Do Phineas & Ferb want to annoy Candace?

Question

While rewatching a few episodes of Phineas & Ferb, I noticed something. During the last scene of the Title Sequence (Mom, Phineas and Ferb are making the Title Sequence!), when Candace shouts, P&F pause for a moment, and after she finishes shouting, go back to their respective instruments with what looks to me with an expression of extreme disdain.

So this prompted me to think: do they create things which have specific built in functions to become undetectable when Mom comes? I understand that there are many ways which could not have possibly been caused by their intentions, but does Willing Suspension of Disbelief go that far?

So, in summary, do P&F want to annoy Candace by making their inventions disappear as soon as Mom comes?

Answer 1

TL;DR: You're not imagining the boys' attitude in the title sequence, even though they don't demonstrate a similar attitude in the series.

In most of the actual episodes, Phineas and Ferb appear to want (genuinely) to please Candace. However, the title sequence was conceived and largely animated before the regular run of the show: the "pitch" for the show consisted of a story-boarded version of the first episode, complete with title sequence and theme song. While the show in the pitch is very recognizable, some elements did change over the course of the show, including, notably, Phineas and Ferb's attitude towards Candace.

From the lyrics to the theme song:

Finding a dodo bird,
painting a continent,
or driving your sister insane!
[Candace:] "Phineas!"

In that last pair of lines, Phineas appears to be painting a mustache on a portrait of Candace, which turns out to actually be Candace. The pitch lyrics also includes a muttered "aside" from Phineas¹:

or driving your sister insane!
[Phineas, muttered aside:] "It's a short drive."
[Candace:] "Phineas!"

Painting a mustache on Candace, whether they believed it was a portrait or knew it was really her, is a much more hostile act towards Candace than we see in actual episodes of the show, and the lyrics suggest that Phineas might have one day announced "Ferb, I know what we're going to do today! Drive our sister insane!" Later in the storyboarded pitch (about 6 seconds into part 3), Ferb also has a line about the possibility that Candace might be put in charge which at least suggests that he doesn't like the idea.

It thus appears that there was originally a plan for two-way animosity between the boys and their sister, but this was abandoned (along with the name Dr. Meddleschmidt and the gag of Candace being in charge "conditionally", which made it into the pilot but not later episodes) for the rest of the show. However, unlike Meddleschmidt and the bawdier script elements, some vestiges of the idea remain in the title sequence.

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¹ Phineas has these asides throughout the title sequence, most of which did not make it into the final version of the song; one exception is "Locating Frankenstein's Brain/[Phineas:] 'It's over here!'"

Answer 2

There are many episodes that make it clear that the boys have no idea why their inventions seem to magically disappear when their Mom comes home. Further more their Mom not seeing the inventions is usually caused by an improbable series of events, often involving Perry or Doof.

They have even several times told Candace how awesome it would be if their Mom saw their cool stuff and there is an episode in which they try to build something that mom can see.

They've also many times tried to do things for Candace and it is very clear that they love their sister and want to be nice to her. They just don't understand that what they do are things that their sister wants to bust them for and that she disapproves of.

So no, on the balance of evidence they are not trying to annoy Candace, they just don't see how what they do could be annoying or disliked by anybody.

Answer 3

I've watched a large number of episodes, and the brothers virtually never mention Candace. They are doing their own thing, and they leave her alone to do hers. There is a virtually complete absence of quotes where the boys talk about how their inventions will affect her. It just doesn't cross their mind the great majority of the time.

Answer 4

On the contrary to many of the claims made on this thread, I believe that Phineas and Ferb do not carry out their shenanigans in ignorance of or indifference to Candace's feelings, but rather with the object of receiving attention from her. As stated earlier, Phineas and Ferb love Candace. However, their age difference creates a situation in which one party is not as interested as the other. In other words, while Candace would prefer to text her boyfriend or make plans with her other teenage friends, Phineas and Ferb secretly wish that Candace would give them at least a fraction of the attention that she lends to her other interests. Just as neglected children often engage in rebellious acts and do not care if the attention they eventually receive from their parents is negative, Phineas and Ferb crave any type of attention from their older sister. Getting on her nerves seems to be the only way that they are able to do that.

Answer 5

There was an episode where Phineas tells someone something like if Candace was interested only in what boys do the whole summer. Which means that they are very aware of Candace doing, but doesn't seem to care. And yes, it does cross their minds, but just like I said, they don't really care. How can they annoy Candace if they don't even care about what she is doing?

Answer 6

Yes (But Only in the First Few Episodes)

In "Rollarcoaster," the series pilot, Phineas and Ferb are edgier than they would later be portrayed.

• Phineas is a bit snappy with Isabella.
• The pair is lax about safety, fumbling the seatbelt demonstration. Phineas also asks if everyone signed the liability waiver.
• The pair charge admission for the ride. In the musical redo of the episode, they tell Buford not to do this.
• Ferb ends the episode by loudly burping.

In terms of their relationship with Candace, it's definitely more negative than in every subsequent episode. When she asks them what they're doing, Phineas sarcastically says "homework." I've seen one of the creators state that he was being truthful and they really were working way in advance but I very much doubt that was the intent at the time.

A few other early episodes also have examples of them unintentionally annoying her through their naivety. For example, they throw kitchen sinks and and live rats at her during a movie production