Mr. Humphries is never elaborated upon. Though Mr. Humphries exhibits many of the behaviors typical of a gay stereotype, his true sexual orientation is never explicitly confirmed in the series. The reticence was a necessity given prevailing attitudes at the time the series was produced: after the first five episodes of "Are You Being Served?", a senior BBC executive ordered David Croft to "Get rid of the poof" from the show – Croft declined, saying: "If the poof goes, I go." Many jokes throw Mr Humphries into heterosexual clinches. At one point he is asked to fill in for Mrs. Slocombe at
Mr. Krabs by Alex Ebert that highlights the characters' differences. In his pre-Broadway review of the musical, "Variety"s Steven Oxman asserted that the musical's version of Mr. Krabs "fall[s] flat" compared to his animated counterpart, and that the theatrical adaptation "finds no humor or wit or even edge in Mr. Krabs' obsession with money, nor in the nonsensical element that his daughter is a whale." Mr. Krabs Eugene H. Krabs, better known as Mr. Krabs, is a fictional character in the American animated television series "SpongeBob SquarePants". He is voiced by actor Clancy Brown and first appeared in the series' pilot episode