About

Cursed Plankton, also known as Ugly Plankton and Plenkton, is a cursed Image photoshop of Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants with a pitch black mouth and eyes. The image was originally posted online by DeviantArt user Moopintot in April 2010 and became the subject of memes over the following years, also gaining an association with several SpongeBob creepypastas, including "Plankton Got Served." In December 2024, the image was paired with a moaning or groaning sound effect as a meme on TikTok in which it is displayed under captions about something gross, annoying or undesirable happening to you.

Origin

On April 22nd, 2010, DeviantArt^[1] user Moopintot posted a photoshop of Plankton from SpongeBob that garnered over 29,000 views in 14 years. The photoshop is meant to make Plankton look creepy by darkening and adding grain to the image, blacking out his eyes and mouth and adding wrinkles and other features to his face.

Spread

The image was occasionally used in videos and memes throughout the 2010s and early 2020s. It gained a strong association with the April 17th, 2013 SpongeBob creepypasta^[2] "Plankton Got Served."

On December 15th, 2013, YouTuber^[3] Thatguypoops used the image for a portion of a horror-themed YTP, garnering over 430,000 views in 11 years.

On July 15th, 2022, YouTuber^[4] Snanps used the image in the thumbnail of a video based on the "Plankton Got Served" creepypasta, garnering over 305,000 views in two years.

2024 Cursed Plankton TikTok Trend

On August 21st, 2024, TikToker @planktongemendo began posting the Plenkton image over a ghostly moaning sound effect every day. On October 2nd, 2024, TikToker^[5] @planktongemendo posted a video consisting of a low-resolution version of the Plenkton image with the moaning sound effect overtop, garnering over 900,000 views in three days. It is unconfirmed where the sound comes from, although some commenters claim it is from a ghost sound effect video on YouTube.

The video inspired a wave of memes under the same audio that December, in which funny captions about something annoying, gross or undesirable are attached to the image, using Plankton's reaction to represent their own. For example, on December 2nd, TikToker^[6] @ammaryasser___1 posted a slideshow reading, "me when I accidentally answer someone who wasn't talking to me," garnering over 5 million views in three days.

On December 4th, TikToker^[7] @oasispage7 posted a version of the meme reading, "When you wake up and you think it's 3am but it's actually 37 seconds before your alarm," garnering over 7 million views in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References