The Menu

"The Menu" is the twenty-seventh episode of Season 5 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 183rd episode overall.

Synopsis
The prize jewel on the Secret Joyful Burger menu is a mysterious burger, but to order it you need to know its name. When Larry refuses to tell Richard, Gumball, and Darwin what it is called, they go to super-sized lengths to discover it.

Plot
The episode begins with Richard sleeping on the couch, when suddenly he hears something and rushes out of the house, crashing through neighborhood walls, on the freeway, and into the Elmore Mall, where Gumball and Darwin were waiting. Richard asks Gumball what the secret menu of Joyful Burger is. Gumball states that the only way to eat this special is to find out its name.

Richard, Gumball, and Darwin go to the drive-thru at Joyful Burger and attempt to trick Larry into ordering the special burger, with Richard trying to imitate a poor connection through the drive-thru intercom system, but Larry does not seem to play along. When all else fails, Richard suggests that Gumball and Darwin get jobs at Joyful Burger in hopes of infiltrating the business and finding out the secret burger's name.

What follows is a montage showing Gumball and Darwin climbing the corporate ladder and coming to dominate the Joyful Burger franchise, eventually selling shares of the company for $4.6 billion, with which they buy a mansion. In it, they are interviewed by a news reporter, but it is only once asked how they got into the industry in the first place that they remembered what they initially set out to do.

At nighttime, Richard, Gumball, and Darwin kidnap Larry, and gave him some demands about the secret Joyful Burger menu. When Larry refuses to abide, they threaten to vandalize the Joyful Burger mascot, Burgie. After posing the statue to be eating their competitor's food and Richard eats the statue's fingers, Larry caves and finally tells them about the secret menu for the mysterious burger. Larry tells Richard that to receive the secret burger, he has to eat something from every Joyful Burger location in an hour.

Richard and the kids set out to go to every Joyful Burger location, but in the process of doing so, Richard becomes extremely fat from eating too much burgers, and as a result, he is unable to fit in the car, so they are forced to walk back to Larry's Joyful Burger location. Ultimately, he succeeds, and as a reward, Larry gives Richard the special burger: the M'Guffin. Richard happily tries to eat it, but it cannot fit in his mouth due to his increased weight and having already eaten too many burgers prior, ending the episode.

Main Characters

 * Gumball
 * Darwin
 * Richard
 * Larry

Minor Characters

 * Mr. Robinson
 * Karen
 * Pantsbully
 * Jeff
 * Goblin
 * Cowboy
 * George
 * Sphere Citizens
 * Clipboard Man
 * Cows
 * Kip Schlezinger
 * Mike
 * Burgie the Clown
 * Felicity
 * Billy
 * Richard's Heart

Trivia

 * This episode reveals that Joyful Burger's mascot is a clown named Burgie.

Continuity

 * When trying to order the secret burger, Richard contorts his face like he did in "The Signal."
 * When Richard said he can not get a job, it could be a possible callback from "The Job".
 * When Richard is taking photos of Burgie, he is using the same account on his phone as in "The Diet."
 * The Joyful Burger location featured in "The Traitor" reappears.
 * The Joyful Burger location in the mall features the exact same interior and external decals as "Dinner" in "The Misunderstandings."

Cultural References

 * Like Joyful Burger, many restaurant chains have well-known sets of special orders that come to be known as secret menus.
 * Richard likens his dream of ordering the burger to finding Atlantis, Montezuma's Gold, or Moby Dick.
 * Gumball guesses the burger is called the "Illumi-patty," a reference to the Illuminati.
 * Another one of Gumball's guesses is "The Area Beefty-One," a reference to the highly classified government facility Area 51 in Nevada.
 * Gumball's guess, "The Bilderburger," is a reference to the Bilderberg conference which is known to be extremely secretive.
 * The mascot Burgie the Clown is a reference to Ronald McDonald, the clown mascot for McDonald's.
 * Larry describes Burgie as "A friend to all the children." This could be a reference to Gamera, who shares a similar title.
 * The way Richard's button destroyed one floor of a tower is a reference to the popular puzzle game Tetris, when the blocks complete a line and it disappears.
 * The secret menu item, the M'Guffin, is a play on the word "MacGuffin" which, in literature or entertainment, is an object or device that serves merely as a trigger for the plot.
 * The name is also a parody on the McDonald's breakfast sandwich, the McMuffin.
 * The Joyful meal is a parody of McDonald's happy-meal.

Goofs/Errors

 * When Burgie is photographed with the fried chicken, its face is covered in grease. Moments later, the grease is completely gone.
 * When Richard tries to eat the M'Guffin, there were no burgers in his mouth, but in the next scene, he has burgers in his mouth.