Recap / The Amazing World Of Gumball S 5 E 11 The Copycats

The Wattersons try to thwart an identical family that copies everything they do to make money from internet videos.

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Tropes:

• Artistic Licence – Law: On of the lines in "Be your own you" is "copying is clearly theft, it's going to lead to your arrest". Whilst Criminal Copyright Infringment is a thing, it only applies to things like creating exact duplicates of copyrighted works without a licence to sell. The Copycats were simply recreating scenes from Gumball, using themselves in place of the Wattersons, which would be a civil matter rather then a criminal one, and would lead to lawsuit rather than an "arrest".
• Batman Gambit: Once they figure out that the copycats will copy everything they do, no matter how stupid or dangerous, the Wattersons deliberately put themselves in harm's way to ensure that the copycats will do the same things and get injured.
• Bilingual Bonus: If you know Chinese you can see Chi Chi's name translates to "red red"^note In Chinese, names are often doubled as an Affectionate Nickname, similar to how Tim becomes Timmy, so the name isn't as odd as it sounds. Since Chi Chi isn't red in colour it's rather obvious that the name was picked purely because it's pronounced exactly the same as Miracle Star in Chinese.
• Black Comedy: The Wattersons successfully get their counterparts horribly maimed by attempting suicide multiple times, knowing that their counterparts will copy everything they do and end up injuring themselves, or worse.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: As part of his copycat nature, Chi Chi immediately copies Gumball's "What the what?" Catchphrase after being caught spying on the Wattersons through their house window.
• Bowdlerise: Most international versions cut the part during the montage of dangerous stunts where Richard is chained and submerged underwater in his bathtub. The Russian, Polish, and Bulgarian dubs also cuts some of the fighting between the Wattersons and the knock-off family on the lawn and some of the more tense parts of the climax where the Wattersons attempt to drive their truck over the unfinished bridge.
• Call-Back:
  • Just like with "The Kids", the episode ends with Gumball and Darwin getting new voice actors, after claiming that nothing will change about them.
  • One of the scenes that the Copycats rip off is the opening to "The DVD" (Which Miracle Star ripped off in Real Life).
  • The copycat family falls off the unfinished bridge just like Ms. Simian did in "The Ape".
• Didn't Think This Through:
  • The Wattersons hurriedly do dangerous stuff to try to get the copycats to injure themselves. It doesn't occur to them that they're putting themselves in an equal amount of danger until they're stuck in a nigh-inescapable situation. Anais calls them out on it during their final stunt.
    Anais: Uh, guys? Am I the only one who understands what it means to go one step further than almost kicking the bucket?!
  • The copycats deliberately had no little sister character, not considering that they'd need her at some point.
• Fearful Symmetry: The Wattersons and their counterparts are too evenly matched to beat each other in a straight fight. Played for laughs as only Nicole and her counterpart can actually fight. Gumball and Chi Chi end up having a Wimp Fight, Darwin and Ribbit are both apologetic attackers and Richard and Dad end up sucking each other's fingers after they both collapse from exhaustion charging at each other.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Double-Subverted; the Wattersons try to make their imitators suffer by doing dangerous things to be copied, but the copycats imitate them so exactly that they can survive anything the Wattersons can. Ultimately, the copycats cause their own undoing anyway by choosing to exclude an Anais equivalent, removing the one person who could save them in a key moment.
• How Is That Even Possible?: Gumball's reaction to the copycats' imitation video of Richard tipping the couch over, which occurred seconds ago.
  Gumball: Wait. How could they copy that? It literally just happened!
• I'm Okay!: After the doppelganger family plummet off a bridge in an exploding vehicle, one of them talks back to indicate they are alive, just hurt too badly to keep copying the Wattersons.
• I Ate WHAT?!: When Darwin eats some cowboy caviar (i.e. bull testicle), Gumball finds out what it is and tries to prevent a negative reaction by telling him it's "eggs from cowboys" which Darwin decides to take his word for. Later, Gumball ends up eating some cowboy caviar in order to trick Chi Chi into eating them as well, only to realize Chi Chi instead ate some lychees since he was standing next to them.
• Ignored Epiphany: After the Wattersons try to teach them (through song) that plagiarism is wrong if not illegal, the other family continues to ripoff the Wattersons, starting with ripping off the very song they used to teach them.
• Inspiration Nod: A derisive example: Gumball and Darwin meet the copycats immediately after deriding the market for powdered goat milk, which is the product advertised by the real life ripoff they're a parody of.
