The Wattersons attempt to destroy an impossibly-tacky, re-gifted vase from Granny Jojo. The problem is that it's Made of Indestructium.
Tropes:
- Ashes to Crashes: Right as the kids seemingly find a way to break the vase, Granny Jojo reveals she accidentally gave them the urn containing the ashes of Louie's pet snake. Nicole manages to save the vase and exchange it for the "right" one, which she immediately smashes on the ground. It covers the floor with ashes which they all agree is just dust.
- Could Say It, But...: Nicole uses both mime and verbal suggestions to tell the kids they can destroy the vase while pretending to say otherwise. The kids think she's just testing them. It takes her leaving the house and acting out what she wants them to do in front of a window for them to finally get it. This backfires later, as when Nicole needs to get the vase back intact, the kids think she's still playing coy and Gumball sends it off for disposal.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: As she climbs the crane to keep the vase from being crushed inside a car, Nicole warns the kids not to do what she's about to do, no matter how cool it looks.
- Downer Ending: The Wattersons end up destroying the vase that Louie wanted, not the one they did not want to have.
- Ear Worm: When Nicole comes home from work, Richard is singing the song from the Elmore Wrecking Yard commercial ("We wreck 'em!")
- Indestructibility Montage: The whole episode can be summed up as such, as the kids do everything they can to destroy the vase. Hitting the vase head-on with a fully loaded semi-truck and trailer just resulted in the truck flipping itself over on impact.
- Imagine Spotting: When the kids think they'll be stuck with the vase forever, we see a vision of each with the vase in their future. After the third one includes Darwin with the vase at his deathbead, we zoom out and Darwin exclaims that to have been the vase's imagination.
- Kitschy Local Commercial: At a loss on how to break the vase, the kids get a Coincidental Broadcast of a commercial for the Elmore Wrecking Yard. It has a catchy song and dance reminiscent of the memetic Flea Market Montgomery commercial.
- Made of Indestructium: The main drive of the episode is that the vase just will not break!
- Named Like My Name: During a phone call with Nicole, Granny Jojo mentions that the vase contains the ashes of Roosevelt. Nicole thinks she means one of the US Presidents, but Granny Jojo clarifies that Roosevelt was Louie's pet python.
- Oh, Crap!: Nicole is on the receiving end of this when Granny Jojo calls, reveals she accidentally (re-)gifted the Wattersons a vase containing the ashes of a beloved family member, and is coming over to swap it with the right one.
- Pedestrian Crushes Car: The vase is run into by a semi-truck hauling a fully-loaded trailer of tires without being damaged or even moved.
- Pre-Mortem One-Liner: The kids try to come up with snappy one-liners to say before they drop the vase out of their bedroom window. The vase chooses to mock them instead by embedding itself in the pavement below.
- Refuge in Audacity: Jojo justifies re-gifting the vase by stretching passive aggressiveness to the absurd: she openly admits to finding the vase ugly, but figures someone like Nicole could like it.
- Russian Reversal: The most common demonstration of the titular vase's indestructibility is to break whatever is used to break it:
- Breaking the pavement it drops on from a two-story building.
- Junking the junkyard the kids brought it to.
- Destroying the tree it was flung into it via giant slingshot.
- Springtime for Hitler: The kids expect Richard to fail in not dropping the vase with butter all over his hands. They give up when it takes more than 10 seconds.Gumball: Ugh! Why couldn't you have managed that when I was a baby?
- Shout-Out:
- Nicole smiles like the Grinch when she thinks of letting the kids break the vase.
- The way Gary the mailman treats the package delivered to the Wattersons (dropping and kicking it like a soccer ball) mimics the opening scenes of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
- The commercial for the Elmore Wrecking Yard is reminiscent of the Flea Market Montgomery
viral video. - When a semi-truck hits the vase, it flips over in a manner similar to the truck in The Dark Knight.
- Nicole's rescue of the vase (particularly her travel up to the top of the crane, the jump between cranes, and the music) bear a striking similarity to the opening chase sequence in Casino Royale (2006)'.
- Twist Ending: Granny Jojo re-gifted the Wattersons the right vase after all - and the Wattersons find this out the hard way by deliberately destroying the 'right' one Granny Jojo swaps with them, getting dead-pet ashes all over them and their house.
- Unwanted Gift Plot: Zig-zaggs between being a defied trope and one Played for Laughs. The Wattersons receive an impossibly-tacky, re-gifted vase from Granny Jojo. Nicole's attempt to end the plot by having the kids junk it fails spectacularly when, first, the vase will not break, then has to stop the kids when Granny Jojo calls and says she gifted the wrong vase and needs to make a swap. The Wattersons successfully junk the correct vase - only to discover the vase they had was the right one all along.
