The Amazing World Of Gumball / Tropes N to Z

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Tropes A to M HERE!

N

• Nature Is Not Nice: The Forest of Doom is a dangerous place filled with hostile monsters, including the squirrels, that has managed to nearly kill Gumball and Darwin every time they've entered it. It even looks like a skull from the sky.
• Never Say "Die":
  • Darwin and Gumball frequently make use of the transparent euphemism "iced" in place of "killed".
  • Carrie the ghost mentions her "afterlife" and having a body before (which itself was subject to a retcon), but never being "dead". Especially noticeable in "Halloween": we see many ghosts, some of them coming out of their graves, but they are never referred to as "dead", only as "spirits" or "from the underworld".
  • "The Friend" has the Chimera describing that he became homeless after the toymaker who created him died, but instead of directly using the term, he describes it as "the day he never woke up".
  • "The Origins" two-parter also eschews directly saying that the goldfish Gumball had before Darwin are dead, opting instead for euphemisms and implications.
  • As of Season 4, "kill" became slightly more common but only in contexts such as killing a virtual snake creature in what Richard believes to be a video game ("The Uploads"), killing someone's appetite ("The Origins"), or as part of the saying "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" in a song ("The Advice"). The use of the word in a direct reference to the act of killing someone was avoided until later episodes.
• Never Win the Lottery: In "The Cycle", Richard's life-long bully, Harold, is tricked into believing in a fake check for a billion dollars, leading to him ruining his entire life by his own hands. Instead of stopping Harold, Richard advises him to place the dynamite closer together to better blow up his house.
• New Baby Episode: "The Rival" is a Whole Episode Flashback about Anais being born. However, baby Anais is hellbent on killing Gumball and Darwin so that she can get her parents' attention all the time.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Larry, Rocky, and a number of Recurring Extras fill different jobs depending on what is needed for a scene:
  • Larry can be cashier or clerk, usually for the video store, the pizzeria, the supermarket, or the gas station. "The Pizza" reveals that Larry has more jobs than that (roadside car repairman, head of pest control, police station accountant, etc) and, without him, the town's economy plunges and everything turns apocalyptic. "The Nobody" parodied this by having Gumball suggest a bunch of jobs to take while multiple Larrys walk by corresponding to whichever vocation was just mentioned. Season four pretty much took the idea that he works the majority of Elmore's businesses and ran with it, as "The Gift" shows Larry as a messenger and an art museum curator, "The Check" showed him as a bank clerk, and "The Girlfriend" has him as a minister during Gumball's vision of his marriage to Jamie and Darwin. In "The Finale", Larry tells Nicole and Anais that because of the damage the Wattersons cause coming of his paycheck, he has to take so many jobs, but in "The Schooling", he tells Gumball and Darwin that he takes many jobs because he was a dropout student and couldn't get a single well-paying one.
  • Rocky does most school jobs that's aren't teaching or administrative positions, like the janitor/groundskeeper, the bus driver, cafeteria worker, and the lost and found clerk.
  • Karen, Larry's girlfriend, has been seen working as a grocery store sale associate, office worker (at several different companies), and civil servant. In "The Butterfly," she was shown working the desk at the Elmore Crisis Center, in "The Limit," she was the "free sample" clerk at the grocery store, and in "The Love", she's a Burger Fool at Joyful Burger.
  • An elderly cupcake woman has screened candidates for testing cosmetics ("The DVD"), assisted people seeking employment ("The Mustache"), worked at the Justice Department informing the Watterson of a class-action lawsuit against them ("The Finale"), and worked at the town hall ("The Signature") and the bank (“The Understanding”). A cupcake man named Martin Peaches also works at the bank and Chanax.
  • There are two slightly different-looking orange men, one named John, shown working security at numerous different locations, mostly the large grocery store that the Wattersons shop at. Sometimes there's shown to be several of the same guy, just differently colored. In "The Spoiler," John was wiretapping on Gumball and Penny's phone call about The Screamening. In "The Routine," them (or orge-like versions of them) work as the tollbooth operators. Three identical looking ones including John and Al work at Chanax in "The Founder".
  • A trio of men who look like LEGO mini-figs are seen working construction all around town, possibly working for Patrick, who owns a construction firm. "The Authority", "The Wicked", “The Bros”, “The Brain”, “The Diet”, and "The Anybody" shows the mini-figs as firemen. In "The Founder", the gray one works at Chanax.
  • The quartet of prisoners first seen in "The Finale" (the butter knife, the green goblin, the dolphin-bird hybrid, and the can of spray-paint) have also been seen as repo men and as businessmen. The green goblin hoodlum is also the head of Chanax Industries, though, like the orange men security guards, this may be a case of multiple characters that are palette swaps of each other although the goblin wasn’t seen with the rest of them in “The Fury” because the businessman goblin was driving his car.
• Non-Humans Lack Attributes: Averted with Gumball, whose body is pixellated when he doesn't wear clothes, but played straight with a lot of other characters who don't wear clothes at all. Parodied whenever Darwin is naked. He's completely uncensored except his feet.
• Non-Standard Character Design: While most characters are drawn with a 2D, stylized look, there are also quite a few that run the gamut from paper cutouts to photo-realistic dinosaurs, CGI cubes, Muppet-style puppets, and live-action chin puppets.
• The Noseless: Although all of the Watterson family but Darwin have noses, the majority of the cast have no visible nose, making them more of an exception than the rule.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: In "The Kids", when Gumball and Darwin's voices are getting deeper (as were their voice actors'), it is mentioned they are part of the 1% of people who never grow up. After that, their voice actors were replaced with younger ones (which were replaced again after they hit puberty, with Darwin's being replaced a third time). Despite this, none of the other characters appear to age either, though they do commemorate birthdays.

