The Pony

"The Pony" is the twenty-first episode of Season 2 in The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the fifty-seventh episode overall.

Synopsis
Gumball and Darwin rent a film called A Pony's Tail to watch with Anais, but keep getting distracted on their way home.

Plot
The episode opens with Gumball attempting rent A Pony's Tail from Ripley 2000, but his body physically refuses to let him rent it due to how terrible it is. Darwin tries afterwards by running to the front register at a quick speed, but the same exact thing happens. Carrie, aware that the two will be attempting to rent the film all day, offers to hide the DVD between her horror films, and after putting in a great amount of strength is finally able to rent the movie. Gumball and Darwin explain to Carrie how they promised they would buy Anais a movie of her choice, and how they also promised they would watch it together.

Running late, the two rush home, but their troubles begin as an obese Neck Beard has fallen into a manhole while updating his Elmore Plus status on his phone. Gumball is left to get him out as a nearby tow-truck worker who opened the manhole in the first place refuses to. Meanwhile, Darwin calls an angry Anais on a payphone, she believes Darwin has made up the manhole story in order to get out of spending time with her. Luckily, Gumball has gotten Neck Beard out of the manhole by tying him to the end of the worker's tow-truck, thus making it his problem as opposed to theirs. Before the two are able to set off, they encounter Rob. They manage to get him angry by forgetting his name. Darwin comes up with a quick solution to get him out of their way, kick him down the same manhole.

Meanwhile, Anais is still waiting at home. She asks Richard why her brothers don't seem to want to spend time with her. He has no idea how to reply to his concerned daughter, so he bails out on her.

Gumball grows exhausted after running so much. He and Darwin trade each other's legs for a brief time. They then come upon Sussie's house, where her birthday party is being hosted. They attempt to sneak past, but are inopportunely caught by Sussie. Awkwardly, they are invited and forced to hang out with her family. Gumball tries to excuse himself and Darwin, but Sussie's father bribes him into staying for $1,000. Darwin then calls Anais, asking her if they could hang out next time. He notices that she is pretty disappointed, so he has to talk Gumball out of the party. Gumball reluctantly lets go of the money.

While complaining about lost money, Gumball and Darwin approach Mr. Small, who keeps changing paths in front of them. Eventually Darwin runs into him, knocking the DVD out of its case. They realize they have the wrong DVD -- Night-Mare on Elmore Street instead of A Pony's Tail. They rush to Carrie's house, where they find her mesmerized by their DVD. Darwin goes to retrieve their DVD from the DVD player, but it flies out, away from them.

The two run after the runaway DVD, when they collide with Marvin Finklehimer, who's carrying a bag of DVDs. They quickly recover their DVD, but Darwin manages to lose it again. From that point on, they basically go in the opposite direction: first they run into Mr. Small again. Next, the DVD falls into the hands of Rob, who's trapped inside a sewer drain. He immediately throws the DVD away when Gumball and Darwin forget his name again. The DVD bounces in and out of Sussie's party. Eventually it ends up wedged into Neck Beard's butt crack, who then pins the tow-truck worker underneath. The trapped worker pleads for help, but Gumball refuses, as a retribution for what happened earlier. He and Darwin retrieve the DVD and rush home.

Back home, Gumball and Darwin are eager to see how Anais is feeling. She gradually smiles, and the kids are glad. They then play the movie. Only a few seconds in, Anais declares that she hates it. The boys are relieved that they won't have to sit through it.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin

Supporting Characters

 * Anais
 * Neck Beard
 * Teal Tow Truck Driver (debut)
 * Rob
 * Sussie
 * Sussie's parents (debut)
 * Carrie

Minor Characters

 * Larry
 * Ocho
 * Newspaper Employee
 * Sarah
 * Mr. Poop
 * Pantsbully
 * Mr. Pepperoni
 * Richard
 * Mr. Small
 * Carrie's grandmother (debut)
 * Marvin
 * Principal Brown
 * Patrick
 * Idaho
 * Nicole (mentioned)

Trivia

 * There is a poster of Ocho at Ripley 2000.
 * This was the first speaking role of Rob, who has also had a redesign and is now 2D.
 * This episode aired in the UK before the US.
 * Mic Graves' name can be seen on the front cover of A Pony's Tail.
 * On its first airing in the US, the full opening intro was aired with it, although it might have been an error as the full theme song was not shown after that.
 * This is the first episode in the series with sussie's parents in it

Cultural References

 * Night-Mare On Elmore Street, the DVD that Carrie originally intended to borrow, is a parody of A Nightmare on Elm Street.
 * Gumball's analogy, "finding a piece of hay in a needle stack," may be a reference to the TV series, SpongeBob SquarePants, where SpongeBob and Sandy played that exact game. Both are based on the idiom "finding a needle in a haystack," which is used to describe something that is hard to locate.
 * Carrie's description of the pony movie ("magical friendship of a pony") may be a reference to the TV series, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

Goofs and Errors

 * During the second encounter with Mr. Small, he announces he is going left while Gumball states he and Darwin would be going right; however, since they are facing opposite directions, that means they will run into each other.
 * While speaking to Anais at the phone, Darwin mentions that the movie Anais wants to watch is has something to do with the Luxembourg Prince. However, Luxembourg is a Grand Ducky, which means it has a grand duke, not a prince.

El Pony