Created by Ben Bocquelet, the series is the first commission from Turner Broadcasting's Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe. Combining a mixture of several animation techniques with live-action backgrounds, the series follows the misadventures of a twelve year old cat named Gumball, who lives in the quaint little town of Elmore - where nearly everything has the power to come to life! Joining him is his best friend Darwin, the one-time pet fish who grew legs and joined the family. The two of them go to Elmore Junior High where all sorts of strange characters roam the halls.The series received a twenty-episode second season before the eighteen-episode first season even premiered and another twenty-episode third season shortly after the second season premiere, bringing its total to 29 hours worth of episodes. It got a "sneak peek" (i.e., the first of two episodes) in the UK on May 2nd, 2011, and in the US on May 3. The official US premiere was May 9 and the UK on September 5th.You can check out the show's Recap page here.It also has its own wiki.
The Amazing World of Gumball provides examples of:
Abuse Mistake: In "The Fight", Gumball gets a black eye from running into a door, which Anais assumes is from Tina Rex bullying him.
Adults Are Useless: Some episodes have it stronger than others. Nicole is pretty much the only consistently competent adult in the show, though she does have her wild moments.
Aerith and Bob: Most of the cast have normal given names, albeit Anais and Masami are French and Japanese ones respectively, except Darwin (which is normally a family name), Ocho, Juke, and Gumball.
Air Vent Passageway: Parodied in "The Prank" when Gumball tries to pull this trope off, but neglects to take the cover off, leaving an air vent-shaped imprint on his face.
Between Gumball and Penny in "The Party" and "The Pressure". Principal Brown and Miss Simian have one in "The Party" as well.
Principal Brown and Miss Simian have one of these again in "The Sock" before being interrupted by Gumball.
All There in the Manual: Darwin is Gumball's Adopted Brother who grew legs when he was overfed, but you wouldn't know that unless you read it online from the creators despite being heavily implied through-out the series.
The DVD (the DVD, not the episode) also makes mention of this in the "Meet the Wattersons" feature.
Animate Inanimate Object: Anything in Elmore can come to life. Lampshaded in "The Spoon" when the giant, living fingerprint who's robbing a convenience store is able to hide from the police by dropping onto the floor and pretending he's just a regular giant fingerprint.
Animation Bump: The animation of Hector on the rampage in "The Colossus" approaches Disney quality.
Animesque: The Wattersons' facial expressions seem to invoke this.
Apocalypse How: Richard getting a job nearly causes the destruction of the universe!
Arc Number: The number 700 frequently pops up, particularly in "The DVD" where it's the cost of the overdue fee for the titular DVD, "The Refund" where it's the cost of the game console the manager sells Richard, and "The Watch" where it's how much the titular watch is worth.
Also, the shadows on Darwin's arms and legs underneath his body are almost nonexistent.
Tina and Ms. Simian's designs have also been simplified.
Art Shift: Strangely, whenever there is a wide shot wherein the characters are meant to be far off in the distance, they are represented by bold single-colored squares rather than their usual character models.
Badass Boast: "If you throw that doll out the window then you'll unleash the full fury of my terrifying anger. Mountains will shake! Cities will crumble! The skies will be ripped apart and the meteor of my wrath will grind you into DUST!" Didn't work.
Badass Family: In "The Club", the family uses their own odd traits to impressively take out some nerds. Nicole used her anger to take out a locked door, Richard managed to stall another nerd in a board game, Anais used static electricity to short circuit a robot and hacked a computer to intercept Gumball's embarrassing video, and Darwin's dance skills distracted the other nerd into dancing with him.
Even moreso in "The Ape" where they work together in a car chase to stop Mrs. Simian after she tricked them.
Badass Mustache: Richard instantly grows one in "The Refund" after offering help to Gumball and Darwin to get a refund. After the store alarm goes on, he instantly loses it.
Bad Bad Acting: Seen when Darwin and Gumball produce their own version of "Alligators on a Train" to try and fool the DVD store owner. It doesn't work, because not only are they bad actors, the "movie" only lasts about 5 seconds, they're filming it with one camera while fighting cardboard alligators, and only put their own names in the credits.
Darwin: I TOLD you we should have put some other people's names in there!
Batman Gambit: In a surprising show of intelligence for someone usually Too Dumb to Live, Richard pulls a skillful Batman Gambit on Gumball and Darwin in "The Laziest" to get them forced to do the chores Nicole tries to get him to do.
Be Yourself: The moral of "The Gi". Nicole becomes concerned when Gumball and Darwin want to wear their karate outfits to school, oblivious to the teasing of their peers, but she decides to let them do it after Penny sticks up for Gumball and praises him for being himself. Just like she did for Richard when they were kids and he wore a superhero cape to school everyday
Bigger on the Inside: In "The Spoon" the gas station has the interior of a supermarket.
