Sheldon J. Plankton

Sheldon J. Plankton
Born:	November 30, 1942
Species:	Copepod
Nickname:	Plankton, Planky, Sheldon
Address:	The Chum Bucket, Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean
Gender:	Male
Color:	Green
Eye color:	Red and yellow
Weight:	Very light (1mg)
Job(s):	Founder and co-owner of the Chum Bucket Knick-knack shop owner in "New Leaf"
Family:	Karen Plankton (wife) Clem (cousin) Plankton's Cousins (cousins) Planktonamor (ancestor) Karen the Crystal Ball (ancestor) Dead Eye Plankton (ancestor)
Friends:	Karen Plankton Mr. Krabs (formerly)
Enemies:	Mr. Krabs (arch enemy) Pearl Krabs SpongeBob SquarePants Squidward Tentacles
Pets:	Spot Labrador
Interests:	Stealing Mr. Krabs's formula
First appearance:	"Plankton!"
Portrayer:	Doug Lawrence - English Thomas Petruo - German Michel Bedetti - French

Sheldon J. Plankton, usually just called Plankton, is a small green planktonic copepod. He is one of the two main villains of the show, along with his wife Karen Plankton. He is voiced by Doug Lawrence, one of the staff writers of the series.

He and Karen are the owners of a failing restaurant called the Chum Bucket, situated right across the street from the Krusty Krab. His greatest goal is to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula and control Bikini Bottom.

Character

Plankton is the size of a bug compared to the rest of Bikini Bottom residents. Because of his microscopic size, Plankton has a Napoleon complex. He is always trying to steal the Krusty Krab's secret Krabby Patty recipe. Along with Karen, Plankton is always scheming to rule the restaurant business and the world. Karen provides him with all kinds of evil plots and plans from A to Z, but something yellow always gets in his way. He mistakenly perceives SpongeBob as a major ingredient in Mr. Krabs' formula for success, and is forever trying to lure the loyal employee away from his Krusty Krab duties.

He appears for the first time in the episode "Plankton!" along with Karen and the Chum Bucket. It is revealed in the special episode "Friend or Foe?" that Plankton was once best friends with Mr. Krabs, but they became enemies after a scuffle involving the first Krabby Patty recipe. The end of their friendship was captured on video by Karen. Plankton has only succeeded in his plots once: temporarily in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, when Karen gives him the idea to use "Plan Z". This was a diabolical plot to enslave the entire city.

History

Sheldon J. Plankton was born on the same day as his rival Eugene H. Krabs. When they were kids, Plankton and Krabs were considered outcasts by other kids. Later, they discovered that money could bring them out of their poverty and decided to make money selling hamburger patties. The two set up a mini-restaurant in the local dump. At first, their burgers were not successful. After a fight, Plankton stormed off to create his own recipe, using only his memory, chum, and science. Around this time, Plankton started dating Karen, who was only a security system. Karen captured the early moments of the Krabs-Plankton rivalry on her memory banks.

At school, Plankton tried to sell his chumburgers, but the response was negative. Krabs succeeded with his Krabby Patties, which he had created by accident after Plankton had slammed the door. Ingredients fell in the patty batter, thus creating the patty. Plankton later named his restaurant the Chum Bucket, after the secret ingredient of his unsuccessful patty recipe. Mr. Krabs named his restaurant the Krusty Krab, after himself.

To this very day, Plankton has been single-mindedly obsessed with obtaining the Krabby Patty formula and running the Krusty Krab out of business. He often goes to incredible and quite ridiculous lengths to do so, sometimes neglecting his own common sense and even his relationship with Karen. In "SpongeBob's Last Stand," for example, he builds a massive highway that goes straight through Jellyfish Fields and over the Krusty Krab, leading right to his restaurant simply to do so. He does not care about ruining the jellyfish's habitat or ruining the environment, and while the town suffers, he just sits in his lab and gets a massage from Karen.

