About

Cobrate or Patricio Cobrate refers to an image macro and reaction image of Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants taking off his underwear paired with the Spanish word "cobrate," which is used, in this case, as an expression related to paying a debt to someone. The image was popularized around May 2021 on Facebook and Twitter.

Origin

On May 21st, 2021, the Facebook^[1] meme page @TheThreeSpiderMan used an image of Patrick Star paired with the Spanish text "cobrate" to comment on rumors of Andrew Garfield returning as Spider-Man for a new movie. The meme utilizes a popular Spanish expression that can be translated as "charge me," which is related to paying a debt to someone, in this case, using the person's own body. The post (seen below) garnered 979 likes and 115 shares in two years.

The original scene used in the image macro comes from episode 85 in the fifth season of SpongeBob SquarePants. The episode was uploaded on YouTube^[2][3] by @hotseries9814 on June 22nd, 2022 (seen below).

Spread

The image macro grew in popularity in Latin American countries, being mostly used in ironic memes across multiple social media platforms. For instance, YouTube^[4] user @Aprendedemisazontapatio posted a cake tutorial recipe based on the "patricio cobrate" meme. The video (seen below, left), uploaded on March 1st, 2022, garnered 1,300 views and 55 likes in a year. YouTube^[5] user AmigurumisBrael posted a video tutorial on March 19th, 2022, showing how to create an Amigurumis doll inspired by the "cobrate" meme. The video earned almost 1000 views and 54 likes in a year (seen below, right).

On September 21st, 2021, Twitter^[6] user @WiStickers shared a WhatsApp conversation in which a person is collecting money that had lent to another, using a sticker in Spanish that says "You can pay with your body." The "cobrate" meme (seen below) is used as a response in the conversation, garnering 6,300 likes and 414 retweets in two years.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References