Best Vs Worst Gumball Parents

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]Throughout the years, we have seen a lot of parents be introduced in the Gumball universe. However, some of those parents can either be really good or just shouldn't be allowed around kids. So, today we're going to be going over the five best and five worst parents in the show. Starting off with one of the worst moms in the entire series, which is Felicity Parham. Now, Felicity is a mom who is insanely overprotective and overall a horrible mother. Now, some of you may be wondering who Felicity even is, and she's actually featured in a lot of Gumball episodes, often times being a background character. Felicity is this orange character who always is with a little boy who is a blue egg called Billy. Now, even though these two characters are mostly background characters, there are a few episodes where we actually see them be main characters. And in most of these episodes, we truly see how bad of a mom Felicity is. One of the traits that Felicity has when it comes to being a bad mother is her ego and how judgmental she is towards people. We see this in the episodes The Egg and The Punishment.

[00:01:06]In The Egg, when Felicity and Nicole first meet in the grocery store, where Nicole is paying her groceries with coupons, and right here is our first example of Felicity being a walking ego.

[00:01:17]Mother, why is that woman trying to pay for her groceries with scraps of newspaper? She probably didn't study hard at school, dear. However, things get way worse as later in the episode, we see Felicity completely talk down on the entire Watterson family, along with calling Nicole's children disappointments. And life was fun until whoops, here's your first disappointment. [music] So, there you are working all hours to support your family while lover boy over there is busy growing chins. Then whoops, another disappointment, [music] followed by a third that you still dream is better than the others. [music] I get it. You know you'll never succeed, so you want your kids to succeed for you.

[00:01:56]>> Now, Felicity acting like this clearly gives off hints that she is a horrible mother. And this first initial appearance of Felicity alone made fans absolutely despise her. I hate Felicity.

[00:02:08]She's very hateable. But this isn't the only episode where we see Felicity have an ego. As in the punishment, we see Gumball and Nicole have to go to a meeting at school to address Gumball being late so many times. However, they end up being late to the meeting due to a car with the license plate as a mother cutting them off while driving. [music] However, later in the episode, they discover this was Felicity all along.

[00:02:32]But going back to the meeting, we see Felicity for some reason having more authority than Principal Brown and is doing her annoyingly famous as a mother line while heavily criticizing Nicole and Gumball. As a mother, I believe it's a duty to set the standards for your child. And I'm sorry, Nicole, but you were late for this meeting, too.

[00:02:54]Now, as a punishment, Felicity would assign Gumball summer school to make up for him being late. However, in the end, they would end up simply torturing Felicity after finding out that she was the one who cut them off, which was definitely cool to see. Clearly, Felicity's ego is too big, which is not good for a mother to have. But another bad trait that Felicity has is being super overprotective, which we see in the blame. In this episode, Gumball and Darwin introduce Billy to video games, which he states that Felicity doesn't allow him to play. And of course, after Billy initially plays a game, he gets hooked on the game. However, once Felicity finds out, her stupid overprotectiveness kicks in and she decides to ban video games in all of Elmore, which was a very dumb idea.

[00:03:42]And this is why, as president of the parents association, I call for a total ban on all video games in Elmore. By Right it's clearly obvious that Felicity is a horrible mother. And maybe if she became more humble and less overprotective, she would have a chance at being in the best category. But funnily enough, Felicity's rival, Nicole, is in the best category, which brings us to none other than Nicole Watterson. Now, throughout the show's history, Nicole has always been seen to be your typical resilient mother that never gives up and is willing to go to any length to protect her children at all cost and essentially prevent them from getting manipulated or simply hurt.

[00:04:22]One example of this is in The Authority, where we see Granny Jojo move into the Watterson residence and doesn't really like how Nicole's parenting skills are.

[00:04:31]So, Jojo gets the insane idea to take over the parenting in the house, which leads her to teaching the kids a bunch of safety lessons and overall making the house an accident-free home. However, while all of this sounded good, it all led to Gumball, Darwin, and Anais becoming copies of Richard due to them getting similar parenting as Richard.

[00:04:51]Well, you'll ever need is right here.

[00:05:04]Now, this was all clearly getting out of control by this point and Nicole would notice this as we would see the chase scene where Nicole is chasing Richard and all the kids down trying to stop them from listening to Jojo. However, her parenting made them so dumb to the point where they forgot everything that Nicole taught them. Therefore, they didn't even know how to brake while driving. By this point, it seemed like it was over. However, Nicole decided to show them how good of a mom she was and stood in front of the car as a roadblock, which ended up helping Richard, which recovered his memory and let him remember how to brake, ultimately bringing everyone back to normal.

