Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy/Headscratchers


 * In more then half the episodes, we see Edd inventing many wondrous gadgets and trinkets out of scrap. Also, they often work. If something goes wrong, it's almost always Ed or Eddy's fault. These things Edd makes are remarkable. However, Eddy insists on wasting Edd's talent on stupid pranks and scams that, if they work at all, are all charged under a dollar. Why don't they just sell some of Edd's inventions? Something like a rocket-car would probably go for well over what the Eds are looking for.
 * To quote Eddy: "What? And ruin the plot?"
 * That is a valid question, though. I mean, Edd made a WORKING PLANE out of SCHOOL SUPPLIES in a few hours. That'd be worth something. Although they seemed to be on the right track with his Thing-A-Ma-Jig.
 * Wait, there was not one but two episodes in which the Eds were sent to space (the first one was when Edd made boots for Eddy that "made him taller" and the second one was They Call Him Mr. Ed.) yet in Run Ed Run, they hit the sky. Negative Continuity? Rule of Funny? or just plain stupid?
 * Rule of Funny. Though the fandom makes use of the MST3K Mantra when it comes to that sort of thing.
 * That bothers you, but not the episode when they start researching the world around them and break reality?
 * But at the end of that episode we find out none of that really happened, and the Ed's were just imagining breaking reality. Or at least that's what the episode implies, since at the end all the reality breaking no longer works.
 * In Button Yer Ed, a fly gets stuck in Eddy's throat. How come we don't see the fly before that happens?
 * Rule of the Bug Being Too Small or the Animators Being Too Lazy?
 * What the heck kind of name is Nazz?
 * It's actually a boy's name and it's Arabic.
 * It's also a girls' name in India, although in that case it's usually spelled 'Naaz.' There's also the possibility it's a nickname (for, say, Nancy or Natasha or something similar); especially likely considering all three Eds go by shortened versions of their names, as well as Jimmy commonly being a nickname of 'James' and Jonny often being the shortened form of 'Jonathan.'


 * Why does violence have to solve nearly everything in Peach Creek?
 * Because they're KIDS.
 * Stupid ones, at that.
 * "Stupid" isn't the term I'd use--"emotionally unstable" is more like it--but yes, essentially.


 * Why did Danny have to make Plank just a hunk of wood? Everything he does can't be explained by Jonny's imagination.
 * It's kind of like Stump from Angry Beavers or Scarface (I believe that's his name) from Batman the Animated Series were believed to be real...erm...people (despite evidence to the contrary) by the people who interacted with them. It's possible that Jonny is so insane (this isn't really that far-fetched from what we've seen of Jonny's behavior) that he actually believes that Plank is alive and therefore thinks that various actions were caused by Plank instead of himself. There actually is a mental condition (I forget what it's called) where people do become so emotionally attached to inanimate objects that they treat them as if they were sentient beings and even marry them (For example a woman fell in love with a theme-park ride, literally).
 * Well, not really. That doesn't explain how Jonny knows about stuff that only Plank has "seen", such as when he's trapped in a tree and the Eds trash his kitchen, Plank apparently tells him about it. Sure you can assume that the Eds are in your house and they're likely to break something, and maybe hear some noises, but the kitchen specifically? There are other instances too, like Plank driving a bus in the movie. And yet Word of God states he's just a plank of wood.
 * Maybe he's just really good at guessing, maybe Jonny's warped mind makes it so Plank is a hunk of wood....that can do all this stuff this is the same world where the Eds effectively destroy the world via becoming Genre Savvy. Maybe it's just funny.
 * Plank is just a hunk of wood. Jonny is just a wizard.


 * What's with those mutant jawbreakers? They're bigger than your whole head.
 * Well, they've got huge mouths as well with the Toon Physics and all.
 * I figured it was sort of an exaggeration with how kids see normal jaw breakers. They're huge and barely fit in your mouth.


