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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phineas_and_ferb_png_transparent_image.png
Ferb (left), Phineas (right)
So stick with us 'cause Phineas and Ferb are gonna do it all!

A duo of stepbrothers who spend their entire summer creating astonishing inventions and having endless fun with their friends.


  • The Ace: There's almost nothing Phineas and Ferb can't do.
  • Academic Athlete: Two geniuses with their own athleticism.
  • Adorably Precocious Child: In the sense that they are the most worldly-wise of the kid characters in the show.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Candace sees Phineas and Ferb as this due to their childish naivety, though they are a rare example where they don't do it on purpose.
  • Badass Bookworm: Phineas has the ideas, Ferb makes the blueprints. In Mission Marvel, the brothers are offered an internship at Stark Industries.
  • Born Lucky: "Just Our Luck" shows that Phineas and Ferb are naturally lucky. In the Milo Murphy's Law crossover, it turns out that it's an effect opposite to Murphy's Law that Baljeet dubs "The Phineas and Ferb Effect" - Their mere presence means that things around them tend to work out.
  • Child Prodigy: It's been suggested that Phineas and Ferb have been inventing together since when they first met.
  • Children Are Innocent: Due to their persistent optimism, Phineas and Ferb are usually unaffected by and oblivious to the world's evil side.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Some of their inventions come with unexpected results. As demonstrated by the Swiss army knife, among other things. Whatever tools the heroes need to accomplish their goals, they will more often than not have them on hand.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Ferb does most of the engineering for their projects. Phineas is quite handy with tools.
  • Godzilla Threshold: As it turns out they and their inventions are this to Perry, Agent P is fully aware of just what these two are capable of and how they could be a massive help on his missions, but thanks in part to his concern for their safety and the rules regarding his Secret Identity, he keeps them on the sidelines unless things get so dire that he literally has no other choice but to call them in.
  • Guile Hero: Being the geniuses they are, it's not surprising they have their moments of this, notably their outwitting of evil!Baljeet and their own trap-infested computer-controlled tower.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: They do everything together.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: They think Candace is a Cool Big Sis and are oblivious to the fact that she is always trying to get them in trouble. Even when she straight up tells them that's what she's trying to do.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes: Phineas and Ferb have blue eyes and a childlike innocence about them, their Child Prodigy tendencies aside.
  • Innocent Prodigy: Both brothers are creative and technical geniuses, but use their talents more for their own amusement than anything else. They also manage to regularly figure out the solutions to other characters' problems, while still maintaining an oddly childlike sense of naivete.
  • Jack of All Trades: These two display all kinds of skills, different jobs, and are resourcefully versatile despite being children.
  • Karma Houdini: Played With as they don't do it with malicious intent, but a running gag in the series is Phineas and Ferb's chaotic inventions disappearing before Mom and Dad get home, with Candace trying to get them in trouble but the parents just viewing the boys as angels, though admittedly they are two of the nicest people you could posibly meet.
  • Mad Scientist: They are not crazy, but they do create things like city-spanning roller coaster rides, time machine and tree houses that convert into Humongous Mechas. Phineas even dresses the part, lab coat, gloves, crazy hair and all, in "One Good Scare Ought to Do It!"
  • Messy Hair: Both of them have rather unkempt hair.
  • Mr. Fixit: Being handy with tools, they are skilled with both inventing and fixing things.
  • Nice Guy: They are both very friendly and often use their inventions to help their friends and family.
  • Non-Standard Character Design: Both have rather unusually-shaped heads shaped like the first letters in their names; Phineas' is thin and pointy, while Ferb's is long and rectangular.
  • Oblivious to Hatred: They believe themselves to be on good terms with Candace, even if it's clear she finds them annoying and rarely supports their projects.
  • Person of Mass Construction: Not all of their inventions are massive, but they're certainly capable of building city-spanning creations in less than a day when they feel like doing so.
  • Protagonist Title: They are the main characters and both of their names are featured in the show's title.
  • Red/Green Contrast: When it comes to making gadgets and building larger-than-life buildings, there's the redhead Phineas, who is the initiator of ideas, and his green-haired stepbrother Ferb, who is an an action-speaks-louder-than-words kind of guy, who are gonna do it all.
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni:
    • Phineas is the energetic Red Oni, Ferb is the quiet and stoic Blue Oni.
    • Both of them are the laid back and cool headed Blue Oni's to Candace's aggressive and neurotic Red Oni (save for when she's being a killjoy).
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Downplayed.
    • You'd think with everything Phineas and Ferb can accomplish over the course of a day, they'd make one of their projects to find a cure to a deadly disease, or to solve world hunger, or something. Unlike the trope namer they're kids; genius or no, it's not really fair to ask them to start solving global problems when they're only... less than 15. Alternatively, the constantly brought-up theme of making summer last may be Phineas acknowledging that his genius comes with responsibilities, and he wants to have as much fun as he can before he gets old enough that it really becomes time to start living up to them.
    • It's been implied in the show that they do make a difference for the Tri-State area with their inventions and schemes. They helped a jobless dancer once and lots of other people, just not the whole world. Some of their schemes are wildly successful business ideas, they helped save Christmas for all of Danville once, and it's been implied that the money they make and spend is a great boon to Danville's economy. When asked if they normally wash the house by raising it up and spinning it, Phineas replies that they usually use a giant bathtub, but that it's being currently used by the city as a reservoir.
  • Refuge in Audacity: The reason why their mom never believes Candace. If your daughter said "Your sons are building an escalator to the moon!", would you believe her?
  • Sibling Team: Two stepbrothers who are always working together.
  • Vague Age: Lampshaded in The Movie, when Doofenshmirtz-2 says he did anything a puppet said when he was their age. Phineas says, "How old do you think we are?" Doof-2 says it's hard to tell with the one eye.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years: Downplayed: they are savvy in machinery and academics, yet have the interests of typical children.

    Phineas Flynn 

Voiced by: Vincent Martella (English) Other Languages 

Debut: "Rollercoaster"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/4e5a3bd0_b273_4f89_bc62_7776f72740ec.png
Every day's a brand new day, you gotta carpe diem!
"I know what we're gonna do today!"

A cheerful boy who's always coming up with wild ideas of what to do over summer vacation, from building a humongous rollercoaster to traveling into outer space to breeding giant mutant sea-monkeys. Even ordinary activities such as running a lemonade stand or making ice-cream sundaes get taken up to eleven when Phineas gets involved.


