“Is Mayonnaise An Instrument?”: Bill Fagerbakke Reminisces On 25 Years Of Patrick Star, And Friendship With Tom Kenny

Like I said earlier, I always love the little moments. One of the disarming things about kids is that they can take a simple moment like greeting someone, and really look for a connection there, really putting themselves into this simple little moment. I really love that and any kind of moment Patrick has when that can be interwoven. You know what I mean?
That does make sense. I was probably six or seven when I started watching SpongeBob. The scene that I gravitated to as a kid was Squidward at the end of “Band Geeks.” His triumphant ending always stayed in the back of my head whenever I was trying something new. Squidward went for it, and he succeeded, and these tiny little moments you would never think—but we do connect to.
That’s beautiful!
This was so much fun, but I have one final question for you! After 25 years of playing Patrick, if you could go back in time to the pilot episode, knowing everything you know now, is there any advice you would give yourself?
That’s interesting! I didn’t really know what was going on with the pilot, and maybe that was actually better because it allowed for the discoveries that happened as we moved along. I’m not sure what I might have done differently because you always have to make it relevant to what the intent is. You can’t distort it so it no longer serves the intended beats.
However, within the context of the structure of the beats, there is room to play. So, I probably would have played a little bit just within some of those very simple moments. Even just the mantra, “Who’s ready?” When you think of that now and how beautiful a moment that is, just as a friend supporting his friend on this scary moment of applying for this job that he wants so badly—that’s a beautiful thing.
Would it have mattered whether or not I appreciated that more when I did it? I don’t know; I think it would have because a lot of the things that we’re talking about in animation and voice-over performance are really subtle. The signals are sent in vocal subtlety, in terms of just the humanity, if you will, of the characters. I think that is kind of the key to the written richness and the ability of the viewer to connect to the characters.