending is all a lie. He said that he would always take Gary to work, but in later episodes, he doesn't. In the movie, which is canonically the ending, he doesn't. At least, the ending was just a bad dream.
    • New theory: Gary had this nightmare sometime after running away from home in "Have You Seen This Snail?". SpongeBob is particularly neglectful (at least until later) in the episode; his obsession over the Dirty Bubble challenge manifested itself into the form of Puffy Fluffy in the mind of Gary.

"Sleepy Time" and "Suds" are part of the same story arc
The events of "Sleepy Time" were a surreal fever dream that took place when Sponge was being taken to the hospital. This explains why "Sleepy Time" is slightly "off" and people's actions seem out-of-character and antagonistic.
  • Alternately, "Suds" begins with SpongeBob getting a midnight snack, so it immediately follows "Sleepy Time."

"Doing Time" took place after "Demolition Doofus"
In "Doing Time", Mrs. Puff said this quote after being incarcerated:
"Mrs. Puff: Ok, you can do this, Puff. You can get through this without losing your sanity. Oh, that's a road we don't want to go down again."
Chances are she was referring to her psychopathic rage in "Demolition Doofus". Notice that her dislike of SpongeBob is more prominent in "Doing Time" compared to most other pre-movie episodes.

SpongeBob: You're Fired takes place in Season 1, shortly after Help Wanted
Mr. Krabs underestimates SpongeBob's usefulness and overestimates his own cooking skills, meaning this probably takes place before that episode where Mr. Krabs bred the appetizer monster and realizes he's a terrible chef. Squidward's a jerk but not overly so, and even goes out of his way to save SpongeBob from those restaurant mascots, and isn't shown to hate SpongeBob as much as he does in later episodes ("I hate the smell of burnt Krabby Patties even more than you") meaning this must take place before all those Squidward torture porns that depict SpongeBob going out of his way to ruin Squidward's life. Patrick as dumb in this episode as in most post-movie ones (he, surprisingly, knows the meaning of "fired" and tries helping SpongeBob out of his slump rather than trying to make things worse like in other episodes), and this might even take place right after "Tea at the Treedome" since Sandy doesn't seem to have a lot of interaction with Patrick in this and labels him a "freeloader". And SpongeBob himself doesn't go out of his way to try and annoy anyone, rather the annoyance comes because he's so depressed from being fired. Also, SpongeBob acts as if this is the first time he's been fired even though he already has been in "Karate Choppers", meaning it might take place even before that.
  • One flaw; as SpongeBob is fired by Señor Taco, he laments "But I've given you the best years of my life, Mr. Krabs!"

"Just One Bite" is a metaphor for Christianity
Why? Because SpongeBob is seen as an angel, but squidward says he has no soul, before showing a hell like world. This implies Squidward is an atheist as well.

There existed an alternate ending to "Band Geeks" that never aired.
To be specific, an ending where Squidward's band played well at the Bubble Bowl for all of three seconds before everything fell into disaster, causing the crowd to boo and Squilliam to smugly mock Squidward enough to push him into a depression.The episode ends with Squidward huddled up in bed looking miserable, before SpongeBob and the band show up at his house to play music for him in an attempt to cheer him up, but their bad playing only makes things worse for him.As it turned out, the animation staff vastly preferred the ending we all know, and the alternate ending is never talked about, though the idea of Squidward's efforts in trying to outdo Squilliam, only to end in failure was re-done for "Squilliam Returns."

This show is not gonna be as happy as it was starting in season 10. There's gonna be a new episode that starts a new story arc.
In Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean, SpongeBob SquarePants wakes up after having a dream about his last moment with his father Harold. Once he arrives at Mrs. Puff's Boating School, he realizes she is early because the clocks in her home were set forward by an hour. She meets with other people at the school who arrived early, including Sandy Cheeks, the head of the school's archery club; Squidward tentacles, a new member of the archery club; Freddy Tentacles, Squidward's older brother; Poppy Puff, one of the schoolteachers; Sheldon Plankton, the student council president; and an unknown red-haired fish fixing a heater for Plankton. After school, SpongeBob performs a summoning ritual and summons a Servant of the Patrick class, much to his displeasure, as he hoped to summon a Servant of the Saber class. Patrick is initially dissatisfied with SpongeBob, who uses one of his Command Seals to order Patrick to listen to all of his orders. While the order is worded vaguely and therefore pointless, Patrick admits that he now realizes her skill as a mage. The next day, SpongeBob skips school and shows Archer around the city, revealing to him that he has no wish for the Holy Grail, only a desire to win. The following day, SpongeBob senses a magical barrier being set up at school. As night falls, SpongeBob attempts to destroy the barrier, but is then confronted by another Servant, identified as being of the Lancer class, who engages Patrick in a sword-fight. As they battle, Patrick correctly deduces that Lancer is in fact the ancient Irish hero St. Uncle Patrick. The battle is witnessed by a student, whom Lancer pursues and mortally wounds before fleeing. Finding the student's body, SpongeBob identifies him as the same red-haired boy who was helping Plankton, and decides to use magic to revive him. After leaving, SpongeBob and Patrick realize that Lancer's Master will sense that the student has survived and have Lancer finish the job. They head over to the suburbs to save the student, only to be attacked by another Servant, whom SpongeBob identifies as belonging to the Saber class.
  • This troper really likes this idea!
  • Hold on, what the hell is this? This sounds less like an idea for a story arc and more like the rejected pilot for The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nóg: The Animated Series! Seriously, you'd have to be on enough drugs to think SpongeBob will turn from a happy-go-lucky Nicktoon into what would happen if SpongeBob and his friends crashed the set of Over the Garden Wall.

There will be a new christmas episode this year
Seeing how we a got an upcoming halloween episode I see room for a christmas themed one this year.

The sequin milkshakes and bowtie french fries from "Patty Hype" were previous gimmicks that failed to turn a profit.
SpongeBob, Squidward, and Krabs all know about this. It doesn't fully explain why they happened to have the products on hand when they showed them to SpongeBob to mock him, but it would give a somewhat-mundane explanation as to why they existed in the first place.

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III was Retconned by Back To The Past.
Back To The Past ended in Man Ray being arrested by the younger Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy (allowing him to effortlessly escape later) instead of trapped in the tartar sauce that SpongeBob and Patrick would find him in in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III, erasing the episode from the timeline and the events that spurred Man Ray's Heel–Face Turn, explaining his Snap Back to evil in later episodes.

The pie bombs in "Dying for Pie" were made as assassination weapons.
Well, they never did explain why someone made bombs that look like pies. Although Squidward didn't intend to kill SpongeBob, those pies would be perfect for someone who did want to kill someone. Combine this with SpongeBob's statement in "I'm Your Biggest Fanatic" that all kings love pie, and we could have many potential regicide plots. Those pirates who sold Squidward the pie were part of a conspiracy!

The alternate dimension switch that Plankton experienced in “The Algae’s Always Greener” caused him to change his motive and plans a bit.
“Friend or Foe” shows how the two became bitter rivals as Mr. Krabs’s Krabby Patty became the landslide winner over Plankton’s Chumburger, but various episodes show that the Chum Bucket is a restaurant that is impossible for Plankton to maintain due to having very few, if any, customers at any given time. “The Algae’s Always Greener” shows how managing a successful and well-maintained restaurant is not as enjoyable for Plankton as he originally thought it would be. If one believes that the show has any sense of continuity whatsoever, especially if one was to take the movies into account, then instead of simple Aesop Amnesia, it was a switch of motive from competition between businesses to a spiteful “if I can’t be successful, then no one can.” Specifically, he now aims to steal the secret formula so he can leak it to the public. After he realized that stealing Mr. Krabs’s success isn't as great as he originally thought, he decided that simply bringing Mr. Krabs down to his own level of failure on its own would be a colder revenge. One can imagine that Plankton’s been making shady business deals on the side with various experiments and inventions to keep the Chum Bucket where it is as a front while he continues his plans to steal and leak the formula in order to drive the Krusty Krab out of business as he’s already accepted that he won’t be able to meet or surpass the business model that Mr. Krabs set up.

Why was SpongeBob oblivious to Puffy Fluffy being a monster?
One of the following could be the reason:
  • Puffy Fluffy hypnotized him.
  • Puffy Fluffy being a monster is only visible to the pets, so the only thing SpongeBob saw was cute Puffy and Gary.
  • Puffy's just good at pulling Wounded Gazelle Gambits.

The events of Rock Bottom are the bus driver's revenge
SpongeBob and Patrick did not enter the wrong bus. In order to take revenge on SpongeBob for battering him with his baloon, the bus driver purposefully drove to the Rock Bottom bus stop instead of the intended bus stop. Since SpongeBob and Patrick were the only passengers, nobody noticed. He then circled around Rock Bottom and entered it from the other side to bring Patrick back to Bikini Bottom since he had no vendetta against him. After that, he circled around Rock Bottom many times but only drove to the bus stop whenever SpongeBob was incapacitated from entering the bus in order to troll SpongeBob. Every time it was the same bus with the same bus driver.

"Squidville" occurs before "Opposite Day."
Squidward moved to Tentacle Acres not just to get away from his neighbors but also as a temporary home. During this time he became depressed because he missed Spongebob and Patrick, and eventually took some underwater "drug" to cure it that made him do irrational things with the reef blower (although we never see him take such a drug because of the intended audience for the show). He leaves the place not due to a "menace to society" motif but because he learned that his house had just finished its reconstruction. Upon his return home the two became annoying once again, and Squidward used "Opposite Day" as a Revenge Plot against them.

"Just One Bite" is a loose adaptation of Green Eggs and Ham.
In the episode, SpongeBob is Sam I Am and Squidward is the other guy. They both have the same message (you won't know if you don't like it until you try it), but thankfully, the other guy doesn't suffer Squidward's fate.

In "I Heart Dancing", Squilliam was hired by SpongeBob as payback.
Squidward ends up having to dance in Squilliam's musical, doing the same dance SpongeBob does; SpongeBob probably found out Squidward ruined his audition upon recovering, and hired Squilliam to teach him a lesson. He even slyly says to Patrick, "I was up for that part," which not only refers to him being literally up and awake after recovering from his overwork, but also to refer to the fact he wanted the part Squidward took from him and decided to let him have A Taste Of His Own Medicine.

Plankton was the one who wrote "Krabs is a (dolphin chirp)" in "Sailor Mouth".
Plankton and Krabs are bitter rivals after all. Plankton wrote it out of envy with Mr Krabs' success and all, so he wanted to insult him and get Krabs to say bad word number 11, so one day he would accidentally repeat number 11 out loud in the Krusty Krab and get all his customers to leave. While it wasn't his main intention to have anyone other than Krabs read it, he did achieve his goal, as instead SpongeBob and Patrick read the dumpster writing and repeated number 11 in the Krusty Krab, causing all customers inside to leave.
  • Later episodes actually do give credit to this theory. We see Plankton outright vandalizing the Krusty Krab with insulting images of Krabs in "The Krusty Slammer". In "Old Man Patrick", there's alley graffiti saying "I Love the Krusty Krab", crossed out to say "Krusty Krab Stinks, Eat at the Chum Bucket".

