Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Phineas and Ferb

Go To

For other works:

    open/close all folders 

    A-C 
  • Accidental Innuendo:
    • "Your hotdog is no match for my bratwurst!"
    • "Look at you! You're just a bottom!"
    • "Wow...Heinz Doofenshmirtz is way too hot, we should get out of him."
    • "Here comes the BIIIIG FINISH!", followed shortly by "Ohhh that feels good!"
    • In "Candace Gets Busted", the entire neighborhood has an intimate get together in Doof's pants context.
    • One fan decided to look a little too far into the scene in "De Plane! De Plane!" when Candace and Jeremy crash into each other in the dried up pool. The results were, reportedly, scarring, though the video has since been taken down.
    • Perry trying to go through the rubber hose to get into his lair in "Thaddeus and Thor". His movement combined with that noise...Yeah...
    • From "Journey to the Center of Candace": "When we're inside, we'll activate the shrinkage."
    • Many lines in the song "Gitchee-Gitchee-Goo" can sound rather... Sexual.
      "Never gonna stop/Gitchee-Gitchee-Goo means I love you!" “Bow-chicka-bow-bow/That’s what my baby said/Mow-mow-mow/And my heart starts pumpin’”
    • Doof's line from "Phineas and Ferb Interrupted": "...new partner, now if you'll be kind enough to point it to my face and blast me, I'll be the most fascinating and charming person in the Tri-State area! And then maybe we'll go to a movie or something."
  • Adorkable:
    • Phineas and Ferb themselves. They're always happy (especially Phineas), they never give up, and they geek out over advanced technology.
    • Candace is that rare big sister example, due to her neurotic Butt-Monkey-ness. She also Squees a lot, tries to get her brothers in trouble, and fails miserably. But she's also a closeted fan of Japanese kawaii character Ducky Momo and fangirls over Marvel superheroes.
    • Doofenshmirtz. He had a miserable childhood, and his adulthood is not much better. Despite that, he is always earnest in everything he does, even if all his efforts (often literally) blow up at his face.
    • Baljeet is nerdy and cute as a button.
    • Carl is a goofy guy with glasses, and is very cute in appearance.
    • Even Perry has his moments, especially when he is Not So Above It All. Of note is that he signs his text messages with ASCII Art of a platypus, even in the middle of a battle.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Phineas: Is he really that naïve, or just better than Isabella at hiding his own burning affections as implied by how thrilled he was about Isabella kissing him.
      • Some people also believe that his optimistic and carefree nature has him be someone amoral who isn't necessarily a good guy. He is seen as who just wants to have fun and doesn't truly care that much about the feelings of others and the consequences of what he does.
    • Some see the show as Candace's visions of madness, rather than about a show about two brothers who build things.
    • Is Candace a Jerkass who tries to bust the boys so she can flount her authority and deserves all what happens to her for trying to bust her brothers or do we feel sorry about her life where Failure Is the Only Option because she is the only sane girl who realizes that building impossible things in a backyard may end very badly? Or in-between: has she become obsessed with busting her brothers because her mother's inability to see the truth, combined with no one else backing her up on her claims, has her questioning her own sanity, and busting them would be validation?
    • Some think the O.W.C.A. are a Big Brother analog. Doofenshmirtz can't even go to the park without the agency sending Perry after him! Not to mention they give Perry very few days off or vacations, not even on Christmas.
    • Is Isabella a sweet Girl Next Door kinda neighbor with a crush on Phineas, or is she a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing with an obsessive crush and won't even care what happens to anyone, as long as she has Phineas?
    • Given that Perry's worst nightmare is to be relocated from the Flynn-Fletcher family, did he deliberately choose the incompetent Doofenshmirtz whose inators-of-the-week are often pivotal to sabotage Candace's busting attempt as his nemesis? In this light, the platypus seems a lot less responsible and really takes advantage of Obfuscating Stupidity.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees:
    • Lingonberries are a type of berry that only Buford seems to know about. But lingonberries are a real, albeit obscure, fruit in the same genus as cranberries.
    • There is, in fact, a not-insubstantial Jewish community of Mexico. They're almost exclusively concentrated in Mexico City and have an old, rich local culture rather than the mashup of Mexican and Ashkenazi Jewish culture practiced by the Garcia-Shapiros.
    • Some viewers of the show were surprised to learn that the platypus is a real animal, including co-creator Jeff "Swampy" Marsh's mother-in-law.
      • Platypuses aren't normally green, like Perry. But as it turns out, platypuses can glow in the dark, with Perry's exact shade of green. What's more, the chittering noises Perry makes are real close to a platypus's actual cry. Dan Povenmire was shocked when he found out about these facts, as he was sure that he made these things up for the show, proving once again that Reality Is Unrealistic.
  • And You Thought It Would Fail: Dan Povenmire first created the concept of Phineas and Ferb at the very start of the Turn of the Millennium, but in the 7 years he had been trying to pitch the show, every animation studio turned it down, believing that the episodic format of the show would grow incredibly stale. Disney was very reluctant about greenlighting the show for the same reason as all the other companies, but after some incredibly heavy negotiations, they would accept the pitch, and the show would go on to be a smashing success; even being Adored by the Network.
  • Anvilicious:
    • The Flawless Girl plot from "Attack of the 50 Foot Sister", though they get points for taking a less-cliché approach to the subject than most who tackle it.
    • "The Lake Nose Monster". The fact that the beach-goers don't seem to care doesn't change how heavy-handed it is.
      Phineas: I didn't think it was boring, Ferb.
    • The mandatory healthy eating episode was "Candace's Big Day". Interesting in how, if you look at the labels on the "Junkfoodinator", they read "Corn Syrup" (Which Dr. D refers to as "High Fructose Corn Syrup") and "Partially Hydrogenated Coconut Oil", as a bonus for health-nuts out there. Also notable as a "Health Food Episode" that actually makes sense: Doof picks the scheme because he expects everyone to become "overweight and lethargic" as a result of eating only junk food, making it trivial for him to take over. It can also be seen as exactly the kind of plan Doofenshmirtz would come up with. What is also interesting is that Doof grows overweight and lethargic himself from eating health food... dipped in concentrated fat.
    • 'Phineas and Ferb Get Busted', 'Phineas and Ferb Interrupted' and 'Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo' are avid over creativity. But then again...
  • Archive Panic: 140 episodes (6 of which are an hour long) and 2 movies make a pretty decent length.
  • Ass Pull: In "One Good Turn," Doofenshmirtz's plan is to have his brother, Roger, turn to his side in front of the mayor of Stumblegimp so that he'd be forced to perform the Humiliating Stumblegimp Dance of Contrition. When Doof finally accomplishes this, Roger does the dance... but it's revealed that it has been updated and the song doesn't even humiliate him and everyone performs it as well. While there is an explanation, it's mostly done so that Doofenshmirtz doesn't get the satisfaction of humiliating his brother.
