Flats the Flounder

“	Hi SpongeBob. I'm gonna kick your butt.	”
	— Flats the Flounder, "The Bully"

Character

Gallery

Appearances

Flats the Flounder is a character who first appears in the episode "Sandy's Rocket."

Names

File:Netted Farley the Flatfish model.jpg

Flats being referred as Farley the Flatfish in a model sheet of him trapped inside a net from "Sandy's Rocket."

• In season 1, he was named Farley the Flatfish, but his name was later changed to Flats the Flounder in the season 3 episode, "The Bully."
• In SpongeBob SquarePants: Plankton Rising his name was misspelled as Flatts the Flounder.

Description

He is a flat kite-shaped light olive-green flounder who has sideways beige eyes. He wears a light orange, dark green shirt, and light reddish-brown pants. In his older appearances, his eyes were colored light yellow.

Role in series

File:Texas 158.png

Farley doing "square dancing"

Flats is a side character in the series that usually makes non-speaking cameos and can also commonly be seen among incidental characters. He was originally given the named Farley the Flatfish in the first season but his name was changed to Flats the Flounder in the season 3 episode, "The Bully," where nearly the entire episode focuses mainly on him as the main antagonist, this is also the only episode in the series where he speaks. He has had short absences between some of his episode appearances and he was firstly designed to be a victim of Template:Data:Links and Template:Data:Links's "alien hunting."

Major roles

SpongeBob SquarePants

"Sandy's Rocket"

Farley appears as a victim of SpongeBob and Patrick's "alien hunting" where SpongeBob traps him inside a net.

"Texas"

Farley is seen attending Template:Data:Links's party at the Krusty Krab where he is shown to be responsible for the "square dancing" by holding a large cube.

"The Bully"

His biggest role in the series yet. He joins Mrs. Puff's Boating School and wants to kick SpongeBob's butt. SpongeBob, afraid and concerned for his safety, makes many attempts to reason with and/or escape him, but to no avail. He eventually calls Patrick to protect him, only to find out that Flats is friends with him and that they were community college friends.

He also tries to go to Mrs. Puff to help, who talks to Flats and explains to SpongeBob that "kicking his butt" means that Flats wants to become his friend, which is obviously not true.

File:The Bully 038.png

"I mean it!"

File:The Bully 184.png

Flats mercilessly punches SpongeBob, who feels no pain, as he walks out of his bathroom, since he is an invertebrate.

He then encounters Flats' dad and confronts him about his son's actions, only for the latter to go up to his father and teach him a lesson about talking to strangers, threatening to harm one of his parents.

Flats goes as far as to chase SpongeBob out of school into town, even trying to run him over with a garbage truck. However, said garbage truck slips on a banana peel and flips over, critically injuring Flats in the process. He wakes up in the hospital and learns that SpongeBob saved his life through CPR, yet he is still eager to kick SpongeBob's butt.

Eventually, Flats corners SpongeBob in his own house and proceeds to "kick his butt" by repeatedly hitting him. However, SpongeBob discovers that his soft spongy body simply absorbs the blows and the punches do not harm him in any way. Relieved, SpongeBob allows Flats to attack him throughout his routine.

Flats continues to hit SpongeBob throughout the whole week until he finally passes out from exhaustion one morning at Boating School. While SpongeBob makes his speech that Flats is the true victim, he raises his fist. Mrs. Puff suddenly arrives and, upon seeing SpongeBob's raised fist and Flats unconscious, believes that SpongeBob beat up Flats and thereby threatens to harm SpongeBob in the same way Flats was harmed at the end.

"Don't Feed the Clowns"

He is a customer of the bakery who gets knocked out after getting hit with a pie thrown by Incidental C1.

"Upturn Girls"

He appears as one of the "lovely" customers at the Krusty Krab, holding his order on a tray.

Major roles in movies

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water

He is featured as one of the marching characters in the end credits.

Major roles in games

SpongeBob's Idle Adventures

He appears as a usable character in the game.

Trivia

• He is one of six characters with sideways eyes.
  • The other five are the Atomic Flounder (sometimes), Flats' dad, Colonel Sandab, Doctor 14, and Lefty.
• He appears at SpongeBob's party in "SpongeBob's Big Birthday Blowout". However, he is SpongeBob's bully.