Gumball and Darwin help a depressed Mr. Small feel like he's helped someone at Elmore Junior High, but Darwin takes his advice too literally, leading to many accidents and injuries.
Tropes:
- Advice Backfire: This episode runs on Small's advice being taken too literally by Darwin.
- Amusing Injuries: The students and staff all suffer these, ranging from mild (Miss Simian breaking her leg after falling out the window) to downright painful (Teri the paper bear getting split down the middle, Banana Joe getting thrown out the window and run over by an ambulance).
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Jamie is seen laying down after slipping on gasoline, possible her karma for what she did in the previous episode.
- Apathetic Teacher: Coach, Miss Simian, Principal Brown, and even wannabe-Cool Teacher Mr. Corneille have all grown burned-out, stressed, and cynical from dealing with teaching kids. Mr. Small, however, for all his hippie-like behavior and incompetence, actually cares about inspiring students and helping them.
- Black Comedy Burst: Gumball and Darwin try to entertain the injured students and staff in the school infirmary — and end up knocking over the life support machines, ripping Teri even further, and flatlining the patients.
- Brick Joke: Darwin intended to flood the classroom in an attempt to "follow your dreams", and after that falls apart, the water is left running. Later, the flooded room is used to put out a fire in the hallway.
- Fun with Palindromes: While reenacting Darwin's dream, Gumball is told to speak backwards and asks about Darwin's mention that someone "offered me a nut for a jar of tuna".Gumball: A nut for a jar of tuna?
Darwin: Backwards...
Gumball: A... nut for a jar of tuna.
Darwin: Huh. - Funny Background Event: All over, as the school slowly descends into chaos due to Darwin's attempts to follow Mr. Small's advice.
- Eye Scream: In the infirmary, Darwin accidentally jabs Gumball in the eye, causing him to stumble backward and accidentally launch Rocky into a shelf full of chemicals.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Teri is bisected twice, in two different ways: when Darwin coats the school floors in oil, she can't keep her balance and does the splits, her own weight tearing her in half vertically. Later in the infirmary, where she's been taped back together, Darwin accidentally rips her upper body apart from her lower body when Gumball knocks Rocky into a shelf.
- Hope Spot: Banana Joe's gurney rolls down a flight of stairs, but manages to land in the back of the ambulance he was headed for anyway. Then he keeps going through the windshield, falls to the ground, and the ambulance runs him over.
- Latex Perfection: The goat with the Abe Lincoln mask (even in the same art style) emotes like it has an actual human head.
- Lethally Stupid: Darwin and Gumball's interpretations of Mr. Small's advice end up mauling literally every other on-screen character.
- Literal-Minded: Darwin takes the advice of Mr. Small WAY too literally. In fact, when Mr. Small gave them the advice of not taking his advice literally, Gumball says that should have been the first thing he said.
- Meaningless Meaningful Words: Mr. Small's initial attempts at words of advice include "a smile is like a hug that your face gives someone else's eyes" and "there's no 'me' in team unless you rearrange the letters".
- Never My Fault: Gumball and Darwin try to keep Mr. Small from seeing the chaos that they caused, noting it was caused by his advice. Really, it was caused by them.
- Now You Tell Me: Mr. Small's last piece of advice is never take any advice too literally. Gumball says they would have been better off hearing that a lot sooner.
- Real Dreams are Weirder: Darwin interprets Mr. Small's advise to "follow your dreams" as reenacting one of his dreams in real life, which is a huge mass of meaningless nonsense—except one part that seems to be about his biological parents.
- Skewed Priorities: Gumball and Darwin cover up the results of Mr. Small's advice so his feelings won't be hurt, putting the victims in even worse shape in the process. Gumball even deliberately incites the goat to attack Ms. Simian and Principal Brown when they're about to confront him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Mr. Small gives Darwin vague advice, which lead to the school nearly getting destroyed and several characters suffering life-threatening injuries. Played for Laughs.
- We Need a Distraction: Gumball screams like a goat to get the Abe Lincoln goat's attention, which serves as a distraction to Principal Brown and Miss Simian and source of even more pain for anyone else who hasn't been injured in the episode yet.
- You Know What You Did: Gumball vehemently blames Mr. Small for the consequences of his poor advice and treats him as guilty, even though the actual problems came from Darwin's misinterpretation and insistence they follow it.
