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     Grammar, Where Are You? 
  • Why isn't Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! a question?
    • Because it ends with an exclamation mark.
    • There is an old superstition that says it's unlucky to end a show or movie title with a question mark. That's why Who Framed Roger Rabbit doesn't have one.
      • Ironic, for a show that is all about revealing superstitions to be the result of mundane things.
    • The theme song is chock full of enough bad grammar to give an English teacher conniption fits, and you're worried about the punctuation being off?
    • The question is being shouted/called out, and yelled phrases typically end with an exclamation mark.

     Monsters getting lost in character 
  • While it's probably mostly Rule of Funny, why do some of the supposedly fake creatures behave way stupider and more primitive than you'd expect a rational human criminal to behave, like constantly falling for Shaggy and Scooby's little disguise acts? For example, in What's New Scooby Doo the Ghostly lighthouse keeper is attracted to Scooby blatantly dressed as a Mermaid, despite that "he's" a geeky woman in a suit. In the "Creepy Cruise" episode of The Scooby Doo Show the Future Monster captures the duo and growls, "Now I'm going to take you with me, 4000 years into the future," except that's impossible because the Time Machine is fake and he should know that. What's the point of telling them this? And in one of the most bizarre yet, the Be Cool Scooby Doo episode with the Ice Man has the Caveman meet Shaggy and Scooby disguised as college professors, and they do a whole heartfelt skit where the Ice Man learns to speak modern English and weeps for joy, despite the person in the costume being a snooty upper-class socialite. Do these suits have mind altering properties or something?
    • The perpetrators are just flexing their acting abilities, or maybe they find the gag fun and want to play along.
    • In some cases it could also be that they're behaving a certain way as to not arouse suspicion. "Wait, it would make sense for a cave man to see this as some kind of accomplishment..." if he had just come out and started acting well-spoken, that would've given away that he's not a cave man.
     Why Wait? 
  • Why don't they just grab the monster's face and pull off the mask the first time it shows up?
    • The screeching psychopath wearing a monster mask chasing after them in the dark, sure he may not be a monster, but does that automatically make the screeching psychopath wearing a mask chasing them in the darkness less terrifying for them?
    • I doubt the monster would stay still for that.
      • It would've been hilarious if they did this to the "monster" in the diving suit though. Hehehe...
    • Because if the ghost is a ruthless criminal under that mask, then taking said mask off before they've trapped said ghost means they're no longer dealing with a crook who wants to scare them away, but one who wants to murder them outright so they can't ever testify to said crook's identity in court.
    • Whenever they try it, the monster turns out to be real. They probably think it's best not to risk it.

     Belief 
  • Why do they even believe in monsters, anyway? As far as I know, they usually only encountered crooked land developers.
    • Yeah, but by the time they started getting Genre Savvy about that, the monsters started becoming real.
    • Um, am I the only one who doesn't think they were EVER real? It's just that the only people left in the cast were either cowards or a kid, and were hence more interested in escaping than unmasking (I only recall one of these "real monster" episodes, but as I remember they just escaped from it without proving it one way or the other).
    • In the Zombie Island movie, they try unmasking one of the zombies and fail...
    • In the classic series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" (the original Scooby-Doo series) Fred, Velma, and Daphne did not believe in ghosts and monsters. Shaggy and Scooby did—not so strange because there are a lot of people today who believe in ghosts and monsters (Approximately 45% of Americans believe in ghosts), despite how much evidence to the contrary there is. But it seems to me to make even MORE sense to run from a criminal wearing a mask than it would run from a ghost. (Note that in the original series there were no ghosts and monsters, it was always a hoax.)
      • Just what "evidence to the contrary" is there to show ghosts don't exist? You might be able to prove that a particular incident thought to be a ghost, wasn't, but how do you prove that ghosts, as a concept, aren't real?
      • There is no evidence that ghosts are real (photographs can be faked, people can lie) so that should be reason enough not to believe in them. There is no evidence that ghosts are not real, but you could say the same thing about Yetis, fairies, and anything.
      • They did once go against a legitimately dangerous foe that they had thought was a normal man. But it turned out to be an android. Not supernatural, but certainly turned out to be more fantastic than what the gang had originally surmised.
    • As far I remember, in every episode of classic series there was at least one scene when Scooby and Shaggy encountered a REAL ghost, but they had never noticed it. Once they even found a magic book, didn't believe in it, and cast a spell that turned them into demons and they were laughing about how the spell was silly. Then they had cast the spell that turned them normal before they saw themselves.
    • Since this series has any continuity at all, an indisputably real ghost appeared in an episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo ("Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner") as a client of the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency, who hired them to prove he wasn't guilty of a given haunting (and that series is indisputably in continuity with What's New, Scooby-Doo? via flashback). If we're taking the series seriously enough to ask questions like this, we have to take into account that what doesn't fit is the insistence that ghosts aren't real, when the whole gang should be aware that at least one, Mr. Boo, does exist.
    • Generally speaking, if the Monster of the Week is science-fictional instead of supernatural, it's real. Charlie the Robot, the Living Toys, the Invisible Madman, the Fright Hound ... and we're not even going to talk about the Horrible Herd.

