Squidward Tentacles

Stephen Hillenburg first became fascinated with the ocean and began developing his artistic abilities as a child. During college, he majored in marine biology and minored in art. After graduating in 1984, he joined the Ocean Institute, an ocean education organization, where he had the idea to create a comic book titled The Intertidal Zone, which led to the creation of SpongeBob SquarePants.[11][12][13] In 1987, Hillenburg left the institute to pursue a career in animation.[13][14]

Early rough sketches of Squidward from creator Stephen Hillenburg's series bible.

Several years after studying experimental animation at the California Institute of the Arts,[14] Hillenburg met Joe Murray, creator of Rocko's Modern Life, at an animation festival. Murray offered Hillenburg a job as a director of the series.[13][15][16][17] Martin Olson, one of the writers for Rocko's Modern Life, read The Intertidal Zone and encouraged Hillenburg to create a television series with a similar concept. At that point, Hillenburg had not considered creating his own series, but soon realized that this was his chance.[12][18][19] Shortly after production on Rocko's Modern Life ended in 1996,[20] Hillenburg began working on SpongeBob SquarePants.[12]

Hillenburg used some character designs from his comic book. He designed "SpongeBob's grumpy next door neighbor" as an octopus because he liked the species' large head; he said octopuses "have such a large bulbous head, and Squidward thinks he's an intellectual, so of course he's gonna have a large bulbous head."[1] Hillenburg explained that Squidward is normally drawn with six limbs because "it was really just simpler for animation to draw him with six legs instead of eight".[1] Squidward is only shown with a full set of eight tentacles in two episodes: the live-action sequence in "Pressure" from season two, and briefly in "Sold!" from season nine. Hillenburg named the character Squidward after the squid, which is closely related to the octopus and has ten limbs. In the words of Squidward's voice actor Rodger Bumpass, the name Octoward "just didn't work".[2]

Of Squidward's design, show writer and storyboard artist Vincent Waller said in 2010:

Squidward is hard to draw—he has a very odd-shaped head. Fortunately, his emotions are pretty even, but to get a whole lot of big emoting out of him is a challenge. His nose splits everything in half, so it's always like, 'OK, how am I going to work this and still make it read?'[21]

Hillenburg thought of making jokes with Squidward ejecting ink but retired it because, according to him, "it always looks like he's pooping his pants".[1] Despite this, inking jokes would appear in the episodes "Giant Squidward" and "Ink Lemonade". The sound of Squidward's footsteps, which evokes that of suction cups pulling on the ground, is produced by rubbing hot water bottles. The footsteps, and those of the rest of the main characters, are recorded by the show's foley crew. Sound designer Jeff Hutchins said that footstep sounds "[help] tell which character it is and what surface they're stepping on".[22] Bumpass inspired the idea of having Squidward ride a recumbent bicycle; Bumpass owns one of these bicycles, which he rides around Burbank, California.[23] Bumpass described it as his "little inside joke".[2]

Squidward's voice has been compared to that of American comic actor Jack Benny.

Squidward's voice is provided by actor Rodger Bumpass, who voices several other SpongeBob SquarePants characters, including Squidward's mother. While creating the show and writing its pilot episode in 1997, Hillenburg and the show's then-creative director Derek Drymon were also conducting voice auditions.[24] Mr. Lawrence, who had worked with Hillenburg and Drymon on Rocko's Modern Life, was Hillenburg's first choice for the role. Hillenburg had invited Lawrence to audition for all the show's characters.[25] Instead of Squidward, Hillenburg decided to give Lawrence the part of Plankton, the series' villain.[24]

According to Bumpass, Squidward was "a very nasally, monotone kind of guy". He said the character became interesting to perform because of "his sarcasm, and then his frustration, and then his apoplexy, and so he became a wide spectrum of emotions".[26] Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, describes Bumpass recording his lines in the studio, saying, "I love watching Rodger ... He's right next to me". According to Kenny, when Bumpass "goes apoplectic" as Squidward while recording, his head turns red, "and you're afraid he's going to have an embolism".[23]

Several of the show's crew praise Bumpass for his performance and similitude to the character. Kenny called Bumpass "brilliant" and said, "[he] is sort of like Squidward".[23] Staff writer Kent Osborne said, "I remember thinking about how much Rodger talks and acts like Squidward. That's why it's such a good voice—he's so connected to it".[27] However, Bumpass said, "I'm not him and he's not me, but what I'm required to do for him and what I am enabled to do for him is what makes it like me. It fits my particular talents and skills very well. So in that respect, yeah, he is me, but I am not the cranky, sarcastic, underachieving kind of guy that he is. He's easy to fall in, I will say that."[26]

Squidward's voice has been compared to that of Jack Benny's. Kenny said, "To me, there's something just so funny about that Jack-Benny-loyal-to-nobody character that Rodger Bumpass does such a great job of playing [...] Squidward".[28] Arthur Brown, author of Everything I Need to Know, I Learned from Cartoons!, said that Squidward "sounds a lot like Jack Benny".[29] Bumpass repudiated the relationship, saying "Jack Benny, no. Although he does have this observational sarcasm he occasionally brought out."[26]

Actor Gavin Lee originated the role of Squidward in the musical.

