Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy
Nicktoons and SpongeBob SquarePants characters
Mermaid Man (left) and Barnacle Boy (right)
First appearance
Created byStephen Hillenburg
Voiced byMermaid Man:
Barnacle Boy:
In-universe information
SpeciesHumans
OccupationSuperheroes

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are a duo of fictional characters from the American animated television series, SpongeBob SquarePants. They were respectively voiced by guest stars Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway, who both previously starred in the 1960s sitcom McHale's Navy. Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy first appeared in the eponymous season one episode that premiered on August 21, 1999, and have since been featured as recurring characters. Following the actors' deaths, the characters have been relegated to non-speaking cameos after creator Stephen Hillenburg requested not to recast the characters.[1][2]

Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy are two elderly superheroes who live in a retirement home and are stars of SpongeBob and Patrick's favorite television show. Mermaid Man appears to suffer from memory loss and dramatically yells "Evil!" whenever he hears the word, while Barnacle Boy seems to be the more sensible and more irritable of the two. They are among the few humans who can breathe underwater and speak to the inhabitants of Bikini Bottom. They made their final regular appearances in the season 9 episode "Patrick-Man!"

  1. ^ Waller, Vincent (November 20, 2019). "Steve was very clear he did not want to replace Ernest Borgnine with a sound alike. It was his call". Twitter.
  2. ^ Tyler, Adrienne (April 11, 2020). "SpongeBob SquarePants: Why Mermaidman & Barnacle Boy No Longer Appear". Screen Rant. Retrieved September 22, 2022.