     Traps vs. Fighting 
  • Why the elaborate traps? Shouldn't four healthy teenagers and a gigantic dog be able to take down an old man in a rubber suit just by tackling him? Scrappy had the right idea, grow some cojones, Mystery Inc.
    • Because it's a kids' show and that is violent. Plus they never know that they aren't real ghosts, they don't become Genre Savvy until the monsters start becoming real.
    • They should guess after the first four or five times.
    • Even if the villain's human, he's still a potentially armed and dangerous criminal. They don't want to go tackling a "ghost" that's a knife-wielding psycho or packing heat. Whatever the culprit is, it's just safer to get him tied up and call the cops.
    • Because half the time (which we aren't shown) the monsters are real, and the gang are part of an Ancient Conspiracy to cover up the supernatural.
    • The rule seems to be that they're always (or almost always) real in the movies, and people in costumes in the show. I say let Scrappy beat them up and get it over with. He and Velma were always the only two Genre Savvy ones in the series, anyways. (Spend 30 years watching a guy and his dog repeatedly running from the same guy in a fake monster costume, you start rooting for Scrappy's approach quite a bit.)
    • Back to the "why don't they just beat up the baddie" question, they do attempt to ambush the ghosts from time to time. Trouble is, the only times they seem inclined to try this is when the gang has split up, and Fred, Velma, and Daphne invariably end up ambushing Shaggy and Scooby instead of their intended target.

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

     Why Doesn't Velma Wear a Strap? 
  • Why the hell doesn't Velma - supposedly the brainiest member of the gang - keep her eyeglasses on a freakin' strap, already? Does she actually like fumbling around on the floor half-blind for them?
    • For the same reason why most people in Real Life don't, I suppose.

     Why Can They Talk? 
  • How can the Doo family line talk? None of the other animals in the show can speak or do the kind of anthropomorphic stuff that Scooby, Scrappy, and the rest of the Doo clan can do. Did some kind of experiment happen with them during the puppy farm they were born at? Are they spawn of some kind of Noble Demon hellhound? What?
    • They're descended from Rex the Wonder Dog, who is, in turn, descended from the dog in Wuthering Heights, who was present at the Wold Newton meteor strike, thereby imbuing the lineage with extraordinary qualities. See here for further details. (See what happens when you ask silly questions? You get silly answers.)
      • MadWritter wants to say That covers a possible universe—but not the true universe of the Scooby-Doo universe.
    • I'm beginning to think it's just Shaggy hallucinating.
    • Mystery Incorporated explains that yes, they are descended from an otherworldly animal. To be precise, one of their descendants was used as a vessel by the Anunnaki, so the increased intelligence and ability to talk ended up being passed down.
    • Alternatively, you could take a cue from Apocalypse and go with them having cybernetically-enhanced brains.
    • I dunno if we're supposed to consider "Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics" canon, but if it is, apparently talking animals (such as Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Wally Gator, etc.) are just normal in this world.
      • The Hanna Barbera universe is just weird in general. Look at Speed Buggy.

     Why Not Let Him at Them? 
  • Why didn't Mystery Inc. just let Scrappy fight the ghost and let him get his ass handed to him? It'd get him to shut up, that's for sure.
  • Because he actually beats the monster, as shown here, here here. Though I guess that doesn't answer the original question of: Why not let him at them?
    • Because nothing kills the carefree party atmosphere quite like a dead puppy. Alternatively, they knew what he'd be absolutely insufferable if he managed to win.
    • No, he has a reputation for being weak because he doesn't brag about it at all.
    • The second explanation makes more sense than the first one. Certainly, I would party harder if Scrappy's corpse were in the vicinity. Alternately, since he's Scooby's nephew (or something) Scooby probably didn't want to deal with his mother//father.
    • Yeah chances are the reason Scooby seems to tolerate Scrappy so much is more than likely due to his parents.
    • Even if he's annoying, that doesn't mean they want him dead. Even if he just gets beaten up, they likely wouldn't wish bodily harm on him either.
    • It's pretty obvious - because they're not total jerks. Honestly, that seems like something that the [[Film/Scooby-Doo live-action movie versions of the characters]] would do.

     Money 
  • Who is funding the gang? Even at pre-1973 gas prices, they spend an awful lot of time driving around in that van, eating pizza, consuming Scooby snacks, and so forth, and we never see them collect any reward for solving their mysteries...
    • Aren't they teenagers? What are they doing on the road anyway?
    • Hey, in America, if you're over 16, you can get your driver's license. Fred looked about 40, so no harm done. And they were called Mystery, Inc., after all: who says they weren't running some sort of ghost/land developer protection racket?
    • They are shown in the movie to be somewhat famous, maybe they do the Derek Acorah thing and just do a lot of TV appearances.
    • I think the Word of God somewhere said Daphne's dad was a Eccentric Millionaire.
    • Makes sense, since Daphne became "the rich one" in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
    • Yes, it is mentioned in one of the episodes that they are effectively being bankrolled by Daphne's dad (he bought them the van, for example). This also might explain why Daphne is part of the group.
      • Incorrect, that part was from a bumper on Cartoon Network. The first time in the show it's directly mentioned Daphne's wealth is from The New Scooby and Scrappy Show. However, you could have assumed this from the first series. The first Daphne relative they meet is a famous movie director.
    • Perhaps they're selling all the, um, "Scooby Snacks" that Shaggy and Scooby aren't, um, ingesting?
    • There were a couple of episodes where they got jobs. I can remember one episode where they got a job on a building site, and Scooby got to help Shaggy screw in these red hot bolts into these girders at like twenty stories up. Safety wasn't all that important.
    • Many of the episodes I watch (why?) have justification. Winning a contest, going on a school-sponsored event, just going down the road to a convention to meet an old friend... Of course, in the movies, they made mad green by busting ghosts. Which makes it all the odder that people still -try-.
    • Mystery Inc. is supposed to be some kind of detective agency, so they probably bill people for their services sometimes. Remember, the kids don't always just dump into a mystery; They are often invited over and asked to investigate one.
    • Incorrect. It's been stated in at least one of the movies (Zombie Island)) that when they aren't working on their usual mystery-solving fare, they hold down real jobs. Daphne's been a reporter (with Fred as her cameraman), Velma's gone from a librarian to a scientist at NASA, and Scooby and Shaggy tend to end up trying to barely hold down odd jobs such as airport security.
      • How does all of this make the previous comment incorrect? Who's to say they can't be making money on Mystery Inc. as well as the jobs you mention?
      • Those were post-Mystery Inc., anyway.
      • More incorrect info here, in the show proper they don't get other careers into the 80s, when Fred, Daphne, and Velma leave, a lot of the shorts involve Scooby/Shaggy/Scrappy doing odd jobs until the third season where they work for Shaggy's Uncle Fearless. The next season it is revealed Daphne had left to start a reporter career, and now Shaggy and the dogs joined her. In the series after that when Fred and Velma's guest appeared it had been revealed Fred had become a mystery writer and Velma an intern with NASA. The next time they would all appear as adults is Zombie Island, with Shaggy and Scooby as airport security (probably yet another odd job), Daphne graduating from newspaper reporter to tv reporter, Fred graduating from writing books to produce Daphne's show, and Velma now owning a book store.
    • In the original series it was only implied Daphne was from a rich family. The first relative we met of hers is a famous director. However, over the years of constantly adding new relatives and plot devices, it seems pretty clear all five gang members (even Scooby) are all probably set for life in terms of money.
      • Interestingly the gang only really seems to need cash in one episode of The Scooby-Doo Show, which they seem to no longer need by the end of the episode. So must have been between allowances that night.
      • The Mystery Incorporated continuity (which may or may not take place in the original continuity) shows that the kids are from rich families and/or have prize money from skill competitions they participated in individually.

