"Stick to the pan, or everyone dines."note
Richard: We just wanted to teach you that skipping school isn't cool or exciting.
Gumball: By involving us in a million-dollar high-speed police chase, which is probably the most cool or exciting thing we've ever done?
When Rocky tells the kids that they can skip school, Richard, Principal Brown, Harold, and Dexter (Alan's dad) hijack the school bus to teach the kids a lesson about playing hooky, but the plan balloons into a high-speed chase from the police when it's revealed that the quartet have a ticking suitcase, the so-called fake ransom money is real, and they are getting texts from someone who wants them to go through with the plan.
Tropes
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Rob's resume of being a villain includes laughing maniacally, monologuing about evil plans, and having a major in Canadian History.
- Auto-Incorrect: The Running Gag has Mr. Brown receive instructions from his phone, but they're auto corrected. When it turns out to be Rob, a.k.a. Dr Wrecker, he complains how autocorrect never works.
- Badass Bystander: When the car chases reaches the airport, one of the workers manage to avoid a crash by diverting the vehicles lightning fast.
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, the whole thing seems like a Scare 'Em Straight plot that has gone hilariously wrong, but it turns out the whole thing is a real criminal plot by Rob.
- Briefcase Full of Money: The police deliver a briefcase with a million dollars in it to the fake hijackers. In fact, they deliver two, because the first one got dropped and spilled across the highway.Donut Cop: That's gonna hurt the taxpayer...
- Broken Aesop: In-Universe. The parents and Brown compromise their "don't ditch school" message due to a combination of their incompetence and Rob's machinations.Dexter: Wait, this wasn't supposed to be real money!
Richard: It was just a trick to teach the kids a lesson.
Gumball: Well, I guess the lesson you've actually taught is that crime does pay. Well done, chaps. You've done good.
...
Richard: We just wanted to teach you that skipping school isn't cool or exciting.
Gumball: By involving us in a million-dollar high-speed police chase, which is probably the most cool or exciting thing we've ever done? - Chekhov's Gag: Richard grabs the briefcase containing the money with his teeth. At the end, he is able to tell the suitcase from the teeth marks on it. Rob gets away with an identical briefcase... carrying the bomb he planted.
- Closed Circle: Most of the main characters are trapped within the titular bus for the majority of the episode.
- Colorful Theme Naming: The names used by the fake hijackers have the same theme as Reservoir Dogs, with the addition that each is named for their primary color—except Dexter, who's Mr. White even though he's red (because he looks like Walter White).
- Conveniently Empty Roads: The titular schoolbus which most of the episode's main cast are on and the police cars in pursuit are pretty much the only vehicles on the road. This trope goes away almost entirely when the bus ends up driving onto an airfield.
- Curse Cut Short: A variant. Anytime someone says that the ticking suitcase is a bomb, the word "bomb" is obscured by noise or someone else talking.
- Cutaway Gag: After Gumball mentions how Richard once tried to teach Gumball and Darwin the dangers of texting while walking, a quick flashback of said event is shown.
- Deus Exit Machina: Bobert, Tina, Masami, Clayton, Carrie, Penny, and Ocho are conspicuously absent from the bus, since they have powers that would make a hostage situation impossible to maintain.
- Dramatic Unmask: PlayedForLaughs. Darwin and his friends are shocked to learn that the criminals are their parents and Principal Brown (though clearly they were oblivious to this up until now), while Gumball is completely unimpressed at how it took them that long to find out.
- Epic Fail: Banana Bob attempts to make a surprise entrance by jumping from the bridge and landing on the bus to enter, but he jumps too soon when he thinks the bus is close and then uses the binoculars the wrong way thinking it's still far away, getting splat by said bus. No one even notices he was there as the adults think he couldn't make it.
- Donut Sheriff tried to throw the million dollar suitcase whle driving, but the robbers couldn't catch it, resulting in the suitcase opening on the road, blinding the police cars behind and leading to a massive car accident.
- Foreshadowing: The texts with instructions that Brown gets are an early hint that he's not the brains behind the operation.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Rob ends up grabbing his own bomb by mistake. It blows up on him, causing him to get caught by the police.
- Idiot Ball: All of the students sans Gumball are outright oblivious to the fact that the "criminals" are literally their own parents and Principal Brown.
- The Man Behind the Man: Rob is behind the bus hijack idea.
- Mass "Oh, Crap!": The whole bus panics when they realize that the money was not only genuine and that the cops were for real, but the ticking briefcase contains a real bomb! Then they find out who's the real culprit...
