Review: Bob’s Burgers “Cheer Up Sleepy Gene”

Gene’s first sleepover takes an unexpected turn in a good episode of Bob’s Burgers.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s Gene’s first sleepover, but he’s not exactly excited. (He’s the last kid in his grade to go to one, so he feels obligated.) Tina assures him that it won’t be so bad; they’ll just watch a movie, then go to bed and gossip about boys while eating midnight snacks from the fridge. Unfortunately, Alex has other plans. Fed up with his parents’ strict rules and healthy foods, he runs away with help from Gene. After some twists and turns (involving sleeping in garbage bags in the rain), Gene is able to convince Alex to toughen up and return home.

While all this is happening, Linda and Bob make a bet about which one of them is the loudest snorer. Not much comes of it, but they call each other a lot of fun nicknames (my personal favorite: Snore-a the Explorer).

Our Take:

After last week’s amazing episode, perhaps it’s only natural that Cheer Up Sleepy Gene doesn’t manage to reach the same heights. While I enjoyed the initial premise, I felt like the episode became a little unfocused in the middle. Gene is a very interesting character; he’s usually loud, outgoing, and mildly annoying, but being away from the familiarity of home for the first night ever brings out his social anxieties. The Belcher kids typically run in a pack, but Tina does have her group of friends, and even Louise has a few closer actions, like Rudy or Millie. Gene, to my recollection, hasn’t really been shown to have anyone he hangs out with apart from the family. That’s one of the reasons why the beginning of the episode quickly caught and held my attention. As it went along, though, it seemed like the focus turned to Alex’s family issues and we didn’t get as much development of Gene and his troubles as I would’ve liked. Alex is a fine new addition, but I just haven’t spent enough time with him to really care about him.

Luckily, there was still plenty to enjoy aside from these quibbles. This was definitely a good episode for Gene fans, and he had lots of screentime to dish out his signature style of comedy. “Have you seen Cabin in the Woods? I haven’t either, but that trailer music was scary!” The B-plot was about snoring, but it certainly wasn’t a snoozefest. Linda and Bob listening to the recording of their own sleeping sounds was a big highlight. The wrap-up was sweet, too, as Linda coined Bob’s snoring as her “disgusting white noise”.

Bob’s delivers a fun Gene-centric episode that explores a bit of new territory for him while maintaining the same level of humor that fans have come to expect. Even though it wasn’t as perfect as last week’s episode, Cheer Up Sleepy Gene is a solid half-hour of one of the funniest shows on television at the moment. And amidst all the laughter, you can even glean some great life hacks, such as how to get out of P.E. (Just pretend you have to barf.)