     Why Don't the Villains Shoot? 
  • A question that doesn't just apply to this show. Why don't any of the villains simply break out a firearm and leave the situation for the Crime Scene Cleaners to deal with?
    • Because that would inevitably draw the police's attention.
      • Also, how many Ghosts/Fish Monsters/Yeti go around shooting people? If their idea is to scare them away, that implies these people are Harmless Villains who don't have it in them to kill. Who knows? Perhaps those who "do" try to kill only make it seem so to amp up the scares. Then again, they might have to go for a kill that is "natural" to the monster they're impersonating to keep their cover.
    • In one episode, a villain chained Velma to the old log sawing machine, clearly intending on cutting her in half. So why didn't this villain, who intended to kill a hero, just use a gun?
      • Because he didn't have a gun?
      • They probably spent their whole supply budget on costumes, dry ice, and treasure maps.
      • The real reason was Scooby was created in 1969 in the wake of a Moral Guardian victory over violence in cartoons (see Speed Racer with its exploding cars for a good example). Scooby was intentionally created to be an exciting, yet nonviolent, cartoon.
      • The character was Genre Savvy enough that the rest of the characters would be Big Damn Heroes, therefore he wouldn't be killing her? I should point out that I never saw that episode.
    • Scooby-Doo has teamed up with Batman before. Once you shoot an associate of the Dark Knight you stop being a harmless loon in a costume(where your biggest problem is some meddling kids) and become a full-blown supervillain (now you have to worry about the superfriends knocking down your front door).
    • Deathtraps do have one practical purpose: they're a lot easier to pass off as accidents. If "strange things are happening at the old Johnson place" and a couple of hikers disappear and turn up drowned, the cops will probably make a superficial investigation and write it off as misadventure. Gunshots in the night and four bullet-riddled bodies of teenagers turning up — including an heiress — are another story.
    • The real question is, why are those villains who dress up as monsters (as opposed to projecting holograms or directing mechanical fakes) seemingly unaware that they might get shot at? Plenty of Mystery Inc.'s adventures take place in concealed-carry U.S. states, and sooner or later, you'd think an adult whom the culprit tries to scare off would turn out to be armed and willing to shoot the whatever-it-is that's threatening them.

     Time Trouble 
  • Why exactly haven't the kids aged, changed their fashion sense, their slang, etc. since the late Sixties?
    • Because all of that is part of their characters.
      • Casey Kasem hasn't aged, why should Shaggy?
      • Well not anymore :(
    • It's Lampshaded in What's New Scooby-Doo? and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
    • Because they're retro.
      • Because they are clones, sent by the conspiracy, to deal with supernatural threats.Note: Original Mystery Machine had CIA-grade surveillance equipment in the back.
    • They DID change their outfits (as was highlighted in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase where the kids meet virtual younger versions of themselves wearing their old clothes).
    • They're hipsters.
    • Good genes.
    • Only Shaggy has the slang.

     Scooby Snack Ingredients 
  • What's in those Scooby Snacks? It can't be marijuana, since ingesting it doesn't affect people that quickly.
    • Coke. Magical coke.
    • They make their own "custom" ingredients.
    • They're not necessarily druggies. Remember, they live in a cartoon, where talking dogs are normal. Shaggy has long hair because he was created in the '70s, that was the style then. And many teenage boys eat a lot anyway, regardless of whether or not they smoke pot. With that being said, there are two officially licensed Scooby Snacks products out there. One is dog treats, the other is cookies for humans.
    • Spinach, of course!
    • They must have done something particularly good to them in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo since they induce orgasms there.
      • They were kids then, though.
    • According to Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, they're just really, really good snack food, one originally intended for humans. They were originally called Sorcerer Snacks, but after the gang saves his factory the manufacturer decides a talking dog would make a better mascot and renames them. Of course, continuity in this universe is iffy.
    • I always just assumed they were dog treats and that Shaggy just eats them because he's quirky.
      • This seems to have been the original idea, since Shaggy tries one for the first time around episode #3 and was hesitant at first, then actually surprised that it tasted good.
  • Peanut butter. Both humans and dogs love it, and they do make PB-flavored dog biscuits. And, y'know they don't taste too bad at that.

     Strong Villains 
  • How are the crooked real estate guys, bankers, etc so strong? Most old people can't lift and throw downed trees.
    • Powered Armour.
    • Or an Unreliable Narrator.
    • If they thought ahead, maybe they keep movie props around. They would look like trees and stuff, but be light enough to carry and throw (plus, they wouldn't hurt anyone if they did hit).
    • Cartoon logic. Also, Word of God for at least Mystery Incorporated has stated that technology like exoskeletons is what gives them their super strength and stuff.

