MayPuff

Maypuff is the femslash ship between Mrs. Puff and Ms. Mayor from the SpongeBob SquarePants fandom.

Canon
The two characters have never directly interacted in either of the canons that the two have both appeared in as of this time. Mrs. Puff is a recurring character who has been the focus of many episodes very early into the series since it aired in 1999. However Ms. Mayor was a character that was originally created for SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical, only loosely based on one of the previously seen depictions of the mayor of Bikini Bottom. First making her debut in the musical in 2016, she was introduced into the cartoon's continuity until 2019 in the episode Plankton's Chum. As a relatively new character that has thus far only been used in cameo or supporting roles with minimal direct contact with the rest of the cast, Ms. Mayor does not have established relationships with other characters such as Mrs. Puff.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Broadway Musical
In the musical neither Ms. Mayor or Mrs. Puff interact with a majority of the cast directly. Mrs. Puff has no scripted interactions with the rest of the cast, while Ms. Mayor barely has any scripted interactions with the majority of the cast. The most notable exceptions being Ms. Mayor responding to SpongeBob during the first song, and later commanding Larry as crowd control during the city-wide panic. Meanwhile, Mrs. Puff's most prominent action during the musical is to be shown ordering juice and drinking excessively during the city-wide panic, in a mimicry of alcoholism induced by the presumed end of the world. Otherwise she is largely uninvolved with the plot, and does not interact with any other named characters.

However, the lack of interactions between the two could possibly differ between performances. As the cast will get together and join hands toward the end, awaiting the results of Sandy’s Eruptor Disruptor, it is not entirely consistent who Ms. Mayor or Mrs. Puff might join hands with. This is due to the fact this part of the musical is not completely choreographed the same way as other scenes of the musical’s story. As a result of this there is a statistical probability that Ms. Mayor could possibly join hands with Mrs. Puff in a performance, however there has been no recorded evidence of this happening in a big production at the moment. And notably, such an interaction does not happen in the The SpongeBob Musical: Live on Stage!

SpongeBob SquarePants
The closest thing to any interaction between Ms. Mayor and Mrs. Puff in the cartoon thus far is the episode Potato Puff. Though it is important to note that the two do not actually interact at any point, not even indirectly. In this episode, Mrs. Puff dresses a potato as herself to take her place during SpongeBob’s boating exam so that she can take some time off to enjoy herself. As a result, SpongeBob drives through the town causing mayhem. During this, he drives into an opening ceremony being headed by Ms. Mayor, who can be seen recoiling in shock at the sight of SpongeBob and the titular Potato Puff driving through the newly opening building. At the moment, Patrick is the only character that Ms. Mayor has been depicted directly interacting with in the cartoon.

Fanon
The invention of this relationship between 2017 to 2018 by fans can be attributed primarily to reception to the musical and the popularity it had gained shortly after performances of the Chicago production. Another aspect may be the closeness of the actors portraying the SpongeBob characters during the original Chicago and Broadway productions of the musical. Many of the actors documented the time they spent together off-stage, primarily through posts on instagram, and it was common for fanartists to redraw these posts as the characters they portray in the musical. In this case there had been known examples of Ms. Mayor’s actress at the time, Gaelen Gilliland, and Mrs. Puff’s actress, Abby C. Smith, hanging out off-stage. A notable instance was the time the two actresses had gotten lost in New Jersey together and posted about it on Instagram.

The depiction of a potential relationship based on the musical or by fans more invested in the musical tends to be down to earth and casual. The two are usually portrayed as a typical domestic couple, who participate in casual displays of affection in public. Though there had been a number of fanart posted on Tumblr and Instagram, there has not yet been any fanfiction focused on the pair. As such, there has not been much exploration of the development of a relationship between the two, or how the two function as a couple. It can be considered a rarepair because of this.

With Ms. Mayor being added to the canon of the SpongeBob SquarePants cartoon, the relationship had gained some attention from a few fans who are more invested in the cartoon’s designs or setting than the musical’s costume designs or setting. The few fans of the relationship as depicted in the cartoon’s setting seem to characterize the two as more unlawful and unhinged in comparison to their musical counterparts. Discussions of the potential relationship often bring up Mrs. Puff’s criminal history. And with Ms. Mayor’s authoritarian takeover of Bikini Bottom in the musical, it is assumed that her cartoon counterpart could be similarly predisposed to unlawfulness as Mrs. Puff may be. Thus the idea that the two may be collaborative in white collar crime as two government servants has been brought up in discussions, though this has seemingly not been explored in fanworks of any kind.

Maypuff made it into a small name tumblr shipping tournament, thecrackshipawards. Though the ship is relatively obscure, it is noted to have had several nominations by the runner of the tournament at the time. The ship lasted three rounds into the tournament's five rounds, having around 130 votes in their favor in the first round. However the ship was knocked out of the tournament when it had only around 83 votes in it's last round, out of a total of 235 votes.

Fandom

 * TUMBLR

Trivia

 * Originally called Gillfriends primarily by the musical’s fans, Maypuff was coined due to the fact that Gillfriends had also been used to refer to several Homestuck ships. Since Ms. Mayor doesn’t have a name given besides her title, the result was a portmanteau of her title and Mrs. Puff’s surname.