The evil boss of Chanax. Inc who has ensalved his workers to work for him and never leave his company, and turned Banana Barbara stupid.
Hello, welcome to my first Silly PE proposal, which is about Mr. Chanax from The Amazing World of Gumball.
What's the Work?
The Amazing World of Gumball (also known simply as Gumball or by its abbreviation TAWOG) is an animated sitcom created by Ben Bocquelet for Cartoon Network. It is about the Watterson Family (consisting of: Gumball, Darwin, Anais, Nicole and Richard) going through different adventures in the bizzare world of Elmore, where everything is possible, facing different villains such as this one.
Who is He? What Has He Done?
Mr. Chanax is the main antagonist in The Amazing World of Gumball Season 3 episode "The Boss".
He is the cruel and tyrannical boss of Chanax. Inc who in the past has overworked Banana Barbara by constantly giving her unreasonable orders such as making a coffee, only to throw it away due to being too perfect, making her try to guess a song stuck in his head, despite not giving any clues to what the song is, and making her move the sun despite being literally impossible to do this. This stress was so much for her that it caused her to have a breakdown and become dimwitted, with her head exploding and gaining the ability to influence the future.
In the episode "The Boss", Gumball, Darwin help Rocky hire at Chanax. Inc to make his father, Gaylord Robinson, proud and in order to go to the hospital to donate stuffing to him, due to Gaylord being terminally ill, as he lost stuff earlier due to Gumball and Darwin accidentally destroying his garden. After Gumball, Darwin and Rocky arrived at Chanax. Inc, Rocky went into the interview room, where Mr. Chanax (using the body of Paperball, due to him being the host) asks him a few questions about Rocky, which were answered by Gumball and Darwin using a walkie-talkie to talk instead of Rocky, while he held his mouth open. Despite this Mr. Chanax hired Rocky due to seeing him as "fresh, young and guilible" giving him a contract to sign in order to do so, and while Rocky questioned him why the contract said that he would sign away his hopes and dreams, Mr. Chanax "assured" him that "it's just paper", convincing Rocky to sign the contract.
At the hospital, Gumball and Darwin told to Gaylord Robinson that Rocky hired at Chanax. Inc and worked at an office job, claiming that he is overworked, underpaid, downtrodden and soulless, but Gaylord said that he becomes a real man and tried to shed a tear of happiness, failing because his heart is too dry. Gumball said that Rocky is too busy to come to the hospital to donate stuffing to Gaylord, but Darwin said that he and Gumball are going to take care of Gaylord day and night, which angered Gaylord so much, that it caused him to lose stuffing and need an emergency stuffing donation by Rocky.
Gumball and Darwin then, went to Chanax. Inc to tell Rocky to come to the hospital and donate stuffing to save his father, but it's revealed by the Skeleton that Rocky, along with the other workers such as the Skeleton, Lozenge Lady and Mummy, that the workers at Chanax. Inc are enslaved by Mr. Chanax himself, forcing them to do paperwork, overworking, underpaying, and preventing them to leave Chanax. Inc, with the Skeleton saying that he missed his wedding, children growing up and even his retirement.
Angry at this, Gumball and Darwin help Rocky, reach Mr. Chanax in order to escape from his enslavement but Chanax tried to trick Rocky into staying at his job by claiming to give him a raise, but failed. Then they reached in a room full of paperwork where Rocky nearly drowned in the paper but was saved by Gumball. When Darwin found out a skeleton (a deceased person's remains after he tried to reach Chanax but died in the attempt), he screamed which caused the papers to fall down in an avalanche but they survived and got into the next room, where they were attacked by the Cyclops woman, who tried to eat them but failed and fell down.
After using the elevator, they reached Mr. Chanax, who ordered Paperball to allow him to reveal his true form (as pictured above). He revealed that he had full control over who signs his contract and then forced Rocky to kneel down before him, dance, slap himself, and hurt himself by putting his hand into his mouth. He then attempted to kill Gumball and Darwin but he failed as he only had control over his employees, and as a last resort he threatened to drink Rocky's spirit. But Gumball tore down the contract, saying that it's just like him, only paper, and the spirits in the jar are just old breath.