[00:05:41]Oh, brake!

[00:05:47]>> [screaming] [screaming] >> Now, Nicole doing this just shows the lengths that she's willing to go to make sure that her kids are in a healthy state. Not only do we see her risk her life for her kids, we also see her having the super mom sense. As in the eight, we see Miss Simeon realizing that she doesn't have the best teaching award. As literally no one has ever written her a reference letter for obvious reasons. So for this, she decides to befriend the Wilsons and eventually manipulate Gumball into writing her a reference letter, basically calling her a good teacher. We the four legs have unanimously agreed that Miss Simeon is worthy of this year's favorite teacher award. Favorite teacher award. OKAY, DONE IT.

[00:06:33]>> [laughter] >> IT'S MINE.

[00:06:37]HOWEVER, WHILE GUMBALL AND DARWIN fell into her trap, Nicole as a mom knew from the very beginning that something was very wrong. As someone's most hated teacher wouldn't suddenly become friends with their students. Yes, Nicole. How can I help you? Listen, Simeon. You might have the rest of them fooled, but I don't trust you for a second. I remember you from school. I REMEMBER THE HORRIBLE NAME YOU USED TO CALL me every day. Do you remember that? And of course, Nicole's suspicion was right.

[00:07:02]Therefore, she would end up crashing out and had a whole segment where she was chasing Miss Simeon in her car and tried to stop her from using the fake letter.

[00:07:11]However, unfortunately, this wouldn't work out and Miss Simeon would sadly get her way. Now, clearly, these two examples alone show why Nicole is not the best parent in the show. And in basically all of Nicole's appearances, we see her working her butt off at the Rainbow Factory along with caring for her children. She's a good mother. She is by far the best portrayal of a mom ever and my most favorite character.

[00:07:35]Just love how she reminds me of my mom so much. However, Frankie Watterson on the other hand lacks Nicole's parenting skills for multiple reasons. Starting off with the fact that he left Richard when he was younger to go get the milk, which Granny Jojo revealed in the signature. Frankie Watterson's nothing but a con man and A SHYSTER.

[00:07:54]>> DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FATHER LIKE THAT.

[00:07:56]>> OF FATHER GOES out for milk and stays gone for 33 years?

[00:07:59]>> he's still looking for the perfect carton of milk because he loves me more than YOUR MOTHER'S STEALING BOYFRIEND.

[00:08:03]OBVIOUSLY, Richard didn't really know at the time that Frankie was not indeed looking for the milk and simply left Richard. However, this isn't the only negative attribute about Frankie as a father. As in The Outside, we find out that even though Frankie came back into Richard's life, his only true intention is to leech off the family. As he gets really excited when he overhears the family talking about letting him stay in the Watterson house for free. Oh, we need to bring Grandpa Frankie home. Our home. Yes.

[00:08:33]However, the stay did not meet Frankie's expectations, as the family thought he'd been to prison before. So, they treated him like a prisoner at the house to make him feel like he's in a familiar environment. But, in the end, the donut cop sees Frankie and finds out that he was wanted all along and eventually gets arrested. Stealing the mail from the senior citizens, eh? You're going to prison.

[00:08:56]No rent, free food, why not? After this insane occurrence, we wouldn't see Frankie all the way until season 7 in the episode The Portrait, where we would see him leave yet again after promising to take the anticipated family photo, which at this point isn't surprising.

[00:09:12]However, Frankie's only son Richard on the other hand is quite the opposite of Frankie, as he's actually a really good father. Now, when it comes to Richard and the Gumball fanbase, he's actually a pretty controversial character when it comes to his parenting, as the community is super divided about this. Some people think that Richard is a lazy dad who doesn't give a crap about his kids. When on the other hand, we have some people saying that he's lazy, but he's still a really sweet supportive dad and quite frankly a more on the supportive side.

[00:09:41]As Richard has always been seen to take care of his kids no matter how lazy he is as a person. We see this in the hero when Richard comes to Elmore Junior High to bring Gumball and Darwin some cupcakes. When he overhears Gumball and Darwin talking bad about Richard, essentially calling him lazy and an embarrassment.

[00:09:59]What's our dad [music] good at? Well, he's good at being nice. No, more like a skill.

[00:10:03]Is sweating without moving A SKILL?