- My God, You Are Serious!: Gumball thinks Rob committing the criminal plot was an excuse for them to skip school, only for Rob to tell him he is actually serious.
- Near-Villain Victory: Rob actually comes close to winning in this episode. He only fails because he accidentally grabs the suitcase with the bomb instead of the suitcase full of money.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Rob escalates from implementing a self-defeating plot to destroy a dam that doesn't exist to nearly stealing a million dollars and blowing up a school bus full of his classmates, the bus driver, the principal, and three of the classmates' parents.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Gumball is horrified to find out who's behind the heinous plot, he calls Rob by his real name.
- Parental Bonus: Dexter's criminal disguise is Walter White's Heisenberg alias from the AMC TV series, Breaking Bad. Dexter's alias is also Mr. White, as opposed to the expected Mr. Red.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: The fathers and Principal Brown wear disguises that (partially) cover their faces, but in no way obscure their other, extremely distinct features (Harold's is probably the most paper-thin as it's just a fancy costume ball mask). Gumball was the only one who can see through it and the whole charade (until he discovers that it wasn't a Scare 'Em Straight trick).
- Police Are Useless: The police accomplish almost nothing, from losing the first suitcase of ransom money and lying about what happened to it, to letting Rob get away with the suitcase… until they learn it's not the one with the money in it. Implied and lampshaded by Dexter, who comments, "If only they responded like this to real crimes" when they quickly come with the ransom money.
- Real Name as an Alias: Out of pure incompetence, Principal Brown's Code Name for the hijacking is his actual name, just with a different title.
- Satchel Switcheroo: In the end, Rob takes the suitcase with the bomb instead of the one with the money.
- Scare 'Em Straight: The parents' plan is to convince the kids to not skip school by posing as criminals with backstories that involve how they skipped school.
- Smart Ball: Gumball, who is of average-to-low intelligence, is the only one of the kids who sees through their parents' disguises.
- Spoiled by the Cast List: Notably averted; David Warner is not credited as a Special Guest as he was in previous appearances (including a one-line cameo in "The Love"), as that would give away Rob's presence in the episode.
- Think of the Censors!: Mr. Brown claims he "cannot legally" say the thing in the ticking briefcase is a bomb.
- Took a Level in Badass: Rob/Dr. Wrecker goes from being a somewhat Harmless Villain in "The Nemesis" (he does succeed in hanging Gumball and Darwin on a rope at the end of that episode, but that was no big feat) to coming close in killing off Gumball and the others!
- Unwitting Pawn: The fathers, Principal Brown, and the police all unknowingly assist Rob in stealing the money and escaping.
- Wham Episode: Rob made progress in being a villain, enough to be the REAL mastermind behind the plot of the episode. He may be in jail but this may not be the last crime he'll commit.
- Wham Line: The whole pretend bus hijack ends up becoming for real and the adults are not in on it... plotted by only one!Mr. Brown: Yes, but we thought it would all be pretend. Inhales Hang on a minute… if the money's genuine and the cops are for real… does that mean that this is a real-
Sussie: BADABOOM!
Whole bus screams
Gumball: Whose insane idea was this?
(the phone shows a new message that says...)
Principal Brown: (reads) Stick to the pan or everyone dines?
Rob/Dr. Wrecker: Darn Autocorrect... The stupid thing never works.
Gumball: Rob?
Rob/Dr. Wrecker: Oh, now you remember my name. It's Dr. Wrecker to you, and yes, this whole thing was my idea! All I had to do was suggest the idea to Principle Brown, make sure the police thought it was real, and switched the briefcase for something more, shall we say, explosive.
Gumball: But why?
Rob/Dr. Wrecker: Because I! Am! Your! NEMESIS! Beat'' …And also for the money. - Whole-Plot Reference: The general premise of the episode—a hostage situation with a bomb on a runaway bus—is very similar to the plot of Speed.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: In-Universe example. Richard's backstory as Mr. Pink is... er, flawed.Richard: How did I become a criminal, you ask?
Gumball: I didn't ask.
Richard: I suppose it all started when I was eleven years old and skipped a math class.
Gumball: Uh-huh.
Richard: And for this crime, the punishment was harsh and swift. I spent twelve years in juvie, then five years inside, then twenty-four years on the run, then thirty years back in the big house, then a further seven in solitary.
Gumball: That makes you eighty-nine. It doesn't add up.
Richard: [Laughs] Well, I wouldn't know, 'cause I skipped that math class.
