Line #30 Fridge/ScoobyDoo


1	[[AC:FridgeBrilliance]]
2	* In ''Scooby-Doo'', while the Hex Girls perform [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic some spectacular music]] [[AnimationAgeGhetto for something aimed at kids]], their lyrics usually seemed to be set on either StylisticSuck or SoBadItsGood. The reason is given in ''[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated Mystery Incorporated]]'' (albeit for an AlternateContinuity): [[spoiler:Their manager, a former rock star whose career fell as the band's careers rose, did it intentionally to sabotage them]]. - Tropers/MetalShadowX
3	* What sense does it make for monsters to exist in the ''Scooby-Doo'' universe, when the whole point is that monsters are always people in costumes? ''Because that's precisely what makes dressing up as a monster such an effective disguise.''
4	** Not quite. It's almost definitely because they live in the DC universe.
5	* I thought that Scooby-Doo meeting Batman in one of his movies was a strange combination until I realized: Batman is ''exactly'' the type of person that the gang usually is up ''[[EnemyMine against,]]'' since he dresses like a monster and uses all sorts of gadgetry specifically with the intent to terrify. He just uses it for good instead of evil. If they'd gotten the chance to unmask him, they'd have been shocked to discover it was the least likely suspect of all... Old Man Wayne!
6	** In essence, Batman (and the similarly frequent team up duo of [[WesternAnimation/DynomuttDogWonder Blue Falcon and Dynomutt]]) are the good counterparts to every masked crook the team faces, particularly the ones with their levels of talents that make up the Fridge Horror about the talents of the original series monsters.
7	* Something I thought about when reading the EvilCounterpart trope page and noticed the ''[[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated Mystery Incorporated]]'' entry. After reading that, I thought about what other similarities members of Mystery Incorporated had with their predecessors when I thought of what makes Ricky into Shaggy's EvilCounterpart more subtly. More obviously, whereas Shaggy's still best pals with Scooby, Ricky and Pericles ended up pretty much barely on speaking terms, to the point of hating each other's guts for the longest time. The subtle one lies in the fact that Shaggy is pretty much a hippy, or at least looks and acts like one to a point. What's a good evil counterpart for a hippy? How about the CEO of a massive soulless corporation that doesn't care at all about the environment?
8	** Brad and Judy are what would happen if Fred and Daphne were nothing but obsessed with each other, {{Foil}}ing their relationship problem from Season 1.
9	** Cassidy and Velma were the [[OnlySaneMan only members]] that understood the repercussions of their groups' actions and took it upon themselves to figure a way out to the point of keeping their activities secret for the greater good. Cassidy taking too long to confess her true identity ends up ostracizing her from the kids and [[YouAreTooLate she is unable to sway her friends back to the side of good (and the damage was already done by then)]], while [[YouAreNotAlone Velma realizes that she needs her friends in the present above anything else]] if they're going to put an end to the MythArc.
10	* Shaggy being a BigEater makes a lot of sense for the versions that are vegetarians. Despite common knowledge, it is recommended to people who are vegetarians that they should eat 3-5 times more vegetables/fruits/substitutes than non-vegetarians do to keep a healthy body weight since meats (among other relating factors) take a lot longer to digest than green-foods.
11	** In addition, Shaggy does a ''lot'' of running. He'll burn a ''lot'' of calories that way.
12	* Coolsville is in Ohio. We see numerous times that Coolsville is next to a body of water, with ''The Mystery Begins!'' stating that it is located in Erie County, meaning that it is probably next to Lake Erie. [[StealthPun Erie is pronounced like "eerie".]]
13	* In the first movie, when Mystery Inc. officially disbands, Fred, Velma, and Daphne walk off to different cars, meaning that they didn't arrive at the factory as a group. This shows that the break-up wasn't a spur-of-the-moment impulse; the gang had already started drifting apart, and the result of the Luna Ghost caper was just the final nail in the coffin.
