Film Theory: The Secret Ingredient of SpongeBob's Krabby Patty! (SpongeBob SquarePants) 

“Mr.Krabs is not a master chef” Mr.Krabs: *peels and entire potato at once with no mistakes*

your next spongebob theory should be how Plankton stays in business

Matt: "There is NO secret" Me: *Kungfu Panda flashback *

Matpat: "We treat nothing as sacred" Diet coke: Am I a joke to you?

“There is no secret ingredient... To make something special, you just have to believe it’s special.” -Mr. Ping, Kung Fu Panda

Alternate theory: The secret that makes the Krabbi Pattys so good is actually Spongebob. His high integrity and extreme love of his work means that he produces burgers at a level of quality that no ordinary person ever would. The secret formula is a mcguffin that only exists so that Plankton will keep trying to steal it instead of simply abducting and/or recruiting Spongebob. It's why he's the only fry cook, and why The Krusty Krab was never franchised even though Mr Krabbs is so money obsessed, and why the product failed once they tried to mass produce it in factories, and why the Krusty Krab has to practically shut down whenever Spongebob can't work. No other employee will have the same passion Spongebob has while working for so little as Spongebob does, so Mr Krabbs can never simply replace him.

@MatPat, see normally I'd agree with you, but on this topic I can't for many reasons. Firstly, in Mr Krabs' flashback from season 1 or 3 about his history with Plankton, he clearly shows how he creates the Patty by mistake after knocking a bunch of ingredients into a mystery meat pot. He tastes it and he's shocked at how good it tastes so he writes down the ingredients and markets it the next day. He's not a master chef, he was an intermediate chef at best and just happened to stumble on to a master recipe. My second point is remember in another episode when they run out of pattys? Mr Krabs and SpongeBob are talking in the kitchen and Krabs tells SpongeBob to just make a fresh batch, but since it's been so long since either of them have made a Patty from scratch, they've both forgotten how to actually make one so SpongeBob and Patrick go on a train heist to go to a super secure bank where the real formula is stored. As a side note, it's also been shown that Krabs apparently licensed the formula for the Patty to another company to mass produce them for him and gets them delivered via armored truck as seen in another episode but I forget which. Lastly, if the recipe is a huge placebo as you claim it to be, why is it that every time Plankton manages to make a good burger, or take over the sea, it's only after he gets and reads and forgets apparently (for the sake of plot) the Krabby Patty formula? He's not an idiot, if he read it and found out it's a placebo like the dragon scroll in Kung Fu Panda, he'd say so... loudly. My point is, I think the placebo theory is too much of a cop out. Hillenburg may have made something that is harder to find than the holy Grail, garden of Eden, Atlantis, and the library of Timbuktu combined, but I believe that it is there somewhere. It just doesn't add up that it would be a placebo, or else that's one hell of a reality warping placebo.

Well, the formula isn't how the patty is put together, it's the spices and herbs put into the meat. The episode Friend or Foe explains that the formula was created when several different ingredients fell into the meat Mr. Krabs uses, thus creating what he called, "the perfect patty batter." So the formula actually hasn't been solved!

"Telling you your favourite cartoon characters are addicted to cocaine is like my favourite pastime"

Telling you that your favorite cartoon characters are addicted to cocaine is like my favorite pastime - MatPat 2019

I feel like they're gonna reveal what the secret formula is in the final episode...if Spongebob ever ends.

The secret is in the patty, it's made out of crab meat, in one episode mr krabs takes a burger from an orange child fish, bites a bit and says, "so that's what I taste like", which makes sense, because crabs are cannibals. And if it's real, that the patty is made out of crab meat, it makes sense why it's called "krabby" patty or "Krusty krab"

I CRACKED THE CODE!!! the second formula had secret sauce but it was missing tomatoes, mustard, and ketchup. I believe that you get secret sauce by putting tomatoes, mustard, and ketchup in a blender and mixing the up.

The secret ingredient is actually love ❤️

“The McDonalds brand is about reliability” “Sorry the ice cream machine isn’t working”

Nah brother krabby patties are made of crab Evidence: Few krabs in the show, Krusty Krab is a crab trap, and mr krabs eats a krabby patty and say, "Oh so that's what I taste like."

