Oct 28, 2018

Bob's Burgers: The Most Gay-Positive Sitcom on TV

Since 2011, Bob's Burgers has been airing on Sunday night, in the company of Family Guy and American Dad.  But it is quite different from those programs.

1. The father and mother in the nuclear family are not insensitive jerks.
2. They accept their children's idiosyncracies, instead of berating and belittling them (on American Dad) or maiming and murdering them (on Family Guy)
3. There are no sociopaths (like Roger Smith and Stewie Griffin), who kill, maim, and express same-sex interests all in the same scene, as if they are all equally disgusting.
4. There are few if any jokes involving menstruation, masturbation, vomiting, golden showers, diarrhea, or body fluids in general.
5. No one ever collapses in a pool of blood.
6. No one ever expresses hatred of blacks, Asians, Native Americans, Jews, Muslims, women, gay men, lesbians, or transgender persons.


In short, you never think you're watching a Nazi recruitment film scripted by potty-mouthed third graders.

It's about a small, struggling burger joint in a resort town in New Jersey, run by aspiring chef Bob Belcher (voiced by H. Jon Benjamin, top photo) and his New York accented wife, Linda (John Roberts).  Plotlines generally involve restaurant problems, such a visit from the health inspector, competition with the pizza place across the street, or buying a food truck -- and the problems of the three kids:



1. Shy, socially-awkward teenager Tina (Dan Mintz).
2. Chubby preteen Gene (Eugene Merman), an exuberant nonconformist who may be gay.
3. Preteen rebel Louise (Kristin Schaal), who always wears bunny ears (no one in the family seems to care).

Heterosexism appears on occasion.  A boy band has only female fans, and when Gene gets a secret admirer, everyone assumes that it must be a girl.  But not often.  Usually same-sex desire and relationships are seamlessly integrated into everyday life.

Bob gets a part-time job as a taxi driver, and finds himself driving a group of drag queens home from the bars.  Does he:
a. Freak out, but learn tolerance.
b. Rescue the drag queens from homophobic harassment.
c. Invite them to the restaurant.

Answer: C.  Invite them to the restaurant.

At Christmastime, Bob decides to reconcile with his estranged Dad, Big Bob.  They meet in a gay bar called the Junkyard.  Why?
a. Neither of them realize that it's a gay bar until they get hit on; then they freak out but learn tolerance.
b. Big Bob tells Bob that he's gay and closeted; that's why he withdrew from the family.
c. Big Bob likes hanging out there with his gay friends.

Answer: C.  Big Bob just likes hanging out there.



Gene announces that he is gay.  What happens?

a. The family freaks out but learns tolerance.
b. The family goes overboard with acceptance,
c.  Nothing.

Actually, this episode hasn't appeared yet, and it's not likely to, because stories require conflict and, at least on Bob's Burgers, there wouldn't be any.  Being gay is perfectly ordinary; the family wouldn't have a reaction to it.

By the way, John Roberts, the voice actor who plays Linda, is gay.

12 comments:

  1. Some of the more recent Barbie Films and TV shows have definitely had gay subtext.

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  2. Maybe Family Guy could be the most Gay positive sitcom on tv.

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    Replies
    1. Not likely . There’s a homophobic joke or slur every five seconds

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    2. Could King of the hill be as same as bobs burgers.

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    3. I don't see the similarity. Urban/rural, conservative/liberal, 3 kids/1 kid, naturalistic/bizarre. "King of the Hill" has more in common with "Family Guy"

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    4. Who is a better father Hank hill from king of the hill or peter griffin from family guy.

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    5. Peter Griffin has got to be the world's worst father, savagely abusive to his kids. Especially Meg. He often states that he wishes she were dead.

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    6. I like how you basically said Seth MacFarlane should never pick up a pen again because he's ruining adult animation. And I agree.

      King of the Hill could be doable today: How would Hank feel about the meaning of "conservative" in the Age of Trump?

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  3. Can you go to youtube and search simpsons ft bobs burgers when homer meets the belchers from bobs burgers and tell me how was it.

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    Replies
    1. It's one of the couch gags: Homer gets shoved into the opening credits of "Bob's Burgers," where the restaurant opens and re-opens several times. Only he's seeing it from inside the restaurant.

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  4. in one of the Thanksgiving episodes, Bob has to keep going to the deli to order a turkey because the one he was preparing gets sabotaged. eventually the deli guys figures Bob is hitting on him, and Bob declares he's 'straight, well, mostly straight' and 'who am I kidding, you're out of my league anyway'. In 'Lobsterfest' he taunts a male newscaster by taking his mic and dropping it down his pants.

    sexy Jon Benjamin tells a story about how he got hit on in France by a guy who mistook him for Bruce Willis, and Jon went with it, I don't know how far.

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  5. And then there's the time Sterling Archer with amnesia ended up in Bob's Burgers, and Russian agents entered the store after closing. Sterling/Bob opened up the cash register to give them money and they said something highly accented that Sterling/Bob heard as 'we're nut rubbers', (they said 'we're not robbers' )and he replied, 'ok, you can rub them, but don't hurt my family'.

    ReplyDelete

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