A Definitive Ranking of Every Episode of The Amazing World of Gumball, Part VII: 74-50

This is Part VII of my definitive ranking of every episode of The Amazing World of Gumball. For Part VI, CLICK HERE.

74. S01E02 - “The Colossus” (8/14/12)

What Happens?: Gumball and Darwin want to befriend Hector, but believe that his mother is holding him back too much.

Why Is It on the List Here?: “The Colossus” is a spectacle, and as Bocquelet has made especially clear, a love letter to one of his favorite video games, Shadow of the Colossus. The artistic direction that the episode takes, naturally, is breathtaking; once Gumball and Darwin successfully have Hector revolt from his mother, Mrs. Jötunheim, he proceeds to wreak havoc over Elmore, and it becomes their mission to help sedate him, allowing for the show to play around with sweeping aerial shots and the like as Gumball, Darwin, and Jötunheim fly towards him on magic brooms. Hector’s played a few bit roles here and there, but “The Colossus” offers us the first glimpse of his true scale, and it’s sort of an awe-inspiring moment.

That’s not to dismiss “The Colossus” in terms of its actual narrative, either, which is equally strong. Hector lives a very simple, safe lifestyle because he has to, and instilling him with excitement causes him to fall upon his untapped, destructive tendencies; through that, this is the first episode of Season 2 that demonstrates to Gumball that his actions not only have consequences, but that he doesn’t always know what’s best for other people, even if he remains a lovable scamp throughout the entire ordeal. In that sense, too, of demonstrating that other characters have their own internal lives, “The Colossus” does a great job at making Elmore even a little bit more believable.

Best Moment: The abrupt ending tag shows Gumball getting a friend request from Hector. Friending him would make him excited, whereas saying no would make him angry; with both outcomes ending in destruction, he proceeds to smash his computer with a hammer. Sounds dumb, but the timing is fantastic.

73. S03E13 - “The Boss” (7/21/14)

What Happens?: Rocky gets a job at Chanax after his father gets hospitalized.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Some of my favorite episodes are the ones that show how truly dark Elmore is behind its cheerful, colorful facade, and “The Boss” is exactly that, a hyperbolic bit of satire mocking corporations and meaningless office jobs. It’s just fantastically grim, painting Rocky as a soulless husk who can never escape his desk, buried under mountains of paperwork and endless phone calls—it’s a job that quite literally sucks the life out of him, and the sort that requires the applicant to breathe their soul into a jar before being accepted. While Rocky himself doesn’t get too many solid moments indebted to his zombification (Gumball and Darwin end up guiding him through the episode’s climax), he makes for an engaging lead, and the earlier parts of the episode that show him preparing for his job, with Gumball and Darwin’s help, are a lot of fun.

A lot of people, though, have a harsher view of “The Boss” because of how much Mr. Robinson gets beaten up. The catalyst for the whole episode is that Gumball and Darwin push him over the edge, meaning Rocky has to take a job to pay for his recovery, and throughout the episode, Gumball and Darwin repeatedly interject and cause him more pain. I’ve never taken issue with that, though; Mr. Robinson, by design, is a cantankerous, bitter old man, and he’s rarely supposed to elicit our sympathy in the first place.

With that being said, the ending, where he explodes upon hearing that Rocky has decided to take his old job back, is somewhat problematic. It feels like a bit of a cop-out that doesn’t mock the status quo so much as use it as a narrative crutch, which Gumball occasionally relapses into from time to time. For the most part, though, “The Boss” is great.

Best Moment: Gumball and Darwin scrounging to make Rocky a resume based on interpretations of his limited skill set was fantastic, as was the reveal that the resume was three sentences long with every letter being in a different color.

72. S06E28 - “The Slip” (11/07/18) 

What Happens?: Richard fights to retrieve his package from an uncooperative delivery guy.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Every once in a while, a solid episode of the show just falls through the cracks, and that fate befell “The Slip” when it aired. It’s not particularly ceremonious, but it’s tight, giving Richard an excellent role as the leading man while pairing him up phenomenally with a new antagonist: Gruber, his cruel, pantomime-impaired delivery guy. It’s far from one for the ages, but the simple premise allows for some wonderful joke-telling and a nice bit of unpredictability in all of the varied directions that its narrative takes.

It’s sort of hard to describe why I think “The Slip” works so well compared to other episodes, but I think a large part of it is just how much it understands what it’s aiming to be, and all of the subtle ways it allows everything to build up. This could’ve easily become another entry in the show hinged on Richard being an idiot who gets repeatedly swindled by Gruber, but the humor becomes more about Gruber’s propensity for weird showmanship through his elaborate ruses. Sure, Richard’s idiocy factors into it quite a bit, but it still feels deeply-ingrained into his character rather than a result of the writers reaching or compromising parts of his personality, and that allows for some great chemistry between the two characters. In a weird way, they unleash the best out of one another in their opposition, culminating in an elaborate hide-and-seek on Gruber’s part and an epic speech for the lazy on Richard’s. (Gumball and Darwin, too, are admirable supporting characters, helping to keep everything moving whenever Richard reaches a mental stalemate.)

This is the sort of episode that’s just bound to be forgotten, but that just makes it all the more enjoyable on the odd chance you come back to it. 

Best Moment: Other than the near-perfect recreation of Loss, Gruber’s repeated failure to mime things properly is the best recurring gag here. I wish we’d gotten to see more of the guy, though he makes the most of the screentime he gets.

71. S04E20 - “The Traitor” (1/28/16)

What Happens?: Gumball gets angry when he thinks that Alan bails on hanging out with him.

