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Bob's Burgers
2011 · TV series · 16 seasons
Created by Loren Bouchard, Jim Dauterive
Bob's Burgers follows a third-generation restaurateur, Bob, as he runs Bob's Burgers with the help of his wife and their three kids. Bob and his quirky family have big ideas about burgers, but fall short on service and sophistication. Despite the greasy counters, lousy location and a dearth of customers, Bob and his family are determined to make Bob's Burgers "grand re-re-re-opening" a success.
7 positive2 mixed12 neutralfrom 21 commenters
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22 comments on Hacker News
I think the early episodes of Bob's Burgers leaned heavily this way as well - usually, at the end of the episode, the family was no better off and sometimes was worse off.
I don't even care anymore. There have been so few TV shows or movies that I've wanted to watch in the past decade. Books, podcasts, YouTube, music, and older movies for me. I got sick of the Marvel movies somewhere around the first Avengers movie. I don't think anything currently on TV interests me other than Bob's Burgers
The first few Squigglevision shows were notorious for being cheaply hand drawn in their production so they probably got that effect the original way (using a base template and redrawing it by hand a lot without too much concern for continuity/cleaning between frames). I'd imagine in the age of Bob's Burgers (and 15 seasons of such) they are probably using digital drawing tools and emulating it, maybe with filters, when they feel they need it, but also the "squiggle" is nowhere near as pronounced as it was in the Dr. Katz and/or Home Movies days.
Oh, I saw the Bob's Burgers episode about this. Except it was Mr. Fischoeder.
"Any portrayal of a husband" on TV?
Comedies often have some mockery built in, and comedies aimed at kids in particular like to take shots at authority, but there are a lot of examples I can think of in just the general-TV-millenial-vibe-y things I've watched over the past couple of decades. More than the "bumbling dad" type, I'd say, from things I've seen in the zeitgeist (I guess one recent super typical example is Rick and Morty, though everyone sucks there):
* Arrested Development: Michael is the most competent of the bunch. His father was also quite competent, if an asshole and eventual criminal. But, you know, that put the "sit" in sitcom...
* Luke from Gilmore Girls is pretty consistently more sane than Lorelai, turns out to be a good dad too IIRC; other fathers include a loser and a number of very successful businessmen, teachers, etc.
* King of the Hill: doing his best, often the most sane of the bunch
* Bob's Burgers: haven't watched a ton of this but from what I've seen Bob is a goofball but respectable and wholesome, kinda a Hank Hill. Not a lazy Homer
* Parks and Rec: Ben Wyatt is a pretty positive character
* Brooklyn 99: Terry is practically a superman of competence and seems to hold is own with his wife and kids. Holt is a supremely competent husband. Boyle is a goofball generally and in dating, but that does not really extend to his eventual marriage and child, where he seems to be doing quite well.
* Schitt's Creek: Johnny is the competent center of the family surrounded by comically exaggerated crazy wife + kids
Dramas seem even further away. Where do Breaking Bad or the Sopranos land?
There is an episode of Bob's Burgers that did something similar to this. https://bobs-burgers.fandom.com/wiki/Brunchsquatch/Trivia#:~:text=The%20animation%20for%20this%20episode,form)%2C%20and%20character%20drawings
Bluey, I honestly believe, is a show for adults (more specifically parents, but, you know, parents are adults) that kids can also enjoy. Like, traditionally, the "best" kid's media from an adult point of view has been kids shows that are also enjoyable for adults, but Bluey is genuinely the opposite.
There are episodes where it feels like the entire point is to get the adults in the room misty-eyed and sniffling, and it all relies on contexts that younger children just absolutely wouldn't have - but they'd still have a good time! And while Bluey and Bingo (the kids on the show) frequently learn lessons, as you'd expect from educational children's media, those lessons are almost always coupled with examples from Bandit and Chilli (the parents) on how to constructively _teach_ those lessons.
(Not to mention, a bunch of episodes are just straight-up the parents learning lessons, while the kids are just being kids and having fun.)
For me, it fills the niche that Bob's Burgers used to fill - an example of a family that's quirky but genuinely loves one another, and communicates (both their love and in general) to move past situations that could become much more serious without it. (Bob's Burgers has fallen off -- to me -- because the characters feel a lot more like caricatures of their earlier selves and most modern episodes seem to rely on one or more characters carrying the "idiot ball" to make anything happen, but that's a rant for another time.)
