It's easy for me to see why I watched this pilot episode when it first aired nearly 8 years ago and was largely unimpressed: the show wasn't particularly funny yet, and the writers were still getting a handle on these wonderfully goofy characters. Bob and the gang have come a long way since then.
As a spouse to an autistic partner I LOL’d quite literally at the balls to tell autism joke. The toothpick joke was so fantastic and hilarious!
It Gets Better from here, through there could be some drops in some episodes in later seasons.
Can’t believe I’ve never watched this before, the film is out this year so I’m watching for that, it wasn’t too funny but the other comment on here says it gets better so I’ll look forward to that
bob is me and i am bob
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-02-25T20:31:08Z
[7.6/10] It’s funny watching this right after seeing the “Demo for Fox” which was the proof of concept that led to this first episode specifically and the series more generally. You can see the changes made clearly. The raunch factor is turned down a bit. The designs are much softer and more welcoming. The stakes are made clearer -- Bob needs this traditionally big weekend’s sales to be good or the restaurant may run out of money -- and so is the win. And there’s more of the wholesome element to it, which I’m inclined to attribute to King of the Hill vet Jim Dauterive’s influence having been added to the writing credits for this one.
Some of the difference is in fleshing out the story an extra seven minutes or so, with Mort getting a bigger part to play (versus basically no part in the demo), Gene having more room to screw around and cause trouble, and more meat on the bone added to Linda’s former relationship with Hugo. There’s also clearer arcs, not just for the restaurant ending up in the black, but for Bob making up for forgetting he and Linda’s anniversary, and even Hugo eventually choosing to do the right thing (at Ron’s prompting) by giving Bob the results of the human flesh test rather than stalling to punish him for “stealing his girl.”
In short, this feels like a full-fledged sitcom episode, with the softer edges but also well-signposted and sound storytelling that you’d expect. The irreverent and offbeat gags are still there (with some bits even doubled down on from the demo), and a trademark peculiar premise of people thinking your restaurant serves human flesh and that eventually being the thing that saves it. It’s a more polished product, though, and it shows.
And yet, beneath the surface is the fractured but lovable family that would capture our hearts for seasons and seasons to come. Bob’s Burgers was still weird, and the off-kilter humor of the demo remains intact here. But already this is a nicer group of lovable “failures”, who see each other through tough times, despite causing some of those tough times, with the familial bond and off-beat sensibilities they all share. Season 1 of the show doesn’t always hit the heights the series would soon find on a regular basis, but the blueprints for what made the show great are all still here from the jump.