Why Is It on the List Here?: At the surface, there’s not a lot to really praise about what “The Traitor” is trying to do. It’s a sequel to the show’s first Alan-centered episode, “The Saint,” but without pushing as hard to reveal something new in either character. Instead, it spends its time chewing on their established relationship: Gumball has a deep hatred for Alan, and hijinks ensue. In terms of execution, though, this is a fantastic episode that manages to get out as many unexpected laughs as possible. For crying out loud, it starts with a parody of HowToBasic, and ends with Gumball and Darwin attempting to perform invisible surgery on Alan. There’s so many weird decisions made, and all of them pay off, beginning as a simple adventure to expose Alan as a traitor, but finding some new angle with every new scene. 

Most of that success is indebted to how strong of a conceptual foundation “The Traitor” has. It’s deeply grounded in Gumball’s sense of pride; he relishes in the thought of being able to prove himself as better than Alan solely for a rush of superiority, and that throughline makes for a strong, psychological constant that holds everything about the episode, and all of the varied ideas it combines, together.

It’s sort of the perfect underrated Gumball outing; it’s not trying to be groundbreaking so much as funny, and it’s unbelievably funny. Sometimes, that’s all you really need.

Best Moment: Gumball goes on a mad rampage at one point where every time he runs into someone, they explode. Then he runs into Julius, and he doesn’t. It’s perfect.

70. S03E27 - “The Butterfly” (1/08/15)

What Happens?: Gumball and Darwin set a butterfly loose.

Why Is It on the List Here?: The butterfly effect is an oft-repeated idea when it comes to making silly, throwaway television episodes, but “The Butterfly” takes it as an opportunity to showcase the town of Elmore as a whole and the various ways that the effect makes every scenario go more awry, going from a butterfly landing on a construction worker’s helmet to a massive tornado in the span of about ten minutes. While it’s laid out similarly to your run-of-the-mill vignette episode, “The Butterfly” has each scene come together to tell an ongoing narrative, and I feel like that makes a massive difference in how it all ties together in the end. It’s one thing to be made up of uniformly-strong scenes, but it’s another thing entirely for each of those scenes to go hand-in-hand, finding some minor, obscure action that sets off an event with broader consequences.

The peak of all of that insanity, though, is “Elmore Help Desk,” a song I personally love that nobody else really does. It’s a call-and-response musical number helmed by Karen, a character we’ve formally only gotten to know as Larry’s girlfriend way back in “The Laziest”; here, she’s an increasingly stressed out help desk clerk who has to endure the uncontrolled wrath of all of the characters hurt by the butterfly effect earlier in the episode. It’s fantastic as a callback mechanism, obviously, but it’s also just a really creative way of epitomizing the episode’s premise before unleashing yet another misfortune to carry on the chain of events.

I do know, though, that there’s a general ambivalence towards “The Butterfly,” and a lot of it has to do with the abruptness of its ending, which comes at a somewhat strange time (immediately revealing the tornado that the episode’s events created, only cut to black a second later). That’s never been a massive issue with me, though; sure, it’s sudden, but “The Butterfly” is an episode much more about the journey than the destination, and the journey it takes us on is one chock-full of belly laughs and sharp writing. 

Best Moment: Good morning, Elmore Help Desk. How can I assist you?

69. S01E32 - “The Curse” (2/14/11)

What Happens?: Gumball has to endure a day of egregiously bad luck.

Why Is It on the List Here?: There are very few episodes from Season 1 that I’d call brilliant, and “The Curse” is at the top of that (admittedly short) stack. Episodes built around Gumball being beaten to the ground by the universe are almost always destined to fail, but “The Curse” makes it work with one simple adjustment: Gumball’s not playing into it. It’s not just that he’s oblivious to his life becoming a hellish universe where anything could come out of nowhere and try to murder him; he’s self-aware of that fact, and he’s trying his darndest to stay out of harm’s way without being able to catch a break. He’s a rational guy, not an idiot, and the bad luck he endures is out of his control, and for once, not a symptom of his behavior.

The way the show executes all of this, too, is phenomenal. First, Darwin tries to one-up Gumball’s bad luck with some good luck, which fails spectacularly. Then, Anais steps up as the skeptic to prove that bad luck doesn’t exist, and that fails even worse to the point where even she has no idea what’s wrong with him. The episode beats the inevitability of Gumball’s suffering in hard, yet it works so well, allowing the episode to get progressively more and more intense to the point where Elmore Junior High explodes and Gumball gets shot out onto the street in a janitor’s cart going at a hundred miles an hour right off of an expressway. There’s action, stakes, great animation, and a sense of hope for the series’ future—it’s everything you could possibly want from an episode of the show in its first season.

Best Moment: The sequence where Gumball is struggling to survive being carted down a freeway in a janitor’s cart is one of Season 1’s greatest moments, but I want to take a second to talk about the ending, too. All the Wattersons decide, with Gumball’s luck restored, to wish for a ticket to Daisyland (which was discussed at the beginning of the episode); their wish causes a ticket to fly into the air, all the way over to them… before it flies into a fan, after which Darwin says, “Yay! I wished for snow!” With that, the show’s love of abrupt endings began, and my God can they hit hard.

68. S04E39 - “The Scam” (10/27/16)

What Happens?: Gumball, Darwin, and Carrie fake hauntings to score free candy, but their actions quickly face some supernatural consequences.

Why Is It on the List Here?: While Gumball’s other Halloween offerings aren’t anything too phenomenal because of the age-old limitations of thematic episodes, “The Scam” goes far and beyond, with the end result being as compelling a journey as they come. Gumball doesn’t pull a single punch, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that “The Scam” feels fully developed as a character showcase for all three leading members—Gumball, Darwin, and especially Carrie—with its Halloween themes being more of a casual perk.