A weird ending of "I Had an Accident" is a jab at slapstick comedy
Remember the ending of this episode where a gorilla attacks SpongeBob and friends and after SpongeBob questions what's it doing underwater it leaves on a zebra? The writers made it to poke fun at random, wacky comedic shows like "Ren & Stimpy" with poorly structured plotlines and weird humor. Little did they know that after Season 10, the show became the very thing they made fun of.

"SpongeBob's Place" is an analogy for the show changing.
The episode is about SpongeBob, the only person who can cook good Krabby Patties, leaving and the Krusty Krab going into disarray. This represents the Only the Creator Does It Right mindset that the only good seasons are staffed by Hillenburg. Krabs dressing up as SpongeBob and cooking terrible food that people still pretend to enjoy because they think he made it represents the staff changes behind the scenes, and the show's drop in quality (and increased order of episodes per season). Some of the dialogue, like Squidward saying "[the customers] said to make them good, like they used to be" and a fish screaming that the only problem is that the creator (SpongeBob) isn't making them, makes me feel like this was intentional.

SpongeBob was Obfuscating Stupidity in "The Big Bad Bubble Bass".
Throughout the episode, he's actually just elaborately trying to get revenge from the events of "Pickles" and "Moving Bubble Bass". He does things like have Bubble Bass test dangerous, defective toys, and later has him snatched up by a ghost pig. SpongeBob is doing this on purpose since he is fully aware that Bubble Bass is trying to steal his action figure, similarly to "SpongeBob Meets the Strangler".

There are two Perch Perkins.
Why does Perch switch between being orange and purple between episodes? There are two of him, with the orange one being a veteran reporter and the purple one being newer. In The Patrick Star Show and seasons 4-8, we exclusively see orange Perch. Purple Perch, due to his lack of experience, is more unprofessional (outing SpongeBob's location in "Krabby Patty Creature Feature", insulting Squidward on the air in "Squid Plus One").

In "Unreal Estate", the pepper Squidward added to the pineapple caused Patrick to eat it.
When Squidward added the pepper to SpongeBob's pineapple causing him to think he's allergic to his house, the pepper might have sweetened it to the point Patrick smelled the pepper and ended up eating the pineapple at the end of the episode, claiming it as his own.

In "Sea-Man Sponge Haters Club", SpongeBob was trying to apologize at the end.
SpongeBob tries to serve punch for Squidward's "We Hate SpongeBob Club", but trips and spills it on his air conditioner, setting the house on fire. After that, SpongeBob offering that they hold the club in his house wasn't just obliviousness and him not knowing what it was for; he felt bad for his mistake and wanted to make up for it. Supporting this is that not only does he serve them food, he offers to let Norton share his story about him. Whether this is because he wants them to reconsider their opinion of him or just give them a healthy place to vent is up to you.

Flatts wants to kick SpongeBob's butt for revenge.
If you think about it, this makes total sense. Flatts, who said he liked to kick people's butts, then he said he was going to kick SpongeBob's butt throughout the episode. This might refer to an earlier episode: Sandy's Rocket. In that episode, SpongeBob and Patrick think they were on the moon after taking Sandy's rocket for a ride, so they capture the townsfolk, thinking they were aliens. One of the townsfolk SpongeBob captured? Flatts. After this incident, it became very likely that Flatts wanted revenge on SpongeBob after doing this, hence why he became the titular role in The Bully.

The guy who ordered the Monster Krabby Patty at the start of "All That Glitters" was Plankton in disguise, and the cause of the episode's plot (SpongeBob breaking his spatula as a result of attempting to flip the "patty") was one of his plans Gone Horribly Right.
He knew that nobody aside from SpongeBob could cook Krabby Patties as well as he did, so he tried to make SpongeBob accept an order that would cause his spatula to break, which would cause SpongeBob to have an emotional breakdown and leave work to care for "Spat", resulting in either Squidward and Mr. Krabs to pick up the slack with dubious results, resulting in customers choosing to go to the Chum Bucket instead thanks to the downturn in quality. It didn't work out in the end, as SpongeBob instead tried out new spatulas.

The reason that everyone thought Sandy was stupid in "Squirrel Jokes" is because she's the only squirrel.
I don't mean they didn't have another reference of how smart squirrels could be. I mean that because she's the only squirrel, if Spongebob makes jokes about squirrels, there's only one person in all of Bikini Bottom he could possibly be referring to.

Imagine if an alien came from space and someone who had befriended the alien started making claims about what aliens are like. Even if you don't believe all aliens of that species are like that, these claims probably had to come from somewhere so you'd assume that the one alien you know is like that. This is essentially what's happening in this episode.

Sure, some of the fish thought that all squirrels were stupid, but some of them gave no indication that they thought anyone besides Sandy was stupid.

Why the Fry Cook Games hasn't been brought up after its titular episode
After the entire episode of 'The Fry Cook Games', it's been established that Mr. Krabs and Plankton were banned for life from the games because the head of the games discovered what happened behind the scenes (i.e. Patrick joining the game after applying for work for Plankton for five minutes just to compete in the games and Krabs and Plankton's overly competitive nature throughout the episode) or Mr. Krabs and Plankton just gave up on the games all together, considering Plankton and Krabs are of certain ages where they can't compete in the games anymore, Plankton not having any employees to represent the Chum Bucket, SpongeBob refusing to return to the event due to what happened in the episode, and Squidward...either not having interest in the event or not having an athletic bone in his body.

The Pretty Patties became hated because of Mr. Krabs
When Spongebob made Pretty Patties in "Patty Hype", they were legitimately quite good and high quality which is why they became popular. But as soon as it got new management (i.e. Mr. Krabs took over his business), the customers showed up the next day demanding refunds because the patties did stuff to them. How did this happen? One thing to consider is that the patties have to have come from somewhere, in this case the person running the stand. It's been shown that Spongebob knows his way around making patties, therefore he most likely would've known what he was doing with the Pretty Patties. Meanwhile when Mr. Krabs started managing the business, he had to make new Pretty Patties and serve more of the customers instead; given he's a cheapskate who doesn't actually know how to make regular Krabby Patties (that's what he has Spongebob for), he most likely underestimated the effort and quality control that went into Pretty Patties and cut corners wherever he thought he could, resulting in the new patties giving the customers a variety of cosmetic changes. Because of this, he irrevocably ruined the business overnight and the Pretty Patties became despised thanks to his greed.

"Born to be Wild" was originally going to have a moment of Getting Crap Past the Radar
More specifically, the scene in which Patrick and Spongebob call themselves "bloodthirsty" and begin literally drinking it out of a soda cup. Something just seems off about the cadence of that joke and the scene it's in. It's as if the animators/writers wanted to show Spongebob's mouth as being a different color when he sighs afterwards, but couldn't because of Executive Meddling.

The new canon with The Patrick Star Show and Kamp Koral exists in Hypertime.

     The Ugly Barnacle 
The Ugly Barnacle actually happened within the universe of Spongebob Squarepants
There was an ugly barnacle, and it did kill an underwater civilization of men and merpeople. The only survivors were either gods (Neptune) or superheroes (Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy). Yes, yes, this inspired Atlantis. The underwater dead became so infected and mutated by the fallout of ugly that they spontaneously resurrected and became sentient. Yes, yes, Bikini Bottom is just like a past-Zombie Apocalypse civilization. And that is why SpongeBob sometimes looks like an Eldritch Abomination.
  • Jossed, because everyone died.
    • Not necessarily. "Everyone" could refer to everyone in a specific REGION, and it may not affect Bikini Bottom.
    • Furthermore, even if everyone dies, who says they have to stay dead?
      • Just got an idea from that - the residents who died from the barnacle's ugliness died, and then they, through some process, came back to life as a form of zombie. Over time, they became the citizens of Rock Bottom.
      • The souls of the (humanesque) residents possessed the fauna. This explains how Mr. Krabs "sired" Pearl: they were father and daughter in the past life.
    • Alternately, we're looking at their afterlife.
  • Alternative alternately the show takes place After the End
  • Or it will happen in the distant future, and scientists managed to send a warning message back in time just before the Universe collapsed into the Ugliness Singularity. This warning was preserved and passed by oral tradition until eventually becoming the book.
In addition, Barnacle Boy got his name because the ugly barnacle killed his parents.
Mermaid Man took him in as an adopted son, where he tried to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.
  • For this to be true, it would have to mean that Barnacle Boy was elsewhere when the Ugly Barnacle struck. I support this theory.
    • Or Barnacle Boy could in fact be related to the Ugly Barnacle, which might explain his human-like appearance. Perhaps the residual effects of "the ugly" also gave him his superpowers.
    • Jossed. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were both human, they gained their superpowers from over microwaved popcorn.
  • Or it could be that his fear of it inspired him to take up the moniker to terrify his enemies in the same vein as a certain other superhero.
    • Barnacle Boy is Robin with Batman's backstory, and once he masters his fear and can fully harness the power of ugly (and eat a full-sized Krabby Patty) he will become Barnacle Man, his own superhero and the ultimate defender of undersea lifeforms!
  • THEN WHAT ABOUT THE DIRTY BUBBLE?

The Ugly Barnacle is a metaphor for the atomic bomb.
It worked for Braid.
  • Since SpongeBob is already known to take place under the Bikini Atoll which was known for atomic testing this might actually be true.
  • Alternate theory: The Ugly Barnacle was the very first creature to have been mutated by the radiation from the bomb.

The story is a victim of mistranslation.
The ugly barnacle was actually so ugly that everyone dyed...it pink, in order to make it cuter.

The barnacle was actually not ugly at all.
Patrick is dumb.

The barnacle is Cthulhu.
This explains many things, like its presence underwater, its ability to kill everyone, and why it's so ugly. Describing it as a barnacle is simply the closest comparison one can conceive to describing its true form.

The barnacle is some kind of sea Gorgon.
Well, being turned to stone kills people.

The Ugly Barnacle is an abridged version of the events of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The story revolves around a character who is "ugly", which can be interpreted as someone who feels that they aren't worth anything. The "He was so ugly that everyone died" part is pretty much the events of Instrumentality, where the protagonist feels that both he and everyone else are worth nothing because they can't understand each other. The "The End" is a reaffirmation that "The End Of Evangelion" has occurred. The story is, however, ignorant of the glimmer of hope at the end, where Shinji and Asuka are alive, sitting next to each other at the beach.
  • To wit.
  • After The End Of Evangelion happened, the world was rebuilt. Kaworu rose up from the LCL sea and emigrated to the Bikini Bottom, pretending to be a dumb starfish. He became a friend of SpongeBob and told The Ugly Barnacle tale to cheer him up. It did not work.

The Ugly Barnacle is the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion itself.
Disturbing imagery (best expressed as "ugly" without traumatizing one more individual), pessimism, and The End of the World as We Know It were way too much for everyone to bear. As the anime hit episode 23, some were so disgusted with the plight Rei had suffered, that they instantly died from heart attack. A few even went insane and began to perform surgical abortions on themselves. By the time of End of Evangelion, People committed mass suicide, accidentally killed themselves while popping their eyes out, starved to death because they couldn't stand eating something, or simply died from heart attack en masse. Fortunately, "everyone" in this tale meant every single person living on the landmass, so the marine life was safe. At least for now.

