"How can we be expected to discover new elements if you're so concerned with 'playing by the rules'?"
No matter what Gumball does, Carmen thinks she knows better; when Gumball attempts to gain the moral high ground, but fails, his only option left is to bring Carmen down to his level.
Tropes:
- Bland-Name Product: The voice-activation program on Tobias' phone is called Query, as opposed to Siri.
- Bothering by the Book: In the opening scene, Gumball technically addresses Carmen's complaints, but does something even more bothersome in the process. When she says he should look at people's face while he's talking to them, instead of at his phone, he sticks his phone on her forehead. When she says he shouldn't just eat meat, he throws his food away. When she says he's wasting food, he eats out of the garbage.
- Bowdlerization: The Russian and Bulgarian dubs cut the chemistry lab sequence to remove the reveal that Gumball agreeing with Carmen and dancing about it is actually Gumball (high on the fumes from the chemical lab) twerking upside-down while two guys in hazmat suits try to capture him and Carmen has a handkerchief over her nose.
- Brick Joke: Early in the episode Gumball tells Darwin that Anais makes a smug face that looks like a wiener dog when she uses a clever word. When Anais shows up later she makes the exact face, prompting Darwin to laugh.
- Can't Take Criticism: Gumball hates listening to Carmen's advice, no matter how sensible or obvious it is.
- Chalk Outline: Parodied; Gumball gets worried about a picture of a chalk outline in Carmen's school record, but Darwin points out it's actually her graffiti of a man farting.Darwin: The police don't go around drawing toot bubbles on a crime scene.
- Commander Contrarian: Gumball is so dead set against taking Carmen's advice that he literally eats trash just to spite her.
- Condescending Compassion: Carmen's lecturing can be a bit smug, but not nearly as much as Gumball finds it to be.
- A Day in the Limelight: The first episode to focus on Carmen separate from her role as Alan's girlfriend.
- Dissonant Serenity: As Darwin realizes he accidentally sent the video, he shows a serene expression on his face. A specter of himself with a look of unimaginable horror rises behind him.
- Everything Is Racist: Gumball attempts to counter all of Carmen's criticisms by painting her as intolerant. It backfires when Carmen points out how reprehensible it is to invoke activism to win a petty argument.
- Exact Words: Carmen says not to pull a prank on Ms. Simian because she has feeling just like anyone else. Ms. Simian insists Carmen is right because she definitely enjoys harshly punishing Gumball for said prank.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look at the computer screen while Gumball and Darwin struggle over the mouse, you can see the cursor letting go of the video of Carmen (marked with a "play" icon) and grabbing the security footage of Gumball (marked with a surveillance camera).
- Harsh Word Impact: Gumball's argument with Carmen creates shockwaves that knock around furniture and leave her bruised. Her counterargument summons a holy light that blasts Gumball through several walls.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Gumball attempts to shame Carmen for criticizing the way he lives. Of course it fails because she knows he's just trying to win an argument for his own petty reasons, which makes all his shame fly back in his face. And he can't even get mad at her for it, because she's so forgiving about it.
- Gumball's attempt to send a video exposing Carmen's delinquent life at her old school ends up showing security footage of him getting his pants pulled off. However, Gumball decided not to send the video; it only went out because Darwin hit "send" by accident.
- Innocently Insensitive: While Carmen was trying to look out for people other than herself, she was pretty smug doing so. She did raise some good points about Gumball's behavior, but some things (such as what Gumball ate for lunch) were quite frankly none of her business.
- I Resemble That Remark!:
- Gumball talks to Carmen with his mouth full, and she warns him he could choke. Gumball insists she not tell him what to do, causing him to choke until he loses consciousness and burps up a drumstick.
- Carmen says Gumball will get a cramp if he's not careful how he holds his pen. Gumball's apparent attempt to respond by Flipping the Bird fails because his hand cramps up.
- Idiot Ball: Darwin and Gumball try to stop people from seeing a video they posted by breaking the phones of everyone they messaged to watch it. They don't think to just take the video down, so of course it becomes an Instant Web Hit anyway.
- Made of Indestructium: Idaho's phone can survive being thrown on the ground and a full speed truck rolling on it. Gumball has to throw it in the sewer only so it would be out of reach.
- Milholland Relationship Moment: Played with; Carmen seemingly finds out Gumball and Darwin uploaded the video of her being expelled from Franklin Junior High, but isn't upset about it. However, while she really isn't trying to hide her past, it turns out they sent out an entirely different video of Gumball humiliating himself.
- Must Make Amends: When Darwin accidentally sends (what he thinks is) the video of Carmen to everyone, he and Gumball frantically try to cover it up to save her reputation.
- Ninja Prop: Carmen's old teacher appears on TV, seemingly with his face pixellated. Then he talks about how she made fun of his blurry face, and turns his head to show it is flat.
- Reality-Breaking Paradox: When Tobias tells his phone to play the email he just got, Darwin overrides the command by telling it to divide zero by zero. It opens up a black hole that sucks Tobias in.
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Gumball texts Carmen even though he's sitting across from her in the same table.
- Subverted Suspicion Aesop: Played with; Gumball goes through Carmen's records and, despite Darwin's insistence that there's nothing to find, it's discovered she had a huge rap sheet at her old school. However, in the present, Carmen is fully reformed and turns out to not even be trying to hide her past.
- Success Hallucinations: When Gumball mixes a bunch of random chemicals together, the fumes make him hallucinate that Carmen admits it was a good idea.
- Take That!: Ramblr is one to Tumblr and how it's devolved into "a bare-knuckle fight to see who's the most tolerant person on the Internet."
- With This Herring: Ms. Simian makes Gumball clean the elephant he drew on the wall with a cotton swab.
