Sandra "Sandy" Cheeks (born November 17, 1987) is a land squirrel who from Texas who came to Bikini Bottom to do research on its inhabitants, and decided to stay there permanently. Sandy is Spongebob's third closest friend, after Patrick and Squidward. She is voiced by Carolyn Lawrence.
Unlike most other characters in the series, Sandy is not a sea creature, and is able to survive underwater by wearing a suit and helmet similar to those used by astronauts. Sandy's house is an airtight terrarium known as the "Treedome". Sandy is one of the most intelligent creatures in Bikini Bottom, and is both a scientist and inventor. She is also extremely athletic and physically powerful, and enjoys many extreme sports, most notably Karate.
Sandy's first appearance, in "Tea at the Treedome".
Character
Sandy comes from the state of Texas, and exhibits many characteristics of a stereotypical "cowgirl" character. She speaks with a heavy southern accent, and uses typical southern slang words and phrases. She is very fond of her homeland and its culture, as most notably seen in the episode "Texas", in which she grows homesick for it and considers leaving Bikini Bottom to return to Texas. In that same episode, she takes great offense at SpongeBob and Patrick's negative remarks about Texas, and violently attacks them when they continue to insult it.
Sandy is one of the most intelligent and level-headed characters on the show. She is a multi-talented scientist and inventor, and originally came to Bikini Bottom to study sea creatures and their lifestyles. In "Chimps Ahoy", it is revealed that she is employed by a trio of monkeys from the surface, named Dr. Marmalade, Lord Reginald and Professor Percy. They exhibit stereotypical upper-class English accents and manners, and periodically visit Bikini Bottom to audit her scientific research. As an inventor, Sandy is capable of creating extremely advanced devices with ease. Her inventions include a manned space ship, a teleporter, a submarine that can shrink to microscopic size and go inside a person's body, and even a cloning device.
Sandy is also very athletic and physically fit. She and SpongeBob share a favorite pastime of karate, and frequently fight each other for fun. Sandy also enjoys extreme sports and thrill-seeking, which SpongeBob also joins her in on occasion, most notably in "Prehibernation Week". Sandy possesses immense strength, and is one of the strongest creatures in Bikini Bottom. She is often seen at Mussel Beach lifting weights with Larry the Lobster, of whom she is a good friend, and other muscular fish. In "MuscleBob BuffPants", Sandy shows SpongeBob her immense biceps and intense daily exercise routine. In that same episodes, she wins the eighth annual Goo Lagoon anchor toss competition, tossing an enormous anchor 510 yards.
While generally friendly and positive, Sandy is prone to mood swings and can be vicious when angered, most notably in "Texas". In "Pre-Hibernation Week", when she believes SpongeBob has gone missing, Sandy forces everyone in Bikini Bottom to help look for him, sending them to dangerous places such as Sulphur fields and poison sea urchin coves. When SpongeBob fails to surface, she goes crazy and starts literally overturning buildings in her efforts to find him. In "Survival of the Idiots", Sandy is shown during her Hibernation as an obese, monstrous version of herself (prior to going into hibernation, animals must have tremendous amounts of body fat and energy reserves in order to survive the Winter). Spongebob and Patrick enter her snow-filled Treedome and disturb her sleep, and the semi-conscious Sandy viciously attacks them, believing them to be "Dirty Dan" and "Pinhead Larry", two outlaws from her dreams.
She has also been shown to have a strong competitive streak and a high opinion of herself; in "Sandy, SpongeBob, and the Worm", she completely ignores SpongeBob's warnings about the Alaskan Bull Worm and tells him that she could handle anything; when they find the worm and she witnesses it's gargantuan size, she realizes that SpongeBob was right. In "Pressure", she boasts that dry land animals are better than sea animals, nearly drowning herself in an attempt to "prove" it.
Friends and Relationships
Sandy first met SpongeBob SquarePants when he saw her wrestling a giant clam and ran down to save her. Since then, Sandy has been one of SpongeBob's best friends, and she enjoys various activities such as karate with him. She is also good friends with Patrick, although she is often annoyed and angered by his stupidity. Sandy is also friends with Larry the Lobster, who she regularly sees at Goo Lagoon. The two have been hinted to be romantically involved, and SpongeBob has been shown to be jealous of Larry because of this, most notably in "Ripped Pants".