The Ugly Barnacle is Man.
  • Man kills things with ugliness?
  • Don't you mean MMMAAAANNNN?

The Ugly Barnacle was the demons.
And then, everyone turned into zombies.

Everyone's death is the cause of the Barnacle's ugliness, not a symptom.

We're all dead because the Ugly Barnacle killed everyone.

The Ugly Barnacle brought about the previous Apocalypse.
And we are all descended from it because it repopulated the world.
  • All the organisms on earth used to be incredibly beautiful... until the Ugly Barnacle killed them.

The Ugly Barnacle is the Walpurgis Night.

The Barnacle isn't actually a barnacle, but instead the Dark Dragon.
Its nightmarish, twisted visage caused reality itself to die, and be consumed by the Barnagon before it exploded into the new world, giving its life to revive everyone because of the influence of Lucas's heart.

Patrick wasn't telling a narrative tale, but rather recounting a history
All of it really happened. Indeed,it happened on dry land, and the "barnacle" was a human and the story took place in the (to us) present day, but the story was slightly warped over time to make it a barnacle. The few survivors (remember, it was warped in the telling, so not everyone died) retreated to the seas and over the millennia became more biologically compatible with marine life (perhaps some sort of machine was created to accelerate and manipulate genetic change). They remember almost nothing about their land origins save a few myths, including the story of their past society's downfall, and have only recently reached a point where their society parallels what modern humans have. Sandy- and probably all squirrels, really- is so strong because any creature would have to be to survive on land, as most of the world is a nuclear wasteland. Patrick is a keeper of ancient lore for...some reason. Maybe he's smarter than we think, or perhaps nobody else wanted the job. Patrick is warning SpongeBob of the dangers of the past so he will make efforts to increase his good looks and so avert a repetition of the past.
  • You, Troper, are a brilliant scholar. I salute you and your works to further the knowledge of mankind.

The Ugly Barnacle is Haruhi Suzumiya.
Explains a lot, doesn't it?
  • She's certainly ugly enough
    • Jossed! This troper finds her too beautiful to call ugly.

The Ugly Barnacle killed everybody.
He was shunned for his ugliness, causing psychological damage. He wanted revenge, and sought the power to take it upon all who rejected him.
  • So, the Ugly Barnacle is Carrie? Hell, I want in!

The word "barnacles" is a curse word in the SpongeBob universe because of the Ugly Barnacle killing everyone, so the word is used when something is ugly, foul, or a generally bad situation.
Hey, the word's context had to come from somewhere.
The Ugly Barnacle is a time lord
It explains how everyone died, and yet Patrick was still around to tell the story. Alternately, Patrick is a time lord, and the events of the Ugly Barnacle haven't happened yet.
  • I'm pretty sure that everyone and there grandma has been accused of being a time lord by now
Additionally, every human being is descended from Rory.
Rory has died six times already. He's not going to let a 7th death stop him.
The barnacle is a god.
Patrick was exaggerating.
How could EVERYONE die, if we are alive right now?

There is an off screen character NAMED "Everyone"
And the Ugly Barnacle kills "Everyone" - the character with that name.

The story takes place in Purgatory...
...and "Everyone" was an alias being used by Jesus, who died.
  • And the barnacle is a metaphor for sin, then?

The story did help Spongebob
But he was in denial of it because it wasn't the story he was expecting.

The barnacle was phone
It went insane from being an outcast from society due to its ugliness. It was so crazy that it went on a killing spree, and one of the victims was the girl's father. And because it was so crazy, the barnacle then believed that IT was the girl's father, which is why it said to stay away from her, and referred to her as its daughter.

The Barnacle was Aizen
Being ugly was part of his plan to kill EVERYONE
  • Aizen, ugly?
    • He could be using Kyoka Suigetsu or maybe Patrick is referring to his final form

The Barnacle Was Once a Man.
Or maybe he was a barnacle man. Or maybe he was just a barnacle. But he was still ugly. So everyone burninated themselves.
  • In the PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA! PINEAPPLEUNDERTHESEA!!!

Patrick was/is the barnacle
Patrick is an Eldritch Abomination who is recalling personal experience. He once lived on another planet, in another dimension, etcetera...His true form (i.e. his 'ugliness') killed everyone on said planet, in said dimension, etcetera...including his friends, loved ones, everyone! So riddled with guilt, and so wrought with grief, he came to Bikini Bottom, hoping to start a new life, disguising his true form. When SpongeBob was upset over his own 'ugliness' Patrick reinvented his own tragic tale into a harmless children's story...it didn't help at all...That may be because he slowly went mad from the guilt/grief, or possibly hiding his true form. Subsequently, the story wouldn't exactly...convey...the desired effects. Either way, he is subtly telling SpongeBob to get over himself, as HE knew firsthand that SpongeBob was being dramatic. He has every right to be indignant. This also may coincide with his being a time-lord. This troper likes to believe his real name is Szaellcaraeth.

The Barnacle was only ugly from one point of view
Many barnacles travel on the bodies of larger animals, either in parasitic or communal relationships. This means that it might have been introduced to a radically different area. The standards for ugliness were different, or locals simply couldn't handle the sheer difference. This would be similar to how a simple butterfly was ugly enough to nearly make Bikini Bottom Go Mad from the Revelation Cthulhu-style in another episode, despite not causing direct harm. Ironically, the barnacle might not have even been aware of what was happening, as barnacles have limited, usually short range, senses.

Not everyone died directly from The Barnacle's ugliness
Maybe he looked at himself in the mirror, went crazy because despite all his efforts to look good, and decided to kill everyone so that he would be the most beautiful person in the world. Alternatively, just a few people actually saw the barnacle and did go crazy, killing everyone else. One of these people might have written the whole story down, which is how it survives to the present day.

The Ugly Barnacle is Dark Gaia

Everyone DID die, and they're all living in the Afterlife.
After all, even if the Barnacle DID reproduce, his offspring would also have died from the sheer ugliness.
  • This could also be fridge horror. After all, if he was so horrific everyone died then at least they would have been killed moments after gazing upon his ghastly visage. However, since they can't die any more they are now forced to look at him for all eternity.

No other charcters than Sonic and Eggman are in the game, and it was poorly recieved.

The Ugly Barnacle is Zim
  • Zim gave up taking over the world, so he just killed everyone in the sea, and took it over.
  • He's ugly, cause he's an alien, an Irken to be exact.

We ALL have two lives each
Just that thanks to the main character, our first lives are used up.

Because what else could make it so everyone died? After all, the cracks destroyed everything in every timeline.
  • But if the cracks destroy timelines, they never lived to begin with, so how does the narrator know that they died?
    • The narrator is a time traveler.

The story was supposed to convey An Aesop about inner beauty
The ugly barnacle was a villain whose inner "ugliness" led to everyone dying at his hands. Patrick just didn't tell it right, because, well, he's Patrick.

The Ugly Barnacle is why Plankton has a phobia of whales
Barnacles are commonly associated with being stuck on whales.

The Ugly Barnacle is the reason "barnacles" is used as a form of profanity
The story, and thus the origin of the term, was lost until Patrick rediscovered it.

The Ugly Barnacle is a meteor impact or pollutants that induce(d) global warming.
The global warming will raise the sea level, drowning many cities and people. Meanwhile, it will make natural disasters happen more frequently and will make agriculture harder, reducing food production. In the end, the climate change is so severe that we all starve to death or get killed in wars for resources, just like how the dinosaurs did.
  • Maybe Patrick has been around since the dinosaur days, and is recounting them
Patrick wanted to say that SpongeBob was not as ugly as the Barnacle.
At least, SpongeBob does not kill everyone with his ugliness. Sadly, Patrick was not a good storyteller.

The Barnacle is a Daemon Prince of Malal.
with nothing to gain and not a trace of rage, it butchered a world simply because it was there. certainly fits the bill.

the ugly barnacle is Cthulhu in a dormant state and when he awakens...

The Ugly Barnacle is a tale about the Precursors from the StarCraft universe.
The Ugly Barnacle is thought to be either Sarah Kerrigan, Arcturus Mengsk, Zerg/Protoss Hybrids, the Void or some combination of the four.When the storytellers were asked how they looked like, they couldn't describe those individuals as anything but ugly-looking barnacles. Hence the oversimplified tale of how the Precursors fell.

The Ugly Barnacle is the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
So powerful, so irresistible, so devastating.

The Ugly Barnacle was not random improv by Patrick, it was actually a rather old parody of children's stories that Patrick took to be serious.
Because of how famous it was and how old it was, it also worked its way into culture, spawning the mild expletive "Barnacle(s)", used to refer to something that was ugly, unpleasant, or unfortunate.
  • ...What? Were you expecting something crazier?

The original barnacle was actually female, this fact was lost due to mistranslation.

"Everyone" does not actually refer to everyone; rather, it refers to one person who happens to be named Everyone.

Tobi is the barnacle
  • Alternatively the ten tails is the ten-tailed barnacle and the sage could only stop it by using his awesome Rinnegan powers

The barnacle is based on a serial killer.
The story is a simplified/altered version of a Bikini Bottom (or other) resident who was crazy and killed a bunch of other people. Or the story is based on a real killer, like Charles Manson or John Wayne Gacy.

Every "One" died.
The barnacle only killed people with the name "One."
  • To add to this, this includes everyone, or everyone who has been, a Chosen "One". Therefore, the barnacle is a textbook example of a Hero Killer.
    • Jossed, the closed captions (on both TV and Netflix), says "everyone".
      • Not really, the closed captions have been wrong before, saying "crabby patty" instead of krabby patty and "Bubble Bath" for Bubble Bass.

"Kill Again" was based on the story of the ugly barnacle.

Man-ray was the Ugly Barnacle.
Obviously, if everyone died the minute they looked at you, you'd start to notice it was something to do with you, mabye even Go Mad from the Isolation. Eventually the Barnacle decided he'd had enough and wanted to rejoin society. So he learned how to make a hypnosis helmet and took control of the first body he saw. But all that alone time had made him cross the Moral Event Horizon(and to be honest, wouldn't you?), and he ended up becoming the supervillian we love to hate today.

Need further proof? Remember that scene in Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III whereMan-ray removes his helmet, only to reveal he doesn't actually have a head?There's no way a humanoid body could survive without a head, unless there was no 'head' to begin with! Fortunately, Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy knew that the Ugly Barnacle developed an allergy to cold things and tartar sauce and managed to kill him off for good. The only problem is, the body still thinks it's Man-ray...

Barnacle Boy is the Ugly Barnacle.
But everyone got resurrected and stabilized Barnacle Boy so that he can't kill anyone anymore.

Squidward is related to the Ugly Barnacle, and everyone knows it.
Why else would they torment him on end?
  • And in a recent episode, a criminal dumps chum on his face in order to become ugly (It Makes Sense in Context). Who does he look like afterwards? Squidward.

