About

Patrick Using a Vending Machine refers to a scene from SpongeBob SquarePants in which the character Patrick Star attempts to use a vending machine several times before it finally accepts his one-dollar note, all while SpongeBob desperately tries to stop him. Coming from the episode Wet Painters, in 2023 the scene achieved virality as a video and GIF caption format, gaining more popularity with the caption The Founding Fathers Watching Me Cast My Vote for X in the months preceding the 2024 United States Presidential Election.

Origin

On May 10th, 2002, episode Wet Painters of season three of the animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants premiered.^[1] In the episode, SpongeBob and Patrick are tasked with painting the inside of Mr. Krabs' house when the paint accidentally gets on Mr. Krabs' first dollar. Patrick pitches the idea of replacing the first dollar with a dollar from his wallet, but is immediately distracted by a vending machine and, after several unsuccessful attempts and ignoring SpongeBob's loud protests, spends the dollar on candy (scene shown below).

Our butts are saved, Patrick! Now all we have to… Patrick! No! Patrick, no, why did you put… Aaagh! Grab it back! Grab it, hurry, hurry! Ai- noooo, Pat, no, nooo- get it back, get it, get it, take it, get it, get it- [sobbing] nooo.

On March 8th, 2017, YouTube^[2] user videodump posted the earliest found meme based on the scene, an earrape version that accrued over 12,000 views in seven years.

On January 20th, 2020, Redditor DRyan98 posted a still image of Patrick standing next to the machine captioned, "Can we take a moment to realize that Mr. Krabs had a vending machine in his living room." The post (shown below) received over 21,000 upvotes in the /r/BikiniBottomTwitter^[3] in five years.

Spread

On October 23rd, 2021, Facebook^[4] user Best of SpongeBob Memes reposted the image, with the post gaining over 15,000 reactions and 1,300 shares in three years.

On April 16th, 2023, iFunny^[5] user Moskau posted a Gamblecore meme based on the scene, pairing it with the caption "Mom watching my dad spend our rent money on slot machines again." The post (shown below) received over 560 smiles in two years.

The post saw viral spread online in the following months. For example, on May 7th, 2023, TikTok^[6] user @flexoffender22 reposted the meme, gaining over 6,100 likes in two years.

More caption memes based on the video were shared on iFunny and TikTok in 2023. On November 7th, 2023, iFunny^[7] user IronManLOHH posted a video caption meme that received over 2,100 smiles in one year (shown below).

On September 8th, 2024, Instagram^[8] user fashcism posted the video with the caption "The Founding Fathers watching me cast my vote for Hawk Tuah Girl in November." The post (shown below) received over 8,700 likes in two months.

The post saw viral spread online in the following months. For example, a September 24th, 2024, repost by X^[9] account @spongemp4_ garnered over 4,500 reposts and 65,000 likes in one month. In September and October 2024, more memes exploiting The Founding Fathers Watching Me Cast My Vote for X phrasal format were shared on social media.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References