Recap / The Amazing World of Gumball S3E11 "The Fraud"

Gumball: Okay, you really want to do something for us? ... Then just take care of the school!
Principal Brown: Yes, yes, yes, of course. That's it, take care of the school, and all my problems will be solved. Thank you, Watterson! All I have to do is blow this place up!

While getting lectured by Principal Brown over coming to school "dressed" only in body paint after Richard ruined their clothes, Gumball and Darwin discover that Principal Brown's diploma is a fake. They then end up embroiled in Principal Brown's attempts to keep the shameful secret hidden, even though they have no intentions of telling anyone.

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Tropes:

• Adults Dressed as Children: As Principal Brown tries to become friends with Darwin and Gumball, he pulls a Type A, dressing in an exaggerated take on how kids dress these days.
• Armor-Piercing Question: "What if you have a fake diploma?"
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "If you wear fake clothes, you're naked, which is bad. If you pay with fake money, you're a crook, which is bad. If you eat fake meat, you're a VEGETARIAN, which I guess isn't that bad..."
• Aside Glance: Principal Brown gives a very obvious wink to the audience when trying to lock Gumball and Darwin into a safe.
• Bilingual Bonus: After Darwin picks apart Gumball's brain to show his dried out "Shame Gland" to Principal Brown, he hastily puts the brain back together and reattaches Gumball's face. When he asks "How's that?" Gumball briefly speaks fluent Danish until Darwin shakes him and makes him better.
  Darwin: How's that?
  Gumball: Jeg tror der er et eller andet, der er rystet helt forkert sammen! ("I think some things got badly mixed up in there!)
• Body Paint: After Richard ruins the boy's laundry, Gumball and Darwin painted clothes on with crayon, which is why they were sent to Principal Brown's office in the first place.
  Darwin: We thought no one would notice. What gave it away? Did we mess up the back part?
  (Gumball flips around out to show he has no paint on his back)
  Principal Brown: No, it was the pixelated part!
• Blackmail: A picture of Gumball and Darwin in ridiculous clothing (Darwin is dressed in hip-hop gear while Gumball is dressed like a Goth) is used to try and make them silent, but they've been ashamed so much that they're chemically incapable of being ashamed.
  Gumball: Look Principal Brown, first, that was a phase, and secondly, we've felt ashamed so many times in life that I think we're now incapable of feeling it. As in chemically.
  Darwin: The doctor says we've run out of shame-osterone.
• Breast Attack: Principal Brown causes a self-inflicted version when he pulls the fur on his front off to show his stash of hall passes, (bloodlessly) tearing his own nipples off. Then he sticks them back on.
  Gumball: Doesn't that hurt?
  Principal Brown: Yes, every time.
• Call-Back: Like in "The Dress", Richard still doesn't know how to do laundry.
• Cue Card Pause: When all the schools' staff discuss the lies they've told, Coach says "And I'm not a woman... who can say she's never lied on her resume, either."
• Everyone Has Standards: Mr. Brown's attempt to be cool is so lame that Mr. Small hits him in the face to put a stop to it.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Darwin and Gumball don't want to share any girl stories with their principal (and really don't want to know anything about his relationship with Miss Simian), but he gives some for a while before realizing what a terrible idea it is.
  Principal Brown: Okay, I'll go first. I must say, things are going pretty well with me and Miss Simian.
  (Darwin and Gumball inhale sharply in discomfort)
  Principal Brown: Oh, come now. Just because you're students and I'm your principal, it doesn't mean we can't share a few—aaand I finally heard myself out loud. Goodbye.
  (Brown jumps out the window)
  Principal Brown: (yelling offscreen) It's OK, I landed in a dumpster!
• Face Doodling: Invoked when Brown says Gumball and Darwin's painted-on clothes make it look like they fell asleep at an art student's party.
• Fiery Cover-Up: Principal Brown tries to cover up his fraud by blowing up the school.
• Funny Background Event: At the last scene in the front of the boiler, Coach can be seen slowly sliding down the stairway she is barely big enough to fit through.
