History Headscratchers / ScoobyDoo

* ''Headscratchers/{{Velma}}''

[[folder: Could it Work with Just the Guys?]]
* Also, would the 1983-1985 Scooby and Scrappy-Doo series have worked if Daphne and Velma had been PutOnABus leaving just Scooby, Scrappy, Shaggy, and Fred as the protagonists? WhatCouldHaveBeen - would it have worked? As for Fred Jones in WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo - imagine that!??
** Fred didn't have a real personality yet. However, if he had his goofball persona, Flim-Flam probably wouldn't have been created, and Freddy and Scrappy could have been the second comic team.
** Daphne didn't have much of a personality yet, either. Not until ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', and she hasn't had the same personality from series to series afterward, either.
** I honestly think they should've kept Velma around. Granted, even she wasn't a super-developed character in the original show, but still...
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Why No Ghostbusters Crossover?]]
* How come there isn't a Scooby-Doo meets the real Ghostbusters movie? They met WWE, Batman, Cher, and the 3 stooges. Why isn't this a thing yet? Both ghost-fighting teams have comic relief, a lovable, non-human character who loves food (Slimer and Scooby).
** It happens in VideoGame/LEGODimensions, but it's not very satisfying. IDW has produced comics for both properties, but for whatever reason, they just never crossed over.
** Simplest answer: Scooby is owned by WB, Ghostbusters is Sony. Rival corporations. Its not impossible for them to work together, but still very rare. And usually a headache; Disney and WB clashed ALOT while making ''Who Framed roger Rabbit''.
[[/folder]]

* ''Headscratchers/ScoobyDooStageFright''

[[folder: Why Didn't They Suspect the Actor?]]
* In the Blue Falcon movie, why didn't the gang suspect the actor who played the original Mr. Hyde of being the villain?

[[folder: Why be Mad at the Mutt and His Master?]]
* This troper has to ask, about the film. He could take the nonsensical plot and the bad jokes. But what this troper has to ask is annoys him more than that. When the Gang breaks up, it's understandable why Velma, Daphne, and Fred hate each other. Fred takes credit for Velma's plans, Daphne hates being reminded of her constant DamselInDistress and Fred....he's Fred let's leave it at that. However, did they have to take it out on Shaggy and Scooby? So far not one of the three has anything bad to say about them, even their clumsiness and cowardliness are overlooked. But they pretty much have been the only nice guys on the movie and have tried time and again to keep them together. And when TheStoner and a dog are [[OnlySaneMan The only sane men,]] that could be a problem.
** "Only nice guys"? Shaggy at one point suggests letting Fred and Velma get eaten and Scooby is totally fine with abandoning his nephew in the middle of the desert (and he also punches Fred in the face at one point). As for why Fred, Velma, and Daphne treat Shaggy and Scooby crappily, it's honestly just easiest to say that they all got hit with AdaptationalJerkassery.

[[folder: Why are the Creeps More Dangerous?]]
* How come the "monsters" in the newer movies are more dangerous and over the top than the ones in the 1960s. They come off as comic book supervillains than greedy old men in costumes.
** The Scooby Gang legend has grown, it's go big or go home. No one wants to go to jail and get laughed at for having a lame costume on that Scooby Gang revenge social network we now know exists in WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooFrankencreepy.

[[folder: Villains Never Come Back]]
* How come we don't see any of the past monsters make a comeback (not counting robot duplicates and digital versions of the villains)? Why not go the Scream route and have a different man playing the same monster? For example, while Old Man Jenkins is rotting in prison, Farmer Brown takes up the mantle.
** Lack of motivation, more than likely. Every crook in a mask had a specific reason that probably held no interest for any other villain.
** If the crossovers count, the Joker and the Penguin have faced the gang twice or thrice, so they at least sort of count as their most recurring foes.
** Originally it wasn't common for the 70s meddling kids series to feature recurring foes. While my memories of some of the ones not on DVD are spotty, I do believe only Inch High Private Eye had a criminal returns episode. Now later on Scooby series would have some recurring sillier enemies like Bogel and Weerd, Red Herring, and Gibby Norton. In more recent times they finally utilized the plot of older criminals returning for a movie. One episode of Pup did feature someone who was the culprit in a previous episode return but she was on parole and innocent this time. Although I don't think we've seen someone deliberately use someone else's costume. Although that in itself could one day be a plot for a movie in itself.
** Technically you could argue it did happen in the 1970s. Scooby defeated a Ghost of Red Beard in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' and a all grey version in ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'' with the ''WesternAnimation/HarlemGlobetrotters''. Both even had two identical assistants. However, in this case, we assume, there was a real Red Beard with a real crew at one point that both sets of criminals were impersonating. And then ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperGlobetrotters'' ran into guys who also looked like Red Beard's crew working for Whaleman. While in reality, this was on purpose ReusedCharacterDesign. In-universe though they're probably IdenticalGrandson material.

[[folder: Bad Seating]]
* So the gang travels in a minivan with no seats in the backside being 3 people in the front and a person with a dog in the cargo area with no seats or everyone seated in a seat made for 2-3 people, isn't that illegal?
** In the 1960s, it isn't illegal. In the present day, depends on the state. However, it is one of those things that even though it is technically unlawful, most cops have got better things to do than enforce. They'd probably fly under the radar in most places.
** The Mystery Machine has the same timeline alterations the Flintstone living room has, sometimes four people can sit in the front seat. Sometimes there are seats and computers in the back. You never know what's going to be there at the moment.
** It's not obvious from the outside that Shaggy's riding in the back, so cops aren't going to notice unless they pull the gang over for some other reason and specifically look in the back of the van. That's not likely, since the gang usually only gets pulled over to be given a friendly warning about some supernatural BS further down the road.

[[folder: Why Not Take the Costumes Away?]]
* How come the cops don't frisk the villains before taking them to jail? Even though the villains are caught and unmasked, they are still wearing their costumes. They could have gadgets, smoke bombs, and weapons hidden in their suits.
** Doyleist reason: H-B couldn't afford the animation and the take-him-away-boys type of ending was just narratively neater.
** Watsonian reason: Most criminals are bright enough to realize that attempting to flee from police custody when the cops know your identity and where you live is a dumb idea. Once you are in police custody, never attempt to flee (especially if your identity is known, because all that happens is all your relatives get 5 am wake-up calls the next day) and just wait for your lawyer. If the case is tight then you are just adding to charges and time, and if the case is shaky they'll spring you anyway. A lot of the Scooby Set's villains seem to be middle-class folks who would know how the system works.
** Also, a bunch of teenagers from out of town isn't the greatest witnesses. The "and I would have gotten away with it too" speech isn't a confession (any good lawyer would claim that the villain was merely confessing to trespassing). Why go on the lam when you may be able to beat the rap?

[[folder: Why Not Quit?]]
* I'm going by the 1960s cartoon (ignoring the later incarnations and spin-offs). If the monsters in every episode are fake, then why don't the gang quit and find a new job? Heck, they should be called 'Crime Busting Inc' instead since they capture mostly crooks.
** Well they are mystery solvers, which doesn't mean they only want to solve one type of crime.
** Their "job" isn't ghost-hunting, it's mystery-solving. It's not even really a job; relatively few stories start with the gang specifically set out in search of a mystery. They get into adventures because they stick around to investigate when most people would head for the hills.

[[folder: Money, Part 2]]
* Where do the Mystery Gang get the money to buy food, gas, and clothes if they have no job? Do they get paid for solving mysteries? They have to get their money from somewhere.
** They're high school students - they sometimes mention they're skipping class for a mystery - so parents provide food and clothes, and maybe gas too. It's mentioned several times that Daphne's family is rich, and the other kids seem to come from middle-class families.
** Daphne's first relative is a famous director. She was implied to come from money. Later spinoffs pretty much indirectly made it all of them come from families that are all decent wealth. Shaggy and Scooby themselves have more than one big fancy ancestral home to their names.
** One of Daphne's other relatives is a lawyer. Whenever the gang gets framed for a crime they didn't commit, they sue the accuser for everything they've got. Sure, we don't see it, but once the credits start rolling, they're like "Nuh-uh, they ain't getting away with that."

