The Weird World of Gumball: Definitely weird, but is it adequately gay? With Jordan's junk, Kwesi's d*ck, and Alkaio Thiele

  

Link to the n*de dudes

After identifying Alkaio Thiele of Wizards Beyond Waverly Place as probably gay due to his many male friends, his romance with Kayden Koshelev, and...well, just look at him, prancing with his mom (the butch one)... I've been going through his work, looking for gay subtexts. 

I don't have any n*de photos of Alkaio, since he's under 18, but I put a random Greek guy on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

 

He is currently the star of The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball (2025-), the latest in the franchise of animated series featuring a catlike being (Alkaio) and his adopted brother, the evolved goldfish Darwin (Hero Hunter).  They have ordinary middle school adventures in a world populated by an assortment of humanoids, animals, inanimate objects, gods, and spirits drawn in various conflicting styles.

Fans have been claiming that the new series is "super gay" and "insanely gay."  and pointing specifically to Episodes 1.13, "The Letter," and 2.8, "The Diary."  So let's take a look.

Episode 1.13, Scene 1: After school, Darwin is cheerful; Gumball is suspicious.  Finally he comes clean: He wrote his girlfriend Carrie (right) a love letter, and he's going to slip it in her locker.

"But Carrie is a cursed specter from the Underworld. She might not approve of love."

Then the ghost-being Carrie and her friend Penny, a glowing peanut, appear.  Gumball and Penny rub their faces over each other and smoochy-woochy. Two boy-girl romances.  It's not looking good for the "insanely gay" advocates.

Ghost-being Carrie icks.  She explains that she's dead inside, so she finds physical displays of affection "cringy and gross."  That's why she and Darwin get along so well -- he's not "a mewling puddle of mush."  

Uh-oh, she opens her locker, and her monster-knapsack absorbs Darwin's love letter!  

"But what if you get a cute 'I wuv you' letter?" Darwin asks, grasping at straws.

She possesses Gumball and makes him announce that the dead are deprived of love, so when a ghost hears "I love you," even when addressed to someone else, the hunger makes them lose control and devour your soul.  So is it that you don't like physical affection, or you don't like romantic love?  Make up your mind, lady.

Scene 2: At lunch, Ghost Carrie, Peanut Penny, and a cloud-being are discussing the circumstances under which a boy might say "I love you" and not get eaten. They specify a boy, assuming that all romances are boy-girl.  Things are not looking good.  

Gumball sneaks under the table, where the monster-knapsack eats him.  But it spits him out, and he brings the letter with him, along with Ghost Carrie's book of magic, which they can use to destroy it.

Scene 3: Gumball can't read the arcane language, so he tries conjuring at random.  First, a refrigerator.  Then a love spell. Gumball already loves Darwin, but "You really look like a snack right now." Ok, a reference to gay romance.

The dimwits finally realize that they could just throw the letter away, but as they toss, the giant ape Hector Jotunheim jumps in front of them, and it ends up in his backpack. Now he'll think that Darwin is in love with him!

Scene 4: Gumball suggests that "a sweet and chill partner" like the Giant Ape is a better match than an emo ghost, but Darwin insists that he loves only Ghost Carrie.  He doesn't assume that Darwin's romantic partners can only be girls. 

Whoops, the Giant Ape returns the letter -- during class --- and the teacher forces Darwin to read it aloud.  Now Carrie will know the truth! 

Wait, it's not his letter after all!  It's from the Giant Ape, explaining that he is not romantically interested: "I've tried dating people your size before, and I've been hurt."  Chances are they'll be hurt, too. Giant Apes have giant....you know.

Scene 5: Uh-oh, Carrie thinks that Darwin was trying to cheat on her with the Giant Ape and goes berserk, turning the hallways into a Lovecraftian hellzone, with eyes and tentacles everywhere.  Darwin tries to explain that the Giant Ape was responding to a letter to her, but instead of saying "I love you," he says "Eat my face."

Carrie rushes back into the school, possesses Gumball, and returns out to kiss him.  "Thank you for understanding," Carrie/Gumball says.  They hug, and Carrie lets Gumball go.

Gumball is happy that he could help his friend, and imagines being there for him "all day, every day."  Well, maybe not all day, like on his wedding... he retches at the thought of watching Darwin's wedding night.  The end.

