Anais: You made your bed. Now you have to awkwardly lie next to a stranger in it.
To prove that he can be unpredictable, Gumball surprises Darwin by hugging the first person he sees — Hot Dog Guy (the living hot dog usually seen in Elmore Junior High cafeteria) — leading to a chain of hilariously awkward events in which the two can't stop bumping into each other.
Tropes:
- Abilene Paradox: Neither Gumball or Hot Dog Guy want to have anything to do with each other, but feel like they need to humor the other and keep it up. Each then decides to act as repulsive as possible to drive the other away, but they don't agree to part until they accidentally say how they really feel.
- An Aesop: It's better to directly confront someone rather than have it awkwardly escelate.
- Bowdlerise: To the surprise of no one who actually saw the episode uncut, the tent sleepover part had to have parts cut on overseas airings:
- Cartoon Network Latin America edited the entire part where the Hot Dog Guy puts his hand on Gumball while he sleeps, Gumball panics and tries to put Hot Dog Guy's hand back where it belongs, only for Hot Dog Guy to wake up and find Gumball straddling him, and the two are so freaked out, they cuddle. With this part gone, the scene showing Gumball sleep-deprived and traumatized the next day is, at best, inexplicable, and, at worst, implies the very sexual innuendo it was trying to remove
- The Portuguese dub
, in contrast, leaves in the first part of the backyard sleepover (where Gumball worries that he may have to talk to Hot Dog Guy until it's revealed that he's asleep), but cuts off on the part where Gumball panics when Hot Dog Guy rolls over and puts his hand on him. In this dub, the scene showing Gumball sleep-deprived and traumatized the next day makes it look like he overreacted.
- Carnivore Confusion: One of the things Gumball does to break off his "friendship" with Hot Dog Guy is to treat him to a hot dog lunch. In his internal monologue, he's spitting and screaming in disgust, but goes along with it.
- Cringe Comedy: Almost every scene between Gumball and Hot Dog Guy is built around the sheer awkwardness of their interactions, with the sleepover being the most cringe-worthy sequence.
- Didn't See That Coming: Darwin spends most of the episode being able to perfectly predict everything Gumball does. The one thing he does not predict is Gumball requesting Hot Dog Guy to awkwardly hug Darwin.
- Escalating War: Gumball and Hot Dog Guy's cruel pranks in order to break off the friendship go from childish (Gumball turning the shower water cold so Hot Dog Guy shrinks/Hot Dog Guy making Gumball screw up his diving by shouting at him) to sick/dangerous (Gumball making Hot Dog Guy eat his own kind/Hot Dog Guy giving Gumball two poisonous snakes as presents) before escalating into a fight.
- Improbably Predictable: The plot is kicked off by Darwin predicting everything Gumball says and does exactly, even bringing a change of clothes when Gumball decides to smear food on himself to try acting randomly.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Darwin spends the whole episode smugly predicting Gumball's actions, then pointing out how his next action will just make things worse. Gumball takes revenge by having Hot Dog Guy hug Darwin too, putting him in the same awkward situation and proving he wouldn't handle it any better.
- Namedar: When Gumball is asked if he knows the name of the stranger he hugged, Gumball meekly guesses "Hot Dog Guy". Turns out he's right.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Rather than stay with Gumball during his sleepover with Hot Dog Guy, Darwin goes over to Banana Joe's house for a sleepover. Gumball thinks Anais will help him, but she's packed in Darwin's bag and going to Banana Joe's house as well.
- Tobias sees Gumball and Hot Dog Guy hugging each other in the bathroom and leaves by climbing out of the stall.
- Visual Innuendo: Gumball turns the water in Hot Dog Guy's shower cold, making him shrink into a literal Teeny Weenie.