[[folder: Daphne is Useless?]]
* Why do they keep Daphne around? All she does is stand around & look pretty and be kidnapped repeatedly. She doesn't do anything useful; they should've ditched her back in 1973!
** Let's see, why would Fred keep insisting they bring the hot chick on every mission? Then always suggest they split up so he and she are alone together?
*** That's a misconception from some of the earliest episodes. As far as seasons with the five original gang members, Fred and Daphne aren't alone together that often. By sheer numbers, Velma goes with them more often than she goes with Scooby and Shaggy.
** Lampshaded in fan art and videos on occasion. The joke goes like this: A smiling Fred informs Shaggy that he will go somewhere private with the two girls... again, while Shaggy is stuck with the dog... again. Shaggy starts figuring out what the other three are doing while he is tasked with distracting the villain (a threesome implication).
** There's also the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' crossover. At one point, Daphne says that she'll go off with Velma, then Fred smiles and says her name, and Daphne quickly changes her mind and says that she'll go off with Fred while Velma goes off with Scooby and Shaggy goes off with Johnny. Also, I think I read on IMDB that the reason why Fred and Daphne usually went off together is that the creators found them kind of boring and wanted to focus more on Shaggy and Scooby's wacky antics.

[[folder: Wouldn't Pretending to Be a Monster Attract Attention?]]
* Some villains want to scare people off the island so they can find hidden treasure without being disturbed, right? Wouldn't dressing up as a ghost/monster attract more attention? Wouldn't that make people travel to your island to check out the mysterious ghost pirate?
** Depends how skeptical the people in the area are. Some are attracted to it, others aren't. In-universe it seems the people who are attracted to it are the YouMeddlingKids or people personally affected by it. Everyone else gets out of dodge when the monster shows up.
** Dressing up in a costume also means the police are less likely to take reports of trespassers and smugglers seriously.

[[folder: No Mentions of Monsters Being Fake]]
* How come they never mention the idea of the monster being fake until the end of the episode when they've caught the monster and it's time to pull the mask off? When Velma pulls the mask off, she usually says "Now let's see who's really behind this," or something like that. So she's acting on the assumption that it's just a person in a suit. But before that moment, they never say a word about the monster being fake, and basically, just act like they're dealing with the real thing. They never say things like "Hm, the monster is sure to be a person in a suit. I wonder who! Let's catch it and find out." Why is mentioning the fact that monsters are fake such a taboo?
** How about when the show is trying to fool the viewers into thinking the monster's real in every episode even though kids are already familiar with Scooby-Doo?
** Because even after multiple unmasks that isn't exactly a reason to think this one can't be the outlier? By later series, they get a little more skeptical on certain cases but the series has shown real entities are also out there at times to not rule it out entirely.

[[folder: Why Aren't They Famous?]]
* [[DudeWheresMyRespect Why aren't the Scooby-Doo Gang famous]]? They saved the world from costume villains dozens of times. Shouldn't they be like celebrities in their universe?
** While due to the fast and loose continuity it's not consistent, multiple episodes and movies since the 1980s have done this. Where the gang in itself is a known entity to whoever they are arriving to help. And as of ''Frankencreepy'', there are enough people who hate them for their social network, to say nothing of people who like them.
** Only on rare occasions (and usually in movies) does the gang "save the world." Mostly they just catch petty crooks and occasional fugitives. That's enough for a reputation among law enforcement and interested parties, but not really celebrity status, and even that is assuming the kids get credit for the capture. (Even assuming the local sheriff isn't actively stealing credit for their catch, they're much more likely to get a conviction with teen witnesses and an LEO arrest than if they describe some harebrained trap and credit a bunch of ''other'' trespassers!)

[[folder: Why Take Away the Others?]]
* Why were Freddy, Daphne, and Velma was taken out in some incarnations? Some shows starred only Scooby and Shaggy. Out of the universe, did Hanna Barbera think Scooby and Shag were more popular than the other characters?
** I think that's the case. Fred, Velma, and Daphne were originally more the straight man and women to the zanier Shaggy and Scooby, and so Shaggy and Scooby got more focus.
** Originally the out-of-universe likely reason was with Scrappy the gang had six members and they were switching to seven-minute shorts. Six characters plus the bad guy and whatever other characters are a lot to move around in seven minutes. So the others took the hike. When they brought the mystery back, Daphne was picked, as she's probably the third-liked character.

[[folder: Why Send Shaggy and Scooby Alone?]]
* Why were Shaggy and Scooby usually send-off by themselves to investigate? They never did anything useful, while Fred's team always found all the important clues. (I know why it was done from the writer's standpoint, but within the show's context if you're breaking into teams to search for clues, there should be at least one competent person on each team!)
** Shaggy and Scooby did sometimes find important things, even if that isn't their goal (e.g., "Spooky Space Kook", when they found the electronics system the ghost was used to haunt the airfield, or "A Clue for Scooby-Doo" when Scooby found Captain Cutler's secret scuba storehouse). Furthermore, they may not have known what the clues meant, but at least sometimes they did recognize that it was a clue. Insofar as in-universe reasons, maybe the others didn't want to have to deal with trying to keep Shaggy and Scooby on task while simultaneously searching for clues, or maybe they figured things seemed to go okay the way they were doing it, so why switch it up?
** The two of them were at times depicted as more observant than the others when it came to clues. In "What a Night for a Knight" (1969), the very first episode, it is Shaggy and Scooby who notice the abandoned pick-up truck and go investigating. They summon Daphne, Fred, and Velma later on. While in the museum, it is Scooby who notices and picks up Jameson Hyde White's magnifying glasses, the first major clue. All four of the others failed to notice them. Still later, Scooby and Shaggy realize that one of the museum's paintings has gone missing and notify the others. It is Scooby who (accidentally) knocks out and captures the Black Knight (the villain of the episode). Finally, when the gang and the sheriff have to find out where the villain kept the kidnapping victim (Jameson Hyde-White himself), only Scooby sees the clue and rescues the victim.

[[folder: Why are They Friends?]]
* How are the main characters friends? No one finds it odd for a preppy guy, a preppy girl, a food-obsessed hippie, and a bookworm to be friends for many years? Seems like the only thing that brings them together is solving mysteries. Outside ghost-hunting, their personalities are different. I'll buy Fred and Daphne being friends and lovers, but Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby as their close friends?! Seriously, could you see the cool guy, the rich popular girl, and 2 nerds being besties?
** [[LoserFriendPuzzlesOutsiders Because people can be friends even if someone else doesn't think it fits their expectations of who they should be hanging out with?]]
*** Like in ''[[OriginsEpisode Curse of the Lake Monster]]''.
** Furthermore, in the original series, the characters weren't so specialized as they would later become. Shaggy is said to be a gymnast and a trackman, who also likes dancing and fishing; Velma has no problem with watching B horror flicks and also likes dancing and the beach, etc. It wasn't entirely down to "a preppy guy, a preppy girl, two nerds, and a dog."
** Mystery Begins shows that they 'weren't' friends, they were pushed together to investigate the ghosts and bonded during that, clearly finding cause to stick together.
** Or Mystery Inc states an extradimensional demon forced them together without their knowledge.

[[folder: Why No Ghostbusters Crossover?]]
* How come there isn't a Scooby-Doo meets the real Ghostbusters movie? They met WWE, Batman, Cher, and the 3 stooges. Why isn't this a thing yet? Both ghost-fighting teams have comic relief, a lovable, non-human character who loves food (Slimer and Scooby).
** It happens in VideoGame/LEGODimensions, but it's not very satisfying. IDW has produced comics for both properties, but for whatever reason, they just never crossed over.
** Simplest answer: Scooby is owned by WB, Ghostbusters is Sony. Rival corporations. Its not impossible for them to work together, but still very rare. And usually a headache; Disney and WB clashed ALOT while making ''Who Framed roger Rabbit''.

[[folder: No Fighting Allowed-- Why?]]
* If Scrappy is physically strong enough to lift multiple people many times his size, why don't they just ''let'' him fight bad guys? It might not be very ethical to let a puppy dog go up against a potentially dangerous criminal but, given that most of their foes are just regular unarmed (and often older) people in costumes, Scrappy would demolish them!
** Scooby's in the position of ''in loco parentis'' for his nephew. A parent wouldn't put a kid in that much danger even if they did think the kid would win.
** Velma's lifted the whole gang at once too. It's a cartoon thing, not a real indication of strength. Scrappy has gotten to fight villains before, and it was a total joke; he isn't any stronger than a real puppy.
** It's zig-zagged. In his original season, Scrappy's attempt to fight the villains was treated as a comedy with the villain easily getting him out of the way. In later adventures, Scrappy was shown to be able to throw Winslow Nickelby's cat out of a building and rough up Farquad.

