Buford Van Stomm is a character from the Disney Channel TV show, Phineas and Ferb. He is sometimes a bully, and friend to Phineas Flynn. He is also part of the main group who help with Phineas's inventions.
Background
Early life
Buford Van Stomm was born in the United States of America of a mother named Biffany and an unnamed father. As a younger boy, he was weak and cowardly and received a pet goldfish named Biff at a state fair after winning at a strength-o-meter. When a bully threatened to eat Biff, Buford, enraged, beat up the bully, and in turn became the bully himself. (“Voyage to the Bottom of Buford”)
Physical Appearance
Buford wears a black shirt with a skull on the front, set up in a “Punisher” style. He wears large, red hiking boots, with green khaki shorts. His hair is brown and cuts in a buzz cut style. He has deep blue eyes and also appears to be somewhat overweight, although he doesn’t seem to mind.
Personality
Although he is usually seen as a bully, Buford is unusual in that he is just as often shown acting just like the other kids. Many events seem to indicate that his usual bullying is used to hide a more caring nature beneath the surface. A significant display of his underlying character occurs when his fish, Biff, becomes lost in the ocean. Buford becomes extremely emotional. He cries but really says that he is “sweating through his eyes”, and when Phineas offers to help find Biff, Buford shows his appreciation by constantly wanting to give people hugs (“Voyage to the Bottom of Buford”). Buford also has a soft side for his long lost teddy bear Teddy Boo-boo (“Picture This”). Buford also is quite gentle behind his bully persona, such as when he said he always wanted to get into a giant bubble and float around like a pixie, or conveniently carrying a velvet rope (“Bubble Boys”, “Chez Platypus”). He also has a soft spot for goldfish (“Voyage to the Bottom of Buford”, “Let's Take a Quiz”).
Despite being a bully, Buford seems to be friends with Phineas, Ferb and the rest of the main cast, and takes part in many of their exploits. He usually manages to get along fine with people, though he is often gruff or makes (usually idle) threats when annoyed. Whenever tasks are assigned, Buford inevitably seems to be partnered with Baljeet, with whom he has a particularly interesting relationship: while Baljeet seems terrified of Buford’s threats at times, which is regularly justified, many other instances show them working together without any problem, and they are often seen together even when not involved in Phineas and Ferb’s latest plan (i.e. “The Chronicles of Meap”, “Swiss Family Phineas” and “The Lake Nose Monster”).
To improve his skill at being a bully, Buford goes to Wedgie’s: The Gym for Bullies (“Raging Bully”). He isn’t always a bully (“The Bully Code”). Buford’s Christmas wish is to be thought of as nice by his friends, despite generally acting naughty (“Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!”). Buford can also play the concertina, trumpet, drums, piccolo and the violin. He is fluent in French, but doesn’t want anyone to know. He’s also in The Baljeatles, Phineas and Ferb’s band (“The Ballad of Badbeard”, “Oh, There You Are, Perry”, “The Baljeatles”, “Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!”, “My Fair Goalie”).
Relationships
Baljeet
Buford seems to pick on Baljeet the most, yet seems to hang out with him the most, similar to a “frenemies” relationship. Unlike frenemies, there is no hatred between the two, with Baljeet even saving Buford from choking (“The Bully Code”) and saying, “Merry Christmas, old buddy!” (“Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!”) It would seem that Baljeet cares for Buford, even though Buford treats him very badly. Baljeet often just gives up and lets Buford bully him (“Get That Bigfoot Outa My Face!”). In some episodes, Buford calls Baljeet a nerd, and Baljeet calls Buford a bully.
Phineas Flynn
Buford’s first encounter with Phineas during the summer resulted in Buford being embarrassed by ice cream falling on his pants. They settled their differences by thumb wrestling (“Raging Bully”). Outside of this incident, Buford has not done anything to Phineas that could be considered bullying, tending to reserve that treatment for Baljeet. However, it is revealed that Buford had stolen Phineas’s bike when they were just toddlers, but later on returns it to him, along with everyone else’s bikes he had taken (“Phineas and Ferb Summer Belongs to You!”).
Later, after Phineas and Ferb helped rescue Biff, Buford became more friendly towards them and began taking a more active part of their adventures. He often appears in their backyard for bizarre or unexplained reasons. Buford often calls Phineas “Dinner Bell”, perhaps because of Phineas’s triangle-shaped head.
