[9.5/10] Leave it to Bob’s Burgers to make the simple act of pooping in a public restroom feel like one of the sweetest and most triumphant gestures in the world. “Poops!...I Didn't Do it Again” is an episode centered on the relationship between Bob and Louise, which is always one of the stealthy emotional wells for the show to pull from. The pair have a deceptively large amount in common,which makes the moments where they’re helping or supporting each other, particularly through difficult trials, all the more heartwarming.
This one works based on the fact that Bob sees himself in Louise and her shy colon, to where he is protective and supportive of her, but also wants to see her surpass him and do better than him. It’s both sides of parenting in one story -- the sense in which you recognize your hardships and struggles in your own children and want to ease them through it, but also want to help them to overcome the things you were able to. Maybe that’s a lot to put on a story of defecating outside the comfort of home, but Bob’s Burgers is able to import some surprisingly sentimental stakes to that basic human act.
It’s also flippin’ hilarious! Apart from all of the heartwarming stuff that takes place between Louise and Bob, the B-story sees Linda leading the charge to create a goofy music video in celebration of her parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Everything about the movie-making is pure comic gold.
I love the fact that Linda’s brilliant idea is to just do a pretty thinly veiled copy of the “bananas for nana” video that swept her parents’ “old people village.’ I love the fact that she just talks her family through the setup scene without giving them lines. I love the fact that she assumes she'll figure out how to edit and cut and add music and send the video to her parents. I love that she ran out of pickle costumes and so sewed a purple one. I love that Tina’s rap is actually pretty good given the circumstances! I love that “tickle the pickles” doesn’t even make sense as a phrase or a concept. I love that, despite that, Gene chases Bob around and tickles him. I love that Linda keeps forgetting to hit the record button on her camcorder. I love that Tina is taking this seriously and has “nothing left in the tank.” And I love that after all that work, Linda decides to just give up, send her parents a card, and take the kids out for ice cream.
It’s such a fun dose of that particular Bob’s Burgers weirdness and absurdity. The goofiness of the whole thing is charming, and it has the energy of failed efforts at family showmanship that, unfortunately, ring adorably true.
Plus, outside of the B-story proper, there’s still so many fun little lines or gags that just straight cracked me up. I guffawed at the stories of Linda’s “anywhere pooping”, from Gene talking about how a port-a-potty fell off the back of a truck on the turnpike and Linda pulled over to use it, or Bob revealing that she once went in a bucket at a wedding. The matter of fact ridiculousness of the conversations really helps sell the humor.
Then there’s just all the random little throw-ins to tickle the funny bone. The random guy at the pharmacy getting into Bob’s story of missing his middle school dance because of his constipation, and asking if he and the Belchers want to “go get a drink or hang out in his card” is hilarious in his socially inept bystander strain of humor. The sad, melodramatic music playing when Louise rejects Bob’s nudge to go at the aquarium turning out to be coming from the car’s radio is a fun bit. Ms. LaBonz’s annoyance at having to do the aquarium lock-in and the added sass of “Weekend LaBonz” was great. And the setup and payoff of Rudy intentionally missing answers on the big quiz so that he doesn’t have to risk feeding the sharks, only to freak out when he’s chosen in Louise’s stead was a big laugh. Hell, even the Aquarium employee’s effort at name-changing humor was chuckle-worthy.
But the piece de resistance of the episode is the Bob/Louise story. It works not just because of the richness of their relationship, but of the simplicity of the setup and the stakes. We understand how much Louise wants to feed those sharks not just because it’s on-brand for her, but also because she studied really hard to ace a test to win the opportunity. We understand how much Bob wants to help her get to do it not just because of how protective and attentive he is to his daughter, but because we hear his own story of middle school sadness and missed opportunity due to his toilet troubles. We understand both characters’ goals and anxieties and character motivations so clearly, that it gives the story a real force despite the inherent silliness to so much being pinned on going to the bathroom in a public place.
But the show earns the catharsis of that. While it’s laced with the show’s always brilliant humor, there’s s something surprisingly potent about Linda complimenting Bob for how sensitive he’s been to Louise’s problem, but suggesting that besides just affirming her fear, he might try to help her push past it a little bit. It speaks to the way that pure encouragement and support from a parent can provide solace, but also keep kids stuck in the inherited hang-ups of their moms and dads. The fact that Bob tries to take Linda’s advice, only for Louise to respond like she’s lost the only person who understood her problem, adds extra emotional stakes and pathos to the story.
That just makes what comes next all the more cathartic. Bob racing to pick Louise up from the Aquarium when the strain is too much is sweet and the proasic kind of fatherly heroism that is low key touching. Louise taking her dad’s advice not to let the problem they share keep her from doing the things she really wants to do in life is rousing. And Bob helping her through it and providing support by declaring that he’ll do it too (in a pickle costume no less), is an unexpectedly heartening act of solidarity. Louise gets to feed her sharks; Bob gets to help his daughter, and in the end, all is right with the world.
That is the beauty of Bob’s Burgers, a show that can take the absurdity of a story that hinges on a shared father/daughter pooping condition, make it hilarious without having to resort to easy scatalogical gags, and also make it life-affirming for a parent and child working through a tough problem together with love and understanding. This show is at its best when it mines these relationships for all they’re worth, finds the humor inherent in these strange but relatable situations, and founds it all on the affection, wholesomeness, and kind-hearted care that lies underneath the bizarre corner of the world that Bob, Louise, and all the other people in the Belchers’ world occupy.
Shout by Paul LittlefieldVIP 12BlockedParent2020-05-05T20:13:24Z
"So.... what problem do you have with your mother, that we don't have?"
So true.
I love this show.