But there's a couple flaws...in the season 9 episode 'Salsa Imbecilicus', we see that at the very end of the semester, the day of everyone's graduation from Bikini Bottom University that Mr. Krabs has devised the Krabby Patty's secret formula. It's also shown in ' Larry the Floor Manager' that bodybuilders who have never tried the krabby patty fall instantly in love with it, and that in many instances we see that Bikini Bottomites follow the sweet smell of a Krabby Patty. Not only those points, but it is also mentioned that there is mayonnaise in the Krabby Patty burger in 'Planet of the Jellyfish.' That may also be made of crab since in The Netherlands, the show's name for Krabby Patties means "Crab Burgers." In the episode 'Selling Out,' when people eat the synthetic Krabby Patties, they immediately notice the difference in taste, further proving the fact that there is a secret formula. I love Matt, his theories, and his channel, and this is my first time actually doing something like this, but these were just a couple of things I noticed and found out. Help Matt see this message!! Thanks

Well, two things. First, in Friend or Foe, we see Mr Krabs create the formula by accidently adding a bunch of ingredients to the patty batter when they fell in, and it made the burger taste perfect after many failed attempts. Next, in the SpongeBob movie, which is cannon, Plankton steals the formula and is able to turn his burgers into being as good, so there is a real secret ingredient. However, Mr Krabs has created fake formulas before, so you'd be correct in thinking that one was gibberish.

Imagine if they open a real Krusty krab restaurant and the whole spongebob series was just a huge commercial

I accept Alex Bale’s theory that it’s pearl’s dead mother. She was so huge that crabs has practically an endless supply

Good ol' Steven Hillenburg... The Stan Lee of Nickelodeon.

Telling people our favorite cartoon are addicted to cocaine is like cocaine for Mat

*The secret ingredient to the Krabby Patty formula is* HOOPLA

Whatever the secret ingredient is, it has to fit within the price point of a Krabby patty. I highly doubt Mr Krabs would lose money

Idk if this is true though... In one episode, I don't remember the name, they ran out of Patties and lost the formula, so Mr Krabs who doesn't know the formula by heart asked SpongeBob to make the patties since he remembers it cause he reads and uses it all the time, but SpongeBob makes himself forget it so he can't be made to give it to someone,they spend the rest of the episode to get it back. Mr Krabs needed the secret formula to make one, this proves the theory wrong, I like this theory but my SpongeBob knowledge is too much

Here's a giant hole in this theory. In the episode "Friend or Foe", Karen says that when Krabs and Plankton were kids and had their own restaurant together, they had a falling out and ended up tearing a recipe. Plankton got a tiny portion that only said "Chum" while Krabs got the rest of the recipe. Now a really interesting Spongebob theory would be on Old Man Jenkins. The various incarnations, all the odd things that happen to him (he literally got poisoned in the episode I mentioned), etc

Yo is this like in kung fu panda. there is no secret in the noodles

the Sponge on The Run movie basically confirms this since they did a whole song saying that the reason why everyone loves Krabby Patties so much is because Spongebob cooks them in a pratically flawless way

“Mr Crabs is NOT an expert chef” *plays clip of him peeling a potato in ONE PEEL while SPINNING IT ON A CLAW LIKE A BASKETBALL*

in the first spongebob film where Neptunes crown was stolen, Plankton actually stole the formula and started selling krabby patties. If it really was marketing wouldn't had Plankton just sold them after the movie anyway ?

everyone knows the krabby patty secret formula is in area 51

Can I just say this guy would be an amazing lawyer in an advertisement court case

This video is brought to you by the Chum Bucket: Come eat at the Chum Bucket, where we now will start selling Krabby Patties.

Mr. Krabs even got me talking. Crazy how a fictional character got me helping his market.

Me before watching the video: "Please don't go for the "There is no secret formula" cliché" The video: *goes for the "There is no secret formula" cliché*

Teacher: remember to show ur work! Matpat:

I’m honestly shocked you haven’t done this one before

*Plankton has joined the chat*

Wasn't there a episode when it was a flashback when Plankton and Mr Krabs worked together and Mr krabs accidentally knocked ingredients into a pot to make the secret formula?

