Mr. Small: Is that what people call a rat king?
Gumball: No, Mr. Small. It’s what we call “dinner.”
Gumball and Darwin are in a bad mood about everything, and become charity cases when the townspeople see them on the street in tattered clothes and assume that they have a horrible home life.
Tropes:
- Abuse Mistake: Darwin and Gumball are assumed to be in dire need because Darwin was wearing grocery bags for shoes (he had new ones on minutes earlier, but threw them out when Gumball got dirt on them) while Gumball is wearing tatters (he said he felt overdressed, so Darwin tore his clothes up) and is hungry (he didn't eat because he didn't like the way his food was arranged on his plate). They mention Richard took the car and left, but that was because he went to the store to get them a present. Ironically, this means the mob end up getting enraged at the suggestion that Richard isn't abusive because they think they've been lied to.Richard: Hey kids! I got you jet skis!
Hobo: Their dad is not a monster!
(crowd draws pitchforks) - Bittersweet Ending: Gumball and Darwin end up trashing their home, but at least they have the check to pay for repairs.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Fenton tries to say Gumball is rich in heart, but points at this gut. He apologizes, stating that, as a vegetable, he doesn't known "how you people work."
- Continuity Nod: The hairy hobo who had won the lottery in "The DVD" still has money in his wallet.
- Disaster Dominoes: Darwin can't bring himself to break anything in the house deliberately, so Gumball asks him to "smash smarter". Then he flips a table and the book that came off it destroyed all the furniture and appliances in the living room.
- Disney Creatures of the Farce: Darwin sings to summon a bunch of animals. They're all diseased pests that infect him with all kinds of nasty illness and the whole reason he brought them in was to destroy the house.
- Dog Food Diet: Gumball asks if they have to "eat dog food in our squalid dump of a house, wearing garbage bags" to prove how poor they are.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Invoked, as any time Gumball and Darwin says they aren't in need, everyone assumes they're just in denial out of pride.Gumball: Okay. I’m going to say this now in a way that is impossible for you to misunderstand. I mean only the words I am saying right now. There are no hidden meaning or subtexts. We do not need your charity!
Tony: (sniffs and bear hugs Gumball) You're such a brave soul! - Face Palm: Anais repeatedly smacks herself in the face while wearing a foam glove that says "high five" every time it hits something.
- Fake Charity: The Watterson family become one by accident.
- Fake–Real Turn: Gumball figures the only way to save his family from being lynched for faking being needy to is destroy their house so badly that the money is genuinely needed to repair it.
- Hammerspace: "People, please! Put down these pitchforks... that you took to the mall for whatever reason."
- Hypocritical Humor: Felicity accuses Richard of being a bad parent just as she blindly tosses her son in the trunk and buckles up her groceries.
- Mirthless Laughter: Gumball does some scared laughing when Darwin invites the angry mob who think they're poor to see their in-tact house.
- Never My Fault: Darwin and Gumball repeatedly try to explain that they don't need charity, but the mob assumes they're being prideful and keep giving money anyway. Then anytime they see evidence the two really aren't poor they get violent because they think they were lied to.
- Non-Humans Lack Attributes: Lampshaded when someone keeps asking if the suggests charities can be "a naked" whatever. Turns out it's Carmen's dad (a cactus that wears no clothing), who wants to know if he needs to put something on before attending.
- Powder Keg Crowd: The people who mistake Gumball and Darwin as being in need rapidly shift back and forth between a charity holding candles and a mob armed with pitchforks depending on if they think they've been tricked. Darwin calls them out on this at the end.Darwin: Please stop, you guys are insane! You change your mind for yes...
(crowd pulls out candles)
Darwin: Or no...
(crowd pulls pitchforks back out)
Darwin: Hello...
(candles)
Darwin: Or goodbye...
(pitchforks)
Darwin: An apple...
(candles)
Darwin: Or an orange...
(pitchforks)
Darwin: A durp...
(candles)
Darwin: Or blurp.
(mob starts switching between candles and pitchforks several times a second) - Reduced to Ratburgers: The hairy hobo was eating a rat sandwich, then offers it to Gumball and refuses to let him turn it down. Invoked again when the crowd get to the wrecked Watterson house.Mr. Small: Is that what people call a rat king?
Gumball: No, Mr. Small, it's what we call dinner. - Sarcasm-Blind: Richard takes Anais's sarcastic comments seriously. Later, when Richard himself sarcastically says he's "obviously a millionaire", the mob takes him seriously.
- Shall I Repeat That?: While skipping through dialogue in a video game, Gumball presses the talk button too many times and has to go through all the dialogue again.
- Spoof Aesop: Gumball tries to find some lesson he learned to placate all the people at his doorstep. First, he says to never complain about what you have, but realizes that's unreasonable. Second, he says to watch what you say, but no one could have reasonably expected this kind of response. Third try is to not make assumptions, but that's not a lesson he had to learn. Finally he tries to pull a Be Yourself aesop out of nowhere before just giving up.Gumball: Uh, I don't know, maybe the lesson is sometimes, when people do stuff, things happen and it kind of goes nowhere.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Judith thought the Wattersons were in need, so she gave all the money she had on her, all the money someone else had on them, her shoes (the only clothing she wears), her wedding ring, and one of her vital organs.Gumball: I'm pretty sure you're gonna need that kidney.
Judith: Maybe! (falls over) - Trivial Title: The eponymous griping only happens for the first two minutes of the episode.
- Won't Take "Yes" for an Answer: Mr. Small says he believes the Wattersons are poor, but Darwin insists that they all see their (actually fine) house to prove it.
