Gumball and Darwin want to veg out all day, but the universe won't let them.
Tropes:
- Bowdlerise: Some versionsnote all cut the part where the stringy-haired ghost man crawls out of the television a la The Ring to make it look like he randomly appeared out of nowhere.
- But Thou Must!: No matter how hard they try, Gumball and Darwin cannot avoid getting off the couch and helping their family. And when they do get forced off the couch, they try to travel via office chairs while moving very slowly; and when that doesn't work, they just decide to mail themselves to the bridge.
- Call-Back:
- When Gumball is reaching for the remote, the street is visible through a window behind him, showing Colin, Felix, and the dwarf bus driver are riding on the same dragon they did at the end of "The Boredom".
- At the end of the same shot, the street's background falls away, revealing it to be a flat veneer with the void behind it, just as it was shown in "The Void". Later on, the living room couch is turned into a flat cardboard cutout in the same manner.
- Chandler's Law: Parodied; Darwin and Gumball's attempt to spend a day relaxing on the couch is constantly interrupted by random events (a meteor hitting their house, a mutagenic space virus, a train running through their street), but they refuse to get involved with or even acknowledge them—until it turns out the rest of the family are in danger.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Following Gumball and Darwin saving their family, it seems like everything is fine until an ominous message is burned onto the living room wall stating "This is a message from the future. The strange things that happened today were for a reason. And it was all the work of--" which Gumball and Darwin just ignore in favor of munching on couch candy.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: The game show Darwin and Gumball attempt to watch features a partially obscured message that seems relevant to their situation and/or aimed at the audience.
- I Have Your Wife: Richard, Nicole, and Anais end up in a Literal Cliffhanger only Gumball and Darwin can save them from, seemingly because the universe itself is taking them hostage so the brothers will finally get off their asses and do something.
- I'm Melting!: Gumball and Darwin slowly start to melt after leaving the rising thermostat unaccounted for for a few hours.
- Lazy Bum: Gumball and Darwin. Even when they're inevitably forced to get up and go save their family, they're too lazy to get up from their chairs and decide to call a taxi to take them there.
- Medium-Shift Gag: When Gumball complains about being forced to constantly run around town, he shows off a pair of tone, live-action human legs (albeit still blue).
- Milestone Celebration: Though not in the episode itself, the network celebrated this being the 200th episode aired by making it the end of a marathon and having an associated contest.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When Gumball and Darwin tune out everything around them, they start with the phone ringing, then with a meteor falling through the roof and leading to an Alien Invasion. On the seventh transition, Gumball and Darwin apparently got around to doing something about it between transitions and are being thanked by a council of aliens for defeating a threat that is never revealed because Gumball transitions again before the councilman can say what it is.
- Sequel Hook: It is implied that something big is going to happen in the future and that it was the cause of what happened in this episode. Before the message says who is behind all this, Gumball and Darwin end up ignoring it in favor of couch candy, then the messenger gives up in frustration.
- Shout-Out: The scene with the TV ghost is rife with film references.
- Gumball receives an ominous phone call asking "Do you want to play a game?" This is the iconic Beam Me Up, Scotty! line (not) in Saw.
- A Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl (or rather, Guy) crawling out of a TV? The Ring.
- The ghost guy, dejected by the boys' complete disinterest, asks if they even want to know what's in the box. Likely, this is a reference to Se7en, known for the quote "What's in the box?"
- Skewed Priorities: Gumball and Darwin are so committed to having their lazy day that they won't do anything requiring effort, even if their own lives are in danger. They ignore an apparent apocalypse, won't get up to fix the broken thermostat, and mail themselves to reach their endangered family.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: A character parody of Samara from The Ring is shown coming out of the TV.
- The Unreveal: It's never revealed who is the person who caused the episode's events, since they gave up and Gumball and Darwin don't care.