  • Award Snub: The show has so far lost seven times in a row to Spongebob Squarepants in the Kids Choice Awards. It is Nick's award show after all, and SpongeBob is a much bigger phenomenon than this is, so those losses are understandable. This is obviously ticking some fans off. Made worse in 2014, when a new award - for Best Animal Sidekick - pit Perry against Patrick. Patrick won. Many fans were upset to see it get a nomination in 2016 after it ended, as they just want the series to be put out of its misery.
  • Base-Breaking Character: Candace. She has enough fans to be popular, but many people hate her for wanting her brothers to get in trouble, even if their project isn't dangerous, blaming them for things that weren't even their fault; her angry, hostile attitude toward them when they're nothing but nice to her is viewed as a turn-off, and whether or not she's a good friend towards Stacy and Jenny is questionable. Other people don't see anything wrong with Candace busting her brothers since the things they build and the activities they partake in are dangerous and she's just doing it because she fears for their safety and also point out that she can be fun when she wants to be and there are moments when she's actually nice to Phineas and Ferb like a good sister.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: All anybody seems to remember about the episode "A Real Boy" is the backup singers in the eponymous song.
  • Better on DVD: Though plenty of entertainment can still be drawn regardless of what order you watch the episodes, watching multiple episodes in a row, especially the earlier ones first, will allow you to understand more of the jokes made in the show, since a huge chunk of its later humor is based on lampshading and subverting the Running Gags and making Brick Jokes and Continuity Nods to other episodes. It would be, if there were more than a dozen episodes (of the over 150 made) available on DVD. Although they were all available on Netflix, it was only in America until the show was removed in mid-2018. Outside of the US, they can be bought on iTunes. The entire series is available on Disney+, although Season 1's episodes were initially neither in the order they aired nor production order (though the order has fortunately been corrected to the production order), and only the edited-for-syndication version of the first Christmas special was available. (Dan and Swampy worked to get Disney XD's extended version on there. It was achieved not long after the episode order was fixed.) Also Summer Belongs to You has a few jokes that were cut for unknown reason.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • In-Universe: Perry and Doof's interference with the main plot comes out of nowhere from the kids' point of view, but they rarely question it and almost never bring it up after the fact.
      Phineas: I don't know what causes it but it sure helps with clean-up.
    • The popularity of the "Gitchee-Gitchee-Goo" song in "Flop Starz" led the higher ups to decide to make the musical numbers occur Once an Episode. That includes when it really doesn't make any sense to have a musical number whatsoever. The writers do their best of course, but sometimes there's just no way to work a song into the plot of an episode. And yet there's one there anyway. Luckily, the fact that it doesn't make sense for a song to be there makes it funnier when there is. Mexican Jewish Cultural Festival, anyone?
      • "Izzy's Got The Frizzies", relating to this. A completely unrelated 70's funk number crammed in before the credits of "Robot Rodeo". Strangely enough, that episode already had a song.note 
      • "Dance, Baby" appears at the end of a perfectly normal conversation between Perry and Doof, and it comes completely out of the blue.
      • The Tokyo song in "Summer Belongs To You". It's even lampshaded.
        Candace: (while doing the Caramelldansen Vid movements) I have no idea what just happened.
    • "Phineas' Birthday Clip-o-rama" actually shows a montage of Big Lipped Alligator Moments (courtesy of Baljeet), some of which don't come from any actual episode and are impossible to imagine making sense in any context.
      • Speaking of which, "Phineas' Birthday Clip-O-Rama" is littered with clips of events that never actually occur in the series, such as Perry entering his lair as a giant and getting trapped in a metal shell shaped exactly like himself, pose and all, Doofenshmirtz's Blow-Itself-Up-Inator and Inside-Out-Inator, Candace calling for Mom while she and everything around her looks like an abstract painting, a project of Phineas and Ferb's that involves a device apparently being powered by chickens, and, of course, Evil Lawrence and Evil Linda.
    • Major Monogram's brief musical number shows up out of nowhere and disappears within seconds. (But it does help introduce children to the music of Gilbert and Sullivan.)
  • Bizarro Episode:
    • "Lost in Danville" didn't seem to be one at first, but the ending revealed that everything happened in an alternate dimension, being observed by our Phineas and Ferb. Observant viewers might have noted the subtle cluenote  in the episode that points that out, and is lampshaded at the end of the episode.
    • All of the Time Shift Weekend episodes note  as well as "Steampunx" and "Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars" all count as this for starring alternate dimensions and/or time periods of Phineas and Ferb. But bonus points go to "Tri-Stone Area" for having no discernible dialogue, and having stop motion (well, CGP Grey-style slideshows) of Dan and Swampy explaining/critiquing the episode.
    • "Mission Marvel" establishes them as being part of one of the Marvelverses. Like any true bizarro episode, this is never mentioned again.
    • "Moon Farm" probably takes the cake in the end. For crying out loud, the episode's very premise.
    • "Remains of the Platypus" might seem this way for people unfamiliar with The Remains of the Day, Memento and the backwards episode of Seinfeld, but even when put in chronological order, the plot is very surreal.
  • Broken Base:
    • Whether the show declined in quality in its last two seasons or not. Episodes around this time tend to get more mixed reactions, especially the ones that try something different. Some find these changes of pace refreshing and just enjoy the different ways characters are played with, while others feel like deviating too much from the formula feels desperate and takes away from the show's strengths. The fanbase is broken on whether the show focusing less and less on the title characters is a good thing or not for similar reasons.
    • Whenever Phineas gets angry seems to spark a wide range of opinions. In both Across the 2nd Dimension and "Mission Marvel", Phineas gets angry (the former at realising that Perry was a secret agent, and the latter for Candace's fangirl excitement continuously causing her to screw up the plans for the superheroes to regain their powers), and people either consider it justified given the circumstances or consider it enough of an Out of Character moment that he delves into Jerkass territory. The fact that Phineas asks Perry if it ever occurred to him that they could have had cool adventures, implying that he only wants in for his own personal gain doesn't really do him much favors. It gets to the point where some find it darkly deserving when in Candace Against the Universe, Candace more or less cuts him (and Ferb) out of her life, fitting as Laser-Guided Karma for his own angry moments previously mentioned. Phineas also gets mad briefly in "Summer Belongs to You", but this doesn't seem to split the fan base as much. However, it did briefly spark an Alternative Character Interpretation for him, but it died out after more episodes ran.