[[folder: DC is in the Same Universe?]]
* In some incarnations, superheroes exist in their world (Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, and Batman). Aren't the "ghosts" and "monsters" worried about getting their butts kicked by Batman and the Justice League? Some of the villains commit crimes on a grand scale.
** Maybe they figure the superheroes will be distracted with their {{Rogues Galler|y}}ies?
** Either SupermanStaysOutOfGotham, or it's a FakeCrossover.

[[folder: Why Can't He Sniff Out the Truth?]]
* At the risk of not getting an in-universe explanation, why isn't Scooby able to tell that the fake monsters are just humans in disguise with his sense of smell?
** Maybe the suits, as well as the "set dressing" (like seaweed with the ghost of Captain Cutler) confuses his nose? Also, not all the monsters wear heavy disguises. The Miner 49er just wore a mask, so he'd smell more or less like a human. Scooby has never smelled a real ghost before (at least not in the original series); why would he have reason to believe it would smell different from a living human?
** Scooby does notice that Charlie the Robot had no smell. Possibly he's just lousy at telling individual humans' scents apart, compared to regular, non-talking dogs.

[[folder: Villains' Voicing]]
* In the classic shows, why do they always have the voice actor play both the monster and a suspect? They pretty much give away the bad guy in every episode by doing this. For example, if the ghost is voiced by Jack Angel, and Steve the janitor is also voiced by Jack Angel, chances are, Steve is the culprit. Why not hire a different voice actor to play the monster?
** To be fair here, in the 60s-70s Hanna-Barbara (and most cartoon makers in general) had a very limited pool of voice actors, so even characters who had nothing to do with each other likely shared the same voice. Also, back then, nobody paid attention to this stuff--being a cartoon voice actor was being beneath notice, so it's not like anyone would have been fanboy enough to recognize, say, that Don Messick who whoever voiced two different characters.
** And in the pre-internet days, the only way to read the voice actors' names, and ''confirm'' that they weren't two different people who sounded a little bit alike, was to view the episode's closing credits. By that point, you'd have seen TheReveal anyway.

[[folder: Out-of-Character Behaviour in Clown Episode]]
* So in the Menacing Metallic Clown episode, Velma is chickening out because she's afraid of clowns and Shaggy is acting like Fred (brave, mentions setting traps) because he's determined. Got it. But why did Shaggy [[BorrowedCatchphrase say, "Jinkies"]], and why was Velma so hungry?
** I haven't seen this episode (because I, like Velma, am afraid of clowns, though I've never had a problem with Ronald [=McDonald=]), maybe Shaggy saying "Jinkies" was just a RuleOfFunny thing? As for Velma being hungry, I don't know...
*** Shaggy stole her catchphrase, so Velma stole his hunger.

[[folder: Mary Jane's Clothes are Plain]]
* In the First Film's climax all the possessed people dress in sort of matching cult-y outfits, it's some kind of uniform. So why does Mary Jane stay in her normal clothes?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Body-Swapping]]
* Also in the first film. The body-swapping bit. Fred and Daphne make sense, they were in the wrong bodies, Velma had had her soul removed earlier in the film so it just about works but Shaggy is the only member of the gang (and one of the few cast members) who 'didn't become a human suit, with his soul removed, so why did Shaggy's soul get sucked out as well?
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Paws Up! You're Under Arrest!]]
* In the Scooby-Doo WWE movie and several other series, Scooby can get arrested even though he's a dog. Specifically being a TalkingAnimal. Shouldn't Shaggy his owner be taken to jail and Scooby go to the pound or something?
** Maybe him being a TalkingAnimal makes it "okay" for Scooby to get thrown in jail or something?
** Could be the police, themselves, aren't sure of his status, but need to take him into custody anyway. If he's a valid suspect, they're correct in arresting him, whereas if he's legally just a dog and not prosecutable, then he's a potential source of evidence.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Things always returning to status quo]]
* We can't they make a continuity where the characters grow and develop? Daphne and Fred kiss in one movie, but end up as platonic friends in the next. Shaggy and Scooby never get over their fear of monsters.
** They occasionally throw older fans a bone. That was a big part of ''Mystery Inc''. But really, they keep things simple so that new generations of kids (the target audience, remember) can jump right in without having to get caught up on continuity or character development.
[[/folder]]

** More to the point, once you have the series mostly being just Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy, it may not be that the ghosts are real so much as that the mysteries are going unsolved. The franchise has a long-running tendency to wave off the most blatant supernatural phenomena as "movies being projected on fog" or "tricks with mirrors" or freaking "transparent plastic skis." Of the three protagonists from the DorkAge, only Scrappy would have any interest in solving the mystery instead of getting out of town, and Scooby of course would never let him.

* While it's probably mostly RuleOfFunny, why do some of the supposedly fake creatures behave ''way'' stupider and more primitive than you'd expect a rational human criminal to behave, like constantly falling for Shaggy and Scooby's little disguise acts? For example, in ''What's New Scooby Doo'' the Ghostly lighthouse keeper is attracted to Scooby blatantly dressed as a Mermaid, despite that "he's" a geeky woman in a suit. In the "Creepy Cruise" episode of ''The Scooby Doo Show'' the Future Monster captures the duo and growls, "Now I'm going to take you with me, 4000 years into the future," except that's impossible because the Time Machine is fake and he should know that. What's the point of telling them this? And in one of the most bizarre yet, the ''Be Cool Scooby Doo'' episode with the Ice Man has the Caveman meet Shaggy and Scooby disguised as college professors, and they do a whole heartfelt skit where the Ice Man learns to speak modern english and ''weeps for joy'', despite the person in the costume being a snooty upper-class socialite. Do these suits have mind altering properties or something?

** As far I remember, in every episode of classic series there was at last one scene when Scooby and Shaggy encountered a REAL ghost, but they had never noticed it. Once they even found a magic book, didn't believe in it, and cast a spell that turned them into demons and they were laughing about how the spell was silly. Then they had cast the spell that turned them normal before they saw themselves.

** Could be that they're truly good friends, one who always look past the rudeness.

* Peanut butter. Both humans and dogs love it, and they do make PB-flavored dog biscuits. And, y'know [[IAteWhat they don't taste too bad at that]].

** While due to the fast and loose continuity it's not consistent, but multiple episodes and movies since the 1980s have done this. Where the Sgang in itself is a known entity to whoever they are arriving to help. And as of ''Frankencreepy'', there are enough people who hate them for their social network, to say nothing of people who like them.

* How come that Fred, Daphne, and Velma are outright impolite or even rude with Shaggy and Scooby, and the latter never complain? Every time they try to avoid a most probable danger or discuss the planning of a trap, are usually snapped back with a "No, and now do it!". Are willing slaves?

* What was the point of giving Shaggy a red shirt in TheEighties?

** Because of the ghost ''is'' a ruthless criminal under that mask, then taking said mask off before they've trapped said ghost means they're no longer dealing with a crook who wants to scare them away, but one who wants to ''murder them outright'' so they can't ever testify to said crook's identity in court.

