The plot centers on Gumby and Pokey getting out of their chores by using robots to do all the work. Of course, the robots go rogue - tearing up the house and harassing everyone. Gumby and his father, Gumbo, race to deactivate them.
Robot Rumpus contains examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Definitely.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The robots trash the house, a fire truck and — to the horror of Gumby's mother — her flower bed.
- Badass Normal: Gumbo is a firefighter, and he does pretty well against the robots, all things considered.
- The Chew Toy: Gumbo takes a good deal of abuse.
- Decapitation Presentation: During "The End" sequence, one of the robot's heads is shown hung over the garage door, and its eyes follow Gumby around. The short plays this as good fun.
- Groin Attack: Subverted when a robot throws Gumbo onto the roof, and he lands in a way most human males would find very painful.
- Karma Houdini: In the full short the idea to get the robots to do all the chores was Pokey's. Gumby even had reservations about it beforehand, but Pokey dismissed it. In the end, Gumby is exhausted doing the chores while his parents watch angrily, while Pokey just looks kinda sad sitting on the side.
- Pilot Episode: "Robot Rumpus" was the third of three shorts designed to sell the Gumby series. Its successful premiere on The Howdy Doody Show helped lead to following shorts.
- Re-Cut: Three different versions of this short exist:
- The original pilot version is 11 minutes long and depicts Pokey convincing Gumby to have robots do his chores for him, along with a long sequence of them fetching the robots and setting them up. As the robots already act up on the drive over and when Gumby tries to get them to do chores, it’s not a surprise later in the short when the robots rampage.
- The best known version chops off the first four minutes of the short and starts with a narrator explaining that Gumby has used the robots on Saturdays, but this time they’ve malfunctioned. The short is otherwise unaltered, creating a continuity issue where Gumby’s mother seems unaware of the robots until now when supposedly Gumby has done this several times already. This is the version that was used on MST3K.
- A third version made to accompany the 80s revival series uses the 7 minute cut as well as replacing the soundtrack, voice acting, and sound effects with new versions intended to match the cast and soundtrack of the later series.
- Talking Animal: Pokey
