Let’s face it, Phineas and Ferb was probably one of the last great animated series produced for Disney television. What it lacked in the animation department, it more than made up for with witty writing, charming characters, and impossibly absurd scenarios. It’s no wonder it became one of Disney’s most popular and long-running cartoon franchises, rivaling the likes of Adventure Time and The Regular Show over on Cartoon Network.
Starring the wise-cracking, inventive kid genius Phineas, and his equally precocious step-brother Ferb, the show followed a seemingly endless summer vacation. During this time, the duo would invariably embark on a series of whacky events that would coincide with the secret agent exploits of their pet, Perry the Platypus, and his arch-nemesis Dr. Doofenshmirtz.
Stepping away from the 1990s obsession with pushing boundaries, the series largely remained wholesome enough for all ages. However, it’s easy to find several jokes that the writers slipped under the censors’ radar. It’s no surprise, given that the two creators of the show, Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, had both previously worked on the ever controversial Rocko’s Modern Life, and the most popular animated cartoon of all time, The Simpsons.
Here are 20 Controversial Things You Never Noticed on Phineas and Ferb.
20. Get away from him, Mitch
Science fiction fans had plenty to celebrate about when watching Phineas and Ferb. Though the various “-inators” built by Doofenshmirtz, and the contraptions built by the two brothers often contained elements of sci-fi. Season 2 began a series of space opera adventures for the show with the introduction of Meap, an alien who happens to be the cutest being in the universe.
In his first appearance, “The Chronicles of Meap” – a reference to The Chronicles of Riddick – Meap is on the run from the villainous Mitch, a poacher who captures and imprisons various species across the galaxies.
When the brothers’ sister, Candace, takes it upon herself to square up with Mitch, she echoes Ripley’s famous line from Aliens: “Get away from him… Mitch!” While not quite as vulgar, the rhyme makes the reference very obvious.
19. A boy with bigger fingers
The hilariously incompetent arch-villain of Perry the Platypus, Dr. Doofenshmirtz is known for his vaguely Germanic roots, terrible inventions, and an obsession with taking over the Tri-state area. Of course, no villain this over-the-top is complete without a tragic origin story, and Doofenshmirtz’s could fill a novel.
His shadow skills were garbage, but size matters when puppetry is concerned.
From both his parents being absent at his birth, to his tricky formative years being raised by ocelots, Heinz Doofenshmirtz was destined to become a miserable and pathetic supervillain. We can’t help but feel sorry for him. In “Out to Launch”, Doofenshmirtz recounts a particularly crushing event, in which a girl he was out to impress with shadow puppetry left him for a boy with a larger… pair of hands.
18. Ouranos
No one made it out of their first astronomy lesson without cracking up at the name of the seventh planet from the sun, Uranus. Cartoon writers were clearly aware of the unfortunate name, as everything from The Fairly Odd Parents to Freakazoid has made a cheap gag out of the name’s similarity to a certain body part.
Though the writers for Phineas and Ferb couldn’t help themselves either, they took a smarter approach. In the season four episode “The Inator Method”, Phineas and Ferb construct a race course in the shape of the solar system, around which their friends Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella compete, piloting a planet of their own.
Buford, manning the cockpit of Uranus, opts for the more appropriate, alternative pronunciation Ouranos, in order to dodge the network’s censors.
17. Thwarty call
Taking a note from Batman and the Joker, the tempestuous rivalry between Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platypus is frequently coded as a not-so-subtle suggestion of a gay relationship. Like many of the best evil villains, Heinz has an unhealthy relationship with Perry, and throughout the series, develops a dependency on their routine. He tries to take over/destroy/shrink the Tri-state area, Perry Platypus defeats him, and balance is restored until it starts all over again next week.
The joke becomes suggestive with the writers’ creative use of the word “thwart.”
When Perry is seemingly getting lazy with his heroic duties, Doofenshmirtz has been known to insist he “get back here and thwart me now!” The connotations become even clearer when the villain refers to Peter the Panda, another secret agent, as more of a “thwarty call” than his real nemesis, Perry.
