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Recap / The Amazing World of Gumball S3E10 "The Vacation"

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Gumball: Next time you make up a randomly scary story that comes true, could you please invent a vegetarian psycho who lives near a well-lit police station?!

The Wattersons set off for a relaxing vacation (one the family has to take after the last four vacation days Nicole got ended in disaster), but end up stuck in the desert and staying with a creepy man who may be a murderer.


Tropes:

  • Accidental Truth: Nicole makes up a story about a toothless gas station attendant pretending to help a family in a broken-down car so he can eat them, all of which seems to immediately come true. The same for Richard's story about an empty fridge, Anais' story about a car with no driver (well, a very short driver), and Gumball's story about the failed military experiment
  • Bring My Brown Pants: Nicole fakes her car breaking down like in her story (while the car actually breaks down). Right after, Anais, in an oddly casual tone, says she wishes she was still wearing diapers.
  • By the Lights of Their Eyes: Nicole sees two very far apart eyes in the dark, assumes they belong to some giant mutant, and starts attacking it between those eyes. It was actually her sons, each of which had an eye swollen shut, standing to each of her sides while she attacked empty space.
  • Continuity Nod: The map Nicole tries to use to find a gas station is actually a map of Switzerland—Richard made the same mistake in "The Puppy" and in "Christmas" Nicole said Switzerland wasn't real.
  • Couldn't Find a Lighter: In a non-smoking version, Richard tries to roast his marshmallows with a flashlight, car air conditioner, and sunlight. He also roasts a bunch by accident by shoving them onto the engine block because he thought it was a "front trunk", then Nicole burns one to a crisp by staring at it.
  • Cue Card Pause: Everything the Hillbilly says sounds horrible, but is quickly cleared up to mean something completely innocent once he stops to finish the sentence while they keep running.
    Old man: I can't be having dinner without ya-
    (Puts flashlight to face)
    Old man: That would be just plain rude.
  • Don't Sneak Up on Me Like That!: Richard gets kicked by Nicole and subjected to Metronomic Man Mashing by Anais when he gets close to both covered in mud. Nicole flips out when Darwin and Gumball come out of a shadow, though she only swings at the open air between them. Richard also starts punching when Anais steps toward him, despite her clearly being visible and announcing her presence beforehand, but all the punches are above her head.
  • Faking Engine Trouble: Nicole pretends the car broke down while in the middle of a desert to scare her kids. Then it turns out the engine actually did break down because Richard thought the engine compartment was a second trunk to stuff full of marshmallows.
  • Freudian Slippery Slope: As the man helping the family turns out to live in a gas station just like the cannibal in Nicole's story.
    Nicole: It's just an assassination—obliteration—an extermination... I mean a coincidence.
  • Fun with Homophones: Anais tells her family "Look, ahead in the road." and they heard it as "Look, a head in the road."
  • Head Desk: Nicole finds out there's no cellphone reception where they're stuck, then slams her face on the car wheel, honking the horn several times.
  • Hillbilly Horrors: Nicole tells a story about a toothless old man that helps people whose car breaks down in the country, but then eats them. The Wattersons seem to meet just such a man and his mother, but they're actually genuinely friendly.
    Anais: You guys are being ridiculous, scaring yourselves with narrow-minded assumptions about country people.
    Old man: (picks Anais up by the head) Big brain for such a small thing. I like that.
    Anais: (in the car) We got to get out of here now!
  • Horrible Camping Trip: The car breaks down and the family are left to dehydrate in the sun for 12 hours as Richard walks in a circle, following a watch he thought was a compass. Once someone helps them, they try to camp out in front of his house, but get so needlessly scared they spend most of the night running away from him.
  • Left the Background Music On: Some "Psycho" Strings turn out to really be Richard scraping the marshmallow off the car's engine.
  • Mundane Ghost Story: Richard's story has a scary lead-up, but is really just about being hungry and finding an empty fridge. Nicole's first story was "16 hour shift with no paid overtime".
    Anais: Mom, face it. You can't tell a horror story.
    Nicole: Yeah, well maybe when you kids grow up, you'll know how scary financial pressures can be.
  • Not What It Looks Like: The old man dug five holes that each fit the sizes of the Watterson family members. They weren't graves, they're bathrooms.
  • Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "We said we were going camping, so we. Are going. Camping!"
  • Real After All: Nicole's story turns out to not happen, but, as the family drive off, the monster Gumball described in his story (cougar's body, bat wings, duck head) can be seen in the background, attacking the old man.
  • Scary Flashlight Face: Used constantly in the episode, sometimes when nothing actually scary is being said.
  • Taxidermy Is Creepy: Darwin and Gumball get scared by the taxidermied animals around the old man's shack and mistake his mother to be one of them.
  • Temporary Bulk Change: Richard suddenly loses a large amount of weight from running a short distance, then gains it back when he eats more marshmallows.
  • Whole-Plot Reference: What if you get the plot of The Hills Have Eyes (1977) without the hillbillies being evil but still just as creepy?
  • Your Brain Won't Be Much of a Meal: The old man sarcastically invokes this after the Wattersons kept running away from him for no reason but ended up back on his house anyway.
    Gumball: So you mean you're not going to eat our brains?
    Old man: If I was after brains, I wouldn't go chasing you folks.
    (Old man laughs, the Wattersons join in for a second then all of them but Richard stop)
    Gumball: Hey, wait a minute.

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