Gumball and Darwin, as the show’s protagonists, are used to maximum effect here. Gumball exercises peak cynicism in literally tricking the entire school into thinking that an evil spirit, Gargoroth, is roaming the halls and searching for victims, all for some low-effort candy; Darwin, meanwhile, gets to maintain the role of moral compass somewhat, though with his morality significantly-obstructed by his crush on Carrie, “The Scam” gets to flesh out his character in a different direction. Carrie, lastly, is the star of the show, allowing for some awesome, supernatural antics in the Ghostbusters sequence and adding to Gumball’s mischievousness in an exciting way: they’re just two folks hoping to get some suckers from some suckers. (Bad pun? You’ve been reading this stuff for two months, you should know what to expect from me.)

Their dynamic peaks in the episode’s climax, where Gargoroth surfaces for real, and the three are forced to actually perform some real-life ghost-busting. Gumball gets to play with the idea of going full-blown thriller, all while keeping the characters true to form: Carrie offers solutions with her general knowhow on the paranormal, Gumball is stubborn to the end, putting up a selfish fight in sacrificing all their candy to Gargoroth, and Darwin gets to be hilariously (though also acceptably) dramatic when Carrie almost marries Gargoroth as their sacrifice to him. That the selfless act that saves them is Gumball giving up his last piece of candy out of complete irritation is the perfect ending: what goes around comes around, but at least Carrie and Darwin are a few steps closer to going on a date.

Best Moment: Of course Mr. Small gives them loose raisins as payment. Who else would?

67. S05E02 - “The Stories” (09/01/16) 

What Happens?: Gumball and Darwin try to help Molly learn how to tell an interesting story.

Why Is It on the List Here?: There’s an inherent simplicity to “The Stories” that just really makes it work. Although it ends with antics as high-strung as you could expect from the show, this is a very low-key episode for an appropriately low-key character: the effortlessly dull Molly. While “The Void” (further down the list) digs deep into that character trait, going for a more meta angle, “The Stories” shoots more for the slice-of-life camp of having Gumball and Darwin attempt to fix her unconscious monotony, and when all else fails, create the most epic story they can for her. 

While that sounds basic, the means that the episode takes to illustrate its points are insane in all the best ways, perhaps most notably in a dodgeball game that transforms into a gritty war scene, with all of Gumball and Darwin’s classmates deliberately allowing themselves to be knocked unconscious by Jamie than be forced to listen to more of Molly’s stories. Similarly, the closing sequence becomes a showcase for the show’s supporting cast, with everyone from Carrie to Coach Russo playing a role in Gumball and Darwin’s fabricated story.

That’s why “The Stories” works, cut and dry: everybody wins. Even Molly wins, taking Gumball and Darwin’s gesture as a sign that they’re friends! Happy endings in Gumball are few and far between, but “The Stories” manages to pull it off with complete sincerity, and compared to the episodes surrounding it, this is a great chance to just cool down, sit back, and relax.

Best Moment: Gumball’s edit of Molly, in an attempt to cut out every boring part of her stories, ends up just being a series of cuts of her breathing.

66. S05E15 - “The Vase” (2/13/17)

What Happens?: Nicole enlists the kids’ help in destroying a hideous vase that Granny Jojo gifted her.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Against all odds, an episode about breaking a vase somehow contains some of the darkest, most macabre jokes from the entire show’s run, let alone that it’s balls to the wall fantastic. It’s pretty much proof that with enough attention to detail, the show’s writers can make any premise work, with “The Vase” being a perfect example of milking a simple idea all the way to victory.

There’s something inherently hilarious about the namesake vase’s magical indestructibility, and it allows for some great visual comedy in Gumball, Darwin, and Anais’ prolonged attempts at destroying it, all leaving disaster in their wake. The episode’s greatest successes though, are in how it uses Nicole, surprisingly enough. While she’s absent throughout most of "The Vase" aside from planting the seeds for the kids to break it with some hilariously unparental reverse psychology, her re-entry into the episode to save the vase from uncertain destruction at the wrecking yard after learning that Granny Jojo needs it back (it apparently contains the ashes of Louie’s python) allows her to show off more of her penchant badassery with an inspired action sequence. 

Lastly, going back on what I said at the start: “The Vase” dips into some dark-as-hell territory. Whether it’s in all of the kids imagining their futures stuck with the vase, or Gumball criticizing Richard’s inability to drop the vase considering he couldn’t do that when Gumball was a baby, or literally the final moment of the episode, where they break Granny Jojo’s newly-gifted replacement vase only for python ashes to explode out, there’s an unrelentingly weird level of sinister comedic genius. There’s no reason “The Vase” should work anywhere near as well as it does, but it’s never escaped my memory, and it deserves that credit.

Best Moment: During the bit where we get a look at all of the kids imagining their future with the vase, the final scene shows Darwin literally dying with the vase as his only friend before zooming out of… the vase, which is suggested to have had those thoughts. Dark.

65. S05E16 - “The Matchmaker” (2/14/17) 

What Happens?: Gumball helps set Darwin up with Teri with help from Carrie, only to realize that he had a crush on Carrie from the start.

Why Is It on the List Here?: While at one point I considered “The Matchmaker” to be a high point for the series, one of its greatest issues comes down to context. There really is a lot to love here in Gumball’s numerous attempts to unite Darwin and Teri through the first half, and to his and Carrie’s efforts in the second half to split them up, and perhaps the greatest strength of “The Matchmaker” is that it doesn’t ever take itself too seriously, but that’s also what holds the episode back. When it aired, me and a lot of others were excited that this would mean that Carrie would be able to step it up in the role she plays in the show, and that the writers would explore their relationship dynamic (especially because of the general disappointment surrounding Penny’s use post-“Shell”), but none of that came. “The Matchmaker” was an ambitious way to change the status quo, but short of one fairly disappointing episode, “The Drama,” she started to pop up even less.

