Billy passes out from shock while playing a video game, so his mother tries to have all video games in Elmore banned. Gumball tried to prove she shouldn't, and when that fails, the schoolkids decide to prove that books aren't any better.
Tropes:
- An Aesop: As Billy points out, the supposedly negative influence of video games on children is just a symptom of a much larger problem with how people go about their parenting. What and how adults teach their children is a much bigger influence on their behavior, and they need to own up to it and not scapegoat video games.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: When the kids are forbidden by the parents from playing video games and have no choice but to read books, they fight back using their logic by showing how books can be just as bad as video games just to prove a point.
- Black Comedy Burst: The last game that is unplugged by the moral guardians was not a video game. It was a radar for an air traffic control tower. Cue the planes going crazy.
- Book Burning: Much to the kids' horror, this is what their plan to show the adults books are just as violent as videogames results in.
- Comically Missing the Point: Felicity completely missed the point kids were trying to make about not blaming books or video games, and convinces everybody to just burn books.
- Creator Cameo: The picture Mr. Small claims is what Ocho used to look like is of Jacob Hopkins, Gumball's second voice actor from season three's "The Kids" to season five's "The Copycats".
- A Day in the Limelight: For Felicity.
- Didn't Think This Through:
- Gumball and Darwin disguised themselves as Nicole and Richard to speak in support of video games at the parent assembly. Besides the disguises being poor, they hadn't considered that their actual parents would also be there. When Gumball tries to cover himself by pretending the real Nicole is Gumball in disguise, he realizes too late that he's grounded himself.
- The kids attempt to show their parents that books are just as bad as video games, in order to convince them that video games shouldn't be banned. Instead, they just convince everyone that both books and video games should be banned.
- Deliberately Bad Example: A running gag - each of Gumball's counterpoints to Felicity's crusade are good, but fail anyway because he picks the worst examples possible for what he's trying to say.
- He claims that video games bring families together and encourage them to play together, but picks his family, and the whole thing is brought down when Nicole's insane overcompetitiveness causes game night to devolve into Amusing Injuries.
- He points out that video games don't actually cause kids to lose sight of reality, but he picks Banana Joe, a kid with a barely present grasp on reality in the first place. This time Banana Joe's father shows up and does something stupid to prove it wasn't video games that made Joe that way, but Felicity wasn't paying attention.
- He points out that video games encourage normal, well adjusted kids of all kinds, and picks Tina - and Felicity just attributes all of the characteristics that are actually due to her being a T-Rex on video game overuse.
- Downer Ending: The kids are unable to convince Felicity and the parents to unban video games, and end getting books banned as well.
- Glad I Thought of It: Darwin figures a way they can try and get the ban on video games repealed by pointing out how violent books can be. He whispers it to Gumball who immediately says he's going to steal the idea.
- Ignored Epiphany: At the end, instead of doing Richard's actual smart suggestion that the parents should become more sensible and take better care of their children, they listen to Felicity's suggestion which is burning all the books while the kids look on in horror.
- In-Universe Factoid Failure:Gumball: I read The Tortoise and the Hare, a tale of torture and despair!
Darwin: You haven't actually read that one, have you? - Insane Troll Logic: Felicity comes with insane reasons for justifying her hatred of video games. For example, she blames Tina's fearsome appearance on game playing, and when Gumball correctly explains that she got that from her father, she asks Tina if her father sometimes plays with her; when she says yes, Felicity concludes that Tina's dad was made that way from video games.
- Lampshade Hanging: After Gumball and Darwin break into Felicity's meeting and give a speech about how video games can be a positive influence, she tells them "You two have really made me think about things-mostly that I should have locked that door..."
- Moral Guardians: Felicity is this to the point that when the kids point out that books can be as bad as video games but parents shouldn't blame them and instead focus on their parenting, she eventually leads a Book Burning.
- Praising Shows You Don't Watch: In-Universe; Felicity encourages the kids to read "all the great classics of literature", but apparently doesn't know what actually happens in any of them.
- Pretending to Be One's Own Relative: Darwin and Gumball try to impersonate Richard and Nicole, respectively. Darwin's disguise is just terrible, as he had to paint on pink fur, pants, and a tie while sticking on a cardboard buck tooth and ears. Gumball's Strong Family Resemblance would have made his disguise pretty good if he weren't so much smaller than Nicole that he's walking over her knee-length skirt. It's not clear how effective they are, as Nicole immediately exposes them and Richard falls for it only because he thinks he's looking at himself talking.
- Selective Obliviousness: Felicity ignores what's going on when it doesn't suit her hatred of video games, like how Banana Joe can't tell fiction from reality not due to video games but because of his father who's also as dumb. Gumball tries to show her that but to no avail.
- Sense Freak: Billy is so overwhelmed by his first video game that he goes into shock. And he only got as far as the loading screen.
- Shout-Out:
- During the scene depicting Billy being wowed by video games, images are featured referencing Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, Space Invaders and Tetris.
- The kids mention a plethora of books in their song:
- At one point, Penny dresses herself as Katniss Evergreen.
- Darwin mentions that William Shakespeare's books are filled with vicious violence.
- Tobias sings about how Oliver Twist is about kids learning how to pick pocket.
- Susie screams "Off With Their Heads!" while wearing the Red Queen's crown.
- The song begins referring to Lord of the Flies and how the glasses kid doesn't survive.
- Sudden Video-Game Moment: When Gumball is given three chances to convince Felicity that video games are not harmful, a Life Meter with three hearts appears on screen. Every time he fails, he loses a heart and regenerates somewhere else.
- Take That!:
- This episode is a scathing commentary against Moral Guardians who hate video games. Felicity ignores or warps evidence to make video games out as worse than they actually are, and it's pointed out that classical literature and history (commonly advocated alternatives) are just as bad, if not worse, than video games when they're supposedly less violent.
- Billy mentions that Felicity believes vaccinations are also a bad influence, which is a jab against anti-vaxxers.
- Toxic gamers are not immune either, with Richard's comment that if they were online he would be saying things he would never say to Felicity's face.
- Was Once a Man: Mr. Small claims that Ocho only looks like an 8-bit character because he plays a lot of video games, and he used to look like a live-action human. This probably isn't true.
