| “ | Gumball: See ya in the future, Rob! Barbara: But there is no future… |
„ |
| ~ Banana Barbara in "The Future." |
Barbara "Banana Barbara" Banana is a supporting character in The Amazing World of Gumball.
She is an anthropomorphic banana who lives in the fictional town of Elmore with her husband Banana Bob and son Banana Joe. Barbara is known for her ability to predict and alter the future through her paintings.
She is voiced by Sandra Searles Dickinson initially and by Naomi McDonald from "The Singing"-onward.
Appearance[]
Banana Barbara is an anthropomorphic, yellow banana. She wears a blue, polka-dot bow on top of her head, along with bright pink lipstick, and has eyelashes on her googly eyes. She also has small eyebrows. Barbara's limbs are black and thin, similar to those of a stick-figure, and each of her appendages have three digits.
Personality[]
| “ | Darwin: Do you think it's possible that maybe… your mom suffers from some kind of head problem? Banana Joe: I don't know about "suffers." She seems to really enjoy it. |
„ |
| ~ Banana Joe talking about his mom to Darwin Watterson. |
Here, Barbara is keenly aware of her surroundings.
Banana Barbara is a somewhat creepy, eccentric, and incompetent character, often oblivious to her surroundings and prone to severe injuries and accidents. She frequently communicates in cryptic or nonsensical ways and is also prone to taking words too literally.
Barbara also has a mischievous streak shown through flashbacks in "The Future." Examples include insisting that Larry Needlemeyer strip in public for "one hundred million dollars" and cutting off a stranger's hair to place it atop a bald person's head. Her son Joe has noted her various disappearances in the past: hiding in a Christmas stocking for half of December, playing a rubber chicken as a musical instrument on stage, and starring in a Japanese karaoke video.
However, it was revealed that she used to be smart and competent until experiencing burnout while working as an intern. She tried her best to accommodate for Mr. Chanax's increasingly ridiculous demands but kept noting how impossible they were until she snapped. The resulting stress caused her head to "pop," diminishing her mental capacity and awareness. This event apparently granted her the power to predict the future through paintings, which became an obsession. Her garage is full of portraits, some depicting events unrelated to her and others that are very inconsequential.
Her son Joe has claimed that she doesn't "suffer" from her "head problem" after Darwin Watterson expressed concern; rather, Joe argued that she "seems to really enjoy it." Barbara also cares about her family, especially acting motherly towards Joe. Her demeanor is generally happy and cordial in most episodes, but at times it is hushed and eerie sounding. She'll act this way when a particular scene emphasizes the foreboding elements of her paintings, and Barbara will pull a weirdly sinister smile alongside it.
Barbara proved to be rather fearful and timid after Rob kidnapped and abused her to understand the future, though she still painted him back into reality upon Gumball's request. Despite her general absent-mindedness, she can still be fairly intelligent at times, as when she came up with the idea to paint a portal between her kidnapping location and Gumball Watterson, Darwin, and Joe, allowing them to rescue her without Rob noticing it initially.
Abilities[]
Energy Beams[]
When Barbara experiences a burnout due to overwhelming stress, she shoots white energy beams from her eyes and mouth which can laser through buildings and destroy rooms, as seen in "The Future."
Painting Magic[]
| “ | You can… you can alter the paintings! You can change the future! | „ |
| ~ Rob in "The Future." |
More notably, Barbara can predict and change the future via painting. While "The Shell" and "The Oracle" initially implied only that she had the ability to foretell events with premonitory images, "The Future" confirms that she can also directly paint future events into occurring. This includes the introduction of new objects or items into reality, the distortion of landscape, and even the ability to erase or restore individuals from existence, as was the case with Rob. "The Future" also shows that this ability works with any paintbrush and through anyone's intention as long as Barbara is among the people holding the brush. The one thing Barbara seems unable to change is an oncoming event in which the Void will destroy Elmore and leave it with no future, with Barbara remarking at one point to Rob that she can change "only what's left."
