Ashley Spurgeon is a lifelong TV fan — nay, expert — and with her recurring television and pop-culture column "And Another Thing," she'll tell you what to watch, what to skip, and what's worth thinking more about.
Bob’s Burger’s is still, nine years in, one of the low-key best shows on television. All 180-something episodes have been, generally, funny, and every season has been, broadly, good. I can’t say it’s appointment viewing for me, but that’s fine, because it’s a kid’s show. Maybe “family entertainment” is a better category though, as long as yours is a family that has no problem with fart jokes.
Can’t say I love the fart jokes, but again, Bob’s Burgers is kind of a kid’s show, so a lot of the action centers on titular Bob’s three children, Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman) and Louise (Kristen Schaal). Gene is the genesis of much of the grossest humor, and also the most musical of the three Belcher kids — which is important, because Bob’s Burgers, taken altogether, is about 30 percent musical comedy. I haven’t done any particular math to break that down, but either through direct song parodies and homages(like this one to ’80s movies), or good old-fashioned “the rest of this scene is a musical now” storytelling, Bob’s Burgers deserves at least as much credit as Crazy Ex-Girlfriend for bringing the musical theater ethos to the small screen.
Gene gets his talent (I’m being polite) from his mother Linda, portrayed with aplomb by John Roberts. You can glimpse the beginnings ofLinda Belcher here, in one of Roberts’ early viral videos — this one from 2006. My particular strain of being a nerd means I was familiar with the voice of patriarch Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) thanks to junior high viewing of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, high school viewing of Home Movies and however much Archer I watched as an adult. Also, Wet Hot American Summer. He’s voiceover famous.
The Belcher family runs a burger restaurant in a Northeast coastal tourist community — not one of the fancy ones. Bob’s a second-gen burger man, and the Belchers are poor. We know this because someone in the family very often says (or sings) “We’re poor,” often while they’re in the middle of a plan or job to earn some extra cash. I originally wrote “scheme” before I changed it to“plan,” because the Belchers really aren’t the “scheme” type. Bob drove cabs on the late-night shift to pay for Tina’s birthday party in one of the best episodes of the first season, and in the most recent episode, from Sunday, Linda chose to work at the post office on Christmas Eve, partially because she wanted to bring joy to children in a Santa-ish way — but also, as she sang, because they are poor.
One of my favorite aspects of the show is the nameless town where it all takes place; you get the sense it’s either always been a solidly working-class tourist destination, or maybe saw better days decades ago. Regardless, Bob’s Burgers does not do well (it’s kind of a lobster town), and they’re frequently behind on rent to Kevin Kline-voiced landlord Mr. Fischoeder (pronounced “fish odor”), who is rich, nuts and owns the grifty and dangerous amusement park Wonder Wharf.
Bob’s Burgers takes advantage of its cartooniness in the best way The Simpsons did — by gradually expanding the scope of the town and its characters. Mr. Fischoeder also has a crazy brother, Linda has a hairstylist, the kids interact with their friends and teachers at school (including a librarian played by Billy Eichner, who is also a warlock), the mean old couple who own an art-supply store, and the family dentist.
Dancing around the edge of poverty also means the Belchers encounter people you don’t normally see in family shows, like bikers and sex workers. I know it’s trite to be like “Bob’s Burgers is one of the only working-class shows on TV,” but it’s true. There’s Superstore, Atlanta and this. It’s a cartoon about poor people who sing a lot of songs about farts and run a crappy restaurant in a crappy town, and it’s just great.
The Simpsons and Family Guy are the longtime stars of Fox’s animated lineup, with King of the Hill ranking somewhere respectable. But pound for pound, I’d argue Bob’s Burgers has more heart than any of the above — certainly more than Family Guy, which has none, more than The Simpsons, where comedy was more important than relationships for most of its run, and even, yep, more than King of the Hill, which has a strain of complacency that will never quite sit right with me.
Bob’s Burgers has an undercurrent of kindness beneath all the farts: It’s never about the Belcher family learning to accept someone or something different — it’s more like, Well, now we’re in a situation with this bank robber, and the bank robber is as human as the hostages he’s taken. Maybe the bank robber will show up again later, as an employee at Wonder Wharf! (He does, the character is named Mickey and he’s voiced by Bill Hader.) So: Bob’s Burgers. It’s certainly an option to watch with your extended clan this holiday season. It’s as family-friendly as It’s a Wonderful Life and as musical as White Christmas, and it has slightly more fart jokes than the Nativity story. Give it a go!
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December 18, 2019 at 11:01PM
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And Another Thing: Bob's Burgers Remains Very Good - Nashville Scene
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