Bob's Burgers Must Be In Your Life

Fox's Bob's Burgers launched its third season last night. Did you watch it?! You better have watched it.

Realistically speaking, if you're reading this post, you probably did: we talked up Bob's Burgers a lot on our old podcast, Extra Hot Great, and not only because our friend Wendy Molyneux is a writer on the series (though, full disclosure, she still is). If viewers hung on after The Simpsons to check out Bob's, they were treated to an excellent showcase of what makes the show such a delight and why, basically, you need to get on board right now, like NOW.

Almost-plausible situations that quickly spin out of control: Sure, why wouldn't Mort put on a funeral for the dead leader of a biker gang? And then, why wouldn't all those bikers take the wake to Bob's? And then, why wouldn't Bob end up with a card entitling him to a future favour from a One-Eyed Snake? Okay, at a certain point this plotting is so silly that it gets cartoonish. Fortunately, the show is a cartoon!

Kid skirmishes that take on the stature of grand opera: If any character on the show were going to cash in on a biker gang's promise of violent retribution, no questions asked, it would be Louise "Chaotic Evil" Belcher. Bad luck, Logan: you stole bunny ears from the wrong kid. (Extra points to the show for making sure that at no point do we ever see the top of Louise's head. The world isn't ready.)

Guest stars to make comedy nerds swoon: Obviously, H. Jon Benjamin (Bob), Kristen Schaal (Louise), and Eugene Mirman (Gene) are the alt-comedy stars of the show's regular cast. But last night's guest stars are a who's who of tomorrow's comedy stars: Schaal's comedy partner Kurt Braunohler (who voiced Logan), and Kyle Kinane as one of the secondary bikers. Past voice guests include Jon Glaser, Jack McBrayer, Paul F. Tompkins, Jay Johnston, Jerry Minor, Oscar Nuñez, Jenny Slate, Brian Posehn...I could go on, but either you are already on my level or you've asked your biggest comedy-nerd friend to tell you who those people are.

Tina: Best teen character currently on TV; arguably the most painfully realistic teen character on TV since Freaks & Geeks.

Approximately seventy-five jokes per minute: If you blinked, you missed that a florist in Bob's neighbourhood is called The Petalphile. ARIANO OUT.