Gay Representation: Various allusions to people being pansexual, and no disgust over same-sex acts, but the main romance is between Darwin and Carrie. B+

Another random Greek guy on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

The diary and n*de black guys after the break

Hero Hunter, who plays Darwin, is 14 years old as of this writing.  I can't tell from his social media if he's into girls or boys (or both), but his characters in Young Dylan (2020-25) and My Weird School (2025) crush on girls. 

Most of the Darwin actors are black, so I put two n*de black guys on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

Episode 2.8, Scene 1: In the school restroom, Darwin and Gumball come across pages torn from a diary: "I thought Wilson was my best friend, but today he said that he loved me!"

Wilson (Alex Jordan, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends) is a muscular, shirtless guy wearing a drum major hat, drawn on a lined piece of paper.   

A middle school romance!  Their heads explode. But who's Wilson's best friend?  The janitor says it's Clare.

Clare is a gray-skinned humanoid with three-dimensional glittery hair. 

Scene 2: They take the pages to the library to read -- it's a wasteland, with most of the books gone and the tree-librarian dead.

They envision the story as they read.  Wilson says that he loves Clare, but she doesn't return his affection: "You're my friend."  So he tears out his heart and floats away.

Scene 3: Later, in the cafeteria, Clare writes that the friendship may be over: Wilson is avoiding her.  But surely he knows that she has a boyfriend, Gregory (a sort of Michelin Man). 

Then Gregory dumps her to date the male Rotten Cupcake.  So he's pansexual.

Now Clare decides that she loves Wilson after all. You changed your mind very quickly, lady.  Reading, the boys gush with romantic shipping.

Scene 4: Claire sees Wilson cleaning out his locker.  He explains that he can't stand the pain of being just friends, so he's leaving to enroll in military school.  This would be a good time to say that she loves him, but Clare just stares.

"But if you should change your mind, I'll be at the bus stop at 5:00 pm." The diary ends there.

Scene 5: It's 5:00!  The boys see Wilson out at the bus stop.  They rush to tell Clare to follow her heart, but -- big reveal: it's not her diary.  Wilson is a casual acquaintance, not a friend, and she never dated Gregory.  Her boyfriend is Jared, a sort of yellow Muppet.

Then who does the diary belong to?  Suddenly the boys see notes written on the back of the pages: "Help! I'm trapped in the bathroom!"   The real girlfriend was tearing out pages to ask for help.

They rush in: it's Leslie, a boy,  stuck on the toilet!

Leslie is a potted flower with pink petals, a definitive gay stereotype.  Voiced by Kerry Shale, a straight man.

Leslie!  Their heads explode and their eyeballs dissolve.  The God of Extreme Over-Reactions praises them.  Surprised that it's a guy, boys?

Scene 6: The bus has already left, but the dead tree librarian, revitalized by their love of reading, destroys it.  Wilson emerges, and and the boys convince him that when Leslie said they were just friends, he was just scared.  I'd be scared to date a piece of paper, too. "We're young -- we make mistakes." 

They shove him under the bathroom door, where Leslie is still trapped.  We hear "I love you!," crying, and kissing sounds.  The boys cry.  The end.

Gay Representation:  The boys didn't automatically assume that it was a boy-girl romance; they were given the wrong information.  Still, the gay romance comes as a Big Reveal, with points off for making Leslie a retro gay stereotype.  I won't take points off for not showing the kiss, since it would be difficult to animate a two-dimensional piece of paper with no moving parts kissing anyone.  B-.

Bonus: I checked the previous actors who voiced Gumball and Darwin, to see if any are gay.  

Lots of girl hugging photos on their social media: Logan Grove

Lots of guy-hugging: Jacob Hopkins (left), Kwesi Boakye (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

Can't tell: Nicolas Cantu, Terrell Ransom Jr., Donielle Hansley

See also: Alkaio Thiele: A Waverly Place wizard, a gay boy, Spiderman, and the Devil. With some Greek d*cks and photos that tell you if he is....

Searching for gay-subtext buddy-bonds on "The Really Loud House." With gay Dads and a heck of a lot of backsides

What Kind of Flower are You: Queer Boys of the 1920s