Plankton and Karen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Plankton and Karen |
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| SpongeBob SquarePants characters | |
Karen (silver mobile form from The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie) (left) and Plankton (right).
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| Created by | Stephen Hillenburg |
| Designed by | Stephen Hillenburg |
| Voiced by | Plankton: Mr. Lawrence Karen: Jill Talley |
| Portrayed by | Plankton: Wesley Taylor (Broadway) Karen: Stephanie Hsu (Broadway) |
| Information | |
| Species | Plankton: Cyclops copepod Karen: artificially intelligent supercomputer |
| Occupation | Owners and founders of the Chum Bucket |
| Children | Chip Plankton (son) |
| Pets | Spot (pet amoeba) |
Sheldon J. Plankton and Karen Plankton are two characters from the cartoon show SpongeBob SquarePants. They are the main bad guys in the series. Plankton is voiced by Mr. Lawrence and Karen is voiced by Jill Talley. They first appeared in an episode called "Plankton!" on July 31, 1999.
These characters were created by Stephen Hillenburg, who also made SpongeBob SquarePants. He named Karen after his own wife, Karen Hillenburg. Plankton and Karen are married and own a restaurant called the Chum Bucket. But their restaurant is not very popular.
Plankton is a very smart, tiny creature called a copepod. Karen is a special computer that can work underwater. Plankton and Karen are always trying to steal the secret recipe for the Krabby Patty burger. This burger is sold at the Krusty Krab restaurant, which belongs to Mr. Krabs. Mr. Krabs is Plankton's biggest rival. Even though Plankton and Karen try many plans, they usually fail because of Mr. Krabs and his friends.
People who watch the show often say good things about how Plankton and Karen sound and what they say. At first, they were not big characters. But over time, their voice actor, Mr. Lawrence, helped make them more important. They became the main villains of the show. Plankton and Karen also play big parts in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie and the 2015 movie. You can also find them in toys, games, and other fun stuff related to SpongeBob.
Contents
Plankton
Who is Plankton?
Plankton is the main enemy of Mr. Krabs. They used to be best friends. Plankton owns the Chum Bucket, a fast-food restaurant. It is right across the street from Mr. Krabs' restaurant, the Krusty Krab. The Chum Bucket mostly sells "chum," which is made of fish parts. Most characters in the show think it tastes terrible. Because of this, Plankton's restaurant does not make much money.
Plankton's main goal is to steal the secret Krabby Patty recipe. He wants to sell Krabby Patties at his own restaurant. Everyone in Bikini Bottom knows about his evil plans.
A funny thing about Plankton is how small he is. He is much smaller than the other characters. People can easily step on him or flick him away. Because he is so small, he wants to be in charge of everything. He sometimes even wants to rule the whole world!
Plankton is a very clever inventor. He builds many machines to help him with his plans. He also uses them for his own benefit. Even though he uses his smarts for bad things, he wasn't always a villain. He built Karen, his first invention, when he was still friends with Mr. Krabs in school. In his early appearances, Plankton often said, "I went to college!" He also has a pet amoeba named Spot. Spot was first a guard dog but later became a retriever.
Sometimes, Plankton is not just a bad guy. In newer episodes, he can be somewhat friendly with SpongeBob. Even though they are enemies, SpongeBob often tries to help Plankton be good. But it usually doesn't work. In The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, Plankton even teams up with SpongeBob. He first does it to protect himself, but then he starts to like SpongeBob. The movie was even called a "buddy film" about them. The show's creator, Stephen Hillenburg, thought Plankton was more like a funny villain than a truly evil one.
How Plankton was Created
When SpongeBob SquarePants first started, Plankton was not a main character. Mr. Lawrence, who voices Plankton, said that Stephen Hillenburg wasn't sure if he would use the character again. But Mr. Lawrence was also a writer for the show and really liked Plankton. He came up with ideas for the character and shared them with Hillenburg. After that, Plankton started to appear more often. Mr. Lawrence thinks Plankton became a main character in the third season.
In the early seasons, Mr. Lawrence was the only writer who came up with ideas for Plankton. He wanted to show that Plankton could be more than just a simple bad guy. Now, many writers create stories for Plankton. Mr. Lawrence still writes for him and helps decide how the character changes over time.
Early drawings of Plankton showed him in a robot suit with Karen built inside. This suit has not appeared in the show. The suit was meant to make Plankton seem bigger. This is because Hillenburg first wanted Plankton to be so tiny you would need a magnifying glass to see him. But as the show went on, the animators made Plankton bigger. They felt it was easier for him to interact with other characters if he wasn't microscopic.
Plankton's Voice
Doug Lawrence, known as "Mr. Lawrence," gives Plankton his voice. He is also a writer for the show. The voice started as an imitation of one of his friends from high school. He first used this voice for small characters on another show called Rocko's Modern Life. Another voice actor, Tom Kenny, found it funny. So, Mr. Lawrence decided to use it when trying out for roles on SpongeBob.
Mr. Lawrence first tried out for SpongeBob's voice. But Stephen Hillenburg wanted a more innocent voice for SpongeBob. So, he turned Mr. Lawrence down. Mr. Lawrence kept working on the show and voiced other small characters. Later, he was offered the role of Plankton for his first episode, "Plankton!". He describes Plankton's voice as a mix of Gregory Peck and Tony the Tiger.
When the idea for "Plankton!" was shown to Nickelodeon, Hillenburg already knew he wanted Mr. Lawrence to be Plankton. But the TV network wanted a famous guest star to voice him. This was because Plankton was only supposed to be in one episode. Mr. Lawrence said that the studio suggested someone like Bruce Willis. But Hillenburg insisted, saying, "It's Doug, don't you hear it? This is the character!"