It’s a problem that Gumball has quite a bit towards its later seasons: it gets ambitious without considering what comes with that. And I get why: this is an episodic show, so why settle down? The issue is that it messes with expectations, and it makes episodes like “The Matchmaker,” which are otherwise so sweet and conceptually-exciting, feel meaningless without the potential they create being seized upon. Additionally, the fact that an episode that should be as theoretically Darwin-centered as this one robs him of any input in his own story while Gumball does all of the heavy-lifting feels like a frustrating way of continuing his neglect in the grand scheme of things, even if he does get a solid highlight in the form of “Without You.”

“The Matchmaker” is amazing at what it does, with sharp comedy and sweet emotional beats, but it’s disappointing when it comes to what it doesn’t.

Best Moment: “I don’t think there’s a cure for that.” -The School Nurse, crushing it as always.

64. S04E37 - “The Fury” (8/19/16)

What Happens?: Nicole’s old rival, Yuki, returns to Elmore demanding a fight.

Why Is It on the List Here?: “Hey Matt, what the hell? ‘The Fury’ right now? Really? Are you taking this list seriously at all?” Yes. That’s why it’s here, in a decent place for strong episodes. It’s just not too close to the top, and I have my reasons.

First of all, “The Fury” is obviously pretty awesome, if not exclusively because of its climax, during which Gumball transforms into an epic anime fighting sequence animated by Studio 4°C; wherever you fall on the viewer appreciation spectrum between respectful enjoyment and ensuing wet dreams, it’s a massive crowd-pleaser that’s impossible to hate. For better or worse, it’ll be considered by many to be the series’ crowning achievement, a moment where the show went all in and reaped the benefits. But myself… I’m really torn on it.

I’m not saying I didn’t appreciate it at all, but to think that a sequence that the Gumball crew didn’t even animate is going to be the series’ crowning achievement just makes me feel a bit… sad. And yes, the show went all in, but the rest of the episode literally just exists for an anime fighting sequence to happen. It has its moments, but it’s fairly graceless and straightforward, with Yuki being a jerk to Nicole and calling her a coward for a bit while Nicole considers herself the better person, refusing to fight her. Then, suddenly, that’s out the window. It feels like the episode buying time, and while it leads to some opportunities for great little scenes, like Masami unfolding the two characters’ elaborate history Dragonball-style, the conceit of “The Fury” is hollow. I let it generally slide in the end, because it’s clear that Ben and the writers legitimately care about creating something of a masterpiece, but if it weren’t for the stylistic changes, “The Fury” would be wafer-thin. 

This is the sort of episode that I wish I could enjoy more, but my critical eye gets in the way of that. Ultimately, the anime sequence saves the day, and it’s a spectacle, but “The Fury,” in my eyes, is what it is: a great episode with a masterful gimmick, but one that masks an otherwise average affair.

Best Moment: The… fight? Not a hard decision.

63. S05E35 - “The Petals” (9/29/17) 

What Happens?: When Leslie starts to wilt, Gumball and Darwin help him find ways of returning to his former beauty.

Why Is It on the List Here?: It’s something of a shame that Leslie has defied deeper exploration throughout the series, but “The Petals” is a welcome highlight for him, and as far as episodes go that unite Gumball and Darwin with some member of the show’s supporting cast, this is one of the best. A lot of that has to do with how surprisingly well-conceived of a character Leslie is: he’s someone obsessed with their vanity to the most extreme degree possible, and having him start to wilt, as illustrated by the show making his face turn progressively more horrific over the course of the episode, is a hilarious way to examine how he thinks and acts when his defining personality trait reveals its toxicity. 

Gumball and Darwin, too, are hilariously inept yet sincere in their varied attempts to help him, allowing the episode to hit as many comedic beats as possible through rapid-fire visual gags and off-handed comments. There’s a formula deeply embedded in how “The Petals” works that allows every joke to land perfectly: Leslie becomes more and more disfigured, allowing for more ridiculous attempts to reverse his hideousness and, at the same time, increasingly brilliant ways of describing his transmogrification. It’s a perfect balancing act, and the bold decision to turn the episode’s final act into a hybrid gardening show/horror movie sends everything home: “The Petals” is delightful madness.

Best Moment: Gumball and Darwin adding increasingly more mirrors to help Leslie tan faster, then having him spontaneously burst into flames.

62. S02E37 - “The Internet” (11/12/13) 

What Happens?: Gumball goes viral after a video of him freaking out accidentally gets uploaded online.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Turning the Internet into a sentient, living being (named Timmy) is probably one of the most obvious ideas you could possibly have, but “The Internet” makes it work so well. Even before he enters the picture, though, “The Internet” is enthralling, getting knee-deep in a playful examination of Internet culture and the consequences of putting yourself out there online. In this case, Gumball curses himself to the tragic existence of being the feature of video mash-ups for the rest of time (or, more realistically, like a week), and it becomes his mission to take the video down and reclaim his dignity. That, of course, fails, with the episode also making the cyber police a living being: a floppy disk from the ‘80s with a hilarious lack of fundamental understanding of how the Internet works. A later attempt from Darwin, attempting to bridge the divide to Gumball’s trolls through a heartfelt song, similarly backfires when they edit his video to hell.