** Well, look at it this way; the First Show was in the 1970s, news back then didn't travel fast enough, and things like "Teens Unmask Monster" Would be local news things, not worldwide phenomena. Sure, after like the 8th one the Mystery Inc kids would get national attention, but let's just say they never do. It's also never explained how far they travel in the First Series, but by the looks of it, they go all across the United States and maybe even to parts of Canada and Mexico, far enough that the news can't spread quickly. The same can be said for all the Scooby-Doo Series until ''What's New Scooby-Doo?'', at which point the Internet starts becoming popular. But by then, Mystery Inc. has started traveling across the world, and many people in the countries they do travel to probably didn't have regular internet Connections at that Time (This was the Early 2000's, after all). They also seem to arrive the day during or after the crime is to take place; the perpetrators could know about them, but they probably assume that Mystery Inc is far away in India or somewhere where they can get away with it before Mystery Inc can arrive. In ''Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc'', all the crimes are localized in a city that: 1) Already loves the spotlight of ghosts and the paranormal, 2) Has a lot more people who are kind of just waiting for there to be ghosts, and 3) is destined to be destroyed anyway, so they might as well take advantage of the situation. Plus a lot of the Criminals in the latest series are smart, robot-building people, who probably think they can outsmart Mystery Inc. And that is your Explanation. -DingoWalley

** Deathtraps actually do have one practical purpose: they're a lot easier to pass off as accidents. If "strange things are happening at the old Johnson place" and a couple of hikers disappear and turn up drowned, the cops will probably make a superficial investigation and write it off as misadventure. Gunshots in the night and four bullet-riddled bodies of teenagers turning up -- including an heiress -- are another story.

** Mystery Begins shows that they 'weren't' friends, then were pushed together to investigate the ghosts and bonded during that, clearly finding cause to stick together.

** Maybe his being a TalkingAnimal makes it "okay" for Scooby to get thrown in jail or something?

*** Or the writers just realized that you can't ''do'' an Addams Family episode - complete with Thing - and yet maintain a stance that the supernatural doesn't exist.

* Why isn't Scooby Doo, Where Are You! a question?

** The screeching psychopath wearing a monster mask chasing after them in the dark, sure he may not actually be a monster, but does that automatically make the screeching psychopath wearing a mask chasing them in the darkness ''less'' terrifying for them?
** I really doubt the monster would stay still for that.
*** It would've been really hilarious if they did this to the "monster" in the diving suit though. Hehehe...
** Because if the ghost ''is'' a ruthless criminal under that mask, then taking said mask off before they've trapped said ghost means they're no longer dealing with a crook who wants to scare them away, but one who wants to ''murder them outright'' so they can't ever testify to said crook's identity in court.

** Um, am I the only one who doesn't think they were EVER real? It's just that the only people left in the cast were either cowards or a kid, and were hence more interested in escaping than unmasking (I only recall one of these "real monster" episodes, but as I recall they just escaped from it without proving it one way or the other).

** In the classic series "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" (the original Scooby Doo series) Fred, Velma, and Daphne did not believe in ghosts and monsters. Shaggy and Scooby apparently did--not so strange because there are a lot of people today who believe in ghosts and monsters (Approximately 45% of Americans believe in ghosts), despite how much evidence to the contrary there is. But it seems to me to make even MORE sense to run from a criminal wearing a mask than it would to run from a ghost. (Note that in the original series there were no ghosts and monsters, it was always a hoax.)

*** There is no evidence that ghosts are real (photographs can be faked, people can lie) so that should be reason enough not to believe in them. There is no evidence that ghosts are not real, but you could say the same thing about Yetis, fairies and basically anything.

** As far I remember, in every episode of classic series there was at last one scene when Scooby and Shaggy encountered a REAL ghost, but they had never noticed it. Once they even found a magic book, didn't believe in it and casted a spell that turned them into demons and they were laughing about how the spell was silly. Then they had casted the spell that turned them normal before they saw themselves.
** Inasmuch as this series has any continuity at all, an indisputably real ghost appeared in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'' ("Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner") as a client of the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency, who hired them to prove he wasn't guilty of a given haunting (and that series is indisputably in continuity with ''WesternAnimation/WhatsNewScoobyDoo'' via flashback). If we're taking the series seriously enough to ask questions like this, we have to take into account that what doesn't fit is the insistence that ghosts aren't real, when the whole gang should be aware that at least one, Mr. Boo, does exist.

** Because it's a kids show and that is violent. Plus they never know that they aren't real ghosts, they don't become GenreSavvy until the monsters start becoming real.

** Even if the villain's human, he's still a potentially armed and dangerous criminal. They really don't want to go tackling a "ghost" that's actually a knife-wielding psycho or packing heat. Whatever the culprit is, it's just safer to get him tied up and call the cops.

** The rule seems to be that they're always (or almost always) real in the movies, and people in costumes in the show. I say let Scrappy beat them up and get it over with. He and Velma were always the only two GenreSavvy ones in the series, anyways. (Spend 30 years watching a guy and his dog repeatedly running from the same guy in an obviously fake monster costume, you start rooting for Scrappy's approach quite a bit.)
** Back to the "why don't they just beat up the baddie" question, they ''do'' attempt to ambush the ghosts from time to time. Trouble is, the only times they seem inclined to try this is when the gang has split up, and Fred, Velma and Daphne invariably end up ambushing ''Shaggy and Scooby'' instead of their intended target.

** They all got the same idea from the one really bad infomercial. I saw it a while ago, I think it was on channel 37.
** Well, look at it this way; the First Show was in the 1970's, news back then didn't travel fast enough, and things like "Teens Unmask Monster" Would be local news things, not world-wide phenomena. Sure, after like the 8th one the Mystery Inc kids would get national attention, but let's just say they never do. It's also never explained how far they travel in the First Series, but by the looks of it they go all across the United States and maybe even to parts of Canada and Mexico, far enough that the news can't spread quickly. The same can be said for all the Scooby Doo Series until ''What's New Scooby Doo?'', at which point the Internet starts becoming popular. But by then, Mystery Inc. has started traveling across the world, and many people in the countries they do travel to probably didn't have regular internet Connections at that Time (This was the Early 2000's, after all). They also seem to arrive literally the day during or after the crime is to take place; the perpetrators could know about them, but they probably assume that Mystery Inc is far away in India or somewhere where they can get away with it before Mystery Inc can arrive. In ''Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc'', all the crimes are localized in a city that: 1) Already loves the spotlight of ghosts and the paranormal, 2) Has a lot more people who are kind of just wanting for their to be ghosts, and 3) is destined to be destroyed anyway, so they might as well take advantage of the situation. Plus a lot of the Criminals in the latest series are smart, robot building people, who probably think they can outsmart Mystery Inc. And that is your Explanation. -DingoWalley

** They're descended from Rex the Wonder Dog, who is, in turn, descended from the dog in ''Wuthering Heights'', who was present at the Wold Newton Meteor strike, thereby imbuing the lineage with extraordinary qualities. See [[http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/hyde/mysteryinc.htm here]] for further details. (See what happens when you ask silly questions? You get silly answers.)
*** @/MadWritter wants to say That covers a possible universe--but not the true universe of Scooby-Doo universe.

** ''Mystery Incorporated'' explains that [[spoiler:yes, they actually are descended from an otherworldly animal. To be precise, one of their descendants was used as a vessel by [[AncientAstronauts the Anunnaki]], so the increased intelligence and ability to talk ended up being passed down.]]
** Alternatively, you could take a cue from ''Apocalypse'' and go with them actually having cybernetically-enhanced brains.
** I dunno if we're supposed to consider "Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics" canon, but if it is, apparently talking animals (such as WesternAnimation/YogiBear, WesternAnimation/{{Snagglepuss}}, WesternAnimation/WallyGator, ect.) are just normal in this world.

* Because he actually beats the monster, as shown [[https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1881477078787472 here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuao50sv_0k here]] [[https://scrappydefenseleague.tumblr.com/post/168915383925 here]]. Though I guess that doesn't actually answer the original question of: ''Why not let him at them''?
** Because nothing kills the carefree party atmosphere quite like a dead puppy. Alternatively, they knew what he'd be absolutely ''insufferable'' if he actually managed to ''win''.
** No, he actually has a reputation fr being weak because he doesn't brag about it at all.

** It's pretty obvious - because they're not total jerks. Honestly, that seems like something that the [[Film/ScoobyDoo live-action movie versions of the characters]] would do.

* Who is funding the gang? Even at pre-1973 gas prices, they spend an awful lot of time driving around in that van, eating pizza, consuming Scooby snacks, and so forth, and we never see them collect any reward for solving their mysteries....

** I think the Main/WordOfGod somewhere said Daphne's dad was an Main/EccentricMillionaire.

*** Incorrect, that part was from a bumper on Cartoon Network. The first time in the show it's directly mentioned of Daphne's wealth is from The New Scooby and Scrappy Show. However, you could have assumed this from the first series. The first Daphne relative they meet is a famous movie director.