  • 10-Minute Retirement: When he is brutally brainwashed in "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted!" and when he is unable to come up with a way to escape the island in "Summer Belongs to You!".
  • Allergic to Routine: His projects for the summer are a result of this. Note that all his projects and games tend to be a variant of Calvinball.
  • Alliterative Name: Phineasnote  Flynn.
  • All-Loving Hero: Even to the most hostile of individuals, Phineas exhibits nothing but kindness. Most of the time.
  • Animal Motifs: Fish, present in his bed (a raft with an aquarium with two fish pictures behind it) and bird, present in the totem in his side of the room, in his physical appearance and his Animal-Themed Superbeing identity ('The Beak').
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: As the Beak.
  • Arc Symbol: Triangles, ranging from the shape of his head to appearing in the background of pretty much every episode.
  • Badass Adorable: He built many crazy inventions and he's only a pre-teen. He's done a lot of stuff that most kids would merely dream of (even helped save two worlds in The Movie). He can wipe out an army of invading robots with a baseball launcher and a robot dog as effectively as anyone else. He also fought an evil dictator from another dimension solo (however briefly) and lived to tell the tale (or not). In Mission Marvel, the brothers are offered an internship at Stark Industries.
  • Bad Liar: In "The Beak", he scratches his ear, stutters and giggles nervously whenever he lies in that episode, and he lies only to Isabella, for that matter. Phineas also lies to Candace in "Out of Toon" and "The Curse of Candace", in the former that the audience loves her as the Big Bad, and the latter to prove that she's not a vampire, but ultimately ends up turning her to dust, i.e. killing her.
  • Belated Love Epiphany: "Act Your Age" reveals that Phineas only started to realize his feelings for Isabella after she finally gave up on him and stopped hanging around him all the time.
  • Berserk Button: Takes offense to his inventions being called "stupid" and will go on the defense.
  • Beware the Nice Ones:
    • " GET ON THE TRIKE!!!"
    • In The Movie, as well as in "Mission Marvel". The long episodes tend to draw this out of him.
    Buford: I always told [Candace], "Don't ever make Phineas angry. You wouldn't like him when he's angry."
    • This eventually gets lampshaded.
    Buford: This must be a special episode. He's yelling at his sister again.
    • This manifests itself in other ways too. Phineas is generally oblivious to malice, but once it gets through to him that he's dealing with a villain, being a mechanical genius means that he can quickly produce a contraption for battle and kick ass with it.
  • Birthday Episode: "Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama!"
  • Boyish Shorts: Phineas—who is at most ten years old—is always depicted wearing shorts, except in the winter. Meanwhile, his quiet, stoic stepbrother Ferb is shown wearing rolled-up pants. In addition when Phineas builds something, sometimes the person delivering the materials will comment on how young he is to be building it.
  • Break the Cutie:
    • In "Phineas And Ferb Get Busted", when Phineas and Ferb are sent to a military school-esque summer camp meant to rob them of their creative tendencies (which it does), or, at least within Candace's dream within Perry's dream.
    • Also in "Summer Belongs To You" when everyone is stranded on an island, Phineas and Ferb are about to fail their plan of following the sun around the planet during the summer solstice.
    • And in the Christmas Special, when all of Danville is inexplicably placed on the naughty list, causing Phineas to briefly question his own morality in the song "Where Did We Go Wrong?".
    • And in "Bully Bromance Breakup", which reveals that he will snap if he's forced to go through a day without building or creating something.
    • He definitely becomes heartbroken in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against the Universe, after he and the others get rejected by Candace when they come to retrieve her on Feebla-Oot.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: In "Act Your Age", Phineas developed romantic feelings for Isabella during high school, but as he was unaware that she had always had a crush on him, he initially didn't admit his feelings because he thought his love for her would be unrequited.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: He is prone to these, sometimes explaining potential risks in his typical cheerful tone. One knows that things are bleak when Phineas despairs or panics.
  • Character Catch Phrase:
    • Whenever Phineas comes up with an idea for an invention, he proclaims "I know what we're gonna do today!"
    • He says "Hey, where's Perry?" whenever Perry disappears off to work and shouts "Oh there you are, Perry!" when Perry returns.
    • [Adult: "Aren't you a little young to be (something both he and Ferb are doing)?"] "Yes. Yes I am."
  • Characterization Marches On: His slightly snarky and mischievous streak in early episodes (even more so in the show's original pitch) essentially vanished in later ones.
  • Chaste Hero: He is completely oblivious to Isabella's crush. If "Act Your Age" is any indication, he will remain that way for years to come.
  • Cheerful Child: He is an innocent little boy with a big, cheerful smile.
  • Childhood Friend Romance: With Isabella. Neither of them were brave enough to admit their feelings for each other until college was right around the corner.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: "A universal law without chance of appeal?! That's despotism!" (About the law of gravity)
  • Complexity Addiction: Literally—he will suffer withdrawal symptoms if he has to tackle a difficult task straightforwardly, without the aid of crazy inventions. Sometimes causes problems for his friends (especially Isabella) when it is clear they would have preferred something simple, but Phineas cannot help going completely over the top.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Phineas has a dry wit, though his "deadpan" is so subtle it can be hard to tell.
  • Determinator: He believes that nothing is impossible and refuses to give up because of this belief.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Phineas' great enthusiasm sometimes leads him to rush into things without thinking about the consequences. Things generally work out, but...
    Phineas: "A brain booster: in hindsight, not our best idea."
  • Disappeared Dad: No canon mention is ever made of Phineas' biological father, though he is officially stated to not be Doofenshmirtz. (There is a mention in the non-canon Star Wars special when long lost' Candace asked Phineas if their parents divorced. Phineas says it's a funny story, and then he starts to tell it, only to be interrupted by the Death Star exploding.)
  • Distant Duet: With Isabella in "Act Your Age".
  • Does Not Like Spam: In "Doofapus", it's revealed that Phineas doesn't like zucchini.
  • Everyone Can See It: With Isabella. Everyone but Phineas himself seems to know that she has a massive crush on him. By the time they are in high school, Phineas starts to develop romantic feelings toward Isabella as well; though neither of them are initially aware of the other's feelings because the both of them Cannot Spit It Out.
  • The Everyman: Varies. In some episodes he's portrayed like this, in others he's a Cheerful Child.
  • "Eureka!" Moment: Usually since he gains an idea of what they are gonna do today
    Phineas: Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!
  • The Face: Phineas is the one talking with whoever the group needs for their latest "best day ever", from city officials to delivery guys to the Fireside Girls. The best example is persuading Love Handel to reunite for a concert while directing the girls to make a stage. This stands out even more considering his brother Ferb, who rarely ever talks.
  • Fatal Flaw: His Horrible Judge of Character and Oblivious to Love tendencies. His optimism and willingness to see the best in others can make it hard for him to determine who are bad people, and cause him to be unaware of Candace's attempts to bust him. Additionally, him being oblivious to Isabella's feelings almost guaranteed the fall of their relationship, as he had to be told about it directly to his face, not to mention after he'd developed feelings for her himself.
  • Fun Personified: He puts the fun into inventing.
  • Gag Nose: His nose takes up most of his face, making him look like a pointy letter P when seen from the side.
  • Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Phineas isn't even street enough for that.
  • Hairstyle Inertia: Kept the same Messy Hair from his youth as an adult.
  • Heroic BSoD: He tends to fall into these when he is actively prevented from achieving his desires, such as when being brainwashed in "Phineas and Ferb Gets Busted!", or when stranded on a deserted island with no obvious building materials in "Summer Belongs to You!", and when Baljeet decides to climb a mountain without using any of his inventions in "Bully Bromance Breakup".
  • Heroic Sacrifice:
    • When he sacrifices his memories of Perry as a secret agent so that Perry can remain his pet in The Movie.
    • He sacrifices himself to save Isabella in "Night of the Living Pharmacists".
  • Horrible Judge of Character: A side effect of his near-eternal optimism.
    • He doesn't realize Doofenshmirtz-2 (or for that matter Doof-1, but that was more understandable under the circumstances) is evil until he is told.
