SiftPop

by Chantal Ashford, Contributing Writer

In 2011, Bob’s Burgers took over the animation world with the same formula as The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. I remember the first time I saw a glimpse of the show — I deemed it stupid. That was until I sat down and watched an episode in its entirety and instantly fell in love. 

A quick rundown: Bob’s Burgers follows the Belcher family, living in an unnamed seaside town. They run a burger joint, and get into some wild antics throughout the day. Now, with 12 seasons under its belt and a 13th on its way in the fall, and a two-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bob’s Burgers is finally hitting the big screens! 

We get to see Bob (H. Jon Benjamin), Linda (John Roberts), Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), and Louise (Kristen School), along with the familiar characters we love, and to see what the Belchers will be getting themselves into this summer. Since we’re finally getting the first film of the series, I wanted to kick it off by giving my top 10 Bob’s Burgers episodes! 

10. Crawl Space — S1 E2 

In the second episode of the series, Linda’s parents, Gloria (Renée Taylor) and Al (Sam Seder) are staying with the Belchers for the weekend. Bob doesn’t want anything to do with the in-laws, but steps in line for Linda’s sake. With a leak in the roof and Bob going behind the wall to fix it, he comes up with a plan of pretending to be stuck to get out of the visit. But when he actually gets stuck, Linda punishes Bob by leaving him behind the wall until they can get someone to get him out. As the day passes, Bob goes a little stir-crazy behind the wall; Bob does video diaries counting his days, and Louise tricks others into a seance and believes her father is a ghost. After a visit from their school counselor when he got a whiff of Louise’s seance going wrong, Bob finally makes his way out of the wall when Gloria comes after him and breaks through into the kitchen. Gloria does stick up for the family when she realizes Mr. Frond (David Herman) was there without any real reason to be. The episode is relatable when people don’t get along with their significant other’s parents, but Bob took it a little extreme but with a hilarious way of trying to get out of an in-law visit. Sometimes, family can be a pain, but without a doubt, they’ll always have your back. 

9. Paraders of the Lost Float — S7 E21

It’s the day of the Bog of the Beach, and the Belchers have a float where the fifth runner up gets a cash reward. With the family all dressed as pickles, except Gene as Burger Boy, bad weather, and Jimmy Pesto (Jay Johnston) joining at last notice, the parade becomes a race to the finish line for the cash prize. Bob tries to find every way to make his way ahead of Pesto to get the $500 reward. The father of three forgets what it’s like just to have a good time and not have to take everything so seriously. A day of mishaps: Jimmy Pesto passes the Belchers in the parade, Bob takes a shortcut while getting lost, and he throws off a funeral procession. Even with everything going awry for the Belchers during the parade, the episode ends with Bob letting loose, stripping down to his undies, and dancing to “Hot Pants, Rain Dance,”  and still coming on top by having a good time, which is what it was all about, rather than getting the money over Pesto. Once in a while, the Belcher patriarch has to live a little. 

8. Diarrhea of the Poopy Kid — S11 E7 

In the Thanksgiving episode of the 11th season, where Gene, the foodie of the family, has the stomach flu. He’s locked away in the bathroom with nowhere else to go while everybody else enjoys all the holiday fixings. The family tries their best to cheer him up, but the only way to make him happy is to tell him stories to make him hate food. The family tells him food stories, Louise parodies Predator, Tina parodies Air Force One,and Bob parodies Armageddon. As we get to Bob’s story, we realize Gene doesn’t have the stomach flu. He has food poisoning from the rotten chicken parmesan from the fridge that Bob forgot to throw out. Gene realizes he should’ve stayed in bed, instead of roaming the kitchen in the middle of the night. Did Gene ever get out of the bathroom? He did for a split second before destroying the porcelain. I had literal tears in my eyes at the beginning of this episode because of Gene being stuck in the bathroom. It also made me realize to check foods whenever in the fridge. The little jingle, “Turkey, I need you inside me. Turkey, I need your breast and thigh meat,” is annoyingly catchy. 