The barnacle left no witnesses
Can't blame him, at least no one will witness his ugliness

The barnacle wasn't really ugly.
When the story is presented in the Spongebob episode Something Smells it at first seems to be paralleling Spongebob's situation. In that episode SpongeBob turned out to not actually be ugly, his breath just stinks. The Ugly Barnacle might have been in that same situation. The episode adds a new layer to the story of the barnacle.Note that ugliness can't normally kill people, but fumes can.

Everyone didn't actually die.
They dyed. Patrick Star never wrote down his original story (some people suspect that he was, in fact, illiterate) the listeners just misinterpreted what he said and wrote that everyone died.

The pokemon Binacle is the Ugly Barnacle
Look at it and try telling me it isn't ugly! As for why everyone died? He was so ugly that everyone made fun of him, so the Binacle got pissed, evolved into Barbaracle, and kill off everyone in revenge.

Only intelligent beings died.
The barnacle's ugliness killed everyone, not everything.
  • That explains how Patrick was able to live to tell the tale.

The Ugly Barnacle takes place in the Half-Life universe.
During the Black Mesa incident, one particularly ugly Barnacle was teleported to Earth from Xen and, in addition to being very ugly, kept ensnaring Black Mesa scientists, security guards, and HECU marines with its tongue, then ate them all. Because the Barnacle was so ugly and eating everyone, HECU nuked Black Mesa at the end of Opposing Force, so everybody (in Black Mesa) died. The end.

The "story" is only the front page of a book that Patrick never finished.
Rather than the entire story being two sentences, the body of the story is actually the first sentence. "The End." is actually a caption to the image below, which shows the aftermath of the events. The book then, would explain who "everyone" was and how his ugliness was responsible. Everyone refers to the main and supporting characters, while the book itself would end abruptly with the narrator dying.

SpongeBob was The Ugly Barnacle.
The story didn't help him at all because it brought back horrible memories of his accidental genocide.

The Ugly Barnacle killed everyone, but not everyone of every species.
Think about it. If everyone died, how did they learn the story? Patrick didn't point out everyone of every species died. It could have just killed off all the Megalodons or something like that.

Literature/Edge of Tomorrow is actually the film version of this story
Think about it. The Omega is an ugly barnacle who kills everyone multiple times.

Honestly, it explains a lot. A barnacle so mind-bendingly ugly it can kill everyone with its ugliness? Isn't out of place with most SCPs. It also explains why the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom are still alive even though everyone died - the survivors pressed SCP-2000 or whatever the Bikini Bottom foundation branch's equivalent is. Hell, the barnacle might be even the real reason why SCP-2000 was built.

The Ugly Barnacle's killing of everyone is responsible for the nature of the universe as we know it.
The Barnacle's existence at any one point in time and space is what causes the entire universe to move in the direction of entropy. What Patrick really meant by "everyone died" was that The Barnacle is the sole reason anything dies in the first place. And since everything we know of eventually ceases to exist, that's how The Barnacle killed everyone!

The Ugly Barnacle is Phineas' Biological father.
It would explain why Phineas looks so fuckin' unkenny whenever he looks forward

The Ugly Barnacle is Decade's fault.

The Ugly Barnacle will end up joining the Straw Hat Pirates.
First of all, it's worth pointing out that both of the source materials feature pirates. Moving on. Barnacle has a very Dark and Troubled Past since it involuntarily killed everyone with its ugliness. The Ugly Barnacle is also quite powerful since anyone who looks at it dies. Luffy would let almost anyone join his crew (including a skeleton), so why not a barnacle? It has both a tragic backstory and a badass power to boot...let's face it, it's only a matter of time until The Ugly Barnacle becomes a Straw Hat.

Hey, Patrick didn't say that Ugly Barnacle killed everyone with its ugliness, it could've been anyone who committed omnicide due to it's ugliness.

The Ugly Barnacle is a Joker Undead who won the Battle Fight
When the Joker Undead wins the Battle Fight, all life on Earth dies. The Ugly Barnacle's power could've been that it was so ugly that any opponent who fought it killed themselves to avoid having to look at it. And it's power was so great that not even the blind were exempt.

In all obviousness, The Ugly Barnacle was a stand-in for Spongebob's rancid breath.

The Ugly Barnacle was The Toxic Avenger.
Toxie is pretty hideous and he tends to dismember and kill a lot of people in his movies. "Everyone" was merely referring to all the nasty criminals he faced.

The ugly barnacle comes from another reality.
  • A reality where Mermaidman and Barnacleboy never got their powers, and thus could not control all creatures of the sea. This is the natural fate to every dimension that does not have them in it, as when the ugly barnacle is born, everyone dies, instantly, from the sheer force of power its ugliness emanates throughout the cosmos. Mermaidman and Barnacleboy are the only ones to keep it in check, and once they die, their universe will follow the same fate as so many others, leaving behind only an empty wasteland void of life. Not even the stars and planets will survive, thus restoring everything to a blank slate, as if nothing had ever existed at all...

The Lich is the Ugly Barnacle.
He's definitely ugly in more than one way, and as a result of his wish for "the extinction of all life" everybody did die. Well, until Jake retconned the wish and life came back. Why Patrick of all people remembers is unclear.
  • I'll just assume he was friends with Prismo.

Thanos was the Ugly Barnacle
And Patrick is a reincarnated Star-Lord.

Patrick misremembered the story.
The proper story of the Ugly Barnacle actually has a happy ending. Patrick only remembered the first one and a half sentences of the stories, so he improvised an ending. This also explains why the story is so short.

The Ugly Barnacle is an accurate prediction of the future rather a past story.
Patrick is able to see into the future, but he is unable to see or unwilling to tell that it is in the future (hence the past tense verbs). The Ugly Barnacle will cause the extinction of all life in the universe of the show.

     The Krabby Patty Secret Formula 

Krabby Patties are made with sea beef.

What's sea beef, you ask? It's the under water equivalent of cow beef. It comes from sea cows!

The Krabby Patty secret formula is human blood (what's counted as a human in Bikini Bottom)

The reason nobody else is able to make Krabby Patties is because in each batch of Krabby Patties SpongeBob puts a drop of his blood on the patties; nobody else would think of that. In the episode "Plankton's Army", Mr. Krabs only told Squidward that Plankton wasn't the secret ingredient so he wouldn't quit. In a way plankton is in fact the secret ingredient since they are easy to find and catch. If Mr. Krabs sees one he will catch it and use its remains in the Krabby Patties. This is also why Krabby Patties are healthy—when you eat them you can use the blood for sustenance.

  • And it somehow makes that Mr Krabs as a doctor scene have some sense.

The Krabby Patty secret formula does indeed contain plankton.
Mr. Krabs just doesn't want anyone to know about it, and thus lied to Squidward. Considering whales are shown as fully sentient, and in "One Coarse Meal" it's shown that they eat sentient plankton...then at the very worst, eating plankton would be considered taboo. Plankton refuses to believe this is true, so deludes himself into thinking that isn't the case. And let's face it, Mr. Krabs is cruel enough to do this for money.

There is no "secret formula", and if there was, it was not important to the Krabby Patty.
Mr. Krabs is just using it to mess with Plankton. What makes the patties so good are the fry cooks. SpongeBob made the patties out of authentic love and not for the purpose of bringing in money. Notice that any time Squidward or even Mr. Krabs himself tried to cook the patties, their secret formula didn't save them from being awful.
  • Maybe Krabs merely invented the concept of a secret formula to make his food more appealing. The secret formula is only a marketing tool.
  • In "Neptune's Spatula'', Neptune was able to make a thousand Krabby Patties in the time it takes SpongeBob to make one, but they are, by his own admission, no good.
  • When Plankton kidnapped SpongeBob in one episode, he actually captured the secret formula.
  • "The secret ingredient is...nothing!"

Continuing on this, the actual ingredients are awful.
The actual ingredients are just as bad, if not worse than Plankton. Krabs is clearly a cheapskate, so he doesn't bother with decent materials. However, his incredible skills manage to mask this, even make the food taste good. This why he hired SpongeBob in the first place-he's creative and skilled enough to find a way for the food to taste good. Squidward's apathy towards fry-cooking is why his Krabby Patty's taste terrible. If Plankton was as creative as SpongeBob, the Chum Bucket would have plenty customers.

The Secret Formula to Krabby Patties includes crab meat.
It's why Mr. Krabbs makes such a big deal about keeping it a secret, despite the recipe being useless unless you have a decent fry-cook (as one of the above theories states). If the folks of Bikini Bottom knew he was chopping up his own kind, possibly his own relatives even, for the sake of hamburgers, he'd be run out of town for sure! And he couldn't make money from the Krabby Patty if he was on the lam!
  • Or he's using aquatic wildlife in general, already dead so he doesn't have to do any dirty work.
    • That would make senses since crabs are scavengers.
    • Or maybe they're made from non-sentient creatures. The show has some of those (sea horses, the lion in Plankton's gladiator show, possibly jellyfish).
      • Yeah. "Blackened Sponge" had Sandy herding some sea cows. I assume that's what patty meat is made from.
  • Of course, unless no one knows what chum really is, maybe they just don't care enough to run cannibals out of town...
    • Depends on what species Mr Krabs is harvesting. In the Fry Cook Games, no-one called out the guy selling "fish-sticks." This hints that eating sentient creatures is legal. There's likely a taboo on it, so Krabs keeps things secret.
    • Anyone who's tried to lure sharks knows what chum is: fish blood, fish oil, fish chunks, etc. The Bikini Bottom cops are extremely incompetent.
  • So,nobody remembers how in one episode,after biting off a bit of a Krabby Patty,he says: "So,that's what I taste like?" Of course that could be just a metaphor,or this troper just has troubles with ears...
    • That was indeed a metaphor. Mr Krabs was referring to a conversation he overheard a moment prior to that scene, in which that specific patty was compared to him.
Child fish: Mommy, my Krabby Patty tastes funny.
Mother fish: Well no wonder. It's all old and dried out, like that man right there. [points to Mr Krabs]
The Secret Formula is SpongeBob himself, more specifically, his love.
In the episode Neptune's Spatula, we NEVER see SpongeBob put on anykind of "secret" formula. However, he does read it a bedtime book. SpongeBob also is seen in other episodes giving loads of attention and care to them. Neptune, who makes the patties perfectly but coldly, loses because love is the secert formula. Its also what makes SpongeBob SquarePants such a good fry cook, because its his nature, and Plankton cannot make anything edible.

