13 Questions With Squidward Actor Rodger Bumpass, Who Says He Will “Never Get Tired” Of Playing The Iconic Character

How many times have you thought to yourself, “I’m becoming like Squidward?” For 25 years, Rodger Bumpass has provided SpongeBob fans with some of the show’s most memorable moments. Squidward is my personal favorite character, and the show would not be the same without the cantankerous, yet lovable, octopus.

Celebrating SpongeBob’s 25th anniversary, I took a deep dive into Squidward’s character and finest moments with Rodger himself.

BuzzFeed: As a big SpongeBob fan, I’m always curious to hear about the origin story behind the character. Can you describe your audition for Squidward?

Back in those days, in the ’80s and ’90s, our daily schedule as voice actors was that we got in our car and drove around the town to auditions and jobs. You usually went to your agent’s office, and they had a small recording area, and you read the copy they reserved for you. So it was just another audition.

Of course, like in any breakdown, they give you a written description of the character. He’s artsy, he’s sarcastic, he’s frustrated, he thinks he’s a little better than everyone else and above them. Then they give you a photo of him or the drawing, I should say. I saw that he had this big honking nose, and so I said, “Well, let’s just do his voice a little nasal,” like, “Oh puh-lease” (does Squidward’s voice).

How about Squidward’s iconic laugh? How did you put that together?

Stephen [Stephen Hillenburg, the show’s creator] came in and had an idea for the laugh. They had an antic they wanted to do, kind of an accordion effect on that big honking nose, so there had to be a rhythmic quality to it. We sat down, and I came up with the (does Squidward’s laugh). I always end his laugh off-key if I can. We got the rhythm there, and Stephen said, “Well, that’s it!”

The process was just another daily thing one does as a voice actor, but no one ever knew it would be what it became. So, that was my small process in this wonderful ride that we’ve all been on.

Squidward also has a really impressive scream. Did the technique for the screaming come naturally to you, or did you have any vocal training?

I’m very lucky that the particular type of screams I do for Squidward do not wreck my voice. I often comment that when I go to a baseball game, and something happens, like someone hitting a home run, the sudden requirement to yell just knocks my throat out for days and days.

In my planned screaming, I do it like an opera singer from the diaphragm, so that doesn’t really hurt as much. Occasionally, there’s an episode where I had to be repeatedly scared, one particular episode that we had called “Ink Lemonade.” I had to scream, and then I had to make a sound of excreting the ink through Squidward’s nose and scream again. That particular scream, over and over again, wrecked me for about a month or so. But generally, I’m very lucky in that I can do that scream. It’s very therapeutic, actually!

Squidward has his ups and downs throughout the episodes, but I want to discuss one where he has a big win. “Band Geeks” is probably my favorite episode, and the triumphant moment at the end always resonated with me. Do you have a favorite memory of making “Band Geeks?”

It is everyone’s universally favorite episode. It has some of the most iconic lines, like “Is mayonnaise an instrument?” and “Too bad that didn’t kill me.” There’s a particular scene, and I may be the only person who really just giggles every time I think about it—but right before they go on stage, Squilliam comes in to mock them, and he says, “Is that your band?” They cut to the band, and SpongeBob is dancing in front. Then, it cuts back to Squidward, and I sheepishly say, “That’s his eager face.” I just like that moment.

I always root for the underdog, and I always felt Squidward was the underdog of the show. Do you wish he had more triumphant moments throughout the series?

There has to be a balance. An essential part of his character is frustration and getting the bad end of the stick. But it has to be tempered, just like “Band Geeks” did in occasional triumphs. That gives it flavor; that gives it spice and variety. It gives emotional satisfaction to those who’ve been watching him get the short end of the stick for so long.

Finally, in “Band Geeks” and a couple of other episodes, he triumphs, or at least comes through happy at the very end. So, there’s an emotional arc that people relate to. I understand your notion about people relating to Squidward, because it’s a common story I hear at Comic Cons all the time.

Young adults, especially when they were kids, identify with SpongeBob because he’s young and childlike and innocent and exuberant. When they get to be adults and have bills to pay and a job to attend to, they associate immediately with Squidward and his frustration. So, there’s a life’s arc lesson in Squidward’s character.

Do you feel the same way? Do you relate more to Squidward?

My arc is unique because I am the person doing it, and I am the actor who has worked 25 years with Squidward’s character. I joke about it, but I became Squidward. I love sarcasm, but I never do it to hurt people. There’s always been a sarcastic side to me, and I always used to say he was my alter ego. But it’s not really an exaggeration to say we have merged through the years. I love to play him just because of the reaction of the fans, but we have slightly merged a little bit. It’s a Borg [Star Trek reference] kind of thing, you know?

What are some of your favorite parts of playing Squidward?

He has always been a character that has a wide range of emotions. He gets to be the sarcastic observer of the insanity around him, and a lot of my favorite moments are him just calmly making some sarcastic comment or making a joke and laughing at his own joke. I always like that. Those are the nice subtleties of his character.