Isabella Garcia-Shapiro
The only one so far that sometimes makes him shut up is Isabella as she stands up to him when he is doing something to someone she knows, especially Phineas, or to herself, despite Isabella being much smaller than him. Isabella and Buford have a little rivalry to the point in which Buford thinks he’ll beat Isabella in the F Games because she’s a girl and Buford strongly upholds the belief that males are the dominant gender (“Raging Bully,” “Out of Toon,” “Got Game?”). He also thinks he is better at video games than her, but he ends up getting beaten (“Brain Drain”). He has been hit by Isabella twice: one time by the elbow in “Out of Toon”, and the other time by her slapping him to have Buford escape boredom from listing to Phineas’s boring talk (“Phineas and Ferb Interrupted”). Buford has a tendency to look down at Isabella (and not just because he’s taller than her) because she’s a girl and he believes that males are the superior gender and often makes sexist remarks. On the other side, Isabella is the only person that Buford is honest with on the fact that he was crying. (“Voyage to the Bottom of Buford”)
However, when Isabella kissed Phineas if you focus on the corner of the picture to the right, the whole time Buford looked shocked, if not slightly jealous when he saw them kiss and quickly looked away not wanting to see it anymore, which shows that he may be harboring feelings for Isabella. (“Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension”) In the same movie, Buford claims to be in love with Candace after she destroys the Norm Bots. Isabella is surprised by this, which probably leads to her liking him.
When the lights went out Buford either knowingly grabbed onto Isabella’s hand or did not let go of it even though he know full well that it was Isabella’s and he didn’t even seem the slightest bit phased when he said: “I think that’s my hand.” (“That's the Spirit”) When Isabella “jacked in” to Candace’s subconscious, Buford almost immediately offered to give Isabella a tour of Candace’s mind. (“Monster from the Id”) Buford has also been seen gossiping about Isabella. (“Candace Disconnected”)
Suzy Johnson
Buford seems to fear Suzy as Phineas told the kids to dress as the scariest thing they knew and he dressed up as her and after Isabella and Phineas left the room Buford is seen “washing away the horror” by a water faucet, a reference to William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (“One Good Scare Ought to Do It!”)
Candace Flynn
Candace and Buford’s relationship varies from episode to episode. Candace used him as a means of transportation to get her to the top of a ski slope (“S'Winter”). However, Buford appears dissatisfied from being with her in the same chariot. (“Greece Lightning”) Buford appeared to be eager to compete with Candace during a game show for his aspiration to prove males as the dominant gender. (“Let's Take a Quiz”)
Candace along with Stacy struggled to get the Pizzazium Infinionite out of his hands. (“Vanessassary Roughness”) Buford, at one point, saved Candace from certain injury and following his creed, declared her his servant, to which she objected. (“The Bully Code”) Candace appeared to be concerned of Buford being on the Naughty List after finding out that his Christmas wish was to be thought of as nice by his friends, of which she may be included. (“Phineas and Ferb Christmas Vacation!”)
He stubbornly prohibited Candace and Jeremy from entering the Chez Platypus (“Chez Platypus”), but when he was with Candace alone spoke to her with a gentle and calm tone (“Wizard of Odd”). This could possibly imply that his keeping them out of the restaurant could have been an effort to thwart her date with Jeremy out of his own personal feelings for her. Candace was displeased upon finding Buford’s number on her cell phone and deleted it. (“The Lemonade Stand”)
When Buford was questioned on why he possessed a life-sized mold of Candace, he simply responded that he had such molds of all his friends, indicating that he considers her one of his friends. (“Doofapus”)
Buford stares in awe at Candace as she eats the Gordian Knot reproduction and says “I am so in love with her right now.” Baljeet looks over and shock and says “What?” Buford quickly states “Nothing.” This means Buford may have feelings for Candace. (“Knot My Problem”) This is very similar to the scene where Second Dimension Candace is fighting the norm-bots and Second Dimension Buford says “I am so in love with her right now.” Second Dimension Isabella looks over and says “What?” Second Dimension Buford replies in the same manner “Nothing!” (“Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension”)
Perry the Platypus
Buford has little interactions with Perry. Of the few on screen, he attempts to make Perry “do something” by hitting him with a baseball bat only to be stopped by Baljeet. However, he hugged the traumatized platypus a few minutes afterward. (“Swiss Family Phineas”) He admits to liking the song they sang to guide the allegedly lost Perry home. (“Oh, There You Are, Perry”)
Teddy Boo-boo
Buford’s teddy bear was retrieved from the front of a semi by Phineas and Ferb’s transporter device. The teddy bear is apparently prone to going “on the road” at different times. (“Picture This”)
Trivia
- Because of his last name, he could possibly be of Dutch or Norwegian descent.
- He listens to heavy, thrash, doom, death, and black metal.
- He is about 16 or 17 years old.
Gallery
