Raging Bully

Violence can only lead to more violence.

Buford challenges Phineas to a thumb-wrestling competition. Phineas receives training by guest star Evander Holyfield. Meanwhile, Dr. Doofenshmirtz invents the Slave-inator to get people to attend his birthday, and clean up afterward. Dr. Doofenshmirtz just writes on his keyboard what he wants people to do for him, his orders appear in a giant screen, people get hypnotized and immediately they do it.

Episode Summary
Candace is sitting in her chair flipping through pictures of Jeremy on her cellphone that appear to have been taken either against his will or when he was taken completely by surprise. Linda comes in and tells her her jazz trio will be performing at the Squat and Stitch in the Googolplex Mall, so Candace, Phineas, and Ferb ought to come and hang out there today. Candace is excited; Jeremy works there at the Mr. Slushy Dawg and she wants to go see him.

At the mall, Linda starts her jazz gig, telling the knitting women that they will be playing some free-form jazz today, and Candace gives Phineas and Ferb some money. She tells them to meet back where they are in two hours; she's going to be visiting Jeremy during his work hours. She leaves and Phineas wonders where Perry is.

Meanwhile, Perry goes down to his lair using a vending machine that scans his foot and opens up into a slide. He suddenly squeaks to a stop because the slide isn't waxed and has to pull himself along. When he finally gets into his lair, Major Monogram apologizes to Perry, saying that the slide waxing guy is on jury duty that weekend. He then asks Agent P to look into some odd purchases (4 helicopter blades, 24 party balloons, and 6,000 light bulbs) by Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who is hiding out at the old abandoned cake factory on the edge of town, then stops, telling his assistant Carl that some visual indications of the mission were still on the screen. Perry departs his lair to investigate the matter.

Jeremy is cleaning a counter when Candace makes her appearance. She comes up to talk to him, then tells him that her cell phone is ringing and takes a picture of him (telling him her camera went off), laughing uncontrollably all the while.

Meanwhile, Phineas and Ferb are performing an experiment to see how long it takes for the top scoop to melt off of a double scoop ice cream cone. Baljeet is studying during summer vacation because he has summer school. Buford arrives on the scene to take their table. Flattening Baljeet, he shoves the schoolwork off of the table, and takes Baljeet's drink. Once finished with the drink, he throws it and it hits a kid behind him and the kid runs for it. Phineas tries to point out that the table was already taken, but Baljeet says to leave Buford alone as Phineas will only make him angrier. Then Phineas accidentally drops his last scoop of ice cream on Buford's pants, making everyone in the food court laugh. Buford gets angry and wants to fight Phineas immediately, but Evander Holyfield (voiced by himself) comes up and offers to train Phineas for the fight outside the mall at three o'clock. Buford leaves, saying to not be late because his mom picks him up at four o'clock. While Buford, Phineas, Ferb, Evander Holyfield, and everyone else think it is a great idea, Isabella and Baljeet are worried, remembering what happened to the last kid Buford fought (who apparently had a toilet stuck on his head).

To He's a Bully Phineas trains by running up the wrong way on an escalator, playing a version of Dance Dance Revolution, punching strings of sausages. Buford goes to a gym called "Wedgie's: The Gym for Bullies" and trains himself by dunking the heads of practice dummies into toilets, knocking books out of their arms, and giving them wedgies. At the end of the montage, Phineas makes it to the top of the escalator.

Meanwhile, Milly passes out flyers to everyone while stating there will be a 'brawl at the mall'. Candace crumples up her flyer when she receives it and While Ferb finishes a full-sized boxing ring, Candace comes up to tell the boys that they can't just build an arena out in the middle of the mall parking lot. She then storms off to tell Mom (snapping a picture of Jeremy as she passes by). Candace finds Mom and tries to convince her mother and get Phineas in trouble. Unfortunately for Candace, Linda is busy with her gig and doesn't offer any help. Remembering the flyer, she goes to ask for one as proof of the boys' projects.

Meanwhile, Agent P walks into the abandoned cake factory. The floor opens up beneath him and he is trapped in a giant vat of Dookelberry cake mix. Dr. Doofenshmirtz comes out with a cackle and says that in 30-40 minutes, the yeast will cause the cake to rise, burying Agent P alive. He then passes down a piece of cake to Perry. In a back story about his childhood, we learn that today is Doofenshmirtz's birthday, which he has always had to celebrate alone because nobody could ever be bothered to show up, not even his parents. Doofenshmirtz tells Perry that when he was five, he threw his own surprise party at Gunther Goat Cheese's. The flashback shows young Doofenshmirtz sitting all alone in a kid-themed restaurant, looking at an animatronic band: the puppets are a wolf (Count Wolfgang, playing kettle drums), a pig (Betty the She-Boar, playing violin), a rat (Rat-putin, playing accordion) and his lice buddies Olga and Chicago Joe. Doofenshmirtz describes them as "his closest friends". We also learn that Dooklelberry bats love Dookleberry cake, and will swarm to it if it's uncovered.

