Top 20 Jokes Only Adults Will Get in SpongeBob SquarePants

“The Hot Shot”

An ordinary day at boating school is interrupted when a famous raceboat driver stops by to drop off his son, Tony Fast Jr. The students immediately go wild for the two celebs. After the dad drives away, fans ask for autographs. Things take a racy turn when a female fish asks for a signature in a certain place before getting cut off. Between her lack of paper and arm movement, it’s implied that she wanted Tony Fast Jr. to sign within a very noticeable part of her anatomy. The young guy is interrupted before he can even pull out a pen. However, the adults in the audience knew exactly where she intended for that signature to go.

“Krusty Dogs”

Once SpongeBob discovers that leftover patty meat can be shaped into wieners, Mr. Krabs sees a golden new business opportunity. The crustacean jacks up the price for this new product and becomes so obsessed that he stops selling his signature burger. While the intense focus on Krusty dogs leads to a lot of talk about weiners, the one that sounds dirtiest comes from Squidward. The cashier’s bitter request sounds like a euphemism for another activity entirely. When Squidward’s line is coupled with the imagery of the Krusty Dog exploding over fish, you get one dirty joke.

“Ghost Host”

After the Flying Dutchman severely damages his ship, the ghost decides to move in with SpongeBob. But the change of scenery causes the specter to start losing his spooky mojo. During a particularly low point, The Flying Dutchman stops caring about hygiene and hits on a lady fish. But she hesitates to accept his advances once she notices a small but vital detail about the ghost. The implication that The Flying Dutchman was ready to cheat on his wife made for a pretty mature gag. If SpongeBob hadn’t kicked the lady fish out, the ghost might’ve ended up in the doghouse with his wife for eternity.

“Graveyard Shift”

Squidward decides to mess with SpongeBob by inventing a story about a villain who's fond of turning the lights on and off at night. Unfortunately for the cashier, a mysterious entity starts messing with the switch for real. After a false alarm, it’s revealed that the villain responsible is…Nosferatu? The creature in question first appeared in a 1922 vampire film. Since SpongeBob only started airing in 1998, we doubt that many members of the younger audience got the joke. While the Nosferatu reference isn’t as scandalous as other gags, it was undeniably added as a way to wink to SpongeBob’s older fans.

“Lockdown for Love”

Despite being a computer, multiple episodes have demonstrated that Karen is capable of feeling real sensations. Since she’s digital, the show’s been able to get away with scenes that might be too racy to draw with other characters. But there’s still one instance that felt particularly adult. While Plankton is scheming to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, he has Patrick pretend to be Karen’s loyal husband on date night. When the couple is offscreen, we suddenly hear a certain phrase from the computer. It’s swiftly revealed that Patrick Plankton is biting on Karen’s wheels. For a brief moment, we had no idea what was happening on this date night.

"Squidward's School for Grown-Ups"

This joke was so specific that it might’ve gone over the heads of kids and adults. During Squidward and Patrick’s trip to the opera, SpongeBob suddenly appears onstage. He proceeds to accidentally start reciting a certain rhyme. In case you’re not familiar with the reference, the “There Once Was a Man From Nantucket” story is an infamous limerick. Although some versions of the tale are clean, it’s more common for the rhyme to get very, very dirty. The fact that the crowd gasped at SpongeBob suggested he was going for an x rated version of the story. It’s no wonder the writers cut him off so quickly.

“Shanghaied”

While Patrick, SpongeBob, and Squidward are spending time on the Flying Dutchman’s ship, we get a bunch of little jokes aimed at older audiences. There’s immature visual gags, spooky imagery and an extended bit about the dangers of the perfume department. A joke about the Dutchman’s mom may go down as the tale’s most mature line. After Squidward expresses his displeasure for the Dutchman’s ship, the octopus tries to reign his comments in. But SpongeBob accidentally makes Squidward’s insults a lot worse. If the Dutchman was thinking what we were thinking, we understand why he punished the octopus so severely.

“The Two Faces of Squidward”

Many fans remember the episode where the cynical cashier became ridiculously handsome. However, they may not remember a bit that took place because of his beauty. A huge mob of people become desperate to get Squidward’s attention. After they chase him to his job, Mr. Krabs decides to take advantage of the situation. He implies that people can pay for a personal encounter with Squidward. The concept of exchanging money for physical attention made for a pretty risqué bit. Almost immediately after Mr. Krabs announced that deal, Squidward quickly got rid of his newfound beauty.

“Rock-a-Bye Bivalve”

The episode where SpongeBob and Patrick navigated the ups and downs of caring for a baby clam was full of jokes about adult realities and parenting. There’s an arguably underrated joke about decomposition early on in the episode. Additionally, the gag about how many diapers babies go through probably hit differently for parents who raised an infant. In true SpongeBob fashion, the writers saved the best for last. The story ends with the little clam leaving the nest. As they waved goodbye, Patrick pondered if they should start over. The starfish’s happy tone suggested that the starfish wanted to have a child with spongebob in a more…organic way.

“My Pretty Seahorse”

Although SpongeBob isn’t a show that is exactly faithful to showcasing accurate animal anatomy, they were willing to talk about one body part for a mature joke. After the fry cook befriends a seahorse, he leaves the new pet outside of his job. It isn’t long before two fish mistake the animal for a mechanical ride. An unlucky fish also tries to insert a coin. Based on where the dude was looking and the seahorse’s strong reaction, we’re guessing it went to a place where the sun don't shine. It’s no mystery why the show cut away from the animal until it was safely inside with SpongeBob.

