Love it or hate it, there’s no doubting the popularity of The Last of Us, and one thing that most fans can agree on is that the first game was a master class in storytelling. Because of this, it should come as no surprise when other forms of media reference the gaming phenomenon, and yet it still does in this instance. More likely than not, this is because fans probably didn’t expect a reference such as this to come up in The Amazing World of Gumball, and in so much detail as well. There’s absolutely no attempt to hide this bold shout out.
The Amazing World of Gumball is known for being one the more mature side, that is to say it’s full of immature humor that is more appropriate for older kids and adults than younger kids. These kinds of references are common as well, although they aren’t always as blatant as this The Last of Us reference.
In the episode aptly titled “The Parasite,” Gumball is trying to warn his sister Anais that her new friend is actually a parasite. By the end of the episode, it’s revealed that this isn’t true at all, and in fact it was Anais that was the more parasitic one. The plot doesn’t really matter in this case, but what is making fans revisit this story is a clip of Gumball’s warning that has recently resurfaced on the internet.
When describing to Anais all the terrible things that her new friend Jodie will do to her, he jumps on top of Darwin and grotesquely fuses together with him. Gumball claims that Jodie will take over Anais’ mind, attach herself to her body, and turn her into a fungus. At this point, Darwin looks exactly like the iconic Clicker enemy from The Last of Us, but Gumball doesn’t stop there. He even goes on to say that Jodie will then release her spores in order to infect more people and ultimately destroy civilization. It doesn’t take a hardcore The Last of Us fan to realize that this is basically the setup for the entire franchise.
As a final admission of guilt, Gumball even confesses that he “stole that last part from a zombie video game.” Ironically, one of the popular memes surrounding The Last of Us is that “true fans” call the enemies “Infected,” not zombies, as they would have to be dead for the latter term to properly apply. Regardless, this is a nice call out to a popular franchise, and unexpected considering the episode aired years after The Last of Us but years before The Last of Us 2 would inevitably release.
The Last of Us is available now on PS3 and PS4.
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