O

• Obviously Not Fine: In "The Pony", when Gumball and Darwin are attending Sussie's birthday party because their father bribed them with money, Darwin calls Anais on the phone to explain to her why they're intending to cancel their promise of watching a film they bought for her together. When Darwin, who somehow pokes his eye through the phone, asks her if she's fine, Anais says that she is while visibly crying.
• Odd Organ Up Top:
  • Gumball and Hotdog Guy have a run-in with a mall security guard that has a hand for a head.
  • A professional fighter in “The Cage” is a giant with a fist for a head.
• Offending a Foreign Country: In "The Guy", Gumball suspects Anais' new friend Josh is up to no good and when the two hang out at a restaurant, he disguises himself as a stereotypical European waiter named "Ferzandelerp" and pretends everything Josh does is offensive to his home country... of New Jersey. He says the name Josh means "toilet paper" in his native language, and after Josh gives him a thumbs up, mentions that the gesture is extremely insulting to his culture.
• Official Couple: Gumball and Penny as of "The Shell". Other official couples include Alan the balloon and Carmen the cactus and Miss Simian and Principal Brown. As of "The Matchmaker", it is Darwin and Carrie.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In "The Parents", Richard is actually talking about a can of corned beef, and Nicole thinks he's talking about reconciling with her parents:
  Richard [opening a can of corned beef]: Come on, let's give this another chance.
  Nicole: Okay.
  Richard: Just promise me you'll be good this time.
  Nicole: I can't just promise that.
  Richard: Why won't you open up?
  Nicole: There's so much bad history between us. I mean, we stopped talking over 20 years ago.
  Richard [eating the corned beef from the can]: Why are you always so hard inside?
  Nicole: I guess it's a way to protect myself, but... you're right. I'll try my best to be open. Thank you, Richard!
  Richard [continues to eat the corned beef]: Uh... anytime?
• One of the Girls: Leslie is mostly friends with the girls, being seen with the other girls in Molly's treehouse in "The Pressure". He's apparently good at giving relationship advice. This is also one reason why many fans mistake him for a girl.
• One-Neighbor Neighborhood: The Robinsons are essentially the only neighbors of the Wattersons. A few shots show various supporting cast and Recurring Extras living in nearby houses, but only Gary the mailman is seen consistently—and even he's been shown living in several different houses ("The Wand”, "The Allergy", “The Nest”, and “The Neighbor” all show Gary living on the house opposite to the Robinsons' house, in "The Remote" he lives across the street).
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Every once in a while the British voice actors lose their American tongue for a second. Nicole does this in some scenes where she's talking calmly and smoothly.
• Our Nudity Is Different: Darwin wears nothing but shoes and socks. When he removes them, his bare feet are pixellated. Also provides the image for the trope page.

P

• Painting the Medium: Characters related to each-other (such as Gumball & his family) share an art style. This leads to characters being animated in 2-D, 3-D, Stop-Motion, puppetry, and any variation of these effects.
• Pink Is Erotic: Played for laughs, in The Shell, Gumball runs through Banana Joe's home, he interrupts Banana Joe watching a video of a peeled orange being pulled apart. His taskbar and windows are colored pink, which implies that he was watching something more... adult. Not helping matters is that he has a box of tissues next to him and he treats taking his peel off like getting naked.
• Pixellation: When Gumball is naked, he gets this. What's extra funny is that in some frames they missed applying it, and as you might expect there isn't anything to cover.
• Place Worse Than Death: In "The Nuisance", the Wattersons end up being such a nuisance to the town of Elmore that the mayor decides that they are to be relocated to Ohio. Anais comments that 8 people ended up becoming President of the United States just to get away from there.
• Police Are Useless: The police in Elmore are not only stupid, but they're also made of food which makes them break into pieces whenever they're hit. According to a chart in "The Nobody," Elmore's crime rate is ridiculously high.
• Postmodernism: The show is entirely this, starting with the premise of characters from different mediums and artstyles living together in a single place. Season 1 is actually rather tame about it, but by the time Season 2 rolls out, the various designs and the animation itself become the target of jokes while overused and even inevitable tropes are guaranteed to be pointed out and/or mocked. Episodes like "The Kids", "The Safety", "The Money", "The Signal" and especially "The Disaster"/"The Rerun" all have in-universe characters or outside forces (voice actors, animation budget, TV signal interference, etc.) manipulating the TV medium itself or causing it to go haywire, leading to some very MindScrewy plots.
• Prodigal Family: In "The Parents", Nicole reacts with astonishment at stumbling upon her parents in Elmore Shopping and then with annoyance when her kids invite them home. Previously, it had been shown that she ran away due to their constant disapproval of her life choices.
• Pseudo-Santa: The episode "The Lie" has Gumball making up a holiday to combat the January blues called Sluzzle Tag, a knockoff of Christmas involving a Santa-esque figure known as Sluzzle Dude who comes up through people's toilets to deliver presents. Gumball's description of him is a guy with a big beard, sneakers, and a leather jacket who drives a magic van pulled by Dobermans and has an affinity for Grindcore music.