Once Timmy actually enters the picture, though, “The Internet” becomes a different beast entirely, and instead of continuing to dish out admittedly-funny nods to Internet culture, it turns into a high-tech thriller, with him trying to stop Gumball and Darwin from reaching his house by manipulating electricity. Everything ends, too, with a stupid but perfect ending: think about the kittens, guys. The Internet can be a cruel place—as somebody who writes subjectively about television shows, I should know—but those kittens wearing hats make it all worth it in the end. It’s a necessary evil.

Above all else, though, I think if I were to summarize my thoughts into one sentence about “The Internet,” it would be this: Gumball’s a savvy show, and it managed to avoid all of the predictable, cringeworthy things that a lot of other shows get lost in that try to do the same thing. That alone makes “The Internet” applaudable.

Best Moment: I love how there’s an empty bucket sitting in the library that exists, without context, as an item for Gumball to knock over dramatically.

61. S06E14 - “The Shippening” (4/20/18)

What Happens?: Sarah discovers a notebook that turns her fanfiction into reality, sweeping the entirety of Elmore into unnatural romance.

Why Is It on the List Here?: While I was a lot more harsh in my initial criticism of “The Shippening,” at a certain point, sometimes you have to take a few steps back and simply enjoy what you’re watching. This is just a ridiculously fun episode built off of an appropriately insane idea: Ben Bocquelet gathered real suggestions of fans’ favorite ships, then tossed them together in the most meta way he could, turning a magical notebook from the Awesome Store into a dangerous weapon in the hands of Sarah. 

Half the fun of is how much it demonstrates the awareness Gumball’s writers have of its audience and the deepest cuts of the fandom. And yes, that means that there’s not just a reference to Nicole and Yuki slash—there’s anime Nicole and Yuki slash. Have you ever wanted to see Larry propose to Mr. Small, or watch Tobias make out with his reflection in a window? Because that’s covered, too. Are you utterly disgusting? There’s Gumwin! “The Shippening” even inserts real, fan-made characters into its universe, haphazard design and all; no stone is left unturned, and no cow is too sacred. 

The narrative surrounding everything is loose, but more in a freeing way than a sloppy one. The whole point is just to watch Sarah wax romantically (and literally) in her narration, playing God over everyone she touches. There’s not much of a story, with Gumball and Darwin walking through town until spotting some horrific artwork of themselves that leads them to the source, but the episode’s writing is rapid-fire and delightful, running through a proverbial rolodex of pairings that are equal parts brilliant and horrifying. The resolution, with Gumball and Darwin attempting damage control with a trail of wordplay-fueled destruction, was a brilliant little crescendo, and sure, resetting everything by simply acknowledging its weight as fanfiction is sort of a cop-out, but hey, what else are you gonna do? Fanfiction’s fanfiction, and this whole episode is a nice reminder that Gumball’s writers know their stuff.

Best Moment: The horrific, one-two punch of Carball and Gumwin.

60. S05E39 - “The News” (11/10/17)

What Happens?: It’s the Channel 6 news, spearheaded by Kip Schlezinger, who takes us through the biggest news stories in Elmore!

Why Is It on the List Here?: In its original form, “The News” might just be the weirdest episode of Gumball ever made, a largely live-action entry with animated news reports pulling influence (and deadpan) straight from the British satirical news show The Day Today. While what ended up getting aired was heavily re-done, turning Richard Overall’s Kip Schlezinger into a newspaper puppet… Richard did it better, so we’re just gonna pretend the other version never happened.

Even with the last-minute changes, “The News” feels inherently fresh because of how much it breaks the formula. It’s Gumball masquerading as a different show more than ever before, funneling its finely-tuned sensibilities into a creative project on an entirely different plane of existence, and while I’m sure there’s a lot of people who might not be as big on it because of that, I have to give it a lot of respect for that very reason. It also helps, though, that “The News” is supremely funny; the series is always game for a quick, news-related joke, but we really get to see those sort of ideas evolve and come into their own over the episode’s fulfilling, 11-minute runtime.

This is a sketch show at its simplest form, with Kip cutting back and forth between talking with news reporters, news stories, and occasionally holding down his own weird segments. The series’ perennial field reporter, Mike, also gets in on the fun, bringing “The News” back into the animated world flawlessly as he runs, exhaustedly, from news story to news story, peaking with a segment where he talks about literally nothing and wanders the lonely streets in a hilariously nihilistic minute of anti-humor. Solid one-off segments also get stuck in perfectly, whether that means watching Daisy the Donkey get in an on-air puppet fight with a celebrity guest, or witnessing several arrows singing about the death of the stock market and world economy. 

Basically, there’s a little bit of everything in “The News,” and it’s one of the most inventive quarter-hours the series ever pulled of

Best Moment: Mike’s pointless time-filler.

59. S02E21 - “The Pony” (6/12/13)

What Happens?: Gumball and Darwin try to retrieve a DVD to watch with Anais, though it turns into a day-long journey.

Why Is It on the List Here?: The first of Gumball’s numerous “trial of errors” episodes (“The Picnic” and “The Spoon” notwithstanding), “The Pony” was also one of the show’s most successful. While other entries like to ramp up the distractions to a surreal degree, “The Pony” functions on the basis of every possible obstacle occurring at the worst possible time in the worst possible place, ranging from a fat guy falling into a manhole to an unfortunately-timed invitation to Sussie’s birthday party. 

Each moment, too, is fully-realized, allowing for “The Pony” to be jam-packed with as many jokes as you could possibly want, all while spitting out some of the most beloved and neglected members of the show’s supporting cast left and right, including Rob (in his first speaking role ever as a guy nobody remembers the name of), the aforementioned Sussie, and Carrie, who has a perfect moment in the episode where she confesses to being insanely touched by the dumb pony movie that Gumball and Darwin are trying to bring home. This isn’t a particularly complex episode, but it does everything it wants to with aplomb.

