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bob's burgers and related miscellany

@tinarannosaurus / tinarannosaurus.tumblr.com

basically just an excuse for me to gif almost every scene of bob's burgers and to post a lot about tina belcher
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just got caught up with bob's burgers, and so far I'm enjoying season 14 much more than I expected to!

not to say I went into these new episodes assuming I wouldn't like them, but certainly the past few seasons (10–12 for sure) have fallen into a rut where like, there's a handful of episodes that are pretty solid, there's one or two that annoy me enough to skip over on any rewatch, and the majority are deeply neutral. the plots are just okay, the jokes are a little lacking, but the fundamental dynamics are still there, and I like those enough that bob's remains one of my go-to shows to have on in the background, even if I don't feel inspired or compelled enough to engage with the show the way I used to

but season 14 has been an unexpected departure (and actually, I think the back half of 13 as well) — it's funny, because I don't actually think the show is as funny as it used to be, but they're taking bigger swings with the plots in a way that's very rewarding to watch! I don't mind that there are fewer jokes, because I'm invested in the more emotional turns the show is taking

like—holy shit, "the amazing rudy"? a standout from start to finish. and I think a great example of what this season is doing in terms of its emotional arcs, and what I'm glad it's leaning into

I've felt very neutral toward bob's the past couple years, because it's felt so staid. there's an accepted level of consistency that bob's or any other animated sitcom maintains, and I get that, but I think the show really really struggled in its recent seasons with honoring that consistency, roughly maintaining the status quo, while also creating plots that were—and this sounds bad to say—but, plots that were interesting. there were a lot of low stakes, anticlimactic resolutions, unexciting premises—situations where there's not a lot of room for the writing to go, and not a lot for the characters to play off

but what I think this latest season is doing so well is leaning into its history, taking advantage of all the episodes of relationships and interactions and story they've developed to create setups that really fucking land! "the amazing rudy" is a phenomenal episode, but would it have hit as well in season 4 or 5, when we've only met rudy a handful of times? maybe, but I think it's so much more rewarding as this late series entry, when it can pay off all the previous mentions of rudy's home life, his relationship with his dad, his relationship with his—until this ep—unseen mom, his hobbies, his anxieties, his friendship with louise, the role the belchers play in his life—it's so good!!

this season is a couple eps shorter from the strike, but really hoping that the rest of the 14 and what's to come in 15 follows the trend, because it feels like the show is finally starting to figure out its voice and its footing again

#bob's burgers#like I did find the booger wall scene in 'bully-lieve it or not' literally nauseating BUT#the reveal that zeke once bullied a kid for having a lisp was a genuinely surprising and genuinely impactful moment!#and again. it's all about leveraging that history. we've seen over a decade of zeke and jj being ride or die friends#and because of all that established history the bullying reveal was that much more shocking#not to mention how it set up this look of genuine betrayal on jimmy jr.'s face. the show earned all the gravity it gave this moment!#it's great! it's so good!! also my god. don't get me started on fraud of the dead#I think a show that runs this long needs to reinvent itself every so often. because you have to#and I think bob's has struggled with having hit this plateau and floundering a little in terms of deciding on a new voice or direction#but this latest batch? this rules. i'm so into it#kayla for blacklist
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hey Fully Weeping after rewatching the amelia earhart ep

#the shadow puppets. the music. the supportive goofy background family hijinks.#the serious and weighty frustrations of a nine year old grappling with what it means to be a hero and live a life worth living#the unique help and insights of a mom#i am going through it tonight!!#s13 is wild in that its highs are SO strong and its lows are so deeply whatever#and that it goes to these more emotional sentimental nuanced places more often and does them so right!!
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thatsparrow
the "cured-ious case of ben-ham-in button" burger - thatsparrow - Bob's Burgers (Cartoon) [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org|Organization for Transformative Works

Rating: General Audiences Characters: Bob Belcher, Teddy (Bob’s Burgers) Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously Words: 545

“How come the kids don’t age, Bob?”

Bob stops, midway through laying a slice of prosciutto on the Cured-ious Case of Ben-ham-in Button burger. He looks up at Teddy through the service window and blinks a few times, sure he must’ve misheard. “What?”

“How come the kids don’t age?” Teddy says again, this time around a mouthful of fries. “It’s not a bad thing, I’ve just been wondering. And maybe even a little jealous, too—yeesh, what I wouldn’t give to have gotten a few more years before the sciatica started flaring up, am I right?”

“Teddy, what are you talking about?” Bob asks, once it becomes clear this isn’t some bit. “Of course the kids age. We have their baby pictures.”