What about Mr. Krabs inventing the Krabby Patty? He lied. Without SpongeBob, the supposed "inventor" turns out to be as much of a Lethal Chef as Squidward and Plankton, because Krabs only sees the food as a commercial tool to fuel his Greed, and never really cared about cooking them. In contrast, SpongeBob cooks it because he wants to, and puts all of his passion into crafting it. Krabs sees food as a means to an end; SpongeBob sees food as an end in itself. The myth of the "secret formula" is nothing but a marketing tool both to put all attention to Krabs instead of SpongeBob, to mess with Plankton, and finally to censor the truth because when they realize that all you need to do to make good food is to treat it OK, many, better food seller will use it and make Krabs go out of business, or worse, make SpongeBob too independent from the Krusty Krab and therefore rob him of everything Krabs had (e.g. SpongeBob's Place)

  • Perhaps Krabs is a jerkass because he's rationing love for the Krabby Patties...
  • He pours his heart and soul into the Krabby Patties, leaving barely anything. Plankton's such a bad cook because he lacks any passion for cooking, and is doing it solely out of his rivalry with Krabs. He pours all his love into his inventions, hence Karen. Mr Krabs has become a worse person due to removing almost all love in his body to make Krabby Patties because they aren't selling well.
  • And wasn't there an episode where Pearl gets hungry (on a growth spurt or "spout") and SpongeBob feeds her a krabby patty, and she is suddenly fine? (I can't remember the episode name, it was probably "Growth Spout") Mr. Krabs asks what the secret was (because he'd been feeding her all night), and SpongeBob says "It was love, Mr. Krabs. It was love." Sure seems like a likely candidate for the secret ingredient.
  • In Plankton's Army, it is revealed that "a cup of love" is a separate ingredient in the recipe.
  • The secret formula can't have love in it. Plankton stole the formula in The Movie, and people enjoyed the patties. And there, Plankton was the complete opposite of love. The only way it would make sense is if you can substitute love with a very warped version.
  • I think the secret formula is love. SpongeBob makes patties with love, and that's why they're great. Mr. Krabs is now a jerkass because he siphoned all his love into the krabby patties back when the former fry cook didn't love making them. Squidward doesn't love making krabby patties, and that's why his cooking is terrible. Same with Plankton. In the movie, Plankton siphoned some guy's love out and put it into the Krabby Patties. We don't see this guy, of course, but a WMG's a WMG.
  • To carry on with this, Chum also has a secret ingredient... Hatred. And it actually is just as good as a Krabby Patty. The reason Plankton can't make it is because the "hate" he puts into it is actually envy and greed. Squidward, on the other hand, is genuinely hateful of pretty much everything, which is why his chum is so good that, when eating it, SpongeBob forgets what a Krabby Patty is.

The Krabby Patty secret ingredient is Cocaine, or another highly addictive drug.

A lot of money can be made from drug dealing, and we all know how much Mr. Krabs loves money, but he can't risk getting caught and arrested, so he hides the drugs in his Patty formula. It would explain why Krabs gets so much business and has so many 'loyal customers'; they're addicted to his Patties. Plankton could also be addicted—Krabs gave him either a trial-Patty, or the drug itself, before they became business rivals (perhaps in college)—which is why he gets all sweaty and desperate when he's near a Krabby Patty. He's learned to control his addiction for the most part, but when taunted, he will relapse. He's tried to mimic Krabs 'recipe' countless times, but can't make it as well as Krabs does. Drugs would also explain why a single bite of a Krabby Patty got Squidward completely addicted.

  • It can't be drugs. That would be too inappropriate for this show and you know it!

The secret ingredient is thousand island dressing.
The ingredient costs less than a dollar, starts with a letter after R (Plankton had apparently tried everything in the alphabet up to "raw sewage"), and it would fit the nautical theme of the show. Also, Krabs once dressed as a clown and built a play place to entice children to come, which is similar to McDonald's. And guess what the "special sauce" on a Big Mac is?

The Krabby Patty is made of chum
  • Wouldn't it be something if the one thing that has eluded Plankton all these years was right under his nose this whole time.
  • Well, in one episode, it was revealed to contain ' a pinch of chum " which explains Plankton's overuse of it.
    • But that was from Plankton's POV which was revealed to be false so he was probably lying about chum being an ingredient.

Krabby Patties actually are nutritious.
The secret ingredient may be a nutritional supplement or several of them, all of which have obscure names. The reason why Plankton hadn't discovered it is because at least part of it uses a supplement with a name alphabetically after raw sewage.

The secret ingredient or another portion of the Krabby Patty is actually a closely guarded government secret.
Krabs just so happens to have loads of dirty secrets about it that even the incompetent as hell Bikini Bottom police will treat as important (or he just has them in the bag with either lots of cash or lots of secrets). Because of this, he can afford to keep a monopoly on the ingredient(s) in question. If it doesn't start with X or anything else after r, it being something so closely guarded that even Plankton or Sandy would have no idea it existed would give Plankton a severe downside to discovering it.

The Krabby Patty secret formula has changed over time, and it’s now just a generic supermarket patty that’s been made to taste different thanks to the cooking.
“Friend or Foe” shows the origin of Plankton and Krabs’ heated rivalry. It also shows how the Krabby Patty came to be, and it was due to a lucky accident. Mr. Krabs never saw exactly what amounts of which ingredients fell into the vat of meat. He just knew that the results were great. For all intents and purposes, the original formula was a secret even from him. It was just guesswork to put together an actual recipe from the taste of the meat and what ingredients he still had remaining at his old restaurant. He was able to “refine” the recipe over time thanks to the techniques and skills of the fry cooks he hired over time at the Krusty Krab. This turned the patty itself into a generic patty that the Bikini Bottom residents can just buy at the store. Not that the customers know this thanks to how the patties are cooked.

The "secret ingredient" doesn't exist.
As Binging with Babish pointed out, rather than importing expensive ingredients, Mr. Krabs made the Krabby Patty its own guerilla marketing campaign. The patties themselves are just regular beef with nothing added. Plankton, however, is certain that there IS a secret formula, and Krabs plays along just to torture him.
  • Jossed. Karen has video footage of a bunch of ingredients falling into a vat of ground beef which led to the creation of the Krabby Patty. Also, Plankton was able to successfully recreate the Krabby Patty in the movie. There must be something in there.

The secret ingredient is MSG.
Because MSG makes everything taste better! Also, Babish said in the aforementioned video (if we're gonna go off of what he said) that if there really is a secret ingredient, it's likely MSG.

The secret ingredient is a seasoning consisting of an undisclosed blend of spices.
Like KFC!

The secret recipe contains an extract from an illegal plant.
Like Coca-Cola in real life who uses Coca leaf extract, the same leaf where the illegal drug cocaine comes from (though coca extract doesn't induce a high like cocaine), in their trademark soda, Mr. Krabs uses a non-illegal chemical compound from a highly illegal plant. Like how Coca-Cola being the only company in America to be able to legally source coca leaf extract due to its legality, Mr. Krabs has the exclusive rights to receive and use this ingredient. That's why it's so heavily guarded in "The Great Patty Caper".

The Formula isn't (just) the recipe for the Patties, but (also) the deed to the rights to the Krabby Patty Name and the ability to sell it
Assuming the theory by Film Theory is true, then why would Plankton be able to use the formula, the answer is that it's simply the deed to the rights to call his burgers "Krabby Patties", or at least the Bikini Bottomites will think it's the krabby patty because Plankton "has" the Formula, see the Film Theory video for a better explanation

Krabby Patties are made out of businessmen.
In "Spongebob, You're Fired", SpongeBob applies to work at other food service establishments. We're shown that his employers at all these places wear big costumes of the main food item that the restaurant serves. This is treated as being completely normal, despite it being an absurd concept in real life.note  Mr Krabs’s doesn't wear a costume, but instead dresses business casual. Which means Krabby Patties are made out of businessmen. Yes I realise how absurd this sounds.

     Miscellaneous 

SpongeBob shares the same universe with Jimmy Neutron
In the Jimmy Neutron episode "Operation Rescue Jet Fusion", when Jimmy and co. are swimming for Jet Fusion's tracking device, right behind them is a conspicuously placed pineapple...
  • But SpongeBob is animated in 2D and Jimmy Neutron is animated in 3D. It could just be a coincidence.
  • Considering SpongeBob's universe is no stranger to Medium Blending, what with the use of live action, cut-outs, stop motion, and CGI all being present in the show at one point or one recurring occasions alongside the hand-drawn animation, it doesn't make the theory any less plausible. And concerning how a CGI cartoon like Jimmy Neutron could possibly coexist with the live action segments of SpongeBob (which on occasion use Medium Blending as well), that could probably be chalked up to a matter of artistic license of visual perception.

Tentacle Acres is a ghetto.
Let's face it - Bikini Bottomites hate Squidward. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that they hate the entire race of neurotic six-tentacled octopi, and the only ones who realize the true purpose of the Acres are the members of the Cephalopod Lodge.
  • Squilliam neither seems to be living in Tentacle Acres or a member of the Lodge. Possibly due to being rich, he is one of the few members of his race to win the respect of the Bikini Bottomites.

There are many different lobsters in Bikini Bottom that all look alike.
This is why, in some of the new episodes, "Larry" doesn't recognize SpongeBob.

It's because it's not Larry, it's a different lobster.

Considering the fact that The Movie is canon as the finale...
The episode "Band Geeks" is probably canon as the last TV episode. I mean, seriously, it is widely considered the best for the series, as well as Squidward finally being happy, it's just so obvious.

  • It doesn't really have to be.
    • If any episode were a candidate for the penultimate SpongeBob story, I would bet on SB-129 instead, since the calendar hypothetically places it after many of the other episodes on the show, it hits the earliest and farthest points in the timeline, framing the entire show into one big picture, and it's a better sendoff for Squidward, not so much giving him a big victory as much as teaching him a big lesson, finally making him truly appreciate SpongeBob for who he is before The Movie rolls around.
  • There's also a chance that the episode takes place long after the movie. The Krusty Krab was neither shown nor mentioned in the episode (except as a reference to Squidward "playing the cash register"). Plankton served his time and learned his lesson. No one seemed to mind Plankton being there, and he wasn't the villain – he was simply an excellent keyboardist and lackluster harmonica player. Plus, the episode features characters who weren't present or only made cameos in the movie, making it a good candidate for a "happy ending."

The reason littering appears to be treated as a very serious crime is...
  • Just because they're underwater. Garbage that seems harmless in our world is known to be deadly to undersea life. Anyone who's seen the movie Happy Feet knows how dangerous it is for an animal to get stuck in a bit of trash.
    • Alternatively, it's a poorly executed Green Aesop.
      • Doubtful. There's never an explanation as to why it's treated so seriously, there's nothing to indicate that it's supposed to be for more than humor.
      • Then again, given the fact that nuclear testing took place here, trash does have the potential to do worse things given the right baby steps.
    • To add on, trash in the ocean has been known to cause more problems than just animals getting stuck in them. There was an incidence in real life where some well-intentioned but ill-informed people threw used tires into the ocean in an attempt to create an artifical reef. One of the reasons it failed as a project was toxins released from the tires and into the ocean. Not to mention that underwater, trash is more prone to moving around.

Santa was all a dream (or a fatigue induced hallucination).
  • When Squidward gave all his things and SpongeBob came and told him about Santa, the moment SpongeBob walked away, Squidward passes out from running around and not having any sleep. Him seeing Santa after that is a dream. Alternatively, Squidward didn't fall asleep and just had a fatigue induced hallucination.
    • That would explain those spazzes that made Santa look as if he was drugged.

The Original Captain Magma (the man who originally wore Squidward's costume) is the Son of Professor Magma
  • He shouts "krakatoa" because his mother was an Indonesian Woman, the costume functioned as a containment devise.