Q

• Quarter Hour Short: A somewhat odd case, as while several of the first episodes were aired as Two Shorts, both new, it’s then changed to a new Quarter Hour Short and a rerun played subsequently with one opening and ending between them. Or two different quarter-hours rerun. Which confuses the heck out of most DVRs since it thinks that it's a new episode every time just because those two episodes haven't been paired before. Close to the end of the the first season they switched the new and old episode around, but changed it back to new-then-old for the second season. Season three started with each new quarter-hour episode sharing a half-hour slot with Clarence, but after Clarence went on break, Gumball resumed the previous format and Clarence instead shared a half-hour slot with Steven Universe when it resumed.
• Quote Mine: Seen in one of the show's trailers, where Gumball stitches together quotes from several of his friends and family members:
  Ms. Simian: GUMBALL!!
  Carrie: ...is the most...
  Anais: Amazing!
  Darwin: DUDE!
  Nicole: I don't have time...
  Richard: ...to say all the good things...
  Mr. Small: ...abooooout...
  Banana Joe: ...this!
  Anais: Amazing!
  Darwin: DUDE!

R

• Real-Place Background: The show's backgrounds are made from photographs of real life locations, including both stock images and photographs taken specific for the show. The show has special credits that thank Vallejo, the city and county of San Francisco, and Abraham Lincoln High School for permission to use their photos as backgrounds.
• Reality-Breaking Paradox: Richard isn't just unemployed because he's terminally lazy and generally unemployable. Apparently, giving him a job is so contrary to the natural order it can tear the very fabric of reality apart.
• Redundant Romance Attempt:
  • "The Date": Despite Penny frequently showing she reciprocates Gumball's attraction, he ignores his mom's advice to be himself and listens to his other family's ideas about how to impress Penny (except Anais, who abandons him after trying to teach him manners). More to the point, he misses that Penny didn't ask him on a date, she wants a shoulder to cry on over her dead pet. Luckily, Gumball discovers Mr. Cuddles is alive, and manages to get back Penny's favor by returning him to her—although Gumball ends up more concerned with a multitude of spider bites.
  • "The Romantic": Despite all evidence, Gumball thinks his relationship with Penny is on the rocks. To rekindle it, Gumball sets her up on a romantic scavenger hunt, most of which injures or endangers her because of his incompetence. However, the last part (a fireworks show) goes off without a hitch, somewhat salvaging the debacle.
• Retcon:
  • Carrie's first major appearance in "The Ghost" was based around her taking over Gumball's body to taste food again, and she once specifically says she misses having a body. A season after that, in "Halloween", she states she was born a ghost. The later episode "The Mirror" suggests the latter still holds true, as it turns out her parents are a female ghost and a mortal man who used magic so he could interact with that ghost.
  • Kip the reporter was originally a human from season 3 until "The News", where he was turned into a newspaper puppet.
  • Ocho was supposed to only be able to make arcade sounds and not be able to communicate with other characters; he never even showed a mouth. In season 2 onwards, however, he gets a mouth to talk or express, and can speak normally.
  • Anais was described as the smartest character in the entire show in early production text and a DVD. However, she began to be described as the smartest member of the Watterson family only, and Bobert is now said to be the smartest in the school.
  • No matter how late in the show they are introduced, new characters are treated as if they've been there forever, and show up on flashbacks.
• Retro Universe: Most of the appliances have a very 70's/80's aesthetic (and have a lot of inventions from that time, like VHS tapes and video rental stores), but there are a lot of late 20th/early 21st century inventions, like DVD players, social media websites (Elmore Plus, which is a mix between Google Plus and Facebook), a YouTube equivalent website (Stream It), and in "The Refund," Darwin says:
  Darwin: Why is [this store] called [the Ripley] 2000 anyway? It's not like it's the future anymore!
  • According to one of the writers, he can't remember if the series takes place in 1950, 1985, 2012, or 2098.
• Revolutionaries Who Don't Do Anything: Sometimes invoked with Mr. Small, in one particular episode he was openly called out on the fact that his efforts to be environmentally friendly will still have a negative environmental impact.
• Ridiculous Future Inflation: Larry works most of the jobs in Elmore simultaneously, so when Larry goes on strike, in just 20 minutes, it causes 4 pizzas to be worth $9,000 and $100 being worth next to nothing.
• Ridiculous Repossession: In "The Money," repo men take the Wattersons' entire house off the ground after they go broke. When that's gone, one of them snatches the front yard turf from under their feet like a tablecloth.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: The majority of the show's scenery starts as live-action photograph, but with filters and some objects drawn to blend the character in with the scenery. However, only the series finale has a live-action character interact with the animated cast.
• Roll-and-Move: In Dodge or Dare, on your turn, you roll the dice and then take a dare card. If you choose to do the dare, your token moves that many spaces. If not, you move half that many spaces and take a dodge card.
• Running Gag:
  • Characters smashing through the school's windows is a common occurrence throughout the series, happening in "The Mystery", "The Sock" and "The Bet". The Australian and Asian airings almost always edit out any of these scenes to avoid copycat incidents.
  • In the second season, Darwin bluntly but cheerfully (or sometimes snidely) pointing out Gumball's personality faults - usually at inappropriate times - often getting hit by something immediately after.
  • Characters, most often the Watterson kids, tend to use outlandish similes to describe things, sometimes having multiple people suggest them one after another. In "The Poltergeist" Gumball compares an electrified Mr. Robinson to a bulldog staring at the sun, while Evil Turtle in "The Puppy" is described as everything from an angry green hat to an evil wiener poking out of a ravioli.
  • Whenever someone gets injured and an ambulance is called, expect the ambulance to run over the person who got injured (as seen with Miss Simian in "The Mystery", Margaret Robinson in "The Wicked", and Banana Joe in "The Advice").
  • When something explodes, it's normally followed by a Smash Cut, such as the Rainbow Factory in "The Fan", Mr. Robinson's heart monitor at the end of "The Boss", and Rob's exploding burger that he was going to use to destroy Banana Joe (but Gumball ate instead) in "The Ex".
  • Gumball getting covered in some kind of dirty substance. Every time it happens he's visibly annoyed but ends up clean by the next part.
  • Gumball ending up naked in public.