Darwin after Gumballoopseggwobbleunderpant from Gumballnowigbattle-axeninja's head pops.
When her doll is thrown off the bus, Anais gives a big no and several smaller 'no's.
Richard (again) in "The Painting", after being told to get a job. Doesn't even finish before the scene transition. You think he's going to stop after awhile because his voice starts to trail off, but then he just goes back into it.
Bland Name Product: Averted by the photographic backgrounds in "The Spoon". Though the logos on the brand name products are obscured, British viewers should recognise some of the brands.
Bond One-Liner: Richard gives three at the end of "The Ape", each time followed by a short laugh by the family and Nicole admonishing him because Ms. Simian could be seriously hurt.
In "The Flower" Jealous!Gumball gives four, the first three coming out badly after which he gives up and says a better one later.
Bowdlerise: Like many Cartoon Network shows, numerous scenes were cut or shorted in the CN Asia or Australian airing. Also, in "The Skull" an entire sequence is left out in the American airing involving Gumball, Darwin, and Clayton electrocuting each other which rendered the episode completely confusing due to unexplained decisions based on it.
Breaking the Fourth Wall: In "The Flakers", Anais winks at the camera when explaining a rigged team-building exercise to a blindfolded Gumball and Darwin.
Bros Before Hoes: "Pals Before Gals" is used in the episode "The Pressure."
British English: In an Easter Egg, a sign in the Parking Garage states that there shall be "No Kung-Fu fighting in the Car Park", however most people who aren't in Europe and learn American English would probably stumble a bit as "Car Park" is the British term for "Parking Garage/Parking Lot."
In "The Knights", Gumball accidentally snaps the rear view mirror on Mr. Fitzgerald's off by leaning on it. At the end of the episode Mr. Fitzgerald swerves his car to avoid hitting Penny, but then misses Tobias so narrowly that the same mirror glances his head and again falls off.
In "The Job", early on Richard mentions cutting strips out of the pizza, eating them, then sticking the rest of the pizza together. At the end, this finally gives Larry a reason to fire him, thus saving the universe.
Brutal Honesty: When Mr. Small convinces Gumball and Darwin "honesty is the best policy," they immediately start insulting or otherwise upsetting everyone they run into with brutally honest truths, including Tina Rex, their teacher, and their principal.
Call Back: The picture of Darwin trying to kiss Gumball on the roller-coaster from "The Dress" can be seen framed on the wall in "The Curse".
Calvinball: "Dodge or Dare", a board game that Gumball and Darwin created, which involves taking a card and doing whatever is says on it. The trope applies in that, while the concept is (very loosely) structured with a set of "rules", the "rules" themselves are only there to ensure that sheer chaos results from playing it.
In "The Car", Gumball is told to build a Rube Goldberg Device in order to launch a projectile into the air using anything found in the trash. The projectile in question is a bowling ball, and when it finally fires off, it malfunctions and launches right at Gumball's face. Right before it hits him, Darwin pauses the moment like a VCR (complete with line of static and jumpy tracking) to point out that the card says that Gumball can't use his hands to block, leading to him getting his face smashed in.
And the donut cop in "The Spoon" tries to eat a donut, and in "The Ghost" a Carrie-possessed Gumball tries to eat him. She also interrupts Anton's sandwich-eating.
When Gumball tries to pass an "I love you" to Penny off as "I love peanuts" in "The Meddler", she says that's like if she said she likes to eat cats.
A poster in the background of Elmore Middle School listing rules includes not eating other students.
In "The Flower", Leslie tries to convince Penny that by eating vegetables, she's a traitor to plantkind, and should become a carnivore instead.
In "The Bumpkin", Idaho (a potato) begins to eat french fries when he parties with Gumball.
Cast of Snowflakes: Most of the characters don't even share the same art style.
City of Weirdos: Elmore is basically a city where some completely useless thing like a paper hat, is alive and can have children with Mount Rushmore and everything will be okay. It's just Tuesday for Elmore.
Clueless Mystery: Partially in "The Mystery". When Principal Brown is found shaved, painted green, wrapped in toilet paper and stuffed into Gumball's locker the culprit is not made clear to the audience at all. However, there are a few hints and some foreshadowing threaded throughout the episode that play a role into the conclusion.
Comedic Sociopathy: Gumball and Darwin destroy Lawrence's life in "The Laziest" just to get him to turn back to Lazy Larry in hopes he'll out-lazy Richard.
Conspicuous CG: The CG itself isn't any more out of place than anything else, but occasionally it will be out of sync with the 2D objects or characters. For instance, in "The Poltergeist" Mrs. Robinson put something in the mailbox and while her hands moved and a sound was made the mailbox stayed closed.
Conspicuously Light Patch: Occasionally happens through-out the series, usually when a character moves something amongst a series of things that were put in the background.