 * Why does everyone in the movie just... give up at the end? I mean, clearly, whatever Noodle Incident happened before the beginning must've been in Complete Monster / Moral Event Horizon territory. Rolf has a freaking bite out of his side, arm, and head, and Jonny started out with a beartrap on his head. And everyone was willing to chase them around just to either get revenge or to watch them get pulverized. Yet, when they find Eddy's brother and he hits him a few times (which is very minor considering the kind of insane slapstick that happens to these characters on a regular basis) and Eddy reveals he made up everything about his brother, they suddenly all cheer for the Eds and become their best friends. Why? Nothing even happened to Ed or Edd, so how come Eddy getting a minor comeuppance suddenly makes everyone forget everything that happened?
 * Being humiliated in front of everyone you know after hamming up your brother as a cool guy that loves and respects you is a 'minor comeuppance'? I mean, the guy's a grown man, if he still gets his kicks out of bullying kids, there's reason to believe he's a jerkass. Plus, Eddy finally swallowed his pride and admitted how pathetic he was. The kids never really had a problem with the Eds aside from them being so obnoxious.
 * Which is all very well and good, but I still can't help but notice that, compared with some of the crap that Eddy's been through and then just brushed off throughout the series, what his brother did was really minor. It seemed more like normal, brotherly picking, exaggerated to fit with the fact that everyone in this universe is Made of Iron.
 * It wasn't Played for Laughs like everything else in the entire show. The difference here is that it wasn't funny, and Eddy's Brother had absolutely no intent to stop. Anyone else who beats up someone in this show stops after they've had their fill, Eddy's brother was enjoying himself beating Eddy up and clearly had no intention of stopping. What got them wasn't the fact that Eddy got beat up, it was the fact they realized why Eddy was like he was. Think about it, Eddy's Brother outright said he'd done this same thing to Eddy all the time back home and loved it. And back then, his parents were probably the only ones who'd stop him, if they knew at all, meaning we just saw the tip of the ice burg. And we don't know how strong Eddy's Brother was, considering Rolf, the only one who really knew him and the strongest character in the show (except maybe the Kankers) was outright terrified of the guy, Eddy's brother is probably stronger than him and thus the strongest person to beat up Eddy. This would mean that the abuse he delt out to him hurt much more than what happened before. So it wasn't just that Eddy's brother beat him up, it's because Eddy's brother took pride in doing that every day they lived together, and probably much worse. In other words, the kids experienced in-universe Fridge Horror and realized what Eddy's childhood was like. As for letting Edd and Ed off the hook? Edd stood up to Eddy's brother, something they were all too terrified to do until afterwards, and got slammed into the ground for it. They probably respected him because of that. Ed took Eddy's brother down, likewise respect, and he's too dumb to know better, they probably didn't hold that against him.
 * Basically, they all realized that nothing Eddy did to them, regardless of severity, was really his fault (Plus, they may have finally figured out that it was an accident, as far as we know.). Also, as stated, they realized what Eddy's childhood was really like, and then they saw his friends STAND UP to his brother, even when they themselves were unable to. They saw the Eds finally defeat the reason they were such jerks to everybody. Let's also not forget that they weren't exactly well-adjusted adults. They were not-entirely-emotionally-stable kids who had stayed up all night, hadn't eaten since the day before, and had been through a lot. At the very least, they were thinking, "Y'know what? I'm tired, I'm hungry, I just want to go home, I'm just gonna forget about this." Either way, treating the Eds like heroes would be the only logical decision in their minds. Whether that sticks or not, though, is up in the air.


 * Edd never sees his parents. His friends are an idiot and a greed . How is he not a screwed up child? I don't see how hes been able to follow the sticky notes so strictly all this time.
 * He IS a very messed-up, damaged kid, BECAUSE he follows his parents wishes exactly. That's the basis of his neurosis and his character. It only makes sense that DD hangs out with Ed and Eddy because it's his only way of attaining that childish freedom he should naturally desire- but that doesn't mean that he wants to act our himself. He does, in fact, have 'problems'; just not the 'problems' we regularly associate with damaged kids.
 * Yeah, Double-D isn't exactly the poster kid for normality.


 * In the episode "I Am Curious Ed", Jimmy discovers his fish had babies. He and Sarah then go around asking their friends where babies come from, but no one gives them the correct answer. Here's what I don't understand: Why did everyone assume Sarah and Jimmy meant human babies when they had the fishbowl with them? If they just randomly asked the question out of the blue, then I could understand the assumption, but the fishbowl was in Sarah's hands the whole time, they showed it to people and no one could guess they might've meant fish? Huh?!
 * Because why would the other kids think that fish have different baby-makin skills? As far as they probably know at their age everyone mates the same way.
 * Also, they didn't really show the fishbowl to anybody, it was basically background information to the other kids. They didn't even really ask around that much. They asked Nazz and Rolf, and everybody else just pitched in.


