Sit right down, 'cause this is your backstory!
While Phineas and Ferb play an intense but otherwise mundane game of ping-pong, Dr. Doofenshmirtz tries to use the power of his miserable backstories to enhance his evilness.
This episode includes examples of:
- Be the Ball: Young Doof was once used as the ball for a carnival’s dunking booth.
- Behavioral Conditioning: Doof's father briefly appears to say, "Bewegen Sie nicht!"note and Doof immediately stands erect like a lawn gnome.
- Big "NO!": Doofenshmirtz does this when Perry shows pictures of the two of them together which reverses the Backstory-inator's effects and returns him to normal.
- Blatant Lies: Remember how Doof claimed he "knew people" to have Love Händel appear in his backstory? That was just a lie. Turns out, he got them to play because he told them it was for Roger.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: At one point, Doof notices Agent P has escaped and says, "Hey, where's Perry?", marking one of the few times he doesn't call him "Perry the Platypus".
- Brick Joke: During one of his many flashbacks, Doof briefly mentions he was raised by ocelots for a while. Later, his Evil Gloating is interrupted by an ocelot attacking him out of nowhere.Norm: Oh, there’s Mama Ocelot!Doofenshmirtz: Ironically, she’s still more nurturing than my own mother.
- Brown Bag Mask: After Doofenshmirtz chickens out of going off the high dive as a kid, the next scene shows his parents each wearing one of these out of shame.
- The Bully: Boris has been this to Doofenshmirtz his whole life, appearing in increasingly unlikely places to kick sand in his face. Ironically, the only place he doesn’t kick sand at him is at the beach, which makes Doof so paranoid that he can’t enjoy his time there.
- Clip Show: Third one. This one focuses on Doof's many different backstories.
- Comedic Spanking: As the game show’s first special guest, Norm brings out the doctor who delivered baby Doofenshmirtz. The doctor promptly grabs Doof by the ankle, dangles him upside down, and spanks him once on the butt to make sure he’s breathing just like he did when he delivered him.Dr. Shlussel: He is breathing!
- His mother does the same to him, however, unlike the doctor, she spanks him several times and appears to do it out of a desire to abuse him.
- Companion Cube: Doofenshmirtz’s best (and only) friend growing up, Balloony.
- Continuity Cavalcade: This episode combines nearly all of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's backstories, from the day he was born to his Hilariously Abusive Childhood to his many defeats at the hands of Perry the Platypus.
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: Dr. Doofenshmirtz is forced to sit through a "digital remix" of his viral video from "Tip of the Day".
- Crack Defeat: Doof’s very first Inator lost to another kid at the Science Fair who made a baking soda volcano. The same thing happens the next year, and then again at a completely unrelated poetry contest.
- Creator Cameo: Vanna, the model, is voiced by assistant animation director Sue Perrotto.
- Daddy Didn't Show: Parodied in that neither of Doofenshmirtz’s parents showed up to his birth.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: All of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's pleasant memories are of his daughter Vanessa and his Friendly Enemy Perry the Platypus. His memories of Vanessa nearly reset his Backstory-inator.
- Evil Makes You Monstrous: When his Backstory-inator turns him more evil, Doofenshmirtz transforms into a hulking monster, suffering Clothing Damage in the process, and grows Scary Teeth.
- Failure Montage: Two in this episode:
- A montage of Doof's failed dating life, set to "Happy Evil Love Song".
- And another of all his failed “inators”.
- Freudian Excuse: Dr. Doofenshmirtz plans to weaponize this by recapping all his miserable backstories to charge his "Backstory-inator" and make himself even more evil than before.
- Friendly Enemy: Perry and Doofenshmirtz are such good frenemies that it’s their friendship that actually reverses the effects that the Backstory-inator had on Doofenshmirtz.
- Frivolous Lawsuit: When Vanna gets stabbed in the shoe by the gnome’s pointed hat, she leaves limping and tells Doof, "I'm sending you a bill for the shoes. My boyfriend's a lawyer."
- Gainax Ending: It turns out that Phineas and Ferb's ping pong game was to gather enough kinetic energy to create a quantum vortex, which ends up sucking up everything in existence. Candace walks in the void and meekly says, "Mom?"
- Game Show Appearance: Doofenshmirtz is a contestant on the titular “This Is Your Backstory” show, put on by his own robot, Norm.
- Good-Times Montage: Two of them, when characters accidentally make Doof reminisce about positive memories.
- When Vanessa walks in, a montage of good memories between father and daughter is shown set to "Not So Bad a Dad".
- When Doof evolves into a monster, Perry takes out a picture from his wallet of the two of them, setting off a montage of memories of them getting along set to "My Nemesis".
- Goofy Print Underwear: While being spanked by Dr. Shlussel, Doofenshmirtz’s pants sag and show his bright green and purple polka dot boxers.
- High-Dive Hijinks: Jumping off the high-dive is a Rite of Passage in Drusselstein, which Doofenshmirtz fails of course.
- Hilariously Abusive Childhood: From forcing him to be a garden gnome to blatantly favoring his brother over him and even, absurdly, not showing up for his birth, it’s clear that Doofenshmirtz’s parents cared very little for him. He exploits this to give the Backstoryinator enough juice to make him more evil.