In "The Phone", the cement bricks on the House are clearly not the same shade as the ones Gumball and Darwin are shaping up and placing down after Ocho destroys the top half.
Continuity Nod: In "The Fridge" we see Gumball is incapable of playing a triangle—or even hitting it. In "The Apology" a quick look at Gumball's report card show that his grades vary from moderately above to moderately below average, except for music where he has one F and three F Minuses.
Deranged Animation: Anything in Elmore can come to life and conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window.
Development Gag: In the second season episode "The Fridge", Nicole puts war paint on her face. The way she does it covers her whiskers, making them look more like they did in her character model before it was redesigned for the second season.
Digital Piracy Is Evil: Invoked in "The DVD", with Darwin giving the whole "You wouldn't steal a car/purse/cell phone" speech.
Dissonant Serenity: A momentary example combined with Stepford Smiler, being Played for Laughs when Gumball and Darwin are lost in a forest. Gumball suggests they watch the stars to find their way, pointing out that the sun is a star. They both stare at the sun for a moment, before turning around to reveal their eyes are on fire.
Darwin:*Still smiling* "There are no words to express the amount of pain I feel right now."
Gumball: "Sure there are." *Both start screaming in pain.*
Diving Save: Double Subverted in "The Debt": we get a Slow No of Gumball trying to push Mr. Robinson out of the way of a falling stage light but Gumball's jump falls short and the light is stopped just above Mr. Robinson by its own power cord, but after he refuses to get out of the way Gumball successfully pushes him out from under the light which does fall.
At the beginning of "The Third", Gumball and Darwin's discussion about having a 'third best friend' is strongly suggestive of the stereotypical conversation between partners about trying Polyamory... a conversation at the end sounds like a couple's rejecting it.
While Gumball and Darwin play the Video Game in "The Secret": "END IT!"
The ending of "The Helmet" is a mirror of The Lord of the Rings.
Dont Go In The Woods: In "The Picnic", Ms. Simian warns the students not to go into the Forest of Doom. Which is exactly what Gumball and Darwin do.
Dude, Not Funny!:invokedPlayed with. When Miss Simian drives over an unfinished bridge, Richard tries to cut a lighthearted Bond One-Liner and Gumball, Anais, and Darwin all chuckle along. Then Nicole reminds them that she might be seriously injured...which leads to Richard cutting another joke...and then Nicole telling them to stop again...and then another one.
Epic Fail: After twice demonstrating his inability to catch objects, Gumball fails to not catch one he's getting chased for carrying.
Everyone Went To School Together: In every flashback, even the year book, all the adults in Elmore no matter what age all seemed to have attended Middle School around the same time.
In "The Wand", Mr. Robinson is at Elmore Jr. High despite being way older than Richard.
Even weirder is the old man that's purple and has antlers also was in the same year as Richard.
In "The Gi" Nicole went to the same school, revealing Mr. Small, Mr. Fitzgerald, and others went to the same school.
Explosive Instrumentation: When Gumball goes down a hill too fast he catches on fire, and the radar gun a police officer uses on him also catches on fire.
In "The DVD", Gumball tries to get money by testing cosmetics he has an allergic reaction, wipes his face, and smears his eye across his face.
In "The Painting", Mr. Small tries to get Gumball and Darwin to "be the brush", which ends with them getting loads of paint in their eyes.
At one point in "The Picnic", Gumball and Darwin stare at the sun and end up with their eyes lit on fire.
In "The Microwave", the first thing Kenneth tries to eat is Darwin's eyeball.
In "The Banana", Banana Joe gets glue on his hand because Gumball poked a bunch of holes in his glue bottle. He eventually gets his hand stuck his eye, then accidentally tears it off.
Played for Laughs in "The Apology" when Gumball accidentally hurls a paper airplane with a fine tip at Ms. Simian.
In "The Watch", Gumball tries to force himself to cry for sympathy. When he overdoes it ("Are you trying to cry or lay an egg?") he makes his eyes explode.
Nicole: What does a winner do when life gives him lemons?
Gumball: Uhh... Make lemonade?
Nicole: No, he squeezes them right back into life's eyes!
Fantastic Racism: In "The Job", Nicole says cats shouldn't get along with dogs.
Faux Horrific: The robber in "The Spoon" holding up the convenience store with… you guessed it… a spoon. Until the end of the cartoon, everyone reacts as though it's a deadly weapon.
Foot Focus: In "The Laziest", when Gumball gets "pins and needles", there's a shot of his feet with his toes wiggling.
Also, Anais and Darwin "Toe-Wrestling" with Richard in "The Goons", which is so far the only time we've seen Darwin and Anais without shoes.
For Doom the Bell Tolls: Invoked in "The Helmet". After Nicole, Richard, and Gumball first start arguing over the hat, Anais smells trouble brewing and bangs a pot like a gong saying it was "the sound of doom for the Wattersons".