6:57 "But what he is, is an expert business man." The visual completely confirms this.

I'm just here to see how many people said, "ThE sEcReT iS cRaB mEaT iTs In ThE nAmE!!!"

1:03 Flashbacks to how “Sweet Victory” wasn’t shown at the Super Bowl.

The secret ingredient is... BIG MEATY CLAAAWS! Edit: Thanks for the likes and the very humorous comments!

Mr.Krabs is just stashing Pearl’s Mother and that’s the secret formula

Are you sponsored by Chum Bucket or something?

Next theory: How much money does Mr. Krabs have?

*Plankton has entered the chat*

we all know that "love" is the secret ingredient that spongebob puts in the krabby patties. he just wants his customers to eat and experience the best burger.

"ITS LOVE! THE SECRET INGREDIENT IS LOVE!" -The Spongebob Movie: Sponge out of Water

Here’s a theory what if the Krabby patty is selling crab

Plankton spends his whole career trying to figure out the formula Film theory: I figured it out in 14 minutes :)

What if the ingredients text is actually a form of Lorem ipsum used by the writers to keep the formula as vague as possible to the audience!

The gibberish formula could've just been a decoy, and Mr. Krabs just acts like it's the real deal so everyone will believe him. Nobody would leave something like that just lying around inside the safe in the restaurant.

Hmmmm something’s missing... I know! The secret ingredient! *Salt*

Rest in peace Stephen Hillenburg. You was love and will be remembered forever.

I remember as a kid buying a magazine from Clan, the channel that screened spongebob and other cartoons in my country (Spain), because it had the krabby patties (burguer cangreburguer in Spain) formula, and just getting completely traumatized when I read that it had crab sauce over the patty.

The secret recipe is love... duh

"The secret ingredient is, nothing. You heard me nothing, there is no secret ingredient" - Mr. Ping, Kung fu panda

*The real formula is under Mr krabs mattress.*

How does his videos age so well?? When you open this video, you cannot tell the difference from one from recently.

According to the new movie Sponge On The Run, SpongeBob is the secret formula. (Not literally, of course, but he is the one that makes the krabby patties taste so good.)

*Plankton:* FINALLY NOW I HAVE THE FORMULA, TRY AND STOP ME KRABS!

If the krabby patty is made from Krabs it makes sense that squidward loves them as octopodes eat krabs Fun fact: squidward is an octopus

Your theory gets more and more believable, the longer I watch the video. I feel like this c po old be very true in the spongebob universe but the writers probably set it up perfectly like that, unintentionally

Plankton did a strategic mistake. The reason that his food is disgusting is that it is disgusting for fish. He should move away from Bikini Bottom and open a new restaurant in a city of other planktons.

Possible Theory: How much money does Mr. Krabs have?

I still don't get how either of the SpongeBob SquarePants movies would work without a formula

French salad dressing is the secret formula! It makes cheeseburgers taste delicious! Also, how the cheeseburgers are made: first the bun, then the burger, then lettuce, then cheese, then tomato, then onions, then pickles, followed by French dressing and then mayonnaise and then top bun. If you want it spicy, add jalapeños below the pickles. Cheddar cheese is even better.

Don’t forget that Mr Krabs has 2 bottles with the formula, shown in a movie. The bottle that plankton stole could be the fake one , and the real formula could be somewhere else.

Mcdonalds: "We try to make our stuff reliable!" Mcdonalds ice cream machines: *"allow us to introduce ourselves"*

*_THE FBI WOULD LIKE TO KNOW YOUR LOCATION_*

You're probably right. How sacrilegious would it be if the Krabby Patty secret formula turned out to be Chum with added MSG? 🧂🤣