16. Propagation of the species
Moving away from unhealthy obsessions, the innocent teenage crush between Candace and the cool, sensitive guitarist Jeremy is one of the shows sweetest elements, even if Candace takes her teen infatuation a little seriously at times. Though their relationship has more ups and downs than Jim and Pam, their eventual declaration of love is one of the show’s most satisfying moments.
Later, the pair sing a duet that seems to share some distinct similarities with The Little Mermaid’s “Kiss the Girl,” called “Set the Record Straight”. Floating down a jungle stream in a yellow umbrella, Jeremy sings about the history of love to woo Candace, and mentions “the scientific propagation of the species.”
While you’re looking up what the word “propagation” means, take a moment to translate the Spanish soccer phrase “Viene le pega, gol,” that interrupts Jeremy as he’s about to say what he likes about her.
15. Xavier Onassis
It’s not often that the phrase “I know what we’re gonna do today” is followed by two boys spending their summer vacation building a time machine, but that’s exactly what happens in the season one episode “It’s About Time”. After noticing an incomplete time machine in a museum exhibition of “Gadgets Through the Ages”. the brothers are curious.
The duo make some repairs to a time machine and accidentally find themselves stuck in the prehistoric era.
There’s already a bonus for older viewers, in that the time machine bears a striking resemblance to the machine used in the first adaptation of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, though this is hardly offensive. The dirty joke arrives as one of the show’s many uses of genius wordplay, with the creator of the machine being ludicrously named Xavier Onassis.
Don’t get it? Say it a little slower.
14. Moulin Rouge
Despite the romantic chemistry between Phineas and Isabella, the show takes its sweet time developing their relationship. Considering they can’t be much older than ten years old, it seems appropriate for a Disney show.
Although the special “Act Your Age” sees the pair eventually start dating, an earlier extended episode “Summer Belongs to You” sees Phineas and Isabella enjoy a romantic getaway in Paris during their trip around the world.
Frustrated by Phineas devoting all of his attention to the repair of their airplane, Isabella sings “City of Love”, lamenting the fact that even the most romantic place on Earth can’t muster up any feelings in Phineas beyond his next adventure.
He clearly has eyes for something other than transportation however, as an artist’s depiction of Isabella also shows Phineas transfixed by the iconic red windmill of France’s most famous adult district. Cut back and Phineas is still peeking!
13. Yes, yes I do
Beating Marvel to the punch by a year, Phineas and Ferb popularised the Disney tradition of mid and post-credits sequences way before Nick Fury teased the Avengers Initiative.
Often featuring an extended version of one of the many brilliant original songs featured throughout the show, the post-credits stinger would occasionally call back to one of the fleeting jokes of the episode.
During the episode “Wizard of Odd,” which sees Phineas, Ferb, and the gang transported to a fantasy world inspired by The Wizard of Oz, the song “Tree Related Wish” features a glimpse at a bear, squatting behind a tree and ostentatiously reading a newspaper.
If that wasn’t a glaring enough hint, he appears in the post-credits scene and remarks “yes, yes I do,” referring the sarcastic phrase about what bears do in the woods.
12. Party in Doofenshmirtz’s pants
Doofenshmirtz hasn’t had the best of luck in romance. To be fair to him, he’s usually a little tied up with Perry the Platypus to pursue any serious romantic exploits. In the episode “Candace Gets Busted”, the nefarious doctor eventually gets to experience a party in his pants, but in true Phineas and Ferb fashion, it’s not quite the party you’d expect.
Candace, taking advantage of her parents’ absence, pulls a classic teenage move and decides to throw a huge party while the house is empty. However, a noisy phone call leads her mother Linda to believe something wrong is going on back at the house.
Just as her parents are arriving home, Doofenshmirtz’s Go-Away-Inator zaps the party, transporting them inexplicably into his pants. It’s even more tragic, given that the Go-Away-Inator was built specifically to send people to a place no one would ever want to go.