The Original Captain Magma becomes Professor Magma after contracting a Mutation disease.
  • It altered his appearance permanently in exchange for enhanced power and increased intelligence (hence the title "Professor").

Sir Mixalot ships Patrick/SpongeBob and Squidward/SpongeBob.
For a Burger King commercial, Mixalot wrote a version of his one-hit wonder praising the squareness of SpongeBob's... er... pants, the gist being (quote) "Squid and seastar can't deny." Given that the original song was about how men find big butts irresistible, the lyrics must state Mixalot's belief that Patrick and Squidward find SpongeBob's geometric ass attractive.
  • Don't remind me of the GOD-awful Burger King commercial.

All analogies to water seen in Bikini Bottom (such as Goo Lagoon, but can also be boiling 'water', tears, etc.) are actually oil.
If it was simply water, there wouldn't be anything to see; it'd become part of the mass of seawater around them. Even if you refuse to accept the rest, you have to admit that Goo Lagoon is made up of a nasty oil spill. The rest can be explained as side effects of the pollution.
  • Actually, it's mentioned in one episode by the narrator it's mud. I have NO IDEA how taps work, though.
  • Maybe the water is brine.
    • And the seas are the equivalent of those underwater lakes.
  • Battle For Bikini Bottom says that it's goo. Make sense, because, well, GOO Lagoon?
  • Guys, in this series, Water Is Air. I willingly suspend my disbelief

The series will end with SpongeBob confessing to Sandy, or trying to.
Or at least him trying to ask her on a date. Think about it. Multiple official sources/medias have stated he likes Sandy however it's a "secret crush". That crush has gone nowhere in the past ten years or so. It seems OOC of the writers to add romance in while the series is going and actually keep it. So it makes sense it would happen during the finale.
  • I bet my money on it happening in the series.

The Bartender in the Movie put something in the ice cream to make the boys 'drunk.'
Why do I always get the nuts?
  • I think that was a joke on them getting hyped up on sugar. Like, "sugar high".
  • I always just assumed that everything at the nut bar would have been slightly alcoholic anyway, since it was made up like a bar area. Just that SpongeBob and Patrick are lightweights.
    • And they had way too much.
    • And they stayed up all night doing it.

The magic conch shell is an item in a mass religion
Think about it, In the episode where SpongeBob and Patrick ask questions to the magic conch, the explorer that finds them also has a conch. Who's to say that there may not be thousands of other followers of the magic conch...

Alternatively to and based on the WMG above, the magic conch is Inglip.
Warning: Ridiculous.
Both blurt out random-like stuff when you ask them something, and both seem to be completely pointless. I think i just found something else Inglip uses to communicate with humans.

The Movie is the end of the series.
This is why King Neptune is balding and has a daughter, plus there's the whole ending and the Krusty Krab 2.
  • Alternately (about King Neptune and his daughter) perhaps there are two Neptunes—King Neptune the king and King Neptune the god. Maybe the king was named after the god (or vice versa).
    • King Neptune is not necessarily the god Neptune, kind of like Jesus is a very common first name but not everyone named Jesus is Jesus Christ.
    • The movie definitely happened way after the timeline of the series. I realized this when Patrick kept saying road, road, road. At first it seems like just a lame thing to make you laugh because you think it's an echo when really it's just him saying road over and over. But, if you watch new episodes of the series, if you remember the Road Song they sing in "A Squarepants Family Vacation", it starts out by patrick repeatedly saying road. Patrick probably was just reminded of the song and said "sorry" because it was clear SpongeBob wasn't in the mood to join in.
    • Jossed. See for yourself.
  • However, a second movie is being made. So it's anyone's guess.

They are what happened to all the members of Lost

SpongeBob is Sawyer

Mr.Krabs is Jack

Squidward is Ben

Sandy is Walt

And Patrick is Kate

SpongeBob invented Water bending.
By carefully controlling the flow of water through his holes, and controlling a swarm of cells detached from his body floating around him, he invented waterbending.

The series isn't in Chronological order
The episodes after the movie take place before it, sometime between the last episode before the movie and the movie itself. SpongeBob and Patrick went into a temporary state of extreme immaturity and annoyance, and began becoming more mature, until the end of the movie where they've become respectable adults. That explains the OOC behavior of the characters post-movie and the lack of characters from the movie being mentioned. Any episode with explicit references to the movie, such as the ones with KK2 in them, are: A. Episodes taking place before the movie but with episodes with events similar to the ones in the movie taking place before them. B. A dream. C. Take place after the movie.
  • Likewise, the last episode will be after the movie.

Old Man Jenkins is number 2 from The Prisoner
  • Think about it- he keeps popping up as different fish people, and he is also willing to complain/nag to everyone like number 2 did to number 6.

There are many more than 2 Krusty Krabs
  • Starting with the Krusty Krab 2, Mr. Krabs expanded his empire to numerous other restaurants, all of which he expects SpongeBob and Squidward to maintain by themselves. Whenever a Krusty Krab is destroyed at the end of an episode, it is not rebuilt off-screen, but is simply abandoned. Whenever the Chum Bucket is not visible across the street or a landmark is closer or further from the Krusty Krab than previously shown, this is a different restaurant from the original Krusty Krab.

Season 4 onwards actually is set after the movie
  • The giant "2" on top of the Krusty Krab 2 was not meant to be canon, and was purely a visual identification for the audience; KK2 still exists, along with many other Krusty Krabs (see above).
  • SpongeBob and Patrick's Flanderization into Jerkasses was the result of a misinterpretation of the Aesop they learned at the end of the film: they thought that acting mature means acting like a dick.
  • Plankton broke out of jail (wasn't there an episode that began with him breaking out?). He still needs the formula because he never bothered to write it down, he just fed it into a machine that began cranking out Krabby Patties.
    • Alternately, he still tries to steal the formula because his first priority is running Krabs out of business- no formula, no Krabby Patties (at least in Plankton's eye).
  • King Neptune has not appeared in-person since the film, so he and Mindy's absence could be explained as the writers just forgetting about them.
    • Wrong, he appeared again in The Clash of Triton with the same appearance and voice-actor as Neptune's Spatula. No sign of Mindy, though.
  • SpongeBob and Patrick completely trashed Goofy Goober's while drunk from the ice cream, so Goofy Goobers would probably have to a) close for a little while to clean up, and b) never let SpongeBob and Patrick in again.
    • Perhaps SpongeBob and Patrick's banning from Goofy Goober is the reason they became douchebags later on?
  • Mr. Krabs became Faux Affably Evil thanks to being frozen, yet still aware for days. Plankton is even more of a Butt-Monkey because he crossed his own Moral Event Horizon. When he got out, Plankton became mellowed out, even shocked at himself for the lengths he went too. However Krabs is hell-bent on revenge, and wants to make his enemy as miserable as possible. He's even more of a cheapskate due to being angry that no-one helped him.

To continue with the Plankton torment, a future episode will have him developing his own secret formula for something and be very successful, even more so than Mr. Krabs.
The catch is that he developed it by accident and doesn't know some of the key ingredients. It'd be a race against time to figure them out before he runs out of product to sell. Of course, Mr. Krabs, not wanting Plankton to be successful at anything whatsoever, will actively try to steal or sabotage his formula (he's supposed to be the good guy, by the way). The episode would end with the remaining batch being destroyed (probably by SpongeBob) just before Plankton can figure out the final missing ingredient, and the recipe being lost for good. Plankton will end up crying on the floor in complete misery as Mr. Krabs just looks and laughs at him, as customers leave the Chum Bucket for the Krusty Krab en masse. End episode.
  • The creators already played on this with the "Chum is Fum!" episode.

The Patty Wagon from the movie is made from an actual hamburger, like the kind that would be eaten by humans, made of beef.
  • If you compare the size of the Patty Wagon and the "Cyclops" (and other human characters in the movie), it is sized about right for this comparison. Also, when Dennis finds a sesame seed from the car, he actually calls it a sesame seed, whereas Krabby Patties have "seaweed seeds."
    • They do use sesame seeds in the show though, in "Just One Bite" SpongeBob tells Squidward that he comes to work early to "count the sesame seeds".

In Bikini Bottom, littering is a capital crime/the severity of the punishments for crimes are flipped.

This is practically canon. TONS of times, characters are punished way out of proportion just for littering. Think about it. The Tattletale Strangler (jail), Squidward (community service, CONSTANTLY) in the episode where he has to clean up Bikini Bottom, Mrs. Puff (twenty years of prison) in the episode where she crashes into the Krusty Krab, Patrick/SpongeBob (90 days) in the episode that Patrick gets a driver's license and boat, etc. Also, speeding laws do not exist. (Cops don't notice if a person is speeding through the city way too fast, they notice that the boat had no front license plate.) I'll elaborate more on this tomorrow...

  • Don't forget about Blackjack, he was also in prison for littering as well.

The SpongeBobs and Patricks at the end of "Back to The Past" ended up either getting killed or kept coming until the world was filled with them and they took over.

I got this idea from watching the episode, and wondered what happened to all those SpongeBobs and Patricks by the end. They either took over the world and made the world by their own ways or they were all killed so they didn't take over.

Most of the show is Squidward's delusions.
This would explain the Flanderization. Over time, Squidward became more fed-up with SpongeBob's childish antics and his lackluster life-breaking under the stress. SpongeBob, not the brightest bulb, didn't realise his pestering was degrading his neighbour's mental state. By the time he realised this, it was too late-Squidward began to hallucinate(which was at the beginning of the flanderization). It became a vicious cycle. When Krabs passed the Moral Event Horizon (in his hallucination, anyway) the last threads of his sanity snapped, and was trapped in his delusions. Whenever the characters act like who they were pre-flanderization, it is Squidward's mind trying to heal itself. If Krabs is no longer a Karma Houdini, it means Squidward is gaining back his sanity.

In the SpongeBob SquarePants universe, whales are fish instead of mammals.
Pearl talks underwater and breathes it just fine, instead of having to hold her breath. It was also odd that in "Karate Choppers", after saying "It's poisoning your mind", Mr. Krabs sniffs Sandy and walks away muttering "Hmm mammals" as if his own daughter was not a mammal as well.
  • Well, for one, the mutated by radiation theory might explain why Pearl doesn't breathe. Going along with the theory that Mr. Krabs raised Pearl from a very young age, he forgot she wasn't a crab.
  • Jossed in that episode where Sandy ran out of air, Pearl said that she was an air-breathing mammal.

There is a nearby town called "Bikini Top"
And probably various other swimwear towns.
  • Maybe "Bikini Top" is on the surface? Like on that island, perhaps?

All cops in Bikini Bottom are sadists

Look at the episode "Hall Monitor". The cops apparently saw Patrick was scared of the picture of the Maniac. They share a sneaky look and keep showing it to Patrick, who keeps screaming. After a while, they get bored and tell Patrick to be careful while driving off, laughing. In the episode, "The Patty Caper", at the end, where the judge sentences Mr. Krabs to give out Krabby Patties for free all day the next day, flash forward to the next day, where Mr. Krabs is screaming while two cops hold him down. As the episode ends, the cops are LAUGHING while Mr. Krabs thrashes and screams in horror.

