The Hash Slinging Slasher is the main character in a ghost story told by Squidward in the episode, "Graveyard Shift."
History
Squidward created the character of the "Hash Slinging Slasher" in order to scare SpongeBob as a form of entertainment during the 24-hour night shift.
According to Squidward's story, the Hash Slinging Slasher was a former fry cook who worked at the Krusty Krab before SpongeBob. The Slasher one day severed one of his hands by mistake while cutting Krabby Patty meat, and replaced it with a rusty spatula. Later, he was fatally run over by a bus and "fired" at his funeral. Out of vengeance, his ghost returns to the restaurant every Tuesday night via the bus that killed him and "gets" unsuspecting victims. However, his presence is announced by (in sequential order) flickering lights, a phone call with nobody on the sending line, and the arrival of the bus that killed him, stopping just outside the Krusty Krab.
Squidward later confessed that he fabricated the story in response to SpongeBob's almost melodramatic screams of terror. Later that night, however, it seemed that the events of his story were coming true. Eventually, it was revealed that the Hash Slinging Slasher, or what they thought was him, actually came to apply for a job at the Krusty Krab. He was also revealed to be the cause of the latter two "signs" signalling the Hash Slinging Slasher's arrival, with Nosferatu causing the first one.
Trivia
- The Hash Slinging Slasher's name is often mispronounced by SpongeBob and to a lesser extent, Squidward.
- In Croatian version of the show, The Hash Slinging name is "Jack Konobarosjek" which is parody of "Jack The Ripper" (Jack Trbosjek on Croatian).
- The Hash Slinging Slasher is a parody of slasher film villains such as Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees.
- The Hash Slinging Slasher can also possibly inspired by Hook-handed man, urban legend about serial killer whom one of his hand replaced with a hook much like Hash Slinging Slasher though Hash Slinging Slasher replace his hand with a rusty spatula instead of sharp hook.
- The Hash Slinging Slasher appears in Squidward's stage (B-Movie) in SpongeBob SquigglePants, which was a prank by SpongeBob and Patrick to scare Squidward, if the player loses all of their lives, SpongeBob and Patrick reveal themselves and scare Squidward, but if the player wins, SpongeBob and Patrick fall, with Squidward looking in annoyance.
- In Bahasa Indonesia version of the episode, the cause of Hash Slinging Slasher's death was different: Instead of died by a bus crash and "fired" at his funeral, he was killed due to burned alive(implied to be due to spontantenous combustion) not long after goes crazy after replacing his hand with a spatula.