

"The Singing"[1] is the thirty-first episode of Season 5 of The Amazing World of Gumball. It is the 187th episode overall.

Synopsis

Join the citizens of Elmore for a song and dance spectacular that will have people covering their ears with joy.[2]

Plot



SPOILER AHEAD!

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The episode starts with Nicole and Richard sleeping, when Nicole is awakened by someone's singing. She soon finds the source of the music to be a singing showerhead in her bathroom . After failing to shush it, she rips it from the wall, throws it in a trash can, and puts it in the car to take it to the dump

Several citizens continue along with the singing while describing the woes of their lives, eventually leading to Elmore Junior High, where Miss Simian sings about how all of her students are brats. Suddenly, a rat falls into her mug, so she tosses it out a window, knocking over a trash can on the ground in the schoolyard.

Seeing this and believing the dolphin man, the spray-paint bottle, and the 8-bit dog to be the suspects, Billy decides to teach them proper etiquette in the form of a rap. The spray-paint bottle talks to the 8-bit dog about how sad it was to watch a kid let himself go that much, but the 8-bit dog stresses that, being a background character, he has little to comment upon. The spray-paint bottle instills confidence in him, though, and he starts a song, though it gets immediately cut off as Teri walks by. Disgusted by the trash, she faints and dreams up a J-pop musical number about filth. As two doctors carry her away, the bandage doctor comments on how it was "the worst case of J-pop [he has] ever seen." The ambulance driver asks if it is contagious, with the doctor promptly stating that it is not, when in reality the sheer contagiousness of her J-Pop turns them and their ambulance kawaii and harajuku themed as they drive off.

Meanwhile, Richard is ordering food from a Joyful Burger drive-thru, but Larry states that he cannot serve him a meal with many calories and that so much unhealthy food is seriously dangerous for him. Richard then breaks out into a song to defend his love for fried food, causing Larry to give in and hand him his order: a bucket of chicken. But it is so unhealthy that it falls out of the bucket and burns through the car floor.

Some rats are lurking in the sewers looking for food and come to a nearby restaurant, but decide not to go in because it's had negative reviews and continue their search. In the restaurant, Principal Brown and Miss Simian are out on a date. Miss Simian starts talking, but Principal Brown cuts her off and starts singing a ballad professing his love for her being covered in body hair (with help from Larry, however reluctant), much to Miss Simian's humiliation. Eventually, fed up with the song, Miss Simian bites Principal Brown's hands and ends the song prematurely.

Nicole drives past the restaurant, getting increasingly fed up by the singing showerhead, before the scene zooms out to space, showing all of the planets making a joke at the expense of Pluto, but she picks up on it, to their embarrassment. They make an excuse to ditch Pluto, who then breaks out into a dreary song, but Earth cuts her off because her singing is causing Uranus to be put off of his strike. Some asteroids confront her to see if she would be interested in trashing a planet, and she gleefully joins along.

In his room, Banana Joe sings a "banana" rendition of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5," though he is cut off when his mother appears, causing him to freak out and fly into the ceiling fan, making him explode all over the room. The scene is revealed to be a viral video, before clicking on another one: an advertisement for Mr. Small's new, experimental album, The Small Hours. At the end of the commercial, several of his CD cases are seen being brought to the dump. Nicole drives up behind the truck, takes the singing showerhead, and hurls it across the dump. The episode ends with the showerhead singing the last verse nonetheless, in spite of his poor circumstances.

Characters

Supporting Characters

Minor Characters

Trivia

This is the only episode where Nicole and Richard appear without any of the Watterson kids.

This episode's title was first revealed at The A-May-zing Month of Gumball Special Screening Event in London.

A total of fifty characters appear in this episode, beating "The Finale."

This is the first episode where Gumball is entirely absent, making every character in the series absent for at least one episode.

The 8-bit dog breaks the fourth wall by pointing out that he is a background character and has no name.

This episode reveals that Mrs. Jötunheim is twenty-eight years old, despite looking older.

This episode reveals that Teri listens to J-pop.

While Miss Simian and Principal Brown are at the restaurant, Miss Simian says "So I said to Steve...", possibly referring to Mr. Small by his first name.

This was the last episode of season 5 to be produced.

The music from the title card transfers directly into the beginning of the episode.

This episode was originally titled "The Music."[3]

Continuity

Cultural References

Goofs/Errors

When the ambulance drives away, the doors of Elmore Junior High are colored red instead of the usual pink, blue and orange. Additionally, the text above the entrance is mirrored and reads "Abraham Lincoln High School"— the name of the real-life location.

The dolphin man and spray-paint bottle appear inside the schoolyard despite not attending or working at Elmore Junior High. However, it is possible they were some of the prisoners who were said to be in Elmore Junior High in "The Cage."

During "I Prefer All My Food Fried," Richard's shirt briefly disappears near the end.

Richard drives Cartax at the same time as Nicole does, when he is in the drive-through at Joyful Burger, and she is driving the showerhead to the dump.

Other titles

Polski (Polish) : Śpiewanie (The Singing)

: Śpiewanie (The Singing) Български (Bulgarian) : Пеенето (The Singing)

: Пеенето (The Singing) Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese) : Ca Hát (The Singing)

: Ca Hát (The Singing) Português (Portuguese): A Cantoria (The Singing)