  • Oh my god. When I was a kid, I always hated the cops for some reason, and now I know why.

In SB-129, the voices that Squidward hears saying "Alone." in the white void were the voices of other dimensional travelers who wished to be alone, and therefore became trapped in that same void.
Since Squidward got there through frantically pressing the lever in the time machine, he was sent to that void which is presumeably empty for the most part. Through various instances of scientific advances or time machine mess-ups, other people became trapped in that same void. Due to the emptiness and expanse of it, words that are spoken echo through the void. Because there is a possibility that all of the time-travelers got there through wanting to be alone, the word "Alone" was the word that echoed to Squidward. Since Squidward came with that same desire to be alone, if he hadn't found a way out of the void, he would have eventually become one of the disembodied voices.

The "Spongey Patties" from the episode "The Krusty Sponge" are made from real sponge "meat."
They caused people to turn yellow and get holes, as if they were turning into sponges, and this is reminiscent of when SpongeBob and Squidward were injected with snail plasma and turned into snails. Plus, I don't buy post-movie Mr. Krabs' explanation that some old, rotten patties "turned yellow." Plenty of fish actually ate the Spongey Patties and got sick, but if they were that rotten, no one would even go near them (let alone eat one!), like in "Born Again Krabs" when Mr. Krabs attempted to sell one patty that wasn't even bad enough to turn yellow.
  • It's been shown that SpongeBob is capable of regnerating parts of his body almost immediately, and doesn't seem to mind at all. So it's concievable that SpongeBob could do this.

There is still another Squidward in the freezer from SB-129, even if the real one is being shown in the cartoon
The real Squidward will die of natural causes eventually, so, 2,000 years later, the Squidward from the freezer thaws.

Two monotheistic religions exist in The 'Verse
In one episode, we see a couple discuss whether Neptune is the king of the sea, or if it is Poseidon. Of course, since we know that Neptune exists and no idea about Poseidon, this raises some questions on the writers' idea on religious tolerence...
  • Maybe it's the equivalent of Protestantism/Catholism. Poseidon came before Neptune, so Neptune would be Protestantism.

The Movie is a Christian allegory
In the movie SpongeBob leaves Bikini Bottom to save Mr. Krabs from being killed by King Neptune, he is later snatched up by the "Cyclops" and is killed by the lamp's heat. However, his, and Patrick's tears come together to form a heart, and that causes the chord to malfunction and the sprinks to come on thus this revives SpongeBob and Patrick. He then returns to Bikini Bottom to defeat Plankton, and saves the town by the Goofy Goober song.I mean, this practically makes SpongeBob a Messianic Archetype doesn't it?

The secret ingredient of the Krabby Patty is...
Drugs. Just like in McDonald's, where its been said they put morfine in the children's menu. Still don't know which one could be, but it has to be a very powerful one, capable of producing insane happyness the first time you try it. This is why no one refuses them.
  • the existance or contents of a krabby patty MUST be revealed during the final episode!
    • Didn't SpongeBob say it in "Plankton!"? Then again, it may have changed since then, and/or that description may not have been detailed enough.

The Salty Spittoon is a front for an underwater Fight Club.
Think about it. Fight Club takes place in a bar (which Salty Spittoon is the equivalent of), people are being refused access (some due to weakness, some because they're too fucking blonde, etc.) but they eventually get in if they demonstrate their toughness, usually by fighting. (If this is your first night at Fight Club, you have to fight.) Also, SpongeBob ends up out of the club because he's proven that he's not tough enough to be of any use to Project Mayhem after all, and that he didn't really beat people up with his mind, which would be of great use to them. Also, the bouncer seems to vary on how mean he is to SpongeBob, sometimes mean, sometimes telling him to get away for his own good.

The "Cephalopod Lodge" is apparently some super freaky cult.
This could explain why the workings of this "club" aren't mentioned for two reasons really. 1, because cults especially super satanic cults don't like any outsiders in their business, 2. Because it's nickolodeon. When Squidward caused outsiders to find out the cult he must of broke some of their solemn oaths probably about it's privacy. They didn't execute Squidward because as I said it's nickelodeon so they just booted him out. Every cult has a pretty face false cover but under it is something really nasty, that's why it looks like flowers and sunshine to someone who doesn't know anything about it, unless it's some bullcrap cult.
  • More than likely, it's a reference to the Freemasons, as Masons aren't allowed to reveal the traditions and subject of meetings. Whether or not that's any better depends on your views of Masons.

In the SpongeBob universe, all of the plankton in the sea are related to (Sheldon) Plankton.
This is why he has so many relatives and they seem to all share a last name. That whole species is one big family.

Some cosmic power was intervening to bring Squidward home from the void in "SB-129".
Squidward admits that he missed his hometown, his house, and even SpongeBob; and no sooner than he says so is he immediately whisked back home. He had only banged on the (broken) controls right before that. It was like he tapped his heels together and said "There's no place like home", and then magically returned home. Whether it was the divine, magic, or something else, it almost seems like things had gone according to some plan.

Contradicting the previous theories about this subject the creator's of this show made SpongeBob appear gay for a joke.
Since the show was starting to get so popular so fast the creator's decided to add a little seasoning in it. Since the ratings were so high(meaning more money also) the creator's decided it would be okay to turn it up. What better way then add a sex topic, instead of clich'e heteresexuallity and make SpongeBob a lady killer because how many show's didn't use that? They instead made SpongeBob a little homo or at least apparently homo. When the show first started SpongeBob was a manly man despite the fact that he was weak as dirt, but still he was metaphorically a hairy chest man even when it came to jelly fishing, but since the show was already getting so popular they didn't want to ruin it by throwing in the same old routine: SpongeBob just working at his job, annoying squidward a little bit, him trying to be as man as he can be, him playing with his apparent girlfriend(sandy). Because we know that when shows do that they dry up real fast so the creator's decided to bring so many new things to the table. Instead of making SpongeBob a too good of a neighbor that sometimes annoy Squidward but still is good company, instead they change him into a psychotic obsessive creep that harasses and apparently sexually covets his neighbor, they decided to make SpongeBob Ambiguously Gay for Patrick instead of just two innocent normal friends, and they shift SpongeBob from a steadily productive headsmart good employee to a psychological workaholic. Think about it, if everything or better yet everyone stayed the same from when the series began:SpongeBob just being a little eccentric sponge and not psychotic stalker, Patrick being a neighbor with at least a little common sense, Mr. Krabs not being a slavedriver to 100%, and SpongeBob not being ambiguously homo, etc. How great would the series be right now.

A sea turtle will appear as a character in a future episode. Or maybe even a penguin.
Because, hey, who was expecting an anthropomorphic seal to show up?
  • A sea turtle named Tony appeared in Shell Games, along with two female turtles. There has yet to be a penguin however.
Pearl is adopted and Mr.Krabs saved her.
Ok, there is no way Pearl can be that related to Mr.Krabs, There has to be a way Pearl's mother let Mr.Krabs keep pearl. If you are a Creepypasta reader, You might know what i'm talking about.
The Taylor Swift references in "Tunnel of Glove" were intentional.
  • At one point, Pearl tells SpongeBob he can "speak now". Later, SpongeBob says he will "fearlessly" lead the way.

The final episode will have Squidward getting Killed Off for Real.
It's after SpongeBob has defeated the villain (probably Mr. Krabs, Plankton, or the Flying Dutchman) and there will be a sequence where SpongeBob is looking for Squidward and finds him, crushed beneath a building. SpongeBob quickly takes Squidward to the doctor, but it's too late to save him. Squidward is about to hit SpongeBob when the latter tells the former that he saved Bikini Bottom. Squidward smiles, then confesses that all this time he had only been pretending to hate SpongeBob, and also that as a child he never had any friends. They hug, and Squidward's life slowly drains away with dramatic music. Cue SpongeBob standing over Squidward's dead body, holding him and crying. Here's a tissue.

The people in Bikini Botton aren't anthropomorphic.
The reason why we see them that way is because that's how they interpret the world around them. Consider that, whenever someone gets out of the sea, they look more realistic. That's because it's what they actually look like. This would also include the enviorment: the interior of most houses would be hollow, Krabby Patties are their interpretation of hunting food(SpongeBob is really good at it), and clothes are imaginary. Their world might as well be that of Finding Nemo. And Humans Are Cthulhu is in full effect.
  • What about, for example, Mermaid Man And Barnacle Boy, Pearl, The Flying Dutchman, the Atlanteans, etc?

The 2015 film will have an Award-Bait Song.
Maybe an extended cover of "This Grill Is Not A Home", sung by some some famous artists? The second Rugrats movie had one.

Eggman Nega was one of the voices in Squidward's white void
At the end of Sonic Rivals 2, Eggman Nega is sealed in another dimension. He is never seen again after that. Maybe Squidward ended up in the same void?

The water (not the water they breathe of course, but the water they use) is not the same as normal water.
It's denser than normal water possesing more hydrogen. Its element is H 3 O instead of the their breathing water H20.

The series will eventually give a What the Hell, Hero? to the main protagonists.
In essence, each of the characters who have Taken A Level In Jerkass will end up taking their flanderized character traits too far, resulting in them getting into a lot of trouble, and end up with them beginning to realize that they've gone too far. This would serve as a way of redeeming the characters in the eyes of the viewers.
  • SpongeBob will end up, in stunning ignorance and obsession, finally causing Squidward's fragile psyche to snap. After having a Freak Out, Squidward will be kept under house surveillance to keep him from harming himself. Misguidedly SpongeBob will try to comfort him, only to ruin his life more and drive Squidward even further down the brink. After seeing that Squidward has utterly lost it(as in "violently freaking out whenever he sees anything sponge-shaped and going catatonic"), SpongeBob will be horrified at what he's done, and begs people to figure out why. He'll realize that his naivety isn't an excuse for everything, and will keep in mind not to irritate others that much. He'll help Squidward get back his sense.

Plankton would get at least sharks for customers if he bothered to cook something edible.
Chum is implied to contain lots of extremely inedible things in addition to what we consider normal chum, such as anchor rust and possibly the many dangerous scientific and biological wastes produced by the Chum Bucket's flow of scientific experiments. Presumably Squidward's recipe for fricasseed chum is much more edible, even if some or all of the herbs and spices were skipped.

The show will get at least one Spin-Off.

In the SpongeBob Universe, SpongeBob is actually a TV show, and everyone in the show are just actors playing out characters for either us, or other fish.
This explains a lot, like for example it explains the continuity, and how every episode seems to not reference other episodes.

Reading someone else's diary is a major crime in Bikini Bottom
Perhaps this is why the entire town was punishing Squidward so harshly after reading SpongeBob's diary. A cop also quoted "I had a diary once. My brother read it. I had a brother once...".
  • Considering that running a stoplight on foot can give you years of jail time, I can see the Bikini Bottom Police dolling out that kind of punishment.

