Gary the Snail

thingiverse

Gary the Snail is SpongeBob's pet house snail who voices Tom Kenny. Gary speaks only with a "meow" sound while sea worms in the show commonly bark indicating that snails are the ocean equivalent of cats and dogs. In the show there's one cat: Mr. Whiskers, it's also very rare for Gary to say anything other than "meow." As the seventh main character, he's an important part of the show. In Opposite Day Gary tried doing his stereotypes opposite by barking like a dog. In The Secret Box, Gary answered SpongeBob's question with "Meow-no," and it didn't register as unusual even though it might not have been the first time. During the Movie, citizens of Bikini Bottom were chanting "All Hail Plankton," but Gary responded monotonously with "Meow Plankton." Many episodes show Gary is intelligent; his biggest hint was in Sleepy Time where he spoke while dreaming and sounded very old and wise. In some instances, he sounds intelligent. For instance, during The Secret Box, when SpongeBob asked if a book could have any real treasure hidden inside it and all that came out was "meow," no one recognized the question for what it truly meant because they thought he was simply reacting normally. This is just an example of how Gary often speaks without us even noticing until much later. In many episodes, Gary is depicted as very intelligent: in the episode Sleepy Time where he dreamed and sounded old and wise, it suggests that perhaps psychic abilities are part of the family due to his family background which could possibly include psychic blood running through their veins.