User blog comment:Supersinger9000/Gumball Watterson is in Denial, a Theory/@comment-30307603-20190520030720

Very interesting. For the most part, I like this proposition of yours and the analysis behind it. There are just a few things I would like to add onto it.

Regarding "The Signal," I've held the headcanon that the Void wiped the Watterson brothers' memories of the events of said episode before they had the chance to really properly process their conclusions. With that said, I don't think such an interpretation is a knock against your proposition as "The Void" and "The Nobody" seem to imply that the universe doesn't always do a completely clean wipe of memories given that Gumball still remembers fragments of Molly and Rob completely recalls his past when given proper cues in the respective episodes. What I'm trying to say is that even if the Watterson brothers forgot the events of "The Signal" superficially, somewhere on a subconscious level they are aware of the fact they're cartoon characters. This would be the reason why they deny such a fact despite their actions suggesting otherwise.

Gumball's savviness in "The Vegging" and the dictation of his memoir to seemingly "nobody" in "The Candidate" are also points that you could add in favor of your argument.

I also think there is an argument to be made that Darwin and Tobias are subconsciously self-aware like Gumball. Although Darwin is far too reserved to really act on it like Gumball, one could interpret Tobias's insecurities as a manifestation of this self-awareness. Likewise, I think it's fair to say that Sarah and the Awesome Store salesperson are pretty aware of what's going on. Sarah is simply too idealistic and naive to care about the deeper implications, and the Awesome Store salesperson shady merchandise has me believing that he is a more powerful entity than he lets on.

Good post!