** There were a couple episodes where they got jobs. I can totally remember one episode where they got a job on a building site, and Scooby got to help Shaggy screw in these red hot bolts into these girders at like twenty stories up. Apparently, safety wasn't all that important.
** Many of the episodes I watch (why?) have justification. Winning a contest, going on a school sponsored event, just going down the road to a convention to meet an old friend... Of course, in the movies, they made mad green by busting ghosts. Which makes it all the more odd that people still -try-.

** Incorrect. It's been stated in at least one of the movies (''Zombie Island'')) that when they aren't working on their usual mystery solving fare, they hold down real jobs. Daphne's been a reporter (with Fred as her cameraman), Velma's gone from a librarian to a scientist at NASA, and Scooby and Shaggy tend to end up trying to barely hold down odd jobs such as airport security.

*** More incorrect info here, in the show proper they don't get other careers into the 80s, when Fred, Daphne and Velma leave, a lot of the shorts involve Scooby/Shaggy/Scrappy doing odd jobs until the third season where they work for Shaggy's Uncle Fearless. The next season it is revealed Daphne had left to start a reporter career, and now Shaggy and the dogs joined her. In the series after that when Fred and Velma guest appeared it had been revealed Fred had become a mystery writer and Velma an intern with NASA. The next time they would all appear as adults is Zombie Island, with Shaggy and Scooby as airport security (probably yet another odd job), Daphne graduating from newspaper reporter to tv reporter, Fred graduating from writing books to producing Daphne's show, and Velma now owning a book store.
** In the original series it was only implied Daphne was from a rich family. The first relative we meet of her's is a famous director. However, over the years of constantly adding new relatives and plot devices, it seems pretty clear all five gang members (even Scooby) are all probably set for life in terms of money.

*** Also, how many Ghosts/Fish Monsters/Yeti go around ''shooting people?'' If their idea is to scare them away, that implies these people are {{Harmless Villain}}s who don't have it in them to kill. Who knows? Perhaps those who "do" try to kill only make it seem so in order to amp up the scares. Then again, they might have to go for a kill that is "natural" to the monster they're impersonating to keep their cover.
** In one episode, a villain chained Velma to the old log sawing machine, clearly intending on cutting her in half. So why didn't ''this'' villain, who clearly intended to kill a hero, just use a gun?

** Scooby Doo has teamed up with Batman before. Once you shoot an associate of the Dark Knight you stop being a harmless loon in a costume(where your biggest problem is some meddling kids) and become a full blown supervillain (now you have to worry about the superfriends knocking down your front door).

** The ''real'' question is, why are those villains who dress up as monsters (as opposed to projecting holograms or directing mechanical fakes) seemingly unaware that '''they''' might get shot at? Plenty of Mystery Inc.'s adventures take place in concealed-carry U.S. states, and sooner or later, you'd think an adult whom the culprit tries to scare off would turn out to be armed and willing to shoot the whatever-it-is that's threatening them.

** Its {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''What's New Scooby Doo?'' and ''A Pup Named Scooby Doo''

*** Because they are clones, sent by the conspiracy, to deal with supernatural threats.Note:Original Mystery Machine had CIA grade surveillance equipment in the back.
** They DID change their outfits (as was highlighted in ''Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase'' where the kids meet virtual younger versions of themselves wearing their old clothes).

** Only Shaggy really has the slang.

** They're not necessarily druggies. Remember, they live in a cartoon, where talking dogs are actually normal. Shaggy has long hair because he was created in the 70's, that was the style then. And many teenage boys eat a lot anyway, regardless of whether or not they smoke pot. With that being said, there are two officially licensed Scooby Snacks products out there. One is dog treats, the other is cookies for humans.

** They must have done something particularly good to them in ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', since they apparently induce orgasms there.

** According to ''WesternAnimation/BeCoolScoobyDoo'', they're just a really, really good snack food, one originally intended for humans. They were originally called Sorcerer Snacks, but after the gang saves his factory the manufacturer decides a talking dog would make a better mascot and renames them. Of course, continuity in this universe is iffy.

* Peanut butter. Both humans and dogs love it, and they actually do make PB-flavored dog biscuits. And, y'know [[IAteWhat they don't taste too bad at that]].

** If they thought ahead, maybe they keep movie props around. They would ''look'' like trees and stuff, but be light enough to carry and throw (plus, they wouldn't hurt anyone if they did actually hit).
** Cartoon logic. Also, WordOfGod for at least ''Mystery Incorporated'' has stated that technology like exoskeletons are what give them their super strength and stuff.

* In one episode Velma explains that she worked out who the culprit was because the 'ghost' had been supposedly sabotaging amusement park rides, but the rides turned out to actually be safe - they were just altered to ''look'' sabotaged. And apparently, this means that this one person has to be guilty. My problem with this is that Velma is essentially implying that if any of the other suspects wanted to look like they were sabotaging something, they'd ''actually sabotage it''. So she thinks that every suspect who turned out to be innocent is a sociopath, basically. And ''no-one takes offense at this''.

** I thought the reason she thought that was because she was the only person in the park who COULD sabotage the rides to still be safe since she was the person who designed all of the safety precautions for the ride. It's not that the other suspects wanted to kill people, but that they didn't know how not to. But the explanation did bother me too. There was no way [[spoiler: Freddy, Daphne, and Velma were not in any danger falling down toward the spinning blades of death on the skydiving simulator]].

* How do they decide which criminals get off scot-free? In "What's New Scooby-Doo?" I seem to remember one or two getting off the hook, because they apparently didn't commit any crimes. What about the Miner 49-er? He just ran around and growled and [[spoiler: tried to keep an oil discovery secret]] and yet he still went to jail.

** Threatening someone with harm when you have the capability to do that harm is Assault even if you don't actually do it.
** It probably depends on whether anyone's willing to press charges. In most cases, the villains were malicious enough and the victims harassed enough that they're only too happy to call the cops, but every now and then, it's a lighthearted and personal enough situation that once the truth comes out, everyone involved is willing to laugh it off.
** Hank, the episode's bad guy, was scaring people off in order to buy the land cheaply. Since he didn't own the land, that makes it criminal trespass, along with several charges of assault.
*** Not to mention that the old mine tunnels he'd been hiding in were probably condemned for good reason. Hank could have gotten ''himself'' killed by messing around in there, which would be criminal behavior for the same reason that free-climbing up the sides of skyscrapers without permission is illegal: if he got hurt or died, first repsonders could be injured in rescuing him or retrieving his body.

** Yeah, villains who don't just sell their inventions instead of using them to commit crimes is a [[CutLexLuthorACheck trope in itself]]. Every now and then the gang's pointed out that the villain could have easily made money legitimately, much to the crook's chagrin as they're being taken away by the police.
** Plus I think there's a couple occasions where the criminal is motivated by other things than money.

* Almost every time in the Direct-To-Video movies, the guy posing as the monster has some sort of mechanical frame built into the costume to help him maintain the image. How is it, then, that during the chase scene, they get hurt as if every part of the costume is their own flesh and blood?

* Why does Scooby have a [[SpeechImpairedAnimal speech impediment]], but Scrappy talks [[TalkingAnimal absolutely normal]]?

** Scrappy's parent got the good genes.

* The thing that really bugs me is that Daphne and Freddy are obviously attracted to each other and yet they still haven't kissed! I mean every trope has happened to them and they still tease us!

*** Daphne kisses Fred on the cheek in ''Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase.''

* How come that Fred, Daphne, and Velma are outright impolite or even rude with Shaggy and Scooby, and the latters never complain? Every time they try to avoid a most probable danger or discuss the planning of a trap, are usually snapped back with a "No, and now do it!". Are willing slaves?
** If they lack the backbone to stand up to a middle aged HarmlessVillain in mask and costume, what makes you think they have the courage to stand up to the friends with whom they travel across the country in close proximity?
** Probably because Shaggy and Scooby are always trying to weasel out of helping with the job despite being perfectly capable of helping, and the others are intimate enough to call them on that with variations of "Enough with the excuses already!". Fred, Velma and Daphne are cooperative enough that this isn't needed when they ask each other for help.

* Did they de-age in "What's New Scooby Doo?"? They called them ''teenagers''.