S

• Scarily Specific Story: The episode "The Vacation" starts with the Watterson family on a road trip telling horror stories. After her children remarked her inability to be scary due to her age, Nicole tells a spooky story of a family driving through the desert in a car, emphasizing each detail to mirror their own road trip, even the family involved. Almost everything she narrated turned out to be coming true, from the car breaking down to meeting a strange old man who accurately matched her description.
• School of No Studying: The kids have an absurd lot of free time at Elmore Junior High; in many episodes, the class never even appears. Gumball, who is Book Dumb, rarely is shown to care about his grades.
• School Setting Simulation: Most of the show's Flash games, such as "School House Rush", take place at Elmore Junior High.
• Seesaw Catapult: The Early Reel sees Gumball and Darwin waiting at one end of a seesaw while a series of Batman Gambits transpire into a Rube Goldberg Device that they believe will launch him over the schoolyard fence to freedom. The good news: the sequence happens exactly as planned. The bad news: the actual launch from the seesaw has gone hilariously wrong, instead sending them straight between Hector's buttocks.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story:
  • "The Pony": Anais ends up hating the movie and stops it seconds in. However, Darwin and Gumball thought keeping their word to spend time with her was more important, were happy that they didn't have to watch it, and can probably spend their time doing something better.
  • "The Photo": Gumball's last chance at a photo with his "perfect" face is ruined when he sneezes—just as well, given said face was extremely creepy to everyone but him.
  • "The Lesson": Gumball and Darwin pull off a Great Escape from detention, but as they're limping off Principal Brown points out they're "escaping" from school, so their parents will just make them come back the next day.
  • "The Boombox": A switch on Juke's head is flipped, letting him speak normally and let everyone know that's what he was trying to talk about, but the switch is knocked back into its previous position before anyone pays enough attention to notice.
  • "The Tape": Once Gumball and Darwin finish the tape them and a bunch of other people were working on, they accidentally delete everything.
  • "The Plan": Gumball, Darwin, and Anais perfect their plan to protect Nicole from Daniel Lennard, only to find that Daniel Lennard isn't real.
  • "The Parking": After spending the greater part of the episode looking for a space, before deciding out of desperation to park anywhere, the Wattersons end up parking in front of their own house.
  • "The Misunderstandings": After all that worrying over being late and all the misunderstandings Gumball goes through to have a date with Penny, he immediately leaves when he thinks Penny choking on her food is a sign that she wants to cut the date short because her parents are coming.
  • "The Gift": Masami is perfectly fine with a simple present, everyone was stressing themselves out over nothing.
  • "The Menu": To earn the name of the secret menu item Richard needs to eat something from every Joyful Burger in town (22!) within an hour. Unfortunately this leaves him literally too stuffed with burgers to even get it in his mouth when he finally gets it.
  • "The News": In the end there was no robbery at Joyful Burger. The call to the police was Richard calling about ants taking one of his fries.
  • "The Code": Turns out the Robinsons haven't changed their Wi-Fi code, the bandwidth was just being used up by a bunch of toolbar. When they finally bring it back up to speed, the power goes out.
  • "The Slide": Rocky's attempt to meet up with Byrdie after accidentally rejecting her on Trawlr only causes her to see him as creepy. The episode ends with Rocky still single.
  • "The Kiss": Gumball gets traumatized once more by one of Grandma Jojo's kisses after spending the whole episode trying to snap out of it.
• The Shameless: In "The Fraud," after Gumball and Darwin find out that Principal Brown's diploma is fake, he tries to Blackmail them into keeping their mouths shut by being in possession of them wearing ridiculous clothes (Gumball dressed as a Goth while Darwin dressed up in hip-hop gear). It doesn't work, since they have apparently felt ashamed so many times that they are literally incapable of feeling it anymore.
  Gumball: Look Principal Brown, first, that was a phase, and secondly, we've felt ashamed so many times in life that I think we're now incapable of feeling it. As in chemically.
  Darwin: The doctor says we've run out of shame-osterone.
• Sideways Smile: In "The Mirror", when Gumball thinks he got an e-mail from Penny, he makes a very Crayon Shin-chan-esque smile
• Sitcom Homage Episode
  • "The Test": When Gumball decides he no longer wants to be the Loser Protagonist, The World deems him to boring to be the main character now and replaces him with Tobias. Tobias then slowly turns the show into a terrible 90s sitcom.
