Top 10 Evil Plans by Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants

He’s one percent evil, and ninety-nine percent hot gas. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the "Top 10 Evil Plans by Plankton from SpongeBob SquarePants."

For this list, we’re paying tribute to some of the nastiest, most clever, and near-perfect plans Sheldon J. Plankton has ever thought up on his never-ending quest to steal the Krabby Patty Secret Formula, undercut Mr. Krabs, and dominate the world. If you haven’t seen any of these plots in action, there WILL be spoilers.

When a promotion with superheroes Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy earns big bucks for the Krusty Krab, jealous Plankton decides to use Krabs’ best new assets to knock him down to size. He creates a special shampoo to hypnotize the elderly heroes into calling the Krabby Patty evil, convincing the townsfolk to eat at the Chum Bucket instead… and SpongeBob’s efforts to break the spell can’t get through. This is one of the rare cases where Plankton doesn’t scheme to steal the Secret Formula, but rather just to undermine Mr. Krabs. Fortunately, even the strongest hypnotism is no match for the Krabby Patty… with a little extra fiber.

Plankton’s designed a superhighway that would go through Jellyfish Fields and OVER the Krusty Krab. And the townsfolk—minus SpongeBob, Patrick, and Mr. Krabs—actually support the project. Now the jellyfish have no home, and the Krusty Krab has officially lost business. Mr. Krabs will have no choice but to sell the Secret Formula to Plankton and end his life’s work for good. That’s right, Plankton will even resort to environmental terrorism over a petty sandwich feud… and it nearly succeeds. Thankfully, an outbreak of angry jellyfish motivates the Bikini Bottomites to destroy the superhighway—restoring the jellyfishes’ home and saving our favorite undersea restaurant.

After 25 years of failure and humiliation, Plankton realizes that it’ll take an army to finally beat Mr. Krabs, so he brings together all of his relatives… who end up being a family of hillbillies. Regardless, the army storms the Krusty Krab and triumphs—Krabs is incapacitated, and the Krabby Patty Formula seems to finally be in Plankton’s grasp. Unfortunately, just when we finally find out what the Formula is… it turns out to be a fake recipe planted to scare Plankton off until his NEXT unsuccessful theft attempt. It’s sad because the buildup to that point made us actually WANT to see Plankton win… and he COULD’VE, if Krabs wasn’t one step ahead.

After slipping on a wet floor, Plankton fakes an injury to take Mr. Krabs to court—and he’ll only drop the charges if Krabs hands over the Secret Formula. From the start, the case is in Plankton’s favor—he wins the jury over with his faux emotional testimony, and luck is NOT on Krabs’ side—due to his own cheapness and SpongeBob’s incompetence as a lawyer. Unfortunately, Plankton’s cravings for Krabby Patties usually end up being his major downfall. Honestly, he could’ve had the case in the bag… if SpongeBob didn’t trick him with his primal urges—exposing his act and blowing his whole scam out of the water.

After beating Plankton yet again, SpongeBob hopes that befriending the tiny evildoer might help him change his ways. Plankton goes along with it in order to swindle a Krabby Patty… but it starts to look like the plan has backfired, and Plankton actually WANTS to be SpongeBob’s friend—he doesn’t even seem to still want the Formula. Mr. Krabs—rightfully suspicious—exposes the deception, and the little thief gets away with a Patty. Luckily, he doesn’t make it too far. Plankton may never change, even though he even had US fooled. Unfortunately, the Krabby Patty trumps ALL friendships… that’s actually kind of sad when you put it that way.

Taking advantage of his competitive nature, Plankton fools Mr. Krabs into having the Krusty Krab stay open 24 hours a day. All the non-stop work—plus a little extra pressure from the devious, little copepod—finally gets to SpongeBob, and he becomes afraid of Krabby Patties. Plankton poses as a psychiatrist to try and pry the Secret Formula from the fry cook’s frazzled mind… but only ends up curing him instead. The idea of overworking SpongeBob into the ground until he snaps sounded like a surefire plot at first. Alas, it takes more than exhaustion to fully extinguish the little sponge’s work ethic and love for Krabby Patties.

The unimaginable has occurred: Plankton wins SpongeBob’s contract in a poker game—by cheating—and now the young fry cook has to work at the Chum Bucket. His options are to either make his new boss a Krabby Patty, or have his brain put into a robot duplicate. Plankton tries to win SpongeBob over with compassion, but it only makes the little, square dude more defiant… and sassy. The frustrated microorganism goes through with the brain transplant… but the Sponge’s new bratty attitude still shines through, leaving Plankton BEGGING Mr. Krabs to take him back. It just goes to show that you can NEVER change SpongeBob’s loyalty to the stove he loves the most.

The Krusty Krabs’ OTHER most important rule is to only discuss the Secret Formula with Mr. Krabs—and that sounds like the perfect inspiration for a Robo-Krabs disguise. Keeping the REAL Krabs occupied, Plankton uses his droid to try and sneak the Formula out of SpongeBob… only for the genuine article to return. However, a confused and stressed-out SpongeBob accuses Krabs of being the imposter, and hands the recipe over to PLANKTON. Once again, it’s another seemingly full-proof plan—get Krabs out of the way, and keep SpongeBob guessing long enough to gain his trust. This scheme literally blows up in Plankton’s face, however, thanks to a poor design choice.

In Plankton’s self-titled debut episode, he first tries persuading SpongeBob into giving him a Krabby Patty as a “friend.” When that doesn’t work, he has a much more sinister scheme as backup. He sneaks into SpongeBob’s head and plugs a device into his brain, allowing Plankton to take full control of his body. He then forces the helpless fry cook to personally deliver a Krabby Patty to his laboratory. For his very first appearance, we see just how much of a threat Plankton really is—he’s conniving, depraved, and inventive—he DID go to college, after all. Had his lust for the Patty not distracted him, he could’ve gotten away with it the first time.

Before we unveil our number one scheme, here are a few honorable mentions:

• The Majestic Sizzlemaster—“Evil Spatula”
• Fake Samples—“Free Samples”
• Faking Being Reformed—“New Leaf”

It turns out that Plankton had one last scheme in his evil filing cabinet—Plan Z. He steals King Neptune’s crown and frames Mr. Krabs—sentencing him to be frozen until the crown is returned… or else he’ll be executed. What makes this Plankton’s most devious plot was that his efforts FINALLY pay off—he gets the Secret Formula, he puts Krabs out of business, he turns the Chum Bucket into a success, he turns all of Bikini Bottom into his empire of slaves… AND he nearly has all his enemies killed with one diabolical, lemon-scented scheme. He could’ve kept it all, had a certain yellow hero not bested him in the end.