Film Theory: Phineas and Ferb's SECRET Hero!

I recently checked out PHINEAS AND FERB, and it's actually way better than I expected. But one thing stuck out to me above all the show's idiosyncrasies: Why hasn't Dr. Doofenshmirtz been arrested? He's obviously a villain, and his plans are so easy to thwart. Well, Loyal Theorists, I've uncovered the answer: Doofenshmirtz is unwittingly helping the OWCA the whole time!

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[MatthewHan-vxug]

Perry: **takes off hat**
Doofenshmirtz: *i've never seen this man in my life*

[slothstudios_]

perry is doofs support animal. doof makes a creation linking back to his childhood, perry lets him vent about it, perry then stops his evil plan and after that doof never brings it up again. perry is helping him.

[penguin_evere]

Doof is also basically getting free therapy. Everytime he makes an inator and Perry comes to destroy it, Perry lets himself get captured and waits until Doof lets all his pain out, and then foils his plans. Most backstories he’s shared, never get brought back up when making another inator. With Perry’s help (if that’s what Dan and Swampy intend), Doof is (VERY) little by little getting over his past.

[RGC_animation]

Unlike other theories where you have to squint really hard to possibly believe they were intended, I feel like this theory is 100% canon and intended by the show, because of course Phineas and Ferb would be a show to do that.

[adrinelinerush]

Doof was honestly the best villain. In one episode, a man catcalled his daughter and he screamed out, "SHE'S SIXTEEN!!!" and shots him with a dimension gun.

[shawn_crabtree]

His daughter literally says he's not evil, he's just pretending to be.

[carolinewinn]

It’s said throughout the show that Perry is the best in his field, and it’s shown he’s pretty skilled, which makes you wonder while watching why he’s fighting Doof, because he isn’t really evil. This explanation makes sense, because they’d probably only intrust their best agent with the mission (Also I saw a comment saying that Perry was like Doof’s support animal to help with his childhood trauma, and I think that’s also a good explanation)

[nevaehmendiola]

Theory: You talked about how the wife funds everything but I wouldn't be surprised if Dr. Doof wife works for the company and that's how they meet and got married. It would also explain why she never tried to stop Doof from building machine or why she keeps sending him massive alimony. The OWCA is paying her to keep funding the work Doof does.

[kninenights]

MatPat: “[Doof is] the sole member of Doofinshmirtz Evil Inc.”

Norm: I’m okay. Totally okay.

Official edit: current roster for Doofinshmirtz Evil Inc. employees is:
Dr. Doofinshmirtz.
Norm
Charlene (funding)
Buford (ex-employee)
Vanessa (honorary employee)
Baloony (honorary employee)
Milo Murphy & Co. (honorary employees)


Also, there are several others who have been *hired* by Doofinshmirtz Evil Inc. but they are not employees. The jingle boys, and various dancers, singers, and performers fall under this umbrella.

[Eugene-pqgg]

To be honest the scanner in Perry's fedora also explains why he always lets himself get caught and allows Doof to demonstrate his "inators".

[Riseo]

Dang, that puts a whole new light on the whole fights between the OWCA and Doofenshmirtz.
I never realized they were just taking his inventions basically, and Doof was basically a hero at one point. Pretty sad.

[justafriend]

I've never seen him as a villain tbh, whenever he tells his life story and explain the reason for building a machine I always see it as a way he copes or a way to try and find a solution, I actually really enjoyed watching him

[imkass]

"There's a 104 days of summer vacation"

Well, it's 2020, I guess there is now

[samrosen]

It’s simple. They can’t arrest Doofenshmirtz cuz he’s legally an Ocelot.

[keagaming]

Fun fact: In the sequel to Phineas and Ferb, Milo Murphy’s Law, they mentioned this on a sign next to the school. There are not 104 days of summer vacation, but there are 104 days left of school. Funny little reference to Phineas and Ferb right there.

[RoNotBot]

Doof is the goat. He thought that the problem with his inventions was that they ended with inator so he built one that ended in not-inator, which still ends in inator.

[ordg]

Fun Fact: the average cartoon has 52 episodes, since each episode has 2 parts, that would be 104 parts, and since each part takes place on a different day, that is 104 days, which is why the theme song says "104 days" but after the original 52 episodes the series got approval for more episodes so this doesn't make very much sense

[saltytomatoe]

I had 104 days of summer vacation when my school closed for construction

[Maple]

Dan Povenmire (voice actor of Doofenshmirtz and creator of the show) actually said on his youtube/tiktok channel that the A story is really the B story. It's just there to get things going, while the real A story is focused on characters like Candice and Doofenshmirtz.

[linkthehero]

I use these videos with my middle school students (Game Theory and Film Theory) because I enjoy them and it makes learning science fun for them. They always look forward to whenever I have a MatPat video to play for them. They laugh and learn.