 * Out of curiosity, there's more than a few kids on the Cul-de-sac who are actively terrified of Eddy's Brother, namely Rolf and Kevin. So, why is it in the movie they're so shocked to see how abusive he is to Eddy? Wouldn't they know if he was that bad to begin with?
 * They might not have known he was abusive to Eddy. Throughout that episode, Eddy made his brother out to be someone who would stand up for him and pound any kid who bothered him. Obviously, that was wrong and we learn Eddy merely made those things up to gain respect (and possibly hide his own fear of his brother).
 * I feel like if the kids had got to Eddy, then he might have had a nobody hits him but me, kind of moment, where he's abusive, but he's the only one allowed to do it.
 * I always thought Kevin was just afraid of losing his social status.


 * So, the canon ages of the three main characters is twelve. That's fine. Sarah and Jimmy are implied to be maybe three years younger than them. All is well. Somehow, they're all attending Junior High together. Unless that's supposed to be a sign that the characters have aged a year or two over the course of the series, I am utterly lost.
 * Even if that were true, it wouldn't explain why Sarah and Jimmy are there. Sarah and Jimmy should be in elementary school or the other kids should be in high school. Although it is possible the school the kids attend is a middle school and high school put together, that still wouldn't explain why Sarah and Jimmy share classes with the other kids.
 * Maybe it's a K-12 school.
 * Not to mention Nazz, Kevin, and Rolf being (at least supposedly) several years older than the Ed's, plus the Kankers not being triplets (as in, there'd have to be at least a two-year age gap between Lee and May), meaning there would be ten year olds (Sarah and Jimmy) attending school with teens (Nazz, Kevin, Rolf, and probably Lee, assuming Marie's twelve, same age as the Eds). The K-12 thing makes sense regarding them being in the same BUILDING, but it's been shown at least twice that all of the kids share classes. So either ten-year-olds are learning physics or fifteen-year-olds (or older) are still learning basic grammar. Yeah, I know, thinking too hard about it, but it just does not add up.
 * It's possible the relative ages of the characters are exaggerated. Jimmy and Sarah might be just a year or two younger than everyone else, but they're viewed as the "babies" and so they seem a lot younger. And then either the Kanker sisters are either adopted or... When was it said that they weren't triplets?
 * They could all be in special education of some sort (Given Ed's IQ, I wouldn't be surprised.). Though that wouldn't explain what Double-D is doing there.
 * Intelligence level is not the only reason one would be placed in special education. Edd exhibits behaviors similar to those seen in high-functioning Autistics, OCD patients, and various other mental disorders.
 * Fair enough.
 * One of the early episodes tells us outright that the Kankers are not triplets since, when they find the Eds, they put them in bathrobes that each of their fathers once owned. This means that they're half sisters.
 * One of the explanations possible is that they are simply in a smaller school and that there is a shortage of classrooms. I went to a pretty big high school that has a high rating in the America's schools. However, there was a class where advanced Spanish 5 students shared a classroom with less advanced Spanish 4 students and each group was assigned different homework and received different lessons. Maybe the same thing happens on a larger scale at Peach Creek. Alternatively, Jimmy and Sarah are ahead of their class and Double D didn't move on because he wanted to still with his friends or the next highest class was already full. If that doesn't work for you then consider the MST3K Mantra.


 * Who exactly watches the kids when they play outside? I mean what if they get hurt or abducted by strangers or other consequences of a lack of parental supervision.
 * Its the Peanuts syndrome. There probably ARE adults around, we just dont see them, because they arent relevant to the childrens adventures.
 * There's not anything unusual about 10-12 year-olds playing unsupervised in the suburbs, anyway.


 * Does the show take place in America or Canada?
 * It appears to take place in America.
 * I've always thought it took place somewhere near the border.
 * America. Remember that time they found a box of turkey basters and thought they were "Canadian squirt guns"?


 * Usually the Eds get comeuppance for bad things they do. But when they do something big and bad (i.e. destroying Jonny's house, destroying Peach Creek Jr. High, and the scam at the beginning of Big Picture Show), they usually get off scot-free. Can you say Disproportional Retribution?
 * Firstly, they were about to get back at the Eds for the destruction of Jonny's house, but then the Eds got stuck just outside of their reach, so they probably just left them up there and figured that would be enough (And even if not, it would still have taken longer than the episode had shown to get them.). Also, late in season five, Jonny called Eddy a "homewrecker," meaning he's STILL upset about it (understandably). As for the destruction of the school, the Eds for once had nothing to do with it (Besides, the kids were too trapped under rubble to do anything to anybody.). As for the movie, well, that's disputable.
 * I'm just saying that those are coincidences.
 * Ah.