  • "The Lady" is a Whole-Plot Reference to The Golden Girls.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: It’s a mixed bag, generally tending toward cynical. After the mostly whimsical first few seasons, the later episodes take a shift in tone: Mean-spirited characters and occurrences are common, as well as depictions of the problems faced by the world, both of which pair with Gumball’s characterization shift to a morally flawed deadpan snarker. Despite all of this, the show does want you to believe that hope exists in the world and that happiness is achievable. Best shown by Gumball and Darwin's song in "The Faith", as they know full well the world sucks, but "you have to find comfort in the small things".
• Spaghetti Kiss: Parodied in the episode "The Bros", where Gumball and Penny almost pull off the kiss before the camera cuts to reveal Drawin is actually sucking on the other ends of the spaghetti strands that were in their mouths.
• Snap Back: Many episodes end in ways with situations barely resolved by episode's end, but they change back by the time the next new episode premieres. Deconstructed and subverted in "The Finale." It starts off as a Clip Show, but as the Wattersons begin to reminisce, the various people come to them and demand restitution for all the damage they've done to them and the town. After failing to make amends to the townspeople and having to escape jail, they decide to only way to get their happy ending is to take their destructive habits up to eleven and cause more trouble than ever before. This ends up causing the entire town to form an angry mob and corner them in their home and Gumball proclaims that the only way out of this is "some magical device that resets everything" right as the episode ends. It's the credits.
  • Surprisingly averted as of "The Shell" involving Penny's true form and she and Gumball becoming official and in "The Kids" when Gumball and Darwin get new voices (though this is justified as the entire episode is a farewell to the original voice actors for Gumball and Darwin [Logan Grove and Kwesi Boakye] and an intro to the new ones [Jacob Hopkins and Terrell Ransom, Jr]).
• Soda-Candy 'Splosion:
  • "The Date" begins with Richard finishing a story by stating that you should never mix Pop Rocks and soda. Given his battered appearance, one can assume he attempted this himself.
  • "The Friend" turns this into a Chekhov's Gun. Gumball and Darwin are prevented from eating Anais' cupcakes because they get blasted by a mint and soda cannon. Later on, the Chimera to blow himself up with this against the police. He downs 3 soda bottles and threatens to eat the mint, but he gets tased by the cops, knocking the mint into his mouth and setting it off.
• Surreal Humor: Comes part and parcel with a series that celebrates, parodies, and deconstructs Toon Physics and every animation and entertainment trope under the sun.
• Status Quo Is God: Invoked and Deconstructed. Regardless of how the episodes play out, the setting will always Snap Back to how things were. This is because Elmore itself is a Genius Loci, and wants to maintain a "Status Quo" for the setting, with the characters defined by specific roles. Any event that would threaten the Status Quo is largely fought against by Elmore itself, either by creating a form of disaster that can only be fixed by restoring the Status Quo, or by forcing someone else to fit the mold of the Status Quo.
  • "The Job" sees Richard actually getting a job, and while his antics should have gotten him fired, Gumball and Darwin delivering the pizzas for him so he wouldn't lose his job ends up causing reality to breakdown. Richard's role is to be the Lazy Bumbling Dad, he is not meant to have a job, so Richard had to lose his job for reality to return to normal.
  • "The Void" would introduce the titular location, and while it remains a consistent presence in the show, the characters knowledge of it is largely reverted whenever they learn of it. The characters knowing of the Void's existence would run the risk of the setting undergoing Cerebus Syndrome, so events always conspire to make sure the characters don't know about it. Rob is the only exception, and that is due to his new role.
  • "The Test" sees Gumball resolving to no longer be "The Loser", bottling up his anger and issues as bile that slowly begins killing him. As Sarah points out however, "Nature abhors a vacuum", and without Gumball in the role, Tobias is inserted as the new "Loser". Rather than shifting to focus on the Wilson family though, Tobias is inserted into the Watterson family, as they are the main characters. Tobias however still isn't Gumball, only Gumball can fill the role, causing reality to shift more to a cheap sitcom, forcing Gumball to reclaim his role from Tobias.
  • "The Faith" has Alan losing his faith in the world, causing everything to become muted and depressing, with various disasters occuring. Alan's role is to be the optimist, the one who sees the good in everything, so for him to lose faith, he'd be leaving his role, Elmore having to turn to shit to encourage Gumball and Darwin to restore his faith and restore the Status Quo.
  • Not everything has to return to the Status Quo however, particularly if the changes offer a new Status Quo that is more interesting than the original. Penny coming out of her shell, Gumball and Darwin having relationship upgrades with Penny and Carrie, Louie marrying Jojo, Franky coming back, they all offer new Status Quos that Elmore is willing to consider "acceptable" and keep. Rob is the perfect example, as despite being exiled to the Void as a mistake before making his escape, he's allowed to remain due to gaining a new role: "The Villain who knows the truth", being the only one consistently allowed to remember the Void, and offering a new dynamic to the Status Quo that is more interesting than his old role.