In "Dunces and Dragons," it is implied that the fight between the Plankton and Krabs families began centuries ago when Plankton's evil overlord ancestors, Planktonamor and Karen the Crystal Ball, were defeated by helpers of King Krabs and Princess Pearl. Since there was not any feud between Krabs and Plankton in their early childhood, it is possible that these families settled their differences until the childhoods of Krabs and Plankton.

Looks

Plankton is small and shaped like a jelly bean. He is usually green, but the exact shade changes depending on the episode. He is very dark green in the first movie but lighter in later episodes. He has one yellow eye that has a red pupil and a thick black eyebrow. He has long green antennae with four black segments on each one. His arms and legs are short and stubby.

Plans

Main article: List of Plankton's Plans

Major Plans

• In the episode "Plankton!" he uses a mind control device on SpongeBob, but SpongeBob resists a bit and because of SpongeBob's inviting description of the Krabby Patty, Plankton lunges for a Krabby Patty and falls into his analyzer. Plankton becomes trapped inside Karen, and tells SpongeBob that he'll settle for some fries.

• In "F.U.N." SpongeBob teaches Plankton to have "F.U.N." and they become friends. Nevertheless, Plankton rips SpongeBob off, so that he gets the formula. But he slams into solid concrete behind a movie theater screen.

• In "Imitation Krabs" Plankton arrives to get rid of Krabs for a while, so that he can clad him as Mr. Krabs, but Mr. Krabs returns to the Krusty Krab. SpongeBob is unable to figure out who is the real Mr. Krabs so he runs a quiz show. Plankton won the quiz show so SpongeBob gave Plankton the formula. SpongeBob finds a penny and puts it in the Krabs robot's self destruct slot, so Plankton goes to the Chum Bucket and gets blown up.

• In "Plankton's Army" Plankton fails to get the formula, so he decides to call in for help (actually Karen's idea). He tries a bar filled with strong fish, but he is violently attacked by them, so he calls in his family. He hopes and assumes that they are evil geniuses like him, but, in reality, they are dumb and clumsy. They say they'll help if they get rewarded with root beer. They invade the Krusty Krab and trap Mr. Krabs and Squidward in a toilet (SpongeBob was mopping the Bathroom). Plankton's family figures out the code for Mr. Krabs's safe, Plankton gets the book of the recipe even though Mr. Krabs asked him not to, but the formula says that Grounded Plankton are part of the recipe. Plankton and his family retreats when Mr. Krabs made it sound like he was going to use Plankton as Part of the recipe. Mr. Krabs tell SpongeBob and Squidward that the book wasn't the real formula, and that he's sure that Plankton will be back someday to discover what and where the real formula is.

• In "Welcome to the Chum Bucket" Mr. Krabs loses SpongeBob in a card-game against Plankton. Now SpongeBob must work for Plankton, who wants SpongeBob to prepare a Krabby Patty but SpongeBob is too upset to. Therefore, Plankton implants SpongeBob's brain in a robot, but it does not make the Krabby Patty either. Plankton returns SpongeBob's brain and is desperate to offload him on Mr. Krabs, so desperate he gives Mr. Krabs $50.

• In "Krusty Krab Training Video" Plankton steals a Krabby Patty and goes away with a vehicle which looks like an insect, but it is so slow that Mr. Krabs can stop it by merely walking.

• In "Fear of a Krabby Patty" Plankton opens the Chum Bucket 23 hours a day, convincing Mr. Krabs to open the Krusty Krab 24 hours a day. Pretending to a be a customer, Peter Lankton, Plankton orders 10,000 Krabby Patties. After many days of working without sleep or rest, SpongeBob starts hallucinating, and develops a fear of Krabby Patties. SpongeBob goes to a psychiatrist, who is Plankton under his "Peter Lankton" guise. Plankton tries to get the formula by hypnotizing SpongeBob and making him say it, but SpongeBob falls asleep in the process, and is cured. SpongeBob begins working again, and Plankton is upset that he failed to get the formula.

