Gumball Watterson

Gumball Watterson
File:Gumball Watterson.png What Bart Simpson failed to be.
Species	Cat
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Tobias Wilson Banana Joe Tina Rex Rocky Robinson Mr. Robinson Larry Needlemeyer Hector Jötunheim
Occupation	Student
Father	Richard Watterson
Mother	Nicole Watterson
Brother(s)	Darwin Watterson, adopted
Sister(s)	Anais Watterson
Grandfather(s)	Frankie Watterson, paternal Daniel Senicourt, maternal Louie, paternal step
Grandmother(s)	Granny Jojo, paternal Mary Senicourt, maternal
Marital status	Single
First appearance	AWOG: "The DVD" (2011)
Played by	Logan Grove (2011-14) Jacob Hopkins (2014-17) Nicolas Cantu (2017-19) Duke Cutler (2020)
File:S1 Gumball.png Season 1 design.
File:S2 Gumball.png Season 2 design.

Zach Tristopher "Gumball" Watterson is a twelve-year-old anthropomorphic cat and the eldest son of Richard and Nicole Watterson, and the protagonist and titular character of The Amazing World of Gumball animated television series. His voice was originated by Logan Grove.

Gumball lives with his family in the American city of Elmore.

Character description

Gumball starts as an innocent, humble, and optimistic child, with little to no narcissism. These traits lessen as the series progresses, with Gumball becoming complacent, jaded, and cynical, although he always tries to remain optimistic as he used to be. He also gains the uncanny knack of having an opinion on just about everything and anything, which makes him sound wiser than he actually is. When surprised or confused about something, his catchphrase is, "What the what?!"

In the beginning, Gumball sees no bad in people and has no ill will against others to the point of being flat-out ignorant and gullible. When Tina Rex was chasing him, he only saw her as playing with him, despite his younger sister, Anais, convincing or teaching him she was a bully and that she was someone to be afraid of, and helping Sal Left Thumb, the crook, rob a gas station under the pretense that it was for charity. He also has a soft spot for his next-door neighbor Mr. Robinson, who he looks up to for no apparent reason since Mr. Robinson hasn't ever done a kind thing for Gumball and his family, who he openly reviles. Gumball and his younger brother, Darwin, always endeavor to be kind and assist Mr. Robinson, although, in his defense, they end up causing a lot more grief and pain than when he began at the beginning of the day. Gumball is either oblivious or simply accepting that hatred is part of Mr. Robinson's nature.

The changes in Gumball's personality may be the result of him being able to recall the previous plights he has been under, as well as becoming self-meta. He tries to have the best intentions in helping others, but he usually ignores what they actually want or need, and above all else, it is to benefit his own ego, as he quite literally thinks the world revolves around him. A notable example of this would be when Anais pointed this out to him, so he became hellbent on wanting to give Clare Cooper a happy ending where she didn't have to leave Elmore, just to be the center of attention. Darwin, even pointed it out to him once in a mockery tone while they were arguing, that he is happy to point out the character flaws of others while conveniently disregarding his own.

Other times, he genuinely wants his friends to feel better, such as allowing the ghostly Carrie Krueger to possess his body so she could taste food again, humanizing Bobert the robot, trying to improve the social life of the King Kong-sized Hector Jötunheim, and bringing to life the overly obsessively infuriated Sarah G. Lato's book, which depicts Gumball and Darwin fighting for her love.

What Gumball lacks in academic prowess, he makes up for in pure imagination, although this can sometimes warp his reality into believing what he imagines to be true. Gumball is a slacker and avoids studying by bringing his home life to school or getting into some altercation with another student or teacher that usually results in him spending more time running around corridors than in the classroom. He could be considered street smart, able to plan mischievous schemes for his benefit or to help others. More often than not, he simply acts like a know it all, trying to act witty to cover up his lack of knowledge.

Gumball occasionally has moments of wanting to better himself, which his mother describes as a phase, and has to enforce his new found principles onto his family and that they must act in accordance to how he has chosen to live in the spur of the moment without thinking it fully through, whether it's to eat healthier and no longer depend on technology, even though he gave up quicker than his family did, or not to sell out by appearing in a fast food commercial for Joyful Burger, even when the family is in desperate need of money. In the latter case, his entire life had to hang in the balance for him to change his mind.

Unlike Gumball, Darwin always retains the same positive, upbeat attitude, although Gumball can test this at times. It falls upon Darwin to act as Gumball's guide to keep him in check.

Gumball gains an archnemesis in Rob, after unknowingly saving him from the Void, where all of Elmore's mistakes go. Having been disfigured during the escape, and no longer having any direction in life anymore, Gumball convinces Rob on a new path to supervillainy, as that is something Elmore doesn't have. Rob changes his voice and persona, but in doing so ends up becoming resentful towards Gumball and holding him responsible for what happened to him in the Void. Of course, Gumball objects to this, but eventually welcomes an archrival and fights to get him back when Rob has grown tired of Gumball and tries to move onto Banana Joe. Rob is so outraged by Gumball's persistent pursuit and sabotage, that it reignites his passion to destroy Gumball, which Gumball couldn't be happier about.

Appearances

TV series

• The Amazing World of Gumball
• Uncle Grandpa
  • 2.12B "Pizza Eve" (no lines)

Shorts

• Darwin's Yearbook
• The Gumball Chronicles

Theme parks

• The Amazing Ride of Gumball

Biography

Gumball Sells Out

In a non-speaking cameo, Gumball is a guest with the stars of other Cartoon Network shows at the 224th Grampies annual awards show in Hollywood.

Development

French-born animator Ben Bocquelet was hired to help people pitch their projects at Cartoon Network Studios Europe, when it was formed in London in 2007. When the studio decided to have the staff pitch their ideas to Cartoon Network, Bocquelet had the idea of using some rejected characters he had created for commercials and put it together in a series inside of a school setting.

Bocquelet based the personalities of the main Watterson family on his own, and has mentioned that he shares some traits with Gumball, although he assets that he isn't as dumb as Gumball. Antoine Perez, a director of the series, also asserted that Gumball was very reminiscent of Bocquelet.

Gallery

Main article: Gumball Watterson/Gallery

In popular culture

• In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Squash & Stretch," Cyborg teaches the other members of the Teen Titans how violence is only funny when it is cartoon violence, symbolized through showing them a parody of Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoon, where Darwin and Gumball have taken the places Road Runner and Wile E., respectively.

•