My wife and I watch an episode every night after dinner to relax after stressful days (two episodes on the really stressful ones) and it's just... Its' very good. We always feel better by the time the credits roll. We've watched a few episodes with kids and they have a good time, but we've also watched a few episodes with other adults, and it's catharsis. It's on another level entirely. I can't imagine what it's going to be like for kids who grew up watching Bluey, to rewatch it as an adult and catch the entire other level it works on. I'm jealous. <3
Yeah, totally fair. If one is very emphatic to that kind of thing, it can definitely be uncomfortable.
What I generally intend by "harmless fun" is exemplified by the episode where they buy and ruin a posh restaurant in a day, but you never hear any mention of the financial ruin from that. Whether they're super rich or not is simply not explored in the show because it's not relevant to the goals of the storyteller. It's like a cartoon: they've just got infinite resources whenever a plot calls for it.
That's quite unlike Bob's Burgers, for example, where they're constantly pointing out that they can't even pay rent on time and there's a constant looming anxiety about finances (which to the credit of the show, contrasts meaningfully with how the children are happy and healthy and want for little)
Agreed, it's also a waste of my time to do a bunch of research, figure out of I'm a "fit", customize a resume, go through the onerous application process (already have to do this) to just be rejected by the HR world filter or something else asinine.
I could use that time to apply to more companies instead, or to do a leetcode problem and stand a chance at passing an interview. Or just to watch an episode of Bob's Burgers, that would be time better spent lol.
I wonder how many people actually just rewatch their favorite shows over and over. I definitely do that with a few shows when I just want something easy (e.g. I'm cooking and put on an episode of Bob's Burgers in the background even though I've seen it a few times)
The best way I can put it without going too deep down this rabbit hole is "benign adolescent prurience". She writes a lot of erotic zombie fiction.
Also: there are more good episodes of Bob's Burgers than there are of the Simpsons. You're seriously missing out.
Also I feel bad pointing this out but one thing fetuses don't do in the womb is...
She's just so weird! If you like Kate Bush a lot, and I sort of get why her weirdness is endearing, you'll like Tina Belcher. Just a lot of the same energy.
This is a bizarre take. Compared to the world of my youth, culture of today is far less homogenous. And alternative voices far easier to find.
I lived in and near a city of a million people, but getting access to "alternative" music was difficult. My teenage daughter can find anything she wants on her phone.
Radical politics was fringe and out there. I scoured the local used bookstore for anything I could find that. Easy to find whatever you want now.
Publishing music or poetry or your opinions in general was a major endeavour. "Zine" culture was vibrant but marginal. Now you can easily publish whatever you want. (Doesn't mean you'll find an audience though.)
As for AMC or whatever. I'll repeat what others have said: why are you looking there? Why would you expect to find diversity there? Or in print journalism? Or in music charts? These are artifacts of the past. I can hear my 14 year old through the wall cleaning her bedroom while listening to Baby Metal. She didn't get that from a chart. Or from me. Stop looking for the "abnormal" in "normal" places.
That said, going to see Bob's Burgers in the movie theatre tonight with the family. It's not radical or subversive, to be sure, but something like that would never have made it to the screen in the 80s.
Now, if your definition of "counterculture" is a) being an anti-social jerk and b) getting attention and getting paid for it on someone else's platform. Yeah, you might have a hard time now.
Apart from the cultural rupture of the late 60s and early 70s, much of the entire second half of the 20th century was a wave of pretty aggressive mass media mass market conformity, so much so that our reaction as youths was similarily aggressive. Where do you think the anger in punk came from? Because everything kind of sucked.
If there's a problem with "counterculture" today it's that it'd be very hard to pick one single culture to counter.
I feel what you say too, that all the content feels samey. But I'll offer a suggestion that works for me: try some animation. That's where you get the passion projects that can feel different. Animated characters and settings can be far more expressive and varied and fresh, compared to the stock sameyness you get from live action.
The new She-Ra on Netflix was the best thing I've watched in quite some time. It's not a kiddie show, it works for all ages, think like Pixar movies. Other great cartoons across a variety of streaming services: Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Owl House, Star Trek Lower Decks, also the more mainstream Bob's Burgers. If you want something fresh to watch, try animation.