• In "Friend or Foe?" Plankton tells Mr. Krabs he has wanted to steal the formula so that they will become friends. During a heartfelt hug, Plankton notices the formula is in Mr. Krabs’s trouser pocket and he takes it. Plankton and Karen want to disappear and SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs want to hold them up.

• In the "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Plankton learns there are 26 letters in the alphabet and realizes he has an "Evil Plan Z", where he steals the crown of King Neptune, delivers it to Shell City (a gift shop located on the surface), and frames the theft on Mr. Krabs. He executes it and King Neptune freezes Mr. Krabs and gives him six days for his name to be cleared before his execution. While Krabs is frozen, Plankton successfully steals the Krabby Patty formula and begins producing Krabby Patties, giving free bucket helmets away with each one. The helmets are, in fact, mind-control devices which Plankton uses to make the citizens bend to his will and change Bikini Bottom to suit his image, renaming the city "Planktopolis." Unfortunately for Plankton, SpongeBob and Patrick manage to retrieve the crown and bring it back to King Neptune, and frees the townspeople from Plankton's control by using the power of rock and roll. Plankton is trampled before he can escape and a while later, the cops take him to prison for illegal mind-controlling.

• In Komputer Overload, Plankton builds 3 robots: the T-119A Compumatic, the Noxious Enterprises' Super SPU-31 Liquid-Cooled Mobile Processing Unit, and the Command Module to replace Karen, who had left. He then puts the 3 robots together, making one big robot to get the secret formula. He threatens SpongeBob, who had been thrown outside by Mr. Krabs, to "tell Krabs that if he doesn't turn over the formula to me, he'll be subjected to utter annihilation at my hands" (but SpongeBob doesn't get that, so he puts it in simlper words: "Krabs give me secret formula or I bring big boom boom to the Krusty Krab", but SpongeBob doesn't understand that either). Plankton attacks the Krusty Krab, declaring "Bring on the boom boom!" However, the extension cord used to power the robot is unplugged, deactivating it. SpongeBob and Mr. Krabs laugh at Plankton's expense as the robot collapses. Karen comes back to Plankton, but only to get her keyboard. Plankton apologizes and goes back to the Chum Bucket with Karen.

• In Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy, Plankton gets trapped in Sandy's air suit. Seeing how generously she received a Krabby Patty, he later stole her pelt, but then Sandy stopped him and imprisoned him in a jar of mustard.

• In Atlantis SquarePantis Plankton plans to use Atlantis's powerful weapons on the gang to become emperor of the city. He is dumbfounded when he realizes it only shoots ice cream.

• In Bucket Sweet Bucket, Plankton tricks SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward to fix up the Chum Bucket. He goes to the Krusty Krab where he tries to get the formula. He succeeds, but finds out it is not the secret formula, but a to do list. He goes back to the Chum Bucket where he discovers that SpongeBob and Patrick turned the Chum Bucket into the Krusty Krab. Mr. Krabs comes back from his vacation to Africa, and he reveals that he took the formula with him on vacation. He then takes back the Krusty Krab afterwards, which has underwent major improvement thanks to Squidward. Karen scolds Plankton for his miserable failure.

• In Truth or Square, Plankton tries to steal the formula while SpongeBob, Patrick, Squidward, and Mr. Krabs are trapped in the air duct. Plankton is caught by Mr. Krabs after they get out.

Minor Plans

• At one point, Plankton asked nicely to Mr. Krabs Can I please have the secret formula? but Krabs refused.

• In Plankton!, he gets under the Krabby Patty and tries to get out of the Krusty Krab.

• In Imitation Krabs, he goes under a fish-robot and asks SpongeBob the formula to win $1,000,000 (the dollar was fake)

• In "Culture Shock" Plankton tries to steal a Krabby Patty by conjuring, but he exposes himself with his magic.

