Fourth wall

Breaking the fourth wall is a comedy device (also a running gag) used in fictional stories in which a character acknowledges the fact that they are a character in a show or television show, and are actually aware of being such, and tell the audience. This violates the separation between the character and the audience, the convention being known as the fourth wall. There are several ways of breaking the fourth wall; examples include when a character refers to a particular part in a television episode, when a character stops others from performing an occult or criminal act by referring to the fact that it is a "children's movie/show," when a character responds to a real world person who is not physically present (such as the narrator), or when a character talks directly to the viewer.

There are several instances to breaking the fourth wall in The Amazing World of Gumball, ranging from subtle to whole sections having significance or to whole episodes based around breaking the fourth wall, as can be shown in the following section.

List of times the fourth wall was broken

Season 1

"The Spoon"
- Gumball and Darwin wink at the camera while they are serving the sheriff.
"The Painting"
- Gumball karate kicks the screen to pieces at the end.
- In the same scene, Darwin throws paint onto the camera.
"The Mystery"
- Gumball says "I said it was him!" to whoever is shining the light on each suspect.
"The Robot"
- Banana Joe says "I'm a banana" to the camera as everyone leaves Bobert.
"The Wand"
- Mr. Robinson says "I wish I hadn't said that" to the viewer.
"The Car"
- Darwin freezes the scene as though someone paused it when informing Gumball on the game rules.
- Richard makes a flashback appear through his body motion and sound effects. He even interrupts Nicole's just to do it.
"The Fight"
- As Gumball runs from Tina in the cafeteria, food splatters on the camera.

Season 2

"The Banana"
- Banana Joe cracks many of his jokes to the viewer.
"The Apology"
- Gumball asks why he has to run every eight minutes of his life, eight minutes into the episode.
"The Words"
- The crowd of students sing to the tune of the opening theme.
"The Skull"
- Razor's rampage stops as if he is paused.
"Christmas"
- Characters wish the viewer a Merry Christmas at the start.
"The Flakers"
- Anais breaks the fourth wall when she winks at the camera.
"The Dream"
- Gumball and Darwin fight over a censorship panel.
"The Game"
- Gumball pulls a card that says "Dramatic Music Will Play Until the End of the Game," and it does.
"The Voice"
- Tobias indirectly mentions how he feels like he is the supporting character of his own life.
"The Castle"
- Darwin realizes how Gumball's voice has changed, referencing the change of his voice actor's voice.
"The Sweaters"
- Gumball mentions how the episode will end.
"The World"
- The objects sing "The Amazing World Of Elmore" to the viewers.
"The Finale"
- Anais noticing that they were relatively unscathed after falling from such a large height in "The Responsible," a reference to the humorous laws of cartoon physics.
- In a call back to "The Car," Richard makes a flashback appear the same way he did in that episode.
- Mrs. Jötunheim interrupts the flashback of Hector's rampage in Elmore.
- Richard explaining that when he is placed in prison, he is suddenly "just not in there anymore," a reference to the shift back to the status quo at the end of episodes.
- Gumball noticing how they looked different in the family album, a reference to the transition in drawing style and animation that occurred between season 1 and season 2.
- Gumball wondering why the episode looked like it would not end happily, a reference to how most episodes end happily.
- Gumball stating that only a total reality reset could save them, a reference to how the ending of episodes tends to revert the town back to normal, also known as deus ex machina.