[00:10:06]>> [laughter] >> HOW ABOUT PUTTING ON WEIGHT? HE'S AWESOME AT THAT.

[00:10:12]>> [laughter] >> HE must be good at something. I guess he's only good at being embarrassing.

[00:10:17]>> [laughter] >> Now, this was a huge mistake by Gumball.

[00:10:26]As for the rest of the episode, Richard would lock himself in the shed as he was really hurt by their comments. And we would have a whole collage of photos with him and Gumball inside the shed and would simply look at them and reminisce.

[00:10:39]And to make things even worse, Gumball couldn't even apologize at first even though Nicole kept pushing him to as he simply found the situation funny, which was super messed up. However, eventually Richard would save Gumball and Darwin from a life-threatening situation. And right there is where Gumball would finally apologize to Richard. Clearly this episode really showed how much Richard cares about his kids. As a dad who didn't care about his kids would either not care or get mad at them for the comments. However, Richard as a dad still forgave them and risked his own life to rescue them after everything they said, which goes to show how awesome Richard is. However, caring about your children is something that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson clearly do not know how to do. We see this in the episode The Boss. In this episode Gumball and Darwin are annoying Mr. Robinson so much to the point where he has to go to the hospital. However, Mrs. Robinson is literally no help, as all she says is Right, well that made no sense. Does anyone here talk with words? So, Darwin suggests that they get his son Rocky to come and visit. However, right there is where we find Mr. Robinson's true feelings about his son. You know, that's his son Rocky. He's the janitor at our school.

[00:11:50]I WANT NOTHING FOR THAT LOSER. HE'S AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THE ROBINSON NAME. I'D RATHER GET STUFFING FROM A TURKEY.

[00:11:55]NOW, THE REAL REASON WHY MR. Robinson feels this way is due to the fact that Rocky was a dropout in high school and didn't get an office job of some sort.

[00:12:04][music] However, of course, Gumball and Darwin want to save their relationship.

[00:12:08]So, they go ahead and fake Rocky getting an office job by spray painting a suit on him and making him sign his life away to a sketchy corporation. But, even after he finally escapes this corporation, he visits his dad and Mr. Robinson finally realizes that his son might not be so bad after all. You're parents' proud son. Isn't that right, Margaret?

[00:12:29]Makes.

[00:12:32]But, while Mr. Robinson made up with Rocky and all, that still doesn't really change the fact that him and Mrs. Robinson were bad parents. Judging by the way that Mr. and Mrs. Robinson treat Gumball and Darwin and how evil Mrs. Robinson can be, we can easily infer that they were most likely not good parents to Rocky when he was a kid.

[00:12:50]Hence, why Rocky got the life he has today, which is why these two evil characters are in the worst parents category. However, unlike Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, Patrick Fitzgerald actually cares about his children's well-being and protects them a lot. We would see this in a lot of Gumball and Penny episodes, one of which being The Knights. In this episode, Gumball and Penny are assigned to do a medieval project together. However, upon Patrick taking Penny to the Watterson house, he learns how wild the family is. After seeing that Richard was taking a bath outside while the house was on fire, clearly this wasn't a good look for Gumball and Patrick would stand on this, as throughout the episode, we would see him really protect Penny, and his impression towards Gumball at the time wasn't good.

[00:13:35]I don't care. You are not good enough for my daughter, and I don't want you around her. End of story.

[00:13:42]>> Now, Patrick was clearly doing what a good dad would do in this moment.

[00:13:46]However, we see a more controversial instance of him being a good dad in The Shell, where we see Patrick trying to protect Penny from getting out of her shell, mainly due to strict family traditions. Now listen, you. PENNY IS MY DAUGHTER, AND I DECIDE WHAT'S BEST FOR HER.

[00:14:00]>> WHAT? SO, BEST IS NOT BEING HERSELF?

[00:14:02]>> NOW, while Patrick's statement of him wanting to be the best for his daughter is nice, some people think that he isn't the best father and call him overprotective, which to this day is a pretty big debate within the Gumball fan base. Patrick is an overprotective father, but it's safe to say a bad father is an overstatement. But, putting this questionable debate aside, Patrick is your typical father who simply wants the best for his daughter, which is always good to see in a family. But, Jackie Wilson on the other hand is straight-up scummy when it comes to being a parent, and we see a good example of this in The Mothers. In this episode, we see Gumball, Darwin, Tobias, and Banana Joe start arguing about whose mom's the best. So, Gumball suggests holding a secret contest at the mall to prove it. They put their moms through a bunch of ridiculous challenges, like speed tests, reflex tests, and a hot sauce challenge. While Tobias and his mom, Jackie, keep cheating to try to win. By the end, Nicole is completely exhausted and furious when she finds out that her sons put her through all of this just to prove that she's the best mom.

