Philosophy | TV

‘Bob’s Burgers’ and Compassionate Humanity

Bob’s Burgers is not only one of the greatest animated shows ever, but also one of the greatest sit-coms ever. It is paving a new way for storytelling, which there needs to be more of. And it all hinges on the fact that this show isn’t about a family of cannibals.

That’s right, you read that. The initial plan for this show was to follow a family of cannibals which would serve their customers burgers made from human flesh. Before the pilot was completed it pivoted dramatically from this and they omitted the cannibal storyline, only referencing it in the first season as a joke. And those first few seasons are interesting artifacts to look back on 14 seasons later.

The first season is really rough. Not just in the animation, but also rough in its story and comedy. It only really stands out due to its stilted and uncomfortable dialogue which has the air of improvisation and weak voice acting.

It seems more like there are just some dudes who’ve never met before standing in a voice acting booth reading out half-finished lines, and then the animators animated around that. I am not saying this is how it is, but it feels like that.

The reason Bob’s Burgers stands as a testament to the human spirit is not for the early seasons. The first few seasons are actually the weakest in the whole show. Bob’s Burgers only really comes into its own from Season 5 onward.

What even is ‘Bob’s Burgers’?

Bob’s Burgers is an American animated sit-com which premiered in 2011. It follows the family of The Belchers (a great ironic name) as they try, sometimes fail and sometimes succeed, at running a burger restaurant, which is called Bob’s Burgers. Bob Belcher is the dad of the family and the chef of Bob’s Burgers. He is passionate about cooking, and in particular burgers, to the point where he will give them funny voices and personalities while cooking.

He is married to Linda, who works with Bob in the restaurant. She is a people person while Bob is a more solitary individual. They compliment each other well and their love — for each other and for their kids — unites them and animates them throughout the show.

They have three kids: Tina (the oldest and a teenager, obsessed with boys and horses), Gene (a loud, passionate and unafraid 11 year old), and Louise (the troublemaker with a heart of gold who won’t admit she loves her family but will fight tooth and nail for them). The main cast is supported by a list of eclectic characters too long to mention here.

A typical Bob’s Burgers episode will have two plots running concurrently. One will usually follow the kids and their antics, often at school, and the other will follow Bob and Linda and their antics, usually at the restaurant. Sometimes the two plots overlap, sometimes they don’t.

It sounds pretty generic, right? It doesn’t sound like something that would garner as much praise as I am currently giving it, right? You might be asking why I am placing this show on such a high pedestal.

The Plain Materialism of Bob’s Burgers

Bob and his family are poor. This is never disputed. It is not subtle. It is referenced often. Their material condition is central to the plots of many episodes. Either they can’t pay the rent, or they break a machine and can’t pay to get a new one, or the kids need something and they need to find a way to pay for it, or any of a million other financial emergencies.

Throughout, the show is based squarely in this materialism. It does not shy away from it. It is not like other sit-coms that never address the material aspects of the family. It could be argued that The Simpsons in its early seasons was aware of this, but it has certainly forgotten it now. Family Guy never bothered with it, instead leaning into violent, non-sensical, and absurdist comedy. Rick and Morty is following the Community road of “anything goes” if it serves the comedy.

Bob’s Burgers grounds the plots of the show within this materialism. This materialism can take different paths. It can be a materialist “pay the rent” plotline, or a banal “how to build a loft” story from Season 12, Episode 7: ‘Loft in Bedslation’. The plots are never egregious. They don’t depend on exaggerated cutaways or postmodernist humor or even deconstructive humor. The show is grounded in a very real sense of the word.

This is what makes it stand out among other animated shows. The materialism of Bob’s Burgers is constant. They are often struggling to pay rent, and Bob worries that the restaurant will shut down.

This materialism forms the basis of the plot of The Bob’s Burgers Movie. The bank is threatening to repossess their restaurant equipment if they can’t pay off the loan within a week. So Bob and his family need to figure out how to get enough money to pay back the loan just as a pipe ruptures in front of their restaurant, creating a large hole in the sidewalk. How do they resolve it? I’ll let you watch the movie to see for yourself.

Bob’s Burgers Strives for Selflessness

Their indomitable spirit is not only admirable, but they also never give up on people. The Belcher’s aren’t selfish, though they might have selfish desires, like everyone does. Bob wants to have better kitchen equipment, and he wants his restaurant to be recognized as a genuine restaurant and not just a burger joint. He treats his job like an art. He is a master of his craft, sometimes to the point of gloating, but he is always ready to pull it in and be humble if the situation calls for it.

Their selfish desires never form the resolutions of episodes, but they do generate conflict. In Season 11, Episode 10: ‘Yachty or Nice’, Bob and his family need to cater for the yacht club. Bob is confused as to why the Yacht club asked him to cater. He doesn’t think his restaurant is well known enough to be called by the yacht club. When he learns that his restaurant rival Jimmy Pesto asked him to come he suspects something is up. This is because Jimmy Pesto always makes fun of Bob and tries to humiliate him in any way possible.

