Luck is called "stinkelkrampen" in Drusselstein and it turns out I never have any of the good kind. Turns out that every object has a positive or negative energy field.
”
— Heinz Doofenshmirtz
When Doofenshmirtz invents a Stinkelkrampen-inator to increase his chances of ruling the Tri-State Area, he inadvertently fires it at Phineas, Ferb and the gang, who end up with bad luck while preparing for a Sky Tennis match, and Candace who gets a load of luck, and thinks she has enough luck to bust her brothers.
Candace wakes up to see her brothers with Buford and Baljeet already in the backyard. She complains about how she is not a morning person. Then she wonders where Perry is.
Agent P goes down to his lair very tired since he pulled an all-nighter filling in for another agent. Major Monogram tells him that Doofenshmirtz has been seen experimenting with energy fields. Perry wearily walks over to his spy car, but he puts it on autopilot so he can sleep.
Isabella joins up with the gang and Phineas tells her they are making a zip-line structure all over Danville so they can play a game of Sky Tennis. He invites her to join them for a game of doubles, with Buford as the line judge.
At Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated, Perry's spy car arrives and Norm, acting like a guard dog thanks to some software Doofenshmirtz installed in him, alerts his "master'. Doofenshmirtz approaches Perry but sees that he is still very sleepy, so he decides to tell his evil plan subliminally. He explains that he was studying energy fields because each object has a positive and negative energy to them and created an inator changing one's luck called the Stinkelkrampen-inator ("Stinkelkrampen" being the word for "luck" in Drusselstein). He will use the -inator on himself and Roger so that he can take Roger's place as mayor and then rule the Tri-State Area.
Back in the backyard, Phineas is about to hammer in one final nail of the structure, when the gang gets zapped by the Stinkelkrampen-inator. Suddenly, the hammer falls apart. He attempts it again with a spare, but the hammer falls apart again, landing on Ferb's foot.
Meanwhile, it is revealed that Doofenshmirtz is simply demonstrating his -inator by shooting random beams off of his balcony. He just showed the bad luck setting, and he then demonstrates the good luck setting by setting it off on a random target.
That random target happens to be Candace, who is at her bedroom vanity about to do her 500-brush-stroke routine. However after just one brush stroke, she gets her hair perfectly combed, which surprises her. She goes downstairs and gets a call from someone saying she won a contest. She believes she is on a lucky streak, but decides to test it out by falling backwards. She does and two pillows seemingly appear out of nowhere to break her fall. Since she's on a good luck streak, she figures today will be the day that she will bust her brothers. She then remembers that Linda is on a retreat at a plant-potting seminar. Her mother then calls her to say she will be home soon, since it was a short seminar.
While Candace is on her lucky streak, Phineas and the gang's streak does not look as lucky. Baljeet surmises that, against all logic, they have been cursed with some bad luck. Ever the optimist, Phineas devises a plan to work around all the unlucky happenings and still have a good game.
Somewhere in downtown Danville, Doofenhmirtz is with his still sleepy platypus, who is tied to a little red wagon, about to go in his van. He then shoots himself with his own inator on the good luck setting. He sees a penny on the ground, but, unfortunately, it is tails up. He flips it over for someone else to find. A random man finds it and gives Doofenshmirtz $1000 in cash.
Phineas and the gang begin their tennis match, with some commentary by identical twin sports commentators Markus and Mark. So far the game goes smoothly, until Baljeet falls from his zipline. Luckily, an airbag deploys from his pants and he bounces back up to his line.
Meanwhile, Doofenshmirtz sets his still sleepy nemesis into the van and as he turns the ignition, all the traffic lights turn green. He decides to turn on the radio, and his favorite song, a generic happy pop tune, plays.
Meanwhile, Candace's lucky streak continues as she dances in the sunshine with hardly a care. Doofenshmirtz gets free cans of almond brittle from a clown in a truck. Candace is so happy, she hardly notices Little Suzy Johnson about to spray her with a hose. However, the hose sprays Suzy instead who gets soaked.
At City Hall, Doofenshmirtz meets his brother and prepares to zap him with some bad luck. Roger insists that his luck is due to "hard work, strong networking and thoughtful actions in matters both business and personal."
Back at the game, Ferb's racket gets unstrung, but gets restrung automatically. The line that Isabella is hooked onto snaps, but she jetpacks back onto another part of the line.
Back at the house, Linda returns home carrying a potted plant and a bag of mulch. She bumps into a coat with a fedora on it, and the fedora drops onto the potted plant and she giddily notices that the potted plant looks like a secret agent. She places the secret agent plant into an alcove. The alcove opens up and the potted plant drops into Agent P's lair. Major Monogram tells Planty the Potted Plant that his cover has been blown and will have to relocate to another family. Planty wilts sadly.
Back at City Hall, Doofenshmirtz is about to zap his brother, when Roger gets up from his desk to meet Perry, who is still sleeping. He steps on a rather creaky floorboard and Perry finally wakes up and attacks him.
Phineas and the gang return to the backyard, when Candace arrives with a pie, which she says is for their "Bust Day" (Phineas thinks she said "Bus Day"). In City Hall, Perry destroys the pack on Doofenshmirtz's back containing the energy fields, which unleash reversing all the lucks. Candace is happily dancing with her pie when the energy fields affect the backyard and the pie drops on her face. She realizes her lucky streak may be over, but she still rushes into the house to get her mother. Suddenly, the earth cracks open and swallows the zipline structure, right after Candace said that had better not happen. Candace returns to the backyard with her mom in time to see the structure gone.
Back at City Hall, Doofenshmitz is back at his van upset that his lucky streak is also over. However, he still is satisfied that he has a trunk full of cans of almond brittle. But when he opens one, it turns out to be a gag can with fake snakes.