Barbara's painting abilities have been showcased a few times in the series. In "The Shell," Gumball inadvertently finds himself in the Banana household, where he sees Barbara painting an image of her husband screaming in the bathroom while Gumball barges in. The scene immediately after proves this true.
In "The Oracle," she plays the role of the main antagonist, as she's revealed to have created a painting of Gumball naked at the mall in front of a crowd of people set to occur that day. He and his siblings, Darwin and Anais, first discovered the portrait at the Banana household's yard sale, which included many other paintings from events in previous episodes. Despite his best efforts to stop the event from happening, Gumball finds himself in the foretold situation. Anais also questioned if it would have still come true if they never witnessed the painting. The end of the episode shows Barbara painting an image of the Watterson family running fearfully in the Void as all of Elmore collapses into it.
In "The Future," Barbara is seen within her garage at night with its walls completely adorned in paintings. Each of them either reference events in past episodes or are images of plain static, representing the Void. Rob grows suspicious of this and kidnaps her, bringing her to a warehouse where she is forced to paint nothing but the future. Rob grows frustrated, but Barbara continues to paint images of static, which is apparently all that is left.
Barbara tries to alert Gumball, Darwin and Banana Joe, her incompetent rescue team, about her whereabouts by conjuring hints into existence. This includes making Gumball's shadow point in her direction, clouds turning into an arrow to do the same, and graffiti on a wall that outright states and visually depicts where she is with "I'm here, Banana Joe." The trio don't pick up on any of it, so Barbara eventually paints a wormhole into existence that allows the three to transport themselves to the warehouse.
Rob fights Gumball, Darwin and Joe using Banana Barbara's abilities. He draws a crack in the floor that causes the warehouse to collapse a bit, gives himself a bazooka, and creates a flood with a shark. However, Gumball eventually begins fighting with him over the brush that causes incisions in reality, breaking apart the warehouse in the process. Rob is defeated when Gumball, Darwin and Joe use white paint over a portrait of him that erases him from existence. Barbara later paints Rob back and gives him a new pig tail, but the image she creates shows him falling into the Void as it destroys the world, which comes true in "The Inquisition."
Barbara makes a minor appearance in "The Agent," where Bob's mustache is stolen. Barbara offers to fix it and ends up painting an eyeball in its place, which is subtly an image of William that foreshadows him as the episode's secret antagonist.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Quotes[]
| “ | Terrible aftershave! | „ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Stars." |
| “ | Joe sweetie, when you're finished dancing to no music, don't forget to take out the trash! | „ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Ex." |
| “ | Oh, sorry, honey, I didn't know the fan was on. | „ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Singing" after startling her son, causing him to launch into the fan and obliterate himself. |
| “ | Barbara: Joe, honey! Dinner's ready! Did you have a nice day at school? Joe: No… No I did not. |
„ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Awareness," unaware her son was traumatized earlier day. |
| “ | Barbara: How much? Larry: For what? Barbara: Everything you're wearing right now. Larry: What? Barbara: $100 million. Larry: [Stammers] Barbara: Tick tock, Larry. Tick tock… |
„ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Future," talking to Larry Needlemeyer. |
| “ | Hippopotamus milk is pink… | „ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Future." |
| “ | Rob: Gumball… Gumball: Rob! Barbara: Names. |
„ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Future" when Gumball, Darwin and Joe confront Rob. |
| “ | Let me fix that. [Paints an eye in place of Bob's mustache] There. | „ |
| ~ Barbara in "The Agent," foreshadowing William as the episode's antagonist. |
Trivia[]
- Barbara and her husband first appear in "The DVD," which is ironically before their son, Banana Joe, who ends up becoming a more prominent character than them.
- Her name may be a pun on the animation studio Hanna-Barbera, as the European division of Cartoon Network Studios oversees the production of Gumball and is named as a homage to it. However, this has not been confirmed.
- The name Barbara comes from the ancient Greek term "Bárbaros," meaning strange or foreign.
External Links[]
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Watterson Family Fitzgerald Family Elmore Junior High Elmore Citizens Others | ||