• Stealth Pun:
  • Penny (before she broke her shell) was a female peanut with antlers. You know, a doe-nut.
  • Darwin is a fish with legs◊.
  • Ocho, who looks like a ship from Space Invaders, has a mother that is a giant flying vehicle. She's the mothership. Not only that, but Ocho means 8 in Spanish, and he is animated in 8 bit style.
  • Rocky's T-shirt in season two is for a band called "Bisou" (the French word for the noun "kiss") and modeled after the logo for the American band KISS. It's a French kiss.
• Stopped Dead in Their Tracks: In the episode "The Detective", Daisy goes missing and Anais takes the responsibility to find her, the suspects being her brothers Gumball and Darwin. At one point of the episode, Anais discovers Gumball in the basement, whose course of action ​is promptly reduced to only giving quick answers to what Anais said or asked. Granted, he thought she was mad at him for escaping, when in reality she was convinced that he was the one trying to dispose of Daisy.
• Students Playing Matchmaker: In "The Wish," Principal Brown enlists Gumball and Darwin's help to better express his feelings to his shaky girlfriend, Miss Simian. With their help, he regains Miss Simian's love after mustering the courage to tell her how much he loves her.
• The Song Remains the Same: In the Brazilian Portuguese dub for Season 1, all songs which weren't sung by a character (such as "Inner Warrior", "You Gotta Think Big" and "Because We're Men") were mantained in the original English audio. However, this was changed from Season 2 onwards, when all songs started being translated, including a short reprise of "You Gotta Think Big" in "The Grades". Strangely, the song "Employee of the Month" from "The Deal" is also left in English, despite it being a Season 5 episode.
• Sucky School: The facilities at Elmore Junior High seem perfectly sufficient or even excessive for a middle school^*Despite relatively small class sizes and being a Two-Teacher School [at least until "The Others" reveals that there are other teachers, but Gumball doesn't think about them, so they're invisible to him; there are students from other classes since Season 1, but "The Extras" and "The Others" show that Gumball and Darwin didn't notice or care about them either], it has an extremely large indoor pool, a full-sized track and football field, and a library. Worth noting is at least some of the photo backgrounds used for Elmore Junior High come from Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, which has about 2200 students., but the staff members are universally incompetent/unprofessional:
  • Principal Brown somehow has had his job as principal for 20 years, despite having a fake diploma and is in a romantic relationship with one of his workers (which is considered fraternization and is considered unprofessional).
  • Miss Simian hates her job as teacher (mostly because she's been assaulted and ostracized for teaching subject matter considered subversive or controversial, such as teaching cavemen how to make fire and how to use the wheel, as mentioned on "The Pest") and is most likely still a teacher because she's dating Principal Brown, often in school during class hours (as seen in "The Lesson", "The Boombox", "The Sock", and "The Burden").
  • Mr. Small, the guidance counselor, is more of an emotional wreck than anyone who comes to see him, has terrible advice that doesn't really help others, and is possibly a stoner (Though "The Advice" reveals that he actually does care about being a teacher and inspiring others, unlike The Coach, Miss Simian, Principal Brown, and even Cool Teacher Mr. Corneille, who all have become burned-out and cynical).
  • The school nurse has to put up with Teri the paper bear's hypochondria, Miss Simian being rude to her, and Gumball and Darwin's lame attempts at getting out of gym class, and spends most of her time huddled under her desk, trying to re-evaluate her career choices.
  • The gym teacher/coach is bulky, out of shape, lets her Barbaric Bully of a daughter (Jamie) push around the other kids, and doesn't seem to care when a student gets hurt or can't do anything she assigns them during gym class. She outright refuses to perform CPR on Anton when he drowns in the pool, but rather instead uses the opportunity to teach the other kids how to save a life. The kids are clearly traumatized when Anton turns to mush.
  • The only competent worker at the school is Rocky, the janitor/bus driver/lost and found clerk/cafeteria worker, though even he can be oblivious and careless on the job, mostly due to listening to music on his Walkman. He is also known to slack off instead of working.
  • The old librarian had horrible anger issues and would scream at students for damaging things as loud as she could and charge at them. The new librarian is worse. She was willing to murder Anais and Jamie for trying to expose her to Principal Brown for giving the computers viruses.
• Sudden Anatomy: Banana Joe and Darwin normally don't have thumbs, but can grow them for certain scenes. The latter has also grown ears in "The Lady".