Forgot About His Powers: In "The Pressure", Masami keeps chasing after Darwin, who decides to hide from her in the swimming pool... by holding his breath.
Friction Burn: The series gives us an example where Gumball is trying to start a fire through the friction & stick method. He ends up setting his hands on fire, and while he's running around screaming in pain, the wood he was trying to ignite catches on fire a few moments later.
He also caught on fire from air friction when going down a hill to fast, while the friction with the ground tore the bike apart.
This happens to Gumball at the beginning of "The Curse" when he slips on a bar of soap while taking a shower.
Penny's pet tarantula, Mr. Cuddles was accidentally flushed down the toilet by her father in "The Date". However, it's subverted as he hid under the toilet seat, and Gumball finds it and returns it to Penny, but not before getting bitten multiple times in the process.
Darwin and Gumball flush themselves down a toilet in "The Secret" to escape from the boys bathroom in school when they're locked in. They return home through a pipe leading to their toilet at the end of the episode.
Gag Censor: In "The Colossus", When Gumball and Darwin visit Hector's room, Gumball discovers a "Captain Punch" comic, the following scene is a sequence where all the violent scenes and dialogues from the comic has been edited to be more friendly.
Gang Of Bullies: Anton and Jamie are members of Tina's gang, whether they want to be or not.
Gasshole: The Panda from "How to Ratatwang Your Panda".
Gender Equals Breed: Inverted. Gumball's parents are a female cat and a male rabbit. He's a male cat, and his sister is a female rabbit.
Hat of Power: A tinfoil hat that gives the wearer good luck in "The Helmet".
Here We Go Again: The endings of "The Refund"note The store manager has cheated the Waterson's out of a lot of money again, and they're ready to try to get that money back., "The Robot"note Bobert failed to steal Gumball's identity, so he's just going to try and take Darwin's., and "The Picnic"note Gumball and Darwin reach the picnic site and get something to eat (trash), but then get left behind by the rest of the class again and still don't know which way to follow.
Heroic BSOD: Gumball has one when Grandma Jojo kisses him on the lips by accident.
Not nearly as bad as Gumball's example, but in the same episode, Anais spends the whole episode (the entire weekend) trying to push Granny Jojo's heavy luggage up the stairs to her room. When she finally makes it, she proudly announces it to Granny Jojo, who tells her "That's nice dear, now bring it back down stairs. The bus will be here soon." The screen turns red and the camera slowly pans in on Anais' shocked face. You could just feel the despair in her eyes bleeding out.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: In "The Fridge", Nicole decides she needs to get Gumball to a "winner". Her methods include making him carry her (who is several time his size) up a flight of stairs on his back, abandoning him on a desert road to walk home, and having him hold up a metal golf club stand on their roof in a lightning storm.
As evident by the name, Gumball climbing Hector in "The Colossus" is an homage to Shadow Of The Colossus including climbing to a giant's weakspot by grabbing their fur and the way Hector falls over when he goes to sleep.
From that same episode, the design of Hector's mother is an homage to Yubaba from Spirited Away.
When Gumball and Darwin are temporarily turned into ghost during "Halloween", they try to possess Tina Rex. Their difficulties in controlling her body—having to manually operate her limbs—mirror the gameplay of QWOP.
Hypocritical Humor: In "The Responsible", Gumball and Darwin violently smash the TV (and somehow manage to set it on fire) so that Anais won't be subject to the violence on TV.
In "The DVD", Darwin keeps telling Gumball he should "tell the truth and face the consequences of [their] actions" when they accidentally break the DVD, but Gumball keeps saying no. However, later in the episode, Gumball tells Darwin the same thing, and Darwin punches him in the arm.
I Meant to Do That: At the end of "The Microwave" Gumball is knocked into the valve for the hose Kenneth swallowed, and when this saves everyone he pretends it was his idea.
I Owe You My Life: "The Debt", where Mr. Robinson "saves" Gumball (stops his slow-moving car when Gumball was too busy panicking to get out of its path) and Gumball decides he has to save Mr. Robinson in return, nearly killing him several times. Given Gumball had just shown to be a rather dedicated fan of Mr. Robinson, the whole thing may have just been an excuse to follow him around.
I Surrender, Suckers: Nicole tries to shoot Gumball in the back at the end of the family Paintball game in "The Fridge". Gumball could hear her reloading behind his back and shoots her anyway.
In "The Picnic" Gumball reasons that, because everything (including food) is made up "circles with circles around them" (atoms), a rock is the same as a chicken nugget.
In "The Meddler" Gumball reasons that by joining the cheerleading squad, he'll impress Penny with his masculinity and out preform her in the competition to make her love him.
The doughnut officer looks at something disturbing or a suspected crime scene, then at something else that looks dangerous, then at the only person conscious and treats them with unreasonable hostility. Despite having no knowledge of anything or no evidence.
