The Amazing World of Gumball Review: The Loophole

"Stop it, you are being hysterical!" "Stop it, you are being illogical."

Bobert is an interesting character in that he's stuck in the rut of always having the same joke. He's a robot, so he follows all things as literally as possible with emotional detachment. (When postured with defining love, for instance, he defines it in tennis terms.) Because of that, it seems especially hard to write episodes centered around him as he's entirely static- there's no dynamism to his character, but that only really compliments the design. When the show uses him, most of the originality is in all the things framed around him and the extent to which he doesn't understand human logic.

I mean, conceptually, this is incredibly similar to Season 2's The Bet, wherein Gumball and Darwin take control of Bobert for the day, eventually spiraling into Gumball nearly being terminated. In this case, they try to fix Bobert, eventually spiraling into all of mankind nearly being terminated, so the stakes are a bit higher.

It starts out simple- when having a conversation with Bobert, they realize the danger of talking to him literally, prompting him to perform such acts as attempt to decapitate Darwin's hand ("Give him a hand", so to speak), and seek to make him safe for the rest of the world's good and, y'know, to get out of homework. 

Right out the gate, the episode has some strong moments- the whole sequence of Gumball and Darwin trying to set rules as to prevent any form of harm is a fine example. It starts out obvious- "Never raise your hand against anyone" means a kick in the knee. But then even the most foolproof methods become increasingly more absurd- when asked to not move a muscle, Bobert instead emits concentrated radioactive waste on Gumball, making his tongue crawl out of his mouth. A similar sequence finds Bobert upholding the law- every law regardless of its lunacy, leading to hyperspecific law-breaking being objected to and amended. (Yes, I checked, it is in fact illegal to sing off-key in North Carolina.)

The climax of the episode is when Bobert is given the order of protecting all life on Earth at all costs, be it ants or viruses, which spirals into him realizing the true danger on Earth- humanity and its damage to the environment, and as dumb or preachy as a premise as it sounds, the show uses that more as a launchpad to justify Bobert's insane acts. Most notably, he gets rid of electricity, making credit cards become nothing and lead to the complete collapse of the economy and society. Gumall goes to call the police only to find Bobert as the mastermind of the operation and they go off to take him down. They approach him, causing him to count down the termination of mankind, but ultimately they use his own words against him to get him to stop- he calls mankind a "virus" but says earlier he would protect "viruses", so the result is nullified.

My main issue with the episode is not that it wasn't funny, because it certainly was, nor did it have any structural issues. It climaxed nice and the ending worked, so there's no real problem with that, either. My problem was that a lot of the ideas central to the plot felt recycled, as if the episode were composed of several components from other episodes. Again, there's The Bet, but there's also a similar economic breakdown in The Pizza, and Bobert becoming an all-seeing tyrant was similar to The Safety, where Darwin did the same. Those episodes succeeded in dwelling in their premise and milking them as much as possible, while The Loophole couldn't find a solid concept to grapple onto before jumping to the next idea. Still, the episode is a strong showcase for the writers regardless- each bit is nicely woven in with the rest and again, in spite of some slightly reheated premises, the jokes are completely fresh, though they do have a bit of a familiar feel in their presentation. 

Takeaway:

-"Homework is like going to the bathroom and then coming out with a doggy bag." 

-"People say your schooldays are the best years of your life. That's like a guy stuck in a sausage grinder saying it's okay when it was only his fingers caught in the machine." "What are you talking about?" "Sometimes I wish I could just... go straight to the end of the process." "What, like go in full sausage?" "No, just be an adult already."

-The joke where Bobert headbutts Gumball a year into the past (into a scene from "The Spoiler") was the show's fourth wall-breaking at its best, and I'm surprised they hadn't come up with that before. I especially appreaciate future Gumball's casual air while past Gumball and Darwin stand awkwardly, not sure what to make of the situation.
-When Darwin is choking on food, Gumball tells Bobert to solve the issue in any way possible- prompting him to turn his arm into an air valve and blow into his rear to make it pop out. You can't blame the show for not trying new things, okay?
-As lame as the fight over how to pronounce "quinoa" is, I think it brings up something wort addressing: the writers do an admirable job of giving characterization to every background character that talks by showing some inflection of their personality, which I appreciate. It helps make the show feel more like a world where every person has their own life- they don't just exist exclusively in the background while the main characters do their thing, an issue with a lot of other shows across all genres. So kudos to you.

Final Grade: B+. While I may have bashed on the episode a fair amount, that doesn't mean it's a bad episode. In the grand scheme of things, this episode is particularly strong and one of Bobert's best outings, and it makes strong use of Gumball's more traditional narrative style without going too big. It's simple, it's smart, and it gets the job done.

For the last Gumball review on The Slide, CLICK HERE.