7x09 Bob Actually

9.2/10. Leave it Bob’s Burgers to do a riff on a movie I’m not particularly fond of (Love Actually), and turn it into an episode that I love (this one!). Giving us 5 ½ stories of love in one half-hour episode is a pretty ambitious tack for an episode, but damnit if “Bob Actually” doesn’t pull it off. Let’s take them one-by-one.

Oh my god Louise and Regular Size Rudy! This was probably the meatiest of the stories, and the turn from Louise being oblivious to Rudy’s seeming affections, to being concerned that he likes her, to being subtly miffed that he likes someone else, is great. The show always does a good job with Louise’s characterization, keeping her commitment to the idea that love is stupid from her Boys-4-Now encounters, while showing that even if she’s not ready to confront those feelings yet, she cares about people, including Rudy. Her efforts to make Rudy’s actual crush stop exploiting him and deliver the kiss are, in that uniquely Louise way, very sweet and offer a solution to the problem that makes tons of sense from her perspective. And her confrontation, kiss, and slap with Rudy again speak very much to who she is and how she’d handle this type of situation. In an episode with no real duds, this was the best of the stories.

My next favorite was probably Bob and Teddy trying to learn to dance to impress Linda on V-day. This show returns to the well of Bob being surrounded by insanity and trying to keep his cool again and again, but it just works every time. The very white mom and son hip hop dance team were a hilarious touch, and the ensuing dance routine (which Linda loved, naturally) had all the charm of a bunch of middle-aged white people doing their best hip hop moves.

The rest of the stories were solid as well. Tina’s conflict between wanting to kiss Jimmy Jr. on V-day and having diarrhea was the kind of weird but delightful story this show does well. The wackiness of Jimmy Jr. wanting a “sky kiss” via trampoline, Tina coming clean, and then solving the problem via stilts, is the appropriately out there solution. And her “have to poop” walk was tops as well.

That just leaves Linda inadvertently counseling a stalker, with very funny lines (like “that’s not alarming) and the goofy but charming romance between the speedo guy on rollerskates and a mermaid on a unicycle. Both were short but sweet and eminently laugh-worthy. Throw in the running gag of a teacher stealing supplies, Rudy’s endearing but oblivious self, and the kiss montage, and you have one hell of an episode of Bob’s Burgers.