     One Fake Saboteur vs. a Bazillion Sociopaths 
  • In one episode Velma explains that she worked out who the culprit was because the 'ghost' had been supposedly sabotaging amusement park rides, but the rides turned out to be safe - they were just altered to look sabotaged. And apparently, this means that this one person has to be guilty. My problem with this is that Velma is essentially implying that if any of the other suspects wanted to look like they were sabotaging something, they'd actually sabotage it. So she thinks that every suspect who turned out to be innocent is a sociopath. And no-one takes offense at this.
    • Also from that episode: How can a ride "look" sabotaged? The ghost cut the string on a parasail, FFS! They're riding a giant glider that's suddenly become attached to nothing! There is no possible way that the ghost could've known exactly where the thing would land, and therefore she should NOT have been cleared of reckless endangerment.
    • That bothered me a lot too. Oh well, at least the culprit's mom will punish her severely.
    • I thought the reason she thought that was because she was the only person in the park who COULD sabotage the rides to still be safe since she was the person who designed all of the safety precautions for the ride. It's not that the other suspects wanted to kill people, but that they didn't know how not to. But the explanation did bother me too. There was no way Freddy, Daphne, and Velma were not in any danger falling toward the spinning blades of death on the skydiving simulator.

     Why Not Set the Trap First? 
  • Why don't they set up the trap for the monster before they go to all the trouble of splitting up and looking for clues? That way, it wouldn't appear and chase them in the middle of their search.
    • Because they'd probably have a lawsuit slapped on them if they couldn't prove a crime was being committed and that the guy in the suit was the one doing it before they went around trapping people.
    • Also, it helps ensure that trap-building will be effective if they have a solid idea as to where the culprit will go, next. That means figuring out what the baddie is after.

     Crimes Against Logic? 
  • How do they decide which criminals get off scot-free? In "What's New Scooby-Doo?" I seem to remember one or two getting off the hook because they didn't commit any crimes. What about the Miner 49-er? He just ran around and growled and tried to keep an oil discovery secret and yet he still went to jail.
    • Causing humans to believe they are in danger is a crime, I believe.
    • Reckless Endangerment, yep!
    • Threatening someone with harm when you can do that harm is Assault even if you don't do it.
    • It probably depends on whether anyone's willing to press charges. In most cases, the villains were malicious enough and the victims harassed enough that they're only too happy to call the cops, but now and then, it's a lighthearted and personal enough situation that once the truth comes out, everyone involved is willing to laugh it off.
    • Hank, the episode's bad guy, was scaring people off to buy the land cheaply. Since he didn't own the land, that makes it criminal trespass, along with several charges of assault.
      • Not to mention that the old mine tunnels he'd been hiding in were probably condemned for good reason. Hank could have gotten himself killed by messing around in there, which would be criminal behavior for the same reason that free-climbing up the sides of skyscrapers without permission is illegal: if he got hurt or died, first responders could be injured in rescuing him or retrieving his body.

     Costumes Worth More than the Treasure 
  • Many times, the inventions/costume used to scare away people from the treasure is worth far, far more than the treasure itself. I'm thinking of that semi-new episode with the animatronic dragon that did loads of stuff, including running. It could massacre a boatload of enemies on the battlefield.
    • Maybe the person didn't want to sell the dragon to the military because he dislikes war.
    • I remember another episode where the bad guy had a whole army of little robot tiki guys. Even assuming that he didn't want to sell them to the military, there are other people to sell to. Or at least other places to find work with that kind of intelligence and engineering skill.
    • Yeah, villains who don't just sell their inventions instead of using them to commit crimes is a trope in itself. Now and then the gang's pointed out that the villain could have easily made money legitimately, much to the crook's chagrin as they're being taken away by the police.
    • Plus I think there are a couple of occasions where the criminal is motivated by other things than money.
      • And some of them already have a criminal record, which would make it difficult for them to market their skills to potential employers.
      • Also, some of those mechanical gimmicks may have been too unsafe to commercialize, and/or in violation of patents held by others. You can't market your mechanical dragon if you built it out of proprietary equipment you filched out of Disneyland's animatronics workshops.

     Ow! My Mechanical Frame! 
  • Almost every time in the Direct-To-Video movies, the guy posing as the monster has some sort of mechanical frame built into the costume to help him maintain the image. How is it, then, that during the chase scene, they get hurt as if every part of the costume is their flesh and blood?
    • Perhaps they want to keep the illusion that there's no protective mechanical frame surrounding them by faking pain?
    • A mechanical framework to alter someone's apparent shape isn't necessarily a suit of armor, built to harmlessly disperse impact. Even if the shin that gets kicked by a meddling kid is only a metal covering, the other side of the metal piece is still going to jam up against the real shin underneath.

     Scrappy's Speech 

     Daphne and Fred Sitting in a Tree, Not K-I-S-S-I-N-G 
  • The thing that bugs me is that Daphne and Freddy are obviously attracted to each other and yet they still haven't kissed! I mean every trope has happened to them and they still tease us!

     Putting Up with Rudeness 
  • How come Fred, Daphne, and Velma are outright impolite or even rude with Shaggy and Scooby, and the latter never complain? Every time they try to avoid a most probable danger or discuss the planning of a trap, are usually snapped back with a "No, and now do it!". Are willing slaves?
    • If they lack the backbone to stand up to a middle-aged Harmless Villain in mask and costume, what makes you think they dare to stand up to the friends with whom they travel across the country nearby?
    • Probably because Shaggy and Scooby are always trying to weasel out of helping with the job despite being perfectly capable of helping, and the others are intimate enough to call them on that with variations of "Enough with the excuses already!". Fred, Velma, and Daphne are cooperative enough that this isn't needed when they ask each other for help.
    • Could be that they're truly good friends, ones who always look past the rudeness.