14	* So after the gang solves a ''lot'' of mysteries, how come the gang still runs from the monsters? They're still people willing to ''harm'' the protagonists, so running isn't that dumb of a thing to do. In addition, Shaggy and Scooby are pretty fit due to all the running they do - it's a good way to tire the monster out.
15	* Each of the four movies released in the '90s: ''Zombie Island'', ''Witch's Ghost'', ''Alien Invaders'', and ''Cyber Chase'', line up with the four corners of the United States and the unique issues and attributes of each.
16	** ''Zombie Island'' takes place in the Southeast, and many of the titular zombies are former pirates. The Golden Age of Piracy has a legacy in this region, with Blackbeard himself dying off North Carolina, and said titular zombies are carriers of old grudges, a reference to the region's history of 'lost cause' holdouts about the civil war. [[spoiler:The real villains gained their power from the Cat God, with the Southeast being known as the most religious region of the United States]].
17	** ''The Witch's Ghost'' takes place in the Northeast, the region most associated with magic and witchcraft in the United States due to the Salem Witch Trials. It's also a famous home to many famous writers, such as the in-universe Ben Ravencraft, whose horror writings may be a reference to famous horror writers from the region such as Lovecraft and Steven King. [[spoiler:Lovecraft by all accounts was not a nice person, same with Ravencraft, and bar his fate the ending was good and enjoyable for everyone involved from the Wicca descendants and non-confirming girls to the giant turkey, referencing the diversity and general peace of the region even in the faces of threats.]]
18	** ''Alien Invaders'' is in the Southwest, a region known for alien sightings and famous locales to alien theorists like Roswell and Area 51. More notably though is the tension between locals and the government guards and research scientists, referencing the region's ongoing tensions with federal influence that was a factor then and remains so today (See Clive Bundy). [[spoiler:The villains pretty much embody all that the locals of the area see wrong with the government, being lying, wasteful, scheming, thieving, and the like.]]
19	** With ''Cyber Chase'' (as far as this troper recalls) doesn't mention a location specifically, it lines up well with the Northwest/Pacific Coast of the country. It's the most shining and new area of the country, and home to many headquarters of videogame manufacturers, such as Microsoft and Nintendo of America, while the main setting is a video game. It's also the home of Silicon Valley and the modern tech company revolution, with the villain being the threat of that industry, a computer virus. [[spoiler:The real villain who created the virus doesn't look anything like a said virus, a reference to the fact that the creators of viruses and malware are faceless enemies of tech companies who aren't mere men in masks. You can only identify them by small tells in the motivation of the malware, even if it is never as obvious as baseball references.]]
20	* The title of the song that inspired Scooby-Doo's name, "Strangers In The Night", can apply to the franchise’s plot: a bunch of kids meeting strangers that turn out to be running around in monster costumes.
21	* Throughout the show, we meet Scrappy's mother a couple of times, but his father remains unknown. This is TruthInTelevision - puppies never know their father, and a litter is eventually abandoned by the mother. [[FridgeHorror This paints quite a picture of his life before he joined Mystery Inc.]]
22	** Even if she didn't abandon him, we have another piece of evidence that Scrappy's father isn't in the picture: he's the offspring of Ruby Doo, Scooby's little sister, yet he was given the Doo surname rather than his sire's. Possibly Ruby [[ReallyGetsAround isn't even certain who his dad is]].
23	** In "The Ransom of the Scooby Chief", when he visits his old neighborhood, he visits his old friends, but never bothers to check in on his parents.
24	** Scrappy is shown to be quite close to Daphne. If we take the parental issues into account, he looks to her as a surrogate mother/big sister figure.
25	* Shaggy and Scooby (and the others to a lesser degree) have an amazing ability to slip out of the ghost/monster's grasp, dodge their attacks, and generally leave their pursuers stumbling around like idiots. Of ''course'' they do: the obligatory "creep inside" is always hampered by the constriction and obstructed vision of their costume!