11. I feel like number two
One of the series’ most iconic episodes, “Toy to the World”, featured Phineas and Ferb taking a jab at the fickle nature of trends in the American toy industry. Rather than constructing a huge contraption, for a change the brothers kept it small, casually taking over the country with their “inaction figure,” a wooden block modeled after their pet platypus Perry, that could do nothing, and therefore everything.
Unfortunately for Candace, she had just bagged a part time job working for the Har D Har Toy Company, which just so happens to be opposite the mall’s Mr. Slushy Dawg, where her crush Jeremy works. Candace is less than pleased when she is forced to advertise the inaction figure dressed in a ridiculous Perry costume. Though her boss insists she looks like number one, she can’t help but feel like “number two.”
10. Evil mixer
It’s rare to find a reference to the consumption of any form of alcohol on a Disney cartoon these days. Despite the fact that some of Disney’s most famous films involved their protagonists drinking, and the Looney Tunes were constantly on alcoholic beverages, nowadays it’s considered potentially damaging to show kids’ cartoon heroes drinking on their Saturday morning slot.
Doofenshmirtz explained that his head was hurting after an “evil mixer.”
This didn’t stop the writers of Phineas and Ferb slipping in a sly reference to the habits of their characters every now and then. In one episode, Doofenshmirtz doesn’t quite have the spring in his step he usually has during his exploits with Perry the Platypus. Even the world’s most nefarious supervillains enjoy the occasional drink or six.
9. Ferb and Vanessa
Midway through the first season of Phineas and Ferb, it was revealed that Dr. Doofenshmirtz had a sarcastic teenage daughter with a gothic wardrobe straight out of your favorite teen book. Fans went crazy. Initially used for a throwaway “bring your daughter to work day” gag, she quickly became one of the show’s most popular side characters.
While it’s worth mentioning her slightly revealing look as a Twi’Lek in the Star Wars special “Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars,” that isn’t quite the most risqué joke she’s been the subject of.
Once introduced, Ferb takes a clear liking to her, and his flirtatious attempts to get to know her became one of the series’ best running jokes. During the song “I’m Me”, Ferb can quite clearly be seen staring at Vanessa’s behind for an entire verse.
8. You’re not old enough to know what that is
Like a prototype episode of Gravity Falls in “The Lake Nose Monster”, Phineas and Ferb travel to an American approximation of Loch Ness in Scotland, where it is rumored a prehistoric monster with an unusually large snout dwells. Meanwhile, Candace signs up to the lifeguard squad with Jeremy, and Doofenshmirtz schemes to steal all the zinc from the lake. When Phineas and Ferb bring up “Nosey” to their sister, she’s her typically skeptical self.
One photo apparently resembles something the two boys aren’t supposed to know about yet.
Leafing through a booklet that apparently contains photographic evidence of the sea serpent, she dismisses most of the photos as driftwood or logs, much like most pictures of the Loch Ness Monster are assumed to be. Either there’s some suggestively shaped driftwood, or something unbecoming washed up in Lake Nose.
7. Psychedelia
Beyond the wacky adventures and action-packed espionage of Perry the Platypus, the show is perhaps best known for its songs. Only a handful of episodes go by without a tune, and some episodes have as many as three or four!
The musical episode “Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together”, in which Phineas and Ferb attempt a reunion for the fictional rock band Love Händel, contains a grand total of five songs.
The first song, “History of Rock,” contains just that, taking the boys through a progression of musical genres. When it gets to psychedelic rock, we get a brief reference to the questionable substances enjoyed by rock stars during the ’70s. When asked where the visuals came from, guitarist Danny suspiciously claims he has no idea.
6. Left is right, right is wrong
We all love our grandparents, but it can’t be helped that some people who grew up during the 1940s and ’50s may have views that are now considered backwards. Referring to a schoolyard rumor that is thankfully starting to go out of fashion, the episode “The Ballad of Badbeard” takes a jab at the stereotype of an earring on the right ear being used to indicate one’s orientation.