That the hilarity plays into some delightful character work is the sort of bonus, though, that really puts “The Pony” a cut above a lot of its competition. It’s all about Gumball and Darwin’s quest to bring a DVD to Anais, and although her presence is along the outskirts of “The Pony’s” festivities, every moment that she’s on-screen matters, and her satisfaction at the end of the day in the fact that she, Gumball, and Darwin can sit down and watch A Pony’s Tail together—terrible movie or not—is the sort of low-key but sweet victory that Season 2 nailed like few others.

Best Moment: I really like the scene that cuts back to the Watterson household, where Anais attempts to have a conversation with Richard about if she’s boring, only for Richard to panic and tell her to ask Nicole. Also: Sussie having the time of her life.

58. S02E38 - “The Plan” (11/19/13)

What Happens?: Gumball, Darwin, and Anais find out that Nicole has a suitor and plan to take him down.

Why Is It on the List Here?: There’s not a lot of actual action in “The Plan,” but that’s the point; its runtime is spent with Gumball, Darwin, and Anais constructing a fictitious narrative and plan to take down Daniel Lennard, a man whose letter they find in the garbage that makes him seem like he’s after their mom. With this being Gumball, though, that plan is far from straightforward.

Basically, there’s a whole lot of loose ends, and the entire episode is spent accounting for every possible hiccup they could make, rewinding several times over just to get everything pitch-perfect. The best scenes, for instance, are those involving Gumball trying to send an incredibly short but crucial email, which he repeatedly botches due to one reason or another, and it takes a minute (only for him to have to go back and have a fight with himself from the past minutes later over his earlier mistakes). “The Plan” is so inventive because of its attention to detail, all the while with the Watterson kids expressing an enjoyable level of self-awareness in their responses to each hypothetical situation.

The kicker, of course, is that there is no real Daniel Lennard; he’s the spokesman for a cosmetics line. It’s a perfect ending, completely undermining the entirety of the episode, but that’s where the beauty of it lies. In its own weird way, it's sort of the perfect summation of the series' philosophy: take something simple and ride it to hell.

Best Moment: The aforementioned fight between Past and Future Gumball is fantastic, with the show finding a lot of fun gags based on the passage of time and rewriting each character’s individual timelines as they torture each other.

57. S05E38 - “The List” (11/03/17) 

What Happens?: Nicole gives Gumball and Darwin a list of chores to do, but it turns out to be her teenaged list of life goals instead.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Nobody ever talks about “The List” and it’s kind of a shame, because it embodies a lot of the show’s best qualities. It’s not the flashiest, but it plays by the rules with a lot of heart, and the sweetness backing up the premise and ultimately affecting the resolution sells an episode that is otherwise, quite literally, a list of stuff.

It certainly helps that Gumball and Darwin commit to completing Nicole’s list in their own weird, Gumball and Darwin way. “The List” thrives in its spontaneity and specificity, if not in the sort of items on the list so much as how the kids approach them. This leads to a collection of great, one-off gags, and there’s not a single one that doesn’t land, whether it involves becoming doctors in holistic medicine or making an infomercial for a hook hand. The subject matter and tone of the episode are all over the place, but for the first time, it’s not a detriment; instead, it gives “The List” an appealing sort of energy. All of that builds, too, to a pretty cool final sequence where, reunited with Nicole (who tells them that they were going off of the wrong list), the three go on a trip around the world through Elmore (Google) Maps. 

That last sequence really sends the episode home. I could ramble about it for who knows how long, but just the fact that it exists is legitimately fantastic. The writers could’ve easily just had the reveal that Gumball and Darwin were looking at the wrong list at the very end as the closer, but instead, they couldn’t care less, and Nicole happily joins them to see it through to its completion. It’s legitimately touching, and even if Nicole gives them the chore list as the final punchline, it’s so cute that I can’t be bothered to care. “The List” is good, guys; don’t you forget it. 

Best Moment: The Stump Butler commercial.

56. S03E23 - “The Mirror” (10/30/14)

What Happens?: Gumball gets cursed by an email from the Snatcher.

Why Is It on the List Here?: “The Mirror” is such a weird episode for me: it’s the kind that I never think about, let alone when discussing great episodes of the show, but I get floored every time I see it. It’s one of those rare episodes that manages to get almost everything right, becoming a fantastic combination of unrelenting comedy and an adrenaline-fueled thriller.

The first half is a lot of fun, if nothing too special. Gumball inheriting the cliched role of being a boyfriend who absolutely will not shut up about his girlfriend was a flash of brilliance, and it’s even more fun to see the world thoroughly chew him up after he fails to heed to the warnings of the Snatcher’s email. Mrs. Jötunheim also gets some great little moments through her interactions with Gumball and Darwin; the show uses her sparingly, but she’s always fantastic when she’s in the spotlight as the sort of nonchalant witch who gives kids a potion in a “#1 Mom” mug because she hasn’t done the dishes yet. (I was also a big fan of Gumball acting like an idiot in her wizard robes for, I assume, entirely self-explanatory reasons.)

The rest of “The Mirror,” though, is where the episode becomes fantastic, indebted largely to Carrie stepping it up as a leading character. Having the Snatcher turn out to not just be some malicious ghost, but her cursed father Vlad, adds an exciting twist to how everything unfolds, as well as giving the episode a surprisingly touching ending. Throughout the episode’s more dramatic moments, too, “The Mirror” never shies away from its humor, and punctuating their efforts to survive the Snatcher’s attacks with dumb moments like Darwin changing the TV channel he uses to Poltergeist them to a home shopping channel, only for Gumball to decide that nearing death is far less painful, are phenomenal. It’s little details like that which demonstrate how meticulous Gumball is in crafting the finest viewing experience it can, and it certainly pays off here.