7. Tinarannosaurus Wrecks — S3 E7

This was the episode where I truly fell in love with Tina. The oldest child ran into a parked car without a license. Unfortunately, it was Pesto’s. So now, Tina feels she and Bob are jinxed after lying to the insurance agent, Chase Kamisky (Bob Odenkirk). While the family’s vehicle is in the shop, Mort (Andy Kindler), their neighbor mortician, offered to valet the family around. He ends up with his hands full with Gene and Louise’s, antics where they moon and flip off the officer during a funeral procession. Tina is accused of burning down the insurance agent’s house, but she didn’t actually do it. The insurance agent burned his own home and wanted the father and daughter duo to join him in insurance fraud. When Bob declines Chase’s offer, Chase begins to blackmail Bob into doing more fraud but it backfires after Tina records Chase’s confession off of Gene’s keyboard. I guess you can never underestimate what Tina is actually capable of. 

6. Housetrap – S5 E19

The Belchers head to the house of their dreams: a beach house. As a favor to their friend Teddy (Larry Murphy), they agreed to bring in the furniture, only to end up in a stranger’s house after a storm takes a turn for the worst. The stranger is named Helen (Kaitlin Olson) — Teddy seems to have a crush on her, but Linda and Louise think she’s a murderer. It’s a funny take on Linda and Louise trying to make everyone believe Helen killed her husband for his “clock inheritance.” Linda tries to reenact Helen killing her husband while hurting Bob’s back in the process, which ends up with Bob wasted on painkillers. When Helen gets Linda alone, we are starting to come to the realization that maybe Helen is a murderer. But Helen and Linda have somewhat of a heart-to-heart before being attacked by Louise. As Bob and Teddy try to get Louise off of Helen, Teddy has a wild tumble off the side of the house. As Teddy confesses to Helen how he really feels, Bob finds a toolbox buried in the backyard. Helen’s facial expression changes with Bob’s discovery, implying Helen did kill her husband. But will the family and Teddy know it? I guess we’ll never know.

5. Ear-sy Ride — S3 E1

In the first episode of the third season, my favorite girl Louise loses her beloved pink bunny ears, a hat she’s been wearing ever since she was a baby. One you never see her without until this episode. Logan (Kurt Baunohler), Louise’s future ongoing nemesis, snatches the ears right off the youngest Belcher’s head. Now, she’s not giving up a fight until she gets her precious ears back where they belong. As for Bob and Linda? They had the One-Eyed Snakes biker gang come through the restaurant after the wake of a fellow biker. They leave Bob a card in the window as a favor after trashing the restaurant, which Louise uses to scare Logan into giving back her bunny ears. Logan’s parents gather their neighbors to confront the One-Eyed Snakes after their son was threatened. Logan’s mother and Linda start to fight, which causes Critter’s vest to get ripped up. A brawl almost starts off before Mudflap (Critter’s girlfriend, voiced by Wendi McLendon-Covey) has their baby. The episode ended sweetly with Bob speaking about how the neighborhood could come together when the moment calls for it.  

4. Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl — S5 E1

The starter for season five is the night of the school play. But it becomes the battle of musicals between Gene’s Die Hard and ex-girlfriend Courtney’s (David Wain) Working Girl: The Musical. After Gene declines Courtney being in his show, she and her dad, Doug (John Michael Higgins), put theirs together, and after Courtney’s father promises Carly Simon for mega fan Ms. LaBonz, theirs is going on stage. Gene’s Die Hard: The Musical turns into a one-man show as a “guerrilla/protest production” in the school’s boiler room on the same night. As the audience is divided between the two, everything falls apart when the auditorium is clearing out and shows up for Gene’s show. Doug barges into Gene’s show, upset with how everything turns out, and angrily throws a shoulder pad at Gene. In the pure chaos of the opening night, Mr. Frond ends the performances, deeming them dangerous, but Gene saves the night when he puts his pride aside and brings everyone together for Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl: The Musical. The audience enjoys the new production that happens to reduce Doug to tears. The title of the show becomes a real theme at the end, surprisingly sung by the legend herself, Carly Simon. It was a mixture of ‘80s nostalgia with the film choices for the musicals, and typical Belcher antics with a hint of heart. 