“The Play’s the Thing”

What do you do to help out your co-worker who has fallen asleep on the job? Naturally, you blow up some balloons that you just happened to have on hand and create a balloon animal likeness of them to take their place. At least, that was SpongeBob’s bright idea when Squidward was neglecting the cash register. You might not have noticed as a kid just how much the long, transparent balloons in question resemble condoms. Worse still is the image through the kitchen window of the balloons expanding as he blows them up.

“Karate Island”

Speaking of condoms, SpongeBob and Sandy have a run in on Karate Island with a villain named The Tickler, who just happens to be French. His name in and of itself sounds pretty inappropriate without even knowing that “French Tickler” is a type of condom designed to enhance the experience of the person... let’s say “getting tickled.” That reference probably went over the heads of the kids watching, but not to worry, there was also the image of his giant hand tickling devices to scar them for life.

“Overbooked”

Okay, they weren’t even trying to be subtle with this one. Poor SpongeBob has spread himself too thin, promising to help Mr. Krabs fix his telescope, assist Sandy with a science presentation, as well as attend Patrick’s birthday party and buy the cake. SpongeBob finds himself in a Mrs. Doubtfire kind of situation running back and forth between the three. He forgets to pick up the cake for Patrick's birthday, and in his last minute search for one, he can only find one with icing that reads “Sorry about the scabies. There’s no good way to apologize to someone for transmitting an adult disease, so why not a cake… we guess?

“Pressure”

Whenever SpongeBob needs hair, he usually has to borrow a wig or prosthetic beard. That’s why his friends assume that he doesn’t grow any at all. But Sandy expressed her doubts in one of the show’s edgiest lines. While SpongeBob is trying to conceal a huge secret, he goes to see his squirrel friend. But when the pressure gets to him, he decides to make a thin excuse about his hair so he can make a hasty exit. The look on Sandy’s face suggested she was imagining that SpongeBob might have hair in a place she doesn’t normally see. We might become as nervous as the fry cook was if we had to explain the joke to someone who didn’t get it.

“As Seen on TV”

The astonishing amount of anatomy jokes that made it onto this kids’ show could warrant a list all their own. One of the most obvious occurred when SpongeBob’s nose popped up from the ground outside the Krusty Krab. At least we hope it was his nose. Upon Squidward’s request, SpongeBob buries himself in the ground. And when Mr. Krabs comes looking for him, SpongeBob shows himself by shooting the tip of his long nose out from underground. The moment passes pretty quickly, so it might not have even registered on a first watch that SpongeBob’s protruding nose resembles another elongated part of the male anatomy.

“Pranks a Lot”

Talk about a prank gone wrong. When SpongeBob and Patrick discover a prank shop, things get a little out of hand. They get their hands on a can of invisibility spray and decide to pull the ultimate prank. The only problem is, the invisibility paint stains clothes. So they strip down to their birthday suits, turn each other invisible, and terrorize the town. They get their comeuppance when Mr. Krabs catches them with their pants down. The paint wears off and they are left standing completely nude holding a dollar bill. What is actually a completely innocent moment ends up looking like these two friends exchanging the dollar for some “services.”

“Mid-Life Crustacean”

That’s right, a panty raid. Most of the dirty jokes on this show are hidden behind a thin veil. But sometimes, they forget the veil entirely. Mr. Krabs spends an underwhelming wild night out with SpongeBob and Patrick in an attempt to reclaim his youth. The night goes from harmless fun to actual criminal behavior when they go on a panty raid. Just in case you aren’t sure what this means, Mr. Krabs is sure to provide a detailed description. They actually break into someone’s house by climbing through her window with a ladder. Thankfully, Mr. Krabs gets what he deserves when it turns out it’s his mother’s house, and she gives him an earful.

“Gary Takes a Bath”

Dropping the veil yet again, SpongeBob makes a very obvious prison sex joke in this classic moment. It’s bath time, but Gary the Snail doesn’t want to get in the tub. So SpongeBob tries to con him by pretending that the bathtub is a treasure chest and the bars of soap are doubloons. We all know what the subtext behind the phrase, “don’t drop the soap” means, so when SpongeBob advises Gary with a wink and a smile not to drop the doubloons, there is no masking this very adult reference.

“Sailor Mouth”

SpongeBob and Patrick have really done it this time. In their innocent idiocy, the two besties learn some new words from some writing on the dumpster behind the Krusty Krab. Much like children, they don’t understand the true meaning of their new vocabulary words and just think saying them makes them sound cool. That iconic dolphin censorship sound isn’t fooling anyone though. We all know why the town is so antagonized by the boys’ sailor talk. At least the boys learn their lesson when Mrs. Krabs finds out and punishes them. That should teach them to stick to screaming Tartar Sauce!

“Your Shoe's Untied”

SpongeBob is a pretty excitable guy, but there is only one thing he could have been watching quite this excitedly. While flipping through the channels, SpongeBob stops when he comes across a dancing sea anemone. Something about the way SpongeBob lights up while watching this is the first indicator that the sea anemone might be doing something a little more racy than just dancing. The second indicator is when Gary walks into the room and SpongeBob changes the channel in a panic, claiming he was just looking for the sports channel. Sure, SpongeBob, the sports channel, we believe you. Clearly, SpongeBob was watching very adult sea videos.