- Instant Humiliation Just Add Youtube: Doofenshmirtz’s incredibly embarrassing viral video of him roller skating in his underwear and falling headfirst into a toilet is shown again in this episode.
- Mental Picture Projector: The “This Is Your Backstory” game works by using memory extraction technology to project Doofenshmirtz’s memories onto a giant screen for everyone to watch.
- Musical Slapstick Montage: Dr. Doofenshmirtz's backstories end with a montage of "failed -Inators" exploding set to the 1812 Overture Finale.
- Near-Villain Victory: This was the closest Doofenshmirtz has ever gotten to ridding the world of his nemesis forever. If it hadn't been for Perry reminding him that they still have good times with one another despite being enemies, Doofenshmirtz would've won.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Perry kicking Doof out of his chair gives him one more humiliating memory that fully powers his -inator. Doof even thanks Perry for this.Doofenshmirtz: Curse you, Perry the Platypus... and by "Curse you", I mean "Thank you"! (...) Remember two seconds ago when you foiled my latest plan? I do!
- Noodle Incident: The only new clip made for this episode is the backstory of Doof's emigration to America.
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Doofenshmirtz says this almost word for word after activating his -inator; immediately after this, Perry reminds him of the good times they had together which in turn reverses the Backstory-inator's effects.
- Oh, Crap!: Perry has this reaction when he realizes he accidentally caused Doofenshmirtz to gain the final backstory needed to achieve his One-Winged Angel form.
- One-Person Birthday Party: One of Doofenshmirtz’s depressing childhood memories is throwing himself his own surprise birthday party at a Suck E. Cheese's and being the only one who attends. To top it all off, the restaurant takes his cake back because they have a two person minimum rule.
- Orphaned Punchline: Candace tells Stacy she thinks the ocean would be deeper if it weren't for all the sea sponges.
- Out of Focus: Phineas and Ferb spend the entire episode playing table tennis while Candace watches. Perry and Doof once again carry the whole episode.
- Power Makes Your Voice Deep: When Doof is transformed into a monster, his voice becomes deeper.
- The Power of Friendship: When Doof becomes hulked out thanks to the Backstory-inator, Perry shows pictures of the two of them together, causing him to experience good backstories of the times they spent with each other and return to his normal self.
- Raised by Wolves: At one point in his childhood, Doofenshmirtz was raised by ocelots when his parents disowned him.
- Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud: Norm does so on two occasions: before the diving board backstory ("Perform a segue back to rites of passage!") and after the Balloony backstory ("Uncomfortable transition back to the Gnome-O-Meter!").
- Record Needle Scratch: Heard when Roger interrupts Doof's kickball flashback, because he is surprised that he got Love Händel to play his flashback. (See also: Blatant Lies)
- Red Filter of Doom: The inside of D.E.I. turns an infernal red when Doofenshmirtz hulks out.
- Ridiculous Repossession: When Doofenshmirtz was a child, his family ran into hard times and experienced the difficult repossession…of their garden gnome.
- Sadistic Game Show: The whole point of the “This Is Your Backstory” game show is to make Doofenshmirtz relive his most painful, humiliating, and miserable memories in order to fuel his Backstory-inator that will make him more evil.
- Series Continuity Error: The ending of the flashback of Young Doof celebrating his birthday alone at Guenther Goatcheese's (from "Raging Bully") ends with Doof saying that they took the cake away because of a two-person minimum. But the original episode had an additional scene of Young Doof walking home carrying the cake being attacked by doonkleberry bats, which served a plot point for the original episode.
- Shout-Out:
- The Gnome-O-Meter is based on The Price Is Right game "Cliff Hangers."
- Norm’s Lovely Assistant is named Vanna, just like on Wheel of Fortune.
- Stock Audio Clip: Many of the backstories reuse their original narration. This is especially jarring during the lawn gnome story when Doof's Eastern European accent suddenly becomes prominent again due to Vocal Evolution.
- Take Our Word for It: Apparently, Ferb can't psych Phineas out with his dead-on impersonations of celebrities.
- Take That!: "I was heading to a golden land of opportunity; a land with a pioneering spirit which welcomed misfits like me! But I ended up in America instead."
- Thing-O-Matic: The Backstory-inator
- We also see a flashback to Doof’s very first invention, named simply “Inator”.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Charlene, despite her being Captain Oblivious to her former husband being an evil scientist, compliments Norm's tuxedo, indicating she has seen Norm before.
- Viewers Are Goldfish: At the beginning of Act II, Doof restates his scheme for the day.
- Villainous Breakdown: Doofenshmirtz throws one when Perry reverses the Backstory-inator moments before it's destroyed and the former returns to normal.
- Visible Odor: Doofenshmirtz smelled so strongly of pork as a child that it’s shown coming off his body in wavy white lines.
- Wanted a Son Instead: Before Roger was born, Doofenshmirtz parents were expecting a daughter and made a ton of dresses in preparation. However, when they had a son instead, they made Doofenshmirtz wear the dresses they no longer needed for a whole year in order to save money.
- Whole-Plot Reference: This episode is a parody of the 1950s documentary series This is Your Life with Norm taking on the Ralph James role.
