It IS true and IS correct that Reddit is the last large bastion of the internet where you can go to seek the opinion of hobby-experts and get real information and real advice that has not been astroturfed through an SEO-manipulating AI-generated terminally-cancerous corporate-sponsored advertisement-hocking wretch.
But this approach is still flawed owing to the fact that every Redditor is terminally afflicted with Funniest Guy In The Room syndrome and the top-voted answer on an earnest "can anyone identify this?" post might just be "your mom" or "poop knife" or whatever's in Reddit circlejerk zeitgeist vogue at the moment so really. An imperfect system.
Doofenshmirtz is kind of proof that you can, in fact, make one of the funniest characters out there by throwing shit at the wall.
He’s a supervillain, he’s amicably divorced, he was raised by ocelots, his evil ambitions only stretch as far as taking over the tri-state area, he’s in a romantically-coded/joked about rivalry with a sentient platypus, he’s a good dad, he once lost a fight with a potted plant, he was forced to be a lawn gnome. But most importantly, he never gives up.
gravity falls was such a great show for so many reasons but one in particular that stuck with me to this day was that it proudly encouraged kids to be weird. there was never the almost stifling message of "everyone is their own normal :)" because as a neurodivergent child that is almost never how it actually feels. it did an awesome job at saying "yeah, you stick out like a sore thumb. six of em, actually! how cool is that!?" and it encouraged you to support your loved ones weirdness even if you don't begin to understand it
So none of the humans in Gravity Falls noticed when Ford was replaced by his twin, which makes sense, he was a recluse in the woods who probably only infrequently came into town for coffee or groceries. And also a secret mind-wiping cult was on the loose.
But as reclusive as he was around the humans, he got VERY social with the local supernatural entities. He raised a shapeshifter, he kept a gnome in a cage, he yelled at Steve with a megaphone. The local paranormal community was probably very familiar with the excited six-fingered human who traipsed around the woods conducting interviews and taking notes.
So, what did they think when he suddenly vanished, to be replaced by a five-fingered con artist who completely ignored the supernatural entities and began bringing humans around the shack?
I propose this:
None of the supernatural entities realized that he's Ford's twin.
They assume that as part of Ford's studies, he summoned up his own evil doppelgänger, and it killed him and took over his life. As doppelgängers are wont to do.
Which makes Stan a member of the paranormal community in their eyes; but if he'd rather try to blend in among the humans, hey, that's his business. They just won't send him invites to the town's magical meet-ups. He is, after all, an EVIL doppelgänger.
Smol snippet of Jon Hamm reading the Good Omens excerpt at the The Art of Elysium’s 2024 Heaven Gala, 6.1.2024 :) ❤ (I hope we will get it all one day! :) <3)
Jon: From a little story called Good Omens, The Nice and Accurate prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and our own Neil Gaiman.
The angel waved a hand expansively, if a little unsteadily. "Loads of buggerall, dear boy."
"But it gets there anyway," Crowley persevered.
"How?"
"It doesn't matter!"
"It could use a space ship," said the angel.
Crowley subsided a bit. "Yeah," he said. "If you like. Anyway, this bird—"
"Only it is the end of the universe we're talking about," said Aziraphale. "So it'd have to be one of those space ships where your descendants are the ones who get out at the other end. You have to tell your descendants, you say, When you get to the Mountain, you've got to—" He hesitated.
my brothers share special interests and my favorite thing to do is walk in a room and be like "hey guys can you tell me about the mariana trench" and then sit there for an hour while they both infodump to me about the ocean it's extremely entertaining
“Birds are fed by their parents in their infancy. When the time comes to feed themselves, there can be some confusion when the food does not go into their mouth by itself.”