Line #70 Headscratchers/Doug


1	* Who names a kid Cleopatra Dirtbike?
2	** Doug's mom mistook Doug's Christmas wishlist (which included a dirtbike) for a list of baby names and Judy (Doug's melodramatic sister) wanted to name the baby Cleopatra.
3	** Actually there was a contest where fans could name the new baby and that's the one that won.
4	** [[WhoNamesTheirKidDude Who names a kid "Mosquito?"]]
5	*** It's a family name.
6	*** That just brings up more questions. What kind of sick demented family has "Mosquito" as a family name passed down through multiple generations? Also, are names like "Leech", "Aphid", and "Ringworm" family names as well?
7	*** Perhaps Skeeter's family is of Native American descent -- instead of African-American as commonly speculated -- hence the insect-related family name. This could also explain his uncle's surname Freebird.
8
9	* Mr. Bone. Somehow as the plot goes, the assistant principal always seems to be keeping his eye on Doug and only Doug, for whatever odd reason. Not many others except Roger, the token bully. Why Doug? Did something happen on the first day of school to make him get singled out? Or are we listening to an Unreliable Narrator, since the episodes are all pretty much flashbacks from his journal? Never made sense much.
10	** Well, Doug is the new kid. Unlike Roger (who knows what to say to keep himself out of the worst of trouble... most of the time) or the other kids Mr. Bone hardly knows him at all, so of course he doesn't trust him. He hasn't earned it yet.
11	*** Since Mr. Bone continues to antagonize Doug then that must mean Doug will never earn that trust? DownerEnding much?
12	*** I'd chalk it up to UnreliableNarrator plus Doug being, well, eleven. At that age kids tend to be rather self-focused and paranoid, and from Doug's point of view it could actually seem like Mr. Bone has it out for him. It wouldn't be the first time he's thought "I'm the only one" about something. (Thinking he was the only one who covered his eyes during the monster movie, or the only one who didn't like how he looked in his bathing suit at the pool party, for instance.)
13	*** I don't now where you're getting this from. Mr. Bone was never keeping his eye on Doug unless Doug did something to get his attention, whether it was Roger framing him for stealing the yodeling trophy, Doug trying to skip photo swap day and holding everything up, Doug drawing a controversial cartoon making fun of the cafeteria food which became popular among the student body, etc.
14	*** However in "Doug's Bum Rap" it is a little suspicious that even though Doug AND Chalky have the same exact test results, Mr. Bone and Ms. Wingo called in Doug but not Chalky... so unless this is the "Lamar Bone picks on Doug time" this does come off as jarring.
15	*** They called in Doug because Chalky was the "perfect," straight A student/overachiever, so it was assumed there was no way he would ever cheat. Doug was more of a B student (though an unrealistically brilliant writer for his age).
16	*** Bone was frequently conveyed as a CloudCuckooLander with SkewedPriorities. It would make perfect sense if Doug's more strange trivial (and often accidental) follies took Bone's attention than standard ones like the school bully. Still, when the latter was actually put in Bone's face, the treatment was indiscriminate, even towards his own nephew.
17	** In one episode, where the school takes a field trip to see the Mayor, Bone puts it on Doug to interview the Mayor, and telling him if it isn't an interesting interview, it will go on Doug's ''school record''. That's a pretty dick thing for a school employee to say to ''a kid''.
18
19	* The final episode of the Nickelodeon run has Doug realizing he's never met the school principal. However in one of the earliest episodes Doug Gets Busted, Doug DOES go to the principal's office (to get an award for his science project). Who did he meet if not Principal Buttsavitch? Or did the writers just forget Doug had previously been to the Principal?
20	** It's established in the second season Doug's lived in Bluffington for over a year when they hold his anniversary party. It's possible the school got a new principal in the time span.
21	** Because they were still developing some of the characters when they made "Doug Gets Busted." The Principal didn't have a name yet. Not to mention, we never actually saw Doug interact with whoever the principal was at that time...he just went in his office as everyone else waited outside. Also, it may have been sort of sneakily referenced in "Doug Graduates," when one of the students mentions he pulled another student out of a fire in the science lab; remember, Doug thought he had blown up the science lab in "Doug Gets Busted," thanks to the rumor mill at school, which is why he was planning on going on the run.