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

     Cookies vs. Dog Biscuits 
  • What are Scooby Snacks supposed to be, cookies or dog biscuits?
    • Yes.
    • Dog cookies. I am more intrigued by the fact that Scooby has his brand of snacks.
      • Rebranded vanilla wafers. Seriously. I saw them on the store shelves.. :)
      • Well it's been referred to many times that Scooby was indeed named AFTER the snacks he loves so much...
      • Was he, though? If so, how did Scooby-Dum and Scooby-Dee get their names?
    • In Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! they were a cracker for humans that was originally called Sorcerer Snacks. After the gang saves the Sorcerer Snack factory, the manufacturer decides a talking dog is a better mascot and renames them Scooby Snacks. YMMV on whether this counts, given the lack of continuity.

     Ruby Dooby Doo, Where are You? 
  • Where is Ruby Doo, anyway? We see her in a flashback when she gives birth to Scrappy, and then never again. It's a shame because I find the idea of Scrappy being a total mama's boy in private... kind of, dare I say, sweet.
    • She later appeared in "A Pup" alongside Scooby's other siblings Howdy & Skippy Doo.
    • Maybe Scrappy being in the box was him secretly running away to hang with his Uncle? If you were Ruby Doo would you want your kid hanging out with your brother that seems to get chased by some crazy monster everywhere he goes?

     Velma's Hair 
  • Velma's hair. It looks red in every animated adaptation but it's apparently brown? Which is it?
    • It's both. Her hair was brown, to begin with, but after a coloring mistake they changed it to red and it stuck.
    • It looks red to you? I find that odd and always saw it as either brown or Hair Color Dissonance.
    • Auburn hair is a thing.

     Why Do They Not Catch On? 
  • How come Scooby and Shaggy never catch on to the fact that the "monsters" are just guys in costumes? After the two millionth mystery, you'd think they'd grow some balls (or at least a few functioning brain cells) by now.
    • Because one is a drug addict and the other is a dog that lives with a drug addict. How much can you possibly expect them to accomplish with crime scene investigations?
    • This is discussed in the video game Mystery Mayhem (2004). Shaggy and Scooby (once again) refuse to participate in capturing a villain. When Fred asks why they would still be frightened if they knew that whatever monster it would be was just a bad guy in a mask, Shaggy retorts that it's just that: Someone who willingly dresses up in a costume to scare people is not a person you want to be around. Besides, there have been some villains that were people dressed as monsters that have attempted to murder or critically maim the gang to keep their schemes safe (The Snow Ghost, Mr. Hyde, the Ghost of the Red Baron, among others). This gives Shaggy and Scooby a reason for their Lovable Coward moments because there's an element of real danger despite the ghosts being fake.
    • The more recent adaptations, such as the film and Mystery Inc., have the whole team experienced enough to expect guys in masks.
    • A fan came up with a possible explanation here.
    • Even as early as Where Are You?, if a monster's not billed as supernatural, it's probably real. The most obvious example is Charlie the Robot. What exactly do you think would have happened if Shaggy had squared up to the super-strong, super-fast, berserk android and tried to rip off his mask?
    • The number of times the gang (or bystanders) are very nearly killed by the monsters in Mystery Inc. is off the charts. Fake or not, they're incredibly lucky to be alive at the end of most episodes. Hell, at the end of the series the final monster does kill dozens if not hundreds of people, who are only saved by a Cosmic Retcon!
    • Shaggy knows there are real monsters out there. Shaggy was once turned into a werewolf by Count Dracula and forced to drag race against other monsters. Just because most of the monsters they encounter aren't real doesn't mean he wants to take chances.

     Different Dog Design 
  • Did Scooby ever have dark fur, a deep voice, and a red collar like his doppelganger in Cyber Chase? I've seen almost every SD media and never seen that. I suppose it was to make them easy to tell apart.
    • Bingo. Unlike the rest of Mystery Inc, Scooby's design has been unchanged for 40 years. I mean...he's a dog with a collar. Not much can be done, really, without drastically changing the character.
      • Give him a new collar? Even then a lot of people would complain since it's so iconic.

     Scooby's Age 
  • Scooby is eight - seven years old, right? He shows no signs of old age or even being older than the dog equivalent of twenty-five. He's a Great Dane, which has short life expectancies, plus he's unhealthy which adds to that.
    • All that running-from-monsters is surprisingly-good exercise.
      • I suppose so if his arteries aren't half clogged and his sugar up. But even then he seems young in appearance. His fur is perfectly fine for example, no grey.
      • Raw eggs as the main ingredient in Scooby Snacks?
    • Also, he's not a Great Dane, he's a bloodhound. No, he doesn't look like one, but that's what he's supposed to be.
      • Oh, Scooby is a Great Dane, all right. He was first a sheepdog named Too Much, but they had to change him since the Archie Show (also on CBS) already had a sheepdog (Jughead's pet Hot Dog), One of the artists at Hanna-Barbera raised Great Danes as a hobby, so they made the dog a Great Dane. (An episode of 13 Ghosts certifies this uncontestably.)
      • Scooby was purposefully designed as a Great Dane with the exact opposite of all the traditionally desirable physical traits of the breed — Scooby's so far away from the ideal Great Dane as it's possible to get with his large chin, his bow legs, and his color (Great Danes don't come in that color). However, he doesn't seem to have any of the health problems normally associated with Great Danes either; Great Danes are a fragile breed but Scooby has an iron health and constitution. So Scooby and his family might simply be mutations of the breed, which may not have the traits to win prizes at dog shows but to make up for it have excellent health.
      • This is backed up by "Decoy for a Dognapper," where it's made explicitly clear that Scooby requires extensive grooming and disguise to pass as a purebred Great Dane, is immediately called a mongrel when the dognappers get a good look and aren't considered worth even trying to ransom!
    • If you put Mystery Incorporated into consideration, he presumably can longer than the average dog due to being a descendant of an Anunnaki descendant.