Throughout the episode Bob tries to figure out what secret plot Jimmy Pesto might have to humiliate him. Eventually he learns that Jimmy’s secret plot wasn’t to humiliate Bob. It was to place himself (Jimmy) in better standing with the yacht club board. Jimmy thought that if he brought Bob and his burgers to the yacht club, he would be inducted into the board. When Bob learns of this he decides to stand with Jimmy. He even tells the Yacht club president that he learned everything he knows about cooking from Jimmy (a clear lie). He sacrifices himself for Jimmy. Bob is selfless.

The Overt Altruism of Bob’s Burgers

It is this sort of altruism — shown above — which made me fall in love with Bob’s Burgers. A great example of this altruism can be found in Season 9, Episode 17: ‘What About Blob?’

In this episode Gene wants to save a blob of plankton. It is about as basic a plot as they come. This is typical for Bob’s Burgers. Gene, Tina, and Louise find a blob in the water at the marina. At first they think it is just kind of weird but when they discover that the blob is plankton and that it is beautiful at night because of its bioluminescence, Gene falls in love with it. When they learn that the marina (where the yacht club is) wants to bleach the blob to get rid of it before the yacht regatta it becomes Gene’s personal mission to save the blob.

The episode turns into an escapade to save the blob, where the siblings team up with the rich stuck-up upper class kids — Duncan and Sasha — who live on Kings Head island off shore. The climax of the episode comes when they kayak over to the blob and discover that it reacts to sound. This allows them to lead the blob out of the marina and save it from being bleached.

As is classic for comedy shows there is a twist ending. The blob is eaten by fish when they lead it out to the open water, but as we watch the blob get eaten we don’t really care. They saved the blob for altruistic reasons, and that’s all that matters.

At first, members of Gene’s troupe agreed to help save the blob for personal reasons. Louise wants to save it to create mischief in the yacht club. Duncan is convinced to help because he wants to humiliate the rival yacht club on the mainland by keeping the blob in their marina, in turn ruining their regatta.

Their mission began because Gene identified with the blob. He saw himself in something which seems horrible at first glance but under its surface it is beautiful. Gene’s mission was always motivated by a sense of altruism. It may not be a pure altruism, but it is a selfless act which no one asked him to do.

When the kids realize they can move the blob out of the marina their actions become altruistic. Duncan no longer wants to ruin the regatta, and Louise was the one who figured out how they could move the blob, therefore no longer wanting to cause any mischief. Their decision to save a blob, something which had no impact on their lives whatsoever, is motivated by altruism. What mattered in the end — even if the blob was eaten by fish — is that they saved it.

The Indomitable Community Spirit of Bob’s Burgers

This community spirit of resolving things together is at the heart of the show, and we can see it clearest in Season 5’s first episode: ‘Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl’. I know it sounds a bit weird to say that the first episode of season 5 is when I truly fell in love with the show, but that is what happened. Before this episode I had been following along for a few reasons. One reason was that many online had said that the show eventually got really good.

This is a classic saying in online discourse around TV shows, so much so that it has become a meme: “Bro, just watch the first 5 seasons and then it gets good”. But that is what happened to me. “Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl” was the episode that convinced me of the beauty of Bob’s Burgers because of how it ends. It is the type of ending which will become characteristic of future Bob’s Burgers episodes.

In this episode, there are two groups of children who want to do their musical stage play for the school. Gene and his group want to do a play based on ‘Die Hard’. Courtney and her group want to do a play based on ‘Working Girl’.

The episode is told from the perspectives of Gene and Courtney as they retell the events of the previous days as unreliable narrators, changing events or omitting moments. They are trying to get their own musical stage play to go forward. It all depends on Mr. Frond. He has the final say on which play is performed.

His decision is to shut it all down. No one gets to perform their play. This prompts Gene to give up his dream to do the ‘Die Hard’ musical and let Courtney perform her ‘Working Girl’ musical. Gene’s act of self-sacrifice motivates Courtney to confess and say she only did ‘Working Girl’ to get back at Gene. The two of them decide last minute to organize a new musical, mixing ‘Die hard’ and ‘Working Girl’ into a single musical called ‘Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl’. They then perform the musical for the school.

The play is unironically incredible. It is dripping with vulnerability and sincerity, two key ingredients of the burger which is Bob’s Burgers. The children are unafraid of performing it together. None of them are hesitant. They all enthusiastically rush right into this new and strange performance.

And for a moment we approach the show on its own terms and accept its artifice as real. If we accept this world as a real world and these people as real people, which the show wants us to do, then we can see why this scene is so touching. The children have found a common ground. They have come together to execute this vision. There is no irony here. There is no undercutting joke which takes away from the vulnerability. It is so honestly honest and sincerely sincere that we can’t help but be happy.

The heart of Bob’s Burgers lies in moments like this, where conflict is resolved through coming together and irony isn’t even a word whispered on the lips of the most cynical characters. The show praises unending compassion, and it is dedicated to it fully. If the children want to do a hybrid musical that mashes up a violent action movie and a soppy romantic comedy, then by god they will do it and you will love watching them do it.

And you will cheer as they do it because you love it when humans are humans together. Bob’s Burgers lifts everyone up together. No passion is cringe. No individual is to be ridiculed. Everyone is human together, and they are going to be human together. As the children sing about wanting to reach the great tower in the sky together, you believe them.

Go watch Bob’s Burgers. It is the giant upon whose shoulders other shows will stand on.

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