In "The Spoon" he looks at a knocked out Darwin and Gumball, then Nicole, then a sausage and assumes she hurt them.
In "The Sock" he looks at Gumball and Darwin, then the filing cabinet, then a phone, and assumes they're responsible.
Interspecies Romance: Mr. and Mrs. Watterson, but considering in the same universe a cactus and a balloon can fall in love with each other, this isn't too unusual.
It Came from the Fridge: The monster from "The Microwave" originated when a bunch of gross stuff Gumball put in a jar was put in the microwave.
It's All My Fault: Subverted in "The Responsible". Gumball decides to take the rap for flooding the house, but when he sees the fire in his mom's eyes, he shifts the blame to Darwin. After they quarrel, Richard eventually decides to blame it on the Internet, to which everyone agrees.
Anais admits to filling in Darwin's aptitude test in "The Genius".
It Was Here I Swear: In "The Job" after Richard gets a job Nicole has a bad feeling about it and starts seeing things. Anais (and possibly the viewers) think this is all in her head at first, but then this strange phenomena is reported on the news and everyone can see it.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Played with in "The Prank". Gumball and Darwin almost get their father killed in the severity of their pranks, who in turn almost kills them.
Lampshade Wearing: In "The Party", we see a couple of characters dancing to the music wearing lampshades.
Limited Wardrobe: Lampshaded, as Gumball is especially distressed to find out his sweater came from a sewage pit because "I wear this all the time."
In "The Job" Anais present the fact that the family are wearing the exact same clothes they were wearing last year as evidence that really need Richard to hold down a job.
Line-of-Sight Name: Gumball tries this in "The Dress". What are the first things he sees? Someone chewing gum, and a ball. Which he quickly amends with "oops—egg—wobble—underpants." And then when he's asked where he's from, he sees gum and a bald head... and then "no, wig, battle-axe ninja!" His classmates ended up interpreting the whole thing as "Gumballoupseggwobbleunderpant from Gumballnowigbattle-axeninja".
Loads and Loads of Characters: The character page on the official site already lists 30 different named characters. And that's not even the entire cast — there are also a sauropod named Molly and a chin puppet named Sussie, the latter of whom even appears in the intro.
Logic Bomb: In "The Bet", Gumball tells Bobert (who is a robot) to divide by zero, resulting Bobert having a massive computerized freak-out.
Made of Explodium: In "The Watch" Richard assumes a pair of electric scooters will explode when they crash into each other. They're so slow that when they go right into each other they stop without either being damaged... then explode a second later anyway.
Magic Skirt: In "The Poltergeist" Nicole spends a good part of the episode hanging upside down in one of the traps Richard has set for "the ghost". Her gray pleated skirt doesn't move an inch.
Major Injury Underreaction: At the end of "The Prank", Richard rather nonchalantly mentions that he broke five ribs pretending to go on a rampage.
In "The Mystery", when seeking out whom to accuse of stuffing the principal in his locker, a spotlight shines on whoever is being accused. When he tries to accuse Rocky, the spotlight doesn't come on at first. Gumball then looks offscreen and says "I said him!"
Morton's Fork: At the end of "The Colossus", Gumball and Darwin finally get a friend request from Hector. Problem is, they now know that accepting or rejecting it could make him emotional enough to go on another rampage. So Gumball smashes the monitor with a hammer.
Mr. Seahorse: While disguised in the dress in "The Dress", Gumball has an imagine spot about Darwin marrying him (because Darwin doesn't realize he's just Gumball in a dress). In the Imagine Spot, Gumball is surrounded by cat/fish babies as Darwin comes home and yells "I WANT MORE KIDS!"
Missing Trailer Scene: Almost every trailer for the show had complete original scenes and were never in the actual episodes.
My Name Is Not Durwood: Despite trying to pretend he was his friend, Gumball always gets Alan's name wrong.
Mythology Gag: When we see Gumball's Elmore Plus account in "The Colossus", the photos and video seen in the corner are the same ones featured on Anais' flickr account and the ElmoreStream Youtube videos.
Nails on a Blackboard: Used in "The Kiss" as part of a regiment to make the trauma of kissing his grandmother on the lips not seem so bad.
Negative Continuity: The Halloween special explains Carrie was born a Ghost. Her first appearance in the series, however, makes clear she used to be alive.
Never Say "Die": Originally subverted then played straight with Carrie. Originally, she was said to be a dead girl, both in the show and Word Of God. The Halloween special retcons this to say that Carrie was born a ghost, and this is actually pivotal to the plot, as it explains why Carrie is not bound to face the limitation other ghosts have, such as being forced to live in the Underworld. Of course, the Halloween special also subverts this trope, since the other ghosts, who are all dragged to the Underworld in the end, would logically be dead people.