*** The Meddling Kids line has been [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Fred on at least a few occasions (With me half remembering him remarking that he's in his early twenties? 24? It was a long time ago.) So they may or may not be de-aged. Then again, they really never gave them a precise age to begin with...
*** There's some serious ComicBookTime going on with ''Scooby Doo'', but I'd divide it up like this. ''Scooby Doo Where Are You'' and the DVD movies take place in the same continuity, with the original series showing them as teenagers and the movies showing them in their twenties. ''What's New Scooby Doo'' is in its own continuity as a modern-day remake of ''Where Are You'', with the gang as 21st century teenagers but otherwise having the same mystery-solving adventures. ''Mystery Incorporated'' is more of a reimagining that uses the ''Where Are You'' mysteries as a BroadStrokes backstory for Crystal Cove. So they're teenagers in all three shows, but adults in the animated movies.
** The studio always had a sometimes they care and sometimes they don't attitude on any such thing. But if we as a fandom want to think out an answer, the only way to have all the shows work for all reasons such as this would be a faulty timeline. Aka all the time travel and supernatural shenanigans have screwed up the timeline and many things can change from episode to episode. This explanation would let you handwave most of the problems. However, it does leave Mystery Incorporated out in the cold, as that show needs a ContinuityReboot to actually work, which wouldn't work in a faulty time line. But it's best to consider that show solo anyway. Luckily in the Scooby section of the library, most of the issues really might as well just be the ages, it's not a hard stretch for most of the things that could have happened between series.

** Dog cookies. I am more intrigued by the fact that Scooby apparently has his own brand of snacks.

* Where is Ruby Doo, anyway? We see her in a flashback when she gives birth to Scrappy, and then never again. It's a shame because I find the idea of Scrappy being a total mama's boy in private...actually kind of, dare I say, sweet.

** It's both. Her hair was brown to begin with but after a coloring mistake they changed it to red and it stuck.
** It looks red to you? I find that odd, and always saw it as either brown or HairColorDissonance.

* How come Scooby and Shaggy '''''never''''' catch on to the fact that the "monsters" are just guys in costumes? After the two millionth mystery, you'd think they'd grow some balls (or at least a few functioning brain cells) by now.

** This is discussed in the video game ''Mystery Mayhem'' (2004). Shaggy and Scooby (once again) refuse to participate in capturing a villain. When Fred asks why they would still be frightened if they ''knew'' that whatever monster it would be was just a bad guy in a mask, Shaggy retorts that it's just that: Someone who willingly dresses up in a costume to scare people [[MalevolentMaskedMen is not a person you want to be around]]. Besides, there have been some villains that were people dressed as monsters that have actually attempted to murder or critically maim the gang in order to keep their schemes safe (The Snow Ghost, Mr. Hyde, the Ghost of the Red Baron, among others). This gives Shaggy and Scooby a reason for their LovableCoward moments because there's an element of real danger despite the ghosts being fake.

** Bingo. Unlike the rest of Mystery Inc, Scooby's design has been absolutely unchanged for 40 years. I mean...he's a dog with a collar. Not much can be done, really, without drastically changing the character.

* Scooby is eight - seven years old, right? He shows no signs of old age or even being older than the dog equivalent of twenty five. He's a Great Dane, which have short life expectancies, plus he's unhealthy which adds to that.

*** I suppose so, if his arteries aren't half clogged and his sugar up. But even then he seems young in appearance. His fur is perfectly fine for example, no grey.
*** Raw eggs as a main ingredient in Scooby Snacks?
** Also, he's not a Great Dane, he's a bloodhound. No, he doesn't really look like one, but that's what he's supposed to be.

*** Scooby was purposefully designed as a Great Dane with the exact opposite of all the traditionally desirable physical traits of the breed -- Scooby's so far away from the ideal Great Dane as it's possible to get with his large chin, his bow legs and his color (Great Danes don't actually come in that color). However, he doesn't seem to have any of the health problems normally associated with Great Danes either; Great Danes are a fragile breed but Scooby has an iron health and constitution. So Scooby and his family might simply be mutations of the breed, which may not have the traits to win prizes at dog shows but to make up for it have ''excellent'' health.
*** This is backed up by "Decoy for a Dognapper," where it's made explicitly clear that Scooby requires extensive grooming and disguise to pass as a purebred Great Dane, is immediately called a mongrel when the dognappers get a good look, and isn't considered worth even trying to ransom!
** If you put ''Mystery Incorporated'' into consideration, he presumably can longer than the average dog due to [[spoiler:being a descendant of an Anunnaki descendant]].

* Why do the villains always say "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you blasted meddling '''kids'''!" when Mystery Inc. are clearly adults?

** Interestingly enough most of the HB meddling kids are all supposed to have been high school teens, yet to be fair, I would have pegged them all for early 20s college age. But then I wasn't alive in the 60s and 70s, is this more a generational gap between both the old bad guys in world and the younger set in real life?

* Much of the time the monster turns out to be a trespasser who's protecting the mansion's hidden treasure, but every so often, it's the owner of the house or a direct relative that the owner is close to. But even when the suspect ''owns the property'' and makes no attempt to harm the Gang (outside of a little scare), they ''still'' get arrested by the sheriff. Uh... why? And for that matter, why is the gang never arrested for trespassing, too?
** That's not entirely true. There was the Headless Ghost episode in which the owner is trying to find something hidden on his property. After he's unmasked, the gang offer to help him and find another person with an ax who is also trying to find said treasure. He's arrested for trespassing, but doesn't press charges on the gang cause they're helping him. It's been a while, but I'm fairly certain this is still true for other episodes in the original series where someone explicitly asked them to come or thanked them for their efforts.

** They've wavered on whether most people can understand Scooby; some of the movies suggest that Shaggy's usually the only one, with the rest of the gang just knowing Scooby well enough to get the gist of it (Scooby's wild gestures probably help). Some of Scooby's family could more talk more clearly in the '70s shows, like you said, but some of them owned their own homes, drove cars, had jobs and lived like humans. They come from an especially odd, ReverseCerebusSyndrome period of the franchise that didn't exist during the original show, and has probably fallen back into CanonDiscontinuity or BroadStrokes for the more recent ones.
** It could also be seen as an over generalization. For example, if they found a real Big Foot, that doesn't mean they should then think ghosts are real too without actually finding one.
*** This. Existence of one weird thing isn't [[IfJesusThenAliens evidence towards another]].

* Why do no authorities in the country start getting suspicious about Mystery Inc.? They show up at just the right time to solve what is, on the face of it, an utterly ridiculous crime. And other than the (clearly deranged) villain's confession, the only evidence presented to the police is what the gang have found out. "That's right officer, this man has dressed up as a witch and his accomplice as a zombie and they go around a swamp using a pontoon to try and find an old sunken armored car that they robbed years ago. Also, they have an incredibly elaborate system of wires and smoke bombs that allows them to convince anyone nearby that they are, in fact, a real witch and a zombie." and the police go "Yup, that sounds legit" and haul the villains away and the gang just drive off. What the ''hell'', cops?
** The police aren't dragging the villains off for immediate sentencing, they're just arresting them for trespassing (which, regardless of anything else, the crooks are definitely doing) along with suspicion of all the other accusations. We can assume a more thorough police investigation happened offscreen, and it backed up everything the Scoobies said. When the police quip about how "where he's going he won't have to [insert snarky callback to the villain's scheme here] for a long time", they're just making offhand conversation (and assuring viewers too young for the subtleties of the legal system that yes, the bad guy goes to jail now).