    • The Time Skip episode "Act Your Age". Detractors tend to say that the designs for the future versions of the kids look bad and that the plot feels like a "bad fanfiction" where nothing happens and then the problem is simply resolved at the last moments, but there are people who also appreciate what it does and find it to be a sweet resolution to the Isabella's story arc. (Similarly the "I loved you as children, you loved me as teenagers" situation is either painfully stupid, or else sweetly realistic of young love).
      • The same episode reveals Ferbessa is cannon. The Ferbessa shippers rejoice, while the Montessa fans complain that it adds nothing to the plot and makes Monty's entire character pointless.
    • The decision to crossover with Milo Murphy's Law was initially met with excitement from fans, however when "The Phineas and Ferb Effect" was released fans became very split. Many were fine with it and enjoyed it for what it was feeling as if the two shows were a perfect match, it had solid interactions and was a welcome return for beloved characters. However, many people felt it handled the Phineas and Ferb characters poorly, mainly in regards to what they do with Doofenshmirtz and the Retcon they apply to Phineas and Ferb that basically ensures that things will always go right for them in the end no matter what (even if canon has explicitly contradicted this).
  • Canon Fodder: Oh boy, "Who is Phineas and Candace's biological father, who is Ferb's biological mother, what happened to them and where are they now?" If there was an earthquake for every fic written related to this, the world would be over in minutes.
  • Cargo Ship: Candace and her Ducky Momo doll.
  • Catharsis Factor: Susie getting hit with Doofenshmirtz's Tell-The-Truth-Inator, forcing her to confess to her attempts to humiliate Candace, it's about time Susie got some come-uppance.
  • Character Perception Evolution: Candace was once the show's most polarizing character, especially among kids, thanks to her compulsive desire to "bust" her brothers regardless of what they're doing, her crush on Jeremy coming across as a borderline obsession, her questionable treatment of Stacy, and her generally acting like a stereotypical teenage brat. However, later episodes would show her softer side by showing she does genuinely care about her brothers, have her become a better friend to Stacy, and tone down some of her more negative traits. In addition to this, viewers who watched the show as kids have since grown up and realized that she actually had a point in that Phineas and Ferb's crazy inventions could end up hurting someone or themselves (even if she is a bit of a jerk about it), as well as sympathized with her over the fact that she's constantly made to look like an idiot and be berated by her own mother, making it understandable she developed an obsession with trying to bust her brothers. All these factors served to make Candace a fan favorite.
  • Cliché Storm: Done deliberately with the Doofenshmirtz and Perry subplot. Half their shtick is taking just about every single Hero/Supervillain cliche in the book, and parodying, lampshading, deconstructing, and playing with them to kingdom come.
    • Dan and Swampy then take it to a meta level. By the third and fourth seasons, they are parodying, lampshading, deconstructing and playing with all the cliches and tropes they spent the first two seasons building and reinforcing.
  • Continuity Lock-Out: There are many episodes that focus specifically on playing with the usual formula and/or build directly on top of previous episodes.
  • Crosses the Line Twice: For an animated program on Disney Channel, this happens with startling regularity— mostly in Harmless Villain Doofenshmirtz's Imagine Spots. An obvious example is the time he planned to found a college of Evilology and, among the projects, the audience was shown the (smoking) skeletal remains of an infant. Another can be found in the episode where he planned to use a space laser (inator) to destroy stuff. Including morning talk show hosts. After (theoretically) using it, the host's arms are still intact, clutching at his mug of coffee. The rest of him is nowhere to be seen.
    • From "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted". The duo getting squirted with water every time they try to pick up a tool is nothing much. This happening to them while Phineas tries to finish his catchphrase becomes funny. The sergeant doing this 9 times before they can do so much as breathe is hilarious enough for even the most hardened viewers to fall out of their seats laughing.
      • From the same episode, the boys are Forced to Watch a creativity-suppressing video a la A Clockwork Orange...and then it pans to Baljeet, who's eating popcorn and complaining about how the book was better.
    • In "Fly on the Wall", Ferb messes with Buford by claiming that sorbet is "made out of fancy people".
    • In "It's About Time", one of the skeletons in the museum is of a dog with a collar that says "Bucky". Phineas remembers that they once had a dog named Bucky that went off to live on Old Man Simmons's farm. Turning around, they see... the skeleton of Old Man Simmons.
    • Doofenshmirtz's Hilariously Abusive Childhood. It's impossible not to feel bad for him, but you can't help but laugh at his misfortune at the same time.
    • Normally, a child getting crushed by a house is a horrible event. Said child being Suzy, her yelling out that she's okay and requesting someone get the house off of her but getting completely ignored by everyone and then getting completely forgotten about is Black Comedy at its finest in "The Wizard of Odd".
    • From "Norm Unleashed" there's Norm's song about Weaponry. A Killer Robot singing about how enslaving people, blowing them up, killing a small portion to get the rest to surrender, and making them bow down to him while easily countering all of Perry's attempts to stop him? Terrifying. Doing all that while singing a jaunty marching song that would sound more appropriate in a Disney World ride? Hilarious.
  • Crossover Ship: There's quite a lot of fans who would pair Candace with Squidward Tentacles due to the fact that they are both grumps having to put up with the antics of the two protagonists every single day and are often trying to ruin their fun.

    D-H 
  • Diagnosed by the Audience:
    • Candace shows multiple signs of having Schizophrenia and/or OCD, but it has never been officially confirmed. The schizophrenia diagnosis gets a leg up in the episode Sleepwalk Surprise when Candace hears a voice that is at first presented like her inner thoughts... until she gets annoyed and starts talking back to it.
    • It's general fanon that the entire Flynn-Fletcher family is neurodivergent to varying degrees; besides Candace (mentioned above), fans have pointed to Phineas and Ferb's Complexity Addiction when it comes to their projects, Ferb being largely nonverbal, and Linda and Lawrence's shared interest in obscure antiques knowledge as evidence towards this.
  • Die for Our Ship:
    • Candace/Jeremy shippers don't like Suzy because she doesn't want the two to be together.
    • Any potential love interest of Vanessa's whose name is not Ferb will become a victim of this. Likewise, Vanessa tends to be prone to this treatment by some who prefer to ship Ferb/Gretchen.
    • Jeremy is not very popular amongst the few Yuri fans that ship Candace/Stacy and Candace/Vanessa, with fics often going out of their way to either ignore him completely or to find a way to break the Candace/Jeremy pairing up in favor of their preferred pairing.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • With the fanbase the size as it is, a case can be made for most (if not all) secondary characters, with the Fireside Girls (Gretchen in particular, since some fans pair her with Ferb) being the most prominent examples.
