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Bikini Bottom Inquirer

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Bikini Bottom Inquirer (Web Video)

"Welcome to Bikini Bottom Inquirer, where investigative thrills are packed to the gills. Here's your host, award-wanting anchorman, Perch Perkins!"

Bikini Bottom Inquirer is a SpongeBob SquarePants webseries from the series' official YouTube page, releasing with its first episode on November 19th of 2022. The shows a Bikini Bottom news station delivering a series of in-universe reports based on events from SpongeBob episodes, hosted by Perch Perkins, a recurring news anchor on the original show.

The miniseries sees voice actor Dee Bradley Baker reprising his role as Perch Perkins, as well as Squilliam Fancyson, who hasn't been in an episode of SpongeBob since 2010, for a few voice cameos.

The series can be found here. The last full-length episode was uploaded on February 25, 2023, with the series moving primarily to YouTube Shorts after that. However, December 2024 saw the premiere of "Beneath the Bun: Secrets of the Krabby Patty," one of SpongeBob's independent specials. It is effectively a double-length episode of Bikini Bottom Inquirer, using the same animation style and even bringing back Lurch Lurkins.


I'm Perch Perkins, and here are tonight's top tropes:

  • Adaptational Jerkass: Perch is notably more rude and cynical than he was in the show.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: Perch is shown as a cynical, often-rude and envious reporter who goes on rants when people are more fortunate than him. Notable example is when he went on an angry rant when SpongeBob received honorary town rookie of the day instead of him:
    Perch Perkins: In other news, honorary rookie of the day was once again given to someone who other than me. Local hero SpongeBob SquarePants shed his disguise as local frycook SpongeBob SquarePants earlier today, and took to the streets to retrieve a stolen... sandwich, or... something. I mean, who cares? Meanwhile, I sit here everyday, working tirelessly to keep Bikini Bottom informed, without so much as a "thank you." But it's good to know that these types are awards are going to the real heroes out there, for protecting... SANDWICHES. I'm sure this guy must be so brave to take on a criminal half the size of his own pinky finger. Way to go, SpongeBob, you DEFINITELY deserve this award more than ME.
  • Air Quotes: Perch does this when he calls SpongeBob a hero for being honorary town rookie of the day instead of him.
  • The Bus Came Back: Squilliam Fancyson returns for this series, albeit in voice-only cameos for the "Perch Phone" segments.
  • Butt-Monkey: Lurch Lurkins.
  • The Cameo: Squilliam Fancyson makes a few vocal cameos on the Perch Phone segment.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Perch Perkins, noticeably moreso than in the original show.
  • Dysfunctional Family: Lurch hints at this in the first episode:
    Perch Perkins: Hey, Lurch, how's the family?
    Lurch Lurkins: Well, they left.
  • Jerkass to One: Perch to Lurch. Perch calls Lurch Bikini Bottom's "second best reporter."
  • Limited Animation: Being a YouTube-based web series, there isn't that much in terms of animation. It relies mostly on stock backgrounds and clips from existing episodes, and much of the original material is animation of Perch, which looks stiffer than the main series. When another character is needed for Perch Phone segments, a still photograph of them appears as the audio waveform is visible.
  • Minimalist Cast: The only voice actor working on the series is Dee Bradley Baker, effectively limiting the cast to just characters he voices (Perch, Kevin, Squilliam, Bubble Bass, and One Shot Characters), or ones who can use archival audio (such as DoodleBob).
  • Sarcasm Mode: Perch launches into this during his angry rant about not receiving town rookie of the day.

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