Mysterious disruptions put a strain on Gumball and Darwin's friendship due to miscommunication while Richard tearfully parts with his television when he can't fix it.
Tropes
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Richard suggests playing a game during a car ride, a sullen Darwin sarcastically suggests a game of "What Offensive Thing Will Gumball Say to Darwin Next?". Richard obliges, and pretty soon Darwin is laughing along despite himself.
- Answer Cut / Could Say It, But...: When Gumball is about to try and grab the steering wheel to stop the runaway car, Darwin is about to explain why that's not a good idea, only for the glitching to cause cutaways to a claymation car crash, a headache commercial showing a diagram of a human brain, and a watermelon exploding.
- Bowel-Breaking Bricks: After Patrick gets into his car and the section directly in front of him is neatly torn off by the runaway Watterson station wagon, he gets Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises, inhales, then there's a cut to a live-action shot of soft-serve ice cream being poured into a cone.
- Bowdlerization: In the Iberian (Spanish and Portuguesenote ) dub, the entire scene of the runaway Watterson car with Gumball and Darwin in it plowing into the mall was curiously edited out, yet the audio of that scene was not censored.
- Cue the Falling Object: Right after Darwin gives up on pull-ups after thinking Gumball called him fat, the bar he was using falls down revealing it's not actually attached to anything.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: When Richard turns off the TV, he acts like he's giving a mercy killing to someone who's hooked up to life support.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: Parodied and played for horror; just as Gumball and Darwin discover the satellite disruptions are affecting Elmore and realize that Elmore may not be real, the scene jumps to the family at the dinner table and Richard telling the family that Gumball and Darwin made up and everything is back to normal. Anais, Richard, and Nicole all start laughing, and Darwin and Gumball unconvincingly join in.
- Foreshadowing: This episode has more hints that Gumball's reality is just a TV show, which would directly tie in with "The Disaster"/"The Rerun" two-parter and (to a lesser extent) the series finale "The Inquisition" (though it's more implied than expressly stated).
- Fourth Wall Psych: Early on it appears a glitch knocked out the screen, causing a "no signal" notice, but this turns out to be the screen on the TV Richard is watching. However, the screen really does go out in the same way near the end, implying it really did happen and the transition was more of a Match Cut.
- Gut Feeling: Right as the car comes to a stop at the top of a mountain (complete with the clacking noise of a rollercoaster mechanism), Darwin's immediate reaction is to raise his hands.Gumball: What're you doing?Darwin: I don't know, it just feels right.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Played for horror: Interruptions with satellite TV in Elmore turn out to be causing the actual town to glitch. Gumball and Darwin begin wondering if Elmore and their entire lives are part of a TV show, but get cut off and find themselves in the "Everybody Laughs" Ending where they're the only ones aware of everything that's happened while everyone else is oblivious.
- Mood Whiplash: Just as Gumball and Darwin make up in the car (which is in motion, mind you), after Darwin realizes that Gumball wasn't lying about the glitching going on, they discover that Richard isn't in the car.
- Morton's Fork: Darwin and Gumball are in the back seat of the car going down a highway when the driver suddenly disappears. Gumball tries to take the wheel, but Darwin points out he has zero chance of surviving if the car crashes when he's unbuckled and crawling over the seat. So instead they have to sit in the back of an uncontrolled vehicle and hope for the best.Gumball: Watch out!
Darwin: I am watching! That's all there is to do! - Ninja Prop: The glitches start out as passable for real TV/video player errors. Then Gumball's face freezes on a closeup, the camera cuts away, and when it cuts back, Gumball is rubbing his face and looking around confusedly.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: The episode starts with a lot of video stutter, freezing, and jumps around. They gradually ramp up to the point where they're not even visual, but actually causes characters to randomly teleport around.
- Quote Mine: The disruptions make everything Gumball says to Darwin come off as an insult, like saying he has a fat head.
- Scolding the Fourth-Wall Breaker: After seeing the news report of Elmore suffering from "satellite broadcast issues" (before the TVs displaying it lose the signal), Gumball begins to ask why it's effecting him and Darwin... only for the episode itself to lose the signal. When it comes back, Gumball and Darwin begin to draw conclusions about their reality, only for another glitch to occur, forcing a Snap Back, as if the world itself is trying to censor them.
- Theme Song Reveal: The title card has the musical sting from "The Void" again. It's a definite hint that something especially weird is going to happen.
- Twisting the Words: Caused by the disruptions when Gumball tries clearing things up with Darwin.
- Wham Shot: Our first sign of what's about to go down? The title card glitches out.
