In my childhood (and this past summer), I watched a considerable amount of Disney Channel’s Phineas and Ferb. Each episode of the show, created by Dan Povermire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh, follows Phineas and Ferb, two brothers residing in Danville, a city in the Tri-State Area, who resolve to not let their 104 days of summer vacation go to waste. They fulfill this resolution by constructing something such as a rollercoaster, miniature golf course, or treehouse, all to a cartoonishly large and over-the-top degree.
In each episode, alongside this main recurring plot point, Perry the Platypus, Phineas and Ferb’s pet, unbeknownst to the boys works as “Agent P”, a secret agent working to foil the plans of the evil scientist Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz, who resides in a downtown condo building with a large sign reading “Doofenshmirtz Evil Inc.” clearly visible from a distance at the top.
The ‘evil’ Dr. Doofenshmirtz performs is fitting for a comedic cartoon. In repeated attempts to get closer to his goal of ruling the entire Tri-State Area, he creates ‘inators’ such as the Deflatinator to, in this case, deflate everything inflatable in the Tri-State Area so everyone must come to him to inflate them and creates other inators to serve equally zany ends.
Some of Doofenshmirtz’s plans have a more personal connection to his tragic backstory. Throughout the series, the viewer learns about life events in his childhood, such as that neither of his parents bothered to show up for his birth and that he was forced to work as a lawn gnome by his father in his native Drusselstein. In the episode titled “Lawn Gnome Beach Party of Terror,” in an act of vengeance, Doofenshmirtz builds the Destructinator to destroy every lawn gnome in the Tri-State Area. Additionally, he has a vendetta against his brother Roger, who was favored by their parents in their childhood and becomes mayor of Danville, sparking multiple plots such as an attempt to create a floating city in the Danville harbor called Doofania.
In the Summa Theologica, St. Thomas Aquinas states as the first precept of natural law that “good is to be done and pursued, and evil is to be avoided.” If I am to avoid evil, what does this mean for my enjoyment of the character of Dr. Doofenshmirtz? Am I failing to avoid evil by participating in the lightheartedness of the cartoon ‘evil’ portrayed in Phineas and Ferb?
At the surface, it does not seem to be a problem to enjoy the dynamic between Agent P and Doofenshmirtz, as Doofenshmirtz’s plans are always foiled in the end. In this sense, I am simply enjoying the triumph of good over evil and not the concept of evil itself. But what about the comedicization of evil this show employs? Is it making light of evil?
In the context of the show, I would say no. The sorts of actions Doofenshmirtz performs are so far-fetched that it is understood that the creators of the show are not making light of evil, but rather making a mockery of it. If the show were rather glorifying a man performing more realistic acts of evil, the context would be different and would have to be analyzed separately. But nothing Doofenshmirtz does would likely lead a viewer to perform evil, but rather his outrageous, ever-failing plans make him one to be pitied without causing an occasion to be drawn to true evil.
St. Thomas Aquinas also states in the Summa that “if all evil were prevented, much good would be absent from the universe.” The character of Dr. Heinz Doofenshmirtz and his ‘evil’ certainly makes way for good to enter the universe by simultaneously giving viewers an outlet to enjoy the triumph of good over evil and letting the viewers discover the potential good that Doofenshmirtz holds as he grows in fraternity with what becomes his frenemy in Agent P, compassion, and goodness as the show progresses.
Adam is a senior from Columbus, Ohio. He previously served as Campus News and Culture Editor, and boasts the title of least cultured to ever serve as the latter. Holding a minor in Biology, he recently converted from STEM and now majors in Philosophy and Classical Studies. He currently leads Una Voce, the Latin Mass society at BC, and sings with the University Chorale of Boston College and the Chorale Chamber Singers. He enjoys Gregorian Chant, relearning the clarinet, and is an unabashed Ohio apologist.
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