"Frank Duck...You ARE The Father!"

Let's speculate that the father of Donald Duck's nephews - Huey, Dewey & Louie - might be someone whose name was revealed subtly, right under our noses. How is this possible?

This is the great unanswered question: Huey, Dewey & Louie have no father in the comics or cartoons - there was simply no character created identifed in the role. Technically, Donald is the closest to a true parent those boys ever had, yet because he's their uncle, he can get away with being reckless and irresponsible, albeit in that tricky way of fictional characters who remain likable even when being mischievous...it might strain things to put it in stronger words than that. Consider how it took close to 80 years to bother giving the boy's mother, Della, a personality of any definable sort.

This theory is somewhat of a retcon built on a frivolous cartoon, but it could work. There's an old Donald Duck cartoon titled "Frank Duck Brings 'Em Back Alive!", in which Donald is exploring the jungle in a search for a "wild man" - played by Goofy - and the hijinks ensue. The interesting thing about it is the roleplay involved - by this stage, the Disney short cartoons featuring Goofy  (particularly the shorts from 40's & 50's) commonly featured Goofy assuming different identities or playing multiple characters in an effort to broaden his comedic range as a cartoon character. It was risky, because the character could wind up becoming a total blank or changing too much, particularly the ones where he's a suburban dad - foreshadowing Goof Troop, albeit with a faster pace - but it didn't take hold too much. This cartoon tries a similar trick with Donald, who is presented as "Frank Duck", a light nod to real-life explorer Frank Buck, but Donald is Donald, functioning as more or less a straight man to Goofy's surreal Tarzan cosplay.

                 You see what I did there?


My theory is simple. Instead of Donald as Frank Duck, we'll presume Donald is borrowing a boat belonging to his brother-in-law, Frank. Isn't that easy? The nephews daddy has a name...a name that risks sounding more like a nod to current Ducktales producer Francisco "Frank" Angones rather than a nod to an obscure Donald Duck cartoon, but it's a neat double-connection to the past & present.

No need for the test results, Maury, we've got this figured out.