Review: Bob’s Burgers “Worms of In-Rear-Ment”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Linda wants the family to take in some culture at the symphony on their free concert night, but unfortunately the kids brought home pinworms as well as bad grades. As the worms spread through each family member and Louise desperately tries to avoid contracting them, Linda becomes increasingly desperate to get her family to the event, and questioning of her parenting skills. Bob finally steps in to (most importantly) procure some medicine from an overly curious pharmacy clerk, and also reassure Linda that their kids are fine. His reasoning is based on the fact that, even if the kids don’t perform the best academically, they’re weird and creative enough to have built a “hamster slide” out of cardboard tubes.

Our take

The opening sequence’s “Get On My Lawn” storefront may be completely unrelated to the rest of the episode, but it still cracked me up for some reason. I might need to stop watching this when I’m completely exhausted? But I digress.

The Belcher family dinner discussion around their need to attend free concert night to even have a chance at culture segueing into Gene’s description of being like “monkeys who wear sunglasses and drive motorcycles and flip people off” feels extremely familiar, but unfortunately not due to any sort of pop culture references, just my own family being weird. But even if you didn’t grow up with your only exposure to classical music being random free performances, the humor in this episode should land effectively.

Though many look down on “toilet humor”, or in this case, “body part most related to the toilet humor”, this show manages to lean into its gross moments without being graphic, and it’s honestly a better approach than attempting to lean into the Terms of Endearment drama between Linda and Louise. Most importantly, it frees up our favorite belt-happy Belcher to sing arguably her catchiest tune yet: Butt Worms.

Mr. Frond’s handwashing assembly is extremely on-brand for the character, managing to be unintentionally inappropriate in the name of trying to be helpful. Of course, hearing David Herman say things like “Hello right hand, would you like to take a shower with me?” in the counselor’s uptight tenor would be hilarious no matter how he phrased it.

Then there’s the whole “hamster slide” thing. I remember building weird, unnecessary structures out of trash (and, well, dirt) as a child, so this brings up some sweet nostalgia for me. Hopefully modern parents saddled with the crappy cardboard construction projects of pandemic schooling and extracurricular activities can find some respite in seeing this onscreen, or at the very least some catharsis when Linda crashes on top of and destroys the thing. Either way, this episode is classic Belcher, from its head to its butt (worms), and a strong second episode for the new season.