Mrs. Puff

Mrs. Poppy Puff is a major on/off antagonist in SpongeBob SquarePants. She is SpongeBob SquarePants' boating school teacher. She is voiced by Mary Jo Catlett throughout the series. She is a paranoid pufferfish who owns a boating school and tries her best to be patient with every student. SpongeBob has attended the school ever since its opening and aces every oral exam. However, once he actually gets behind the wheel of one of Mrs. Puff's training boats, his nerves get the best of him. He crashes, often injuring Mrs. Puff and/or damaging the school and other people in the process.

Mrs. Puff often makes the mistake of assuming responsibility for SpongeBob's destruction as if she were his mother. On multiple occasions, she has been sent to jail as a result. To make matters worse, SpongeBob has failed to come to terms with the reality that he cannot learn to drive properly, largely due to his boundless optimism.

Puff and Mr. Krabs have a long-standing secret romance together. This begins in the episode "Krusty Love," when Krabs falls in love with her and takes her on their first date. As of season ten's "Whirly Brains" episode, the two have been dating for sixteen years in private.

Mrs. Puff is also on very good terms with Squidward Tentacles since SpongeBob tends to bother both of them. However, in comparison to Squidward, she is much kinder to SpongeBob (probably stemming from their teacher/student relationship); for example, while Squidward usually tells SpongeBob face-to-face that he hates him, Mrs. Puff tries to hide her angry emotions.