I've been debating with my friends about the Simpsons vs Family Guy/South Park. And while Family Guy/South Park definitely have their merits, the Simpsons is just in a different league. There's a great roundtable^[1] of Simpsons writers hosted by Conan O'Brien (who also was a writer). They talk about how with the Simpsons, no matter what, the family fundamentally cares about each other. Whereas with more modern animation and comedy as a whole, there's this extremely misanthropic feel. Bob's Burgers is probably one of the few shows that actively bucks this trend.
Of course The Simpsons is also just really funny. Family Guy/South Park are too, although I find that Family Guy resorts to shock humor far too much and South Park often repeats the same joke for the entire episode ad nauseum.
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtJ28qOEG1g
Now I want the same thing for Bob's Burgers, the store next door and the pest control truck. Last I checked it gets posted on the episode discussion thread on reddit but something like this would be really cool.
So you would also recommend watching Archer and H. Jon Benjamin animated series? (Bob's Burgers) I'd certainly recommend them though I'm not sure he's a canonical example of the language.
By watching Archer you might also perhaps, better understand when things are phrased inappropriately?
I've got some Google Home Minis and I didn't realize how much I use them until I decided to make note of it: I use it to control my TV every night (Play bob's burgers, next episode, pause) and in the morning I ask for the weather and while drinking we ask it random questions we happen to be discussing. At night I say "bedtime" and it turns off the TV and lights and my dog knows that means it's time to go to bed and gets up as well. All stuff we used to do on our phones but now ask verbally - I guess I'm saying I find it more convenient now than bringing out my phone and having to type stuff. It becomes way less weird after like a week.
When I binge watch shows, specifically cartoons, I find that I can watch comfortably at 1.5x-2x speed.
I can't quite do this for movies, and I definitely do miss some jokes (e.g. in Bob's Burgers I miss the intro and food of the day gags) but for shows like Adventure Time, I feel like I absorb 99% of what is happening.
I would recommend giving it a shot. Start slow at 10% and work your way up. Stick to cartoons first. It is definitely a different experience, but personally, it's not a worse experience.
Yeah I saw that episode of Bob's Burgers too.
Edit: In all seriousness, the man and the elephant were already scheduled to be killed. So it sucks, but he did so many amazing things that this is easily overshadowed.
I'm not sure it's an unsolvable problem, given enough data. Sure, a lot of people would recommend me Venture Bros (including my wife) since I enjoy both Archer and Bob's Burgers. But I have tried multiple times to get into it without success. Maybe it's just that those two data points aren't enough to pin down what it is I like about those shows that Venture Bros don't give me (at least in the first few episodes).
But you are right, I've scrobbled 100s of thousands of songs to last.fm, and those recommendations hit at best 50% of the time. I'm hoping machine learning could help here, as I'd always like a good recommendation, seeing as I seem to be picky.
Your story made me remember something.
I've used pot a few times, but I didn't smoke it. Instead me in my friends made what is called 'marijuana milk'. First you Decarboxylate the marijuana for about 30 minutes. Then you mix it with milk and you boil that for a while.
I remember reading once that the world that you perceive around you is put together by your brain. The world is not actually a as unified and persistent as we 'see' it. That's just the brain doing a good job of filtering and parsing the signals that bombard it. It was during my 'weed-milk' adventure that I first experienced what this meant.
Well on my way in the adventure I was looking at a tv show (bob's burgers) that was running. I saw the images and understood what I was looking at. While watching I heard these strange echoes and harsh noises. They were very strange and disjointed sounds, there's really nothing like it. I investigated the sounds in my head and it was then that the 'echoes' transformed into the voices of the characters on screen. It was like my brain had failed to connect the linguistic center and the audio center together. And I was only hearing 'unparsed' sound waves (as weird as that sounds). After that the echoes would come and go if I didn't concentrate. It's as if thinking about it flipped the 'parse_sounds_as_a_language' switch somewhere.
There's really nothing like it, the best part, imo, is that you're still somewhat rational while all this is happening. You're very conscious of the things that are 'different' and I always felt that I could 'investigate' and communicate to others what exactly was different while stoned/high.
Are you being serious? Google "Youtube to Mp3" and have fun. The only real dent in piracy I have seen is that I can't find clips from my favorite episodes of The Simpsons and other Fox properties.... which is annoying because I tried to share a funny scene from Bob's Burgers and the clip was simply unavailable... viral advertising anyone? Sure some clips are available on Hulu... the ones they have pre-screened, but not the one I wanted to show. The networks are short-sighted in my opinion.