About

"How Many Times Do We Have to Teach You This Lesson, Old Man?" is a memorable quote uttered from the American animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants. Online, a screencapture of the line being said has been used as a joke about having to repeat one's self aggressively.

Origin

On October 5th, 2001, the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "The Bully" premiered in the United States.^[1] In the episode, the new character Flats the Flounder bullies the titular character, SpongeBob. During the episode, as SpongeBob flees the bully's threats, an angry crowd mistakes an old man for the bully. When this happens a second time, the blue fish Harold Reginald says, "How many times do we have to teach you the same lesson, old man?"

About 10 years later, YouTuber ryan445544 posted a clip of the scene on the site. The post received more than 310,000 views in eight years (shown below).

Spread

The following year, on August 9th, YouTuber^[2] Avromps1999 posted another version of the clip with the title "How Many Times Do We Have To Teach You This Lesson, Old Man? (Original Scene)." The post received more than 1.2 million views in seven years.

On March 11th, 2016, Twitter ^[3] user @PIACID_ tweeted about the scene, recreating it in a series of screenshots in a thread. The post featuring the line received more than 13,000 retweets and 12,000 likes in three years (shown below, left). Several weeks later, Redditor ^[4] MGLLN posted the thread in the /r/BlackPeopleTwitter. The post received more than 9,000 points (87% upvoted) in three years.

The following year, on February 23rd, 2017, Twitter^[5] account @Blops4Clips tweeted, "When the enemy 76 keeps thinking he can 1v6 just because his ult is up. 'how many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man?'" They included the screenshot as a reaction to the post. Within two years, the post received more than 500 retweets and 1,400 likes (shown below, center).

Several months later, On June 29th, Instagram^[6] user @spitblaze used the image with the caption "when a game makes you fight the same boss three different times." The post received more than 60,000 notes in two years (shown below, right).

On February 6th, 2019, Redditor^[7] musicman662 posted a variation with the Reddit logo over the character face and the caption "when the nfl uploads the halftime show for a third time thinking we wouldn't notice." The post received more than 16,000 points (97% upvoted) and 120 comments (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References