Bob's Burgers - "Broadcast Wagstaff School News" - Review

Damn if Bob’s Burgers isn’t having one of animated television’s best seasons, and one of this tv season's best and most consistent seasons of television. The series appeared to have peaked in “Mother Daughter Laser Razor”, but last night’s episode “Broadcast Wagstaff School News” is wonderfully funny and features some of the series best gags to date. It may not be nearly as heartwarming and touching as “Mother Daughter Laser Razor” and it may not be as maddeningly absurd and laser focused as “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal”, but it still demonstrates much of the idiosyncratic, offbeat humor and character driven comedy that makes Bob’s Burger the endearing, quirky comedy that it is.

The show has always been brilliant at taking something that at face value is a dark, weird Family Guy-esque piece of humor that in the wrong hands could be childlike and forgettable. In this case the show tackles scatological humor and finds a story worth telling while also making joke after joke about poop. It’s a good thing that at the heart of this story is Tina, who’s so utterly sincere that the idea of her investigating a serial pooper is totally amusing. 

The formatting of the school news show, and the ideas for some of their stories for the news program allows for a faster pace and rate of jokes than typical for the series. The quick establishment of Tina’s story and heading straight into the story makes for one of the most efficient episodes the series has done. The news channel also allows for the return of some of the series best supporting characters including Ollie and Andy, and  Jimmy Pesto (dancing as always).  

The highlight of the episode though is an amazing sight gag where Gene, after learning his father looked a lot like him as a kid, decides to reform himself in the exact, spot-on image of Bob (bald-spot and all). He proceeds for the rest of the episode to imitate his father with surprising, hilarious accuracy (causing even his mother to forget at times that she’s talking to her son as Bob and not Bob himself – to the chagrin of Bob). The best scene to come out of this is one where Bob and Gene have an increasingly escalating “’Bob’ Off” in their crowded bathroom.

It’s not by any stretch of the imagination this series most memorable piece of storytelling, but it is very, very funny and it’s a wonderful example of this show having the confidence to tell understated, amusing, smart stories with an ease and comfort level that many other series lack. 

Grade: A-