Gaming the System

Phineas and Ferb accidentally trap Candace in a video game and have to help her out so that she can get ready for the cotillion. Meanwhile, Perry has to stop Doofensmirtz from zapping men into wearing ballgowns.

Episode Summary
are hanging out with Buford, Baljeet, and Isabella outside their house. Buford is playing a game called "Jump N' Duck", where all you have to do to beat the game is to jump and duck. Phineas thinks the game is cool, and sees Buford's head on the main character in the game. Phineas takes a picture of himself on the console and his head appears on the game, which gives Phineas an idea. He decides that they're going to create their very own video game in which you can program yourself into it and have to beat the game to get back out.

Meanwhile, Candace gets a call from Jeremy and he asks her to go on a date with him to the summer cotillion, which Candace explains is a fancy word for dance. She blow-dries her hair when the power goes out from Phineas and Ferb's gaming system. Candace goes downstairs to interfere but accidentally walks in front of the scanner and programs herself into the game. Phineas and Ferb watch her for a few minutes and figure out that she can't beat the game by herself, so they program themselves into the game to help her beat it.

Perry goes over to the Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated building and finds out that Doofenshmirtz has created a ballgowninator to turn everyone in the Tri-state area girly so that he could look the manliest of them all. He tests out his invention on Perry and Perry is immediately dressed in a blue ball gown. Perry and Doofenshmirtz fight and the ray hits Doofenshmirtz, making him wear a dress as well. He feels humiliated because his invention was supposed to be for the whole Tri-state area and not himself.

Phineas and Ferb program themselves into the game. Candace gets chased by mad fruits and uses her blowdryer to defeat them and tells them they should've named it "Jump, Duck and Blow." When she gets to the final level, she sees a gigantic Buford that is the final level's boss. Candace shouts at Buford and he knocks her blowdryer down the cliff. She then grabs her health bar and hits him upside the head, knocking him backwards and crushing Phineas and Ferb as he falls off the cliff. Candace rushes to Phineas and Ferb's side and breaks down, thinking that they are dead. They disappear and reappear behind her, stating that they have four lives left. Candace gets mad because she thought they had died, but she has defeated the final level.

However, the game is not over yet. The last level is in the real world, and Buford is back and twice as strong. When Buford is about to defeat Phineas, Ferb, and Candace, Isabella creates a diversion by waving her arms and yelling. Phineas yells at Isabella to stop and to leave them and save herself, but when Buford walks over to Isabella, she takes a picture of him and zaps him back into the game. Phineas, Ferb, and Candace have defeated their game, but Candace hears a knock on the gate. Jeremy arrives to pick her up for their cotillion, but Candace isn't even ready yet.

Doofenshmirtz shoots his ballgowninator at Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella, giving them all ball gowns. Perry drops down and his dress slips off, landing directly on Candace. Jeremy states that he thinks Candace is beautiful, and that everyone else looks beautiful too despite being obviously weirded out by Phineas and Ferb in gowns. They then go off to the cotillion. During the end credits, Doofenshmirtz drops into the cotillion and is both humiliated and flattered because he gets crowned queen of the cotillion.

Songs
Let's Go Digital

The "Too Young" Line
none.

Whatcha doin'?
none.

Perry's entrance to his lair
none.

End Credits
Doofenshmirtz lands in the Summer Cotillion and the host accidentally crowns him queen. Doofenshmirtz is both honored and humiliated so he says Thank you and curse you.

Background Information

 * This is Ferb's first near-death experience, and Phineas' third.
 * This is the first time Phineas gives any indication of feelings for Isabella. The next is in the Chronicles Of Meap.

Continuity

 * The gag with Doofenshmirtz checking his watch to make sure Perry is too late is recycled from a joke originally used in the Original Story Pitch.
 * Candace's new hairdo from the end of "Got Game?" reappears when she slips into the ballgown.
 * The song Let's Go Digital sounds very alike to one that appeared in Out of Toon when Phineas tells Candace about the creation of the cartoon film of Team Improbable.
 * When Candace is blow drying her hair, there are several beauty products on her counter marked with an "FG" logo, referring to the Flawless Girl products in the episode Attack of the 50 Foot Sister.

Allusions

 * Super Mario Bros.: The coin-grab sound effect plays when the characters generate in the video game, and the clothes the character wears in the normal version of jump and duck looks just like Mario's clothes (save for the lack of overall straps).
 * Virtual Boy: The new-improved version of Jump and Duck is similar to the Nintendo Virtual Boy.
 * Nintendo DSi: At the very beginning Buford has a video game that allows him to take his picture and insert it into the game. Timely, as the Nintendo DSi just released in North America on April 5th, its biggest new capability being an added built-in camera.
 * Beauty and the Beast: When Perry gets zapped by the Ballgowninator, the music briefly plays the opening notes from that film's title song. It plays again when Doofenshmirtz gets zapped by the ray, and then again when Perry's ballgown lands on Candace.
 * MC Escher's Relativity: The structure in the videogame visited by Candace, Phineas and Ferb during the song Let's Go Digital is similar to this painting.
 * Jack and the Giant Beanstalk: Candace jumps on top of a pineapple and it grows into a giant beanstalk.
 * Star Trek: The Next Generation: The visor Baljeet wears during the song is very similar to Geordi La Forge's.
 * Digimon: The song's title refers to a recurring song in the Digimon franchise aptly named "Going Digital".
 * Tron: Candace is 'digitized' into the game world kind of like Kevin Flynn was digitized.
 * Devo: Let's Go Digital is similar to some of Devo's electronic musical styles; Baljeet's sunglasses are similar to those worn by the band in early days; Devo was an early adopter of new types of instruments such as Isabella's keyboard and Buford's electronic drums. Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh has done the music for Rugrats.
 * Serial Experiments, Lain: Candace's hair during her run through the videogame is identical to the character from the anime cult-classic about a girl who enters an alternate world within a videogame.
 * Pac-Man.: The sound effect when the ghosts eyes float when Pac-Man eats them plays when Candace zaps the bad guys with her hair blower in the video game.


 * Aaron Stone: Candace's an alter-ego her avatar, Dark Tamara.

Cast

 * Vincent Martella as Phineas Flynn
 * Ashley Tisdale as Candace Flynn
 * Thomas Sangster as Ferb Fletcher
 * Mitchel Musso as Jeremy Johnson
 * Maulik Pancholy as Baljeet Patel
 * Dan Povenmire as Dr. Doofenshmirtz
 * Jeff "Swampy" Marsh as Major Monogram
 * Dee Bradley Baker as Perry the Platypus
 * Alyson Stoner as Isabella Garcia-Shapiro
 * Bobby Gaylor as Buford Van Stomm