Chum

“	Plankton had pieced together his own creation using memory and science.	”
	— Karen Plankton, "Friend or Foe"

Template:OTab Template:Object Chum is the signature ingredient in all of Template:Data:Links's menu items. In real life, chum is bait used by fishermen, made out of chopped fish.

Chum is incredibly unappealing to the fish population of Bikini Bottom, which prevents the Chum Bucket from having customers. Organs and eyeballs have been seen in Plankton's chum, but it is unknown where he gets them. Although mentioned in previous episodes, chum first appears in the episode "Friend or Foe."

Description

Most of the time, the chum bears a reddish-brownish color. According to "My Two Krabses," chum contains the organs of living beings, giving it its color.

History

During Plankton's childhood, he and his former best friend, Mr. Krabs, saw how their classmates' favorite burger joint gained "li-spect" and wealth.

Pursuing their own yet combined goals, they attempted to open their own restaurant with their own recipe and burger, which turns out to take no attention. Their burger poisoned Old Man Jenkins, resulting in an argument that sparked their hostile relationship.

Mr. Krabs made his own burger, the Krabby Patty, and Plankton used chum for his burger. Plankton's creation proved foul even to those who could eat anything. On the other hand, Mr. Krabs' tasted quite good.Template:Data:References

Role in series

Plankton continues to use chum in most of his products, despite its foulness and overall toxicity, as shown by many having vomited after eating it. In later seasons, his chum is still inedible but another quality in his restaurant, such as the Chum Caverns or a popular slogan, such as "Chum is Fum" will draw in customers.

"The Inmates of Summer"

At Inferno Island, SpongeBob and Patrick are locked in a hole in the ground. A vat of chum is poured in, which they think is a bath.

"Plankton's Regular"

After Plankton complains about the fact that he has no customers, Nat comes to the Chum Bucket and orders a chumstick. He then goes back the next day and the day after that, becoming Plankton's only regular customer, and the only person who actually likes his chum. However, in the end, it is revealed that he only ordered chumsticks because Karen paid him, and he actually hates the food, so much that he already had to go to the doctor twice.

"The Krabby Kronicle"

Plankton exits the Chum Bucket kitchen with "the chumstick that's finally gonna drive Krabs out of business." Andy Yellowtail, the health inspector, quickly shuts down the Chum Bucket due to one of SpongeBob's lies that Plankton uses fish in his chum.

"Krabby Patty Creature Feature"

SpongeBob learns that the cure to the Secret Patty's side-effects is actually chum. He then uses it to return everyone back to normal after they mutated into Krabby Patty zombie monsters, which helps him save the day.

"The Krusty Slammer"

When Mr. Krabs is sent to jail at the Chum Bucket, Plankton shouts, "Mealtime, prisoner!" and starts throwing chum at him.

"Plankton's Old Chum"

Plankton's chum gets rotten during this episode, and he has to find a way to hide his chum. After hiding all of it with the help of SpongeBob through tricking him, he ends up succeeding at his goal. However, when SpongeBob tries to push down the last piece of rotten chum into a sewer, he ends up spreading all the rotten chum all over town and cause it to rain down slowly like snowflakes. This results in SpongeBob realizing it's Chum Day and make the citizens realize that too, with Bikini Bottom's kids already having the spirit of Chum Day. Despite all the happiness, a health inspector enforces the law against Plankton for chum dumping and spreading chum all over. Plankton can't pay the fine, so the inspector gives him another option: eat all the chum. Plankton does this over a long period of time, and becomes extremely big in the process.

"The Hankering"

This episode reveals Mr. Krabs' love for chum as back when he was in the navy, he tasted chum and fell in love with it. Plankton finds out about this when Mr. Krabs is searching through a trash can and the latter admits his love for chum. Plankton tricks Mr. Krabs into giving the formula by offering him a life-time supply of chum, which ends up being a hoax. Mr. Krabs tries to get the formula back but drops the formula into the chum, making Plankton swim in the chum to find the formula and Mr. Krabs eat all the chum so he could get to the formula quicker. Mr. Krabs loses his appetite for chum from eating the entire supply of chum and also ended up eating Plankton and receiving the formula in the process too.

Products

The Chum Bucket contains a variety of products that are mostly made out of chum:

• Chumburger
• Chumstick
• Chum nuggets
• Chum balls
• Chum Bucket Supreme
• Chummy Joes
• Free Sample Krabby Patty
• Chum Pot Pie
• Chum Fricassee
• Chumbalaya
• Chum Patties
• Salsa Imbecilicus
• Chumsicle
• Chum Krabs

Recipe

Plankton adds various other ingredients to his chum. In "Spongicus," he adds:

• Jellyfish squeezings
• Seahorse snout
• Whale blubber
• Sprinkle of anchor rust

In "Jailbreak!," he adds different ingredients:

• Cultural fungus growth medium (an old sock)
• Subtropical vegetal matter (a banana peel)
• Organic filler (a bucket of trash)
• Live bacterial culture (a recently used napkin)

Plankton puts these ingredients in a prison toilet, closes the seat and flushes it, causing them to mix together.

Trivia

• In real life, chum is inedible for people, which means it is not suitable for eating.
• In "The Krabby Kronicle," the Chum Bucket is shut down after the Bikini Bottomites find out that chum made from fish. Plankton and Karen are left on the street as their restaurant is condemned.
  • The fact that chum is made of fish means the whole point of Plankton's business is to make the Bikini Bottomites engage in cannibalism. In real life, people use chum for bait when they catch fish.
• In later seasons, some characters have eaten chum despite its foul taste and cannibalistic ingredients. After eating it, Nat has to have his stomach pumped repeatedly.
• Chummy Patties and Chum Fricassee are the only food that Plankton serves that is not actually made of chum. The former is basically a pure grease sandwich.
  • Despite this, they still have "chum" in the name.
  • They are also the only chum foods that Plankton has sold which people have found to taste good.
• According to the episode "Friend or Foe," chum is actually an ingredient in the Krabby Patty secret formula.
• As revealed in "Jailbreak!," chum can actually be used to help pull off crimes and as a result, the criminal community holds Plankton in high regards.
• In "Free Samples," it is revealed that Template:Data:Links is the only one who can eat chum compared to anyone else who eats it. Also, in "Chum Caverns," Patrick eats a lot of Plankton's chum, though he does not know the food item is sold at the Chum Bucket. In "The Inmates of Summer," Patrick and SpongeBob eat chum while inside the confined space of the Inferno Island prison.
• Despite the fact that the ingredients for chum are only just that, chum, many other things have been seen in it, such as an eyeball, as seen in the episode "Drive Thru."
• "Krabby Patty Creature Feature" is the only time in which Plankton's chum actually cures people.