    • It takes him a lot to figure out that Mitch isn't friendly.
    • Apparently averted with Buford; Phineas regularly refers to him as a "bully", but he rarely seems to actually disapprove of Buford's bullying and apparently sees nothing wrong with having Buford in his social circle and letting him pick on Baljeet.
    • He doesn't know about Isabella having a crush on him until he's told directly. Even then he finds that too hard to believe.
  • Identical Grandson: In "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein", he's like the creator of Perry the Platypustein. This is a bit weird, considering how no mention is made of Phineas-stein actually being related to Phineas.
  • Improbable Sports Skills: In The Movie Phineas uses his baseball skills to destroy the satellite dish while deflecting Doofenshmirtz-2's shot from the baseball launcher, which is the weapon's rate of fire being able to launch in space.
  • In-Series Nickname: Buford often calls him "Dinnerbell" because of his triangular-shaped head. It started as a bullying name, but later became this when he got Character Development.
  • Innocently Insensitive: He's almost never intentionally malicious, but his Oblivious to Love tendencies often make him this. There have also been a few rare but noticeable moments where he neglects Ferb's well-being while distracted and injures him by accident. In "Save Summer", the pep talk he gives Candace to help overcome her arachnophobia just makes her more nervous at several points, though it's ultimately successful.
  • Irony: in "Act Your Age", Phineas' Unrequited Love Switcheroo.
  • Jerkass Ball: He is uncharacteristically harsh to Candace in "Mission Marvel". Later Lampshaded by Buford in "Phineas and Ferb Save Summer".
    Buford: This must be a special episode. He's yelling at his sister again.
  • Jerkass Realization: He'll end up having this on the odd occasion he lets his anger get the best of him, notably in "Across the 2nd Dimension" and "Mission Marvel".
  • Keet: He is an enthusiastic, energized and overall very friendly, extroverted kid.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of The Movie.
  • The Leader: He's the one who comes up with and leads the kids' projects of the day, the one usually responsible for talking to any outside authorities they encounter, and strongly implied to be the reason why their entire group of friends comes together in the first place. (In "Last Day of Summer" after he and Ferb are wiped from existence, Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella start behaving very coldly towards one another and to Candace, as though they never really became friends.)
  • Leitmotif: Two quick glockenspiel dings, followed by an Ethereal Choir whenever he says, "I know what we're gonna do today."
  • Loophole Abuse: When he's too young to legally do something, he can often resort to this. For instance, he's too young to drive and thus participate in a motor race, so he has Ferb control the car remotely with a wireless device instead.
  • Master of the Mixed Message: It's clear that he considers Isabella to be one of his closest friends, but any romantic gestures on his part are ambiguous at best and unintentional most of the time. "Act Your Age" shows that that he remains oblivious to her crush up through high school, but during which he develops a crush on her.
  • Meaningful Name: Phineas is an energetic boy who tries to make summer as fun as possible while making expert use of Refuge in Audacity. Sounds a lot like another boy named Phineas. However, Word Of God claims that he was named after Phi(n)leas Fogg.
  • Motor Mouth: In contrast to Ferb's silence.
  • Mr. Imagination: In one episode, Buford even lampshades Phineas' ability to bend the laws of physics to his will.
  • Nice Guy: He has gotten truly angry only a handful of times in the entire series and managed to recover fairly quickly each time. He even agreed to help his sister bust him once without batting an eye just because it would make her happy, and that was on the one occasion where he even acknowledged that she was trying to bust him at all.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: He's enthusiastic about everything, including things that would scare most people. Especially on display in "One Good Scare Ought To Do It!", but even in the standard episodes he gets lines like this:
    "In case we capsize, your seat cushions can function as a headstone!"
    • In "Terrifying Tri-State Trilogy of Terror", his intended ending to his spooky story was that he and his friends get ripped to shreds by the evil platypuses. He revises it after they all complain for a happier ending.
  • No Brows: Though he does have brows, he doesn't have them for most of the time.
  • Oblivious to Love:
    • Played with throughout the series, to the chagrin of Isabella. The most prominent example has to be in "Summer Belongs to You", with Isabella singing "City of Love" and all.
    • Oh SO unfortunately for Isabella: He can acknowledge openly every OTHER couple and their obvious attractions to each other, but the idea of Isabella liking him never occurs to him. If Act Your Age is of any indication, everyone put two and two together and eventually figured it out, but it didn't bring Phineas out of the dark.
    • In the 2011 movie, he's really happy when Isabella kisses him (albeit really shocked) and it seems like he wants to do/say something else before their memories are wiped, but never gets the chance. The movie just never clarifies whether he liked the kiss but didn't think of it as love, or wasn't really aware of them - which would push his Oblivious to Love status up to eleven.
    • Averted by two alternate timeline/universe version of him, such as from ancient China in "Doof Dynasty", who is shown to have a crush on Princess Isabella. The other is his Star Wars counterpart with Pilot Isabella, Han Solo's rival.
  • Official Couple: Phineas wises up after ten years and gets together with Isabella in "Act Your Age".
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: If he's ever not happy for an extended period of time, you know things have taken a turn for the worst, or sweet platypus, you are screwed. Lampshaded in "Save Summer":
    Buford: This must be a special episode. He's yelling at his sister again.
  • Phrase Catcher: "Aren't you a little young to be (verb)?"
    Phineas: Yes. Yes, I am. I get that a lot.
  • The Pollyanna: Phineas has near-constant optimism and a can-do attitude. Because of this, he quite literally can and does achieve the impossible, every episode, with the help of his friends and family. That being said, he can occasionally crack...
  • The Protagonist: He appears to have this role although the show features two protagonists.
  • Pungeon Master: Phineas has hints of this, mostly in "A-G-L-E-T" and "The Beak".
  • Relationship Upgrade: With Isabella, after high school.
  • Rules Lawyer: Unintentionally, but Phineas tends to think outside the box and end up coming up with ideas to circumvent restrictions without even realizing he's doing it.
  • Sarcasm-Blind: When Candace informs him that she's being sarcastic, he's happily shocked and goes off track complimenting her for her believability.
    Phineas: Well, y'know how we do something new every day?
    Candace: (pulling a priceless false-shocked expression) Noo...
    Beat
    Phineas: ...Oh, well, we try to build some big project, or do something—
    Candace: I'm aware of the concept, Phineas, I was just being sarcastic.
    Phineas: ...Really? Hey, that was pretty good. Wow, I totally fell for it. Ferb, I totally fell for it!
  • Shipper on Deck: He's supportive of Candace's relationship with Jeremy, which makes his obliviousness towards Isabella's crush that much funnier (for the audience) and more frustrating (for Isabella).
  • Single-Target Sexuality: Even though he took a long time to notice, he never romantically saw any girl besides Isabella.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: Phineas talks like this in "Nerdy Dancin'":
    Phineas: (to Ferb) So, brother of mine, what endeavor shall we engage in today?
    (Jeremy walks up to the both of them)
    Phineas: Hey, Jeremy. What's the haps, big guy?
  • Strong Girl, Smart Guy: Smart Guy to Isabella's Strong Girl. He's good with tools, Isabella is tough and physically capable.
  • Techno Babble: Goes into this from time to time when talking about how their inventions work.
  • Unrequited Love Switcheroo: "Act Your Age" reveals that Isabella finally gave up on him when they started high school, concluding that he'd simply never realize that she ever had a crush on him. It was around that time that he started developing feelings for her. Though, she was right in the sense that he actually never did figure it out on his own — he had to be told about her crush on him after high school was over, by his friends, when he was fully convinced that he was stuck in the friend-zone.
  • Vocal Evolution: His voice has gotten significantly deeper since the first season, as his voice actor has gotten older. However, the actor does still pitch his voice up a bit for Phineas. In "Act Your Age", a special episode that takes place ten years in the future, his voice naturally sounds a bit more grown-up.
  • Voice for the Voiceless: He speaks most of the sentences for Ferb.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: To Perry in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension, thinking he was just a cover and that Perry didn't really love him and Ferb, not realizing that Perry had been hiding his secret agent identity to avoid being relocated to another family.
  • Will They or Won't They?: With Isabella. they do, or rather, Will.