Karen
Who is Karen?
Plankton is married to a special computer named Karen. She is also his helper and best friend. People often call her Plankton's wife. But Plankton says WIFE stands for "Wired Integrated Female Electroencephalograph." Karen is Plankton's own invention. He built her from a calculator and many wires. She was his first invention when he was in school. They even dated before he became evil.
Karen's system is built into most of Plankton's machines. This includes the Chum Bucket building itself. This way, she and Plankton can talk to each other when he is on a mission. She is a very advanced computer with a lot of memory.
Karen does many jobs at the Chum Bucket. She is a busser, chef, and cashier. But she rarely has to do these jobs because the restaurant is not popular. She also tends to focus more than Plankton on their main goal. That goal is to steal Mr. Krabs' secret recipe. Karen often reminds Plankton to stay on task. She also tells him to keep trying when he feels like giving up. Since she is a computer, Karen usually cannot feel emotions like sadness for others.
Karen is often better than Plankton at coming up with plans to steal the Krabby Patty recipe. Most of Plankton's successful plans came from Karen. This includes "Plan Z" in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. That was the only time Plankton successfully stole the formula and used it. But Plankton usually takes credit for her ideas, which makes her upset. Karen has even stolen the formula easily without Plankton's help many times. But her husband always accidentally messes things up. Because they act so differently, Plankton and Karen often argue. Tom Kenny, SpongeBob's voice actor, has said their marriage is like the one in the old TV show The Honeymooners.
Karen is a computer that works underwater. The show never explains how she can do this. Tom Kenny said in an interview that it's just one of those things in SpongeBob where "logic doesn't have a place."
How Karen was Created
Karen was also created by Stephen Hillenburg. He named her after his wife, Karen Hillenburg. Hillenburg first designed a lab for Plankton to show how good he was with technology. This led to Karen being developed as the main computer system in his lab. Like Plankton, she was not meant to be a main character at first. Her role grew as Mr. Lawrence wrote ideas to give Plankton and Karen more personality.
In the first two seasons, Karen was not called Plankton's wife. Plankton's official story from 2000 just said he worked "with the help of his computer, Karen." In the third season, in an episode called "The Algae's Always Greener," Plankton first calls Karen his wife. Since then, episodes often focus on their marriage, like their anniversary or honeymoon.
In early episodes, Karen always supported her husband. As the show continued, she became more sarcastic. This is because Plankton is so obsessed with the Krabby Patty formula. But she still loves him. Mr. Lawrence feels that Karen makes episodes about Plankton funnier. He also thinks her presence helps show Plankton as a more complex character. He once said, "I want more Karen on the show... The married life of an evil genius is the funniest thing to me."
For the first three seasons, Karen was usually a large, blue monitor on the lab wall. Sometimes, only her voice was heard from inside Plankton's robots. When Karen became a main character in The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, she got a mobile unit. This helped her interact more easily with others. The show's producer, Vincent Waller, said the mobile unit was added because it made storytelling easier. Karen now uses both her wall form and mobile form in most episodes after the movie. Since season ten, her wall monitor is no longer used. Her mobile form always has robotic arms.
Karen's Voice
Karen is voiced by American actress Jill Talley. She is married to Tom Kenny, who voices SpongeBob. Jill Talley uses a Midwestern accent for Karen. When Karen talks, her voice is mixed with electronic sounds by the show's sound engineers. This makes her sound like a robot. Her voice was more flat in earlier episodes. Some of Karen's talks with Plankton are made up on the spot by Jill Talley and Mr. Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence says this is his favorite part of voice acting. He said they sometimes talk over each other so much that the directors have to tell them to stop. He also feels that voicing the characters for so long has made them feel like a real married couple.
Plankton and Karen in Other Media
Plankton and Karen have appeared in many SpongeBob SquarePants products. These include video games and action figures. In 2006, Ty Inc.'s Beanie Babies made a soft toy of Plankton. A Lego set of the Chum Bucket was released in 2007. It included a small Plankton figure and his lab with Karen. The fourteenth issue of SpongeBob Comics is all about Plankton and Karen. It has six new stories set at the Chum Bucket. The 2013 video game SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton's Robotic Revenge is about Plankton. Mr. Lawrence and Jill Talley voice Plankton and Karen in the game.
Plankton and Karen also appear in other Nickelodeon crossover games. These include Nicktoons Unite! (2005), Nicktoons: Globs of Doom, and Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 (2023). In the last two games, Plankton is a character you can play as. The Chum Bucket is also a stage in these games.
At Sea World Australia, there was a "SpongeBob ParadePants" event in 2011. It had a float with Karen and a talking Plankton. In 2015, a copy of Plankton's laboratory was built for a SpongeBob event in Taipei. It had a copy of Karen's monitor, which showed SpongeBob episodes. It also had a small statue of Plankton.
The band The Flaming Lips recorded a song for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. It talks about Plankton and Karen. The song says Plankton is confused and would be happier if he stopped complaining to Karen. Plankton also sings a song called "You Will Obey" on the album The Best Day Ever. Elvis Presley's former guitarist James Burton played guitar on it.
Plankton and Karen are the main bad guys in the Broadway show. Wesley Taylor played Plankton and Stephanie Hsu played Karen. They wore costumes inspired by the characters. They also had a Plankton puppet and a copy of Karen's mobile form. They sang a song together called "When the Going Gets Tough."
See also
In Spanish: Plankton y Karen para niños