22
23	* Whenever Doug has one of those daydreams that involves him as Quailman/ Race Canyon/ Smash Adams and it involves the antagonist of his real life being the antagonist in that dream (mostly Roger) I wonder what does goes on in the real world when Doug has those dreams, does he just stand there staring into space? That would be awkward if he did this and the people around him notices this.
24	** This is brought up in the movie. Skeeter says just stands there staring.
25	** I think it was also commented on a few times in the show. One of the other characters would notice he had randomly stopped moving and was staring off into space; so they would start waving their hand in front of his face while speaking to him to snap him out of it.
26	** There are some fantasies he has which he is acting out while he has the fantasy scattered throughout episodes of the Nick series and the Disney series. It seems like he alternates between standing still and acting out his fantasies (depending on what the animators felt like drawing at the moment).
27	** You see exactly what Doug is doing when his daydream ends, usually, whether he's just sitting at his desk in class or just standing there and a friend tries to get his attention.
28
29	* What is it with everyone LITERALLY having different colors?
30	** I heard that it's a spoof on how ethnically diverse cartoons were at the time. That, or some kind of artistic statement.
31	** It's an artistic choice. The creator of the show based it off his drawings he made when he was a kid when he didn't always have flesh-colored crayons/pencils/whatever and had to use other colors.
32	** Because it's a cartoon. Why is it that people are so preoccupied with this when it comes to Doug? That's the better question. Why is Snidely Whiplash from Rocky and Bullwinkle blue? Why are WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons yellow? Why is Huckleberry Hound blue? Why is Stimpy red? Why is Clifford red? Because it's a cartoon. You can do anything you want in cartoons, and animators often do. Cartoon worlds are known for their alternate universe aspects.
33
34	* Was it ever explained what happened to Rodger's dad? Why did they feel the need to have this episode?
35	** In the Disney episode "Doug in Debt", Mr. Klotz divorced his wife, moved to Bloatsburg and took his plastic cow with him, this explains why Roger always wanted a plastic cow ever since he was a infant.
36	*** I'm surprised no one brought this up... why the heck does Roger's parents look like siblings (and cousins)? Roger's mom did live in a trailer park, it makes you wonder.
37	** Roger's dad actually appeared in the episode "Doug's Movie Madness" of the Disney version of Doug. He works as a clown and visited Roger in that episode after seeing him become rich.
38
39	* The episode where Doug accidentally knocks down Patti's old childhood home. He does this by throwing a rock at it. [[FridgeLogic Um, how the hell was that possible? Assuming we're not in the Dragon Ball universe, or in another universe of super-humans, how could an ordinary kid like Doug bring down an entire house by throwing a rock at it?!]]
40	** It's a rickety old house, probably rotted away on the inside. A strong breeze could have knocked it over.
41	*** Doug's rock-throwing started a domino effect, much like Rube Goldberg's contraptions.
42	*** that old housing development could be near the original middle school, the one that had termite issues and collapsed under its own weight in a flashback at the start of the Disney series.
43	*** Because it's a cartoon. It's a cartoon visual gag, just like "the straw that broke the camel's back" visuals, which is a gag which also made an appearance in the show ("Doug's Big Catch," when Mr. Dink loads up his boat with all this heavy equipment, it somehow stays afloat, and then he asks Doug for his keys, and this sends the boat plummeting to the bottom). If you're familiar with cartoons, you should be familiar with cartoon physics. Watch a lot of Wile E. Coyote vs. the Road Runner if you want lessons...you'll see how this stuff works. While "Doug" is generally grounded in reality, it's still a cartoon, which people seem to forget for some reason; it's not meant to be 100% identical to the real world. It's the real world with a twist. If it were meant to be identical to the real world, they would have just done it live action and saved boatloads of money.
44
45	* Does Doug have Autism, because this Troper assumes so as he showed signs of it in "Doug's Lost Weekend"... come to think of it his constant daydreams might also be a sign.
