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Recap / The Amazing World Of Gumball S 4 E 6 The Check

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Anais: Well, it doesn't divide equally. One of us will have to be a penny short.
[cue Gumball, Darwin and Anais shouting in rage over who gets a single cent]

Louie gives Anais, Darwin, and Gumball a check for $5000. Each plans out their own way to spend it, only to expect their own demise, and they eventually start fighting over it.


Tropes:

  • Amusing Injuries: Lots occur in the imaginary car chase. Gumball crashes face first into a pole and keeps making a sputtering engine noise while knocked out. Darwin also crashes face first into a telephone pole and his busted mouth looks the busted hood of a car.
  • Bittersweet Ending: It turns out that the check was actually meant to be $50. The Wattersons are still happy to each get $10, and they hug Louie.
  • Book Ends: The plot is kicked off and resolved by the family hugging Louie in gratitude so tightly he pops up into the ceiling.
  • Call-Back: Because the car was destroyed in the previous episode in the rush to town hall, Nicole wants to use the money to repair it and the family must race to the bank in imaginary cars.
  • The Chase: Done with imaginary cars at the climax of the episode.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Gumball has to be reminded what a check is for since he starts playing with it the same way Granny Jojo showed them how to play with the boot she got them.
  • Continuity Nod: Mr. Small is seen driving Janice, the van he, Gumball, and Darwin retrieved in "The Void."
  • Conveniently Empty Roads: The roads are empty throughout the Wattersons' invisible car chase over the titular check, with the exception of a sole encounter with Mr. Small's van.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Darwin's charitable organization is named C.O.R.R.U.P.T. and his most prominent advisors are palette swaps of characters who were unlawful thugs in previous episodes. Unsurprisingly they convince him to "branch out" into non-charitable activities such as waste management.
  • Cutaway Gag: Used for flashbacks to times with Granny Jojo to explain why the kids are dubious to taking any food, having any fun or accepting any presents from old people.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Anais' proposal for the money involves investing it until she makes all of the money and destroying it to destroy the economy, forcing everyone to give it up along with all their things and live in harmony with nature. Unfortunately her scenario leaves everyone too blissful as predators make easy targets of them.
  • Downer Ending: Each of the kid's Imagine Spots end this way.
    • Darwin's charity company ends up blowing a large majority of their budget on the building, the marketing budget and the salaries of the employees (as well as donuts), forcing him to expand into toxic waste management, where he's attacked by zombies.
    • Anais' proposal of gathering all the money in the world to destroy it to create peace works at first… until predators start attacking everyone, ending with Anais herself getting snatched by a Kidnapping Bird of Prey.
    • Gumball's proposal of giving everyone robot servants results in them turning against their masters. Gumball, realizing what's going to happen, nukes the country.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: There's a massive explosion after Richard crashes his imaginary truck.
  • Fake Charity: Darwin's theoretical charity ends up spending almost all its donations on building itself up and paying its staff, not on helping the needy. Then Fenton spends some of the remaining $12.30 on doughnuts.
  • Fantasy Helmet Enforcement: Parodied; Louie rides into the bank and takes off a helmet that is as imaginary as the motorbike he came in on.
  • Foregone Conclusion: Once the Robot War begins in Gumball's Imagine Spot, he decides to speed up what he thinks is eventually going to happen.
    Gumball: My fellow Americans! …I think we all know where this is going, so let's just skip to the end. (Pushes a Big Red Button on his desk, triggering a nuclear explosion)
  • Fun with Acronyms: Darwin says his charity would be called the Coalition Of Really, Really Useful People Together.
  • How Is That Even Possible?: Everyone stops to ponder how Nicole drove off in an imaginary car with Anais wondering why they even need a car if she can do that. Even Gumball calls her out on this when he chases after her.
    Gumball: Give me the check! We CLEARLY don't need a car!
  • Misplaced a Decimal Point: Or rather forgot to place one. Louie realises this at the end of the episode and corrects his $5000 check to a $50.00 check. Too late, of course, to prevent the hilarity from ensuing.
  • Nuke 'em: Gumball's immediate solution to Robot War of his scenario is have the government nuke itself, just to expedite to the most obvious conclusion.
  • Refuge in Audacity: After taking a moment to wonder how she did it, everyone quickly gets into their own imaginary cars (all doing their own sound effects) and engages Nicole in a car chase with reckless driving and crashes, all excused by the fact they're not actually driving cars; Louie catches up to them at the end on an imaginary motorcycle with an imaginary helmet.
  • Robot War: How Gumball concludes things would end if he became President of the World and gave everyone robot servants.
  • Running Gag: Darwin coming out of the kid's Imagine Spot with a scream. The third time this happens, Anais plugs his mouth shut out of annoyance.
  • Saying Sound Effects Out Loud: Since all the cars are imaginary everyone makes every sound effect for them. Anais isn't able to ask a fellow driver for directions on the road until she verbally rolls down her own imaginary window.
  • Sequel Episode: The episode takes place after "The Signature" (itself a sequel to "The Man"), with Louie now the new grandfather of the Watterson children.
  • The Only Believer: In Darwin's imagined use of the check, he starts a charity organization but ends up with everyone else in the chief staff just trying to get a personal salary out of it.
  • Zombie Apocalypse: The end result of Darwin's theoretical charity, after it branches out into toxic waste management to make more money.

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