Review: Bob’s Burgers “Yachty or Nice”

Overview: 

The Belchers have been invited to help cater the Glendale Yacht Club yacht parade, but Bob has a bad feeling about it. While there, they meet with Teddy, who’s been tapped as the club’s Santa after the previous year’s pick got in too good of shape. The show’s favorite handyman is unfortunately not feeling the Christmas spirit quite yet, since he’s worried he’s not “Santa Schooner” material. He further explains that his role involves riding on the boat, then stepping off the boat to hand out presents to the kids. Louise’s ears naturally perk up at the mention of presents for kids, and Teddy goes on to explain the gifts have been donated by the yacht club members, and include picks like slightly-too-fast remote control cars. He comments that the good stuff goes fast, and they’ll have to wait in line to get it. The kids are all too eager to head that way, but their attempt to bail is hampered by their parents’ need for them to help with the fancy slider recipe Bob’s picked for the event, the “I’m Brie-ing of a White Crispness” burger. While they prep for the event, the yacht club president walks by, and Bob takes this opportunity to ask how they heard about his restaurant. “Mr. President Man” says they came highly recommended by one of the club’s members, but can’t quite recall who. At this point Jimmy Pesto and Trev arrive, confirming Bob’s suspicions that they got this gig as part of someone’s nefarious scheme. As the kids scheme to get on the Santa Schooner, Bob tries to figure out Pesto’s plan, and concludes it must be to pants him in front of everyone. He constructs some makeshift suspenders using bungee cords, but is still unable to calm his fears. It takes a tumble into the harbor to pour some (literal) cold water on his plans to reveal Jimmy’s scheme, and the two of them reconcile, at least as much as bitter restaurant rivals can. The kids seem to get what they want at first as well, but are soon swayed by their better natures. Everything comes together for the Belcher family (and Teddy) in the end though, ensuring they’ll all stay off the “yachty” list for this year.

Our take:

This one’s just a touch preachy, but since it is the holiday episode, I’ll let it slide. It’s far from my favorite winter offering from the show (that honor goes to “The Bleakening” which is not only a fantastic story, but also features Todrick Hall in an extremely festive guest voice role) but it does have some nice character development, and an overall vibe of holiday cheer, even if it takes a second for all of the characters to get what they actually want.

I also appreciate the weird off-the-wall continuity played for humor here, like Linda’s obsession with the mayor, and Gus’s dreams of a Santa heist. This is at least the second or third episode though where Louise has to change her mind about something and “learn a lesson”, which again, gets a Christmas episode pass, but I’m hoping will fall to the wayside in favor of more story-focused plots as the season progresses. Although Kristen Schaal (tons of stuff, but recently Sarah Lynn on Bojack Horseman) drops some quality one-liners, like “Great! A festive Christmas trap with my family.” and “You’ve seen what it’s like for us Uncle Father Santa Teddy.” making the writing and delivery in this one as impressive as they come.

Bob’s suspicions of Jimmy being way off help humanize his rival a bit, and more importantly, help humanize Trev. The fratty bartender is usually relegated to one-off lines with his boss, but this episode gives him a touch more personality, even if it comes in the form of self-awareness about being awkward. David Herman (you know him from classics such as Office Space and as Scruffy on Futurama) delivers the line “Uh, yeah! I have social anxiety, BOB.” with such on-point weirdness I actually laughed out loud.

Finally, there’s John Michael Higgins (Principal Ronald Toddman from Saved by the Bell, folks!) reprising his role as Glencrest Yacht Club president from the episode “What About Blob” to say things like “Stop it, stop it! This is a yatch club not a golf course!” and “This is what happens when you open your doors to the boatless.” Overall a solid holiday offering, and a great addition to season 11.