Season 3

"The Kids"
- Gumball's face is squished by Patrick's side of the split screen.
- Gumball states that he has been twelve years old for forever, referencing how cartoon characters do not usually show age development.
- Darwin states that he and Gumball are the people on TV who do not age.
"The Fan"
- After Sarah tells her joke to Gumball and Darwin, a live audience is heard laughing.
- After Sarah speaks to the viewer, the animation pauses two times, and the words "The End" and "Executive Producer: Sarah G. Lato" appear on the bottom of the screen.
- Sarah breaks the fourth wall by singing the show's ending theme.
"The Joy"
- The camera squishes Miss Simian's face.
- When Miss Simian asks for the time, the time card crashes into her.
- In many instances, rainbow liquid splashes onto the camera.
"The Puppy"
- Gumball, Darwin, and Anais speak to the viewer multiple times throughout the episode.
The Name"
- The theme song can be heard in Gumball's subconscious.
"The Extras"
- The minor characters are fully aware of their background status and blame Gumball and Darwin for it.
- The green bear points directly at the viewer in the song, rather than Gumball and Darwin.
- The minor characters sing the song's reprise to the viewer.
"The Fraud"
- Principal Brown breaks the fourth wall in this episode when he points out that Gumball and Darwin's nudity is pixelated.
- Principal Brown winks at the viewer.
"The Void"
- Gumball's face comes closer to the camera.
- Gumball, Darwin, and Mr. Small are aware that Elmore's attempts to erase its mistakes have resulted in parts of their universe becoming flat/distorted.
"The Move"
- Gumball pops Clayton's thought bubble.
"The Law"
- The title card music and the ice cream truck's jingle are both the ending theme.
"The Allergy"
- At the end, Darwin sneezes on the camera, causing the screen to crack.
"The Shell"
- Gumball asks why he and Penny are always in space when they want to kiss.
"The Lie"
- Throughout the episode, the narrator speaks to the viewer.
- When Darwin is about to scream, the narrator quickly interrupts the episode and tells the viewer to "just imagine a scream of a million Chihuahuas."
"The Saint"
- Gumball throws grease at the camera.
- When he tries to mess up Alan's Elmore Plus account, Gumball's comment, "Oh, my gosh! Why are there so many drawn people in Elmore? Go back to your flat country and stop ruining our economy!" is a reference to the 2-D characters in the show. He says to Darwin that "no one likes a 2-Dist."
"The Safety"
- Gumball is aware of the pixellation and the "child lock."
- Gumball, Anais, and Nicole crash into a "viewer discretion" notice.
- Nicole is aware of the sound effects and fighting getting censored.
"The Countdown"
- While Gumball and Darwin argue on a junk pile, the on-screen timer rapidly adjusts to two minutes.
- Gumball crashes into the screen, freezing time.
- Gumball and Darwin are able to see and interact with the on-screen timer, for instance mentioning how it took them a minute to get far out in the desert.
"The Downer"
- Gumball sings "Life Can Make You Smile" to the viewer.
- Gumball talks to the viewers for most of the episode.
"The Triangle"
- Sussie mentions that, to perform a better band rehearsal, they should do a training montage.
- When Gumball is wondering who wants to sabotage his brother's performance, the camera zooms into Banana Joe's face, causing the screen to break and throwing Gumball off balance.
"The Money"
- When the family tells Gumball that advertising is not necessarily selling out, Darwin winks and Gumball asks him who he is speaking to, implying that he was talking to the viewer. Anais also speaks directly to the viewer.
- When Gumball states that "without money, you're nothing," the family's appearance deteriorates.
- The 2D characters turn into rough key animation and the CGI characters glitch as the animation begins to degrade.
- The scenes then become storyboards while the Watterson family are continuing to run to the mall. After the Wattersons (except Gumball) sign the Joyful Burger contract, the storyboard then returns to its animation quality.

Season 4

"The Return"
- A radio announcer says "And now, three minutes fifty of non-stop chase music!" mainly because Richard is in an intense situation.
"The Others"
- When trying to force feed Clare a happy ending, Gumball says, "Qualified? Heh! You don't need a qualification if you got a made-up magic job!"
"The Signature"
- Gumball recognizes suspenseful background music.
"The Pest"
- Billy makes fun of Gumball's sweater and says "2011 called and said to keep it, as it wasn't cool when you started wearing it," which is a reference to the year of the show's premiere.
"The Gift"
- The camera zooms out to reveal the classmates eavesdropping on Gumball, Darwin, and Masami, who had crammed themselves between the edge of the frame.
- Alan talks to, and tries to stay with the camera, but gets angry when it ignores him.
"The Routine"
- Richard hears the narrator yelling at him.
- Mr. Rex breathes on the camera.
"The Comic"
- When Gumball tries flashing back, Darwin tells him he should not bother.
"The Uploads"
- The thumbnail for Gorilla VS Killer Whale has the Cartoon Network logo.
- Gumball finds a trailer for The Amazing World of Gumball Movie.
"The Apprentice"
- The goblin is entertained by Gumball "acting like he's on television."
- The goblin knows about the events in Gumball's dream sequence.
"The Origins"
- The camera crashes into Gumball's face a couple times.
- The camera is backwards as it is the viewer taking the picture.
"The Girlfriend"
- Gumball asks Darwin if he notices the suspenseful background music.
"The Advice"
- When Coach hits Banana Joe, they both crash into the camera.
"The Signal"
- The title card glitches up.
- Part of Mic Graves' face is superimposed over Gumball's.
- Guillaume Cassuto's eyes can be seen on Darwin.
- Interruptions with satellite TV in Elmore turn out to be causing the actual town to glitch and only Gumball seems to be aware of it.
- Gumball and Darwin come to the conclusion that they are in a TV show, but the episode jumps to the entire family eating dinner at home.
- The ending theme plays as the episode glitches one last time.
"The Love"
- The narrator of the chemistry sequence is speaking directly to the viewer.
"The Bus"
- Rocky refers to the reveal of Rob as the mastermind behind the episode's events as a "crucial plot twist."
"The Nest"
- Gumball recognizes suspenseful music.
"The Night"
- The Moon speaks to the viewer for most of the episode.
- In Sussie's nightmare, an off-screen voice says, "And cut!" and the behind the scenes crew and Aurelie Charbonnier (who plays Sussie) are shown onscreen in real life, Charbonnier wailing and running away from the crew.
- Larry is the only one who seems to notice the pixie dust transition.
- The pixie dust falls into William's eye and blinds him.
- When Daisy wakes up from her dream, she talks to the viewers.
"The Blame"
- Gumball and Darwin notice the heart containers when they appear in the upper-left corner.
- In the song "Books Are Violent" during the rap portion, Gumball, Penny, Carmen, the Eggheads, Carrie, Juke (through beatboxing) and Darwin are singing to the camera.
"The Slap"
- When Hector slaps Gumball on the butt, he sends him flying and crashing into the camera.
- Tobias whistles "My Lonely Backside And I" in the school corridor.
"The Compilation"
- Darwin's scream breaks the screen and reveals the Void underneath.
- The citizens of Elmore sing "Weird Like You And Me" to the viewers.
- The announcer for "The Grieving" is speaking directly to the viewer.
"The Disaster"
- The song the Wattersons sing is to the tune of the ending credits theme.
- When Rob uses his remote to turn back time he rewinds through episode's title card, intro, the U.K. version of the Cartoon Network Check-It 3.0 Up Next bumper and the end credits.
- Darwin is able to read the subtitles below Gumball's head.
- When Rob changes the language while Gumball is talking to Penny, she realizes the language is different.
- Rob changes resolution and contrast of the episode's image which is visible when watching it on TV.
- Rob states that he never wanted to be the villain, and that he wanted to be the sidekick who gets his own plush toy and spin-off show.
- Rob mentions that the world of Elmore is not even real.
- When Gumball is falling into the Void, the other side of the portal (which in fact is a TV screen) shows the end credits scrolling with the ending theme playing.
- When Rob presses the "fast forward" button and makes Gumball's movement faster.

