The 50 Funniest SpongeBob SquarePants Memes

“This is just a funny photograph of a kid that went viral,” explains Don Caldwell, editor-in-chief of Know Your Meme. 

Virality, however, doesn’t necessarily make Pajama Kid some kind of SpongeBob hero. “It’s dumb, and it’s not related to SpongeBob whatsoever,” says Twitter/X’s Every SpongeBob Frame in Order (@SbFramesInOrder). “Pajama kid is terrible,” adds Instagram’s Spongebob || Memes (@chillmyleg). 

And yes, we know the list starts at #49, not #50. See below for the method to our madness (funniness?).

There’s a good amount of disdain for Spengbab, too, which is part of a trend of drawing famous characters as ugly as possible. @SbFramesInOrder and @chillmyleg are both personally offended that someone would disgrace SpongeBob in such a way. 

Originally, SpongeBob’s Wallet served pretty much the same purpose as the famous Futurama meme “Shut Up and Take My Money!” But over time, Know Your Meme explains, “It was combined with another SpongeBob image to mock people’s unwillingness to spend money on certain items or situations.” 

A great example is the one above: Corporations dishing out millions in ad space on things like Super Bowl commercials, but pretending as though they can’t pay their employees a decent salary. 

A great meme for sarcastic laughter.

“This was a larger meme on YouTube back in the day,” explains @SbFramesInOrder, who says that it was mostly used to express affection or excitement, which is why Mr. Krabs would be subbed out for something else for Squidward to look at longingly.

Much like Yoda, online jokesters decided to give Mr. Krabs a fictional ketamine addiction. The meme got so popular it spawned an unlicensed online video game.

“This one was funny, but not used all that often,” says @SbFramesInOrder, referring to the prank image of SpongeBob doxxing you.

A very silly photoshopped image that’s circulated like crazy online to express making the right choices in life. @SbFramesInOrder thinks it’s contributed to “the brain rot of the collective population.”

“Creepypasta stories are a classic internet phenomenon of horror stories, and Squidward’s Suicide is in the upper echelon of creepypasta stories,” explains Caldwell. That said, @SbFramesInOrder notes that it’s “certainly not relevant nowadays; it was relevant on YouTube in like 2010.”

@SbFramesInOrder says that this image was a strange close-up of Mr. Krabs from the show that the internet remixed a number of different ways. While it might seem similar to Spengbab and Squidward’s Suicide in terms of creepiness, since it originated from the show itself, it’s more about the memorability of this single image.

Caldwell tells me that this meme, which was most popular on YouTube, came from a banner ad for SpongeBob that popped up during a heavy part of a TV show, which obviously made it wildly inappropriate. It then birthed a meme in which a laughing SpongeBob banner appears during other inopportune pop-culture moments.

Per Know Your Meme, “Spunch Bob is an intentional misspelling of ‘SpongeBob’ that’s been used in shitposting memes on Twitter and other social media sites. Spunch Bob jokes often use bizarre photoshops of scenes from SpongeBob SquarePants and describe the action in a nonsensical way.”

A reaction that’s used to jokingly express toughness, usually accompanied by the phrase, “I only cried for 20 minutes.”

My SpongeBob experts consider this a solid, if somewhat basic, reaction image to express sadness.

A way to dunk on people, though as dabbing has faded, so has Squidward’s Dab.

“The YouTube poops, or SpingeBill videos, are probably the funniest thing I can think of in terms of SpongeBob memes,” believes @SbFramesInOrder. “It goes back to like 2009, when it was a free-for-all on YouTube. People would take clips from episodes and do sentence-mixing and other crazy stuff. They’re a product of their time and not for the faint of heart. Growing up with them, they fundamentally changed me and rotted my brain in the perfect way.”

This is from a memorable scene in the show where the villainous Plankton, disguised as Mr. Krabs, is trying out his latest plan to get the Krabby Patty formula. “Ravioli Ravioli Give Me the Formuoli” was a particularly funny line from the episode that nonsense videos gave new life.

Rather than a memorable line, this scene featured a memorable sound uttered by a very distinctive-looking fish offended by SpongeBob’s stench that became the soundtrack of nonsense videos.

For someone unfamiliar with SpongeBob memes, this one can be hard to grasp. In Season Three’s “One Krab’s Trash,” there’s a hat with a “#1” on it, a dead guy named “Smitty Werbenjagermanjensen” and some memorable quotes, including, “He was #1!” Several aspects of the episode have gone viral, particularly the “He was number one!” quote.

“This picture is so wild,” says @chillmyleg, who notes that the image, and variations of it with other characters and turns of phrase, is popular on Tinder.

SpongeBob and the gang singing “Sweet Victory” is among the most cherished moments in the series, and it’s been affectionately remixed many times. However, @SbFramesInOrder says that when SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg died in 2018, the song was rumored to be played at the Super Bowl. Instead, just a few seconds of it were heard before the Travis Scott halftime show began, enraging die-hards like @SbFramesInOrder.