Best Moment: “Dude, I think I prefer a life of damnation and limbo than having to watch that.”

55. S06E34 - “The Future” (5/06/19)

What Happens?: Rob captures Banana Barbara; Gumball and Darwin help Banana Joe find her.

Why Is It on the List Here?: It’s interesting to look back at “The Future” after having seen “The Inquisition”; it exists to be cryptic, building up to the series finale while giving faint hints of the devastating calamities awaiting in Gumball’s (and Elmore’s) future. Going back into it, though, I’m left feeling the exact same way: this is a great episode, and while it is build-up to the inevitable, it puts in fantastic work all the same, with splashes of humor and a delightful vagueness that allowed tensions to build wonderfully during the month between it and the end of the series.

Even outside of its mandatory exposition, it’s easy to appreciate. Seeing Banana Joe being billed as a protagonist alongside Gumball and Darwin (which hasn’t really happened before) is always welcome, and his presence is a great way to keep the Watterson boys from dominating proceedings in forcing them to stoop to his internal logic in the search for his mother. We also got an interesting bit of back-story on Banana Barbara, not necessarily in the acquisition of her psychic powers so much as the reduction of her mental capacities, but it’s a well-appreciated bit of character development.

It’s those faint hints of the future, though, which made “The Future” captivating then, and keep it captivating even now. Rob’s role is one not bent on just being Gumball’s arch-nemesis, but one built out of desperation, an interesting new direction for the character that becomes fully-realized in “The Inquisition.” The same can’t be said for Banana Barbara’s ability to literally paint things into existence, which raises so many questions—At what point does her clairvoyance become literally creating reality? Could she have averted the end of the world?—that never truly get answered, indebted to the cruel finality of the show’s ending… but I don’t mind that too much. It’ll just be one of the great “what ifs” of the series. In that sense, even with its primary purpose fulfilled, “The Future” really is a gift that keeps on giving. 

Best Moment: Aside from the awesome paint fight between Rob and Gumball, one of the first jokes leading off the episode with Banana Joe attempting to hammer a poster of his mom into the glass window of a convenience store, is sublime.

54. S04E17 - “The Hug” (10/16/15)

What Happens?: Gumball and Hot Dog Guy get stuck in a vicious hug cycle.

Why Is It on the List Here?: The brainchild of Guillaume Cassuto, “The Hug” is a masterclass in effective cringe comedy, taking a premise as straightforward as two characters hugging and managing to find an astounding level of depth and psychological agitation in the two poor characters subject to the ordeal: Hot Dog Guy and Gumball. Hot Dog Guy, as it turns out, makes for a fantastic addition to the show, and he’s an excellent foil to Gumball here. The episode’s shifts between their inner monologues, too, was a clever innovation that fleshes both out and makes the central conflict far more gray. Nobody’s going to be the victor here, and neither Hot Dog Guy nor Gumball are better than the other in their relentless hug dilemma, a point that “The Hug” further accentuates with its culminating battle to be not the better person, but the worse person.

All of it, too, stems from another great idea: however idiosyncratic Gumball may seem, Darwin points out how predictable his behavior is, and his decision to hug Hot Dog Guy, a random person across the cafeteria, is a great way to show him grasping at straws for attention. His arguing with Darwin becomes a great backbone to the episode, allowing some excellent running jokes (one excellent callback finds Gumball raspberrying a minute after Darwin premeditates it). Having “The Hug” end in a hilarious victory for Gumball over Darwin, too—enlisting Hot Dog Guy to make Darwin's bus ride a living hell to prove his unpredictability—helps “The Hug” stick the landing in a way that some of the series’ best episodes even fail to do.

If this is what Cassuto is capable of coming up with for such a silly, stupid idea, then I can’t wait for his upcoming show, Elliott From Earth; “The Hug” is a writerly gift.

Best Moment: The tent scene, obviously.

53. S06E40 - “The Heart” (6/10/19) 

What Happens?: Gumball and Darwin realize that Mr. Robinson has always hated him, and Mr. Robinson, finding himself strangely hurt, tries to win back their affection.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Among the receivers of Season 6’s efforts to close off the story arcs of its supporting characters, it’s surprising that “The Heart,” Mr. Robinson’s episode, was one of the best. He’s always a reliable character to deploy, but he’s been static since his inception, a curmudgeonly fellow who Gumball and Darwin can’t help but love unconditionally. “The Heart” breaks those standard tides, though, with Gumball and Darwin being brutally stricken by the revelation that their love isn’t remotely reciprocated.

It’s a great way to set up Mr. Robinson as one Gumball’s most unlikely protagonists. There’s something blatantly hilarious about watching the terrible ideas he attempts to carry out in hopes of winning the Watterson brothers back, all of which end with him being sent to jail with charges ranging from accusations predatory stalking to U.N. peace code violations. That, too, enables his son Rocky to get involved, repeatedly bailing his father out and attempting to give him advice on winning back their love. We don’t see the two together very often, let alone on the same side, and it’s sort of a shame; they have fantastic chemistry, and Rocky’s sincerity in the face of increasing mortification at his father’s antics allows for some of “The Heart’s” funniest moments.

