Patrick Star

About

Patrick Star is a character from the Nickelodeon series Spongebob Squarepants. He is the title character’s best friend and is known for being overweight and dimwitted. Several moments featuring the character were later turned into popular internet memes.

Origin

Patrick first appeared in the pilot episode of Spongebob Squarepants, “Help Wanted,” which aired May 1st, 1999. In the episode, he encourages Spongebob to interview for a job at the Krusty Krab.^[1]

Spread

Patrick has remained a prominent character on the show throughout the program’s 11 seasons as of March, 2018. Patrick has a wide following online. On Facebook,^[2] a page for the character has over 25 million likes. While a page for the character is on Reddit, the most popular subreddit related to Patrick, /r/pictureswithpatrick,^[3] involves users photoshopping the character into other images. It has over 18,000 subscribers. The character’s verified Twitter account has over 546,000 followers.^[4] He also has a Wikia page^[5] as well as a page on TV Tropes. ^[6] In August of 2017, Buzzfeed^[7] posted an article compiling some of Patrick’s funniest moments. On December 8th, 2017, YouTuber Preston Ward Condra uploaded a compilation of all the times Patrick had been arrested in the course of the show, gaining over 1.5 million views (shown below).

Related Memes

Push It Somewhere Else

Push It Somewhere Else Patrick (also known as “Pushing Patrick”) is an image macro series based on a scene from SpongeBob SquarePants. The captions typically use the snowclone template “We should take X and put it Y” or “We should X and Y" to suggest an alternative solution to a given problem. The screen capture used in the image macro comes from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm,” originally aired on October 12th, 2001. In the episode, the character Patrick Star provides a possible solution for dealing with the threat of an Alaskan Bull Worm, by suggesting they relocate the entire town (shown below).

“We should take Bikini Bottom and push it somewhere else.”

Surprised Patrick

Surprised Patrick is a photoshop meme in which a cut out of the SpongeBob Squarepants character Patrick Star from the animated television series is superimposed onto different base images of various humorous contexts. In the images, Patrick always appears to be in a state of shock or bewilderment with his mouth agape. In a scene from the 2004 animated adventure comedy film The SpongeBob Squarepants Movie, the protagonist SpongeBob and his friend Patrick Star are shown sitting next to a ledge wearing exasperated expressions after losing their Patty Mobile car in an abyss. On January 29th, 2008, an animated GIF of the scene was submitted to the graphics website Glitter-Graphics (shown below).

Savage Patrick

Savage Patrick (sometimes referred to as Evil Patrick or Angry Patrick) refers to a still image of Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants looking as though he’s in the midst of a maniacally evil chuckle. The still comes from the Season 1 episode of Spongebob Squarepants, “Nature Pants” (shown below at around 7:10), which aired September 11th, 1999.

The still began becoming a meme in late February of 2018. One of the earliest known posts to use the image was posted February 26th, 2018 by Twitter user @bvercetti__ in a tweet that gained over 4,600 retweets and 18,000 likes.

Patrick Star’s Wallet

Patrick Star’s Wallet refers to a scene from Spongebob Squarepants in which Patrick attempts to teach a lesson about morality to the villainous Man Ray. In the scene, Man Ray role-plays giving back Patrick’s lost wallet. However, Patrick denies the wallet is his despite Man Ray’s logical reasoning, causing Man Ray to revert to anger. The scene has been parodied and turned into an exploitable in which the characters and dialogue are altered to make different kinds of points. The scene appears in the episode “Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy III,” which aired November 27th, 2000 (shown below).

An image macro of the scene appeared online in the mid-2010s. An example was posted on Imgur on July 21st, 2013,^[2] though the image had been circulating online prior.

Scared Patrick

Scared Patrick refers to an exploitable template from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Hall Monitor.” In the template, Patrick Star is being interviewed by police, who show him something which scares him, leading to an exaggerated reaction. On April 24th, 2017, the template image was posted to /r/dankmemes by ariambe, gaining over 3,000 points (shown below).

I Have 3 Dollars

I Have 3 Dollars, occasionally formatted as I Have Three Dollars or I Have $3, is an image macro in which the Spongebob Squarepants character Patrick Star expresses his lack of money. The image became a reaction image used to react to costly scenarios or items. The meme originates from the Spongebob season 3 episode “One Krab’s Trash” aired on February 22 2002, in a scene during which Patrick barters with the character Mr. Krabs and ends up overspending on a toilet plunger. The original line is “I only have seven (dollars)” but as he holds up three physical notes, the meme generally uses the number three.

Leedle Leedle

Leedle Leedle, sometimes written as “Leedle Leedle Lee” or “Leedle Leedle Leedle Lee”, is a quote from the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Shanghaied”. In 2010, the quote began to gain attention online. It is used humorously in a variety of ways. In 2001, the Spongebob Squarepants episode “Shanghaied” aired. In it, the line was first used.

Flying Dutchman: What a night be this! Crew, howl with me so that we might set the Seven Seas ablaze with fear! [howls like a wolf]
SpongeBob: [laughs]
Patrick: Leedle-leedle-leedle-lee!