Why Are Memes Referring To Patrick From Spongebob As "Subaru"?

Know Your Meme

Have you seen Spongebob memes online recently that seem to have a strange Nickname for Patrick? Here's where the meme started.   For more information, visit: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-call-patrick-subaru  Check out our new MEME STORE: https://thememestore.com/  Subscribe to our channel to learn more about trending memes, hear interviews from meme personalities and more! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbrPqq29C9Q_TQP7OFFRzcw?sub_confirmation=1

Transcript

00:00Everyone knows this is Spongebob and this is Subaru.

00:03No, this is Patrick.

00:04Wait, it says here this is Subaru.

00:06No! This is Patrick!

00:08Then what's with all the memes calling you Subaru?

00:11Spongebob memes have always been a staple online,

00:13but the most recent ones seem to have renamed our beloved big dumb starfish.

00:17So, why are people calling Patrick Subaru?

00:19The new nickname is derived from a comment made to the Spongebob fandom site back in 2021,

00:24but it only started going viral recently after being posted to Reddit and X.

00:28On March 5, 2021, Spongebob fandom members kmh1481 and idoodle247

00:33exchanged comments on the page for the episode Gone.

00:36One wrote,

00:37I hate that even Subaru took part in No Spongebob Day.

00:39What kind of best friend is he?

00:41The other replied,

00:42Who's Subaru?

00:42To which the first responded,

00:44I call Patrick Subaru.

00:45We don't get an explanation here.

00:47They just decided to call him that.

00:48In August of 2024, the same user,

00:50purportedly called GrantPantWhyCan't on Reddit,

00:53posted to the r slash Spongebob subreddit,

00:55again claiming their nickname for Patrick is Subaru,

00:57and that they even asked the voice actor who plays Patrick to say the word Subaru.

01:01On February 17, 2025,

01:03ex-user PunishedVia posted a screenshot of the initial 2021 exchange,

01:08and it started garnering viral attention pretty immediately.

01:10In the following days,

01:11reposts of it started appearing on places like iFunny and various subreddits.

01:15On March 3, TikToker WaltJrOfficial posted the screenshot in a video,

01:19with a Lil Yachty laptop meme attached to the end,

01:22garnering over 5 million views in just a day.

01:24Immediately after,

01:25users would start sharing memes featuring scenes from Spongebob

01:28that just refer to Patrick as Subaru.

01:30Like, for example, that same day,

01:32TikToker BSTCopperPlayer1 posted one of these,

01:35garnering nearly 2 million views in a day.

01:37More and more creators would jump in on the trend,

01:39leaving many out-of-the-loop Spongebob fans rather confused.

01:48Users would even post videos reenacting the initial exchange

01:51or referring to the odd nickname in other ways,

01:54like renaming the other Spongebob characters with car-related nicknames.

Category

Transcript

Recommended