Bob's Burgers: Crab-solutely Fabulous (13x19)

A ridiculous and fun episode!

Cons:

Bob sometimes takes on the role of the "straight man" and is the least chaotic character on the screen. It's fine, it's just not as fun as when he gets all enthusiastic and caught up in something ridiculous. I just can't think of any funny Bob moments in this episode.

Pros:

At the core of all the goofy comedy of this show, is the gentle and affirming truth that this is a show about a family that really loves each other. Louise gets super enthusiastic about an idea, and Gene and Tina go along with it long after their own interest wanes. Teddy allows himself to get grievously injured, and both Bob and Linda end up entering the ring for the final fight, all because this is something Louise is passionate about. It's sweet, in an over-exaggerated, ridiculous way, how much this family all supports each other. (And Teddy too!)

This is the kind of show where the setting itself is a character. We get to learn new weird things about this community all the time, and this time we learn that there's a wrestling tournament where all the participants dress up in crab and other sea creature costumes, which is just the kind of delightful strangeness I would have expected from this show. The costumes were fun, and the announcer/manager woman was a great character; her bit was to keep strangely agreeing to let children wrestle in the show even though the idea makes no sense and is objectively a bad one.

The running joke about Teddy's devotion to this family, and being Bob's best friend in particular, always makes me chuckle. In the strange fiction of the sea cucumbers vs. the sponge family, Bob ends up being Teddy's character's brother, so he gets to lie there, injured on the wrestling mat, happily declaring, "we're brothers!"

In subplot news, Linda is trying to develop a new habit, which she's been told will take twenty-one days. She keeps switching habits as she gets quickly bored. First it's drinking more water, then it's using new vocabulary words every day, doing lunges, fixing her posture, staying in the moment... this was just a gentle little background element to the episode, one that made me smile.

And there you have it, a fun outing for the Belcher family! This was very much Louise's episode, and I love Louise dearly so I was happy. I hope we get some more school-focused outings soon, I feel like we haven't seen the gang of school friends as much recently.

8/10