Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
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Encyclopedia SpongeBobia
Not to be confused with Cyclops.
Au revoir, my friends!
 
— The French Narrator, in "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout."
Character

The French Narrator, nicknamed Frenchy,[3][4][5][6] is a supporting character in the SpongeBob SquarePants series. He is a deep-sea diver with a French accent. He introduces many episodes and reads time cards, narrating the show as if it were a nature documentary.

The narrator is usually only heard as a voice, but he makes live-action appearances in the episodes "No Free Rides," "Feral Friends," "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout," "Potato Puff," and all five episodes of the event The Tidal Zone.

He is voiced by Tom Kenny, who also voices SpongeBob, Gary, Patchy, and various other characters. In his rare on-screen appearances, he is physically portrayed by Dan Southworth and later Vincent Waller, with Tom Kenny still providing the voice.[1]

Description[]

The French Narrator is portrayed as a man in a classic late 19th-century diving suit. He wears a red beanie hat, similar to the one that Jacques-Yves Cousteau is known to have worn. His face has never been shown, but in the episode "Mimic Madness," SpongeBob takes form and mimics the French Narrator during the "80,000 impressions later" card, revealing that he has a gray goatee and gray hair.

Creation and development[]

SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg said the French Narrator was based on one of his idols, Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997), a sea-life expert, marine researcher, and documentary filmmaker. Cousteau's son, Jean-Michel Cousteau, made a guest appearance in the Case of the Sponge "Bob" special feature on The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie DVD, talking about the real-life species that inspired the characters on SpongeBob.

Biography[]

A group of scientists enlisted his help to narrate, and at least, some of the time, film a group of unique sea creatures and one land creature in a colony of intelligent fish. The team's mission is to teach people how to behave better.[7]

He has a mother, whom he calls "ma mère." She is currently living and may reside near the ocean, as the French Narrator mentions that he can see her from above the Bikini Bottom map in Creature from the Krusty Krab. He also mentions to have a grandmother, whom he calls "Grandma Frenchy."

History[]

He speaks the first lines in the whole series (except the Captain, who sings the theme song). His first lines are "Ah, the sea... so fascinating. So wonderful. Here, we see Bikini Bottom, teeming with life. Home to one of my favorite creatures, SpongeBob SquarePants. Yes, of course he lives in a pineapple, you silly." He narrates in most of the episodes from seasons 1-3, but not as much beginning with season 4.

Video games[]

Relationships[]

Realistic Fish Head[]

He works with the Realistic Fish Head in the video game Lights, Camera, Pants! When they first meet, they seem to not like each other, but by the end of the special they are friends and become closer to each other.

Sandy Cheeks[]

He is revealed to be good friends with Sandy in the episode "Feral Friends."

Trivia[]

French Man

"French Man."

  • He is nicknamed "Frenchy" by Sandy and Patchy in the episode "Feral Friends."
  • In the episode "Squid's Visit," along with many other episodes, the closed-captioning calls him "French Man." The credits for SuperSponge (PlayStation 1 version) also lists him as "French Man."
  • Not counting the theme song, the French Narrator is the first character to speak in the series.
  • His first appearance in person is the episode "No Free Rides."
    • However, only his legs appear and he is shown wearing a scuba diving outfit in the episode. The first episode he is seen live action is the episode "Feral Friends."
  • He is heard crying once in the episode "Chum Caverns" when Mr. Krabs and Plankton comfort each other while crying.
  • In "I Was a Teenage Gary," the time card "3 Days Later..." appears. The French Narrator does not read this one.
  • The first time card read by the French Narrator is "2000 Years Later" from "SB-129."
  • Patrick breaks the fourth wall in "Wet Painters" by actually holding one of the time cards that the narrator is reading, claiming that he is "running out of time cards."
  • He is heard in the first movie, does not return in the second movie, but did in the third.
  • In storyboards for "Help Wanted," he is listed as "Jacques Cousteau," which is seen in "Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants."
  • In "Can You Spare a Dime?," a time card with the text "So much later that the old narrator got tired of waiting and they had to hire a new one," being read by the new narrator with an English accent (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), is shown, jokingly claiming that the French Narrator had quit, since he got tired of waiting. However, this was not permanent, since he came back in "Rock-a-Bye Bivalve."
  • In "Sun Bleached," he uses the time card "Two Hours Later" twice. The first time is when SpongeBob is getting overly tanned in Patrick's tanning machine; the second time is when they dance for two hours when the lights are on "Bleached," causing everyone to dry up and change into small piles of sand.
  • He is similar to the narrator from the Cartoon Network series The Powerpuff Girls, as both are voiced by Tom Kenny, used for comic relief, and have interacted with characters and read time cards.
  • In the first three seasons, he very frequently introduced an episode; about a quarter of the episodes in each of these three seasons open with the French Narrator establishing the scene. While this is still sometimes done, it became far less frequent from Season 4 onwards.
    • Instead, his most frequent role is reading off of time cards.
  • In the first seven seasons, he listed in the end credits as simply "Narrator."
  • In the Croatian dub, from seasons 1 to 5, the French Narrator speaks in a Kajkavian accent, which is one of three Croatian accents, but as of season 6, he speaks in French accent.
  • In the stage adaptation in Chicago, he was originally portrayed on stage by Mark Ledbetter. When the show transferred to Broadway, Tom Kenny reprised his role as the narrator in a pre-recorded role.
  • In "Mimic Madness," he spoke directly to SpongeBob and told him not to imitate him anymore, as it was starting to become very annoying.
  • Two unidentified voice actors also voice him in the video games Revenge of the Flying Dutchman and Employee of the Month respectively.

References[]

  1. ^ a b Vincent Waller on Twitter
  2. ^ Vincent Waller on Twitter
  3. ^ SpongeBob SquarePants Character Guide
  4. ^ Feral Friends: Sandy (to Frenchy): Hey, Frenchy! It's me, Sandy!
  5. ^ Feral Friends: Sandy (to Frenchy): This is so fascinating, Frenchy. Tell me more about my fishy friends. Oh, wait. I'll put you on speaker phone.
  6. ^ Feral Friends: Sandy (to Frenchy): It's a good thing my treedome is made of ten tons of pressure proof glass, huh, Frenchy?
  7. ^ Life Lessons from Bikini Bottom
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