

While he still believes himself to be fairly stupid, part of his ignorance is explained by his family's disdain for education and learning. In this book, Duncan is revealed as a sad child, pushed around by his brother and abused by his father (it is common in Coville books that childhood bullies turn out to be sad children beset with problems for whom the only way to express their sorrow is to lash out at others). Duncan had been established as a dim-witted bully who, in the previous book, had spent most of his time pushing Peter around.

My Teacher Fried My Brains continues the story begun in My Teacher Is an Alien, following Duncan Dougal as he (and the rest of Kennituck Falls) deals with the aftermath of the revelation that the alien Broxholm had been impersonating a substitute teacher in the local school, and that Peter Thompson had left with the alien.While the viewpoint character in My Teacher Is an Alien was Susan Simmons, in My Teacher Fried My Brains the viewpoint character is Duncan Dougal, who had been a secondary character in the previous book.