There’s a few problems with your theory: 1.Earlier In that band episode you mentioned plankton hears sponge bob singing the recipe, well gibberish and the amounts, most likely that’s a reference to it and the real formula is hidden in crabs house , in another episode (the one where plankton comes for the formula with his family) get scared and runs when he learns what in the fake formula , crabs says he hide it somewhere else , squidwards guess his house and he’s right.Crabs must have been hiding the real formula at his house the whole time. 2.Most likely crabs didn’t include the whole list of ingredients because remember it was the patty with the works and he just listed the main ingredients to save money on how long his commercial was, and the reason sponge bob doesn’t include secret sauce is because if you look , you see crabs didn’t bring the sauce fearing plankton might try to steal it. 3.we see in one episode that the sauce isn’t made in the restaurant, we see it get delivered by military men, and we see crabs stealing it to try not to pay to get it made. Finally: we see in the movie a pirate using a magic book to steal the formula to make crabby patties on the surface and we see people buying the burgers and loving it even though they haven’t seen or heard of it before, proving you theory false! Check and mate matpat

The problem with this theory, that I can see at least, is that we see in canon that there IS a secret recipe. While there's some conflicting evidence about where the recipe comes from (Krabs once says it was an old family recipe, I believe), there was a flashback episode featuring Plankton where they explore when Krabs and Plankton tried opening their first food stand. Initially they served chum, like the chum at the Chum Bucket, but then Krabs knocks some ingredients into a stock pot and it drastically changes the taste. From there, Krabs took whatever ingredient mix was in the pot and turned it into Krabby Patties. Since this story is accepted as truth by Krabs, Plankton, and Karen, it can be reasonably assumed that it's the true origin of the Krabby Patty. What's more, we know that the incomplete recipe minus whatever Krabs added (Since Plankton only has half a recipe himself), makes chum. Since that's what Plankton makes at his restaurant and seems to be what Krabs and Plankton were making prior to the ingredients change. In the real world, chum is essentially the guts, blood, bones, and other inedible pieces of fish that are typically used as bait. When we see what Plankton makes, that lines up. He essentially had a stomach on a bun, at one point. I'll also go on a limb and assume that these fish parts are from non-sentient fishlife, rather than assume Krabs is cannibalizing other citizens of Bikini Bottom. Given all of this, I'd guess that the secret ingredient is a binding agent +spices. It's very hard to make a fish-based ground patty without some form of a binding agent, like a flour, starch, egg, etc. The binding agent would help the chum stay in the traditional patty shape, while the excessive spices would help mask that they were using cheap cuts of meat. It's a bit like a hot dog or a cheap sausage. You're talking about a product that's made from scraps, designed to make those scraps taste good. Without being packaged properly and without a lot of added spices, none of that is going to be appetizing. Hell, you get a badly made hotdog and it's downright gross.

"It's finally time I tell you the secret ingredient in my secret ingredient soup! The secret is... *NOTHING!* If you make people believe something's special, it will be special!" - Whatever the heck Po's Dad's name is

Alternate Alternate theory: The secret that makes the Krabbi Pattys so good is actually is a crab

HE NEVER SAID "Hey that's just a theory a FILM THEORY!" COINCIDENCE I THINK NOT!!!!

But in the first spongebob movie, plankton stole the formula and was able to make the exact patty with the formula

The secret krabby patty is crab. The restaurant is set in a crab trap, there are never any other crabs except mr.crab’s mom which makes sense considering he loves his mom so much he would never kill her, and all the items on the menu ( kelp shakes, kelp rings, coral bits, seafoam soda, and kelp fries) all the ingredients to make them is in the name then the KRABby patty a crab patty. Coincidence I think not. But hey that’s just a theory, a comment theory thanks for reading

ITS LITERALLY CRABS. Think about, we don’t really see much crabs except for Mr.Krabs and when the health inspector comes to the Krusty Krab and Mr,Krab tries the Patty out, he says, “so that’s what I taste like”.

Plot twist : The Krabby Patty is a hot dog in disguise...

Where is that meat coming from though? *TOP 10 QUESTIONS SCIENCE STILL HASN’T BEEN ABLE TO ANSWER*

Secret ingredient is: -burger buns -crab meat -lettuce -tomato -pickles -love

Didn’t plankton and Krabs create the recipe together? That would tell me plankton has first-hand knowledge of the object of his pursuit.

