The prize jewel on the Secret Joyful Burger menu is a mysterious burger, but to order it you need to know its name. When Larry refuses to tell the Wattersons what it's called, they go to super-sized lengths to discover it.
Tropes:
- Acrofatic: The episode opens with Richard running at Super-Speed, blowing through a row of house walls, running over water through a boat, and failing to jump across an unfinished bridge but running up the canyon wall anyway.
- Body Horror: Richard literally starts sweating lard, called "sward", and later intentionally sweats sward made of cheese called "sweeze". Gumball and Darwin both retch at the sight of it.
- Bowdlerization:
- The UK reruns and Irish version cut Richard pretending he's speaking through an intercom ("One secret [Static] burger to go, you little— [Static]") due to implied bad language, the sound of Larry spitting on the burger off-screen due to rude humor, and Richard taking Burgie's fingers off, deep-frying them, and eating them due to dangerous behavior. These cuts were also done on the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Hungarian dubs.
- Cartoon Network Middle East/North Africa only cut Larry spitting on the burger and Richard deep-frying Burgie's fingers and eating them, while leaving in the intercom static gag. However, the channel did make cuts of their own:
- Richard jumping over the unfinished bridge when he races to the mall was cut.
- Richard sweating out "sward" (sweat and lard) and "sweeze" (sweat, lard, and cheese) during their rush to eat every burger in town was cut. This was also cut in the Hungarian dub.
- The edits done on the Russian and Bulgarian dub are a combo of what was cut in the UK/Ireland/continental Europe dub and the Cartoon Network Middle East/North African dub.
- The Polish dub only edits out Richard trying to eat the M'Guffin Burger (and failing, as he ate every other burger in town) and Richard sweating out "sward" and "sweeze".
- Fake Static: Richard's first attempt at learning the name of the secret burger has him faking static at the drive-thru intercom. Except there is no intercom, just a window. Then he tries it at the window.
- Fast-Food Nation: Fast food chains are parodied through Joyful Burger; their average kids meals have less nutrition than the toys that come with them, an inundation of franchises destroys neighborhoods for convenience and the business decisions they make to increase profit and production are hard on employees, abominably against nature and ultimately require the surgical removal of your heart to emotionlessly run the whole thing.
- The Fat Episode: Richard gets explosively fat as he eats something from every Joyful Burger in town.
- Interrogation by Vandalism: In a final effort to learn the secret burger's name, Gumball, Darwin, and Richard knock out Larry and tie him up, but they don't torture him. Instead, they do things to the Joyful Burger mascot, Burgie, who is just an inanimate figure. They fake pictures of him eating a competitor's food, harming Darwin, and blending a chicken foot (the last one doesn't take as "that's just how nuggets are made"). What makes Larry give in is Richard breaking Burgie's fingers off, deep-frying them, and eating them.
- Literal-Minded: Promoted to franchise managers, Gumball and Darwin halve expenses by literally cutting everything in half, starting with Larry's paycheck and uniform.
- MacGuffin: The secret menu item, which can only be ordered by name, and turns out to be called the M'Guffin.
- Mega Meal Challenge: To learn the name of the secret menu item one has to eat a burger from every Joyful Burger in town within an hour. If one can go as far as to finish the item itself in under 15 minutes then Joyful Burger will pay for their hospital bills.
- Nutritional Nightmare:
- Apparently the average kids meal from Joyful Burger has less nutritional value than the toy that comes with it.
- The secret menu item, rumored to serve as enough to replace all three meals for seven people for seven years, turns out to be a dagwood burger that Gumball describes as "grosser than a normal burger". It's also rumored that if one can finish it within 15 minutes Joyful Burger will pay for their hospital bills.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: 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. Still, now that he knows the name, he can presumably order it whenever he likes.
- Skewed Priorities: Darwin and Gumball become insanely rich and powerful billionaires, but Richard gives them a disappointed look because they were too busy becoming stupidly wealthy to remember to help him get a burger.
- Squick: Richard's Body Horror of "sward" and "sweeze" is this In-Universe to Gumball and Darwin.
