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Not to be confused with Nick Le or his BFDI counterpart.

Mean thoughts fill my head too. You just gotta transform them into sarcasm so you won't come off as mean to people!

A Kick in the Right Direction

Click here to see more of Nickel's quotes.

Nickel, labeled The Sarcasm Spasm, is a male contestant on Inanimate Insanity who was placed on Team Epic. He returned in Inanimate Insanity II, was a member of The Grand Slams. He returns again in Inanimate Insanity Invitational and was a member of The Sinkers until moving to The New Thinkers. He competed for himself in the merge until his elimination in "The Show Must Go On", caused by Balloon orchestrating his elimination to separate their games for the jury. He is voiced by Adam Katz.

Personality[]

Renown for his exceptional taste in sarcasm, Nickel is a critical character who is also snarky, churlish and ill-tempered. Nickel's most identifying trope is his trademark sarcasm, which he uses to convert mean thoughts in his head in order not to come off as rude and disrespectful to others. Though this strategy may not always work, Nickel still considers sarcasm as an art, and himself an artist.

As an armless character, Nickel is unable to accomplish feats as easily as others but is usually determined to try his hardest. At the same time, Nickel expresses a large disinterest in competing in many of MePhone4's challenges and is commonly seen with a grumpy expression when competing.

Although Baseball is the leader of The Grand Slams, Nickel occasionally takes over the initiative and gives out orders to others. However, Nickel's sarcasm and wit make him appear shrewd. As a result, he does not typically work well with others, and may instead make rude and opprobrious comments or insults about them, causing drifts in his relationships.

Nickel is close with his armless alliance, consisting of Baseball and Suitcase, and can be seen working together as a trio in most challenges. Nickel is considerably untrusting, however, as he repeatedly attempts to disassociate his alliance with competitors like Cheesy, and most notably, Balloon, who continues to try to redeem himself. However, Nickel's abrasive and argumentative attitude against Balloon contrasts deeply with Suitcase's open-heart.

Although he appears to be extremely ruthless and doesn't value friendship, Nickel cares about his alliance, as highlighted by Baseball, but has a difficult way of showing it. In "Kick the Bucket", Nickel claims that Balloon was tearing the alliance apart, and wanted to conserve their bond. Much to Nickel's surprise, Suitcase notes that the two rarely even talk to one another, leading to many inner conflicts in the alliance. Despite being quite intolerant, unforgiving, and antipathetic to an extent, Nickel forms a great bond with Baseball, whom he is loyal to.

Upon entering 'Inanimate Insanity Invitational' and being placed on The Sinkers, Nickel once again creates an alliance, this time with Box and, regrettably, Balloon, with whom he still continues to distrust. On the other hand, Nickel begins "listening" to Box and putting his full faith in him and though Nickel does begin to develop a slight friendship with Balloon, they continue to have issues.

Nickel is also shown to enjoy mentoring others about sarcasm. As seen in "A Kick in the Right Direction", Nickel attempts to teach Knife how to use sarcasm, which Knife now uses occasionally as well.

Appearance[]

Nickel is a round coin-shaped character with two sides - heads and tails. His body, including his rims, is shiny silver/gray. His face appears on the heads side, and his legs are at the bottom.

Official Site Bio[]

Nickel is known for having a sarcastic attitude. He appears to be a bit of a narcissist, as he feels confident in completing many challenges himself. Though being armless, he is still able to do many activities such as tree-climbing, jumping and golf-ball stacking.

—Inanimate Insanity Site, 2013

Don’t let Nickel’s small stature or value fool you – this coin is rough around the edges! Nickel’s sarcastic attitude, frequent pessimism, and witty zingers make him a polarizing character in the game. He is generally quite blunt and is never afraid to speak his mind, which can rub the more sensitive contestants the wrong way. Despite his gruff exterior, Nickel is very loyal and wants nothing more than to assist his friends and alliances in winning. If he refuses to dial his attitude back, it may just cost him 20 million times his own value!

—Inanimate Insanity Site, 2018

Coverage[]

Click here to view the coverage of Nickel
Click here to view the coverage of Nickel.

Nickle/Nickel Controversy[]

Main article: Lurne Hao Too Cspel

Due to many voters misspelling Nickel's name as "Nickle", the votes were not counted for "The Stacker", causing Lightbulb to be eliminated. After many fans raged on Lightbulb's elimination, resulted in the votes for "Nickel" being re-counted, eliminating Nickel, and bringing back Lightbulb, this also started the character Nick-Le, whose only quote so far is, "I'm highly offended!!"

Vote Status[]

Season 1 Votes[]

Episode EP # Votes Total Votes Percentage
"The Stacker" & "War De Guacamole"[note 1] 5/6 46 (+ 70) 265 17.3% (+ 26.4%)
"Double Digit Desert" 10 56 (to rejoin) 386 14.5%
Total: 172 votes

Season 2 Votes[]

Episode EP # Votes Total Votes Percentage
"Cooking for the Grater Good" 4 95 4010 2.37%
"A Kick in the Right Direction" 5 99 3853 2.57%
"Theft and Battery" 8 313 5688 5.5%
"Rain On Your Charade" 9 1731 7348 23.55%
"Kick the Bucket" 11 1 6 16.6%
Total: 2239 votes

Popularity Poll[]

Votes Total Votes Percentage
609 (to join) 22513 2.7%

Season 3 Immunity Votes[]