46	** I think if Doug were autistic, WordOfGod would've told us by now, or it would have been mentioned by Doug or one of the other characters by now.
47	** You'd also think he'd do worse in school if he were an undiagnosed autistic or even Asperger's, but it's stated that his grades are perfectly fine.
48	*** Some people on the spectrum get excellent grades.
49	** How is getting addicted to a video game a sign of autism? This is basic human nature. And Doug was able to snap himself out of it, unlike the iphone zombies of today.
50	** Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. No two people on the autism spectrum are the same: just because Doug has some traits associated with it doesn't mean he's autistic, per se, but just because he doesn't have every trait associated with it doesn't mean he isn't autistic.
51
52	* According to the episode "Doug's Cartoon", Principal Buttsavitch took a vacation during the school year... HOW THE (bleep) IS THIS POSSIBLE!?! And the worst part is Doug claims he's never seen what he looks like so he must've been gone for almost the entire year. Now this is a School Principal who doesn't seem to give a flying rat's (bleep) about his job. If anything they should make Vice Principal Bone the new Principal since he seems to call all the shots while Buttsavitch is away but for some reason they didn't.
53	** No, him never seeing what he looks like had nothing to do with him being gone for the whole year. The stories about him make it clear he was heavily involved with things going on in the school, but mysteriously, none of the kids had ever seen him.
54
55	* Who broke Mr. Dink's brand new grill and ruined his big barbecue?
56	** Arguably Doug ''and'' Skeeter, but they did everything they could to try and get him a new one. Although in the end, they made it up to him and his big barbecue wasn't ruined at all.
57
58	* Could Mr. Valentine be suffering from early senility? His verbal tic of fumbling for words suggests an advanced case of a condition known as '''lethologica''' (a psychological disorder that inhibits an individual's ability to articulate thoughts by temporarily forgetting key words, phrases or names in conversation).
59	** This is also common among autistic people, stutterers and people with mental health issues that have nothing to do with dementia, so not necessarily. I'm autistic myself and have always dealt with this whenever I try to speak.
60
61	* In "Doug's Lost Weekend", Doug wins a brand-new video game system that's the equivalent of a Platform/{{SNES}}, which makes sense, as this episode premiered in 1992. When he and Skeeter are setting it up, however, they have to use a screwdriver and actually screw some of the components into the back of their TV. That's the way one would set up something like an Atari 2600, which is about 15 years older than the system Doug and Skeeter have. Systems of the early 1990s connected to a TV via component cables or an RF switch, the latter of which you'd have to attach it to your TV the way you would with a coaxial cable, but it isn't complicated and wouldn't require a screwdriver. Is the thing supposed to be an oddly-designed new retro system of some sort?
62	** Either that or the writers weren't familiar with video games.
63
64	* In "Doug Door to Door", how exactly did a cement truck end up pouring cement into the Booster Bar mixture? Even worse, how did it go undetected for so long when Doug and Mr. Swirly were able to spot it in less than a minute? Is the staff of Mr. Swirly's factory really that lethally incompetent, or could a deep-seated hostility towards Mr. Swirly have led the factory workers to such a blatant act of sabotage?
65
66	* In "Doug's Bum Rap" even though Doug AND Chalky have the same exact test results, why did Mr. Bone and Ms. Wingo called in Doug but not Chalky, it would make more sense if BOTH students came into the office.
67	** Doug is known to be a good student, though not exceptional. Chalky, on the other hand, is known to be quite brilliant, as well as the BMOC and never having been in trouble. No one suspected that he would cheat.
68
69	* Why is Doug's daydreams involving Quailman so inconsistant. I mean how can Vice Principal Bone, Rulemeister, and Robobone coexist in his Quailman daydreams?
70	** The world of someone's imagination doesn't have to stay consistant(or make sense). I have a very vivid and surreal imagination. I often daydream about many alternate variations of the same scenarios and characters. I imagine I am far from alone. I also imagine it is much like how many fictional works and characters go through evolutions before they are finalized(and some times after they are).
71
72	* Why is a whole neighborhood full of houses that were occupied as recently as two years ago so dilapidated?

Context Headscratchers / Doug