    • Stacy. In the early episodes, she appeared only infrequently, if at all (she was originally just an unheard voice on the other end of Candace's cell phone conversations). She become very popular and as the series progressed, she appeared much more often, and has actually played a role in the plot of some episodes. Fans were very angry when she only had a cameo in the finale.
    • Vanessa Doofenshmirtz also has a huge fanbase, the reason why she has become a regular character.
    • Similar to Vanessa, Norm was popular enough that his concept (mindless machine who spouts off trivial niceties) was rehashed into an intelligent robot to have him continue showing up.
    • The cousin Eliza. She already got a sizable fanbase following less than 2 days after the one episode in which she appears aired.
    • As for background characters, the female backup dancer with the brown hair in the "S.I.M.P." song and "A Real Boy" has gotten a lot of attention. To the point where she got a speaking role and a Fanservice Pack in the Halloween special "Night of the Living Pharmacists". Apparently her name is Dana.
    • Planty the Potted Plant has accumulated a large fanbase too, including members of the staff who tried getting him more screentime. Unfortunately his scenes were mostly cut.
    • Despite only being in one episode, Professor Mystery has a lot of fanworks, mostly with his relationship with Peter the Panda contrasting with Perry/Doofenshmirtz.
    • Sherman is this due to his leading the highly beloved "Ain't Got Rhythm".
    • The members of L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. have a reasonable cult following behind them, but of note are Dr. Bloodpudding for his snarky Wicked Cultured ways and cool design, and Aloyse von Roddenstein for his Awesome Ego and being a scarily competent villain, even for a show like this.
  • Epileptic Trees: A lot of fans were once convinced that Heinz Doofenshmirtz is Phineas and Candace's biological father.Reasons Eventually, so many people believed this that Word of God had to step in and give it the boot. Despite this, many fans still believe the theory to be true.
  • Escapist Character: Phineas and Ferb. Who doesn't want to be a genius inventor who can build whatever they want?
  • Fan Nickname:
    • "Dorito and Golf Club" for the title characters, based on their respective head shapes.
    • Some also call Ferb "Pipe", since his head was directly compared to a pipe in the show itself.
    • More recently, Candace got the nickname of "Air Pod".
  • Fanfic Fuel: Phineas and Candace's never-been-seen-or-spoken-of biological father and, to a slightly lesser extent, Ferb's never-been-seen-or-spoken-of birth mother. It would honestly be accurate to say that at least one-third of all fanfiction written for this series at least touched on this subject.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: Quite a few fans like to pretend that the Laser-Guided Amnesia ending of Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension never happened. Not necessarily because they hate it, but because not doing so would prevent a lot of fan fiction ideas.
  • Foe Yay Shipping: Doofenshmirtz and Perry seems to be a parody of this, with their interactions being explicitly treated like a romantic relationship at least half of the time.
    • "It's About Time!" was just full of subtext, with Doofenshmirtz getting a new nemesis actually presented as an affair. Perry was heartbroken.
    • You know they had the fans of that pairing just squealing over that moment, during "Swiss Family Phineas", where Perry and Doofenshmirtz get thrown in the 'BIG' laundry... cue costume change, with a wedding dress and tuxedo. Just guess who's in the dress.
    • And in "Gaming the System", after Doofenshmirtz zaps Perry with the Ball-Gown-inator, he can't stop going on about how elegant Perry looks.
      Doofenshmirtz: You know, Perry the Platypus, that dress sort of suits you... you know, you just accentuate the positive, as they say... Um... I'm going to stop talking now, I'm moving into a weird area.
    • In "Nerds of a Feather" after Doofenshmirtz fails to get his show "Doof and Puss" on the air because he wouldn't let the producer give the platypus a girlfriend, we instead get the show "The Platypus And His Girlfriend", with the girlfriend seeming to play the same role as Doof did in the original show.
    • Baljeet and Buford also get their fair share of tension as well. "Bully Bromance Breakup" essentially throws all subtext out the window. It was practically a Y7 version of Fifty Shades.
  • Genius Bonus: By the bucketful. In fact, the show's excessive use of "smart" humor was one of the reasons it took so long to get it on the air in the first place.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension was shown in theaters in The Netherlands and Belgium.
    • There's an active Japanese fandom as well. If you go to the "overseas cartoon" section on 2ch, there will almost always be a thread for Phineas and Ferb near the top.
    • The show had a big Spanish speaking base, to the point that sometimes Spanish comments outnumbered English ones on clips of the show in English.
  • Growing the Beard: Somewhat expected, considering a lot of the show's humor and wit come from lampooning, subverting and lampshading the conventions and practices that would take a few episodes to establish.
    • Although, in terms of quality though people could spot differences from other shows at the time beforehand, it was Phineas and Ferb Get Busted that arguably showed us just what this show was truly capable of.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • In "Summer Belongs to You", Doofenshmirtz's evil plan is to drop a giant water balloon on Tokyo to flood out the Annual Good-Guy Convention. This was almost a year before the infamous quake in Japan that caused massive flooding.
    • In "Unfair Science Fair Redux (Another Story)", Candace finds herself stranded on another planet and feeling more beloved there than on Earth. This was played for laughs. Candace Against the Universe would also have Candace being on another planet where she feels more beloved there than on Earth. But this time, it isn't.
    • The jokes about Dr. Doofenshmirtz being divorced became not so funny in 2023 when the news came out about Dan Povenmire's divorce from his wife Clarissa.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Ho Yay: Enough to make a page for it.
  • Humor Dissonance: Played for Laughs in "Cheer Up Candace": Ferb goes up on stage at a comedy club intended to cheer Candace up and says "So, how about that airline food?". This prompts everyone in the audience to burst out laughing, pound their fists, and even overturn a table because they find it so funny. Not only that but then Stacy — who was laughing along with everyone else — says she doesn't even know what airline food is.
  • Hype Backlash: The show's been known to suffer for this. While critically acclaimed and considered by some to be one of the best cartoons of all time, there are also a lot of people who don't see what's so great about it. This normally ties into the show's Strictly Formula nature. While fans feel that the show plays with its formula enough to remain interesting, viewers who don't like the formula usually don't like the show.

    I-R 
  • I Knew It!: "For Your Ice Only" confirms what many fans had been suspecting for a long time: Stacy and Ginger are sisters.
  • Incest Yay Shipping: There are a lot of people who ship Phineas and Ferb together or with Candace.
  • Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Heinz Doofenshmirtz’s parents are more hated than he or any other villain in the franchise due to their rotten treatment of Heinz resulting in him having a miserable life and specific instances of the ways they treated him are usually the reason of whatever hare-brained scheme Doof has for the day.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: There are a segment of fans who couldn't care less about the Phineas and Ferb segments and are just watching it for the Perry/Agent P vs Dr. Doofenshmirtz segments.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
  • Magnificent Bastard:
    • "No More Bunny Business" & "The Return of the Rogue Rabbit": Dennis the Rabbit is a Rogue Agent out to take down Perry the Platypus and infiltrate OWCA. In his introductory episode, Dennis skillfully plays himself off as a harmless bunny so as to be taken into the Flynn household by Candace, where Dennis then scours the home looking for access points into OWCA. Fighting off Perry and turning his own tech against him, Dennis successfully hacks into OWCA and nears victory until his affinity for carrots thwarts him. Unfazed, Dennis returns later by teaming up with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and using a high-tech backpack to wage war on Perry and nearly destroy the platypus once and for all.
    • "Phineas and Ferb's Quantum Boogaloo": Emperor Doofenshmirtz comes from a future where he got a single leg up on OWCA, and through this, gained ultimate power. When Perry was wounded enough to be bedridden for a few months thanks to Candace tampering with time, Doofenshmirtz was able to outdo OWCA without Perry's interference, reducing the spy agency to rubble. Doofemshmirtz then took advantage of the chaos wrought by Moral Guardians to take over the Tri-State area in a total political upheaval, declaring himself Emperor and subjugating the population. Emperor Doofenshmirtz reigns unopposed and unstoppable, squashing any attempts by OWCA or others by rebellion through use of surveillance and forcing all to swear oaths of loyalty to him. Emperor Doofenshmirtz's success is so grand that he bombastically sings of how he's had a "charmed life" with all of the Tri-State area as his audience, proving himself a true contrast to the ineffective Doofenshmirtz in the original timeline.
    • "Minor Monogram": Rodrigo is the new protege of Doofenshmirtz who schemes to surpass his mentor. Idly pointing out the various cliche flaws in Doofenshmirtz's plans and capture of Agent P, Rodrigo proves his superiority as a mad scientist by successfully entrapping Perry in a device even the OWCA agent cannot escape. Rodrigo then betrays and imprisons Doofenshmirtz himself, hijacking the man's scheme to hold the Tri-State Area hostage, planning to instead destroy Danville and take over the entire planet. Rodrigo's plan is so impressive that even Doofenshmirtz is speechless at his bravado.
    • "Where's Perry?" two-parter: Evil Carl is the Evil Counterpart of the normally heroic Carl Karl created by one of Doofenshmirtz's inators, and proves himself to be one of the most intelligent and competent villains in the series. Carl is quickly able to capture Doof and Monogram and begins his plan to take over the tri-state area using the OWCA mainframe, a plan he nearly succeeds in. Carl lures Perry to the OWCA headquarters and traps him to get him out of the way. When Doof messes up and hits Perry with one of his inators, Carl is able to successfully figure out that it is the go-home inator with little to go off. When Carl finds out Perry isn't there, he calls Perry and manages to identify purely through a single flower that Perry is in uncharted regions of Africa. In order to lure Perry out, he has his robots destroy a bridge to put the boys and their friends in danger.
    • ''Sidetracked'': Professor Bannister is a Greenlandic evil scientist and Agent Lyla Lolliberry's nemesis. Envious of Canada's national pride, he poses as a Canadian scientist and plots to destabilize Canada and annex it into Greenland by abducting the country's prized moose. Taking advantage of the L.O.V.E.M.U.F.F.I.N. evil scheme exchange program to have Dr. Doofenshmirtz do the dirty work, he anticipates exactly how Doof's efforts would turn out and swoops in to steal the train car with the moose after completing Doofenshmirtz's scheme swiftly. After sending magnetic robots that he had hidden under his lab coat to fight Agent P and Lyla, he attempts to make his escape while still maintaining a conversational attitude only to be arrested due to the surprise arrival of Peter the Panda.
    • "Tales from the 2nd Dimension": Charlene Doofenshmirtz-2 serves as a cunning, snarky contrast to her more bumbling husband Heinz. Having faked her divorce from Heinz so as to avoid imprisonment if his dictatorship was ever toppled, Charlene nonetheless holds a love for her husband and concocts a brilliant plan to free him from prison when he's beaten. Having already kidnapped dozens of OWCA agents and turned them into cyborg puppets, Charlene uses them to stage attacks on the Resistance so as to expose herself and trick Resistance leader Candace into using Heinz to infiltrate Charlene's base. With Heinz brought right to her doorstep, Charlene springs a trap to capture the Resistance, fights off another group of them all by her lonesome with valour and skill, and ends up escaping with Heinz and their daughter in tow, ready to begin plotting world domination alongside her family once again.
    • Star Wars: Darth Ferb is created when the heroic Ferb is blasted by Darthenshmirtz's Sith-inator. Immediately upgrading and outfitting the Sith-inator to galactic-wide proportion, Darth Ferb offers Phineas a chance to join him in creating an entire army of Sith. When Phineas rejects his offer, Darth Ferb expertly tricks out his lightsabers on the fly to duel and overcome Phineas with all manner of trickery. Even when Candace and Perry intervene, Darth Ferb's mastery of the Force enables him to near-victory, and he is only barely beaten after cleverly destroying Phineas's lightsaber to leave the boy powerless.
  • Memetic Badass: Perry's a semi-aquatic egg laying mammal of action!
  • Memetic Mutation: It's a rather meme-rich show, and they're collected over on our meme-page-inator.
  • Moe:
    • Isabella when she makes the effort.
    • As can Phineas◊.
    • Perry while in pet mode can also count, especially when he's sleeping.
    • Heck, the entire show is moe. Even Doofenshmirtz can be quite Ugly Cute at times.
  • Moral Event Horizon:
    • Parallel Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension crosses this when he tries to kill Perry, Phineas, Ferb, Candace and normal Doofenshmirtz via a lava-filled death trap. He also brainwashed Parallel Perry into being his cyborg slave, plus his dictatorship of his Tri-State Area forced the Parallel Phineas and Ferb to live a sheltered life without fun or summer, and Parallel Candace to essentially spend her childhood fighting against his reign.
      • His wife Parallel Charlene crosses this by brainwashing 25 animal agents into being cyborg slaves for her family similar to how Parallel Doof did to Parallel Perry. She even planned to turn Parallel Phineas, Parallel Ferb, and Parallel Candace into cyborgs after tricking them into freeing her husband in case he would be overthrown.
    • Liam McCracken from "Primal Perry". Not only did he plan to make Perry into a trophy, but also Doofenshmirtz (who hired him to trap Perry) as well after betraying him.
    • The worst of them all was Aloyse von Roddenstein, who crosses this with his infamous plot to destroy summer by sending the Earth into a new Ice Age, which would endanger billions of lives per se. Even Doofenshmirtz himself openly objects to it.