    Ferbs "Ferb" Fletcher 

Voiced (when he actually talks) by: Thomas Brodie-Sangster (English, 2007-2015), Danny Jacob (English, singing)note , David Errigo Jr. (English, 2019-present)Other Languages 

Debut: "Rollercoaster"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bcc2bc28_0b4f_4ced_bf39_642f9b8d44d1.png
Yo, diggin' my ride from outer space...
"Actually lads, I'm not a Brit or a yank. I'm just Ferb."

Phineas' stepbrother and best friend. A quiet and stoic boy who usually says no more than one or two lines per episode. He's also a mechanical genius who gladly helps his brother assemble whatever contrived contraption they need for their latest scheme.


  • Agent Mulder: He believes in curses and is reluctant to try to fight them. He blocked his eyes when he thought Candace was a gorgon, and he backed away when Candace thought she was a vampire.
  • Alliterative Name: Ferb Fletcher.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: As the Beak.
  • Arc Symbol: Rectangles, ranging from his general body shape to the ones floating in the background.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: Ferb may not say much, but it's no reason to underestimate him. See Minored in Ass-Kicking.
  • Big Little Brother: Is younger than Phineas by two months despite being taller and more stoic. Downplayed by how slight the age difference is and the fact that it is almost never alluded to in the series proper.
  • Chick Magnet: He's surprisingly popular with the ladies, including Vanessa. In "Thaddeus and Thor", Phineas explains to Candace that they don't build to compete, but for fun, with Ferb adding, "And for the ladies..." with a suggestive purr and Eyebrow Waggle.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: One episode showed that if you channeled into his brainwaves, all you'd see was a psychedelic swirl of color. Judging by this and other brief glimpses we see into his mind, he is one of the few truly stoic examples of this trope.
  • Complexity Addiction: Although his version doesn't exhibit craziness like Phineas, as seen in "Bully Bromance Break Up". He merely states that he was about to scream from not doing inventions.
  • Covert Pervert: Despite being stoic and reserved, Ferb does have a slight perverted side, such as when he is joking that he and Phineas make their inventions to impress "the ladies" while making a suggestive expression.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Despite the fact that he rarely talks, many of his Once an Episode lines are this. He also pulls off the silent version of this trope quite well.
  • Declarative Finger: Ferb is often depicted in this pose, and delivers some of his lines with it.
  • Dissonant Serenity: Ferb remains unfazed in the face of things even Phineas reacts to. His "zany serenity" is even lampshaded in "Invasion of the Ferb-Snatchers".
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: The one time he's actually bothered by it is in The Beak, where Isabella is amazed at Phineas being the Beak, while Ferb, who was operating the legs, just stops in his tracks, clearly annoyed.
    Ferb: Um, hello? Entire lower-half of superhero here? I guess there's no glory in thighs.
  • Emotionless Boy: In addition to not speaking much, he doesn't emote much either, having a straight face almost 24/7. He also rarely gets angry and upset. Phineas interprets them.
  • Evil Brit: Only in Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars (and not for more than a few minutes in that).
  • Exotic Eye Designs: The eye closest to the camera is small and round, while the eye furthest away is big and oval-shaped. They change shapes whenever his head turns.
  • Handy Feet: Another of his numerous inexplicable skills.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: When he sacrifices his memories of Perry as a secret agent so that Perry can remain his pet in The Movie. In "Night of the Living Pharmacists", he attacks several of the zombies and exposes himself to them in the process so Phineas and Isabella can continue on.
  • Hidden Depths: Who knew he could rap? Plus his mad dancing skills in "Nerdy Dancing". So much that he can moonwalk up a wall! Note that Phineas did not have to look at him when asking about secret second lives.
    "Put your hand down, Ferb."
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: He's treated as a partner instead of a real sidekick, but otherwise fulfills the role of one. He can dance, he can rap, he can play almost any instrument, he's great at video games, he has taken down Buford with one move, he can speak Dolphin and Martian, he has Improbable Aiming Skills. Sometimes it looks as though the only thing he can't do is speak for more than 46 seconds, and even then... Emphasized in "It's No Picnic", which shows that, brilliant as he is, Phineas finds it more difficult to carry out his plans without Ferb around. He also ends up as one to Vanessa in "Vanessassary Roughness".
  • Identical Grandson: To Ferb-gor in "The Monster of Phineas-n-Ferbenstein". He also looks exactly like his grandfather Reginald Fletcher.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: In "Ain't No Kiddie Ride", Ferb uses a slingshot to shoot a quarter into the quarter slot of the former children's ride (currently modified to be a working rocket) that Candace was at that moment falling to her doom in.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: Ferb can teleport, speaks several languages including Martian, and is able to build anything the plot requires.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Implied in "Druselsteinoween" when Ferb graciously sings the Dance of Romance song for Vanessa and Monty Monogram. Ten years later in "Act Your Age", Ferb and Vanessa are together.
  • Kidanova: Ferb makes a quip about how he builds stuff "for the ladies." Ironically, however, Ferb has only shown genuine interest in Vanessa, which could make him the opposite of this trope, so he may have been joking.
  • The Lancer: To Phineas.