T

• Take That!: It has quite a few, mostly in the later seasons.
  • "The Upgrade" is essentially one long Take That against Apple and unnecessary upgrades.
  • "The Nest" mocks sensationalist news, showing them exaggerating small occurrences and a degree of Unreliable Expositor to them.
  • "The Comic" has a jab at improbable poses by comic book artists.
  • "The Copycat" is one against Miracle Star, the blatant Chinese rip-off of Gumball.
  • "The Best" has one against Tumblr, as well as the common behaviors of the users that frequent it. The nail in the coffin is given by Carmen saying that using social issues to win petty arguments actually hurt the cause the person is claiming to be trying to help.
  • "The Line" portrays die-hard fans as elitist and bigoted. This is particularly aimed at Star Wars most hardcore fans after the release of The Force Awakens, which complained about the fact that the new trilogy would focus on a female protagonist and disliked how the franchise got more mainstream.
  • "The Blame" takes a jab at Moral Guardians that try to blame media (especially video games) for what their kids do, rather than assume the importance of their parenting in their kids formation.
  • "The Candidate" is one for the 2016 US Presidential Elections. Gumball and Anais are playing essentially Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and it's clear what is the crew's political position from that. Each character seems to be representing some manner of political or social issue.
  • “The Shippening” is a big one to the show’s insane fanbase, specifically on sites like Tumblr and DeviantArt. Poorly drawn Original Characters, ships that have been sunken for several years now, and Animesque faces.
    • The opening of “The Catfish” also parodies this.
  • In a 2012 promo, Gumball takes charge of the Cartoon Network headquarters, and among the things he wants to change in the network, he says "No more Ben-what's-his-name".
• Technical Euphemism: In "The Genius", Colin calls Gumball a "gluteus maximus" (a butt) when he covers them in spit after he has inflated his own head.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Nicole's understanding of computers is shaky at best.
• Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Generally inverted. Lots of male characters have feminine features (particularly Darwin, who also has a very feminine voice), while lots of female characters don't have any (Nicole is a full-grown woman and has a completely flat chest). This is lampshaded in "The Party" (Gumball isn't sure if Masami is a girl) and at the end of "The Coach" (it results in Gumball and Darwin not realizing Coach is a woman).
• There Are No Therapists: Double Subverted thanks to most of the adults being useless — the school's counselor Mr. Small is a recurring character, but he almost always makes things much worse.
• There Is No Rule Six: In "The Painting", Mr. Small has a five-step program for Gumball and Darwin to focus their energy but tells them they're done after only four steps.
  Mr. Small: The fifth step was within you all along. Just be yourselves.
  Gumball: ... Weak.
• The Joy of X: Nearly every episode is titled following a "The X" format ^note for example "The DVD"
• Then Let Me Be Evil: When Rob remembers that he was always a face in the crowd, he decides to show everyone that he will become a bad guy so they remember him.
• Toilet Teleportation:
  • In "The Responsible", Darwin and Gumball get into the locked house by going through the sewers and climbing out the toilet.
  • Gumball locks himself and Darwin in a bathroom in "The Secret", and they flush themselves down the toilet to escape. After going through the water treatment center and getting directions from a worker, they come out the toilet in their own home right before their dad was about to use it.
    Richard: (seeing them come out of the toilet) Ah!... Did I eat you?
  • "The Lie", Sluzzle Dude, the equivalent of Santa for Sluzzletag, comes into houses through the toilet because getting covered in soot going down the chimney would be disgusting.
  • "The Curse" starts with Gumball slipping on a bar of soap in the shower,falling into the toilet,and getting flushed into the sewer outside his house.
  • In "The Upgrade" Gumball, Darwin and Bobert are shown crawling out of a toilet after getting lost on their way to the Bobert store.
  • In "The Vision" Gumball attempts to kill Allan by pulling him into the toilet and drowning him as his hands pop out of the bowl.
  • In "The Origins" Darwin gets flushed down the toilet.
  • In "The Anybody" Gumball reaches his arm through the toilet bowl to hit snooze on an alarm clock he had placed on the seat.
• Token Houseguest: The series centers on the Watterson family, consisting of Gumball, his parents, and his sister Anais. They're joined by Darwin, Gumball's pet goldfish who grew legs and developed the ability to talk. He becomes Gumball's adopted brother.
• Toon Physics: Very prevalent, possibly one of the biggest users of this trope next to the Fleischer Studios shorts, Tex Avery MGM Cartoons, and Bob Clampett's work at Warner Bros. Due of the show's mixing of different animation styles, nearly every device of cartoon physics imaginable is played with and/or lampshaded.
• Toon Town: It is somewhat unclear (and inconsistent) whether the show's Funny Animals inhabit all of Earth or if they all live in Elmore, with the rest being (more) like Earth in real life. Animated humans have been seen in Elmore (besides the Richwood High students), and some outsiders like Mr. Small ^note Who states he isn't from the USA in "The Fraud", and Word of God confirms to be a Canadian and Ethel and Bernie Klein are funny creatures too.
• Truncated Theme Tune: The show has an Instrumental Theme Tune, but the actual opening is only official seen in the UK version and online sources like Hulu. The US airing only has the opening whenever there's a sneak peek of a new episode (the most recent examples being when "The Return" and "The Nemesis" aired on the same week as three of the last four season three episodes).
• Two-Teacher School: Elmore Junior High only has a principal (Principal Brown), one teacher (Miss Simian), one guidance counselor (Mr. Small), one nurse (the Band-Aid Nurse), a PE instructor (introduced in season three and only referred to as "Coach"^note prior to that, gym class was either headed by Mr. Small or Ms. Simian or not shown at all), two librarians (the old tree ladies), and one guy who does everything else (Rocky). "The Bet" lampshaded this when Rocky tells Gumball, Darwin, and Bobert that school's been canceled because Mr. Small, Miss Simian, and Principal Brown aren't here. Subverted in "The Others", where it turns there are and always were other teachers for classes Gumball and Darwin don't have, they were just too oblivious to notice.