The nature of Sandy's relationship with SpongeBob is somewhat ambiguous. SpongeBob has brought her flowers on several occasions, and her official biography describes her as being "the apple of SpongeBob's eye (the only thing under the sea he likes better than his job at the Krusty Krab)". In "Tea at the Treedome" amorous music plays when SpongeBob recalls Sandy's words. SpongeBob's song in "Ripped Pants" has romantic lyrics. In one "A Random Act Of SpongeBob" short, SpongeBob leaves Sandy a letter (with a bouquet of flowers) calling her the "smartest, prettiest squirrel in all of Bikini Bottom" for "Surprise Sandy Day". In the video game Battle for Bikini Bottom, after saving Squidward from Robo-Patrick, SpongeBob and Sandy commented each other on a good job while looking flushed. A book called the SpongeBob SquarePants Survival Guide, released on November 1, 2002, has a page titled How to survive a secret crush, saying that if you have a crush on someone, you have to keep it secret. SpongeBob begins to talk about him acting "perfectly natural" at the treedome, but quickly ends, saying "I've said too much!" Although the biggest hint was in Truth or Square Where they showed them getting married. These hints at a romantic relationship serve as evidence against the popular rumor that SpongeBob is gay.
Habitat
Sandy lives in a huge polyethylene dome known as the "Treedome". It is air-locked and contains no water, making it the only place in Bikini Bottom where Sandy can survive without her suit. Its floor is covered in grass, and features a large tree which contains Sandy's living quarters. The Treedome also humorously includes a giant hamster wheel, among other things. As seen in the episodes "Survival of the Idiots" and "Bubble Buddy", the dome produces snow during the Winter, from which it can be assumed to simulate other weather patterns as well.
Wormy, a pet of Sandy's, in caterpillar form (top) and butterfly form (bottom)
As seen in the episode "Wormy", Sandy has many pets residing in her Treedome, including caterpillars, snakes, crickets, mice, and birds, among others. In that episode, she leaves SpongeBob and Patrick to take care of her pets while she is away on vacation. A caterpillar named Wormy transforms into a butterfly overnight, and SpongeBob and Patrick think it is a monster that has eaten Wormy. When it escapes the dome, panic ensues.
Appearances
Although explicitly classified as a main character, Sandy appears in less than one third of all episodes.
Trivia
- In the episode "Scaredy Pants", Sandy dresses as a pet goldfish in a bowl for Halloween (her air helmet being the bowl), which Squidward ironically does not understand.
- Sandy was responsible for introducing Bikini Bottom to Christmas. This happened in the episode "Christmas Who?"
- Sandy moved to Bikini Bottom from Houston, Texas, as revealed in The Essential Guide of SpongeBob.
- In the episode "Stanley S. SquarePants", an elderly Scottish relative of Sandy is shown.
- In the episode "To Save a Squirrel", Sandy is shown to have a boatmobile with the design of a Jeep.
- A package of GoGurt featuring Sandy claims she works for a company called "Tree Dome Enterprises Limited".
- In Season 1, Sandy has three dots on her suit instead of an acorn.
- Sandy's voice actress, Carolyn Lawrence, also voices Cindy Vortex on the show The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, who, like Sandy, practices martial arts. However, Cindy practices tae-kwon-do, while Sandy practices karate.
- Sandy is called "Sandra" for the first time in "Patrick Smartpants".
- In Season 1, Sandy's tail is not visible when she is wearing her suit.
- Despite being established as a scientist in later episodes, Sandy is oblivious to the basic fact that sea creatures cannot survive without water in her first appearance.
- She appears in more episodes in Season 1 than in any other season, with 14 appearances total in Season 1.
- In an episode of The Fairly Oddparents, the King of Atlantis mentions that his species enjoys eating crabs, starfish and the "occasional underwater squirrel". As he says this, he burps a squirrel tail out of his mouth.
- In the live-action puppet sequence in the episode "Pressure", Sandy is represented by a toy puppet and appears to be naked aside from her helmet.
Quotes
- "I'm hotter than a hickory smoked sausage!"
- "Don't you have to be stupid somewhere else?"
- "Your about as ugly as homemade soup!"
- "Stupidity isn't a virus, but it sure is spreading like one."
- "Shoot! Looks like a twister hit this place!"
- "Next time I'll bring more granola!"
- "Don't you dare take the name of Texas in vain!"
- "That wasn't funny, SpongeBob; you had me worried sick."
- "Doggone it!"
- "You're mince meat!"
- "We could be tighter than bark on a tree!"
- "I liked you [Patrick] better when you where a barnacle head!"
- "He always folds his clothes before running around... in the NUDE! Something TERRIBLE must of happened to him!!!"
- "Back in Texas, I wrangled bulls, and I wrangled worms. To me, doin' em together just saves rope."
- "YEEEEE-HAW!!!!!"
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