Dan Mintz Talks with Us About Writing His First Bob’s Burgers Episode

Most people know Dan Mintz as the voice of Tina on Bob’s Burgers, most likely because his voice is almost exactly the same as the eldest Belcher daughter. It’s unique, it’s funny, and it perfectly fits both the character and the man. The character, an awkward teenage girl entering the very beginning of puberty, and the man, a stand-up comic who is one of the rare individuals to regularly deliver a set consisting almost exclusively of one-line non-sequiturs. However, Dan is also a talented writer, having worked on Crank Yankers, Important Things with Demetri Martin, Lucky Louie, and Nathan for You, among others. Last season, he wrote his first and only Bob’s Burgers episode. It was called “The Equestranauts,” and was the seventeenth episode of Season Four. If you need a plot summary, check out my review.

Some viewers may have wondered if there was any inspiration behind the topic, or if the writer was targeting so-called “Bronies” – the grown men fans of My Little Pony. “I was just trying to brainstorm different ideas and was thinking about all the things about all the characters,” Dan said. “Tina likes ponies, and that connects to Bronies, and I just kind of thought of the idea.”

If you thought Dan writing an episode that focused on Tina was a dick move, Dan shares your sentiments. “I’m a little embarrassed that I ended up writing a Tina episode,” he said. Adding, “Though it was a Bob episode too.” All the blame can’t be placed on Dan for this decision, though. “I was pushing to write one of my other ideas, but that’s the one they liked. Then we were kind of worried because of the long time between writing a script and when it aired. [We thought] Bronies would become super big and overexposed, and it could have become an annoying thing by the time the episode came out. Luckily, it didn’t seem to happen.”

“For more reasons than one,” I told him, picturing a horrible world where Bronies are even more popular than they currently are. Because seriously, anything more popular than “non-existent” is already too much.

For those hoping to see another Dan-penned episode, there’s a small ray of hope. “I might try to write another episode,” he said. “But I’m also working on Mulaney, a new FOX show with John Mulaney. The timing worked out because I was working on his show just as the major stuff was done for The Awesomes,” which Dan is also writing for. “But it would be difficult to juggle writing for three different shows at once. You know, you go for long periods with nothing going on, to then having a lot of opportunities at once and not wanting to lose any of them. I’m still working on The Awesomes, but it’s a lower time commitment because they’re now doing animation. Once we were done with all the scripts, I started working on John’s show, and so between that and hopefully another season of The Awesomes, it would be hard to find time to do another script for Bob’s, I think.”

If you want to read a whole lot more about Dan working on The Awesomes, and some Season Two leaks, check out more of my interview with him in BubbleBlabber the Magazine: Issue #3, which will be released on July 2^nd.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Dan hasn’t seen the new Bob’s Burgers comic books. Well, at least he hadn’t prior to our interview. “Have you seen the Bob’s Burgers comics?” I asked.

“I haven’t,” he replied. “Although I’m in the office right now and I’m looking at one, right this –- there happened to be one sitting on the desk.” Busted. Dude probably wasn’t even paying attention. These big-shot Hollywood-types are all the same. And yes, he was clearly reading one, because he quickly added, “How are those compared to the show?” trying to cover his tracks.

First of all, this is my interview, and I’ll ask the damn questions. Second, don’t play coy, Daniel. Why don’t you tell me how the comics are, since you’ve got one in front of you. Lastly, I don’t know how they are, because I haven’t read them. So there.

Then again, I’d probably need a distraction too if I were the one fielding forty minutes of questions from myself. Although I suppose that would be a much more boring interview, since I’d hopefully know all the answers to my questions already. So I guess I can’t blame him.

You win this one, Mintz.

(Be sure to check out Dan’s voice when Bob’s Burgers returns this fall for season five, Sunday nights on FOX.)