[00:15:05]Later, when Gumball and Darwin accidentally dangle off a huge banner, Nicole rushes in to save them like a superhero, proving that she's really the superest mom after all. Now, this episode really showed how good these characters' moms are, well, except for Tobias's mom, Jackie. Like I mentioned, we saw Jackie completely cheat the entire time throughout this episode to try to seem like a good mother, which was honestly really scummy as she wasn't setting a good example for Tobias at all by making him think that winning is all that matters, which obviously isn't something that a mother should be teaching her child. But thankfully, her and Tobias would get caught in the end.

[00:15:42]And Mrs. Wilson wins.

[00:15:47]Wait a minute. Did you just wink at your mom, Tobias? No.

[00:15:51]What? Did you just cheat and swap the hot sauce with ketchup?

[00:15:53]>> No. Have you guys seriously been cheating all this time?

[00:15:57]>> Do you still think it's necessary to deny it?

[00:15:59]>> No.

[00:16:01]But thankfully, Jackie never really appeared much after this episode.

[00:16:04]However, another mom who doesn't appear often is actually a good mom, Banana Barbara. Now, throughout the show, it's been known that Barbara likes to paint.

[00:16:14]However, her paintings aren't anything normal as she's somehow able to predict the future with her paintings, which we see this along with her being a good mother figure in the future, where Barbara ends up predicting that a mysterious black figure will come behind her and then kidnap her. And this figure ends up being none other than Rob himself. Now, Rob would kidnap her so that she can abuse her powers to change reality, but Gumball, Darwin, and Banana Joe step in just in time to stop everything. They realize that painting over Rob can delete him from reality, and indeed, it does as Rob ends up vanishing. However, we know that Gumball loves Rob, so due to this, Gumball asked Barbara to paint Rob again so that he can come back to life. Now, while this episode doesn't focus much on Banana Joe and Barbara's relationship, it still shows that Barbara is willing to risk her life just so that she can be safe with her son. And in the end of the episode, we see her and Banana Joe happily reunite. Mom.

[00:17:14]I missed you.

[00:17:15]And I missed hardcore hop.

[00:17:18]I guess all's well that ends well. In addition to Banana Barbara, another mother that easily deserves its spot in the best category is Miss Yodatha. Now, Miss Yodatha is the mother of Hector, which is a giant purple yellow looking character in Gumball, and it's been seen that Yodatha deeply cares about Hector.

[00:17:37]As we see in the Colossus, where we learn that Yodatha heavily monitors everything that Hector does. As being a giant is very different from being a normal person, so he needs to do very different things in order to act accordingly. Hence, why Hector rips off comics and movies. That they're big?

[00:17:54]Yes, and so were their emotions. I wasn't making his life boring, I was making his LIFE CALM. YOU HAVE TO KEEP GIANTS CALM. WHY?

[00:18:02]>> Because if YOU DON'T, THEN THAT HAPPENS.

[00:18:05]IS THIS FOR A CHRISTMAS? SO, OVERALL, Yodatha is a very good mother to Hector without a doubt. And throughout the entirety of the show, we always see Yodatha being a caring which, in most episodes, even helping out Gumball at times. Well, those are all of the best and worst parents in Gumball history.

[00:18:22]However, there is one parent that is a very good pick for an honorable mention, and the parent in question is none other than Granny Jojo. Now, the reason why Jojo is an honorable mention is because she can easily be in debate for either a good or bad parent. This is primarily due to the way that she raised Richard throughout his life. We learn how in the authority, where she takes over parenting the Watterson kids, as she felt that Nicole wasn't really doing a good enough job. However, at this point is where we learn something that Jojo was really overprotective towards Richard and prioritized safety over anything. In the episode, we would really see Jojo safety proof the whole house, along with letting the Wattersons eat anything they wanted, and as a result, they all become obese.

[00:19:11]Now, like we went over in the of the video, Nicole thankfully puts a stop to all of this. However, this parenting style can be considered good due to Jojo keeping the kids safe and caring for their well-being. However, it can very easily also be considered bad due to the kids being morbidly obese and not knowing simple life skills. But, you can all debate me on that in the comments.

[00:19:33]However, one thing I will suggest you do is clicking the video on screen. I'm sure you'll love it.