*** All that being said, the cops would never allow the Mystery Inc. gang to just drive off like that. They'd ALL have to come down to the station and give their sworn statements as to what happened, otherwise the bad guy could easily have his "Meddling kids!" confession suppressed because he wasn't read his rights when he said it. And without that confession, he could easily walk. Come to think of it, [[FridgeBrilliance could this be why bad guys keep trying these zany schemes?]] Every time the bad guy is unmasked the Scooby Gang immediately flee the jurisdiction and the villain gets off scot free.
*** Who says the arresting officers ''don't'' read the suspects their rights? Usually they're already handcuffed at the beginning of the denouement, so might have been mirandized just before the portion of the arrest we're shown. For that matter, who says the gang ''doesn't'' provide full sworn statements, just not immediately...? In most of the franchise's incarnations, they're ''legal minors'', so would need a parent or parental proxy on hand for any formal questioning by police to take place. If they're at home in Coolsville/Crystal Cove/wherever, they can be permitted to go home and return with an adult in the morning; if they're traveling out of state, then the police would need to allow their parents time to arrange to join them or hire a local attorney as a proxy. No reason not to let them return to their hotel, campground, or Great-Uncle Shagworthy's place in the meanwhile; else, the ''police'' might be in legal trouble for confining teenage minors against their will without cause.
** While there's not much "dress up as fake ghost" crime in the real life, we should also make note their real life equivalents, the private investigator often does run afoul with official police. Needless to say about paranormal investigators who like pi's sometimes do legally trespass and get into trouble over it. Minding of course either actually have some evidence to some more serious crime to offer. Most real life police wouldn't be as happy and accepting of a real life Scooby-gang, and is also a reason while many a detective fiction have some kind of official police foil for their detective to play off.
** Given that absolutely nothing indicates the gang sticks around to testify in trial, a lot of those villains probably walk free. This is somewhat justified by the dodge that the villain was already "wanted in five states" for previous crimes, in which case even if their current charges fall through the crook still goes down for the previous ones.
*** There ''is'' such a thing as a plea bargain, and not every conviction requires a full trial with witnesses. In cases where Mystery Inc. leave town immediately after the arrest, it's likely that the villain already confessed in the presence of arresting officers, making the gang's testimony unnecessary. Indeed, "I could have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling kids!" would constitute a confession in itself, 100% admissible in court.

*** Not just kid detectives; how many times do you see a PoliceProcedural follow up on the paperwork and statements once the bad guy's been cuffed at the end of an investigation? Barely ever unless it's ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'', and those shows were designed specifically to avert that custom by following cases from crime scene to courtroom.

** Real ghosts are probably really, really rare. And demons and vampires and such have much better things to do than scam people out of real estate (cf. ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'').

* Also, would the 1983-1985 Scooby and Scrappy-Doo series have worked if Daphne and Velma had been PutOnABus leaving just Scooby, Scrappy, Shaggy and Fred as the protagonists? WhatCouldHaveBeen - would it have worked? As for Fred Jones in WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo - imagine that!??
** Fred didn't have a real personality yet. However, if he had his goofball persona, Flim Flam probably wouldn't have been created, and Freddy and Scrappy could have been the second comic team.
** Daphne didn't have much of a personality yet, either. Not until ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo'', and she hasn't really had the same personality from series to series afterwards, either.

* In the episode "Bedlam in the Big Top", there are two things that have always made me scratch my head: 1st, when the hypnotist put himself in a trance, how was he lucid enough to give himself a hypnotic command and 2nd, assuming it's possible for him to be both hypnotized and lucid enough to issue a command at the same time, why would he continue going through with the command? Shouldn't a villain smart enough to pull off a plan like this also be smart enough not to issue a hypnotic command that he knows will affect him?
** Perhaps, since he could ''see'' he was looking in mirrors that Shaggy and Scooby were holding in front him. Either a case of cartoon license or not thinking this out far enough.

** It probably doesn't happen all that often. Sure, the counterfeiter has a ghost costume to scare away anyone who comes into the old abandoned mansion out in the country ... but how often does that actually happen? And how many people would actually call the police with what they themselves know must sound like a crazy story?

* Why is it only the gang is able to do anything about the ghosts and monsters? Frequently there are large groups of people that end up being scared away by the villian's scary act all the time, and instead of investigating the monsters themselves they all just run away until there are only at most two or three people left by the start of the episode, this even extends to entire towns filled with hundreds of people sometimes. It isn't until the Scooby Gang shows up and catches the guy that anything gets resolved.

** The earliest case in-universe is "Ghost Who's Coming To Dinner" from ''WesternAnimation/APupNamedScoobyDoo''.

* One other headscratcher, does ''WesternAnimation/The13GhostsOfScoobyDoo'' have a different continuity - no Fred or Velma, no bad guys in masks etc. ?

** And now we have ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheCurseOfThe13thGhost'' so yes it totally happened in Scooby's past.

* Is it just me or was TheSummation in ''Creepy Cruise'' the epitome of VoodooShark? To summarize: the gang goes on a cruise where this scientist is experimenting with a time machine but something goes wrong and a monster from the future emerges. It is later revealed that the scientist and his shady financier had co-conspired to swindle their investors with a fake machine. The "monster" was actually a series of holograms projected throughout the ship with the financier wearing a suit whenever the monster needed to appear inside the machine. Problems:

** Eventually they corner the two by "repeating the experiment" and the monster appears in front of the stunned pair...only it's Shaggy in the suit. ''Where the hell did he find it?''

** [[TotallyRadical It was the totally gnarly bitchin' bodacious style.]]

* This troper has to ask, about the film. He could take the nonsensical plot and the bad jokes. But what this troper has to ask is annoys him more than that. When the Gang breaks up, it's understandable why Velma, Daphne, and Fred hate each other. Fred takes credit for Velma's plans, Daphne hates being reminded of her constant DamselInDistress and Fred....he's Fred let's leave it at that. However, did they have to take it out on Shaggy and Scooby? So far not one of the three have anything bad to say about them, even their clumsiness and cowardliness are overlooked. But they pretty much have been the only nice guys on the movie and have tried time and again to keep them together. And when TheStoner and a dog are [[OnlySaneMan The only sane men,]] that could be a problem.
** "Only nice guys"? Shaggy at one point suggests letting Fred and Velma get eaten and Scooby is totally fine with abandoning his nephew in the middle of the desert (and he also punches Fred in the face at one point). As for why Fred, Velma and Daphne treat Shaggy and Scooby crappily, it's honestly just easiest to say that they all got hit with AdaptationalJerkassery.

* How come we don't see any of the past monsters make a come back (not counting robot duplicates and digital versions of the villains)? Why not go the Scream route and have a different man playing the same monster? For example, while Old Man Jenkins is rotting in prison, Farmer Brown takes up the mantle.

** Originally it wasn't common for the 70s meddling kids series to feature recurring foes. While my memories of some of the ones not on dvd is spotty, I do believe only Inch High Private Eye had a criminal returns episode. Now later on Scooby series would have some recurring sillier enemies like Bogel and Weerd, Red Herring and Gibby Norton. In more recent times they finally utilized the plot of older criminals returning for a movie. One episode of Pup did feature someone who was the culprit in a previous episode return but she was on parole and innocent this time. Although I don't think we've seen someone deliberately use someone else's costume. Although that in itself could one day be a plot for a movie in itself.
** Technically you could argue it did happen in the 1970s. Scooby defeated a Ghost of Red Beard in ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou'' and a all grey version in ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'' with the ''WesternAnimation/HarlemGlobetrotters''. Both even had two identical assistants. However in this case we assume there was a real Red Beard with a real crew at one point that both sets of criminals were impersonating. And then ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperGlobetrotters'' ran into guys who also looked like Red Beard's crew working for Whaleman. While in reality this was on purpose ReusedCharacterDesign. In universe though they're probably IdenticalGrandson material.

** It's not obvious from the outside that Shaggy's riding in the back, so cops aren't going to notice unless they pull the gang over for some other reason and specifically look in the back of the van. That's not terribly likely, since the gang usually only gets pulled over to be given a friendly warning about some supernatural BS further down the road.

** Watsonian reason: Most criminals are bright enough to realize that attempting to flee from police custody when the cops know your identity and where you live is a dumb idea. Once you are in police custody, never attempt to flee (especially if your identity is known, because all that happens is all your relatives get 5am wake up calls next day) and just wait for your lawyer. If the case is tight then you are just adding to charges and time, and if the case is shaky they'll spring you anyway. A lot of the Scooby Set's villains seem to be middle class folks who would know how the system works.
** Also, a bunch of teenagers from out of town aren't the greatest witnesses. The "and I would have gotten away with it too" speech isn't a confession (any good lawyer would claim that the villain was merely confessing to trespassing). Why go on the lam when you may be able to beat the rap?

** Well they are mystery solvers, doesn't mean they only want to solve one type of crime.
** Their "job" isn't ghost-hunting, it's mystery-solving. It's not even really a job; relatively few stories start with the gang specifically setting out in search of a mystery. They get into adventures because they stick around to investigate when most people would head for the hills.

