Trying to avoid the pull of the internet.
Nicole: Gumball, you're such a procrastinator that you were four years old before you finished your first sentence, and even then it was "I'll do it tomorrow."
Nicole tells Darwin and Gumball to take out the trash before she gets back at five, but the duo keeps getting distracted by everything from the Internet to making music with common objects.
Tropes:
- The Ahnold: Nicole spends most of her scenes the episode pretending to be the "Ter-mom-inator", growing the Lantern Jaw of Justice and putting on Cool Shades, in an attempt to get Gumball and Darwin to do their chores.
- Amusing Injuries: Lots of them. Both Gumball and Darwin disintegrate after spending too much time in the Sun and cease to exist after eating themselves. Gumball also suffocates while moonwalking after Darwin points out that he wouldn't be able to breathe on the Moon, shatters into a million pieces for no apparent reason, smashes his face into both a computer and a pole, and lights on fire and later explodes after eating Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce. Darwin also melts into a puddle after eating the same sauce. As each scene cuts to the next, there isn't a scratch on either.
- Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: The ElmorePlus website has a really convoluted way of keeping users from canceling their accounts, repeatedly asking Gumball if he really wants to leave, followed by an impossible anti-robot captcha. When Gumball manages to get past it by just slamming the keyboard upside down, trying to click confirm has the confirm button blink away before he can over and over. Gumball ultimately just throws out the computer monitor, only for the pull of the internet to slam it right back into his face.
- Autocannibalism: Gumball and Darwin try to one-up each other's gross tricks, eventually leading to them both shoving parts of themselves into their mouths until they imitate Erysichthon, swallowing themselves into nothing. They're back by the next scene.
- Beat Still, My Heart: Gumball pranks his sleeping father by slamming a book shut nearby, causing Richard's heart to burst out of his chest.
- Black Comedy Burst: Quite a number of skits end with Gumball and/or Darwin dying.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: After they drink the same hot sauce and both try to brush it off, Gumball's tail ignites like a fuse and he explodes into fireworks while Darwin melts into a puddle.
- Bottle Episode: The entire episode takes place in and around the Watterson house, barring one scene where Gumball and Darwin run into the street. The only cast members are the Watterson family plus the creepy clown messenger, and mostly it's just Darwin and Gumball. Since most of the episode consists of one-off sketches of Gumball and Darwin doing different things to waste time, it can also be considered a pseudo-Vignette Episode.
- Bowdlerization: The Turkish, Polish, and European Spanish versions are all edited in some way:
- In Turkey, the flashback of Gumball slamming a dictionary within earshot of a sleeping Richard and Richard waking up when his heart bursts from his chest and onto the floor was cut.
- In Poland and Spain, the part where Gumball eats the rotten candy bar and declares "mind over the flesh" with the candy bar trying to reject itself from Gumball's body was cut.
- Breather Episode: A light-hearted Vignette Episode right before "The Shell".
- Cats Love Laser Pointers: When Darwin uses a laser pointer, Gumball chases it around the house (what with him being a cat and all), causing him to break almost everything.
- Continuity Nod:
- Gumball insists the "power of the mind over the (flesh)" lets him eat an extremely old candy bar that turned into "cheese chocolate"—the same things he claims kept him from getting sick and let him move him body parts around weirdly in "The Virus".
- Gumball can be seen reading Captain Punch, the same comic Hector the giant had a heavily-censored copy of in "The Colossus".
- Downer Ending: Because they didn't take the garbage out in time, and accidentally switched the garbage bags with the groceries, they now have to eat the garbage that they left out.
- Epic Fail:
- Gumball tries to toss a candy high into the air and land it in his mouth, but he instead knocks a crow into his own mouth while the candy landed in Darwin's.
- Darwin bets he can pull the cloth out from under a tower of dishes without breaking anything. The dishes are fine, but the entire rest of the house breaks, which means Gumball wins—right before shattering to pieces himself.
- Fourth-Wall Portrait: Gumball's sketch of Darwin
◊ has him drawn with a detailed, human-like face. - Furry Reminder: Gumball chases around a laser pointer while meowing and running on all fours like an actual cat. His eyes even suddenly become a lot more catlike than normal.
- Grammar Nazi: Inverted when Darwin corrects Gumball for accidentally spelling a word on his ElmorePlus update correctly.
- Hope Spot:
- Gumball picks up the trash and says "I guess it's time." He uses the bag to smash the ticking clock in the background before putting it back on the floor.
- After getting Nicole's (terrifying) telegram, Gumball and Darwin try to take the trash out but an ElmorePlus alert literally sucks them and the bag back into their house at the last second.
- They manage to hide the bag from their mom when she gets home and get a bag in the trash truck right before it drives away, but Gumball accidentally grabbed the grocery bag instead of the trash bag. This left the family eating garbage and, because Nicole gave them the grocery bag after she came home, is proof they hadn't taken the trash out by then. Although if you were looking at the bags, this was obvious from the second they walked out.
- Literal-Minded:
- Darwin dances the moonwalk, but Gumball shows him how it's "really" done: jumping while floating around as if in low gravity. So Darwin points out you can't breath in space without a helmet and Gumball appears to stop breathing.
Darwin: Dude, you're breaking the rules of the game and the laws of physics!- Darwin and Gumball's attempt at a Food Fight is to make their food engage in warfare, with the peas and sweet corn killing each other in black-and-white airplane view before a sausage bomb wipes them all out.
Gumball: That was nowhere near as fun as I thought it would be.
Darwin: (whispering) I think I've lost my appetite.
(both hug each other out of solace) - Monster Clown: An astoundingly creepy one shows up in the window of the Watterson house. Turns out Nicole sent him to deliver a telegram reminding them to take the trash out.
- Smart People Play Chess: Parodied when Gumball and Darwin set up a chess board, but Darwin doesn't know how to play. Gumball says he'll explain, but then they both start throwing pieces at each other.
- Staring Contest: Darwin and Gumball have a staring contest. When Darwin starts getting bored Gumball has his eyes extend out of their sockets to smack Darwin like tentacles.
- Year Outside, Hour Inside: The time-wasting effect of browsing ElmorePlus is so great that hours on a clock seems to advance in seconds whenever Darwin and Gumball look at their monitor.