Season 5

"The Rerun"
- When Darwin once again reads the subtitles, Gumball rearranging them, and Darwin accidentally swallowing most of them.
- Rob presses the "eject" button to make Banana Joe explode.
- Rob presses the "rewind" button pointing at Gumball's parents, and they get younger.
- Again, when Rob presses the "fast forward" button and makes Gumball's movement faster.
- When Rob accidentally hits "zoom," and the camera hits both him and Gumball.
- Rob once again changes the brightness, framing, and contrast of the episode.
- When Gumball presses the "mute" button and mutes the sound.
- Gumball presses the "channel" button and ends up on a news station. He wonders if the world is a giant TV screen but then goes back to chasing Rob.
"The Stories"
- Darwin wishes he was in a cross fade montage.
- Tina breathes on the camera.
"The Boredom"
- When characters from other Cartoon Network shows appear, Uncle Grandpa greets the viewer.
"The Vision"
- Alan speaks to the viewer throughout his manifesto. Clayton even asks him "Who are you talking to?"
"The Code"
- Among some of the toolbars installed on the laptop are "TAWOG" (the show's initials) and the logo for Cartoon Network.
"The Test"
- Sarah notices continuity mistakes, for instance Tobias' haircut changing between scenes.
- Sarah and Darwin are able to hear the laugh track and notice the format change.
- Whenever Tobias looks at the camera and reacts to it.
- When Gumball notices it is nighttime, but school is not over yet.
- In the Christmas Special scene, Gumball notices the whole family is in the living room and suddenly appears in the bedroom.
- In the hospital, a guitar cue plays after Tobias' pun. Sarah takes the guitar and throws it at the screen, breaking it.
"The Copycats"
- Gumball and Darwin notice that their voice actors have changed at the end of the episode.
"The Potato"
- Bits of potato get on the screen when Darwin mashes his baked potato.
"The Fuss"
- Gumball notices the subtitles underneath him.
- Nicole and the kids cannot see what is in front of them due to the split screen. Nicole later kicks the screen away and hits the Hamburger Cop in the process.
- When Nicole crashes the car, the screen border wobbles and make one of the ink containers on the right screen fall and splatter.
"The Outside"
- Frankie squeezes a soda bottle and causes it to explode all over the camera.
"The Matchmaker"
- When Carrie is making the love potion, Gumball notices the background music playing and asks where it is coming from.
"The Box"
- Gumball prevents the camera from moving up.
"The Console"
- Gumball speaks to the viewer about the game title.
- Gumball smacks Leslie's face with a dialogue box.
- When Penny falls over, the dialogue box does too.
- The credits for Inverted Paradox list Ben Bocquelet as the director.
"The Ollie"
- Darwin says that Gumball's head is always seen at an angle because he would look weird from profile.
"The Catfish"
- Gumball looks at fanart of himself online.
"The Stars"
- Gumball, Darwin, and several other people are aware of the star rating icons above them.
"The Diet"
- Darwin thinks that their plan to make Richard lose weight is missing synth rock and cross fades, or a montage.
- After, Gumball mentions the fact that they were in a montage and Darwin states that helping Richard was quick and under a minute.
"The Sorcerer"
- Gumball and other objects and creatures sing to the viewer during "A Sorcerer's Apprentice."
"The Weirdo"
- During "Hey There Sussie," Sussie's inability to bend due to her being a puppet is brought up.
- Gumball moves the camera in his direction after "Hey There Sussie."
"The Heist"
- When Richard questions about Nicole and the kids knowing about how he hid the money, they respond that they are watching him flash forward.
"The Singing"
- The 8-bit dog states that he is a background character with no song or name.
"The Worst"
- Nicole gets cut off by the fade to black mid-sentence.
"The Petals"
- While chasing down Leslie, Gumball and Darwin give the viewer flower tips and advice.
"The Nuisance"
- Gumball whistles the background music while washing his hands in the art museum.
"The News"
- Throughout the episode, Kip Schlezinger speaks to the viewer.
"The Puppets"
- Gumball tells Darwin to put his shoes back on because he saw the censor bar.
- Gumball notices the art style shift and Grady tells him not to look down, as there can be seen a crew duo wearing green-screen suits holding them up.
- Gumball imitates a dramatic record scratch played in the background.
- When Grady imitates dramatic music, Gumball asks what it is.