The ultimate reveal that Mr. Robinson’s heart literally refuses to let him show emotions, too, is a smart decision on the part of the show. Not only does it allow for a silly, upbeat song from Gumball and Darwin rendered entirely with a felt-like aesthetic, but it gives “The Heart” the sort of happy ending that it deserves: Mr. Robinson, with his heart reformed by Gumball and Darwin, admits that he loathes them a little bit less than before, and that’s good enough for them. And so the cycle resumes.

Best Moment: The abruptness of all of Mr. Robinson’s imprisonments makes for a hilarious runner, and Rocky’s defeated, “Dad. Please. Stop.” is one of my all-time favorite line deliveries. Credit to Simon Lipkin.

52. S02E27 - “The Storm” (7/31/13) 

What Happens?: Gumball accidentally breaks up Alan and Carmen and gets caught up in the drama that follows.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Everything about “The Storm” works really well, to keep it brief. It’s the first demonstration of Alan and Carmen’s relationship, which is so ironic that it just works, and turning them into a grossly intimate couple makes for some great jokes and delightfully cheesy lines.

Over the course of the 11 minutes that make up “The Storm,” we pretty much go through every single phase of an awkward, public break-up, all told through show’s oddball cast of characters (with Gumball trapped dead center). It’s difficult to really summarize everything that happens within reason, but a lot happens, and all of it works really well filtered through the show’s sense of humor, especially in having Gumball involved in two separate plots to make each romantic partner jealous by doing something scandalous that doesn’t work at all. Eventually, Masami gets involved too, and her role as Alan’s new, crazy girlfriend is perfect, leading to an epic climax where she summons storm clouds and hurricanes in a fit of rage to preserve Alan for herself.

Lastly, “The Storm” is a surprisingly great episode for Penny. Although she’s kept at the sidelines most of the time out of necessity—Gumball has to kiss Carmen at one point, so Darwin throws a milkshake in her face every time that enters relevancy—she eventually joins Gumball, Darwin, and Carmen in saving Alan from Masami, making for a surprisingly fun team player. (Perhaps one of the episode’s funnier bits has her trying to talk to Masami girl-to-girl, only to get launched across the hall by lightning). That the episode ends, too, with her and Gumball closer than ever is legitimately sweet. She even gets revenge on Darwin after he insults their relationship with a well-earned milkshake toss! Everyone wins!

Best Moment: Gumball “re-inflating” Alan by pretty much giving him a blow-job. It's somewhat overrated, but most jokes have to be pretty darn good to get to that point.

51. S02E12 - “The Words” (11/13/12)

What Happens?: Gumball helps teach Darwin how to speak his mind, but it turns him into a massive jerkwad.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Like “The Banana,” “The Words” explores what happens when Gumball tries to help Darwin get more in touch with his emotions. Unlike that episode, though, Gumball wants to make his life better, not just use Darwin as a proxy to make the world right, and the consequences are all the more dire, with Darwin taking his newfound ability to point out people’s annoying traits and weaponizing it to the point of becoming a massive bully. 

The subversion of his personality, even if it comes out of nowhere, works wonders, allowing “The Words” to work out an incredibly solid second half featuring two excellent songs—a poppy ensemble roast session, “What He Thinks About Us,” and the exceptionally grinchy “No More Mr. Nice Guy”—and an awesome climax, where Gumball and Darwin engage in a video game fight sequence, throwing insults at each other as their attacks. If you were to measure the quality of a Gumball episode by the strength of its individual moments, “The Words” would be pretty far up there.

Best Moment: The moment during the video game fighting sequence where it cuts over to Banana Joe, Tobias, and Bobert cheering in the background, during which we see what’s actually happening—Gumball and Darwin are literally just standing far apart from each other and gesturing fight moves—is gold, and I like the idea of seeing what’s going on from other characters’ perspectives.

50. S04E33 - “The Roots” (8/15/16)

What Happens?: The Wattersons try to help reconnect Darwin with his piscine roots.

Why Is It on the List Here?: Considering how rarely in the later seasons Darwin was featured as a standalone character, “The Roots” ended up being a delightful surprise that got to demonstrate a side of him that the series so often ignores: his capability to be manipulative. 

I think one of the greatest successes here is how “The Roots” explores perspective. The entirety of the episode, leading up to its finish, is shown through the mind of the Wattersons, who believe that Darwin has a sense of longing for the ocean and try their darndest to make him feel more comfortable at home. We, as an audience, know that something is up, though we assume it’s just the Wattersons overdoing their attempts to satisfy him, but that spirals all the way to the extreme that they try to abandon him in a lake. It’s only once Darwin reunites with the family (after a fantastically pun-laden highway sequence) that we see the full picture: Darwin was trying to guilt trip them into buying him a bigger fishbowl. It’s such a fantastically cynical twist, and everything suddenly makes perfect sense in an indescribably satisfying way. It’s rare to see Darwin get the upper hand, but it’s never felt so good.

Beyond that though… this is just a really funny episode, getting to try out new jokes that the series doesn’t usually get the opportunity to. The degree to which the Wattersons try to make Darwin feel comfortable are as borderline offensive as possible (Gumball, at one point, offers Darwin a plastic bag for dinner), and there’s a lot of fun to be had in their ignorance to the extreme measures they take to win him back. That comedic well allows for a sort of freshness that Gumball gets to relish in, and it makes everything feel particularly inspired in spite of its straightforward nature. That’s the secret to a great episode, I think—a sense of opportunity to try new things—and that’s why the series, throughout its six long seasons, was always able to find new material.

Best Moment: Gumball, Nicole, Richard, and Anais playing tortured whale cries for Darwin.

For the last part of this list, from 99-75, CLICK HERE.

For more in-depth reviews of episodes starting with Season 5, you can read all of my previous reviews HERE. 

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