 * Ed can laugh off a HOUSE falling on him. How could Sarah (Or anybody, for that matter) inflict anything remotely resembling pain to him? Maybe he's only immune to pain if he doesn't consciously know it's there?
 * He's not afraid of Sarah. He's afraid of Sarah complaining about him to his mom, who will then complain to his father, who will then "JUST SIT THERE AND WATCH TV!". Ed's not actually going to get hurt, he's just being dramatic.
 * I didn't say anything about his fear of her, I'm just wondering how the other characters manage to hurt him. A large number of the episodes end just before the Eds receive a massive beating. Ed can have a house fall on him and barely be aware of it, and he can also lift a house with one hand. Yet he's scared of the other kids just as much as the other Eds. Also, Ed does occasionally make reference to those beatings ("And she inflicted MORE pain on us!"). However, Rolf (For instance) has been shown elsewhere that, though quite strong, isn't nearly as strong as Ed, being barely capable of uprooting a tree (An impressive feat, mind, but one Ed can do even better), which impressed Kevin. Not saying it's an important detail, just a bit confusing as to why Ed seems to have to put up with everyone when he's the strongest around.
 * Ed is a Gentle Giant. He wouldn't dream of hurting anyone on purpose, especially not Sarah because he's her little sister. The other kids likely know this. In fact, Sarah fully takes advantage of this (if you've seen the episode "Little Blue Ed", you'll recall the scene where Ed screams in her face and she instantly backs off).
 * I'm not saying he should hit anybody, I'm just saying he should be tough enough to take all that abuse and not even feel it. Basically pointing out that the other kids, even Rolf and Kevin, shouldn't be strong enough to physically threaten Ed, but still are when the plot calls for it.
 * Rule of Funny mostly plus a little of MST3K Mantra.
 * Here's my shot in the dark: Super Strength runs in Ed's family. Sarah's just as strong as Ed is and that is why he fears her beatings.


 * Why does Double D have so many female fans?
 * Perhaps some girls are just into smart, tidy guys. Maybe he reminds them of themselves. He IS rather girly, if you think about it.


 * This still confuses me but... If they hate it when the Eds constantly scam them... why don't the Cul-De-Sac kids JUST give them jawbreakers? This is why they scam in the first place! So giving them a Jawbreaker might end their scamming! Come to think of it, doesn't anyone notice the Kankers don't seem to be interested in Jawbreakers at all?
 * How is giving them jawbreakers preferable to giving them money to buy jawbreakers? It's like saying "If you don't want him to mug you, why not just give him all your money before he does?"
 * Because it seems like they are trying to prevent them from getting jawbreakers.
 * Or maybe, just maybe, they don't like having their money taken away by a trio of swindlers.
 * Kevin's got a whole garage of Jawbreakers, and regularly hands each kid however many they want. Surely giving the Eds one each once in a while to keep them at bay wouldn't be an issue.
 * It's been established that Kevin really doesn't like the Eds at all, and giving them jawbreakers would be tantamount to liking them.
 * Still probably better than giving up his hard-earned cash.
 * Kids will be kids and who can really expect kids to use logic. Plus, it wouldn't be much of a show if they just got the jawbreakers all the time. Then there's the fact that the jawbreakers the Eds get probably wouldn't satisfy them for long and the kid's wouldn't want to shell out the money since they don't know the value of a dollar. Kevin probably doesn't like giving away his dad's jawbreakers regularly. Plus, giving the Eds what they want is essentially letting the Eds win and children are usually pretty competitive. There's a lot of childish reasons that would easily explain it besides these, but if NONE of them work for you then go look at the Rule of Funny page and MST3K Mantra page.
 * This has been a reason why most fans dislike the kids but why is it that when one Ed does something, all three of them get punished, pounded, and humiliated instead of the one who caused the chaos, especially when Eddy does it and Ed and Edd have little to nothing to do with it. Such examples are in "If It Smells Like an Ed." After Eddy (and Eddy ONLY) gave Jimmy a wedgie, everyone else laughs at him. To get revenge, Jimmy then targets all three Eds by framing them for stealing several neighborhood items. And in "Boo Haw Haw", Even though Ed is the one who pounds the other kids due to horror movie induced hallucinations, the kids end up Edd and Eddy and not the one who did this to them. It's almost as if there is a unwritten rule of the Cul-De-Sac that if one Ed does something wrong then all three Eds must be punished no matter what!
 * It's lampshaded by Sarah at one point. Then there's an interesting bit of Fudge Brillance. Its turns out the children are all based on people the creator, Danny Antonucci, grew up with except for the Eds. The Eds are three separate parts of his personality as a kid. Therefore, the Eds are punished together because they are all based on the same person.