After tearing down the contract, Mr. Chanax was killed, saving the workers, from what it esentially was a fate worse than death. He was then replaced by the Goblin, who claimed that Mr. Chanax was working for 400 of years and then yelled at his workers to get back. After this Gumball, Darwin and Rocky get to the hospital and Rocky donates stuffing to Gaylord and saves his life until he explodes due to Rocky quitting his office job.
Mitigating Factors
Nope! Mr. Chanax is shown during the episode to have no redeeming qualities, who only cares about himself and power, being willing to enslave his workers for eternity to do the work for him. While he is an alter-ego of Paperball, he does not lack moral agency, as he is shown intelligent by ensalving his workers and preventing them from leaving and when Gumball, Darwin and Rocky tried to make Rocky quit his job, Chanax tried to trick Rocky into remaining, by claiming that he will give him a raise. He is also aware that Gumball and Darwin were a threat to his plan and as a result tried to kill them, only to fail.
While his screentime is rather short, he is shown to arrogant sadistic, as he controlled Rocky and enjoyed him hurting himself, and is also power-hungry as he wants to have control ovet the entire Chanax. Inc by forcing his workers to overwork for him, which prevents him from being insufficiently characterized.
Heinous Standards
The series has pretty high heinous standards, and Mr. Chanax has to compete with quite a few other heinous villains, examples include:
- Gargaroth - He tried to destroy the entire world by devouring everyone and everything in it, implicitly killed dozens of people by eating them at a wedding due to the bride rejecting him and was willing to forcefully marry Carrie, who is a twelve year old child mentally.
- Virus - He killed 14 bacteria, due to wanting to share Gumball with him, and attempted to wipe out all of the organic life in the planet.
- Game Child - He trapped Elmore in a fate worse than death by making them unable to control their actions and tried to kill Gumball, Darwin and Anais to stop them from saving Elmore from a fate worse than death.
- Bobert 6B - He tried to wipe out the humanity due to believing it was a virus to the other lifeforms.
- Mr. Bilderburger - He mass poisoned countless Elmore citizens by feeding them with burgers and unhealhy food, to the point where it caused their deaths.
However, even with these heinous villains, Mr. Chanax might be able to stand out. For starters, he has much lower resources than some of the aforementioned villains, as Gargaroth is a giant demon capable of destroying the entire world by devouring everyone and everything, Virus can enter in technology and use it to his advantage to try to wipe out all of the organic life, Game Child is a video game console who can trap the entire Elmore in a fate worse than death, Bobert 6B is a robot with many technological advancements who can wipe out the humanity and Mr. Bilderburger is the owner of a company that sells burgers and unhealthy food in order to kill his customers, meanwhile Mr. Chanax is just the owner of Chanax. Inc and only has a company and control over his employees, and lacks particularly destructive powers that can affect Elmore or the entire world.
He stands out due to his cruel and unique way of enslaving his workers forever, and overworking, underpaying and turning them into a zombie-like state who are under his control, unable to leave the company, as seen with the Skeleton saying that he missed his wedding, children growing up and even his retirement due to being unable to leave, which gives his workers fates worse than death. And even by the series's standards his way of enslaving the workers and giving them fates worse than deaths is uniquely horrifying as they are shown in a zombie-like state, being unable to leave the company, and are forced to obey Mr. Chanax's orders as seen with Rocky, and most of the villains in the series do not put others in fates worse than death, outside of Game Child, but again he has more resources.
Is He Silly Enough?
Well, he is a parody of "soul-sucking" or corrupt companies, meaning that he is not meant to be taken seriously due to being a joke about companies who overwork and underpay their workers. There are several jokes about him such as Rocky calling his company "pure evil" for inventing boy bands and then calling it "necessary evil" for creating cheese puffs, having a dramatic sound effect when he tried to control Gumball and Darwin only to fail, Gumball stating that his contract is just like him, only paper, him threatening to drink Rocky's spirit being funny due to Gumball stating that it is not his spirit just old breath, and his demise of dramatically screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" until he dies, with Paperball fainting.
However he is taken seriously in-universe, as the workers are downright horrified of how Chanax forces them to always work for him and never leave, and while Gumball and Darwin do consider him only paper, they also take him seriously as they are horrified by the way he enslaves his workers and are angry at him for all of this, as seen where he forced Rocky to kneel down for him.
Verdict
I give him a yes, but as always you decide.