The Hero

The Hero is the twenty-second episode of season two of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the fifty-eighth episode overall.

Synopsis
Richard overhears Gumball and Darwin making fun of him, which hurts his feelings and have to regain his reputation as a hero.

Plot
This episode starts out showing Gumball and Darwin on the bench of the Schoolyard, with Masami, Teri, Banana Joe and Hector, who are talking about how great their dads are. Once the kids ask Gumball and Darwin what their father does interesting, Richard pulls up in his car, and overhears the conversation. The only somewhat talents they can think of, sweating without moving and gaining weight make the kids laugh. They then decide he's only good at embarrassing them all the time and that he can't even cook, as he puts cement instead of flour in his cupcakes. Richard listens and grows more depressed on how they feel about him, and the cement cupcakes he made fall out of the bag and onto the sidewalk, thus proving their point. Richard cries and goes home.

At The Watterson's House, Gumball asks Nicole what's for dinner, she says chicken and fries, which in front of both Darwin and him are just uncooked chicken breast and a dirty potato. Gumball ask Nicole they can skip for dessert, Anais throws the cupcakes Richard made at them, Gumball and Darwin don't know what they've done. Nicole tells them Richard overheard what they said at the playground, and he's been hiding in the shed ever since, Gumball will apologize to Richard, if what they said wasn't the truth. Nicole decides since they don't appreciate their parents, until they apologize to their father, they won't do anything else for them, Gumball accepts this challenge as he eat the potato, and as Anais and Nicole look at him in curiosity. Nicole then says she paid for that potato, so Gumball spits it into her hand, saying he wasn't hungry anyway.

Meanwhile, Gumball and Darwin are waiting for Anais to get out of the shower, but since Nicole pays for the water bill and they aren't providing anything for them, they have to shower elsewhere. Gumball then annoys her by mocking everything she said, so she throws the bar of soap at his nose, making it swell. Gumball still had the soap. Even though Darwin is regretting the challenge, they go on the curb by a puddle after they covered themselves in soap, and are waiting for a car to drive over it to splash them. They do get splashed by the puddle, but it only covered them in mud. They regret doing that but another car drives over and splashes them again. Gumball and Darwin return home with many bags, which they all got from the clearance aisle for a dollar. Darwin tells him they have to eat the food before the experation date, which is what Larry said. Gumball says food doesn't have a sell-by date, that's what Larry want them to think, and Gumball demonstrates by eating a banana, only to go bad as he's eating it. He spits it out, and the two scramble to eat the food, but the eggs hatch, the sunflower seeds grow then wilt, and the meat goes rotten as soon as opened, gets covered in maggots and flies swarm the whole screen, and are only left with a can with no label. They hope it's something edible, but when they open it, it's a seemingly dead rat in green goo. They feel sorry for it, only for it to wake up and hiss at them. The rat flees before Darwin smashes the plate with a frying pan, then cries.

The next day on the bus, Gumball and Darwin are malnourished, filthy, clothes in rags, and have flies all around them. Darwin is ready to apologize, but Gumball isn't. Rocky tells them they have to get off the bus, because their smell is disgusting everyone on the bus, in fact, all the students are huddled in the far right corner of the bus so they don't have to smell them. They get off, and Gumball decides angrily he's ready to apologize. They peek through the shed window, and see Richard hammering nails into wood on his lap, which actually were nailing into his lap. Gumball starts laughing, and says he can't do it anymore as he walks away. Darwin looks through the window again, and sees Richard looking at old photos of him, Darwin and Gumball. As he sings My Little Ones, Darwin understands everything now and realizes he has to make Richard feel like a hero again. Gumball and Darwin are then at the dump, inside an old car where Darwin tells him his plan. They were going to be pulled up by the force of the magnet, and Richard was coming and had to turn off the machine before they were dropped in the garbage disposal.

Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Richard

Minor Characters

 * Nicole
 * Anais
 * Masami
 * Banana Joe
 * Hector
 * Bobert
 * Juke
 * Purple Moose
 * Hexagon Lady
 * The Pepperonis
 * Pantsbully
 * Neck Beard
 * Orange Woman
 * Principal Brown
 * Rocky
 * Penny
 * Razor
 * Teri
 * Larry Needlemeyer (mentioned)

Trivia

 * This episode reveals that Darwin was given to Gumball as a Christmas present when he was younger.
 * The episode was used as a Father's Day special in Cartoon Network US.
 * This episode reveals that gumball forgot what Richard do to him.

Continuity

 * Razor makes a reappearance in this episode.
 * Gumball's past self reappears from "The Treasure".

Cultural References

 * Teri's mentioning of her dad being able to beat rock is a reference to the game Rock, Paper, Scissors - in the game, paper does indeed beat rock (by covering it).
 * Richard's singing and dancing during the flashbacks is similar to that of hip-hop artist MC Hammer in his music video to U Can't Touch This.

Goofs/Errors

 * Banana Joe takes a bite out of his sandwich, but on closer inspection, no evidence of a bite can be found.
 * In "The Treasure," it is stated and shown that Gumball was an ugly baby, but the pictures in this episode show a normal baby. These pictures may have been taken later in his life, though. Another explanation may have been that the photograph from the afore mentioned episode was distorted.