But then the insanity around him gets too much, and he gets to go apoplectic, which, as I say, is therapeutic for me. I get to do the entire gamut of emotion, and therein lies a great field of trying to do different things. It’s not just a one-trick pony anymore. I’ll never get tired of playing Squidward because he’s always able to do something a little bit differently as time has gone on.

You mentioned you love the “eager face” moment in “Band Geeks.” Are there other favorite lines of Squidward’s that have stuck with you over the years?

Very early in the run, I just had this little line, just a casual thing, as something was going on in the background: “I didn’t realize this was happy hopping moron day.” That one kind of stuck with me a little bit.

What lines do fans ask you to say the most when they meet you?

Oftentimes, “Another day, another migraine.” Also, “Too bad that didn’t kill me.” One longer line that I say is another where Squidward is talking while something happens in the background: “In case you’ve forgotten, here’s how things work. I order the food, you cook the food, then the customer gets the food. We do that for 40 years, and then we die.”

Spongebob and Squidward have so many iconic moments together. What is your favorite part about working with Tom Kenny?

Some of my favorite episodes are the ones where Tom and I are doing our thing, like “Dying For Pie.” We have a good chemistry together. Often, SpongeBob will do things in a surreal way and do it repeatedly. Then, eventually, Squidward gets to the point where he explodes. That’s kind of a throwback to the old Jackie Gleason TV show The Honeymooners, where you had Norton. [Norton] would do something just like Spongebob would do it and finally gets to the point that Jackie Gleason can’t take it.

I like working with any of the SpongeBob cast one-on-one because it’s just so much more fun to have two of us going back and forth. It’s a great deal of fun, and a lot of funny things happen improvisationally.

Do you have an example of an improv moment in mind that made it to an episode?

We used to do a thing where we do a third take of our run, and we call it the ‘crazy take’, where we can improv and do anything we want. Many of those things actually made their way into the show, but I’m hard-pressed to figure out which ones. There was one moment when Mr. Krabs was obliged to kind of serve Squidward for a while [the episode “Accidents Will Happen”]. So Squidward was taking advantage of it, and Krabs was going to walk away. Then Squidward says, “I need a pillow for my feet,” and then Krabs goes, “Oh, well, all right, here’s your pillow,” and he starts to walk away. Then I say, “Fluff it.” We all just cracked up, and it still cracks me up, just a casual, “Fluff it.”

I remember that scene! Continuing with SpongeBob and Squidward, they’ve had quite a tumultuous relationship over the years, yet we see endearing moments sprinkled in. A famous one is “Pizza Delivery,” where Squidward stands up for him. What is your take on their friendship?

It’s gravitated away from one-note, which I find wonderful because it gives depth and expands everyone’s characters and their relationships. You can’t have Squidward always being hacked off at whatever SpongeBob and Patrick do. Ever so often, Squidward will go too far, and he’ll realize it, and then he’ll have to back up and do the right thing. You see the humanity and the balanced character that Squidward really does have. His predominant thing is his frustration, and all of his reactions to being superior to others are a reaction to being frustrated and not ever getting that wonderful, great breakthrough moment only in his dreams. So, having him be more human-like and fleshed out makes it more attractive to the viewer.

When the show first started, I equated their relationship very similar to Dennis the Menace and Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson, deep down, has an affection for him, but on the surface, and most of the time, it’s a sarcastic comment about Dennis. So, I saw that as parallel to our relationships.

It’s rare for any television show, especially in animation, to have 25 years on the air and continue to grow. In your own words, what is that kind of “secret formula” for the success of SpongeBob?

I always draw a parallel to Looney Tunes. Both of our cartoons are shorts. They’re 11-minute cartoons, not full half hours. We use animation the way I believe animation should be used. If you get hit with a frying pan, your face takes the shape of the frying pan. If SpongeBob has to go on a crying jag, he becomes a lawn sprinkler.

With the gags and the jokes, a little kid gets it because it’s a colorful cartoon. An older kid says, “Oh, I get that reference,” and every age who watches the cartoon gets a different joke. It’s kind of like a parable where different people in different situations, at different ages, will get different things from it.

In that respect, there’s no age limit for this show. You don’t outgrow SpongeBob. The things that people at Comic Cons tell me—one of the first things they say to us is, “Thank you for our childhood.” That’s an absolutely wonderful legacy to be a part of. When I was first starting my career back in ’77 in New York, I just had a simple goal. I wanted to do something on a national level, a national stage. This turned out to be not only national but global.

To be a part of something that legitimately uses the word iconic is just a wonderful, wonderful icing on the cake of a person’s life. I will never stop being grateful to both Nickelodeon and the fans who give me and all of us this chance to be a part of this wonderful, wonderful thing that caused so much joy and laughter and good times for people’s developing lives. We are sitting in gratitude.