** They're high school students - they sometimes mention they're skipping class for a mystery - so parents provide food and clothes, and maybe gas too. It's mentioned several times that Daphne's family is rich, and the other kids seem to come from middle class families.
** Daphne's first relative is a famous director. She was implied to come from money. Later spinoffs pretty much indirectly made it all of them come from families that are all decent wealth. Shaggy and Scooby themselves having more than one big fancy ancestral home to their names.

*** That's actually a misconception from some of the earliest episodes. As far as seasons with the five original gang members, Fred and Daphne aren't alone together that often. By sheer numbers, Velma goes with them more often than she goes with Scooby and Shaggy.
** Lampshaded in fan art and videos on occassion. The joke goes like this: A smiling Fred informs Shaggy that he will go somewhere private with the two girls... again, while Shaggy is stuck with the dog... again. Shaggy starts figuring out what the other three are doing while he is tasked with distracting the villain (a threesome implication).
** There's also the ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' crossover. At one point, Daphne says that she'll go off with Velma, then Fred smiles and says her name, and Daphne quickly changes her mind and says that she'll go off with Fred while Velma goes off with Scooby and Shaggy goes off with Johnny. Also, I think I read on IMDB that the reason why Fred and Daphne usually went off together is because the creators found them kind of boring and wanted to focus more on Shaggy and Scooby's whacky antics.

** Depends how skeptical the people in the area are. Some are attracted to it, others aren't. In universe it seems the people who are attracted to it are the YouMeddlingKids or people personally affected by it. Everyone else gets out of dodge when the monster shows up.

* How come they never mention the idea of the monster being fake until the end of the episode when they've caught the monster and it's time to pull the mask off? When Velma pulls the mask off, she usually says "Now let's see who's really behind this," or something like that. So she's acting on the assumption that it's obviously just a person in a suit. But before that moment, they never say a word about the monster being fake, and basically just act like they're dealing with the real thing. They never ever say things like "Hm, the monster is sure to be a person in a suit. I wonder who! Let's catch it and find out." Why is mentioning the fact that monsters are fake such a taboo?

** Because even after multiple unmasks that isn't exactly a reason to think this one can't be the outlier? By later series, they get a little more skeptical on certain cases but the series has shown real entities are also out there at times so to not really rule it out entirely.

** While due to the fast and loose continuity it's not consistent, but multiple episodes and movies since the 1980s have done this. Where the Sgang in itself is clearly a known entity to whoever they are arriving to help. And as of ''Frankencreepy'', there are enough people who hate them for their own social network, to say nothing of people who like them.

* Why were Freddy, Daphne, and Velma taken out in some incarnations? Some shows starred only Scooby and Shaggy. Out of universe, did Hanna Barbera think Scooby and Shag were more popular than the other characters?

** Originally the out of universe likely reason was with Scrappy the gang had six members and they were switching to seven minute shorts. Six characters plus the bad guy and whatever other characters are a lot to move around in seven minutes. So the others took the hike. When they brought the mystery back, Daphne was picked, as she's probably the third-liked character.

* Why were Shaggy and Scooby usually send off by themselves to investigate? They never did anything useful, while Fred's team always found all the important clues. (I know why it was done from the writer's standpoint, but within the show's context if you're breaking into teams to search for clues, there should be at least one competent person on each team!)
** Shaggy and Scooby did sometimes find important things, even if that isn't their goal (e.g., "Spooky Space Kook", when they found the electronics system the ghost was using to haunt the airfield, or "A Clue for Scooby Doo", when Scooby found Captain Cutler's secret scuba storehouse). Furthermore, they may not have known what the clues meant, but at least sometimes they did recognize that it was a clue. Insofar as in-universe reasons, maybe the others didn't want to have to deal with trying to keep Shaggy and Scooby on task while simultaneously searching for clues, or maybe they figured things seemed to go okay the way they were doing it, so why switch it up?
** The two of them were at times depicted as more observant than the others when it came to clues. In "What a Night for a Knight" (1969), the very first episode, it is Shaggy and Scooby who notice the abandoned pick-up truck and go investigating. They summon Daphne, Fred, and Velma later on. While in the museum, it is Scooby who notices and picks up Jameson Hyde White's magnifying glasses, the first major clue. All four of the others failed to notice them. Still later, Scooby and Shaggy realize that one of the museum's paintings has gone missing and notify the others. It is Scooby who (accidentally) knocks out and captures the Black Knight (the villain of the episode). Finally, when the gang and the sheriff have to find out where the villain kept the kidnapping victim (Jameson Hyde White himself), only Scooby sees the clue and rescues the victim.

* How are the main characters friends? No one finds it odd for a preppy guy, a preppy girl, a food-obsessed hippie, and a bookworm to be friends for many years? Seems like the only thing that brings them together is solving mysteries. Outside ghost-hunting, their personalities are different. I'll buy Fred and Daphne being friends and lovers, but Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby as their close friends?! Seriously, could you really see the cool guy, the rich popular girl, and 2 nerds being besties?

** Furthermore, in the original series, the characters weren't so specialized as they would later become. Shaggy is said to be a gymnast and a track man, who also likes dancing and fishing; Velma has no problem with watching B horror flicks and also likes dancing and the beach, etc. It wasn't entirely down to "a preppy guy, a preppy girl, two nerds and a dog."
** Mystery Begins shows that they 'weren't' friends, then were pushed together in order to investigate the ghosts and bonded during that, clearly finding cause to stick together.

* How come there isn't a Scooby-Doo meets the real Ghostbusters movie? They met WWE, Batman, Cher, and the 3 stooges. Why isn't this a thing yet? Both ghost-fighting teams have a comic relief, lovable, non-human character who loves food (Slimer and Scooby).
** It happens in VideoGame/LEGODimensions, but it's not very satisfying. IDW has produced comics for both properties, but for whatever reason they just never crossed over.

** Velma's lifted the whole gang at once too. It's a cartoon thing, not a real indication of strength. Scrappy has gotten to fight villains before, and it was a total joke; he isn't actually any stronger than a real puppy.
** It's zig-zagged. In his original season Scrappy's attempt to fight the villains was treated as comedy with the villain easily getting him out of the way. In later adventures Scrappy was shown to be able to throw Winslow Nickelby's cat out of a building and rough up Farquad.

* In some incarnations, super heroes exist in their world (Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, and Batman). Aren't the "ghosts" and "monsters" worried about getting their butts kicked by Batman and the Justice League? Some of the villains commit crimes on a grand scale.

** To be fair here, in the 60s-70s Hanna-Barbara (and most cartoon makers in general) had a very limited pool of voice actors, so even characters who had nothing to do with each other likely shared the same voice. Also, back then, nobody paid attention to this stuff--being a cartoon voice actor was basically being beneath notice, so its not like anyone would actually have been fanboy enough to recognize, say, that Don Messick who whoever voiced two different characters.
** And in the pre-internet days, the only way to read the voice actors' names, and ''confirm'' that they weren't two different people who sounded a little bit alike, was to view the closing credits of the episode. By that point, you'd've seen TheReveal anyway.

** I haven't actually seen this episode (because I, like Velma, am afraid of clowns, though I've never had a problem with Ronald [=McDonald=]), but maybe Shaggy saying "Jinkies" was just a RuleOfFunny thing? As for Velma being hungry, I don't know...

* In the First Film's climax all the possessed people dress in sort of matching cult-y outfits, it's clearly some kind of uniform. So why does Mary Jane stay in her normal clothes?

* Also in the first film. The body swapping bit. Fred and Daphne make sense, they were in the wrong bodies, Velma had had her soul removed earlier in the film so it just about works but Shaggy is the only member of the gang (and one of the few cast members) who 'didn't' become a human suit, with his soul removed, so why did Shaggy's soul get sucked out as well?

* In the Scooby Doo WWE movie and several other series, Scooby is able to get arrested even though he's a dog. Specifically being a TalkingAnimal. Shouldn't Shaggy his owner be taken to jail and Scooby go to the pound or something?

** Could be the police, themselves, aren't sure of his status, but need to take him into custody anyway. If he's a valid suspect, they're correct in arresting him, whereas if he's legally just a dog and not prosecutable, then he's potential evidence.