The French Narrator is a man with a French accent who speaks at the beginning, and sometimes middle and/or end of most episodes. His only physical appearance is in "No Free Rides," where he is run over by SpongeBob. The French narrator is based on Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the world-famous sealife expert who died in 1997. In the 2004 episode of Fresh Air With Terry Gross, Tom Kenny admits that Cousteau was the inspiration for the French narrator, as SpongeBob SquarePants creator Stephen Hillenburg considers Cousteau an idol. The voice of the French Narrator is done by Tom Kenny, who also does the voices of SpongeBob and Gary, among others. 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 British Narrator with an English accent (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), is shown, jokingly claiming that the French Narrator quit. However, this was not permanent.
Video games
The French Narrator is heard in a few SpongeBob video games:
- In Battle for Bikini Bottom, when you enter a new level, the French Narrator will start talking about the level while the camera flies around the area.
- In Revenge of the Flying Dutchman, he teaches SpongeBob various moves. He also has a different voice in this game.
- In Lights, Camera, Pants!, he very briefly talks at the start of the waiter scene.
- In The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (video game), he narrates the cutscenes which show images from the movie.
- In Creature from the Krusty Krab, he narrates the loading screens for Super-Sized Patty.
- In SpongeBob Squarpants vs. The Big One: Beach Party Cook-off, he narrates the intro of the game.
Trivia
- He physically appears in "No Free Rides," where he is run over by SpongeBob.
- Since he is seen in this episode with a camera it may suggest that SpongeBob knows he is being filmed.
- In the Filipino dub, he is voiced by well-known anime dubber Jefferson Utanes who provided voices of famous anime characters such as Kouya Marino from Crush Gear Turbo and Yami Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.
- He was heard crying once in the episode "Chum Caverns" while Mr. Krabs and Plankton comfort each other while crying.
- However, he was crying as he read the time card.
- Patrick breaks the forth 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 temporarily leaves his job in "Can You Spare A Dime?" before the time card reads "So much later that the old narrator got tired of waiting and they had to hire a new one."
- In storyboards for "Help Wanted," he is listed as "Jacques Cousteau" which was seen in Square Roots: The Story of SpongeBob SquarePants.