26	* It's noted in the first Live-Action film that Shaggy defies his usual CowardlyLion nature, claiming he planned to abandon Fred and Velma to the monsters however there is a bit of logic to ''why'' he did this. Consider this, Fred, Velma ''and'' Daphne split from the group due to tensions between the three of them... but they also, at least from the look of it, abandoned Shaggy and Scooby as well, and they hadn't been part of the argument. It's very possible, if not probable that Shaggy and Scooby were carrying some resentment over this abandonment that weakened the loyalty that usually allows them to work past their fears. Notably Shaggy is back to his normal CowardlyLion nature when Scooby, who had stayed with him the whole time the gang was split up, was the one in danger. As for why they didn't mention it in the film if there was some resentment? One theory would be they wanted the gang back together and didn't want to add their tensions to the conflict preventing that, another theory could be that the resentment is unconscious, they don't consciously resent the abandonment, but behind the scenes, it's enough to cloud their loyalties a bit.
27	* Almost all of the villains use prosthetics, masks, suits, and make-up in their schemes to take the appearance of ghosts and monsters. No wonder [[TheFashionista Daphne]] is part of the team. Her knowledge of practical effects and attention to detail would be a valuable asset.
28	* One of Scrappy's most notable character traits is his boundless hyperactivity. Anyone who's ever owned a puppy will tell you that this is TruthInTelevision.
29	** He also displays enthusiasm and curiosity for exploring and adventure. This makes sense when you realize that, if "Ransom of the Scooby Chief" is anything to go by, he came from a poor background, naturally he'd want to see the world and everything in it.
30	* In the [[WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooWhereAreYou original series]], it's notable that while nearly every villain actively chases the Gang (or, in some cases, attempts to take something they have), they rarely try to actually ''hurt'' them; the most we see is someone (usually Daphne) getting BoundAndGagged, or the Ghost Clown hypnotizing Scooby, Daphne, and Shaggy into dangerous acts. Why? Because as noted below, the bad guys are largely motivated by monetary gain. Assault and battery, using deadly force, and murder are ''far'' more serious charges that would result in much greater consequences than throwing on a ghost costume and trying to scare some teenagers away (the most likely case against them would be breaking, trespassing, or theft). The villains may want money, but not badly enough to kill for it, especially because the other members of Mystery Inc. would be able to provide testimony about the situation.
31	* The plot of the first live action movie involves demonic possession, which can almost be considered an inversion of a typical ScoobyDooHoax plot: instead of a human disguising themselves as a supernatural monster, the gang encounters monsters disguised as humans.
32	* The fact that the Gang are [[{{Expy}} Expies]] of Dobie (Fred), Maynard (Shaggy), Zelda (Velma), and Thalia (Daphne) from ''Series/TheManyLovesOfDobieGillis'' adds a layer of [[MeaningfulName meaning]] to Daphne's name. Both "Thalia" and "Daphne" are names from Myth/ClassicalMythology! To educated viewers in the '60s, this would presumably have made the connection between the two shows even clearer.
33
34	* Scooby's family tree is easily pieced together via fridge logic
35	** In New Scooby and Scrappy Scooby's parents are revealed as Mumsie and Dada Doo. Doo is his family name.
36	** In A Pup, Scooby's birth litter is revealed to have two brothers (Howdy and Skippy) and a sister (Ruby, who had appeared previously because she is Scrappy's mother)
37	** In ''Scrappy and Yabba Doo'', Scrappy calls Yabba his Uncle too, so Yabba Doo must be Scooby and Ruby's younger brother born after their litter
38	*** However, it is quite common for children to refer to adult-aged cousins as "Uncle" rather than as "Cousin", so Yabba Doo may be also one of Uncle Horton's kids.
39	** In an episode of A Pup, we see Doo Manor, which Dada Doo says is to be Scooby's upon his coming of age, We also meet Dada Doo's brother Uncle Horton Doo.