     Meddling Adults 
  • Why do the villains always say "I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you blasted meddling kids!" when Mystery Inc. are adults?
    • Most of the villains are pretty old guys, so as far as they are concerned, even young adults like the gang count as "kids".
    • Aren't they teenagers, though? I suppose most teenagers consider it condescending to be called "kids", but most adults don't care about that.
    • Because "you meddling Sound-Effect Bleep"s wouldn't get past Broadcast Standards and Practices.
    • Interestingly enough most of the HB meddling kids are all supposed to have been high school teens, yet to be fair, I would have pegged them all for early 20s college age. But then I wasn't alive in the 60s and 70s, is this more a generational gap between both the old bad guys in the world and the younger set in real life?
      • Even in Real Life, some people refer to those in their early 20s as kids.
    • Pretty sure they did get called "meddling grown-ups" at least once, when the culprits turned out to be children themselves.

     Non-Trespassers Will be Prosecuted Too 
  • Much of the time the monster turns out to be a trespasser who's protecting the mansion's hidden treasure, but every so often, it's the owner of the house or a direct relative that the owner is close to. But even when the suspect owns the property and does not attempt to harm the Gang (outside of a little scare), they still get arrested by the sheriff. Uh... why? And for that matter, why is the gang never arrested for trespassing, too?
    • That's not entirely true. There was the Headless Ghost episode in which the owner is trying to find something hidden on his property. After he's unmasked, the gang offers to help him and find another person with an ax who is also trying to find said treasure. He's arrested for trespassing but doesn't press charges on the gang cause they're helping him. It's been a while, but I'm fairly certain this is still true for other episodes in the original series where someone explicitly asked them to come or thanked them for their efforts.

     Talking Dogs vs. Monsters and Probability 
  • The Doo family were somewhat talking dogs. So why was the existence of monsters so far-fetched?.
    • They've wavered on whether most people can understand Scooby; some of the movies suggest that Shaggy's usually the only one, with the rest of the gang just knowing Scooby well enough to get the gist of it (Scooby's wild gestures probably help). Some of Scooby's family could more talk more clearly in the '70s shows as you said, but some of them owned their own homes, drove cars, had jobs, and lived like humans. They come from an especially odd, Reverse Cerebus Syndrome period of the franchise that didn't exist during the original show, and has probably fallen back into Canon Discontinuity or Broad Strokes for the more recent ones.
    • It could also be seen as an overgeneralization. For example, if they found a real Big Foot, that doesn't mean they should then think ghosts are real too without actually finding one.
    • Considering by cross overs, talking dogs are the least of the universe's strange problems.
      • Talking animals are normal in their world as well.

     The Gang's Position Should Arouse Suspicion 
  • Why do no authorities in the country start getting suspicious about Mystery Inc.? They show up at just the right time to solve what is, on the face of it, an utterly ridiculous crime. And other than the (clearly deranged) villain's confession, the only evidence presented to the police is what the gang has found out. "That's right officer, this man has dressed up as a witch and his accomplice as a zombie and they go around a swamp using a pontoon to try and find an old sunken armored car that they robbed years ago. Also, they have an incredibly elaborate system of wires and smoke bombs that allows them to convince anyone nearby that they are, in fact, a real witch and a zombie." and the police go "Yup, that sounds legit" and haul the villains away and the gang just drive off. What the hell, cops?
    • The police aren't dragging the villains off for immediate sentencing, they're just arresting them for trespassing (which, regardless of anything else, the crooks are doing) along with suspicion of all the other accusations. We can assume a more thorough police investigation happened offscreen, and it backed up everything the Scoobies said. When the police quip about how "where he's going he won't have to [insert snarky callback to the villain's scheme here] for a long time", they're just making offhand conversation (and assuring viewers too young for the subtleties of the legal system that yes, the bad guy goes to jail now).
      • Just looking at the latest season, we have a group of counterfeiters and a guy who almost killed off a policeman because of erratic driving. I think that's enough to send someone to prison, regardless of their ghost disguises.
      • All that being said, the cops would never allow the Mystery Inc. gang to just drive off like that. They'd ALL have to come down to the station and give their sworn statements as to what happened, otherwise the bad guy could easily have his "Meddling kids!" confession suppressed because he wasn't read his rights when he said it. And without that confession, he could easily walk. Come to think of it, could this be why bad guys keep trying these zany schemes? Every time the bad guy is unmasked the Scooby Gang immediately flees the jurisdiction and the villain gets off scot-free.
      • Who says the arresting officers don't read the suspects their rights? Usually, they're already handcuffed at the beginning of the denouement, so might have been Mirandized just before the portion of the arrest we're shown. For that matter, who says the gang doesn't provide full sworn statements, just not immediately...? In most of the franchise's incarnations, they're legal minors, so would need a parent or parental proxy on hand for any formal questioning by police to take place. If they're at home in Coolsville/Crystal Cove/wherever they can be permitted to go home and return with an adult in the morning; if they're traveling out of state, then the police would need to allow their parents time to arrange to join them or hire a local attorney as a proxy. No reason not to let them return to their hotel, campground, or Great-Uncle Shagworthy's place in the meanwhile; else, the police might be in legal trouble for confining teenage minors against their will without cause.
    • While there's not much "dress up as fake ghost" crime in the real life, we should also make note of their real-life equivalents, the private investigator often does run afoul with official police. Needless to say about paranormal investigators who like pi's sometimes do legally trespass and get into trouble over it. Minding of course either has some evidence of some more serious crime to offer. Most real-life police wouldn't be as happy and accepting of a real-life Scooby gang, and this is also a reason while many detective fictions have some kind of official police foil for their detective to playoff.
    • Given that absolutely nothing indicates the gang sticks around to testify in the trial, a lot of those villains probably walk free. This is somewhat justified by the dodge that the villain was already "wanted in five states" for previous crimes, in which case even if their current charges fall through the crook still goes down for the previous ones.
      • There is such a thing as a plea bargain, and not every conviction requires a full trial with witnesses. In cases where Mystery Inc. leaves town immediately after the arrest, it's likely that the villain already confessed in the presence of arresting officers, making the gang's testimony unnecessary. Indeed, "I could have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!" would constitute a confession in itself, 100% admissible in court.
    • There's something of a Grandfather Clause here with kid detectives, thanks to boys' adventure stories and books like the Hardy Boys.
      • Not just kid detectives; how many times do you see a Police Procedural follow-up on the paperwork and statements once the bad guy's been cuffed at the end of an investigation? Barely ever unless it's Law & Order, and those shows were designed specifically to avert that custom by following cases from the crime scene to the courtroom.