One day, SpongeBob discard its Negative Continuity become a character development oriented show, similar to Regular Show and Adventure Time.
All flanderization will be explained, flanderized characters will be redeemed, and there will be multiple call backs that establish the presence of a continuity. Humor will be balanced out with oddly deep storytelling WHEREIN CHARACTERIZATION WILL. BE. CONSISTENT!!!...Hey, I can dream can't I?

A new character will be added to the main cast
A lot of Long-Runners have done it, why not SpongeBob? Nickelodeon will definitely try something to ensure its top show stays on top. What better solution than to introduce a character with unique traits, who can bring in new scenarios to SpongeBob and the fans.

The intro will change in the future
In addition to the new character part, this would also help to increase viewership. Like what many Long-Runners (such as The Fairly OddParents!, The Simpsons, and Family Guy) have done, SpongeBob's intro will change to a more HD look. Hopefully it will still keep that popular flute trick SpongeBob does with his nose.
  • Confirmed. As of "Sandy's Nutmare", the intro is remastered in HD.

Mr. Krabs will be a villain in the second movie.

There have been episodes where he's a selfish Jerkass, so why not have him become a villain in the second movie?

  • Jossed.

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy will appear in the second movie
I know you've heard of Ernest Borgine's death, but the fact is that Mermaid Man is now being voiced by Joe Whyte, who voiced him in the video games.
  • Jossed.

A spin-off(s) will be made after the original series ends
SpongeBob is apparently so popular that Stephen Hillenburg or someone else may want to produce a spin-off (or less likely a franchise of spin-offs) of the show. Could SpongeBob join the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, and others in the picture?
  • Highly unlikely,considering it has been 15 years and nothing happened, plus what side character in this show is worthy of having the spotlight.
  • Spin-offs are in the works.
  • Both confirmed and jossed; Kamp Koral and The Patrick Star Show were made, albeit during the show's run.

SpongeBob will have a crossover with The Fairly OddParents!
These are currently the two longest-running shows on Nick. Remember The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour trilogy? Once again considering Nick's desperation for publicity, it's almost inevitable that they'll bring these two shows together someday.
  • You know, I can totally see how this would work. Not getting into much detail, Timmy could have to write an essay on Underwater Creatures, and the day before it's due, he asks Cosmo and Wanda to give him the ability to breath underwater to study the real thing. He goes underwater, and discovers the Bikini Bottom, and through a series of events, stop Plankton from once again stealing the Krabby Patty Formula. Timmy writes this all down, and makes it his essay, which Mr. Crocker doesn't believe, and gives him an F.
  • Likely jossed since FOP is over now.

SpongeBob will have a crossover with The Loud House
Just imagine it; Nickelodeon putting their two current biggest stars together in a giant special/ratings trap. With other believed rules like "no spinoffs" being broken, a SpongeBob-based crossover might be halfway feasible nowadays.

A future episode will reveal Pearl's origin
  • For any of you are wondering how a crab could have a whale for a daughter. If she was adopted, the episode will reveal Pearl's real parents. It will explain how/why they lost her and, after years of searching, finally find their long lost child. There will be a major Tearjerker where Mr. Krabs and Pearl say their goodbyes as the latter leaves with her family. But then under some circumstances, she will realize she was happier with Mr. Krabs and come back to him.
  • Alternatively, in a Darker and Edgier story, it will be revealed that Pearl's parents were apparently killed by whalers, caught in fishing nets, or washed up on a beach. Then in a Heartwarming Moment, Krabs will somehow discover the young orphaned Pearl and end up adopting her as his own.

In the upcoming movie, the characters will become human
According to this trailer, SpongeBob and his friends will finally be able to travel on land. So this theory is a possibility.
  • JOSSED. The movie is now confirmed to be about the characters becoming CGI.
    • But that doesn't mean it might not happen in a future episode.

There will be a Star Wars special
Several animated series (including Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and more recently Phineas and Ferb) have Star Wars-themed episodes. So why not SpongeBob? Below are some possible character roles.
  • SpongeBob: Han Solo
  • Patrick: Chewbacca
  • Squidward: C-3PO
  • Gary: R2-D2
  • Sandy: Princess Leia
  • Mr. Krabs: Obi-Wan Kenobi
  • Plankton: Darth Vader
  • Bubble Bass: Jabba the Hut
  • Wait, what about Luke? Ok, let's just say Luke is Patchy....

Squidward's Karma is more insidious than it seems
About Squidward's toenail incident in "House Fancy"... here's some quotes from three seasons prior, in "Club SpongeBob":
SpongeBob: Why don't you ask... the Magic Conch, Squidward?
Squidward: Oh, yeah, like that'll happen. Right after I consult the Magic Toenail.note 
  • In its sister episode "My Pretty Seahorse", Squidward tells himself to remember his karma, right before tumbling down a hill and exploding.
The Rusty Krab was built in honor of Rusty Rickets.
When Rusty's Rib Eye was demolished, a retirement home was built in its place and named in tribute to the late Rusty Rickets. It eventually went bankrupt, bought out by Eugene Krabs, and the rest is history.

An episode will involve Sandy taking SpongeBob and Patrick to Texas
Instead of that rushed ending with stock images in "Rodeo Daze", it will be the focus of a special episode. This time, we would take a visit to the town Sandy grew up in and meet her family for the first time. The main villain will most certainly be a western outlaw.
  • AND IT WILL BE DIRTY DAN!

The photo in "The Secret Box" is the photo taken by Squidward in "Christmas Who"
Think about it. The former episode aired after the latter, and Patrick said that it was an embarrassing photo of SpongeBob during last Christmas. The only Christmas episode to have aired before "The Secret Box" (or at all) was "Christmas Who", and in that episode, a photo of SpongeBob was taken.

Dragon Ball Z is a real show in-universe
In the episode "Face Freeze", Patrick makes a face very similarto Majin Buu from DBZ (check the Shout-Out page if you're interested). If this is true, then many other TV shows in Real Life could make the other Shout-Outs make more sense.

In-universe, "The Adventures of Snail Fail and Sir Urchin" is secretly based on the continued conflict between Mr. Krabs and Plankton
The creator of the show once went to the Krusty Krab to get a Krabby Patty, and saw one of Plankton's schemes unfold and being foiled. He then changed the crab into a snail and the plankton into an urchin, and turned it into a TV show for money. Either that, or Mr. Krabs is the creator and uses the show to make a few quick bucks on the side. Most notably, Plankton also uses the "Why you!" line.
there's different neptunes
We see the god Neptune early on, and the King Naptunes (such as Neptune the 14th) are demi-gods (basically magical mortal fish) who descend from Neptune the God, and a princess. This might explain why the king Neptune in the movie is so different from other Kings seen with a different family. Modern medicine allows for the Neptune to live/rule longer. So another Neptune could easily be well into adulthood before being crowned king, and as a result also only rule for say a few years at a time. (Say 1 Neptune lives to their 70s, his son could be into his 50s by the time he becomes the new king)
  • About five years before writing this, I came across a fan theory that the King Neptune from the first movie is meant to be Prince Triton from the series after ascending to the throne. Hope that helps!
    • The trouble with that theory is why would Triton be the only character to visibly age between the series and the movie?

The Broadway musical will receive an Animated Adaptation.
It will be a TV movie, and make a few changes from the musical to bring certain characters in-line with their TV counterparts (mainly Larry).

If all the characters are Animated Actors, then Squidward was the one who made all the Gross-Up Close-Ups
Many close-up shots of the show have a more "painted" feel in my opinion, and I can only imagine someone with Squidward's artistic vision would be able to create such legendary works like MOAR Krabs, Just An Ordinary Krabby OH MY GOODNESS!, and Does This Look Unsure To You?

The show is a series of story books that Painty the Pirate/Burger Beard reads to a preschool class
Painty the Pirate/Burger Beard from the intro assists at a preschool and dresses up as a pirate and frequently reads the books to the kids. The opening theme song is him and the kids singing a song from one of the books, and the whole "I can't hear you" thing at the very start of it is simply him trying to get the kids to play along. Painty/Burger Beard also occasionally inserts himself into the stories (such as Painty/Burger Beard's appearance in "Your Shoe's Untied" and the majority of the plot of The Sponge Bob Movie Sponge Out Of Water). Patchy the Pirate also works at the same preschool and occasionally reads the books, also dressing up as a pirate in the process, when Painty/Burger Beard is unavailable. Potty is just a snarky parrot-obsessed kid who mocks Patchy's style of reading.

Potential future spin-offs
  • A prequel featuring Sandy's life in Texas.
    • A Netflix film about Sandy is in development, so maybe it will have something to do with that?
  • A prequel of Mr. Krabs in the Navy.
  • A prequel about Plankton and Mr. Krabs as kids.
  • A spin-off about Pearl going to college.
  • A prequel about the characters in college.
  • An interquel about Bubble Bass explaining his disappearance between Seasons 2-7.
  • A musical spinoff about Squidward trying to get into the music business while juggling his other duties in life. It will be more cynical than its upbeat counterpart, almost like a more kid-friendly Bojack Horseman.
  • A Stealth Parody of "edgy" reboots featuring the adventures of a young Burger Beard/Painty the Pirate.
  • A Reality Show-styled spinoff featuring Squilliam Fancyson.
  • A spin-off focusing on Zeus the Guitar Lord.
  • A live-action sitcom spin-off focusing on Patchy the Pirate's life in Encino.
  • A Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy spinoff.
  • A live-action Mermaid Man & Barnacle Boy film that's a spoof of modern-day superhero films.
  • An Affectionate Parody of shows like The Crown based around the life of King Neptune.
  • A Game Show spinoff where contestants try to beat Mr. Krabs in increasingly inane trivia contests. The format would essentially be a sort-of hybrid of Skatoony and Win Ben Stein's Money.
  • A spin-off parodying shows like Canada's Worst Driver where Mrs. Puff tries to teach boating school students.
  • A spin-off that is both a parody of and a Genre Throwback to mid-to-late-2000s/early-2010s "snarky Caustic Critic" web shows wherein Squidward "reviews" in-universe media.
  • A spinoff aimed at preschoolers that teaches them about sea life and the ocean's ecosystem, falling in line with the show's educational roots, while still being entertaining.

The episode "Clams" has the characters fishing upside down.
  • Look at the sky gradient when SpongeBob, Squidward and Mr. Krabs are "at sea." In this one setting, the sky gradient is a darker shade of blue at the top and lighter at the bottom. In all other episodes, it is darker at the bottom and lighter at the top.
    • This could be referencing a set-piece in the fellow Nicktoon "Rocko's Modern Life" episode "Fish-N-Chumps" (which this episode is already pretty similar to), in which two fish are "fishing" upside-down for land creatures.

King Neptune is the reason why Water Is Air.
A fan theory is that King Neptune used his powers to evolve various sea creatures into human-like forms so he could have sapient subjects to rule over (hence Neptunes Moon from "Feral Friends" haveing the ability to temorarly de-evolove sea cretures).

It's possble that, in order to make his Kingdom more human-like, he used his powers to alter the water around the area to maek it behave more like land.

King Neptune is also the reason air-breathing sea creatures can breathe underwater.
Again, to make his kingdom more earth-like, he gave air-breathing sea creatures the albility to breathe underwater.

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