Literature / Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat

Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat is a series by Bill Myers, better known for The Incredible Worlds Of Wally Mc Doogle. The series concerns an ordinary boy named Bernie Dingledorf who gets confused with a brilliant secret agent of the same surname and forcibly recruited as a crimefighter. With the help of the agency's wacky gizmos (and his not-quite-so-helpful dog Splat), he saves the world from B.A.D.D. (Bungling Agents Dedicated to Destruction) and learns Christian-inspired lessons along the way.

The series currently has five books:

1. The Case of the Giggling Geeks
2. The Case of the Yodeling Turtles
3. The Case of the Drooling Dinosaurs
4. The Case of the Hiccupping Ears
5. The Case of the Chewable Worms
6. The Case of the Flying Toenails

In 2021, Winter Star Productions created a film version of the first book starring Zackary Arthur as Bernie Dingledorf.

This series includes examples of the following tropes:

• Accidental Hero: Splat sometimes helps save the day, mostly by accidentally unplugging or tearing things while trying to get food. Bernie has been known to weaponize this trait.
• An Aesop: The series involves the hero (and sometimes the villain) learning a lesson once every book.
  • The Case of the Giggling Geeks: Respect people who are different from you.
  • The Case of the Yodeling Turtles: Take responsibility, because if you shirk your duties, someone less benevolent could step into the gap.
  • The Case of the Drooling Dinosaurs: It's right and usually more pleasant to follow the rules.
  • The Case of the Hiccupping Ears: The human body is wonderful just the way God made it.
  • The Case of the Chewable Worms: Don't just brush off other people's problems as "their business."
  • The Case of the Flying Toenails: Honesty is the best policy.
• Berserk Button: Never point out that Priscilla is a girl and never use her name unless you want a beating.
• Canon Welding: Bernie refers more than once to his klutzy cousin, Wally McDoogle.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': At the end of The Case of the Drooling Dinosaurs, Bernie finds his HQ liason acting as a crossing guard. When Bernie asks what happened, the guy says this is his punishment for breaking the agent rules during the case, thus underlining that even high-ranking people can't just ignore rules.
• Continuity Nod: The major agent who usually helps Bernie ditches him after finding out that he got dino drool on his gizmo backpack, fearing germs. When Bernie asks him why, he attributes it to Splat accidentally flushing them down a toilet during the case of the chewable worms.
• Delinquent Hair: Dr. Rebellion from The Case of the Drooling Dinosaurs wears a mohawk. However, even a normal mohawk isn't enough to express his hatred for rules — he wears a sideways one.
• Drives Like Crazy: The Case of the Hiccupping Ears shows a driver crashing a car in front of Bernie, Priscilla, and IQ. When the trio come to see if he's all right, they find out he's sitting on his head.
• Embarrassing First Name: Ms. Hooplesnort, Bernie's teacher, turns out to have three embarrassing names — her full name "Gertrude Myrtle Hooplesnort", causes gales of laughter from the class when it comes up.
• Head Pet: In The Case of the Hiccupping Ears, Splat climbs on Bernie's head during re-entry of Earth's atmosphere, accidentally covering his ears and blocking the signal that causes people to act strangely.
• "Join Us" Drone: In The Case of the Chewable Worms, B.A.D.D. creates worms that everyone finds super tasty. After eating even one, people keep eating, and they may try to force holdouts to eat them too.
• The Klutz: I.Q. trips over everything, even falling over his own shadow at one point. In The Case of the Giggling Geeks, Bernie says that him dropping his lunch tray happens on a daily basis.
• Monster of the Aesop: As one would expect from a religious book series, the problem du jour usually rams home some lesson Bernie has been struggling with in everyday life.
  • The Case of the Giggling Geeks: Bernie has been trying to get his geeky friend I.Q. to act cooler, and ends up having to fight a clown who wants to make everyone in the world laugh whether they like it or not.
  • The Case of the Yodeling Turtles: Bernie and the other kids in the neighborhood have been neglecting to take care of their pets. B.A.D.D. steps in to "help" and doses all pets with a potion that will make them perform "musically" non-stop until B.A.D.D. gets control of the world.
  • The Case of the Flying Toenails: The bizarre illness referenced in the title spreads in the first place because a B.A.D.D. agent lied about being exposed to it, and Bernie can't admit that he knows anything about it because that would mean admitting he was stargazing when he was supposed to be in bed.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Bernie's H.Q. liason is known only as "Big Guy."
• Rousing Speech: After having freed a number of people from the worms' spell, Bernie goes out onto the upper floor of the mall to tell everyone of their responsibility to help those still addicted.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: I.Q., given his immense smarts, uses lots of big words.
• Shoe Phone: Par for the course for spy fiction. Bernie's gadgets usually come disguised as pretty prosaic things. For instance, the "phone" he uses to talk to headquarters is in his underwear.
• Sickly Neurotic Geek: I.Q., one of Bernie's close friends, is a very smart kid who Bernie imagines would excel at any sport that involved reading hundreds of books or curing cancer. He's also almost as clumsy as Bernie's cousin Wally McDoogle and suffers from such severe allergies that he's sniffling in every scene.
• A Taste Of His Own Medicine: Dr. Chuckles falls afoul of his own laughter-causing device in the climax and admits afterward that he didn't enjoy the experience at all. This leads him to accept other people's differences and ditch his plan to force laughter upon them.