Although it stumbled in its first couple of seasons and took a while to find its feet (and its audience), Bob’s Burgers has emerged as one of the greatest TV comedies on the air.
With the story of the Belcher family making its way to the big screen next year and the small-screen originator picking up legions of fans with each passing season, there’s an argument to be made that there’s no better animated series on the box right now. So, Bob’s Burgers fans and non-fans waiting to be converted alike, here are 10 Reasons It’s The Best Animated Show On The Air.
10. Lovable characters
The appeal of television over movies has always been the chance to spend a longer amount of time with characters, so those characters have to be lovable. They have to be characters you want to see every week for an undetermined number of years. Good examples of this are the staff of Scranton’s Dunder Mifflin branch, the Nine-Nine squad, and the gang at Paddy’s Pub.
Another great example is the Belcher family. There’s something about all of them that makes them lovable: Bob is the deadpan voice of reason, Linda is everyone’s mom, Tina is universally relatable, Louise is a crafty menace, and Gene has the perfect keyboard sound effect for any situation.
9. Relatable family situations
Not since early episodes of The Simpsons has an animated series so perfectly captured real, relatable family situations. As funny as shows like Family Guy and American Dad! can be, the families at their center don’t feel like real families with real emotions and relationships (in the case of American Dad!, this is played for laughs).
In Bob’s Burgers, we can believe that the Belchers are a real family that really cares about each other. There’s a reason why the show is often called a successor to King of the Hill – just like Mike Judge’s cult hit, it has a grounded, relatable tone.
8. It doesn’t rely on vulgarity
Vulgar humor can be funny, but only if the shock value serves a purpose and it’s not just offensive for the sake of being offensive. An example of vulgarity for vulgarity’s sake is Family Guy, and an example of vulgar comedy done right – but still occasionally excessive – is in Netflix’s Big Mouth.
The Washington Post’s initial review of Bob’s Burgers’ first season dismissed it as “pointlessly vulgar,” but that only applies to the first few episodes when the show was still finding its feet. Since then, the show has come to find humor in pretty much anything, especially the little things in life.
7. Improvised dialogue
Very few animated series allow for their voice actors to improvise lines, because it’s a pain to animated the characters’ mouths around dialogue as it is without that dialogue being made up on the spot. But with the right cast, it can lead to some brilliant exchanges between the characters.
Rick and Morty does this with Justin Roiland’s voice work, but in that case, he’s playing both of the characters, so he just bounces off himself. The Bob’s Burgers cast members bounce off each other, which has led to classic riffs like Teddy’s confusion over what Bob’s last name is.
6. No dead weight in the cast
The problem with a lot of TV shows is that there are some characters who are lovable and always hilarious and other characters who are boring or unlikable. Some shows, like Parks and Rec, have rectified this by getting rid of the dead weight (in that show’s case, it was Mark Brendanawicz).
In Bob’s Burgers, there is no dead weight. All five members of the Belcher family are hysterical in their own way – it’s never a shame that an episode is focused on one particular character over another – and the supporting characters are all hilarious and original, too: Teddy, Mort, Dr. Yap, Gayle etc.
5. Positive values
While other animated family sitcoms such as The Simpsons can encourage negative values like child abuse and negligent fatherhood (they’re played for laughs, but still), Bob’s Burgers has positive values. Bob and Linda are equally involved in the family business and in raising their kids; they have a realistic marriage founded on supporting and respecting each other; and they don’t equate financial success with true happiness.
Tina is perhaps the most empowered female character on TV. Gene shows more feminine traits and Louise shows more masculine traits, and rather than treat this as a bad thing or depict Bob and Linda panicking about it, it’s encouraged and they support their kids no matter what. Bob’s Burgers has the most positive values on television.
4. Soothing animation style
Some cartoons have a jarring or distracting animation style, but not Bob’s Burgers. It has a minimalist visual style and a soothing use of color. The colors of the characters’ clothes also match their personalities.
Bob is the only member of the family who doesn’t have a colorful outfit, instead wearing a greasy white t-shirt and gray pants, and as the mild-mannered voice of reason with a deadpan delivery style, he’s also the only one without a colorful personality. Linda wears red, Louise wears green, Gene wears yellow, and Tina wears blue – they each dress in a different primary color.
3. Absurdist humor
Despite the fact that Bob’s Burgers has a grounded tone and the characters feel like a real family, the actual humor couldn’t be more absurd. The same show that has given us family situations we can relate to has also given us comedic concepts like “bread perverts” and “erotic friend fiction.”
One episode was a parody of E.T. with a talking toilet voiced by Jon Hamm instead of an alien visitor. So few shows can walk the line between real and absurd. It’s a delightful combination that hasn’t been seen on television since the earliest (and best) seasons of The Simpsons.
2. A positive portrayal of working-class life
Bob’s restaurant isn’t phenomenally successful – in fact, some fans have calculated that with the Belcher family’s income, they might be eligible for food stamps – but the show doesn’t depict this in a bleak or depressing way. Instead, it presents working-class life in a hopeful light.
Yes, Bob and Linda struggle to stay afloat, but they care about each other and their kids, so it’s worth it. Bob is constantly taunted by the proprietor of a restaurant that’s far more successful than his just across the street, but the truth is that Jimmy Pesto isn’t truly happy. He uses his financial success to brag to Bob because he’s jealous of the true happiness that Bob has with his family.
1. It reflects today’s families
The Simpson household reflects families as they were in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, with the blue-collar dad who goes to work and drinks heavily and the embattled housewife who raises the kids and does all the housework on her own. However, that’s not what families are like anymore.
The economy doesn’t allow for many working-class households to have just one breadwinner anymore, so both parents have to work. Plus, fathers have become much more involved in looking after their kids as gender roles have broken down. The Simpson family was an accurate representation of families 30 years ago, but the Belchers are more accurate today.