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: As a Heroic Sacrifice at the end of The Movie.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Non-confrontational by nature, but pick a fight with him and he will kick your ass.
  • Likes Older Women: He has a crush on Vanessa, who is approximately 6 years his senior. Eventually becomes a May–December Romance when they tie the knot in "Act Your Age".
  • Living a Double Life: As mentioned in Hidden Depths, Ferb is living one, given Phineas isn't even looking when he tells Ferb to put his hand down.
  • Mandatory Line: Once an Episode, he speaks.
  • Manly Tears: He cries in The Movie at the sight of Phineas' second dimension counterpart falsely believing he's reuniting with Perry.
  • Minored in Ass-Kicking: Ferb takes Buford down in one Vulcan inspired move after he "gets in his face". Likewise although "Vanessasary Roughness" focuses on her as Action Girl he had some bad moves of his own.
  • Missing Mom: No mention is ever made of Ferb's biological mother.
  • Nerd Action Hero: Many of his most impressive feats require as much physical skill as creative brilliance. He can climb up a building using only plungers held in his hands, for instance.
  • No Brows: His brows aren't visible that much.
  • Not-So-Imaginary Friend: His pet chameleon, Steve.
  • Not So Stoic: Although he is the most calm and cool-headed character in the show, he is not afraid to let his emotions show sometimes.
  • Official Couple: With Vanessa in "Act Your Age".
  • Offscreen Teleportation: He has displayed this ability a few times.
  • Omniglot: Knows Dolphin, Martian, Japanese and whatever else the plot requires. According to the movie, he's a perfect imitation of Perry. The creators state that that sound is very hard to do, but Ferb's actor did it spot on.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: "Ferb" is short for... something. Lampshaded by Candace in one episode when she states that even she doesn't know his full name. Dan Povenmire revealed on Twitter that his real name is Ferbs, which Vanessa addresses him by in "Act Your Age".
  • Out of Focus: True to his nature, he mostly serves in a supporting role not just in regular episodes, but also most of the long specials and even the movie. However, he does get his own subplot in "Summer Belongs to You!" and is Temporarily a Villain in "Phineas and Ferb Star Wars".
  • Precocious Crush: On Vanessa.
  • The Quiet One: Lampshaded in "Rollercoaster":
    Isabella: Does your stepbrother ever talk?
    Phineas: Ferb? He's more a man of action.
  • The Reliable One: He's often in the background doing the lion's share of construction for many of the brothers' inventions, and after said inventions are completed he is usually the one at the controls making sure everything runs smoothly.
  • Rousing Speech: When his and Phineas' chameleon Steve runs off, and they and Isabella can't seem to find them and are about to give up, Ferb delivers this kind of speech to urge them to keep finding Steve.
  • The Speechless: Subverted. He was originally intended to be this.
  • Shipper on Deck: Seems to be this for Phineas and Isabella. In Happy Birthday Isabella, he even makes up an excuse so the two of them can spend time alone.
  • The Silent Bob: Despite being a main character, he only speaks about once or twice per episode. He also rarely shows facial expressions, but can usually be interpreted by others, especially his brother Phineas. Sometimes they do fail to, though, usually for humorous effect. By "Act Your Age", he seems to have grown out of it a bit, and talks more than usual.
  • Silent Partner: He's Phineas' main accomplish and one who barely talks.
  • Silent Snarker: Ferb could count since he rarely talks, and spends more time rolling his eyes at the weirdness of his peers. He does some Deadpan Snarking too, though.
  • The Smart Guy: He's relegated to this role in the movie when Perry joins the team. Notably, while he does get a few awesome moments of his own throughout the movie and helps out in the final battle with everyone else, he's the only protagonist (including Candace and Doofenshmirtz) that doesn't do anything major in the climactic final showdown with Doof-2.
  • Speaks Fluent Animal: He can communicate with dolphins.
  • The Stoic: Ferb does not show much facial expression and only occasionally smiles or frowns.
  • Stuffy Brit: Ferb kinda counts. He has plenty of warmth, he just shows it as often as any emotion, which is very rarely.
  • Suddenly Fluent in Gibberish: He revealed that he was able to speak Martian during a trip to Mars.
  • Team Chef: Ferb is usually the chef when the gang is up to cooking-related activities.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Ferb loves himself a good submarine sandwich. Also, haggis, as revealed in "Where's Perry?".
  • Temporarily a Villain: His alternate counterpart in "Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars", after being hit by Darthenshmirtz's Sith-inator. The creators note that this was the only way they could believably start a fight between him and Phineas.
  • Tuckerization: Named after a friend of Dan Povenmire and Swampy, who is also quite talented in building things.
  • Vocal Dissonance: He has a much deeper voice compared to the other boys; it's more noticeable with his singing voice (which is mostly Danny Jacob, the show's main songwriter).

Other main characters:

    Perry the Platypus (Agent P) 

Voiced by: Dee Bradley Baker

Debut: "Rollercoaster"

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7d7e940d_ca4e_4e32_abf7_cb8981bf3cfb.png
He's got more than just mad skill
He's got a beaver tail and a bill
"Ctrtrtrtrtr..."

Phineas and Ferb's faithful pet. He's a platypus, and they don't do much... or so the boys think. Secretly, he's actually a highly skilled secret agent for O.W.C.A. (the Organization Without a Cool Acronym), and he usually slips away Once an Episode to deal with whatever crazy scheme his arch nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz, has cooked up.

For tropes pertaining to his appearances in Milo Murphy's Law, see here.


A trope example? PERRY the trope example!?

