Mermaid Man (Old: Ernest Borgnine (1999-2012) and Joe Whyte (2012–present), Young: Tom Kenny (Season 1), Adam West in Back to the Past, and Ernest Borgnine in The Bad Guy Club for Villains) and his sidekick Barnacle Boy (Old: Tim Conway, Young:Burt Ward and Tim Conway in The Bad Guy Club for Villains)^[9] are two elderly and partially senile superheroes who live in a retirement home and are stars of SpongeBob and Patrick's favorite television show. It is most likely that they are parodies ofAquaman and Aqualad, but since their younger selves are voiced by Adam West and Burt Ward, and because they use onomatopoeic words similar to those in

the 1960s Batman TV series, they also parody Batman and Robin. Mermaid Man is known for completely forgetting things, yelling a prolonged "EVIL!" whenever he hears the word, and Barnacle Boy seems to be the smarter, more sensible of the two. It was revealed in the episode entitled "Mermaid Man Begins" of the 8th season that Mermaid Man's given name is Ernie, likely an homage to his voice actor. In this same episode, Barnacle Boy was referred to as Tim, but in a previous season, he was called Kyle. Coincidentally, Borgnine and Conway previously appeared together on the 1960s TV seriesMcHale's Navy. Borgnine died on July 8, 2012 and since late 2012, Mermaid Man has been voiced by Joe Whyte, who voiced Mr. Krabs in some video games.