Comics Review: Bob’s Burgers Ongoing #5

Spoilers Below:

“Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction Presents: Tinablanca II”

The conclusion of the Casablanca spoof from the last issue. It ended how Casablanca ended.

“Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries & Curious Curiosities Presents: Pester-Geist – Part 1”

Louise broke the fourth wall a bit when she realized there are a seemingly endless number of exterminator companies in town. But when she, Tina, and Gene started asking questions, they were bug-bombed, and soon realized there may be some sort of conspiracy or cover-up afoot.

“Gene’s Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs Presents: Captain Gene-O – Part I”

In this 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea parody, Gene played the part of Captain Nemo, who saved Tina and Louise from a watery grave and told them of his desire to put on an undersea concert.

Best Bits:

1) The doodles of Zeke with the letters of transit & Zeke in jail.

2) “Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow … and I don’t know what your schedule is like but probably not next week ‘cause Monday is a holiday … but soon and for the rest of your life.”

3) “Ugh. I’m not falling for that one. Oh, you were talking to the kids.”

4) Teddy: “Aww, we’ve been out here for hours and nothing’s doing so far.” / Linda: “And I’ve drunk all the contents of your onboard bar.”

This issue is an interesting specimen, mostly because it doesn’t contain a single complete story. The first, “Tinablanca,” is the conclusion of an Issue #4 story, and the second and third are both part 1’s of to-be-concluded segments. This is a curious move because it doesn’t provide a whole lot of satisfaction for the reader. Sure, the first one is a conclusion, but it was basically only that: an ending, with not too much other content. Even compared to the movie Casablanca, the events parodied here came at the end of the film. Still, I thought they did a good job altering some of the movie’s most famous lines to humorously fit the new story, while adding the usual Bob’s Burgers style to it. Tina once again shined in the lead role.

I have to admit, I wasn’t a fan of “Pester-Geist” at first because I didn’t like how it was all based on a repeated gag from the show’s intro. It was also quite brief. Louise gave an explanation about her suspicious observations regarding the abundant vans, and before you knew it, the kids were getting almost run over and bug-bombed. Things escalated quickly, and then just as soon as they began, the story ended, leaving a bit to be desired – even for the first half of a cliffhanger. However, I’m impressed that the writers managed to come up with so many extra names for exterminators – so much so that it makes me wonder if it pissed off the show writers for taking up potential ideas.

The third story was cute in the way that Gene’s Rhymey Rhymes usually are, with a few notable differences. First, a lot of characters were involved with this story. It was Gene, Louise, and Tina for the most part, but the beginning also contained Bob, Linda, and Teddy. Not only that, but the writers did a good job making each rhyme fit the story while still keeping the dialogue typical of each character. Surprisingly, there was actually some light profanity in this one. Bob’s Burgers is generally a PG show and comic, but some use of the words “crap” and “ass” (but not together) can go a long way toward making rhymes funnier – at least as far as Bob’s goes. Although I must say that the term “milk of sperm whale” was a bit off-putting, but that’s neither here nor there.

It’s hard to criticize this issue too much because the stories were all good overall, as were the jokes, but it just didn’t feel complete. The issue was thin to begin with, and a trio of story snippets didn’t help the cause – especially when two of the three are parodies. (Or all three, if you count the name “Pester-Geist.”) Including “Bob’s Fantasy Food Truck Concept Art,” “Linda’s Attempt to Take a Nice Family Picture in Front of the Restaurant (and how it always goes wrong) #325,” and a pair of other one-page art pieces as bonuses was nice, but again, too little too late.

The biggest positive I can say about these multi-parters? They actually included “Part 1” or “Part 2” in the title and remembered to add “To be continued…” at the end. That’s more than I can say for some past issues.