After he tells him his story, the evil Doctor unveils the Slave-inator, which makes crowds of people do whatever he wants. He demonstrates it on Perry by forcing him to clap and clean up his plate. Doofenshmirtz intends to use it to force people into celebrating his birthday and cleaning up the party afterwards. After Dr. Doofenshmirtz flies away atop the helicopter-equipped Slave-inator, Perry pulls out a pouch of whistles and tries to call a swarm of bats, but ends up calling a whale because two of his whistles were mixed up. He puts them in their proper places and successfully calls the swarm of Dunkelberry bats, who free him by eating all of the cake batter. Perry then rides the bats into the air and follows Dr. Doofenshmirtz, who is now flying above Ferb's boxing ring, where Buford and Phineas are beginning their thumb-wrestling match.

The announcer introduces Phineas and Buford to the crowd, and when they have joined him in the ring he reads off a document stating that nothing in the match should contain any acts of violence that an impressionable child viewer could imitate. The opponents then stick their thumbs into two holes in the little table upon which a mini-thumb-wrestling ring sits and prepare to start the fight.

Candace is still trying to get a flyer, but Holly and Ginger tell her that they ran out of stuff to promote the fight. Candace decides to take a picture of the fight and hurries over to the match. She passes by Jeremy on the way, who appears to be balancing corn dogs and drink cups on his head, arms, and one of his legs (though when he lowers his arms everything stays in place) and dearly wants to take his picture, but her phone's memory is 99% full, so she has to use her last picture on the boys and runs off with a frustrated expression, leaving Jeremy surprised and disappointed.

Perry rides the bat swarm right to Doofenshmirtz's helicopter-screen. Doofenshmirtz shoots a "party hat of doom" at Perry but he performs a back-flip so it misses and hits a table instead, spilling some party goods, including assorted noisemakers. Perry beats Doofenshmirtz up with two noisemakers by blowing into them repeatedly and puffing the plastic so it punches him in the face.

Phineas and Buford begin the fight. Buford is winning; his thumb beats back Phineas's and threatens to overtake it several times. Perry and Doofenshmirtz are still conducting their own fight high above; Doofenshmirtz attempts to beat Perry into submission with ping-pong paddles, which Perry deflects noisemakers that spin around. He is overwhelmed and knocked off but manages to hang on to the edge screen. Doofenshmirtz smashes his fingers with the controls to the Slave-inator, but Agent P refuses to let go, much to Doofenshmirtz's consternation. The Slave-Inator moves in front of the audience, spelling "ooooooooooooooo". The audience repeats what the Slave-Inator says. Down below, Phineas is resting in his corner; he tells his trainer that he doesn't things are going so well. Evander Holyfield gives him some encouragement (until running out of phrases) and sends him back out.

Candace comes and takes a picture just as Buford gives Phineas's thumb a thorough beating. Candace races back to her mother with the photo and shows it to her, but her mom remains unimpressed, as all you can see of Phineas is the top of his head; the rest of the photo is covered by Candace's thumb. She grabs her mother by the arm and drags her over to the arena.

Dr. Doofenshmirtz prepares to smudge Perry's face with ice cream. Perry, still hanging from the edge of the helicopter, uses his whale whistle and attracts the same whale that soars over the Slave-inator, knocking the scoop of ice cream out of Dr. Doofenshmirtz's cone, much to his dismay. Perry uses the distraction to climb back aboard.

During the match, Buford pins Phineas's thumb. He then grabs it, pulls Phineas up through the boxing ring and tosses him into the corner. Just as Buford is getting ready to knock Phineas out hard with his thumb, the ice cream from Dr. Doofenshmirtz ice cream cone lands on Phineas's head. Buford laughs, and the two decide end to their fight, seeing as Phineas had now been embarrassed in the same manner as Buford had.

Doofenshmirtz accidentally makes the propeller break off of the top of the screen, but manages to grab onto it and his cake and make a getaway. Perry grabs a balloon and floats down to safety. The cake spills onto Doofenshmirtz and the bats swarm around him, muffling out his "Curse you, Perry the Platypus!" The Slave-inator falls down onto the ring and commands everyone to clean up the party mess.

Candace arrives with her mother in tow only to find that the fight is over and the arena is no longer there because the hypnotized people had cleaned everything up, so her mother leaves for her second set.

Buford asks Phineas if he wants to do the same again tomorrow, but Phineas responds that he needs to keep moving forward. Ferb says, "Sharks have to continue to move forward, or they'll drown", causing Buford to accuse Ferb of calling him a shark. After using a Vulcan-style nerve pinch on Buford, Ferb says, "Well, he was all up in my face."

Songs

 * He's a Bully
 * It's Going So Badly

End Credits
Last verse of He's a Bully

During the credits when the episode broadcasted itself.

What'cha doin'?
None.

Perry's entrance to his lair
At the Mall there is a Drink It soda machine that scans his foot, and leads to a slide that takes Perry to his lair. He skids to a halt halfway down the slide, and has to push himself the rest of the way.

