About

Mr. Krabs Telling Story to SpongeBob by a Campfire, also known as Spongebob Mr. Krabs Campfire, is an exploitable image macro depicting the cartoon characters Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob from the Nickelodeon TV show SpongeBob Squarepants. Typically, the format is used to show the meme creator's intense, obscure or extreme views on a particular subject to a disinterested or apathetic listener. It is often used to comment on niche subjects, especially within certain subs on Reddit. The meme shares many similarities to Spider-Man Explaining to Zendaya, Bro Explaining, Mike Wazowski Explaining Things and Me Explaining to My Mom.

Origin

The still used in the meme comes from SpongeBob Squarepants season 1, episode 13a, titled "Scaredy Pants," which originally aired on October 28th, 1999. During the scene (shown below), Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob the story of the Flying Dutchman around a dimly lit campfire inside the Krusty Krab.

The earliest example of the still being used as a meme format comes from a post to the /r/BikiniBottomTwitter on October 3rd, 2019, by Redditor^[1] 69peterpumpkineater. The post (seen below), received over 7,100 upvotes and 39 comments.

Spread

The format continued to spread in the following days and weeks, primarily on Reddit. On October 5th, 2019, Redditor^[2] Seminole1996 reposted another example to the /r/suspiciouslyspecific subreddit (shown below, left), receiving 381 upvotes and 11 comments. On November 6th, 2019, Redditor^[3] yaboyrose posted a variant to the /r/HistoryMemes sub (shown below, right), receiving over 103,000 upvotes, 770 comments and a few Reddit awards.

On November 6th, 2019, Imgur^[4] user OctopussSevenTwo uploaded a version of the meme to the site (seen below, left), receiving over 800 views. On January 23rd, 2020, Redditor^[5] JudgmentalTurkey posted another example to the /r/memes subreddit (seen below, right), receiving over 24,400 upvotes, 76 comments and three Reddit awards.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

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External References