40	** A Scooby comic full extends this with Doo Manor being the home of Spooky Doo, who left it to Scooby because he knew his nephew was a scaredy-cat. However, it is also mentioned Spooky has no kids of his own. This puts Scooby's three cousins with Doo in their name to be Uncle Horton's kids. Dixie, Dooby, and Whoopsy. (Unless there's another sibling)
41	** An earlier comic added Scooby's paternal Great-grandfather, Dandy Doo, all of these Doos are descendants of Yankee Doodle Doo, who as shown in an episode of New Scooby and Scrappy came over on the Mayflower.
42	** While not definite, in Shaggy's Showdown it is mentioned Dapper Jack Rogers (another Shaggy ancestor) had a dog named Atlas, who the gang imagine probably was a Scooby ancestor. Shaggy even imagines him with a mustache.
43	** On the flip side, the "Scooby" part is from his maternal side. As in The Scooby-Doo Show, we meet Scooby Dum and Scooby Dee. All of which are cousins. So Mumsie Doo must have two siblings, and it must be custom to name one kid "Scooby" or "Scoobert"
44	** This is further believed in Scooby and Scrappy, where we meet Grandad Scooby, who lives at Scooby Manor (not Doo Manor) which was haunted by Great-Grandpa Scooby. Allowing each generation of Mumsie's family to have at least one "Scooby"
45	** The Scooby encyclopedia used a diagram that put Grandpa Scooby and Great Grandpa Scooby as Dada's relatives. Yabba Doo was Scooby's brother but didn't bother mapping any of the cousins. Oddly enough it also included Spooky Doo. Making him the only non-cartoon character referenced.
46	* Shaggy's show only family can be too.
47	** We first meet Shaggy's immediate family in New Scooby and Scrappy, with Mr. Rogers and Mrs. Rogers and his sister Maggie. In A Pup we see them again and learn that Maggie's nickname was Shuggy. She marries a man named Wilfred in that episode.
48	** Rogers being the family name, allows us to assume Gaggy Rogers is Mr. Roger's brother. And they must be descended from [=McBaggy=] Rogers who came over on the Mayflower.
49	** In ''New Scooby-Doo Movies'', we meet Shaggy's Great Uncle Nathaniel. Who was a sibling to one of Shaggy's grandparents? He lives in New England and lives in a home of ancestral items. This heavily implies he too is a [=McBaggy=] descendent.
50	** In a more recent addition from ''Shaggy's Showdown''. Shaggy meets his third cousin once removed Tawny Rogers. Given both characters look the same age it is hard to tell who is removed from who, but they both share an earlier ancestor in Dapper Jack Rogers. it's unknown how many generations there were between [=McBaggy=] and Dapper Jack, but Tawny's existence would probably imply there are a few more between Dapper Jack and Uncle Nat.
51	** This is where things get more complicated, as Shaggy's other Uncles must be his mother's siblings. This gives us Uncle Shagworthy, Uncle Fearless Shagaford, and Betty-Lou Shaggbilly's parents. The problem here lies in what is Shaggy's mother's maiden name. There is nothing to indicate whether Shagworthy is a first or last name. Or if Fearless is a nickname and Shagaford is the first name or if his first and last name is Fearless Shagaford. Betty Lou's father might be Shaggy's relative making them all Shaggbilly, or maybe Betty Lou's mother was Mrs. Rogers's sister and married into the Shagabilly family. But it must be one of the three. The "shag" part is a maternal family trait.
52	*** There's also Shaggy's ''maternal'' uncle Albert Shaggleford from ''WesternAnimation/ShaggyAndScoobyDooGetAClue'' if you count that.
53	** This ties further as we see Shaggy has ancestral routes in Europe, with Shaggy the first. Who is also the cause of Shaggy being destined to become a werewolf? Uncle Shagworthy also imported a family castle over from Europe, so he's also a descendant of Shaggy the first.
