User blog comment:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Dress/@comment-31129705-20171019073840/@comment-31194372-20171021043924

Pretty much any episode of the show that tries to teach a lesson or be feelsy isn't very representative of how the show operates - they only really make up about 5% of all of the show's episodes, so expecting TAWOG to be a message-driven comedy show based on some high points isn't a fair way to assess the show.

When I say there's a Gumball edge, I mean that the show isn't simply following along with whatever cliched plot it's stuck with, which in the case of "The Dress" is simply Gumball being mistaken for a girl. It explores those ideas of the vanity that comes with it and the ultimate costs of the whole charade. There's still some weird foot in a sense of reality in that every action has a consequence. The juvenility of the execution can be forgiven for how far the episode pushes at its generic plot to extract as much untapped gold as possible.