    • Red Skull is Lighter and Softer compared to most depictions but he demonstrates how evil he really is by redesigning the Power-Drain-inator to not only drain power, but matter, and everything else, and announces his plan to destroy the Tri-State Area.
  • Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Narm:
    • At the climax of "Summer Belongs to You", it may be nice to see Candace become more optimistic, but hearing every one of the kids (except Ferb) encourage her by saying "I BELIEEEEVE!" is pretty cheesy.
  • Narm Charm: Half the times Phineas is sad, angry or just generally morose. More often than not, what he says aren't exactly the most original dramatic lines ever written, but since he's...well, Phineas Flynn, it's still very possible to take him seriously (Unless you're not supposed to, as in "Phineas and Ferb Save Summer.").
    • The death of Balloony.
  • Nausea Fuel:
    • In "Hide and Seek", the kids are shrunken to miniature size, and Baljeet is stranded on a ceiling lamp with the air conditioner blowing right at him. He avoids freezing to death by hiding inside the exoskeleton of a dead fly. This probably makes for good Nightmare Fuel, too.
      "I DID WHAT I HAD TO DO TO SURVIVE!"
    • Baljeet's brain in "Cranius Maximus". It's basically swollen up to the point where it's larger than the rest of his head and barely staying inside his skin.
  • Never Live It Down:
    • Fans seem pointedly fixated on the one time Phineas has ever yelled at anybody (Candace in "Summer Belongs to You"). Case in point, look how frequently it comes up on these pages.
    • Based on this wiki, fans seem to have latched on to Charlene's one-time statement of "No one's evil," taking it absolutely literally as evidence that she's hopelessly naive, rather than accepting it as a simple sweeping generalization meant to dissuade that silly notion of Vanessa's that her father's evil. And considering that she was married to Heinz Doofenshmirz, can you really blame Charlene for not taking self-proclaimed "evil" people seriously?
    • Ferb made a single quip about him building stuff "for the ladies." A number of fans proceeded to characterize him as a serial KidAnova. In spite of this, the only girl he ever shows genuine interest in is Vanessa, even a decade later, which could make him the opposite of this trope; Ferb could have easily been joking.
  • No Yay: Suzy's relationship with Jeremy gives off serious Yandere vibes.
  • Older Than They Think: Buford's character in the parody of The Wizard of Oz is an amalgamation of a lion, a tiger, and a bear (oh my). Few fans seem to realize that the writers of Phineas and Ferb didn't make this up. It's a creature from the ''Wizard of Oz'' novel that was left out of the film called a Kalidah.
    • The few times in the series that Phineas has gotten mad ("Summer Belongs to You!", Across the 2nd Dimension, and "Mission Marvel")? Those aren't even the first times. The season one episode "Flop Starz" featured him throwing a hissy fit at a producer for daring to suggest that he and his band write a follow-up single. (Granted, it was probably faked, given that "throwing a diva tantrum" was on their one-hit wonder checklist, but still.) The first time he genuinely was mad was "No More Bunny Business" when Candace insulted their X-ray glasses.
  • One True Pairing: While both Phinabella and Ferbnessa are polarizing, it's hard to find anyone who doesn't ship Candace/Jeremy, given their sweet interactions and clearly deeply caring about one another and accepting each other's flaws.
  • One True Threesome: The series has Stacy/Candace/Jeremy and Phineas/Isabella/Ferb out there. And the former had some (most likely unintended) hints that it might be canon.
  • Periphery Demographic: It's a Disney Channel show with an 8-14 primary demographic. Don't be surprised at how many people fall out of that range... including Simon Pegg, John Hodgman, Shawn Spencer and Jon Stewart.
    • Whenever someone thanks Dan and Swampy for creating a kids show that parents can enjoy, their response is, "What makes you think it's a kids show?"
    • "Aren't you a little old to be watching Phineas and Ferb?" Yes, yes I am.
    • To put this in perspective: Sluggy Freelance of all places used an obscure Shout-Out to the show.
    • Also notable to be one of the few Disney Channel shows that Cracked likes. In fact the Cracked page links to the character sheet, though they misspelled tropes as "troupe".
    • The fact that it is a Disney channel show that has had 2AM reruns says something about how many adults watch it.
    • Even Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series referenced it in Episode 53. Says something if Seto Kaiba can instantly recognize a P&F reference.
    • Looks like we can add Slash to the list who liked it enough to co-write an insanely epic song for the movie, and argued with Dan and Swampy about who was doing who a favor.
  • Play-Along Meme: The show is so rife with Running Gags that are memes of their own that the fandom have gone nuts with several of them.
    • Referring to Dr. Doofenshmirtz as a pharmacist because of his lab coat, as every character who comes across him believes, despite his building being labeled "Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc."
    • Reacting with total shock whenever someone photoshops a fedora onto something (usually a platypus to match the show), like so. "A platypus?" "PERRY THE PLATYPUS!?" Dr. Doofenshmirtz is completely unable to recognize Perry without his signature fedora (and only his fedora), to the point where even when Perry had a hat and a plumber's toolbelt on, Doof still didn't recognize him.
    • Heaping joke-hate on anyone whose name is a palindrome after an episode featured an event in which there was prejudice against people with palindrome names, typifed with Professor Ross Eforp being the subject of mockery and having to wear a paper bag over his head.
  • Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • Recurring Fanon Character: The go-to Fan-Created Offspring for Spin-Offspring stories are Marie Flynn-Garcia-Shapiro, the daughter of Phineas and Isabella, and Thomas Fletcher, the son of Ferb and Vanessa. The two are frequently shipped with each other since their parents aren't blood siblings, and even have the ship Portmanteau Couple Name "Thomarie".
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
    • Candace is a big example. She starts out as a classic bratty teenager, unlikable to most viewers that see as excessively mean to her brothers. But with the story moving forward, she becomes more lovable and sympathetic often showing a soft and funny side (also helping is the fact that Candace has more development compared to her brothers who, most of the time, are static characters). Because of this, she's a fan-favorite among with part of the fandom that treats her like the real star of the show.
  • Ron the Death Eater: While Thaddeus was a condescending Jerkass in the episode he appeared in, he becomes far worse in certain fanfictions. Most of the time, these involve trying to get revenge on Phineas, whether by kidnapping or murder. Often times, a Yandere crush on Isabella is thrown in as well.
  • Rooting for the Empire: With how miserable Doofenshmirtz's backstory is it's hard not to want to see him win, especially his plans typically won't hurt anybody and at best will cause a mild annoyance.

    S-W 
  • The Scrappy:
    • The Bug Trio (names are literal), which feels really out of place in the show.
