Review: Bob’s Burgers “Bob Belcher and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Kids”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Ocean Fest is tomorrow, and Bob is giving the kids a pep talk, about their pep nonetheless. It’s a big day, made even bigger by the Sea Creature Sculpture Contest, which boasts a $300 gift card prize for any store on the street. The kids immediately start scheming to win the contest so they can go crazy at “Toyz n the Hood”, while Bob desperately tries to get them to focus on work, specifically handing out flyers. Linda has created a papier mache mermaid for the sculpture contest, which the kids deem not good enough to win. Just then, Hugo and Ron stop by for an inspection, but can’t find anything worth shutting them down for. That night, the restaurant catches fire, and Gene reveals it was because of his attempt to crimp a wig for the mermaid sculpture, but leaving the crimping iron on next to the flammable fish lady. Impressively, Bob doesn’t get too mad, except for the “TERRIBLE! BAD!” outbursts. Teddy rushes over in his pajamas, distraught, and hugs it out before getting started fixing the grill and attempting to get the restaurant in usable condition for Ocean Fest. Louise adds that she *may* have contributed to the fire with sparklers, while Tina confesses that she painted the sculpture and left a fan on to dry it, literally fanning the flames. An impressive music-video style scene shows the final, pre-blaze mermaid sculpture in all her glory, with the kids harmonizing with true family-band tones to say “it’s all our fault!” Bob and Linda are stressed, but send the kids to hand out flyers while the figure things out. Louise proposes they “unhorrible” themselves by finding a new thermocouple for the grill. Back at the restaurant, Bob rents a portable grill and Teddy offers to pick it up, to get out of cleaning. Linda’s fixed up the sculpture by adding teeth, and places it outside, just as Jimmy Pesto is coming over to gloat. Teddy comes back with the portable grill, and Bob emotionally agrees to use it, stacked on his existing grill. On their “unhorrible”-ing quest, the kids shake down the restaurant supply store clerk after threatening his whisks, then track down the thermocouple at a soon-to-be-opened restaurant called “A Shrimple Plan.” Things are going poorly at the restaurant, and the kids have failed their mission as well, after being unable to convince themselves that the ends (getting the thermocouple) justify the means (breaking a window). Thankfully, the owner of the shrimp restaurant finds Tina’s unnecessary apology note, and stops by to loan the family the thermocouple just in time for the lunch rush, while Ron and Hugo return to confess that it was actually Hugo’s actions that started the blaze.

Our Take

As someone who’s day job is library related, I’m always thrilled by episodes with book references, even if it’s a childhood fave rather than “high literature.” Bonus points for the not book related, but nostalgic “My So-Called Knife” storefront in the intro.

While the content of the episode focuses more on the misadventures of the misbehaving Belcher kids rather than a protagonist who woke up on the wrong side of the bed, it’s a quality example of this series’ musical ability, as well as the family’s unique and thoughtful approach to overcoming hardship.

Each kid’s song, which doubles as both an explanation of the fire and confession of how they were involved, effectively showcase the impressive in-character singing abilities of Eugene Mirman (Gene), Kristen Schaal (Louise), and Dan Mintz (Tina). Additionally, the jokes remain on-point, as usual, particularly Gene’s “I have resting ‘in’ face.” following Louise’s plan, the visual impact of Trev as a seaweed covered “sculpture”, and Linda’s “I am a pretty sound sleeper!” after Bob compares placing a portable grill on top of his actual grill to “having an affair with another woman…on top of my wife.”

The ability of this show to combine actual moral quandaries and genuinely interesting solutions is almost unparalleled in adult animation, particularly since the format is self-contained rather than continuous. Bojack Horseman and the like have a little more leeway to explore these sort of philosophical rabbit holes, but Bob’s Burgers manages to cram it into just over twenty minutes, without feeling rushed. The joke density is also nearing 30 Rock levels in this season, as well as quite a bit of overlap with the cast of that show, although not in this particular episode.

Also impressive is this show’s uncanny ability to not go too dark with the family’s various misfortunes, while also avoiding a surreal “lottery winner” type situation to fix things in every episode. Little touches like Linda’s semi-responsible advice to her kids to not break windows, “Even if it is fun!”, the kids feeling genuinely bad about both their original actions and inability to make things right, and the shrimp restaurant owner’s name being “Pam Shrimple” keep things wacky while still staying solidly within the realm of reality.

The reprise of Hugo’s confession/apology being sung by Ron with animation that echos the kid’s confession is the final cherry on top of this silly sundae, and one that leaves me looking forward to next Sunday to see what else this season has in store.