Season 6

"The Rival"
- Gumball references him being a 2-D character.
"The Lady"
- Gumball gets interrupted by the music near the end. The song also refers to the series as a whole and its history.
- Gumball and Darwin notice the "The End" sign on the table under Richard and his friends.
"The Vegging"
- The game show Gumball and Darwin are watching has a message saying "T _ _ S H _ W _ N D S A _ T _ _ S _ _ S _ N _" written on its panels, spelling out "THE SHOW ENDS AFTER SEASON _," presumably "6."
"The One"
- Tobias once again mentions his fear of being a supporting character.
"The Cringe"
- At the climax of the episode, Gumball and Hot Dog Guy's live-action hands knock them down.
"The Candidate"
- At the beginning and near the end of the episode, Gumball dictates his "memoirs" to the viewer. The second time this happens, Anais asks him who he is talking to.
"The Anybody"
- Gumball describes the plot outline of a typical episode.
"The Shippening"
- Sarah's journal has the Cartoon Network logo on it.
- Gumball references the writer's room, stating "What? You think you can just lock three people in a room and pressure them to keep coming up with gold? Eventually, they'll start repeating material."
"The Spinoffs"
- Rob manipulates the screen by interrupting the broadcast and demonstrates how shows can work without Gumball.
- Tina cracks the camera when she roars.
- William cracks the camera with his telepathy.
"The Understanding"
- Gumball mentions he has been wearing the same clothes for six years, a reference to the show's premiere date in 2011.
- Pantsbully mentions he has been selling hot dogs for the same amount of time.
"The Drama"
- As Gumball explains to Darwin that everyone is spying on everyone, he accidentally pokes the camera.
"The Silence"
- When Darwin says their conversation goes limper than an animator's handshake, his leg is erased.
- Gumball mentions hack writing used to solve an important bit of action, which was happening at the moment.
  - In the same scene, he looks at the camera.
"The Future"
- In the end, Banana Barbara states that "there is no future," proclaiming the end of the series.
"The Factory"
- Gumball whistles "Red, Orange, Yellow" before performing the song.
- Rainbows splatter on the screen when Gumball and Darwin press a button.
"The Agent"
- Gumball tells Leslie to wait for the flashback to start.
- Gumball splashes the "Swim Club" credits away.
- Gumball does most of his quips to the viewer.
"The Mess"
- When Gumball says he feels as though his life (and Darwin's) are being edited by a thirteen-year-old vlogger, his dialogue is edited in an amateur manner.
"The Inquisition"
- Gumball and Banana Joe look at the screen when they dance.
- Superintendent Evil references the students of Elmore Junior High being cartoon characters.
- The "other place" Rob mentions is implied to be the real world.

Trivia

Gumball breaks the fourth wall more than any other character.
Season 5 has the most fourth wall breaks in the series.
In Issue 7, Tina breaks the fourth wall by mentioning Issue 1.
In the section The Amazing Journal Comic of Darwin from Issue 3, Anais breaks the fourth wall by saying "We would not have a show" in response to Darwin complaining about Gumball not fixing his own problems.
The game The Princi-Pals has many fourth wall breaks. For example, when Banana Joe tells his fish joke, Darwin says "I'm a fish on TV and I think I'm funny, thank you."