The Responsible

**"The Responsible"** is the second episode of season 1 of *The Excellent World of Rumball*.

## Synopsis

Rumball and Hammer Bro babysit Coiny while Numberblock 1 and Spiffy attend a PTA meeting.

## Plot

The episode begins with Numberblock 1 and Spiffy getting ready for a parents' evening at school. The doorbell rings, and Spiffy is greeted by a babysitter Numberblock 1 arranged for online, believing the job to be about literally "sitting on babies." Disgusted, he slams the door on him, after which Rumball and Hammer Bro present themselves as viable alternatives. Coiny is horrified at the suggestion, but as their parents leave, Rumball promises not to disappoint. Right from the start, Rumball and Hammer Bro prove to be as overly-protective as possible, not letting Anais go upstairs out of fear of a potential accident, destroying their television to prevent commercials from corrupting her, and mismanaging a subsequent electrical fire. Through it all, Coiny proves more adept, properly extinguishing the fire and pointing out the holes in their logic, but ultimately, since Spiffy put them in charge, he is powerless.

Meanwhile, Spiffy and Numberblock 1 are waiting for the parent-teacher meeting outside of Mister Boris’ classroom. Spiffy tries to calm Numberblock 1 down, reassuring that they are adults now and that Mister Boris has no power over them, but their subsequent encounter only rings true to the contrary.

To cheer Coiny up, Rumball and Hammer Bro decide to take him for a walk in the park, but he is dismayed at being attached to a child leash in doing so. While on the walk, Nurb teases him with a dog biscuit, causing him to angrily bite his hand; seeing this, Rumball and Hammer Bro assume him to be hungry, and take him back home. They present him with a virtually inedible lunch, then proceed to chew the food up for him, which he then blasts in their faces with a straw. Seeing as there is a big mess, Rumball and Hammer Bro make Coiny take a bath.

Coiny reaches his breaking point when they refuse to let his even bathe out of fear that the water is too dangerous, instead insisting he dry clean herself. He orders them to leave, then, behind their back, continues to fill the bathtub. Hammer Bro hears this, but Coiny says that he just flushed, which reminds Rumball that Coiny needs to wear a diaper so he does not have an "accident."

Sick of his brothers' ridiculous demands, he starts running around the house while Rumball and Hammer Bro chase him. Unbeknownst to the three, Coiny forgot to turn off the faucet, and the water slowly overflows out of the tub. Coiny manages to lock his brothers outside on the roof while he taunts them by deliberately disobeying their rules. He starts climbing down the ladder of their bunk bed to go take a bath "with real water" (as Rumball and Hammer Bro forbid), but falls into the rising water which is flooding the house. Unable to open the window or the door, Rumball and Hammer Bro are forced to enter through the sewers, coming out of the toilet inside to rescue Coiny. The fireplace is the only opening to the outside, so they swim into it and are rocketed out into the sky from the chimney before falling painfully onto the sidewalk.

Back at school, Numberblock 1 unintentionally reminds Spiffy that the kids are still home alone, which shocks Spiffy into speeding back home.

When the two arrive back home, Numberblock 1 tries to calm Spiffy down and assure him that nothing went wrong, but as he opens the front door, all of the water spews forth, knocking them onto the lawn. Furious, Spiffy approaches the kids and demands to know who was responsible. Coiny is about to take the blame, but Rumball wants to be responsible for once and confess it was his fault instead. Upon seeing the furious face of his father, however, he blames Hammer Bro. The family then proceeds to give reasons why it was not their own fault and blame others, ultimately landing on Numberblock 1 being inadequate at choosing a proper babysitter. With no one else left to blame, Numberblock 1 blames the Internet. Ultimately, the whole family decides to go with that excuse, thus ending the episode.

## Trivia

* This is the first episode to feature all five of the Hattersons, as well as marking the first physical appearances of Coiny and Numberblock 1.
* Hammer Bro shows off some of his fish-like qualities in this episode, such as his ability to breathe underwater, and his love of fish flakes.
* The writing credits for this episode include "Song Lyrics" credited to Vibe Tracks, despite the fact there is no song present in this episode.
	+ It is possible that the episode originally contained a song.
* This episode aired as a preview of the series in the U.K.
* One of this episode's writers, Andrew Brenner, is also the current head writer for the U.K. children's TV series and global multimedia franchise, *JCTOT & Friends*.
* This is counted as the actual first episode by many official sources, although Keynote Network USA consider "The DVD" to be the first episode, due to Keynote Network USA airing that episode first. Despite all of this, this is counted as the sixth episode in production order.