Isabella: Hey, Phineas! Whatcha doin'?
Phineas: Hey, Isabella! You're just in time to help us build a zip-line tennis game across town for the ultimate game of sky tennis! Ferb: Or skennis for short.
Phineas: Good thing you're wearing your steel-tip sneakers. Ferb: Actually, today I'm not. (beat) Ouch.
Hey, where's Perry?[]
Candace: Yeah, I see you down there. Hey, where's Perry?
Danny Jacob: (after playing the standard guitar opening riff) Dude, somebody's got to play it, right?
Lyla: (on line at Agent-Con) Yet again, I am the only girl.
Phineas: Now that you're here, we can play doubles for twice the fun!
Buford: I'll be the judge of that. Phineas: Perfect! 'Cause we need you to be the line judge. Buford: Judge? Cool! Do I get one of those powdered wigs? Baljeet: No. Buford: Ah, I'll do it anyway.
Doofenshmirtz: I'll just have to tell you my evil plan subliminally, like, like when people listen to foreign language CDs in their sleep. I did that once and now I can totally speak Portuguese to sleeping people.
Dr. Doofenshmirtz: I could get used to this good luck thing. It's better than having a genie. That was a mistake.
(flashback to a genie after he's transformed Doofenshmirtz into a human-sized hot dog) Flashback Wienershmirtz: That wasn't a wish, it's just a song! It's not even a song, it's a jingle! (end flashback) Doofenshmirtz: Ugh! You ever try to sue a genie?
Janitor: Hey, do you guys have a permit to do sports commentary on this roof?
Markus: (getting out of his chair) We...totally have one. Mark: We do. Markus: It's in the production truck downstairs. Mark: (also getting out of his chair) Which totally exists. Let's get outta here!
Background information[]
The musician playing the guitar and keyboards is a caricature of composer Danny Jacob, as his line "Dude, somebody's gotta play it, right?" is another example of the breaking of the fourth wall. Doof also does the same when he talks to the camera as he starts to play Dancing to the Sunshine, and talks about the song ends as he arrived to the City Hall, and how his luck blessed him with a lot of almond brittle cans during the chorus.
In Brazillian and European Portuguese dubs, Doofenshmirtz mentions that he can speak English (Brazillian Portuguese) and Norwegian (European Portuguese) to sleeping people.
While "Stinkelkrampen" is said to mean "luck" in this episode, in real life, it is pseudo-German gibberish that does not mean anything. The actual German word for luck is Glück. However, "krampen" is Norwegian for "spasm". The Drusselsteinian language might be a similar, but still different language from German.
Production Information[]
This is the first episode to premiere in 2014.
This episode was supposed to premiere on October 23, 2013 on Disney XD Germany but was replaced with a rerun.
International Premieres[]
January 30, 2014 (Disney Channel Latin America and Brazil)
February 1, 2014 (Disney XD Poland)
February 12, 2014 (Disney Channel Russia)
February 23, 2014 (Disney XD Latin America)
February 28, 2014 (Family Channel, Canada)
March 18, 2014 (Disney Channel Australia and New Zealand)
As Monty Python would tell you, tennis with five people is not really considered doubles.
When Doofenshmirtz finishes explaining his plan, the ball at the inator's tip disappears.
Doofenshmirtz's mouth does not move when he is talking while simultaneously placing Perry in his truck.
At one point during the song, Isabella's socks are longer than usual.
Phineas and Ferb and friends use gadgets avoid incidents is considered lucky and Doofenshmirtz fails to zap Roger with his invention due to Roger getting distracted by the sleeping Perry and Doofenshmirtz accidentally waking him up is considered unlucky, but Doofenshmitz, Phineas, and Ferb swapped their luck. It's possible that the Stinkelkrampen-Inator may have a few glitches.
When Candace passes The Johnson's house, the mailbox is seen with the writing "The Johnsons", but when the camera zooms over to Suzy, the writing disappears, and then reappears after the scene is zoomed out.
When Doofenshmirtz and Perry are driving to the mayors office, Perry was originally in the back of the car, but then switches to the passenger's seat.
Did he really fall asleep?
Perry is seen awake once when the truck drops its almond brittle cans to Doofenshmirtz's car.
When Doofenshmirtz enters Roger's office as he brings Perry inside the cart, Perry is seen still wearing his seat belt. When Roger is about to greet the sleeping Perry, the latter doesn't wear his seat belt anymore.
Isabella and Buford do not hold their helmets on their hands, nor they do put their helmets on the grass at the moment when the inator effect starts to wear off. Later on, their helmets reappears near the ladder, along with Phineas and Ferb's helmets. When the crack swallows the structure, the helmets disappears, and then reappears again after the crack is sealed.
Continuity[]
Even though her good luck ran out, Candace still won the contest to sing backup with Love Händel, which she did in "The Klimpaloon Ultimatum".
Oscar Mayer - In Doofenshmirtz's flashback to the time he misused a genie, it shows him as a hotdog telling the genie that "It's not a wish. It's a song. It's not a song. It's a jingle!" referring to the Oscar Mayer jingle, "I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener."
Just My Luck - The plot of Candace having good luck while Phineas, Ferb and the others having bad luck is based on the 2006 movie, starring Lindsay Lohan, in which a young girl had extremely good luck while a guy had extremely bad luck, then both of them switch luck.
Secret Agent Man - Linda jokingly refers to Planty the Potted Plant as "Secret Agent Plant".
This episode may have served as the inspiration for Milo Murphy's Law, in that both have storylines concerning bad luck and how characters work their way around it.