Background Information

 * In the credits, a character named Holly is mentioned. She is one of the Fireside Girls Candace tried to get something talking about the Brawl at the Mall from just as the fight was starting, the other being Ginger.
 * First time Ferb has extended dialogue.
 * The Announcer tells Phineas and Buford that the fight should not contain an image of imitable stunts. A movie later made by Dr. Doofenshmirtz uses a very similar line regarding platypus enemies ("Greece Lightning")
 * The lines about "fighting fire with fire" were said by Doofenshmirtz in Cheer Up Candace.
 * Candace tries to bust her brothers despite the fact she does not interact with them in this episode.

Production Information

 * Episode description from the original Phineas and Ferbruary 2008 press release:
 * In "Raging Bully," airing Monday, Ferb-ruary 4, world heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield guest stars as himself, training Phineas for a thumb wrestling bout with the local bully, Buford. Meanwhile, Perry the Platypus dismantles the Slave-inator, Dr. Doofenshmirtz's hypnotic device intended to control everyone's mind and force all to sing Happy Birthday to him.


 * There is a second existing version that replaces the announcer's line "he's from a bad home, he's missing a chromosome" to "he's from a bad home, his hobby is breaking bones". This is possibly due to an array unfortunate implications from the first phrase.

Errors

 * When Buford comes to the table where Phineas and Ferb are sitting, Ferb's bigger eye is in the front of his face, while his smaller eye is behind it, where normally, the smaller eye would be in the front.
 * When Perry opens his roll of whistles, "Komodo Dragon" is misspelled as "Kamodo Dragon".
 * When Candace takes the picture, we don't see her thumb in front of the lens, but later Linda says "Candace, this is your thumb in front of the lens." None of Candace's fingers could have been covering it, because she holds her phone by the bottom.
 * When Perry enters his lair, everything is mirrored. The video monitor is on the right, but normally it's on the left which could mean that the camera was on the other side of the room.
 * Though Buford's hand is supposed to be inside the ring, when he is squishing Phineas's thumb in, it is seen outside.
 * Before Dr.Doofenshmirtz said he will smudge Perry's face with ice-cream, Dr.Doofenshmirtz eyebrow disappears.
 * Phineas's ice cream cone drops on Buford, and when he's ready to beat Phineas up, the ice cream disappears.
 * The announcer said Phineas's thumb hit the turnbuckle but it actually hit the ropes.
 * When Buford goes to the ring he has his jacket on and when the announcer is talking about the rules his jacket is off, he might of toke it off before he came

Continuity

 * Buford and Baljeet are introduced under the theme of bullying. To this date, all subsequent appearances by both characters always feature Buford bullying Baljeet in some way.
 * Ferb declares Phineas' 3-o'-clock schedule free when Buford challenges him to a fight. It seems that Ferb keeps a day timer for both of them; he is seen in a later episode checking up on availability for the evening of a dance ("Out to Launch").
 * Linda and her band continue to play since this appearance ("Jerk De Soleil","Just Passing Through").

Allusions

 * Raging Bull - Episode title reference. The main character of this film is a boxer. The use of the opera song during the fight is also a reference to the opening scene of the film.
 * Rocky - The beat of the song and the way Phineas trains in it is reminisce of the famous Rocky movies. When the song ends, Phineas raises his arms up the same way Rocky did at the end of the training montage. Also, both Buford and Phineas are seen punching meat, which is one way Rocky trained.
 * Chuck E. Cheese's - The Gunther Goatcheese's restaurant is a parody of the Chuck E. Cheese's franchise of pizza restaurants, which cater to children with game arcades and animatronic displays like the one young Doofenshmirtz is watching.
 * Star Trek - The Vulcan Nerve Pinch Ferb uses against Buford is from this famous franchise.
 * The Punisher - Buford's shirt is in the style of the Punisher.
 * Free Willy - The whale jumps over Heinz Doofenshmirtz like in the movie "Free Willy".
 * Walt Disney - Phineas's motto is "keep moving forward". In the 2007 animated film Meet the Robinsons, "keep moving forward" is Cornelius Robinson's motto, derived from a quote of Walt Disney: "Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."
 * Holyfield-Tyson II - There is a bite out of Holyfield's right ear, making reference to the infamous biting incident in the second Holyfield-Tyson fight.
 * Michael Buffer - The announcer's line "Let's get ready to thumb-wrestle" parodies the trademarked catchphrase of boxing announcer Michael Buffer (who provides the announcer's voice), "Let's get ready to rumble!"
 * Pagliacci - The "indecipherable Italian words" hearded in "It's Going So Badly" are from the aria Vesti la giubba from the opera Pagliacci, by Ruggero Leoncavallo.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas, Additional Voices
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb
 * Caroline Rhea as Mom
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy, Additional Voices
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram, Additional Voices
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry, Additional Voices
 * Evander Holyfield as Himself
 * Michael Buffer as Announcer
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford, Additional Voices
 * Cymphonique Miller as Holly
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet, Additional Voices
 * Additional voices by: Jeff Bennett, Michael Buffer, Grey DeLisle, Phil LaMarr


 *  designates a character that did not appear in this episode