    • Coltrane isn't very popular due to being somewhat of a pointless Satellite Love Interest for Stacy. It also isn't helped that he was seemingly created just to have another High School Musical guest star appear.
  • Self-Fanservice: Candace Flynn —and Stacy to a lesser extent— gets a lot of fan-art who portrayed good-looking and with curves as Vanessa. Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry gets a lot of these, too. To a lesser extent, Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella also get some.
  • Ship Mates:
    • A good portion of Phineas/Isabella shippers will just pair off the rest of the boys/girls in the group. The most common ones are Ferb/Gretchen, Baljeet/Ginger, Buford/Adyson, Django/Milly, and Irving/Katie.
    • Phineas/Ferb fans will almost always ship Jeremy/Candace.
    • And to a much lesser extent Ferb/Isabella and Phineas/Django.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night:
    • Despite the two barely interacting in the show, some fans like to ship Ferb with Gretchen, if only because fans find them to look cute together and that they both serve as The Lancer to Phineas and Isabella.
    • Candace and Vanessa have only interacted a few times in the show, but that hasn't stopped some fans from shipping them, as they feel they have great chemistry together and make for fun Blue Oni, Red Oni Foils whenever they interact. It helps that Vanessa was similar to Candace early on (wanting to bust her father like how Candace wanted to bust her brothers)note  and that the two do develop a friendship in later seasons.
  • Signature Scene: "Get on the trike!" is easily the most remembered part of "Summer Belongs to You", as it's one of the few times where Phineas showed any negative emotion at all.
  • Signature Song:
    • The theme song "Today is Gonna Be a Great Day".
    • "Gitchee Gitchee Goo" comes in second.
    • "Busted" is also quite well known.
    • "Hey Ferb" for "Rollercoaster: The Musical!". Also the titular track.
    • The title track for "Summer Belongs to You!"
  • Something Something Leonard Bernstein: The lyrics of "Ride From Outer Space," despite being pretty damn cool, are so fast that the closed captions usually just refer to the majority of lines as incomprehensible.
  • Special Effect Failure: Usually when a Photoshopped object or background appears. Sometimes played as Stylistic Suck, other times not.
  • Squick:
  • Stoic Woobie: Ferb can be this at times.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Fans have believed Phineas/Isabella is getting too old and she should just give up on him already.
  • Strawman Has a Point: The "Give Up"-song: Candace gives up trying to bust her brothers (though Comically Missing the Point her aunt was making), only for her aunt to convince her to never give up. While "never give up" is usually a good aesop, when Candace gave up she stopped stressing out and relaxed.
  • Suspiciously Similar Song: Those with an expansive memory of music in pop culture, as well as a sharp ear, will realize most of the best numbers are heavily-altered versions of already famous songs.
    • Perry the Platypus's extended theme song is a very obvious reference to "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers, straight down to the song's overall chord progression.
    • The instrumental that plays during Candace's hallucinations in "Badbeard" (with the droning sitar/tanpura and backwards drums) sounds like the Jimmy Hart version of "Open Up Said the World at the Door".
    • The showstopper "Summer Belongs To You" from the hour-long special is clearly ripped from "You Can't Stop The Beat" from Hairspray.
    • "Meatloaf", by the Fake Band Tiny Cowboy, is pretty clearly cribbed from "Wonderwall" by Oasis.
    • The first couple bars of "Fletcher Family Flying Circus" are virtually identical to the start of "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover".
    • The song that Buford and Baljeet sing in "Bully Bromance Breakup" and the way it's set up seems an awful lot like "This Grill Is Not a Home" from Spongebob Squarepants.
    • Let's All Dance Until We're Sick's theme song is "Cherry Pie" with different lyrics and none of the Hair Metal-style singing.
    • "The Way of the Platypus" is like a more cheery and fast-paced "Holy Diver".
    • "Talk to Him" begins like "Walking on Sunshine" before becoming more similar to "You Can't Hurry Love".
    • "E.V.I.L. B.O.Y.S." is "Trouble" by Elvis Presley. Both songs are sang very similarly in these respective parts:
      Those boys are evil. Their crazy shenanigans cause me all kinds of distress
      Those boys are evil. Sing it with me

      Because I'm evil, my middle name is misery
      Well I'm evil, so don't you mess around with me
    • The way "Because they're evil (E-V-I-L B-O-Y-S)" is sang is also very similar to how Peggy Lee spelled out "Because I'm a Woman (W-O-M-A-N)" in her song "I'm a Woman." Blues is a genre full of Suspiciously Similar Songs but these ones deserve to be mentioned because of their similarities in lyrics.
    • Part of the instrumentals for Phinedroids and Ferbots sounds exactly like the riff from Safety Dance only faster.
    • "My Nemesis" sure sounds a lot like "I'm Into Something Good" (which is a love song, by the way).
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Django Brown. He was treated as a Sixth Ranger to the main group in "Jerk De Soleil", and then got a full episode focused on him with "Oil On Candace"... but then the rest of his appearances are just cameos, and the Sixth Ranger role was filled by Irving.
    • Jenny Brown. She has a defined Granola Girl personality, but her few actual episode roles are just to be Candace's second friend after Stacy. Unlike Django, she never got A Day in the Limelight that made proper use of her character trait.
    • With the revelation of Ferb and Vanessa together in "Act Your Age", Monty fits the bill as well. Even though Ferb's crush on Vanessa has been around since Season 1, his relationship with her barely feels like much beyond a one-sided underage crush. With Monty however, Vanessa has a decent, relatable relationship with him, had several episodes focused around them, several episode dedicated to Monty so that he doesn't feel like just "Vanessa's boyfriend" and even has potential for future episodes (Anyone else hoping to see Monogram's and Doof's reactions to their children dating each other?). Since the show ended right after this reveal, there's no real way of knowing how they would have handled things, but his relationship with Vanessa being a foregone conclusion is a downer to some.
    • The Fireside Girls could have gotten more than 3 episodes out of their errand-running.
    • Mindy seemed to have a somewhat antagonistic relationship with Candace as well as a one-sided crush on Jeremy. Perhaps she would've made a good rival to Candace, however we only see her in two season one episodes.
    • Thaddeus and Thor would've been perfect rivals for Phineas and Ferb, but only to appear in one episode.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • In "Mom's in the House", Candace gets the idea to try and slow down the boys' construction rate. Problem is that once she gets the idea, Phineas and Ferb have already finished building their latest invention.
    • "The Doonkleberry Imperative" features Candace going with Vanessa to Doofensmirtz's apartment to use the scientific method to bust Phineas and Ferb. We never get to see her actually doing this.
    • "Mandace" from the premises seemed to be a Gender Bender episode. Turn out that the plot concerned Candace disguised as a normal pizza-guy through a simple hologram (due to one of the inventions of Doof).