U-V

• Unanthropomorphic Transformation: When the universe starts tearing apart in "The Job" because Richard got a job, Nicole, Gumball (who are cats), Anais (a bunny) and Larry (a rock man) briefly turn into non-antropomorphic animals (and a rock in Larry's case).
• Unfortunate Search Results:
  • In "The Potato," Gumball and Darwin look up ways to keep Darwin occupied to curb a potato addiction. They look up "things to do with your hands" online and seem quite shocked at the (unseen) results. They do succeed, though, at finding information on origami.
  • In "The Catfish," Gumball remembers looking his name up on the Internet and coming across uncomfortable fanart of himself.
• Unnamed Parent: Oddly, Gumball's parents aren't this in the actual show (they're referred to as Nicole and Richard), but both the credits and website used to only call them Mum (the British way of saying "Mom") and Dad. One of the writers joked that Gumball is the one who made the credits. However, some of the minor parents are this, such as both of Anton's, Hector's, Sussie's, Ocho's and Jamie's parents, and Masami's father
• Upsetting the Balance: Any Out-of-Character Moment could destroy the universe. When Richard, normally a Bumbling Dad, gets a job as a pizza delivery man in "The Job", chaos ensues— snow in summer, Alien Geometries, and much more. The Wattersons and Lawrence have to get him fired before reality falls apart.
• Vagueness Is Coming: "The Oracle" reveals that the town is going to be uprooted by something (possibly from 'The Void'). Something malevolent...
  • It was later confirmed to appear in "The Future", three seasons later.
• Very Fake Résumé: "The Fraud" is about Gumball and Darwin discovering that Principal Brown's diploma was fake. When he eventually admits to the teachers about it, it turns out that all of them lied on their résumés so that they could get the job. For instance, Miss Simian lied about her age and Mr. Small is not even a U.S. citizen. Coach Russo then says, "And I am not a woman..." (Beat, everyone stares at her) "...who can say she's never lied on her résumé either."
• Vignette Episode: Due to the sheer amount of unique characters and extras, it makes sense that the series would have a ton of these types of episodes to flesh them out in short bursts.
  • "The Tape" is a series of home videos recorded by Gumball.
  • "The World" is about the daily lives of all the living objects in Elmore.
  • "The Extras" is about the daily lives of all the Recurrign Extras in Elmore.
  • "The Procrastinators" is a series of sketches involving Gumball and Darwin doing all sorts of antics in the house.
  • "The Butterfly" is a series of seemingly irrelevant events that are all caused by the butterfly effect.
  • "The Question" is about Gumball and Darwin asking the various residents of Elmore about the meaning of life.
  • "The Uploads" is about Gumball and Darwin watching several videos on Elmore Stream-It.
  • "The Love" is a series of skits all about love.
  • "The Night" showcases the dreams of everyone in Elmore.
  • "The Compilation" is another series of videos on Elmore Stream-It.
  • "The Boredom" has a bunch of crazy skits that Gumball and Darwin just barely miss out on.
  • "The Box" has each Watterson wondering what's inside the box and how it affects their life.
  • The second half of "The Heist" are a series of Imagine Spots of how each Watterson would do their own heist.
  • "The Singing" is about the people of Elmore breaking out their own musical numbers.
  • "The List" is a series of events tied around Gumball and Darwin doing Nicole's bucket list (thinking it's a chore list).
  • "The Spinoffs" is series of potential show ideas starring the secondary characters.
  • Most of "The Ghouls" is a series of skits about how traditional scary monsters are no longer scary in a generation of people desensitized by regular horror.
• Vocal Evolution: As both Gumball's and Darwin's voice actors went through puberty, their voices got noticeably deeper (especially Gumball's) before they were re-cast in Season 3. The first episode of that season ("The Kids") even makes their voice changes a plot point. And before that, it got rather unsubtly lampshaded in "The Castle".
  Darwin: Dude. Have you noticed that your voice has changed?
  Gumball: What? You mean like how I sound like a man and you squeal like a piglet on helium?

W-Z

• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Popular fan theory is that Elmore is located in California, mainly due to some of the background shots from the neighborhoods being taken from Vallejo and of the school from San Francisco. The former is seemingly confirmed as a Freeze-Frame Bonus in "The Question": an Astronomic Zoom from Elmore to space shows it as being located exactly where Vallejo, California is in real life.
• World of Ham: The Amazing World of Gumball combines this trope with World of Weirdness.
• World of Weirdness: The town of Elmore, where anything can (and will) come to life or spontaneously evolve from pet to family member. Not to mention the wackiness that happens from day to day. Don't take this lightly, though. There have been moments where it's gotten hostile...
• You Are Not Alone: All together now: ♪Nobody's a nobody, and everybody is weird like you and me!♪
• Your Head A-Splode: Darwin in "The Sock", "The Meddler" and "The Plan".
• Zombie Apocalypse: Happens in "The Joy" as a Joy Apocalypse. Also happens in an Imagine Spot in "The Box".