Review: Bob’s Burgers “Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

The Belcher family preps for Bob’s favorite holiday: Thanksgiving. But unfortunately for our basting patriarch, the best eater in the family has to sit this year out on the toilet while battling through a nasty bout of stomach flu. Gene has set up shop in the bathroom, complete with a bed and his keyboard. He unfortunately fails the “sip test”, and has to stay trapped to prevent the sickness from spreading. When his sisters are sent to check on him, he asks them to make him hate food, prompting Louise to launch into a festive retelling of Predator that she claims will make food wish it was never born. As the “Breadator,” Bob can turn enemies into bread and turn invisible, and manages to transform Tina into a loaf and Linda into muffins before Gene “Dutch Oven” Belcher takes him on and tumbles into the butter river, which provides the camouflage he needs to take the carb-based alien out. At this point, Bob asks the girls to set the table, which they dodge in order to give Tina her storytelling time to shine. The elder Belcher sister opts for the thrilling tale of President Gene Harrison Ford Belcher and the attempted hijacking of his plane by the delegation from Pear-is (because they’re pears) in a parody of Air Force One. Bob brings the whole thing home with the thrilling adventures of Gene Marinara, while the family gathers in the hallway to listen and “be the harsh judges” of his tale. “Parmaggedon” deftly combines the plot of Michael Bay’s epic tale of heroic roughnecks with the true source of Gene’s discomfort: decaying chicken parm that he ate despite his father’s advice not to. Much like in the movie, Bob’s story sees Gene opting to stay behind and complete the mission solo, by eating the fried Italian chicken asteroid the size of Texas, then spewing out diarrhea and vomit shooting stars around the world. Back in the non-story world, Bob reveals he saw the bites in the nasty leftovers, nudging Gene to admit he ate the decaying meat and got food poisoning, but didn’t want to admit it because he was embarrassed. Bob says he loves how much Gene enjoys food, and that he’s looking forward to sharing the meal with him once his son feels better.

Our take:

While I love Thanksgiving episodes nearly as much as Bob loves the holiday that inspires them, this year’s episode title, which combines my least favorite children’s series with my second to least favorite form of humor gave me pause. Thankfully, my fears were unfounded, and this episode emerges triumphant and stuffed with stories and stuffing.

Not only did Bob’s innovate menu of pears and brie, rosemary bread, chestnut and sausage stuffing, and of course the bird itself (per Gayle, “Ugh, turkey again?”) sound delicious, but the fact that his story was based on Armageddon made this week’s offering something to truly be thankful for. The Molyneaux sisters have outdone themselves with the writing on all three stories from this episode, impressively combining 80’s action flick storylines with Thanksgiving food and/or super gross leftovers, that also weave in fun details from each storyteller’s personality.

Louise’s tale bros out hard with a quality animated recreation of the handshake scene that launched a thousand memes, while still managing to squeeze in the youngest Belcher’s signature anti-comedy comedic stylings with a dry “wow, what a cool thing to say” following cheesy action movie quips like “That dough boy is about to step into the oven. The Dutch Oven.” and “Time to carbo-load.”

For her part, Tina manages to fit in just a *touch* of her freaky friend-fiction influence into her slightly surreal take on a plane hijacking tale by stating that the fruit peelers actually peel of people’s clothes, and that there’s a lot of important people trapped on “Pear Force One” who are at risk for ending up nude, like Boyz 4 Now and “all three Property Brothers, even the one who doesn’t do property stuff.” Another quality line from her piece is that President Gene Harrison Ford Belcher “wasn’t in the Army, Navy, CIA, and Girl Scouts to give up that easily!” which warranted a hearty chuckle from this former Scout, even if it does provide some dissonance in the series, what with Tina’s former “Thunder Girl” affiliation and all. Laura and Sarah Silverman reprise their roles as Andy and Ollie Pesto, respectively, so that the pear versions of these quirky twins can kidnap Linda with the lines “You’re our hostage now!” “Comma best friend?”

But Bob’s story is where this episode really shines. Not only does it manage to capture the best of its source material, and provide Gene’s best Bruce Willis impression since his Die Hard inspired musical from season 5 (“Just gotta find a guy who’s really good at drilling, and probably wears a tank top.), but it highlights two of this show’s strongest suits: heartwarming family dynamics and gross-out humor that relies more on the jokes themselves than on visual effect. Which is not to say this tale is without visual humor! The family getting decked out in chef’s hat spacesuits for their deep fried mission followed by Gene’s bizzare space-eating feat is a fantastic use of animation, since this type of weirdness would be difficult, if not impossible, to costume and coordinate for live action. The whole framing of the chicken parm as the villain in this tale is a fantastic parenting approach on Bob’s part, to let Gene know he knows what really happened, without revealing the situation so that Gene can come to his admission on his own. The results of his food poisoning, both in the story and in the apartment bathroom are described, but never shown, keeping within the show’s general approach and not going to far for squeamish viewers.

In the end, this episode is a great example of why this show has earned not just its 11th season, but the 12th and 13th. And for that, as well as the idea of sausage stuffing, I’m truly thankful.