     Real Ghosts 
  • How did the ghosts become "real" in the 1980-1983 series, and an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries? Is that Seasonal Rot, or something else?
    • Not sure about "become real", while the gang had been finding a lot of fake ghosts and the occasional hint of one, this never would have stopped the existence of real ghosts all that time, the Scooby gang just didn't directly investigate one until the later years.
    • More to the point, once you have the series mostly being just Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy, it may not be that the ghosts are real so much as that the mysteries are going unsolved. The franchise has a long-running tendency to wave off the most blatant supernatural phenomena as "movies being projected on fog" or "tricks with mirrors" or freaking "transparent plastic skis." Of the three protagonists from the Audience-Alienating Era, only Scrappy would have any interest in solving the mystery instead of getting out of town, and Scooby of course would never let him.
    • Real ghosts are probably really, really rare. And demons and vampires and such have much better things to do than scam people out of the real estate (cf. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo).

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

     Apathetic Cops 
  • Why don't the cops ever seem to take an interest in reports of creepy monsters menacing people? The first five, maybe ten times, you could handwave it. Police departments in different cities don't network with each other as much as they should (especially back in the 60s) so it's easy for the individual departments to brush off monster reports as people letting their imaginations run wild. But after it keeps happening again and again and again across multiple towns and states, you'd think someone would wake up and say: "Hey, you remember that guy who said a Snow Ghost chased him away from the old silver mine? Maybe we should go check that out. It could be a guy in a costume, just like what happened in ten other towns in the last month alone."
    • Maybe they think the supposed supernatural antics will attract tourists, like in Mystery Incorporated.
    • It probably doesn't happen all that often. Sure, the counterfeiter has a ghost costume to scare away anyone who comes into the old abandoned mansion out in the country ... but how often does that happen? And how many people would call the police with what they know must sound like a crazy story?
    • The real purpose of the costumes may be to discredit witnesses who happen to see them going about their business. If someone reports two suspicious individuals sounding the bottom of the river at one in the morning in an area where an armored car disappeared, that's a clue. If someone reports a witch and a zombie putting hexes on people, that's a good laugh for the desk sergeant.
    • The gang travels all over the country and all over the world. The local sheriffs and deputies who do most of the arresting aren't going to be concerned about what happens outside their jurisdiction. As for the FBI and the Treasury, well, they do get involved. Lots of episodes have a suspicious character hanging around who turns out to be an investigator — evidence that the pattern has been noticed and high-level law enforcement agencies are taking action.

     Why Can Only the Gang Help? 
  • Why is it only the gang can do anything about the ghosts and monsters? Frequently there are large groups of people that end up being scared away by the villain's scary act all the time, and instead of investigating the monsters themselves they all just run away until there are only at most two or three people left by the start of the episode, this even extends to entire towns filled with hundreds of people sometimes. It isn't until the Scooby Gang shows up and catches the guy that anything gets resolved.
    • Well per the actual episodes the meddling kids are the one to save the day, but there are indeed other meddling kids out there solving some crimes the original Scooby gang don't. Why in this world do meddling kid detectives have such more accomplished careers than actual detectives?
    • And in cases where a whole community clears out because of spooky events, lots of people who think it's just a load of hooey may still be forced to leave, due to the ones who do believe in the paranormal withdrawing from the local economy. Workers getting displaced by factories shutting down is sadly commonplace, whether or not the closure has anything to do with a Tar Monster wrecking the place.

     Did Ghosts Exist? 
  • Weren't there two episodes where the ghost was not a bad guy in a mask - think it was Scooby-Doo Meets The Addams Family and Scooby Meets Jeannie in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. The bone that floats after the green ghost episode and in the snow ghost one, the weird monk guy does claim to have originally met the real yeti.
    • Plenty over the years, the earliest real things trace back to the first series.
    • The earliest case in the universe is "Ghost Who's Coming To Dinner" from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
    • Out-of-universe at least, maybe the "Addams Family" one was because the writers wanted it to be scarier to fit the aesthetic, or because crossovers are seldom canon.
      • Or the writers just realized that you can't do an Addams Family episode - complete with Thing - or a story with actual magical genies in it, and yet maintain a stance that the supernatural doesn't exist.

     13 Ghosts— Why So Different? 
  • One other headscratcher, does The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo have a different continuity - no Fred or Velma, no bad guys in masks, etc.?
    • The continuity of the series is pretty much up to you, though I'd say that it seems likely this one stands out on its own.
    • Technically neither of those things originated in that series. So not really. However, remember this is Hanna Barbera. Continuity wasn't always that important. But beware the times they pull a Mythology Gag it may just hit you like a load of bricks.
    • And now we have Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost so yes it happened in Scooby's past.
  • Another possible reason is that the show was more focused on being a (pretty blatant) attempt to ride the success of 'Ghostbusters'.

