Ferb, I Know What We're Gonna Do Today

About

Ferb, I Know What We're Gonna Do Today is a catchphrase and meme that comes from the animated children's show Phineas and Ferb, originally spoken by the main character Phineas to his brother Ferb. The catchphrase, which is said near the beginning of every episode, became a meme online after it started to get attached as a reaction image to outlandish or unethical ideas.

Origin

In the show Phineas and Ferb, which premiered on August 17th, 2007, the running theme is that every episode has a specific idea that is proposed by Phineas and then told to Ferb through the use of this catchphrase, spelling out the show's plot. On August 12th, 2020, the YouTuber Let's Watch Cartoons^[1] uploaded a compilation of all the times that the catchphrase was said or alluded to in the show, starting with the pilot episode (shown below).

The first known usage of the catchphrase as part of a meme came from Redditor u/70astralaxe^[2] who used it as part of a Skull Comparisons meme in which the last skull to be compared was an artist's rendition of Phineas's skull and the caption "people who know what they're gonna do today" being put under it. The meme, uploaded to the subreddit /r/phineasandferb on December 23rd, 2018, gained over 300 upvotes in six years and served as a catalyst for the phrase being used on the subreddit over the following years (shown below).

Spread

The phrase slowly spread over the next few years, seeing a spike in usage in 2020 with stills from the show or of Phineas being used with the catchphrase to create a reaction image and image macro with the quote. For example, on March 22nd, 2020, X user @memescentari^[3] uploaded a meme that took a screenshot from Facebook, talking out an idea involving kidnapping and drugging a homeless man until he believes he's in Skyrim before dropping him off in Scandinavia, and added Phineas with laser eyes saying that they know what they're gonna do today (shown below).

Later that year, on April 18th, 2020, DeviantArt user 23sprime^[4] uploaded a variation of the meme in which they used a forward-facing picture of an actor in a Phineas costume instead of a picture from the show, with the phrase being used as a reaction image under a Google search result stating that if a university burns down everyone graduates (shown below).

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

External References