How Do They Come Up With All Those Different ‘Inators’ In Phineas And Ferb? The Creators Told Me Their Hilarious Method

The following article might contain spoilers for Phineas and Ferb. If you’re not caught up on the series, you can check it out on Disney+ with a Disney+ subscription.

Have you ever watched Phineas and Ferb and seen Dr. Doofenshmirtz create something, and you’re just sitting there wondering, “How the heck did the writers of this show come up with this nonsense?” Yeah, me too – so of course I had to ask Dan Povenmire and Jeff “Swampy” Marsh how they do it.

In honor of Phineas and Ferb returning with new seasons as part of the 2025 TV schedule, I was able to sit down and talk to the Phineas and Ferb creators, and just knew that after 100+ episodes, I had to find out how they keep these “inators” that this mad scientist makes so different each episode. Povenmire’s answer surprised and humored me: that they actually work backwards often from what the boys (Phineas and Ferb) are doing and how it can suddenly vanish:

Povenmire went on to say that this usually leads to some of the funniest moments. One of his favorites revolved around Doof’s invention, a “dance-inator,” which caused Phineas and Ferb’s invention to get up and dance away suddenly.

Honestly, that’s low-key hilarious to me. As someone who recently rewatched Phineas and Ferb for the first time in a while to prepare for the new episodes, it makes me wonder how many times the ridiculous inventions have occurred based on what the boys were doing.

Marsh commented that in other situations, it literally can be just someone saying something “really dumb” in the writer’s room, and then it clicks that they could create a machine from that:

To be frank, this actually makes me want to revisit some of the best Phineas and Ferb episodes, because that’s hysterical. There are so many hilariously creative moments that it makes you sit there and snicker, but to hear that it’s sometimes literally that random makes me feel 20 times better about the spontaneous creative thoughts that come to my mind as well.

There have been numerous great Disney shows that have come and gone, but to have Phineas and Ferb return for something like this, while still maintaining the zaniness of the original seasons, is genuinely refreshing. It’s a great children’s show on Disney+ that anyone can enjoy.

As Phineas and Ferb return for a fifth season – with the cast commenting on this nearly "twenty-year" show and how special it is – it makes me wonder what kind of crazy ‘inators’ we’re going to be experiencing next. All I do know is that we will most certainly be cursing Perry the Platypus each time.