A pretty good way to call someone stupid.

Another quote from the show that’s been remixed endlessly, often with sexual overtones.

@chillmyleg says this reaction meme expressing exhaustion has been used so much it’s pretty tired itself. 

“This was a big meme on Twitter and Reddit,” says Caldwell. “It was used to express something maniacal or creepy.”

Ah, the reason there’s only 49 images here (thanks dumb, dumb CMS)! But hey, the joke was hopefully worth it — this is entries #24 and #25, get it?

The necessary context if you don’t: After turning into a couple of class clowns at boating school, Patrick and SpongeBob laugh at the number 24, much like how real teens might laugh at the number 69 (nice). SpongeBob then tells Patrick, “I thought of something funnier than 24… 25,” which causes the duo to explode in laughter. 

The exchange has carried over into the SpongeBob fan community, and Nickelodeon plastered it on a billboard to celebrate SpongeBob’s aforementioned 25th anniversary. 

“This was a big one back in the day,” says Caldwell. It’s a perfect two-panel image that basically says, “Take a minute.”

“My personal favorite SpongeBob meme is Patrick Star’s wallet because Patrick is so stupid,” says @chillmyleg. 

“This is one of those multi-panel SpongeBob memes where they take a scene from SpongeBob and apply it to a bunch of different contexts,” adds Caldwell. In this case, it’s used to illustrate a conversation with someone very, very stupid.

These kinds of charts are used all the time. It’s something of a game between people, where they’re given a template with labels already set, and they must find frames from SpongeBob to fill in the images.

“This was a good one,” says @SbFramesInOrder of this reaction meme overflowing with frustration.

Despite being very recognizable, both @SbFramesInOrder and @chillmyleg express annoyance with how “forced” and “overused” Surprised Patrick is. As such, although it may still get some play in the corporate world, the SpongeBob meme-sharing community is very much over Surprised Patrick.

@SbFramesInOrder absolutely loves the image of a greedy, green and gangster SpongeBob.

The ideal reply when something new, cool and wildly expensive is announced.

Krusty Krab Is Unfair originates from an episode where SpongeBob and Squidward protest Krusty Krab. It’s become a part of IRL protests where people bring signs reading “Krusty Krab Is Unfair,” several of which have ended up on the news.

“Another multi-panel meme that’s very adaptable,” explains Caldwell. “It turned into this phrasal template where people would say, ‘We should take X and put it Y.’”

“Confused Mr. Krabs utilizes a blurring Photoshop technique used in a lot of memes,” says Caldwell, adding that it’s meant to express confusion or disorientation.

“Wumbo” is a favorite nonsense word from SpongeBob that became a seriously favorite nonsense word of the SpongeBob fan community.

“This essentially means ‘oh shit, something’s about to go down,’ or ‘I’m really excited for this,’” explains @SbFramesInOrder. Meanwhile, @chillmyleg notes that his entire Instagram account is centered around this character, Fred. 

“A classic and important meme,” says @SbFramesInOrder. It’s been used in all kinds of videos, like the guy from 300 saying, “This is Sparta,” with Patrick replying, “No, this is Patrick.”

“This is a very, very important meme,” says @SbFramesInOrder. @chillmyleg agrees, adding that he’s seen people with tattoos of it and pictures of it hung in people’s homes. It all goes back to a hilarious moment from the show when Squidward made a painting he categorized as “bold and brash.”

A wonderful, hilarious, cheeky, knowing smile that’s taken on a life of its own as a reaction image.

A fantastic image with which to express FOMO.

“I use these all the time,” admits @SbFramesInOrder of the famous SpongeBob title cards used to elapse time.

“Handsome Squidward was GigaChad before GigaChad,” says Caldwell. “There’s also ‘The Fall of Handsome Squidward,’ which is this video where Handsome Squidward flails around, which has its own separate life where it gets remixed.”

“Any SpongeBob meme that’s used in the corporate world is going to rank high by nature,” says @SbFramesInOrder, though he notes that SpongeGar, which is used to express confusion, has faded in popularity over the last few years. 

“Is mayonnaise an instrument?” is an idiotic Patrick quote. Fans sub out “mayonnaise” for other things that are definitely not instruments.

The SpongeBob meme with the single most views on Know Your Meme “started the trend of using alternating caps to make fun of someone,” explains Caldwell. Just as the title indicates, Mocking SpongeBob is used to mock people (surprise! surprise!).

“Ight Imma Head Out is still pretty relevant,” says @SbFramesInOrder. It’s the perfect way to leave any online conversation. And as @chillmyleg notes, “Just recently, in an interview before the Kids Choice Awards, Tom Kenny said the meme in the voice, which is what people wanted.”

“Imagination has lasted from the beginning of SpongeBob memes until now,” @SbFramesInOrder says. It’s the ideal meme to insert new text into or replicate with other characters. Most of all, it’s bright and cheerful like SpongeBob himself, which is no doubt part of the reason why it continues to endure.