     Creepy, Confusing Cruise 
  • Is it just me or was The Summation in Creepy Cruise the epitome of Voodoo Shark? To summarize: the gang goes on a cruise where this scientist is experimenting with a time machine but something goes wrong and a monster from the future emerges. It is later revealed that the scientist and his shady financier had co-conspired to swindle their investors with a fake machine. The "monster" was a series of holograms projected throughout the ship with the financier wearing a suit whenever the monster needed to appear inside the machine. Problems:
    • In several points Shaggy and Scooby physically interact with the monster meaning it couldn't have been an image. If it was the financier, then why is he running around the ship still wearing the costume as opposed to laying low?
    • In the cold opening, the monster is briefly seen inside the machine while it's being hoisted aboard the ship. The scientist dismisses this and it's never mentioned again.
    • Eventually they corner the two by "repeating the experiment" and the monster appears in front of the stunning pair...only it's Shaggy in the suit. Where the hell did he find it?
    • In conclusion, one wonders if the inspiration for the ridiculous climax of "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" was this episode...

     Shaggy's Shirt 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     Wouldn't Pretending to Be a Monster Attract Attention? 
  • Some villains want to scare people off the island so they can find hidden treasure without being disturbed, right? Wouldn't dressing up as a ghost/monster attract more attention? Wouldn't that make people travel to your island to check out the mysterious ghost pirate?
    • Depends how skeptical the people in the area are. Some are attracted to it, others aren't. In-universe it seems the people who are attracted to it are the You Meddling Kids or people personally affected by it. Everyone else gets out of dodge when the monster shows up.
    • Dressing up in a costume also means the police are less likely to take reports of trespassers and smugglers seriously.
    • It's rare in the original series for a villain to make up their spooky alter-ego from scratch. Most of them are emulating ghost stories that were already being circulated about the locations they "haunt", so it's not so much that a mysterious ghost pirate turns up abruptly as that reports of a ghost pirate start coming in with a somewhat greater frequency. Any locals inclined to investigate hauntings probably looked into the matter before the criminal in a mask showed up, found nothing, and lost interest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Miscellaneous 
  • Why haven't they caught on that it's always Old Man Jenkins in a Rubber Suit?
    • The movies did address that, just in time for that not to be the case.
    • This is discussed in the video game Mystery Mayhem (2004). Shaggy and Scooby (once again) refuse to participate in capturing a villain. When Fred asks why they would still be frightened if they knew that whatever monster it would be was just a bad guy in a mask, Shaggy retorts that it's just that: Someone who willingly dresses up in a costume to scare people is not a person you want to be around.
    • In Zombie Island, there is a whole montage and song about how the ghosts always turn out to be fake. Again, the real villains turn out to not be the case.
    • Another example in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins: We finally figure out that Scooby Snacks are made with water, flour, eggs, cocoa, and dog kibble "for texture". Chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Why is Scooby not dead?
      • Because chocolate isn't THAT poisonous to them.
      • Considering that the main reason why dogs die from chocolate is because of their lower tolerance for stimulants than humans, essentially making chocolate dog cocaine, this explains a lot.
      • And, considering how Scooby Snacks seem to have the same effect on Shaggy as they do on Scoob], well... Squick.
      • Or not. Even leaving aside that Shaggy didn't always go for Scooby Snacks (Daphne whipped up a "Shaggy Snack" in the original series episode, "Never Ape an Ape Man": A pot pie with pizza crust, anchovies, pepperoni, cherries, and all in a thick chocolate sauce), chocolate has the same effects on humans as on dogs. Humans (and rats) are just able to get the alkaloid theobromine out of their bloodstream faster, so it takes a lot more to poison them.
      • As revealed in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Scooby is an Eldritch Abomination in disguise. It seems rather implausible that a little bit of chocolate would do anything to him. It could also just be Rule of Funny that Scooby can survive.
      • Maybe the collar also has a built-in function that increases the tolerance of potentially poisonous substances?
    • In Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, Shaggy states that the hunt of the 13 Ghosts made he and Scooby worry about possibly encountering real monsters again. Plus, in The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, Shaggy and the dogs frequently encounter actual monsters and aliens when not with the rest of the gang.
  • Further lampshaded in the pilot for Mystery Inc., when Velma is giving a tour of her parents' museum when she drops the bomb on her excited charges that not one of the original series' mysteries was an actual supernatural shenanigan; her parents come along to shut her up real quick after that. All of the gang's parents share the sentiment-the mysteries of the original series have been retconned to have all happened in the gang's hometown of Crystal Cove, and the supposedly supernatural activity ensures a brisk tourist trade; they don't want their kids to keep solving mysteries because they enjoy being employed.
  • Zigzagged in "Haunted House Hang-Up": To determine which side of a fork in the road the gang should take, Shaggy chooses to flip a slice of bologna:
    Shaggy: Heads we take the left side and I eat it, tails we take the right side and I eat it.
    Velma: How can you have heads or tails on a slice of bologna?
    Shaggy: Heads is the mustard side...tails is plain.
  • In a scene from "Kooky Space Kook", Shaggy and Scooby lock themselves in a cabin at the airfield, and Scooby tosses the key out the window. The space freak manages to get in by opening the door from the other side. Our heroes run to escape through the locked door but can't get out because Scooby threw the key out. They jump out of the window, grab the key, jump back into the cabin, then unlock the door and escape.
  • "Mine Your Own Business" has a more perplexing bit. Having found the combination to the hotel safe, Fred offers to read it as Shaggy manipulates the dial. Shaggy proceeds to turn the dial and Fred isn't saying anything except at the end:
    Fred: I have the combination...just turn the handle to the left.
    Shaggy: Well, why didn't you say so?
  • Why would the gang pass off monsters as fake when they've got a talking dog on the team?
  • A few times, Shaggy and Scooby will see the ghost and sound the alarm, only to be dismissed. How many times have they sounded false alarms to be brushed off like that?
    • When was the last time YOU took a paranormal report seriously?

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