No Ontological Inertia: Exaggerated in "The Flower", as when a spirit of his concentrated jealously is rampaging, Gumball ceasing to be jealous makes the shockwave from an explosion it caused freeze in midair and disappear.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Nicole does this to Tina's father at the end of "The Fight". She completely demolished his house in the process.
Noble Shoplifter: Convinced that the impending solar eclipse will cause the end of the world, Gumball, Darwin, and Richard raid the local grocery store for supplies... with every intention of paying, of course, but the lines are obscene and the self-checkout refuses to behave. In the end, they charge out the door with a cart full of groceries and throw a fistful of money in the pursuing security guard's face.
Nonstandard Character Design: While most characters are drawn with a flat, stylized look, there are also quite a few that run the gamut from paper cutouts to photo-realistic dinosaurs.
Noodle Incident: In "The Responsible", Richard is mentioned to have somehow set fire to a swimming pool.
Noodle Implements: In "The Party" Darwin ends his Overly-Long Name with "III", suggesting he wasn't the Watterson family's first goldfish.
Not A Date: Inverted in "The Date". Penny invites Gumball to her house and he thinks it's a date because he was too lovestruck to hear everything she said; it really wasn't one, it was a funeral for her pet tarantula.
Not Now, Kiddo: Anais spends most of "The Painting" trying to tell everyone that she doesn't think there's anything wrong with her family but Principal Brown and her mother won't let her talk.
Not Wearing Pants Dream: Referenced in "The Responsible". Richard had to go to the parent-teacher conference without pants (because he can't find a pair that fits) and says he feels like he's in "one of those dreams. The ones where you go to school naked."
Nuclear Option: Mirrored, in "The Robot" when Bobert nukes Gumball despite being the exact opposite of a 'last resort.'
Also in the same episode when Anais' toy goes off next to a sleeping Tina
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Happens every once in a while, often British voice actors lose their American tongue for a second.
In the "The Robot" when Bobert says "How you talk" it sounds astonishingly British, which doesn't make a lot of sense seeing as how the character he's impersonating doesn't have a British voice actor.
Nicole, in some scenes where she's talking calmly and smoothly.
Organ Autonomy: Gumball's brain leaves his head when he tries reading a book in "The Genius."
Orphaned Punchline: At the beginning of "The Date" Richard finishes telling the family a story referencing the urban legend of mixing Pop Rocks and soda. His appearance at that point suggests he attempted it and the mixture blew up in his face.
Out of Character: Nicole in the episode "The Fridge" is a cruel character who abandons Gumball in a desert, attempts to electrocute him during a storm, persuades him to fight an elderly woman, forces him to carry her up stairs, and has him walking around in light clothing during cold weather. Its funny for a temporary episode but as a whole series, Nicole's actions are the exact opposite of what she advocates her children to do. Keep in mind this is the same character who flipped out and fought the parent of a bully because Gumball received a black eye.
Also in "The Genius", where Gumball suddenly becomes so dumb he can't operate a computer and suddenly forgets what the Internet is, despite in early episodes being able to clearly shoot a movie, edit it on the computer, and even suggest pirating a feature length film.
Darwin claims to have been a pacifist (or as he says it a pacifish) but constantly commits acts of violence and advocating to hurt something like in "The Microwave" with the monster and punching Gumball in the arm, hitting Gumball in the face with a ball over and over again and so on. Although it was to be expected, it was unlikely any character wasn't going to harm something in a show as action filled as this.
Though it's entirely possible she got another identical Daisy at some point after giving Tina the other one.
Overly Long Gag: In "The Picnic", Gumball and Darwin spare a caterpillar only for it to be grabbed by a hawk-like monster... which are both eaten by a large monster... which is eaten by a larger monster... which is eaten by an even bigger monster than that.
Pac-Man Fever: Video games seen at various points all have very 8/16-bit looking graphics. This trope is possibly lampshaded by how "The Refund" has Gumball trying to put what looks like an SNES cartridge into the disc drive of a console that looks like an Xbox 360 (with the controllers of an SNES) before realizing there's something wrong.
Panty Shot: Anais shows her underwear briefly to her brothers to emphasize she wasn't wearing any diapers in "The Responsible."
Parental Bonus: An entire episode is dedicated to Darwin and Gumball finding a third best friend. The conversation is funny to children, but absolutely side splitting to adults.
Gumball: It's only awkward if you MAKE it awkward.
Passing Notes In Class: In "The Party", the kids at school are about to attend Rachel's party, but they all have to bring a date. Gumball gets a mysterious note flown to him while in the cafeteria, saying "Will you be the jelly in my peanut butter sandwich?". It eventually turns out to be from Penny, who is literally a peanut.
Subverted in "The Mustache", when Gumball and Darwin are passing a drawing of themselves as adults and Miss Simian catches them, but decides since she's talking about puberty they're actually on-topic and continues her lecture.
Picky Eater: When Carrie takes over Gumball's body and starts binge-eating everything in sight, she takes a moment to remove the pickle slice from a hamburger before devouring the whole combo meal.