  • Animal Espionage: Secretly Agent P of the Organization Without a Cool Acronym. All other agents in the OWCA are also animals (and on at least one occasion, a potted plant).
  • Animal Superheroes: Played even straighter in "Mission Marvel"
  • Animal Talk: Apparently, "platypus" and "beaver" are sufficiently-similar languages for cross-species communication. It must be the tails.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Doofenshmirtz. Perry's job is to thwart his daily scheme, in fact his entire life seems to revolve around it.
  • Aside Glance: Perry is a master of this. Of course, as his nemesis is Doofenshmirtz, he would almost have to be.
  • Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Despite the fact that being a mindless pet is his cover, and despite his serious demeanor as a secret agent, Perry genuinely cares for Phineas and Ferb (and Candace to a somewhat lesser extent) and does everything he can to protect them.
  • Badass Adorable: A skilled secret agent who truly loves his host family.
  • Badass Biker: He has been shown riding scooters occasionally.
  • Badass Driver: He can drive a variety of vehicles, including a banana truck.
  • Badass in Distress: Now and then. He has been captured by certain villains (such as the Regurgitator and Doofenshmirtz-2) and on rare occasions needs help getting out of regular Doofenshmirtz's traps.
  • Bag of Holding: His hat, in which he keeps many useful tools, which he frequently puts to good use to escape a trap. The hat - along with some other tools - are in turn hidden in his fur, which also serves as a Bag of Holding.
  • Bash Brothers: With Phineas in The Movie's final battle.
  • Big Brother Instinct: He's normally happy to foil Doofenshmirtz's plan and leave him to escape and defeat him the next time, but any time his plan (indirectly) threatens Phineas and Ferb (or the rest of his family), he quickly beats him and once left him handcuffed to be arrested, though Doof would later escape. This was demonstrated again in the Across the Second Dimension movie when he protects the boys from Platyborg, exposing his identity as a secret agent as a result. It was demonstrated again in the Save Summer special when he helps Doof save the entire world population (including his family) from the wrath of Aloyse von Roddenstein, who ends up being arrested and taken into O.W.C.A. custody.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Being the most action-oriented character, he does this part quite often when necessary.
  • Cartoony Tail: Has a flat, beaver-like tail. In Real Life, a platypus' tail is rounder and covered in fur.
  • Character Focus: Though he has no shortage of screentime normally, the episode "Sidetracked" focuses particularly on him. Not only is most of the episode focused on his B-plot, all the A-plot scenes are shown from his point of view while he is in pet mode and we don't get to see any of the human characters' faces (except when they bend down).
  • Civilized Animal: Perry can go from "mindless pet" to "intelligent animal with instincts" to "practically human" depending on both his and the episode's needs. In "Doof 101" Heinz successfully convinces a class of high school students that Perry is simply a small man who happens to look like a platypus.
  • Clark Kenting: Doofenshmirtz almost never recognizes him without his Clark Kent-style fedora. It's even started to aggravate Perry, about the third time he wasn't recognized, you can see Perry sigh and slap it on. In Doofenshmirtz's defense, he's justified in that all platypuses, platypii, platypeople, whatever, are superficially identical (with Phineas noting Informed Flaws in all the wrong ones).
    • Doof's evil(er) counterpart in Across the Second Dimension lampshades this by trying to teach him to recognize Perry without the hat, after seeing an instance where Perry engaged in combat while hatless and Doof still didn’t identity him until he put it on. To show how bad Doof-1 is about recognizing Perry, in the movie, he already knew Phineas and Ferb's pet platypus was named Perry and had seen that Perry fighting the Platyborg, and that wasn't enough to make a connection. No wonder Perry got aggravated.
    • In the one occasion Doofenshmirtz did recognize Perry without the hat, he was trying to impress his professor, who said Perry couldn't be Doof's nemesis because he "doesn't even have a hat". Even despite insisting that it's a trick, Doofenshmirtz is convinced within a few minutes that the platypus in his trap really isn't Perry the Platypus.
    • When Perry switched bodies with Candace, the hat was what made Doofenshmirtz (and Major Monogram) recognize Perry. "A teenage girl?" "Perry the Teenage Girl!"
    • "A banjo-playing platypus?" Perry puts on his secret agent fedora "Perry the Banjo-Playing Platypus?!"
    • "What kind of a plumber are you?" "A platypus plumber?" "Perry the platypus plumber?" "PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!"
    • "A platypus balloon?" "A Perry the Platypus balloon?"
    • Taken to a ridiculous extreme in one episode where Doof captures Perry and Perry removes his hat while in the trap. Doof coos over the poor little regular platypus that "mean old Perry the Platypus" replaced himself with and springs the release. Perry immediately attacks and puts his hat back on. Doof's reaction? "I don't know how you got out of my trap, or what you did with that other platypus..."
    • In "Flop Starz", Perry disguises himself using only his hat and a pair of Groucho Marx glasses. Doofenshmirtz mistakes Perry for being a temp, and doesn't recognize Perry at all until Perry takes off the glasses.
      Doofenshmirtz: PERRY THE PLATYPUS?! You're a temp? Are times that hard?
    • In one episode, Doof programs his inator to defend itself against Perry while he leaves to put his evil scheme into action. The inator can't recognize Perry without his hat either, and gets violently dismantled rather quickly.
  • Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Ironically he's this to Doofensmirtz despite being his Arch-Enemy, though the two do treat each other as friends when not fighting. Perry has had to save Doofenshmirtz multiple times from accidents caused by his own stupidity.
  • The Comically Serious: Perry is more serious-minded and professional than anyone else involved in his plotline, only rarely smiles and often expresses displeasure at Monogram and Carl goofing around or the absurd nature of Doofenshmirtz's plots. But he's still a platypus in a hat busting a ridiculous Mad Scientist.
  • Cone of Shame: Worn in "Hail Doofania!" because he fell into a sandpaper factory.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The Movie reveals that Perry has a back-up plan in case things get to be too much for him to handle: hand things over to Phineas and Ferb. And just in case they need something to work with, he has every single invention the boys have built on standby. In a similar vein, Perry almost always has something that will allow him to get out of Doof’s daily trap, no matter how absurd it is- and if he doesn’t, he’ll easily think of a way to do so since Doof isn't as smart as he thinks.
  • Deadly Dodging: While saving his fellow agents from Normbots, as well as on various occasions when fighting Doof.
  • Deep Cover Agent: He acts like a normal pet around his family.
  • Detective Animal: His job is to stop Doofenshmirtz and other villains who serve as a bigger threat.
  • Deuteragonist: Shares the role with Candace. Perry's adventures as a secret agent make him a Hero of Another Story to Phineas and Ferb, and each episode revolves around his ability to fight Doofenshmirtz and stop his evil plans while preventing Phineas and Ferb and company from figuring out his true identity. It's also implied in some episodes that Perry is sometimes responsible for making the brothers' inventions disappear and foiling Candace's attempts at busting them.