“Oh, sure—little Tina with her great big glasses, and Gene and Louise in diapers. Man, imagine you with three toddlers these days? You’d have less hair than you do now.”

“Thanks, Teddy.”

“But, like, when’s the last time you noticed any of them getting any older? I was cleaning out my garage the other day, and was going through my holiday decorations, and it got me thinking. Just seems like every year, it’s Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas—”

“Yeah, that’s how time works.”

“—and meanwhile there are your kids, looking pretty much the same as they did the year before, you know? Doesn’t it feel like Tina should be in high school by now, or Louise in middle school? I guess they could be, and maybe I just don’t know it, but there’s no way you wouldn’t share something like that, right? Man, Tina in high school—it’s making me feel older just thinking about it.”

“Teddy, don’t be silly. She’s barely a teenager—”

But then Bob stops, because even though he’d swear Tina just turned thirteen last year, it also seems like she’s maybe been thirteen for a long time. She’s got a birthday coming up soon, and how old will she be again? He knows she’s can’t be turning fourteen yet.

There’s a burger on the grill he needs to flip, but now Bob can’t focus on anything but the number of fourth-grade parent-teacher conferences it feels like he and Linda have gone to for Louise, how long it seems that Gene’s been on the cusp of puberty, summer breaks that blend one into the other before the school year resets. When’s the last time any of the kids’ shoe sizes changed?

Oh, God, how has he never noticed this before?

“Hey, Bob,” Teddy calls over again. “You know what else I was thinking about the other day? How come the earth always looks flat, even when you’re up in an airplane? I’m just saying, if the world’s supposed to be round, don’t you think we should be able to see it?”

“Uh,” Bob says, coming abruptly back to himself. “No, Teddy, I don’t think it works that way.” And then he goes back to mostly tuning Teddy out as he finishes assembling the burger, the way he usually does, rolling his eyes at himself for having gotten suckered down one of Teddy’s rabbit holes. Of course he’s got nothing to worry about, it was just Teddy being Teddy.

The kids not aging—imagine thinking something as crazy as that.

Source: archiveofourown.org
#bob's burgers#i think there's a legitimate reading of bob's burgers as existing in a sort of nebulous time loop#and that's why the belcher's circumstances can never meaningfully change in any sort of lasting way#also it's sort of funny to treat the parameters of a sitcom seriously in-universe#my fic
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wehavetoastonishthem asked:

I loved the holiday special showdown tournament! what would you think about doing one to find the best songs? I'm a fan of a bunch of their original songs, and I know that the longer ones would do well in the long run, but I'd like to see which smaller ones can hold their own for the longest

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so glad you liked it!

and oh dip, that's a real cool idea! it'd be much more of a beast to put together (are we counting any bit of lyrics and melody as a song? do we include jimmy jr's museoms, or the bits we hear from percy mctinsle-bud's album? there are certainly a Lot and so maybe some initial entry-level polls to see which ones make it into the bracket, or one bracket for the big numbers and a smaller one for the honorable mentions?) I'd have to think about the best way to structure it (it only feels fair to include audio clips with the polls, since a title alone might not jog your memory, but that'd also be a lot to put together) but I definitely think it'd be fun to do!

#I had been thinking about other bracket ideas and this is a good one#hm. much to consider#answered#wehavetoastonishthem#polls
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the results are in!

you all voted, the competition was close (incredibly close—I don't think either episode was up by more than 3% over the whole day, and there were a couple times when it was a straight tie), but with a final result of 51% to 49%, the winner has been declared

turkey in a can was tough competition, but at the end of the day, only one holiday special could take the crown

congratulations to the hauntening!

massive thank you to everyone who voted and participated! this was incredibly fun to run, with lots of outcomes I wasn't expecting, and a match-up for the ages as our finale. halloween isn't for eight more months, but it will always be hauntening season in our hearts

#thanks again everyone! this was delightful—particularly folks cheering hard for their favorite in the finals#bob's burgers#bob's holiday bracket#the hauntening#turkey in a can
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it all comes down to this

we've reached our final match-up of the bob's burgers holiday special showdown, and there can only be one winner. who will take the grand prize? the thanksgiving titan, turkey in a can? or the halloween heavyweight, the hauntening?

the choice is entirely up to you

voting kicks off tomorrow, friday morning at 8am PST. this is the time to leave it all on the field. may the best holiday special win

#bob's burgers#bob's holiday bracket#sorry this is a little late! it's been a wild day
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