Puppy-Dog Eyes: Both Anais and Gumball use this on each other when she tries to convince him to go over to Tina's house to rescue Anais' doll. Anais wins.
Tina does it later in the episode. It works.
Quarter Hour Short/Two Shorts: A somewhat odd case, as while several of the first episodes were aired as Two Shorts, both new, it's since changed to a new Quarter Hour Short and a rerun played subsequently with one opening and ending between them, then close to the end of the the first season they switched the new and old episode around. Or two different quarter-hours rerun. Which now 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.
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!
Race Against the Clock: Basically, "The End" episode. Gumball, Darwin, and Richard race against the 'supposed' End of the World
Reality Breaking Paradox: Richard unwittingly does this in "The Job", because apparently him having a job goes against the rules of the universe.
Retro Universe: Most of the appliances have a very 70's/80's aesthetic but there are still DVD-players, a Youtube equivalent, and in "The Refund," Darwin says this:
Darwin: Why is it called [the Ripley] 2000 anyway? It's not like it's the future anymore!
Roger Rabbit Effect: The majority of the show's scenery starts as live-action photograph, but with filters and some objects drawn to make them clash with the characters less.
Running Gag: Certain episodes have their own running gags.
The Laziest: Characters referencing the Summer of '83, but getting interrupted by Gumball.
The Flower: Characters responding with a flat "Wow" every time something surprising happens.
Characters smashing through the school's windows is a common occurrence throughout the series, happening in "The Mystery", "The Sock" and "The Bet".
Saw Star Wars 27 Times: According to "The DVD", Gumball has seen Alligators on a Train 72 times.
In "The Bet", Gumball informs Darwin that he'll be getting outta here without him due to Bobert activating his self-destruct and Darwin is trapped.
The entire second half of "The Genius" is sparked by Gumball's brain quitting and ejecting himself from his head.
"The Treasure" has multiple moments where Gumball and Darwin regret their willingness to try and find the treasure with Anais, and 'attempt' to leave, multiple times.
Self Restraint: Inverted in "The Flower", when Gumball only stop holding his arms behind his back when someone tells him that he's not wearing handcuffs.
Gumball: Relax, sis, it's only a toy! Anais:(demonic voice)NO. IT'S. NOT.
She Is Not My Girlfriend: In "The Pressure", Masami decides that Darwin is her boyfriend to impress her own friends. Darwin's attitude throughout the episode is pretty much this, even down to saying the trope name word for word.
The first-person montage when Carrie possesses Gumball is reminiscent to the music video of "Smack My Bitch Up".
Also in "The Ghost", when Gumball is possessed by Carrie, he crawls along the ceiling and then rotates his head 180 degrees, just like the baby in the detox-hallucination scene in Trainspotting
In "The Quest," the scene when Gumball accidentally wakes up Tina Rex when he finally retrieves Anais's doll Daisy bears a slight resemblance to the scene from the first The Land Before Time movie when Sharptooth wakes up as Cera charges, scaring her away.
In "The Refund," the game Gumball is trying to refund looks similar to a Super Famicom cartridge.
Darwin and Richard toe-wrestle and they paint their big toes to look like Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan.
Richard asking Gumball to remove his paintball mask after being attacked by Nicole in "The Fridge" parodies Darth Vader's last request for Luke to remove his helmet in Return Of The Jedi.
In "The Job," Richard's step by step lesson on how to steal slices of pizza is done in the style of Wii graphics, right down to the music.
In "The Words", Gumball and Darwin's fight is done in the style of an early Street Fighter game. Gumball's victory poses are homages to Chun Li's ("yatta" included) and Akuma's, respectively.
The tune Banana Joe whistles in "The Banana" is similar to the "Twisted Nerve" music in Kill Bill, especially in how it transitions into an instrumental.
The opening scene of Richard explaining the history of the Watterson family's prized watch in the episode "The Watch" is reminiscent of a similar scene from Pulp Fiction, with Richard in place of Christopher Walken's role.
The jingle that plays when the kids find the secret entrance in the attic in "The Treasure" sounds a lot like the iconic "secret found" jingle from The Legend Of Zelda games.
Anais ends up smacking into the ground with Darwin and Gumball in "The Responsible" and run over by an old man's cart in "The Goons".
Slow No: Gumball in "The Debt" when he finds Mr. Robinson is about to get crushed.
Soft Water: Inverted: When Gumball jumps off a diving board into the school swimming pool, he belly-flops so hard against the surface of the water that it takes a couple seconds before the surface gives way and he finally sinks.
Stealth Pun: The solar eclipse in "The End". As the moon passes by the sun, he says, "You just got mooned!"
Sun: What is wrong with that guy?
Penny is a female peanut with antlers. You know, a doe-nut.