A stage musical based on the show was premiered in June 2016 at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago.[56] Squidward is portrayed using two extra legs to replicate Squidward's four-legged design. Characterization-wise, Squidward is still portrayed as grumpy like in the series while being humanized as much as possible. Notable additions to Squidward's character include Squidward having a dead mother whom he talks to several times during the musical.[57]

In the musical, Bikini Bottom is threatened by a volcano that will erupt in two days, so the townspeople decides to hold a concert to raise money so they can evacuate. While he wants to perform on the concert himself, Squidward is instead assigned to manage the event while rock band the Electric Skates is asked to play. When the band arrives, Squidward wants to be their opening act, but he is rejected because he fails to get one of the items that the Electric Skates requests. The band calls Squidward a loser, causing him to snap and drives the band away. Squidward then insists that he is not a loser and performs a tap-dance number backed by a chorus line until he realizes it is just his imagination ("I'm Not a Loser"). Because the concert and the evacuation plan fail, the town falls into chaos until SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy arrive and tell them that they have used a device that should stop the eruption. After the volcano does not erupt at the supposed time, Squidward is allowed to perform in a concert to celebrate the town's survival.[58]

Actor Gavin Lee originated the role of Squidward in the Chicago run and reprised the role in the musical's Broadway run and television adaptation The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!.[56][59][60] As Lee was not familiar with the show prior to his audition, Lee binge-watched eight SpongeBob episodes and listened to Rodger Bumpass' voice.[61] Director Tina Landau encouraged the actors to not be a "carbon copy" of the cartoon characters and make something different, allowing Lee to not exactly replicate Bumpass' voice, especially during emotional parts.[62]

Gavin Lee liked how Squidward is the one grumpy character in an upbeat musical. Three times in the musical, Squidward is stopped from singing, so that when his number "I'm Not a Loser" is finally sung in Act 2, "the audience is just gagging for Squidward to finally express himself", as Gavin Lee described. "I'm Not a Loser" features Squidward tap-dancing backed by a chorus line of sea anemones.[61]

To play the four-legged Squidward, Lee wore two extra fake legs.[61] Lee said that he wanted the fake legs to be secure and asymmetrical to his real legs, which made the legs uncomfortable to wear, but he likes them as a gimmick and how the audience reacted positively to them.[63] Since Squidward tap-danced with four legs in "I'm Not a Loser", Lee and choreographer Chris Gattelli worked together to figure out how Lee would tap-dance with two extra tap shoes, as neither had tap-danced like that before. Lee said that in order to make four tap noises, he tap-danced in a more "sloppy" way: "Having loose ankles, but also having the tension there to make the noises with the extra [taps]."[61] Squidward's four-legged tap dance has been compared to Lee's previous role as Bert in the Mary Poppins musical where he tap-danced upside-down.[63][64]

Gavin Lee's performance as Squidward and his tap dance number "I'm Not a Loser" are considered a highlight of the show. In his review of the Chicago run, Steven Oxman of Variety called Squidward the "unquestionable highlight" and described "I'm Not a Loser" as "a dose of true Broadway pizzazz, and expresses the character’s inner self with sensitivity and flair."[65] Reviewing the Broadway run, Alexis Soloski of The Guardian called Lee's tap number "rapturous",[66] while Peter Marks on The Washington Post considers it "a particular joy".[67] Vice's Jo Rosenthal considered Lee's performance of "I'm Not a Loser" as "heart-rending" and "earned his standing ovation".[68] In addition to calling "I'm Not a Loser" the musical's highlight, David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter praised Squidward's four-legs costume as well.[64] In 2018, for his performance in the Broadway run, Gavin Lee won a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical.[69][70]

In the 2019–20 North American tour of the musical, Squidward was played by Cody Cooley.[71] Although he was skeptical about the idea of a SpongeBob musical at first, Cooley is impressed when he watched the Broadway run.[72] When Cooley watched the Broadway run with his friends, they commented that Cooley would be fit for Squidward because Cooley was considered grouchy.[73] Cooley himself said that he relate to Squidward's pessimism and sarcastic personality.[74][72] Cooley had applied twice for the role before being called for audition and given the role.[75] After being cast, Cooley rewatched the first three seasons of SpongeBob to study Squidward's character.[74]

Cooley said that Squidward's tap number is his favorite part of the show. Prior to getting the role, Cooley already had tap-dancing experience.[75] During the rehearsal in New York City, Cooley learned how to tap with the two extra tap shoes and practiced it usually twice a day to build up stamina.[74] Cooley considered stamina important for the tap number because the extra legs weighs 25 pounds, he must dance for at least seven minutes and the number ends with a kickline.[73] He also learned how to play clarinet for the part where Squidward plays it at the end of the show.[75]

In the 2023 United Kingdom tour, Squidward is played by Gareth Gates and Tom Read Wilson depending on the venue. Gates described Squidward as a very different person compared to him due to Squidward's grumpiness,[76] which is his stated reason for liking the role.[77] Gates had not tap-danced prior to getting this role, so he had to learn to tap dance by taking three lessons before the rehearsals.[78][77]