54	** In ''Boo Brothers'' we have Uncle Beauregard. Given he was in the civil war he is more than likely a Great-Uncle or great-great-uncle to Shaggy on his mother's side. This means more than likely while his father's side settled in New England, the descendants of Shaggy the first settled in the south as witnessed by him and Betty Lou. Shagworthy would move a family castle to New England as well, but at that point, he may also have wanted to move closer to his sister, Shaggy's mother.
55	*** Adding to this, there's a Colonel Beauregard from ''The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries'' who might be related.
56	** If we also take DC comics into this Shaggy's tree gets filled in a little more. He has a great-uncle Henry Rogers (probably Nat's brother), another Uncle Salty, and a cousin Stetson Rogers that would either be Gaggy or Salty's son.
57	*** Interestingly, Stetson and Tawny both live in Texas.
58	** On the mother side, he has three more Uncles Zooty, Shug, and Shoogy (if they are southerners this makes plenty of sense and explains where Maggie's Shuggie nickname may also be passed on) and Shaggy has a cousin Jamison Willikers who had a family of his own with a great grandfather in a picture. However one would assume Shaggy's mother had another sibling who married into the Willikers then that being Shaggy's relation.
59	** Other comic series add a few more but it is specifically the DC comics that easily played into this kind of fridge logic.
60	* Shaggy and Scooby are always hungry because they're the ones running scared of all kinds of dangers the gang meets every time. Therefore, that amount of daily workout exercise requires a corresponding food consumption.
61	[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
62	* Stop and think for a second of the situation from the heroes' points of view. They're alone and completely defenseless as they are running through the dark being chased by a shrieking psychopath wearing a mask.
63	** WordOfGod is that this is why the original proposed adventure series was revamped to focus more on the PluckyComicRelief dog instead of its initial more serious focus on the mysteries and the human characters: Creator/HannaBarbera was concerned that the series as initially pitched would terrify young viewers.
64	** The episode "A Clue for Scooby-Doo". Underwater in a sunken ship, they find a dead man in a diving suit with his oxygen hose cut, so he presumably suffocated down there completely alone. What's worse, the VillainOfTheWeek was trying to do the same thing with Fred, Velma, and Daphne, and as they still had a link to their oxygen tanks, had they remained trapped, they would have lasted quite a while before dying.
65	** It should be noted that the dead man [[spoiler:was the villain who had faked his death the whole time]].
66	** Not only that, but the instances where members of the gang are kidnapped and confined in different areas ("Go Away Ghost Ship", "A Gaggle Of Galloping Ghosts" "Which Witch is Which?", etc.). Sure, the bad guys don't ''do'' anything to them, but how do we know if they'd have released our heroes at any future point?
67	** Episodes like "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts" or "Hassle in the Castle" where the villain is a criminal wanted in several states. It's never mentioned ''what'' they're wanted ''for'', and in any case, a man who's on the run from numerous state authorities might not hesitate to off a few [[YouMeddlingKids meddling kids]] who were coming too close to blowing his cover.
68	** ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' gives another disturbing take on the series as a whole, with their list of "Six Classic Kids Shows Secretly Set in Nightmarish Universes" [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19496_6-classic-kids-shows-secretly-set-in-nightmarish-universes.html here]].
69	** In "Bedlam in the Big Top", Daphne is put under a trance by a ghost clown. The next time we see her, she's wearing a tiny costume dress. Erm... Maybe it's a good thing she couldn't remember any of what happened while she was under that trance.
70	*** Even more so when you remember that the same villain showed a gleeful willingness to feed Shaggy to a lion or watch Scooby plummet to his would-be demise from a high wire. Would he have given a thought to sparing Daphne's modesty, or worse, once he had her in his power?