• Intentional Engrish for Funny: The machine translation Gumball uses for their ripoff's website comes out imperfect and the Wattersons take a moment to mock how the wording turned out for their counterparts' bios.
• Irritation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Anais tries to defuse the fighting by wondering if the other family are just people who can't find their own identity ("Isn't identity theft the most sincere form of flattery?"). She appears to have guessed wrong: the copycats don't seem to have any personal stake in their routine, it just seem to be a shameless means to get money (which is what the Wattersons were most upset about in the first place).
• Knocking the Knockoff: The episode is a long Take That! at the Chinese Miracle Star commercials that plagiarized scenes of the show, their Gumball and Darwin analogues being a goat and a frog respectively. The Wattersons are disgusted at their ripoffs and try to get them violently killed. Even before this episode was made, creator Ben Bocquelet acknowledged the ripoff.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Be Your Own You", a pleasantly-tuned song the Wattersons sing to the copycats in order to lean them into originality, while also warning them that they are violating copyright laws.
  And when you've stopped being such a dirty hack,
  Get in your stupid car and don't come back!
• Murder Is the Best Solution: After several failed attempts to get the copycats to stop, Anais suggests they put themselves in potentially fatal situations so the copycats will accidentally kill themselves trying to copy them. The rest of the family go along with it.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The copycats could have gotten away with plagiarising the Wattersons indefinitely if they never met them in person and continued copying their indignation of being copied.
• The Nth Doctor: Gumball and Darwin's VA are replaced at the end of the episode after they boast that no one could do what they do and replace them.
• Offscreen Reality Warp: How the copycats can perfectly replicate what the Wattersons do, immediately after it happens. This extends to making a video of "Be Your Own You" where they swapped roles with the Watterson family.
• Out-of-Character Moment:
  • Trying to get the copycats to kill... err, "off" themselves isn't that out of character for Anais, Gumball and Nicole, but it's more than a little weird to see the pacifistic Darwin jump to violence so quickly.
  • Gumball gives the greeting "Hi, my name is Gumball" and Chi Chi is about to do the same, when Gumball assaults him for copying again. For once, Chi Chi isn't copying Gumball, pointing out he's supposed to say hi in response.
• Plagiarism in Fiction: The low-life copycats plagiarize the Wattersons' entire lives to make money through internet videos.
• Stop Copying Me: The rip-off family do everything the Wattersons do. The Wattersons then try to make them stop by doing dangerous things, but even that doesn't deter them.
• Surveillance as the Plot Demands: The copycats' ability to know exactly what the Wattersons are doing to copy them runs pretty strongly on Rule of Funny—at one point they turn out to be right in the Watterson house window, but much of the rest is unexplained. Twice they even make and post imitation videos within seconds of the original events.
• Take That!:
  • This episode was made to mock the Chinese Miracle Star commercials that ripped off Gumball. The details are very accurate of the original ripoffs, such as the family being goats plus one frog and the lack of an Anais ripoff. The clip based on the first scene of "The DVD" is also one of the scenes exactly copied in the commercial.
  • The absence of an Anais counterpart among the clones (and the real Miracle Star) is highlighted with the poorly translated explanation "Woman no right to celebrate in republic of people [sic]", a potshot at real-world China's unfortunate gender politics (where boys are heavily preferred over girls.)
• Tempting Fate: After seeing that there are no more videos of the rip-off family copying their lives, Gumball and Darwin brag about how they're irreplacable... only for their voices to be changed shortly after and it takes them until the very last second to realize this.
• Vapor Trail: The Wattersons drive an oil truck with the oil leaking out and the trail set on fire; if they drive too slow, the fire will catch up to them and blow them up, and they can't keep driving indefinitely, because they're headed for an unfinished bridge.
• Vomit Chain Reaction: Downplayed; Gumball and Darwin's first interaction with the copycats ends with them all retching over the concept of cowboy caviar.
• You Do Not Want To Know: After Darwin tries some cowboy caviar (read: bull testicle), he asks what it's made of. Gumball reads the label and decides to lie that it's made from cowboy eggs. While Darwin catches the lie, he concludes that Gumball lied for a good reason and doesn't press the issue.

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