About

SpongeBob Playing Paper refers to a scene from SpongeBob SquarePants in which SpongeBob plays clarinet music using a piece of paper while telling Squidward that the notes he was playing on his actual clarinet are wrong. The scene has been edited using various music and songs in memes on YouTube and Facebook.

Origin

On February 14th, 2000, season one, episode 16b of SpongeBob SquarePants titled "The Paper" premiered in the US.^[1] In the episode, Squidward tries to sour SpongeBob's fun with a piece of paper by saying he can't "play music" with it, then badly plays "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on his clarinet. SpongeBob tells Squidward that the notes he played are wrong, then plays a more impressive version of the tune using a piece of paper. On March 20th, 2021, YouTube^[2] user bossofthelost uploaded the scene. The video received more than 46,000 views in one year (shown below).

Spread

The scene first started seeing use as a meme in 2017. On September 26th, 2017, YouTube^[3] user handymanshandle uploaded the earliest-known edit, receiving more than 34,000 views in five years (shown below).

Beginning in 2022, the scene became a more popular meme template, as people edited the music SpongeBob plays in the clip. For example, on June 7th, 2022, YouTube^[4] user Bryan blue blur hedgehog uploaded an edit of the scene with music from Shadow the Hedgehog. The video received 45,000 views in one month (shown below, left). On May 17th, 2022, YouTube^[5] user SonixFan uploaded similar edit using music from the "Sonic the Hedgehog_:https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/sonic-the-hedgehog video game Sonic Colors. The video received more than 693,000 views in two months (shown below, right).

On June 13th, 2022, Facebook^[6] user Ryan Wido Seno uploaded an edit of the Indonesian dub of SpongeBob comparing the songs "Kuroda Jun" and "Vierra." The video received more than 2,693 reactions and 4,390 shares (shown below, left).

The edit became popular among Indonesians on Facebook. For example on June 26th, 2022, Facebook^[7] page Ｊｕｓｔ Ｗｉｂｕ すごい uploaded the edit, receiving more than 31,301 reactions and 6,312 shares (shown below, left). On July 1st, 2022, Facebook^[8] user Aski Lubis Ciri uploaded a similar edit. The video received more than 908 reactions and 1,253 shares (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References