Review: Bob’s Burgers “Copa-Bob-bana”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Mr. Fischoeder and his brother Felix approach Bob with a request for him to be a chef at their basement jazz bar/storage units. At first he refuses, but when they offer him a month’s rent just for opening night (“A month’s rent for one night!? That’s more than we make in a month!”) Meanwhile, the kids are investigating a metal tub that’s Teddy’s hauling to the dump. Louise is excited to use it as a pool, but needs the handyman’s help in moving it to the alley, and later, the basement. She convinces him it’s a “swimiversary” present for her parents to get him to help. When they arrive at Jazz-aret, Bob is impressed by the fancy kitchen while Linda impresses Mr. Fischoeder with her duet skills and win her a spot in his performance of “I Like Bananas”. Unfortunately, Bob discovers that Mr. Fischoeder is just humoring his brother, who he expects will lose interest in the nightclub project in a few days. Back at the restaurant, the kids are pool partying it up when the tub starts to leak. While the expression is usually “rolling in dough”, by the end of the episode, the kids are swimming in it, while their parents save the nightclub from a sewage explosion and all that jazz.

Our Take

I’m always impressed by the way this show can take semi-normal situations and make them completely surreal, by simply escalating things a little at a time. Like, drinking trough swimming pool? Unusual, but not unheard of. In a basement? A little weird, but ok. That starts leaking? Well, yeah. But soaking up the leaked water with old buns and then swimming in the buns? Super weird, but since the situation built up slowly and steadily, it works!

The parental plots are just grounded enough in reality, and the world of the show, to make sense of fairly wacky situations as well. In this episode specifically, we’re treated to a situation where Bob takes on another odd job to scrape together some extra cash, which is always hilarious. It’s also always a treat for an episode to feature extended bits of Linda’s singing, in my opinion at least. Voice actor John Roberts really has an impressive upper range, which we get to hear both during the episode and in the outro version of the “I Like Bananas” song.

The cast for this episode is mostly the standard set, although it’s always exciting to hear Zach Galifianakis return as Felix, and this week he gets to play up the younger Fishoeder’s full range of attempted smoothness and unhinged shrieking. Bill Hader also graces viewers with his presences as Mickey, felonious carnie and Jazz-aret’s terrible bartender (“Did you know there’s more than one kind of liquor?”) Writer Wendy Molyneux is another returning guest, as she reprises her role of unusual babysitter Jen, who remains ignorant of the kid’s basement pool party, and also how to turn on the TV, or as she pronounces it, teh-vee.

This is only the third episode of the new season, but it’s a great example of how this show can keep its momentum without having to resort to anything particularly crazy. The storylines are ones we’ve seen before, but they’re recombined into something that still feels fresh, and builds out relationships between the kids and their friends, Bob and Linda and the Fischoeders, and of course, Bob and his kitchen equipment (and the nicer kitchen equipment he gets to use, however briefly.) With a stellar cast and solid writing, this season is continuing to come into its own.