71	** In "To Switch a Witch", a friend of the gang is being persecuted by a group of townsfolk for the belief that she is a witch. They were explicitly going to torture her to make her confess. Fortunately, Shaggy and Scooby take the brunt of it, and come out okay, being MadeOfIron. But the young lady who was their original target? These people weren't the "Monster" of the week, and seem to get off scot-free for their willingness to harm an innocent girl. Including elected officials like the town's mayor.
72	* ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' noted once that almost every locale on the show looks like it's a place out of the Great Depression. Even their nice "vacation" spots look like the worst parts of crime-ridden Detroit or Camden, New Jersey. In the first 25 episodes of the original show, they come across: four deserted mansions, two abandoned castles, an empty ski resort, an amusement park, a ghost town, a mine, a Hawaiian village, an airfield, and a mill. And of the 27 villains the gang meets, ''twenty-three'' of them are motivated by monetary gain via theft, smuggling, or land speculation. They don't run into domestic disputes or drug-related crimes. They deal exclusively with people who are so desperate for money that they voluntarily squat in the basements of abandoned houses for the off-chance of landing a paycheck. And if the villains don't need money, they need work. The remaining four motives that aren't monetary are: winning a dog show, getting an acting gig, revenge for getting fired, and hatred of robots.
73	** Adding to this, many of these villains have the uncanny ability to manufacture realistic monster costumes, project full-scale holograms and carve out high-tech hideouts in abandoned mineshafts. Many of them already had impressive vocational skills before their criminal lives -- three of the villains have [=PhDs=], two are lawyers, one could produce near-identical forged paintings, one could repair boats, one is a magician, one is a stuntman and one could hypnotize people. It initially appears like CutLexLuthorACheck, unless the nation's economy is actually in a massive slump and they legitimately can't find employment anywhere.
74	* In the first film the gang free all the souls and destroy all the demons and all is well... until you remember that possessed people 'left' the island as the gang arrived, and Scrappy had been doing this for about 2 years before the film starts, we know 2 possessed people were in the coastguard. Is it impossible to expect that 'some' of them will 'not' have been out in the open but will instead have been inside, or underground where the demons will have been safe from the sun?
75	** Even worse, what will they do when they realize that their evil plans failed, particularly to the disoriented, frightened person they were just forced out of.
76	** Even those who were out in the open may not have the best time, Fred and Daphne wound up in the wrong body, who's to say the other's who have been trapped in that vat for months or years, suddenly find themselves trapped in the wrong body, without a Maguffin to fix them.
77	* Live-Action Scrappy seems like a completely different character than the cartoon, because ''he is''.
78	** It's completely ambiguous whether or not Scooby and this Scrappy are even ''related'' or if they just happen to share the last name ala "Melvin Doo". Scrappy never once refers to him as his Uncle and nobody even hints that they might be Uncle and Nephew. Scrappy is portrayed as just showing up one day and being kicked out.
79	** Live-Action-Scrappy is shown as proudly calling himself as "cute as a Powerpuff girl" cartoon. Scrappy hated being seen as cute, never called himself such, and was quite ticked off whenever somebody did so.
80	** It's debatable how intentional the next ones are, but nonetheless...
81	*** Fred and Velma are shown as being an author and NASA worker respectively. That ''did'' happen in the cartoon, but under completely different circumstances, where they all amiably parted ways offscreen, with Scrappy as a protagonist and under Scooby's care the entire time. When they reunite, Scrappy, in addition to not attempting to murder Scooby, ''saves his life twice.'' [[note]]The first time he noticed the villain trying to drop a light fixture on him and yelled out, the second time grabbing some rubber that he'd been messing with earlier.[[/note]]
82	** There were some beings Scrappy would never, ''ever'' fight: Scooby and Shaggy. If Scooby was brainwashed, or a monster who looked like Scooby, or a ghost of Shaggy's IdenticalAncestor were coming at him, Scrappy was notably more hesitant. Live-Action Scrappy has no such reservations.

Context Fridge / ScoobyDoo