  • Distressed Dude: Once an Episode, though there's a lot of Play-Along Prisoner going on.
  • Egg-Laying Male: Subverted. His theme song calls him a "semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal of action". Although this could just be a case of an unreliable singer, or refering to his species in general (only female platypi lays eggs), since he's never actually shown laying an egg. One episode revolved around Phineas and Ferb thinking he did, but this was just a comical coincidence, and the egg wasn't his.
  • Elaborate Underground Base: Where he receives his missions and keeps a lot of his secret agent equipment.
  • Enemy Mine: In "Phineas and Ferb Save Summer," Perry is shocked to learn that the bald mad scientist Rodney (who is far worse than Doof) has created a machine that will send the entire Earth into a new Ice Age that would endanger billions of lives, even Doof himself is completely horrified by this. Knowing that the cataclysm will endanger his host family as well, Perry willingly helped Doofenshmirtz in defeating Rodney.
  • Escape Artist: Granted, this is with some cooperation on Doofenshmirtz's part, as Doofenshmirtz has stated that he purposefully designs traps that can be escaped from. Nonetheless, some of Perry's escape methods have been truly mind-boggling; in "Last Day of Summer", Perry manages to escape thirty consecutive traps. One of the few things he couldn't escape from is Phineas and Ferb's funhouse, which isn't even a trap.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Perry had thwarted many of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's schemes, no matter how silly they would get. But when his scheme was learning whale speak, just so he could get back at them for stealing his girlfriend, Perry left in disgust. Also, in one episode where Doof activates some machinery that only opens and closes a lobster cage, he convinces Perry to concede defeat since it's pointless to fight over it, something which Perry concurred by giving Doof a thumbs up.
    • In one episode, Doofenshmirtz 'traps' him by pointing out that they're in a fine dining environment and it would be tacky to cause a scene in a nice restaurant.
  • Faceship: His hoverjet is platypus-shaped.
  • Fatal Flaw: He dislikes working as a group and prefers to work alone, to the point that he will often take charge and dismiss people trying to help him. This has lead to him getting into trouble on more than one occasion.
  • Fedora of Asskicking: It's the uniform of the O.W.C.A. agents.
  • Fish Eyes: His default expression when in pet mode.
  • Friendly Enemy: In Doof's view, though Perry doesn't usually share it. Doof even once refers to Perry as his best friend (right before he punches him), and claims in "A Real Boy" that Perry feels like family to him. This was also a plot point in an episode where Peter the Panda becomes Doof's new nemesis.
  • Full-Name Basis: Doof only ever calls him "Perry the Platypus".
  • Fur Is Clothing: He has ripped his fur off himself in this fashion occasionally (such as in "Unfair Science Fair").
  • Furry Reminder: He may be fully sapient and his mindless pet behavior an act, but he does get to showcase his platypus characteristics on occasion, particularly his swimming ability. In "Primal Perry" he uses his bill to find a buried rock underwater and reveals that, like real platypuses, he has venomous ankle barbs.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: He occasionally hangs out with Doofenshmirtz when he's not being particularly evil.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: Agent P is very adept with his.
  • Guile Hero: His most prominent skill is his fighting prowess, but it's made clear that he's also smart and does plenty of thinking on his feet.
  • Hero Antagonist: From a storytelling perspective, most of his plots revolve around Doof's backstories and goals, and he's the obstacle that must be faced.
  • Heroic Mime: Justified, as he's an animal.
  • Hero of Another Story: To Phineas and Ferb.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Honestly, he's more this with Doofenshmirtz than enemies.
  • Hypercompetent Sidekick: To the rest of the O.W.C.A. He's far more badass than even his fellow agents, as demonstrated during the final battle in the movie. In "Save Summer", Monty outright states that Perry is the best agent O.W.C.A. has.
  • I Work Alone: He usually works solo, although he hasn't always shown aversion to teaming up with other agents. He did, however, dislike working with Agent Double 0-0, and he tends to be far more competent than other O.W.C.A. agents, so he generally doesn't team-up. He is especially characterized this way in "Sidetracked"; Doofenshmirtz even Lampshades this. His assigned partner for that episode, Lyla, had botched a previous mission of his or so he thought. However, he does successfully collaborate with Lyla after a rough start, and later episodes "Primal Perry" and "Where's Pinky?" show him working better with others. This is explored more in "The O.W.C.A. Files", in which he is put in charge of training some new recruits, but gets fed up with their incompetence and tries to complete the training exercises himself. By the end of the episode, he seemingly leaves them in a huff after a failed mission, but it turns out he did include them in his plan to save the day after all.
  • Improbable Weapon User: When not busting out judo moves he tends to grab whatever's handy. This has included a screw, an iPod, a purse, a hot dog...
  • Informed Species: Perry only looks vaguely like a real-life platypus, who have rounder beaks, darker fur, and furry tails. They also don't have duck-like feet like he does.
  • Killer Rabbit: A platypus who is considered the best secret agent in an organization that recruits a whole host of other animals.
  • The Lancer: Becomes this in the movie to Phineas.
  • Leitmotif: How many cartoon characters can you name with a badass theme song? All together now! "Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah, doo-bee-doo-bee-doo-bah, PERRRRYYYYYYY!"
  • Lightning Bruiser: Or as Doofenshmirtz puts it, a "suave, semi-aquatic personification of unstoppable dynamic fury".
  • Living a Double Life: Both a pet and a secret agent.
  • Super-Scream: Believe it or not. He escapes from one of Doofenshmirtz's traps this way, though the audience doesn't actually get to hear him singing.
  • Manly Tears: Almost always sad when Perry is driven to these, though it has been Played for Laughs at least once.
  • Married to the Job: One of the reasons why he will never get a girlfriend.
  • Master of Disguise: Many of his disguises are paper-thin ones, but they work. He does have a few others that are truly remarkable, such as a full-body Ferb suit in "Traffic Cam Caper".
  • Mysterious Protector: In "Mission Marvel" where he shows up to aid the heroes in disguise without any of them knowing his true identity.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • When Doofenshmirtz decides, all on his own, to stop being evil and make cheese instead, Perry causes him to go back to being evil by eating his entire wheel of perfectly aged limburger without permission. Granted, Doofenshmirtz did say it was irresistible.
    • In "This Is Your Backstory", he gives Doofenshmirtz the final tragic backstory needed to power the Inator when he breaks free from his trap and attacks Doof, who taunts him for doing such a foolish thing, which made Perry feel so guilty of making things worse than ever.
  • Not So Above It All: He may seem like a perpetually serious, no-nonsense secret agent, but he is not above having a bit of fun (especially when invited to by Doofenshmirtz), nor expressing amusement at sights that he finds whimsical. At one point when he was being briefed by Monogram, he appeared to be taking notes, only to be revealed later on that he was really drawing a caricature of his boss.
