User blog:Mattalamode/A Second Opinion: The Slap



Once I was about 80% done with "The Finale," I realized a great error that I'm still kicking myself about. This is the last A Second Opinion article I'm ever going to do (or at least the last conventional one), and I made "The Finale" decidedly NOT the finale.

Instead, the final article is about butts. I defend butts. Cue some joke about how this is the rear end of the series.

Of course, at the same time, it only makes sense that this is, quite literally, the rear end of the series. (There it is.) And, true to the source material, doing something this bafflingly incongruous is fully in the Gumball spirit. It's my duty to embrace it as the show's self-proclaimed "greatest ambassador, ignoring a few people." So happy holidays. Something to do with yule. "The Slap," ladies and gentlemen.

The Actual Start of the Article


The plot of "The Slap" can be summarized in one sentence: Gumball goes out on a deprived quest to get his butt a good slap from Tobias. That, of course, misses all of the nuance of the episode itself.

More realistically, Gumball takes emotional offense when he finds that Tobias slaps everybody's butt save for his own, so he sets out to force collision. It begins as simply as possible, but it quickly spirals out of control to a point where Gumball wistfully contemplates his misfortunes and briefly enlists Darwin's help in the matter (again serving as the neglected moral compass). Gumball's thirst, however, goes unquenched, and Tobias grows increasingly uncomfortable.

This, hilariously, reaches the point where Gumball sends Tobias a communiqué posing as Masami in search of some decidedly non-PG acts on the school roof, but accidentally leaves them both trapped there. After much duress over the next few days, Gumball finally makes his admission, only for Tobias to reveal that the only reason he didn't make touchdown was because he thought Gumball wouldn't be into it, and the two get rescued by Darwin and a high school drop-out Chicken Kiev... or Rocky, I meant... shortly thereafter.

Back at school, Tobias finally gives Gumball the fruits of his labor to the fruits of his labor, only for Gumball to angrily smack him back, equally as offended at being slapped as he was being neglected at the episode's start. With that, the cycle repeats.

Anal-ysis (That was crude, I'm sorry)


Look, there's no way to make "The Slap" sound like art. It's not an episode that exists to be conceptual; it's simply one that exists to be funny, regardless of how juvenile it ultimately becomes.

The beauty of "The Slap" is in how much it runs with the innate stupidity of its premise. Consider, for instance, how Gumball reaches such a point of emotional anxiety that he bursts into melodramatic song about the loneliness of his posterior. All of this, further, is played completely straight - kudos to Jacob, who goes for it from the bottom of his heart and murders that high note like a pro. It legitimately brings a tear to my eye; that's how absurdly gut-wrenching it is.

There's also the fact that "The Slap" just escalates perfectly. One of the greatest issues episodes of this nature have - "The Hug" and "The Cycle," for instance, or any episode that dedicates itself to simple escalation - is that they struggle to stack as the episode progresses, instead making things plateau because the events don't build as intended. Well... that's not an issue here in the slightest!



The jokes start simply, with Gumball simply trying to extend his butt and force it to coalesce his hand, but as his desperation intensifies, so too do the means with which he tries to reach his goal, all while his mental inhibitions spiral. We get to the point where Gumball nearly grabs a passed-out Tobias' limp hand to slap his butt and claim his bounty, though he quickly realizes the errors of his ways. So he instead opts to go for the more socially-acceptable means of, uh, locking the two on top of the school and trying to force it out by cornering him... it's small victories with Gumball, okay?

Whatever. That's all complex wordsmithing. The real issue people have is that "The Slap" is just dumb. And to that, I say: so what?

Writing an episode with the sole intention of being uncharacteristically immature is a daunting feat, and the only other show I can think of to properly execute the concept was Wonder Over Yonder and their episode composed entirely of butt jokes. "The Slap" didn't seem to oversaturate you to the concept in the same way, instead prompting more of a slow burn, and it works all the better because of it. Yes, I daresay that, however deceptively moronic it is, it's an episode with just as much delicacy and care as the rest of the show at its best.



Last but not least, I feel the urge to say that, as a skeptic, I walked into "The Slap" with the utmost concern, only to walk out blown away at how horrifically I prejudged the episode. From that point on, I decided I would be less judgmental based on episode descriptions. This episode, while a slap on Gumball's butt, was also a slap in the face as a presumptive critic.

...then there was "The Diet" and we went straight back to square one, but I digress. "The Slap" is mighty fine (and considerably not bumpy. I can't believe this'll be the last formal remark of this whole series, but... butt jokes).

That's all. Butt jokes. We did it. Twenty-five articles. That's, like, a baker's dozen and a dozen's dozen. Keep your loved ones close this holiday season.

The End of A Second Opinion, Some Thanks, and the Future
Yes, this is going to be the final vanilla A Second Opinion article. There might be collaborations further down the line, but in terms of it just being me discussing episodes solo... this is the end of the line. I say this for two reasons.

First of all (and most obvious): we're running out of episodes to discuss. And that's a compliment to the show! If I'm at a shortage of perceived "bad" episodes to defend, then the show is doing right.



Secondly, I'm ready to move on. And before you beg for forgiveness for having done wrong as to cause me to leave: I'm not going anywhere. And that's also a vast overreaction, guys, Jesus. Rather, I'll be moving on and experimenting with different ideas for article types. There's a lot to talk about regarding the show, so I don't want to simply limit myself.

For now, though, this string of articles might've taken a bit longer than usual to churn out, so thanks for being patient and hanging around with me every step of the way. Special shout-outs to my always omnipresent writer bro Guy; Game, Normie, and Kata, my fellow confidants; my human spell-check and writing buddy Glass; C. R. Martin, who's always looking out for my best interests; and, among my regular readers, Zoe and Fenton. Knowing all of you continues to be a complete delight.

I can't say when I'm returning, but it might be a while. In the meantime, you can always keep up with the reviews on my personal site, especially with Season 6 right around the corner! Or you could look back at all of the other "A Second Opinion" articles I've done over the past year. See you guys around.