Episode EP # Votes Total Votes Percentage
"Snapshot Showdown" 3 1381 7136 19.35%
"Try Not To Laugh Challenge" 5/6 4138 12933 32%
"Out of Body Experience" 8 2687 11682 23%
"Title TBD" 9 2642 11469 23.04%
"I Am Chocolate!" 10 4296 36413 11.8%
"Pesty Besties" 11 Part of 3698 16250 Part of 24.4%
"Home Is Where the Heart Is" 12 Part of 2842 14986 Part of 18.9%
Total Number of Season 3 Votes: 15144+

Season 3 Elimination Votes[]

Episode EP # Votes Total Votes Percentage
"Stranded in Paradise" 1 1 6 16.67%
"Snapshot Showdown" 3 2 6 33.3%
"Try Not To Laugh Challenge" 6 1 3 33.3%
"I Am Chocolate!" 10 1 10 10%
"Blue Buried" 15 2 6 33.3%
"The Great Bluish Bake Off" 16 2 5 40%
"The Show Must Go On" 17 2 4 50%
Total Number of Season 3 Votes: 11

Trivia[]

Comparisons[]

  • Nickel is known to be the first of three things.
    • He is the first Inanimate Insanity character created.
    • He is the first contestant to receive a cookie.
    • He is the first one to join his team.
  • Nickel is the highest-ranking armless contestant in Season 1, and the lowest ranking armless contestant in Season 2.
  • Nickel is one of the only 2 contestants from both Season 1 and Season 2 that never made it to the merge, the other being Balloon.
    • As of "I am Chocolate!", He has finally reached the merge of a season along with Balloon.
  • Nickel is one of the only contestants to appear in all 3 seasons, the others being Balloon and Paintbrush.
  • Nickel, along with Tissues and Trophy, are the only Season 2 contestants to not appear in a Season 2 episode thumbnail.
  • Nickel is the only Season 3 contestant with only legs.

Competition[]

  • Nickel is the only contestant to be eliminated an episode late, due to miscounted votes.
    • The mistake was corrected the following episode, as the Nickel votes were counted and he was eliminated, while Lightbulb rejoined.
    • Apple's elimination in Inanimate Insanity II was also delayed, but she was eliminated in the right episode, and this was not due to miscounted votes.
  • An infamous running gag with Nickel is that many viewers misspell his name as "Nickle", spawning the creation of the character Nick Le.
  • Nickel has been eliminated with the least amount of votes with 1 vote in "Kick the Bucket", even less than Paper's first elimination in "A Lemony Lesson".
  • Nickel is the third contestant in Inanimate Insanity Invitational to turn golden via the Immunity Cookie. (The first and second contestants to do this were Cabby and Silver Spoon)
  • Nickel is the only contestant in Inanimate Insanity Invitational to survive two tiebreakers. The first one by additional contestant vote in "Snapshot Showdown", and alongside Balloon in the episode "Spring on the Breakfast!", they both survive just from a random chance.

General[]

  • A different Nickel[1] appears as a contestant in BFDIA, IDFB, BFB and TPOT.
    • He retains Adam Katz as his voice actor.
    • Taylor Grodin claimed in a Tumblr post that Inanimate Insanity and the BFDI series take place in separate universes, and therefore the Nickels in each show (while they look identical) are in fact separate characters.
  • In the Fan's Fantastic Features episode "Nickel For Your Thoughts", it's revealed that Nickel's favorite color is Green.
  • In the Inanimate Insanity Short "Waffling About", it's revealed that when he is given Experiment 626, he splits into two nickels; one where the sarcasm can cause shockwaves which strength is based on the receptor's reaction to the sarcasm, and one completely blank and emotionless.
  • Nickel was originally planned to rank 4th in the first season, as it was planned to be a contestant vote all the way.
  • According to MePhone4, Nickel was his second-least favorite contestant in the final 8 of Inanimate Insanity Invitational.
  • Nickel, Tea Kettle, and OJ have both gotten the lowest amount of votes upon their respective eliminations on Inanimate Insanity Invitational, at 2 votes
  • Nickel is the 2nd highest Inanimate Insanity Season 1 contestant in Inanimate Insanity Invitational. 1st being Balloon, and 3rd being Paintbrush.
  • A Nickel sticker and a sticker of Snowball from Battle for Dream Island made an appearance on the American news network Today on October 20th, 2023.[2]
    • This makes Nickel the first II character to appear in a news program and Snowball from BFDI the second BFDI character to appear in a news program after Marker as well.

Deaths[]

Gallery

Click here to view the image gallery for Nickel.
Click here to view the gallery.

References[]

  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20200717121826/https://thetgrodzblog.tumblr.com/post/182380354941/is-nickel-in-inanimate-insanity-the-same-nickel-in
  2. The impact of screen time on kids: What's at stake, 2:33

Notes[]

  1. Nickel received 64 votes in The Stacker, with Nick Le receiving 70 in the same episode. Nickel was eliminated and replaced with Lightbulb in War De Guacamole, counting the votes from the previous episode.


Team Epic
Team Epic Logo

Members: Lightbulb (c) • NickelKnifePaintbrushBaseballMarshmallowPaperApple

The Grand Slams
Grand Slams Logo

Members (as of II14): Baseball (c) • KnifeSuitcase

Eliminated: MicrophoneNickelBalloonSoap (cc) • CheesyDoughBoxTrophy

The Sinkers
Screenshot (559)

Members: LiferingBoxTea KettleBlueberryNickelBalloon

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