Ocho's mother is a giant flying vehicle. She's a mothership.
Sticky Situation: Banana Joe gets into one of those after using the tube of glue Gumball pierced in "The Banana". He made numerous "sticky situation" puns until he ripped his own eye out.
Stylistic Suck: "How to Ratatwang Your Panda." Contrast to the main show's Medium Blending, it is made entirley in crude CGI with very obvious animation errors. It also relies on fart jokes for humor, and the character models look straight-like they were ripped from Video Brinquedo.
Sudden Anatomy: A particularly over-the-top example in "The Robot" has Gumball's regular cat-like ear being replaced by a gigantic human-like ear when trying to listen to something across the room.
Suspiciously Similar Song: In "The Refund", Gumball and Darwin sing a song that sounds a lot like "We Are the World".
"The Ghost": Everytime Carrie possesses Gumball she forces him to overeat, and he wakes up the next morning with a Balloon Belly. He is back to normal by the time he's at school.
"The Laziest": When Lawrence turns back into Lazy Larry, he suddenly balloons to become as big as his couch.
"The Mustache:" Gumball, Darwin and Anais become hairy and muscular after eating a muscle-building supplement bought by Richard instead of their morning cereal.
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).
Timmy in a Well: When Mr. Small is stuck in his file cabinet, Gumball and Darwin have to get help even though he told them not to speak anymore. They try to non-verbally get help from Principal Brown, who thinks they're saying Ms. Simian is trapped in a well, and jumps out a window to try and rescue her. When they try again with Ms. Simian she ALSO thinks they mean she's trapped in a well and likewise jumps out a window to save herself. When they try to tell Rocky he understands exactly what they mean, gives them some crowbars to help, and then jumps out the window anyway.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Carmen and Alan; she's easily twice his size. To a lesser degree, Gumball and Penny, who's about one and a half times as tall as him.
Took a Level in Jerkass: In "The Mystery" Miss Simian makes the transition from simple Sadist Teacher to Tyrant Takes The Helm when she destroys evidence that implicates her and tries to have Gumball unjustly expelled. Another episode reveals that she was a complete Jerkass to Nicole for no reason and she pretends to be friends to Gumball and Darwin just to get an award.
Darwin in "The Words" when Gumball tries to get him to be a little more assertive, and he goes right through it and out the other side.
Training Montage: Gumball gives one to his brain, complete with upbeat training music.
Translation: Yes: In "The DVD", Darwin says "I don't really know how to speak Chinese because it is really hard to speak and I only know a little Chinese to speak so I can't speak it." in Chinese, which is subtitled as "No."
Two-Teacher School: Elmore Junior High only has a principal, one teacher, one guidance councilor, and one guy who does everything else. This is lampshaded in "The Bet", when it's implied Bobert preventing Brown, Simian, and Small from doing their jobs cancelled school because they were literally the entire faculty.
Turn Out Like His Father: The entire thought process with Nicole in the "The Gi" was the possibilities of Gumball and Darwin turning out like Richard. Presumably fat and lazy, without a job and being laughed at by children.
Ugly Cute: In-universe, Gumball and Darwin certainly think so about Kenneth, their "son". At least before he starts growing to tremendous proportions after eating people alive.
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 only call them Mom/Mum and Dad.
Villain Song: Parodied in the episode "The Words" with the song "No More Mr Nice Guy!" by Darwin, only for him to get cut off by Gumball slapping him in the face.
Visual Pun: "Everybody's bending over backwards for me!" Cue Mr. Small walking by, literally bent over backwards.
Vocal Evolution: Since Gumball and Darwin's voice actors are both in their early teens, both characters' voices have begun to deepen in Season 2 (especially Gumball, who has also gotten a little calmer sounding). Interestingly, both of their voices were cracking as early as the first episode.
Vocal Tag Team: Gumball and Darwin do this when singing about growing up and impersonating a rap video.
Voice Of Dramatic: Parodied in one of the show's commercials, where Darwin adopts a deep, dramatic voice to narrate the commercial in the style of a movie trailer.
Wallpaper Camouflage: Richard pulls a trick on some trick-or-treaters by making himself blend seamlessly into the front door and doorbell of his house to scare them off and drop their candy. His efforts are rewarded with nothing but raisins and granola bars.
Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: Most of the jobs around Elmore done by one of four people: Larry (cashier or clerk), Rocky (stuff at school), a blue thing named Pantsbully (construction), or a elderly, pink muffin lady (interviews for jobs and product testing).
Wingding Eyes: Lampshaded. When Darwin asks Gumball why his eyes just turned into hearts, he says it's allergies.
World Of Chaos: Elmore becomes this in "The Job" as a result of Richard getting a job.
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.
Wrong Genre Savvy: In "The Quest", Gumball and Darwin are being chased by an enraged Tina who then plan to stay perfectly still so she doesn't see them. "That only works in movies"
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