• Ghost in the Machine: Darwin takes apart Gumball's brain, by hand, to show it is made of different little brain matter people, each causing a different emotion.
  As you can see, the brain is composed of many sections dedicated to emotion. Here is anger. [Darwin holds an angry little man] Here is sadness. [Darwin holds a crying little man] This here? [Darwin picks up a strange, babbly little man] We just don't know.
• He Knows Too Much: Several people overhear that Brown is going to blow up the school, so Darwin gets rid of them in one way or another to avoid a panic: he kicks Leslie out the window and into a car ("What'd you do that for!?" "You said no one could know, and you winked at me!"), knocks out Rocky (eventually), and when Gumball can't reach Coach's "nerve cluster" because she's too fat, Darwin tips her over like a cow.
• Hidden Depths: In addition to Principal Brown not having a diploma, it's also mentioned that Miss Simian lied about her age to get hired at Elmore Junior High, and that Mr. Small isn't actually American.
• Hypocrite: Principal Brown calls Gumball and Darwin frauds and going on about how bad fraud is. And then they notice Brown's diploma on the wall...
• Idea Bulb: Parodied; a lock of Principal Brown's hair catches on fire from the flames of a recent explosion just after he wonders how to stop Darwin and Gumball from revealing him.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Principal Brown attempts to form this with Gumball and Darwin so they won't tell anyone that he doesn't really have a diploma.
• Mathematician's Answer:
  Darwin: So do you have a diploma or not?
  Principal Brown: Kids, I am a principal, and you need a diploma to be a principal.
  Gumball: Is that a yes or a no?
  Principal Brown: ... It is.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In Principal Brown's rant about vegetarians, he say "[They] make me want to eat raw liver", pronouncing "raw" as "ruhr," which is mostly a UK pronunciation.
• Shell-Shock Silence: Parodied when a large firework is set off, causing a ringing... because it knocked a phone off the hook.
• Shout-Out: Mr. Small standing in front of a very angry Principal Brown while holding shopping bags is a blatant reference to this very famous image of an unidentified Chinese man standing in protest in front of a column of tanks leaving Tiananmen Square. He even leaves tank tread marks on the ground as he walks!
• Stylistic Self-Parody:
  • Darwin and Gumball look through Principal Brown's confiscated fireworks:
    Darwin: Who buys stuff like this?
    Gumball: People with fingers to spare.
    Darwin: (putting hands up) But, as you can see, I don't.
  • Darwin finally stops searching Brown's safe and finds a single item.
    Darwin: The only thing I found is this. (Shows a pair of high heel shoes)
    Gumball: Oh, that explains the sound when he walks.
• Straw Vegetarian: Discussed. At the beginning of the episode, when Gumball and Darwin are in Principal Brown's office, Principal Brown exclaims, "If you wear fake clothes, you're naked, which is bad. If you pay with fake money, you're a crook, which is bad. If you eat fake meat, you're a vegetarian, which I guess is not that bad, just a bit boring. I mean, it's good for the animals I guess, but they always have a smug, superior attitude."
• Sudden Anatomy: A creepily human-looking nose slides out of Principal Brown's face for him to tap to say he "got the message", then disappears back into his face.
• There Was a Door: Principal Brown is able to easily walk through Miss Simian's office during his plan to blow up the school, but smashes his face on two others because he wrongly assumed they were made of drywall.
• Totally Radical: In order for Gumball and Darwin to fully shut up about the fake diploma, he dresses up in hip-hop clothes and blurts out 2010s lingo to keep up with them. This backfires when Gumball and Darwin gave awkward glances, and Mr. Small had to hit him with a cafeteria tray for being a jerk and for using a lame attempt to be cool.
• Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Brown spends most of the episode trying to bribe or blackmail Darwin and Gumball into keeping quiet about his fake diploma, but fails to realize that they don't want anything and don't care so long as he actually does his job.

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