Phineas’ grandfather gives the kids this subtle lesson “left is right, right is wrong.”
Of course, he’s really talking about the moss on a tree. The writers, however, made their intentions clear by giving Baljeet with an earring on the right side when he dresses up as a pirate, playing to the running joke of the potential romantic tension between him and the soft-hearted bully, Buford.
5. Moss Trip
In the very same episode, Perry the Platypus almost has his cover blown by Candace. After touching patches of orange moss, explained by her grandma as having powerful hallucinogenic properties, she becomes delirious and paranoid. This leads to her to getting lost in the forest before catching up to Perry’s espionage adventure, after being dragged through sea weed by his jet ski.
Covered in slimy, green plants, Candace becomes inadvertently instrumental in the defeat of Doofenshmirtz’s evil plan, when he mistakes her for a hideous sea monster and trips, terrified, onto the button that releases Perry’s trap.
At the end of the episode, her grandmother explains that it’s actually the blue moss that causes hallucinations, and Candace must have been experiencing a placebo effect, letting Perry off the hook for now. Of course, the episode ends with Candace immediately touching some blue moss.
4. Naughty Nectar
Doofenshmirtz is infamous for the terrible, incompetent inventions he creates almost every episode in order to take over the Tri-state area, and he can’t seem to give them a name that doesn’t end with the clichéd suffix “Inator.”
Previous “Inators” include the Slave-inator, a hypnosis machine; a Blend-into-the-Background-Inator, probably one of the most convolutedly named of all his inventions; and the Very-Very-Bad-Inator, a machine built from the spare parts of his old machines “just to see what happens.”
Given the episode’s context, the Naughty-inator seems an appropriate choice for a Christmas episode, “Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation”, in which Doofenshmirtz tries to put the entire city of Danville on Santa’s naughty list. The machine starts suggestively squirting “naughty nectar.”
3. Robot Riot
Despite reuniting for “one night only” in “Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together”, the popular rock band Love Händel can be seen several times throughout the show. Their last appearance is in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the Second Dimension.
When Norm Bot attempts to take over Danville, the band supports Phineas and Ferb’s efforts to stop it with “Robot Riot”, a song that contains some surprisingly flowery language.Threatening to “kick some robot chassis” and “rip out your CPU and show it to you still processing,” the particularly nasty insults include making fun of Norm’s figurative parents, claiming “your momma was a blender and your dad was just a washing machine” – a little classist.
The worst offender, though, has to be “your sister is a fridge, and you know her light is almost on.” A little personal, guys.
2. Rubbers
Somehow the strangest thing in the Halloween special “Night of the Living Pharmacists” isn’t the image of Buford and Doofenshmirtz stripping down to their underwear. Instead, constant references to “rubbers,” a slang that our American readers should be familiar with, makes this a particularly hard special to watch through all the stifled giggling.
Phineas and Ferb have invented a device that rubberizes their skin.
It gives them protective qualities and allows them to bounce around like balls. However, if you’re too mature to laugh at the lines “let’s get back to the backyard and re-rubberize” or “Hey Ferb, do we have any rubber lying around?” you may still let out a snort when Phineas explains that rubber “insulates against the infection.”
1. Donkey Caverns
Maybe the writers simply made an innocent mistake with this one, but considering their track record of not-so-subtle adult humor and innuendos, we don’t think so. During the episode “Phineas and Ferb Save Summer”, in which Doofenshmirtz makes a device that shifts the position of the Earth to put the summer season in jeopardy, their parents Linda and Lawrence take a disappointing spelunking trip.
Seemingly promised an exciting trip of self-discovery, upon arrival they discover that what was advertised was actually a typo and should have read “Inner Spelunking with Saul,” the name of their tour guide. You may need a thesaurus for this one, but consider some alternative words for the name of the cave they explore, Donkey Caverns. Coincidence? Maybe. Hilarious? Definitely.
Any other dirty jokes we missed from Phineas and Ferb? Let us know in the comments!