3. The Hauntening — S6 E3 

Once again, it’s another Louise-center episode. In the season’s Halloween episode, the Belchers are up for the scares with a haunted house but the issue? Louise cannot be scared. She could “smell a scare a mile away.” So the family’s plan: they put on the most elaborate haunted house with the help of some friends, to scare the youngest Belcher. As the first, worst haunted house was a decoy, the real fun begins when the house starts to creak and groan, which one groan comes from Mort throwing out his back while dealing with the creepy old man outside the house. The haunted house successfully scared Louise with the photo to prove it. She’s happy, full of adrenaline, and happy she was finally scared. The episode ends with a new music video, by Boyz 4 Now, where the family joins in and sings along, which is my favorite with the dance number in the video. I find myself doing it sometimes. 

2. Glued, Where’s My Bob?— S6 E19

In the 100th episode, the kid’s goop war puts Bob in a sticky situation when he gets stuck to the restaurant’s toilet when he has an interview for a local magazine, thanks to famous restaurateur Skip Marooch (Kumail Nanjiani). It becomes the talk of the town when the neighborhood and the news come in to see the main attraction while the Belchers try everything to get their patriarch off the porcelain. Louise and Bob break into a musical number, “Bad Stuff Happens In The Bathroom” singing about Bob’s situation. As the time gets on, the journalist and photographer finally show where Bob finally makes it to his breaking point. I always find it funny when things usually go worse or better when Bob pretty much blows a gasket. The Belchers and the neighborhood chase out the journalist and photographer after Louise tells them off, and Bob is finally off the toilet! A month later, Bob ends up in the magazine and showing him stuck to the toilet but telling the readers to show out the restaurant to find out why. Bob is happy with the outcome with the hopes of a chance of more customers. As the show ends, Bob gets the kids back with his own goop attack. Even with the day going awry (which is usually in the Belcher’s household), the outcome comes out good, if not better. Like the old saying, “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.”

1. Boyz 4 Now — S3 E21

I’ve noticed some of our episodes are Louise-centered, so it’s obvious who’s my favorite Belcher. Also, this was the first episode where I fell in love with the show. Tina has three tickets for the Boyz 4 Now concert, but has no way to get there since Aunt Gayle backed out at the last minute. So now, Tina and Louise try to find their way to the concert and find their classmate Zeke and his cousin, Leslie. The foursome makes their way to the concert and Louise is annoyed by the dramatics of fangirls, throwing up whenever you mention the word “boy.” As the show starts, Louise realizes her worst revelation: she has a crush on Boo Boo, the main singer for the boy band. By the end of the concert, Louise is a full-blown Boo Boo fan and needs a way to get to him. She gets herself and Tina into a predicament when they sneak onto the tour bus. When the girls are caught, Louise gets her moment with Boo Boo, but not in a way you expect. She slaps him before the girls are kicked off the bus and picked up by Aunt Gayle. Louise and Tina have a heart-to-heart as they make their way home. I love to see the sisterly relationship between the Belcher sisters and a bit of the feminine side of Louise. It’s a sweet, fun episode and reminds me of the days of fanning over boy bands. Oh yeah, also in this episode, Gene qualifies for a competition that deals with tablescaping!

There you have it, folks! Those are my top 10 Bob’s Burgers episodes! So what about you? What’s your favorite? Send your favorites over to @SiftPop on Twitter!

You can follow Chantal Ashford on Twitter or Letterboxd