    • The movie has him pee on Doofenshirtz's sofa.
  • Not So Stoic: He has his moments, most notably in "Drusselstein Driving Test Waltz".
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: Pretends to be a mindless pet when around his owners, and the same goes for his colleagues. It's unclear if this applies to all animals in the setting, or just those trained to be agents of O.W.C.A.
  • Only Sane Man: The most professional and mature of the entire cast. Yes, a platypus plays this role on this show.
  • Papa Wolf: Is extremely protective of his young owners and a surefire way to anger him is to threaten them. He even is willing to blow his cover as a secret agent to protect them.
  • Perpetual Frowner: His default expression is either a mindless look (as a pet) or a serious frown (as Agent P).
  • Phrase Catcher: Both "CURSE YOU, PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!!!" from Doofenshmirtz, and "Oh, there you are, Perry" from his owners. Also from his owners, "Hey, where’s Perry?" when they notice he’s gone, which kicks off his B-plot.
    • There's also a recurring gag where whenever someone finds about Perry's secret, the first thing they ask about is the hat.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: He's small, but packs a punch. At one point in the movie, he supports the combined weight of Phineas, Ferb, Candace, and Doofenshmirtz to prevent them from falling into lava.
  • Play-Along Prisoner: Even in cases when he could escape from Doofenshmirtz's traps quite easily, he almost always waits for Doof to finish explaining his plans first before attacking. Doofenshmirtz himself is aware of this, and not only does he get upset if an agent doesn't follow this protocol, he purposely designs traps that wouldn't be too difficult to escape from.
    • Sometimes when the trap doesn't work or Doof finds it's too much trouble, Perry just waits until he's done explaining without even being trapped at all.
  • Poor Communication Kills: In the movie. He can't tell Phineas that he had to keep his secret agent status a secret to avoid being relocated to a new host family. (He does hand him a pamphlet, but Phineas throws that away instantly.)
  • Prehensile Hair: Forms his hair into a working key to uncuff himself.
  • Prehensile Tail: There's a variation on this one time when Doofenshmirtz traps him in a supposedly inanimate cat costume but he's still somehow able to use the cat's tail to free himself. His actual tail has this function as well.
  • Puzzling Platypus: Downplayed. Apart from the odd person who mistakes him for a duck, or a beaver, most people consider Perry unremarkable.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Whenever he's not fighting with Doofenshmirtz and is just acting as Phineas and Ferb's pet.
  • Running Gag:
    • Agent P always has different entrances to his lair and it is rarely the same entrance twice. (Usually, if it is, it is reused footage from his first entrance in Rollercoaster.)
    • Every time someone catches Perry as a secret agent, the first thing they almost always ask about is his hat.
    Candace: Perry has a hat?
  • Sapient Pet: At least as smart as the human cast, though he's not allowed to reveal this to his owners (for safety reasons, not all villains are as incompetent as Doofenshmirtz).
  • Save the Villain: Often does this when Doofenshmirtz is in life-threatening danger.
  • Secret-Keeper: For Monty and Vanessa's relationship.
  • Silent Snarker: Despite being intelligent, Perry can't actually speak, and Doofenshmirtz being Doofenshmirtz, he responds to many a scheme with eye-rolling, bored/annoyed looks, and Aside Glances.
  • Spanner in the Works: Whenever Candace's plan to bust her brothers is ruined, it's usually an indirect result of Perry ruining Dr. Doofenshmirtz's plans.
  • The Speechless: Again, he's a platypus.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: The source of the commonly asked question "Hey, where's Perry?" since he often vanishes in an instant when his owners aren't looking.
  • The Stoic: Tends to keep cool most of the time.
  • Swiss-Army Weapon: His fedora can be used as a chainsaw, a boomerang, and a Bag of Holding in which he can store even more weapons.
  • Tail Slap: He does use his tail as a weapon.
  • Team Pet: Phineas thinks of him as a simple pet that is nothing but a mascot for himself and his friends. Perry genuinely enjoys being a pet...except when his owners dress him in funny outfits.
  • Toothy Bird: Real Life platypi at his age would only have horny plates inside their bills.
  • The Unintelligible: Only speaks in a sound that sounds like a cross between a growl and chattering teeth.
  • Weaponized Headgear: He has used his hat as both a boomerang and a chainsaw.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: With Dr. Doofenshmirtz of all people. In spite of their relation as nemeses, they’re actually rather kind and caring to each other both in and out of your daily jobs.
  • What the Hell, Hero?:
    • In Across The Second Dimension Phineas is pretty upset when they first find out, even if they do get over it by the second act.
    Phineas: I'm sorry. I'm just having trouble processing this right now. (Perry gives him a pamphlet) "So you discovered that your pet is a secret agent,"— (throws away the pamphlet) I don't want your pamphlet!!
  • Willfully Weak: It's evident that he only uses his venomous spurs against truly dire threats, as Doofenshmirtz hadn't even been aware that he had them until being told such. To be fair, in real life the venom causes severe pain for days on end, and Perry knows everything generally gets wrapped up in a single day and so has no reason to use them on Doof.
  • You Are Too Late: Played with Perry several times:
    • In the original pilot, there was a gag in which Doof told Perry he was too late, but then checks his watch to see if it is eleven o'clock. This gag would be reused in "Gaming the System".
    • In the Movie, he attempted to stop Doofenshmirtz from building a machine to travel to other dimensions, only to find out in horror that Phineas and Ferb have arrived in Doof's place and are helping him rebuild the machine. This forces a distraught Perry to act in pet mode, forcing himself to watch as Doof successfully activates his machine to open a portal to the 2nd Dimension.
    • In the "Save Summer" special, upon hearing of Doof's plan to send the Earth into an early autumn with his latest machine, Perry engages into a fight, but Doof uses a mop to swipe him across the room, causing Perry to accidentally activate the machine to move the Earth, just as Doof planned. Even after smacking out Doof with the same mop, Perry realizes too late that he has lost and goes back to O.W.C.A. HQ in shame. He even became more distraught when he learns that the event caused civil unrest, which allowed Doof and his villains of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. to take over the Tri-State Area.
    • In the Series Finale, Perry heads over to stop Doof from creating a new political position to become ruler of the Tri-State Area, but the twist is that Doof finally gets ahead of Perry by planting out 30 traps to keep him busy while creating the position before getting himself elected for it. Following his successful usurpation as Tri-Governor of the Tri-State Area, Doof signs a law forbidding Perry and the rest of the agency to stop him until his term is over. Realizing that he has lost again, Perry becomes extremely depressed, even begging for Doof to reconsider his anti-thwarting law (to no avail).

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