Are we forgetting the Spongebob Movie where Plankton actually stole the formula and became famous for selling them? Plus the show died after the movie when Stephen stepped away from the series. So the following seasons don't follow the continuity of the first movie.

there is no secret ingredient - kung fu panda

But MatPat! The secret ingredients were revealed in a SpongeBob educational game on the educational game console, the Leapster. In SpongeBob SquarePants Saves The Day, the plot is to find new ingredients to make a new better secret recipe, after a fridge falls from up above becomes a more popular eatery. You play through the game to gain the ingredients, and the final recipe used to beat the game and receive the ending is, "3 Drops of Orange Squid Soda, 4 Drops of Yellow Griddle Grease, 2 Drops of Blue Oyster Juice, and 4 Drops of Purple Jellyfish Jelly". SpongeBob uses this recipe on the new Krabby Patties and the customers come back. When Mr. Krabs asks SpongeBob what the recipe was, SpongeBob tells Mr. Krabs the recipe, and Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob, "This is the same as my original recipe!" (exact quote) This means that the recipe that SpongeBob came up with IS in fact the same recipe that Mr. Krabs uses in his Krabby Patties!

I have one leading theory: Mr. Krabs uses other crabs to make his patties. You never see crab relatives or any other crab in the show, just him. Even when he eats a Krabby Patty, he says: "Hmm.. so that's what I taste like."

I saw a theory that said that the secret ingredient was crab meat. The official ingredient is labelled as "crab meat imitation". The argument for it being actual real crab meat is a couple of things: 1) The Krusty Crab is designed after a real life Crab trap for fishermens. Might be a clue. 2) Apart from Mr Crab and his mother, we never actually saw another rab in Bikini Bottom itself (crabs outside of the town in some episodes or coming from another place ? Sure, a lot, inside the town everyday ? Not so much...), so Mr Crab might be killing the other crabs to make the recipe, which might be why he never tried to taste one his own burgers because: a) He want to avoid health problem provoked by cannibalism... b) Well he deosn't want to eat another crab... It is also important to note that once trapped in the crab trap I talked earlier, real crab will often eat each other out of panic and stress. 3) The name, Krabby Patty... Krabby... Patty... Just... Like the name itself is a clue. 4) Mr Crabs is often represented as a parody of american and capitalist society, the kind of buisnessman who could cross any line for a few pennies. So it wouldn't be surprising for him to murder his own kind just to run his buisness...

The Secret Ingredient™ is actually just Hoopla

This theory has a BIG loophole. Because in the spongebob squarepants movie, the first one, Plankton steals the Krabby patty formula and actually MAKES the krabby patties! Can you explain this, Matpat?

I remember an episode where Mr Krabs eats a Patty, and he comments "so that's what I taste like" So maybe the secret ingredient is Crab Meat or something

All you gotta do is say *Raviolli Raviolli give me the formuloni* Edit: it's a joke there is an episode where plankton becomes a mr. Krabs robot and tries to get the formula but spongebob told him to say that

Maybe the true secret ingredient was the friends we made along the way.

Except theres a later episode where we see how Krabs and Plankton actually started the krusty krab and then got in a fight when krabs accidentally makes the perfect krabby patty mixture. Episode Name: Friend or Foe, Season 5 episode 1 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friend_or_Foe_(SpongeBob_SquarePants) Sorry b, had to do it to em

Well, its confirmed that there actually IS a secret formula in the spongebob movie. In the movie plankton finally steals the formula and and "makes" krabby pattys at the chum bucket. Theory disproved!

Hopefully plankton isn't watching this video

Mr. Krabbs Wife is the Ingredient

There is a secret formula, there was an episode when Mr. Krabs told spongebob how the secret formula was made. He talked about how plankton and he worked at the same place and were fighting and accidentally dropped something that was in a bottle and it fell inside of the burger and they both tasted it and fell in love with the taste, later on Mr. Krabs stole that formula that made the sandwich and kept it away from plankton, that’s why he’s been trying to get it back for so long. They made the secret formula together on accident and because of Mr. Krabs greediness, he kept it away from plankton and they have been enemies ever since

2:10-3:10 In the Hashslinging slasher episode the secret sauce is also mentioned. However it’s possible the secret sauce is also some type of marinade used for the patties