Larry Needlemeyer

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Heroic Benchmark

Full Name

Laurence Needlemeyer

Alias

Larry Needlemeyer

Lazy Larry (formerly)

Origin

The Amazing World of Gumball

Family

N/A

Allies

Karen (fiancée)
Gumball Watterson
Darwin Watterson
Penny Fitzgerald
Banana Joe
Tobias Wilson
Masami Yoshida
Carmen Verde
Billy Parham
Josh
Nigel Brown
Steve Small

Enemies

Mr. Bilderburger
Richard Watterson (sometimes)
Anais Watterson (sometimes)
Nicole Watterson (sometimes)
Gaylord Robinson
Margaret Robinson
Felicity Parham
Harold Wilson
Mr. Rex
Sal Left Thumb
Ripley 2000 manager
Zach Watterson †
Evil Turtle and her babies

Powers / Skills

Nigh-omnipresence (implied)

Varied employment skills

Goals

Marry Karen (ongoing).

Work.
Dependent on episode.

Goodness Zone

Maintaining Elmore's stability by working all the time, preventing Elmore from falling into an apocalypse.

Telling Gumball and Darwin to eat Mr. Bilderburger, saving more people from getting killed by his toxic food.

Type of Hero

Insecure Businessman

Laurence "Larry" Needlemeyer is a supporting character in Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball franchise.

He works at almost every store in the town of Elmore, usually as a cashier. It is shown in "The Pizza" that society falls apart if he quits working. Ironically, he used to be called "Lazy Larry" and was known as the laziest person in Elmore, but the title was stolen by Richard Watterson in the summer of 1983.

He is voiced by Kerry Shale.

His Good Ranking[]

His Heroic Deeds[]

His mere presence and ability to work nearly every job in Elmore is constantly preventing apocalypse, making him virtually resourceful. This is seen in "The Pizza," where when he finally quits, society falls apart and descends into anarchy. Rebel gangs begin forming, there is a swarm of locusts, and a nuke even goes off at one point - Larry singlehandedly averts all of this. He puts up with this workload even though it clearly strains him mentally and emotionally.
- While it is true that this is partially self-serving due to him needing his employment, he is convinced by the Wattersons to start working again simply because they apologize for mistreatment and point out how society collapsed without him, showing that he does value doing it so long as he is appreciated.
He fires Richard in "The Job," which prevents him from completely destroying the universe.
In "The Schooling," he has Gumball and Darwin Watterson work his jobs for him to teach them a lesson about how school is important so they can find a stable job - lest they end up like him.
In "The Stars," he claims his philosophy is "the customer is always right," and that if Richard takes down his slanderous online review, Larry will give free haircuts to him and his family.
He allows Banana Joe to put a missing poster of his mom on the store window in "The Future."
In "The Burger," he tells Gumball and Darwin to eat Mr. Bilderburger, thus ending his reign of terror.
He's affable to everyone despite how they may treat him, always trying to be civil and respectful with his customers and other people. His patience and genuine friendliness is notable given how horribly he is treated by the other characters.
He is genuinely in love with his fiancée Karen and is always trying to propose to her.

Why Doesn't He Stand Out?[]

While he passes the baseline due to maintaining Elmore's economy at all times, he fails the in-story admirable standards to all of the Wattersons (besides Richard), Alan Keane, Carrie Krueger, and Rob.
He is partially a hero by proxy; despite returning to his role as Elmore's jack-of-all-trades at the end of "The Pizza" because he was apologized to, and making a consistent effort to help people when he doesn't have to, the responsibility of working all of the town's jobs is still thrust upon him via his need to survive.
He is far too heinous to be NPG, since he endangers Elmore in some episodes, and in "The Job", he even endangered the whole universe. These actions allow him to pass the heinous standards of the series, and as a result, he is Inconsistently Heinous:
- He endangered the fabric of reality in “The Job” by refusing to fire Richard despite knowing the consequences of Richard having a job (universal destruction).
  - While he eventually fires Richard and saves the universe after realizing Richard ate his customer's pizza, this is only an Unintentionally Admirable act, as he did it because of an employee rule violation.
- In "The Stars," he attempts to give the all-powerful reviewing website a five-star review (capable of reviewing individuals and displaying ratings above their head, which was shown throughout the episode to be extremely harmful to society with everybody watching their every move and freezing in place out of fear to not get 0 stars), which would make it unstoppable and be extremely detrimental, simply for the petty reason that Richard wouldn't admit that he was bald.
- In "The Pizza," he quits all of his jobs even though he knows it would cause the downfall of society (although it is understandable given the burden placed on him and he eventually returns to his role).
- Additionally, Larry shows no remorse for any of these actions and is in fact spiteful after the first two.
While it is understandable given his constant mistreatment, Larry is somewhat irritable and can act like a jerk to other people, although usually only when pushed to the limit:
- He gets into two physical (albeit lame) fights with Mr. Small simply because of the way he pronounces "quinoa" and "potatoes".
- He harasses the Donut Cop in what he believes is a dream in "The Night" due to his frustration with him.
He sometimes exhibits questionable behavior from enforcing the rules of his many jobs:
- He is complicit in allowing Richard to eat a burger from every Joyful Burger in Elmore in 1 hour just to eat the secret burger, which causes him to become severely obese and nauseous in the process.
- In "The Uncle," he maxes out Richard's credit card through the store's predatory interest scheme.
- In "The Return" he did nothing to prevent the ball pit containing the Watterson children from being transported to another country.
- In "The Stink," he initially tries to cover up the fact that both Tea 'n' Stuff and Organic 'n' Stuff are connected and subsidiaries of Chanax Inc. when Mr. Small tries to avoid big corporations.