    • At the end of "Happy Birthday, Isabella", Stacy learns about O.W.C.A. and doesn't have her memory erased. Seems like a set up for future interactions between her and Perry, but that doesn't happen. This only gets brought up again once when Stacy sees Major Monogram (or, as she recalls, Mr. Water and Power Guy).
    • Despite being built up as a Star-Crossed Lovers scenario in which their respective fathers would eventually find out, Monty and Vanessa's relationship is ended offscreen.
    • Vanessa getting an internship with O.W.C.A. and inspiring Dr. Doofenshmirtz's definite Heel–Face Turn seems to set up her having a role in "The O.W.C.A. Files", but she is neither seen nor mentioned.
  • Toy Ship: Multiple. The most prominent of these would be Phineas and Isabella.
    • Baljeet and his friend Mishti in "That Sinking Feeling". We'll probably never see her again, though.
    • Some fans also like to ship Ferb with Gretchen (the Fireside Girl who wears glasses).
      • Though some may ship her with Irving.
    • Baljeet and Buford deserve a mention.
    • It should be noted, though, that P&F is only a partial example, as all the characters are canonically "Under 15".
  • Trans Audience Interpretation:
    • There was a Tumblr post suggesting Perry could possibly be transgender because he lacks venomous ankle spursnote and Candace discovers Perry sweats milk when stuck in his body, both things that are unique to female platypi. Adding onto this, everyone seemed fine with it when they thought Perry had laid an egg. (He didn't actually, but still.)
    • One of Doof's many Freudian Excuses involved his parents forcing him to wear dresses as a child. (He explains this was because his parents wanted a girl.) He also has other Freudian excuses consisting of him feeling emasculated (and intending to fix this by demasculating everyone else even more), such as being unable to grow a beard or having a high and squeaky voice, causing some audiences to perceive him as a trans man.
  • Ugly Cute:
    • Heinz Doofenshmirtz. He's a hunchback with crooked teeth, a long nose and crazy hair and has even admitted on screen that he's ugly, but he's still completely adorable.
    • Also, Doof's giant pet cockroach from Canderemy. Awwwwww.....
    • Even Buford could count as well.
  • Unconventional Learning Experience: At least one fan has credited Phineas and Ferb with teaching her how to jumpstart a car. Other potential candidates are the many Shown Their Work moments, even if the show Runs On Nonsensoleum just as often.
    • Candace's summation of super hero powers in "Mission Marvel" effectively is the law of conservation of energy. This has apparently helped several young students wrap their head around it easier.
      Candace: Power can't be destroyed. It can only be moved, or converted into another form of power.
    • Chances are if you ask anyone how they know what an aglet is, they're really likely to credit the A-G-L-E-T song.
  • Unintentional Period Piece:
    • The show as a whole is a relic of the late 2000s/early-to-mid 2010s. The theme song is by pop punk band Bowling for Soup, the characters use flip phones (at least before Season 4) and the fashions are very 2000s-ish.
    • There are also times where Candace obsesses about going to the mall, something unheard of in the age of online shopping.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Linda. Candace drives her insane with what seems like over-the-top lies, but between her acting belittling towards Candace, unintentionally gaslighting her, openly mocking her to her friends and not trying to get Candace any professional psychiatric help, it's quite easy to view her as a neglectful parent.
    • Phineas and Ferb also inch into it on occasion. While never actively malicious, sometimes they are so blithely uncaring of Candace's feelings that it almost makes no difference. E.g., when they needed her to vomit up the miniaturised submarine the were in, they could have taken five seconds to at least try to talk her into going to the bathroom and doing it in private. Instead, they went straight to hijacking her body and making her puke her guts out in front of Jeremy.
    • Isabella in "We Call It Maze". Yes, she helped set up the journey that allowed Candace to get 50 badges in one day, but Candace still accomplished it on her own. Seeing as she's always the center of attention in her own Fireside Girls Troop, it makes her come off as self-centered for not letting Candace have the spotlight for a change. Candace often functions as little more than the Butt-Monkey and is finally getting the credit she deserves. While Candace dropping the grappling hook was idiotic, Isabella being unwilling to put her ego aside is incredibly petulant, even for a 10-year-old.
  • Unpopular Popular Character: Doofenshmirtz. He was neglected by his family and isn't very popular among the citizens of Danville. But the same can't be said for the fanbase.
  • The Woobie:
    • The main example is Doof. As a child, he had to throw his surprise birthday party. His father named the dog "Only Son". When he was born, neither of his parents bothered to be there. He was raised by ocelots. The list goes on and on ...
    • Candace has shades of both an Iron Woobie and a Jerkass Woobie. One must feel sorry for how hard she has to try to bust her brothers, even if her determination can be irritating to some. Also in "Candace Gets Busted," where she gets punished by her mom for throwing a party that was out of her control and which she legitimately didn't want. But "Nerds Of A Feather" is the biggest example for her.
      • Taken to a new level in "Mission Marvel" where all she wants to do is help, but keeps messing up, to the point where the normally cheerful Phineas yells at her several times, and revokes her S.H.E.D membership. It's made even worse by how bad she feels about it, and a horribly sad song.
      • Her crippling self-esteem issues make it impossible for her to accept that Jeremy loves her for who she is and that she doesn't have to keep trying to impress him.
    • An odd one, but Buford in "Voyage To The Bottom Of Buford". In his song, he was shown to be so lonely he was playing ping-pong with his goldfish!
      • Everyone else being too disturbed by his out of character behavior to comfort him just makes it worse.
    • Phineas' obliviousness to love can put Isabella into this territory, especially during her song "City Of Love" in "Summer Belongs To You." She gets over it, and also gets back at him by kissing him right before he was about to voluntarily get all of his memories of the previous day wiped out.
    • Norm becomes one officially in A Real Boy.
    • Phineas, who is normally unbelievably cheery and innocent, completely breaks down when things start going wrong. (See Summer Belongs to You, Christmas Vacation, and Across the 2nd Dimension.)
    • 2nd-Dimension Phineas and Ferb, especially when 2nd-Phineas is hugging Perry.
    • 2nd-Dimension Candace is a Stoic Woobie. She gave up most of her childhood to start fighting in the rebellion against 2nd-Dimension Doofenshmirtz and is ultimately only fighting it to protect her brothers. Halfway lampshaded in 'Tales from the Resistance'.
  • Woolseyism: In the "S'winter" episode, Candace is upset at the implications that Jeremy may be dating a Swedish exchange student. In the Swedish dub, this was changed to a "Norwegian exchange student", as Swedes and Norwegians are notoriously prone to bickering with each other like siblings in almost every aspect.

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top