After Richard reveals that he lost the family's money (again), Larry the clerk tells the Wattersons that they can make more money by doing a commercial for Joyful Burger, but Gumball refuses to sell out and urges his family to keep their dignity in the face of losing their house, their car, and their animation quality.
Tropes:
- Art Shift: The Japanese Joyful Burger commercial was done by Montblanc Co. Ltd (which is based in Japan).
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:Nicole: Stop making fun of your brother's principles. He might take it as a challenge, and make our lives a nightmare.
- Bait-and-Switch Sentiment:Gumball: Look, guys. I get it. Times are hard. But we have something that they can never take away from us. The dishwasher! We could sell it and-
Anais: They took that.
Gumball: What? How? The whole thing was built in! - Breaking the Fourth Wall: The moment being broke really starts to be a bad thing for the Wattersons? When the animation starts degrading.
- Broke Episode: The Wattersons don't have any money left and try to live without it after Gumball forces them not to do the commercial for Joyful Burger, which leads to everything being repossessed. Then the budget for the show itself goes away, degrading the animation quality and the voice acting.
- By "No", I Mean "Yes":Anais: I don't mean to point the finger but... (points finger at Richard) Dad, what'd you do with the money!?
Richard: Well, I did what all the business sharks do to avoid getting taxed. I transferred it to an off-shore bank account.
Nicole: Richard, what exactly have you done with my—I'm sorry, our—no, wait, actually, my money? - Continuity Nod: The hip-hop clothes Darwin wears in the commercial are the same ones in the photo Principal Brown finds to blackmail Gumball and Darwin with in "The Fraud."
- Cuteness Equals Forgiveness: Nicole starts Hulking Out after finding out Richard lost all their money, but he calms her down using his "irresistible charm": Puppy-Dog Eyes and grabbing his sagging chest in the shape of a heart.
- Didn't Think This Through: Gumball didn't foresee that the consequences of having no money to buy things is not having things.
- Drop-In Character: Darwin's character in the Joyful Burger commercial doesn't seem to be part of the family the rest of the characters are in, just some kid who suddenly walks in on them and briefly raps about the restaurant.
- Every Man Has His Price: Gumball is reluctant to be in the commercial even when the whole world is about to collapse without it. Then he sees how much it pays, and we cut to the thing already completed.
- Gagging on Your Words: Anais cannot bring herself to admit Gumball was right to say they shouldn't sell out, so she asks Darwin to do it instead.
- Got Me Doing It: Anais gets annoyed enough with Gumball to punish him with his own word, "imaginate", after repeatedly insisting it isn't a real word.
- How Is That Even Possible?: Gumball's reaction to finding out that the dishwasher, which was built in, was repossessed.
- Hulking Out: Nicole grows muscular and giant twice, complete with glowing green eyes.
- Japandering: Nicole suggests doing the Joyful Burger commercial in another country so no one they know will ever see. It then cuts to a Disney Acid Sequence of a theoretical commercial with Nicole and Darwin which pastiches Japanese commercials.
- Insane Troll Logic: Richard thinks that Swiss cheese is healthier than regular cheese because "It has holes in it". While Swiss cheese is one of the healthiest kinds of cheese, it's not because it has holes in it.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The Wattersons' finances are inexplicably connected to the show's animation quality. When their money is gone it follows. Not to mention this is because they refuse to sell out.
- Literal-Minded: Richard thinks putting money on an offshore account is putting the money into a suitcase and throwing it into the ocean.
- Magic Pants: Nicole Hulking Out damages her clothes, but both times only enough to fray the edges and raise her midriff a bit.
- Malaproper: Gumball tells his family to "imaginate" a better life, which Anais points out is not a real word (although she ends up using it too).
- Medium-Shift Gag: The animation degradation at first leaves the Wattersons as still, rough sketches on a progressively glitching CGI background. Then they become storyboard images, then rough thumbnails, and finally as childish drawings on Post-It notes and printer paper.
- Narrative Shapeshifting: Gumball shapeshifts during his song about imaginating a better situation, taking the form all the things he describes, to the point that he "imaginates" the punishments his family describes in the following verses.
- Not Helping Your Case: The kids scream when the power goes out, and Richard makes a bad attempt at calming them down.Richard: I'm sure there's a perfectly rational explanation for this: We've just been kidnapped and we're all wearing blindfolds.
(kids yell louder) - Ocular Gushers: The Wattersons all start bawling their eyes out when they realize they're broke, but then realize they can't afford to waste water and start licking their own tears off the floor.Larry: Uh, hey, there might be a less gross solution.
- Pre-emptive Declaration: Nicole informs the butterknife taking the TV that it's broken. When he stops to confirm it with her, she kicks it into his gut.
- Product Placement: Parodied in a discussion. The family tries to convince Gumball to agree to be in the commercial by arguing there are ways to do it subtly while not being at all subtle in their demonstrations.
- Pun With Pi: During the Joyful Burger ad at the end of the episode, Richard says he ate Anais' homework because she said it had pie in it. Anais corrects him, saying she meant the number pi.
- Ridiculous Repossession: Repo men come to take away all the furniture in the Wattersons' house (including the dishwasher, which was built-in). Then they take the house as well; one of them even takes the grass the Wattersons are standing on and rolls it up like a rug.
- Soapbox Sadie: Gumball refuses to become a Sell-Out by starring in a commercial, even at the risk of remaining a scribble on a post-it. This is because he's going through a phase of exercising his freedom as an adolescent without being obligated to work a job for pay. Previously he only ate food he hunted himself and Nicole discourages Anais from criticizing him because he might take it as a challenge and become more obnoxious.
- Sound Defect: As the animation degrades, the Wattersons' yelling is briefly replaced with a bird's chirping.
- Stop Motion Lighting: When the Wattersons try to find their way to bed after the power goes out, their actions are briefly illuminated by the headlights of passing cars.
- Stylistic Suck:
- When the animation quality starts to drop, Anais' Mouth Flaps get scrambled, then Darwin becomes a crude crayon scribble, then the CGI elements start to glitch, and by the end the characters are stick figures on Post-it notes.
- The Joyful Burger commercial the Wattersons end up doing has terrible acting and the most garish fashions of the 1980s and early 1990s for costumes.
- Tastes Like Purple: When everyone admits Gumball is right in not wanting to sell out, he admits that he figured victory tasted sweeter. Darwin asks what it does taste like, then Richard sticks his finger in Gumball's mouth to find that it tastes "Kinda like hunger." Gumball has to slap Richard's hand twice to keep him from tasting it again.
- This Loser Is You: In-universe, the Wattersons are offered the role of a family in a commercial specifically because they're such a mess.Larry: You guys are the ideal Joyful Burger family... Not too attractive, not too intelligent, totally dysfunctional, you guys have got it all!
- Walking Wasteland: After the loss of the Wattersons' money starts affecting their animation quality, everything in proximity degrades until it spreads to the whole town.
- Weirdness Censor Somehow, no one but the Wattersons notice that the town is falling apart due to the lack of budget, save for Larry who urges them to do the commercial before they run out of time.
- Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: The rest of the family accept Gumball's refusal to star in the commercial when he's only given part of his speech about why.
