"The Responsible"

**"The Responsible"** is the second episode of Season 1 of *The Amazing World of Gumball*, and the second episode overall.

## Synopsis

Gumball and Darwin babysit Anais, while Nicole and Richard attend a PTA meeting.

## Plot

The episode begins as Richard tries to fit on his pants. He tells Nicole they can't attend the parent meeting because of the pants, but Nicole forces Richard them to fit on him. The door bell rings and Nicole opens the door for the babysitter. Nicole, in disgust of the babysitter, slams the door. Richardneglects to hire a proper babysitter for Anais, so Nicole reluctantly allows Gumball and Darwin to babysit her instead (much to Anais' dismay) while they go have a parent conference with Miss Simian, Gumball and Darwin's teacher, at Elmore Junior High. Nicole hopes that the boys will be responsible, failing to be convinced properly because the two have no idea what "responsible" means. Still, they do promise to look after Anais.

After Nicole and Richard leave, Gumball and Darwin are left in charge. Anais is about to go upstairs. Gumball and Darwin, however, forbid her by jumping on top of her because of their misleading belief about the dangers of stairs accidents. So instead, Anais decides to watch Daisy the Donkey. When the commercial break comes on, Gumball then states the errors of commercials, and he and Darwin decide to smash the television set with a baseball bat, setting it on fire. They then throw a bucket of water on it despite Anais' advice not to throw water on electric fires. She then puts it out with a fire extinguisher.

Meanwhile Nicole and Richard are waiting for the Parent-Teacher Meeting outside Miss Simian's classroom. Richard claims that it's like a bad dream where he goes to school without any clothing. Nicole calms him down, reassuring him that because they are adults, Miss Simian cannot treat them like students. Immediately after she says this, however, Banana Joe's Parents run out into the hallway in tears as Miss Simian scolds them on their failure in parenting. After noticing the Wattersons, she greets them in a loathsome manner. After an awkward moment of silence, she asks if Nicole is aware that Richard never managed to put on pants.

Gumball and Darwin decide to take Anais for a walk in the park, where they drag her along with a leash. Marvin Finklehimer then compliments her, thinking she's Gumball and Darwin's pet, and teases her with a dog biscuit. Annoyed, Anais bites the old man in the finger. Assuming that she is hungry, Gumball and Darwin make her a revolting lunch consisting of a whole fish inside two slices of bread, a raw potato and a stinky old boot. They then decide to chew it thoroughly and spit it back out for her so she doesn't choke on it. She then blows the disgusting paste all over them to show anger. Seeing as there is a big mess, Gumball and Darwin make Anais take a bath. Darwin points out that water is dangerous, so Gumball tosses Anais out and recommends that she dry clean herself. She orders them to leave and fills up the bathtub with water anyway. Darwin hears this as Anais says that she just flushed, which reminds Gumball that Anais needs to wear a diaper so she doesn't have an "accident".

Sick of her brothers' ridiculous demands, she starts running around the house while Gumball and Darwin chase her. Unbeknowst to the three, Anais forgets to turn off the faucet and the water slowly overflows out of the tub. Anais manages to lock her brothers outside on the roof while she taunts them by deliberately disobeying their rules. She starts climbing down the ladder of their bunk bed to go take a bath "with real water" (as Gumball and Darwin forbid), but falls into the rising water which is flooding the house. Unable to open the window or the door, Gumball and Darwin are forced to enter through the sewers. They come out of the toilet inside and rescue Anais. The fireplace is the only opening to the outside, so they swim into it and are rocketed out into the sky from the chimney and fall painfully onto the sidewalk.

Meanwhile, Nicole and Richard are sitting on the front steps of the school. Richard unintentionally reminds Nicole that the kids are still home alone, which shocks Nicole into speeding off home.

The kids are outside as Nicole and Richard pull up. The front door is opened and a huge blast of water hits Nicole and Richard, who are dazed afterwards. Furious about the flooded house, Nicole demands to know who was responsible for it. Anais is about to tell the truth about her leaving the faucet running, but Gumball wants to be responsible for once and to take the blame for her. Upon seeing the furious face of her mother, he states it was Darwin to blame instead. They all give reasons why it was not their own fault, with Anais blaming their mother for giving such high responsibility to Gumball while Nicole blames Richard for not finding a proper babysitter. With no one else left to blame, Richard blames the Internet. The whole family decides to go with that excuse, thus ending the episode.

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Gumball
* Darwin
* Anais (debut)

### Supporting Characters

* Nicole
* Richard (debut)

### Minor Characters

* Miss Simian (debut)
* Marvin Finklehimer (debut)
* Albert (debut)
* Daisy the Donkey (debut)
* Banana Bob (debut)
* Banana Barbara (debut)

## Trivia

* Darwin showed 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 Michael Gendi, 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 UK.
* This episode marks Anais' debut and first major role.

### Continuity

* The hamburger commercial in this episode makes another appearance in "The Prank."
* This is the first of several times that Richard is seen in his underwear, though he is wearing his shirt this time.

### Cultural References

* When Darwin breathes into Gumball in the flooded house, it resembles when a player gets a piece of food and gives it to the other player in the video game *Kirby Super Star*.

## Goofs/Errors

* When Richard and Nicole meet Miss Simian, the bench they were previously sitting on disappears.
* When Anais' bath is finished, Gumball brings her out of the bathtub. When he does this, his whiskers are missing.
* When Gumball and Darwin begin to destroy the television, the wrestling tape that has fallen onto the cabinet disappears in the following scene.
* The captions say "Daisy the Dog Show," when it is supposed to be "Daisy the Donkey Show."
* When the episode first aired, the title card read "Responsible" instead of "The Responsible."
* When Nicole talks about Gumball setting fire to a pool, her whiskers are longer than usual.
* When Nicole and Richard come back to their home, they open the door that Gumball, Darwin and Anais couldn't unlock in the previous scene.