• In the video game Battle for Bikini Bottom, Plankton builds a machine that he uses to create an army of loyal robots, but he forgets to set a switch on the machine to Obey Plankton, and also even makes a robot clone of himself, which results in the end of his plan.

Trivia

• He never wins. When he thinks that nothing can come between him and the formula, he gets ahead of himself and eventually does not obtain it.
• Curiously, he fights with people who can easily beat him. In the episode Plankton's Army, he is beaten up by tall, muscular fish.
• In the Nickelodeon dictionary, it says that Plankton's uncle is from Russia and speaks a language called Planktonese.
• In the episode Mermaid Man vs. SpongeBob, Karen buys a Krabby Kids meal for Plankton which includes a Pipsqueak Patty, implying that Plankton has acquired a Krabby Patty, however his objective in the episode was to bring customers to the Chum Bucket.
• Mr. Krabs and Plankton are twins in time, as they were born on the same day, month, and year.
• For unknown reasons, Plankton has a phone in his bathtub. (See photo titled "Yo")
• Plankton seems to change size in every episode he appears in (his 5 in. measuring stick say he is 2 in. tall in "Komputer Overload").
• His analyzer could be wrong because Plankton is really evil as seen in the movie when he steals the formula and conquers Bikini Bottom. Plus, in some episodes he uses SpongeBob and friends in his plans to take the formula.
• Plankton appears in the middle of the United Plankton Pictures logo in a crudely hand-drawn "form" along with his famliy and is yellow.
• SpongeBob has said "good luck with that" to Plankton multiple times.
• Mr. Krabs tried to give him the Krabby Patty Secret Formula in SpongeBob's Last Stand (Plan Z-909).

Quotes

• "Oh Karen, my computer wife, if only I could've managed to steal the secret to Krabs' success. The formula for the Krabby Patty..."
• "You married a genius, Karen!"
• "When am I going to get some real food? Mr. Krabs gets to eat real food. Just look at his daughter, she's as big as a whale!"
• ♪ "Oh my Karen! Oh my Karen! You'll never know how much I love your vacuum tubes!" ♪
• "You can’t put a clock on genius, Karen.”
• "Okay, we all know Sheldon's a funny name."
• "The helmets can't handle this level of rock-n-roll. Karen, do something!"
• "Can I have the secret formula?"
  

  

  Karen making fun of Sheldon
• "I never thought I'd get this far."
• "Why do I always get beaten up by people bigger than me?"
• "Holographic meatloaf? MY FAVORITE!"
• "Well, this stinks."
• "Karen, baby, I haven't felt this giddy since the day you agreed to be my wife!"
• "You will regret this!"
• "Felicitations malefactors!"
• "You'll pay for this, Krabs!"

Jailtime

• In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Chapter 13, Plankton got arrested for getting his hands on the formula, stealing King Neptune's crown and enslaving Bikini Bottom.
• In "Krabby Road", Plankton got arrested and locked in a cage for making SpongeBob call the police.
• In "Goo Goo Gas", Plankton got free from the larger-than-him handcuffs.
• In "Someone's in the Kitchen with Sandy", Plankton got caught by Sandy who was arrested.

Characters

Plankton Family

Villains

Main Villains: Sheldon J. Plankton • Karen Plankton • Bikini Bottom Criminals Supporting/Minor Villains: Alaskan Bull Worm • Atomic Flounder • Bubble Bass • Cyclops • Dead Eye Plankton • Dennis • Dirty Bubble • DoodleBob • Filthy Phil • Flats • Gale Doppler • Jack M. Crazyfish • Jellion Clones • Jellion King • Kelp Thing • Lip Service • Man Ray • Master Udon • Patty Gadget • Planktonamor • Puffy Fluffy • Sea Bear • Sea Whelks • Sinister Slug • The Big One • The Moth • The Tickler • Old Blue Lips • Plankton Family

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie