SpongeBob Health Inspector Choking vs. Wiping Mouth

About

SpongeBob Health Inspector Choking vs. Wiping Mouth refers to a series of Drakeposting memes using two images of the health inspector from SpongeBob SquarePants, one of the inspector choking and one of the inspector wiping his mouth with a napkin, to represent something undesirable and desirable respectively. The memes became popularized on Reddit in mid-2022, with the original version posted to Twitter in February 2021.

Origin

On February 4th, 2021, Twitter^[1] user @_fierrochase_ posted a a meme in the style of Drakeposting formats showing two images of the health inspector from SpongeBob SquarePants season three, episode four, titled "Nasty Patty/Idiot Box," one showing him choking and one where he's wiping his mouth, the choking representing the caption, "2 pages into a reading assignment" and the wiping, "finishing up a 90k word fic." The meme was reposted by Tumblr^[2] user heyimboredtalktome on September 3rd, garnering over 1,300 hearts in two years (shown below).

Spread

On May 17th, 2022, Redditor CreativestName69420 posted a meme using the format to /r/BikiniBottomTwitter^[3] showing an image of the health inspector choking next to a photo of tomatoes and wiping his mouth next to ketchup, pizza and spaghetti. The post gained over 10,300 upvotes in a year (shown below). It was reported to /r/me_irl^[4] on May 27th, garnering over 7,600 upvotes in the same rough span of time.

On March 26th, 2023, a Redditor posted a version of the meme along with a blank template to /r/MemeTemplatesOfficial,^[5] garnering over 1,400 upvotes in a month. On April 19th, Redditor fanta_bhelpuri posted a version of the meme to /r/memes^[6] that gained over 85,000 upvotes in two days (shown below). Twitter^[7] user @ShitpostGate reposted the meme on April 21st, garnering over 7,100 likes in under a day.

Templates

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References