Why Bob Belcher Is Better Than Every Other Cartoon Dad

Can you just hold your hand there for a second, Dad? I'm just going to take a quick... Tina, Tina, I can't, I gotta, I can't hold, Tina, I can't hold my hand here. This is Bob Belcher. And as far as animated TV dads go, he absolutely breaks the mold. For the better part of a century, animated fathers have been portrayed as seemingly well-intended, well, idiots. Meg! Meg, Meg, Meg, Meg, Meg, Meg, Meg! Most animated fathers delve into the realm of buffoonery before eventually doing the right thing and showing just enough heart to reel us back in from their bumbling antics. Bob Belcher breaks that trope almost entirely and is often portrayed as the most reasonable person on the show, thus separating Bob's Burgers from almost 63 years of animation history. If you look at the history of the animated family sitcom, you will find time and time again that the story centers around some form of patriarchal family dynamics in which a somewhat dysfunctional blue-collar family struggles with various day-to-day issues that may pop up in the world around them. You can trace almost all of this back to a wildly popular sitcom from the 1950s called The Honeymooners. The Honeymooners starred Jackie Gleason, and it centered around this character of a bus driver named Ralph Cramden, who would take out a majority of his day-to-day frustrations on his wife and best friend. He actually had a catchphrase that was just him promising to punch his wife in the mouth. The Honeymooners was the inspiration to The Flintstones, which was the first animated sitcom geared toward adults. The Flintstones centered around yet another blue-collar patriarch whose family was rife with dysfunction, as Fred Flintstone would skirt his home responsibilities and lie to his wife. Wilma Flintstone would often beat Fred senseless in front of their children. Fred, I won't have you calling me name. There's a lot to unpack with The Flintstones, but the point here is that the animated sitcom has deep roots of dysfunctional family structures. The Simpsons, The Critic, Family Guy, American Dad, the list goes on. But all of these shows are essentially variations on the same family dynamics that have perpetuated through our culture for the better part of a century. The only other animated series that really strays from these tropes is Mike Judge's King of the Hill. But even King of the Hill jumps back into these dynamics from time to time. I believe I'll give room service a jangle and have them send up some etouffee. Bob's Burgers is the complete antithesis to the established status quo of the animated family sitcom. Bob Belcher feels genuine and grounded to the very core of his being. He isn't some mindless moron who is constantly trying to paddle his way out of an ocean of his own mess. He's reasonable to the point of being essentially the straight man of the entire show. Your mom did all up. Uh-oh. What's that supposed to mean? Dad's here. Did he dad it all up? Yeah, but that's a good thing. Oh, boy. The creator of the show, Lauren Bouchard, has a long history in the world of animation. He began his career with the creation of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, which was a Comedy Central animated series that centered around a therapist treating his celebrity clientele while navigating his own divorce. He later went on to create home movies for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. When Bouchard set out to create Bob's Burgers, he sought to create a series rooted in kindness, highlighting what people are able to endure in support of their families. Hey, I'm glad we ditched. That was fun. Me too. Let's do it again sometime. Like, maybe when you're old and senile, I'll close the restaurant and come spring you from the nursing home. What? Bouchard has gone on record to state that he wanted to capture the pressure of when you love your kids, but you know that every moment you're not working could be the nail in your coffin. The show perfectly captures that. In fact, early studio notes indicated that the network had concerns about how much the Belchers actually loved one another, with an occasional request for the Belchers to squabble. If we look at the way Homer and Bart Simpson interact with one another, you will find that their relationship is largely antagonistic. This is specifically true if you look at episodes of The Simpsons in the late 90s or early aughts. Bart repeatedly antagonizes Homer through various means of insubordination or degradation. And in return, Homer usually winds up strangling Bart in his signature manner. When we look at Bob Belcher's relationship with his son Gene, there's never anything inherently antagonistic about their relationship. It's actually portrayed in an incredibly grounded and somewhat realistic way. Sure, Gene's antics are cartoonish and somewhat larger than life, but Bob treats his son with curiosity and respect. There are undoubtedly moments where Bob's patience is tested, but he never crosses the line. It's through Bob Belcher's sensibilities that the writers of Bob's Burgers are able to weave a relatively groundbreaking familial structure into a narrative that feels fresh and inviting to be a part of. Homer and Marge Simpson, Peter and Lois Griffin, and Fred and Wilma Flintstone all suffer from the same marital dysfunctions. The husband is sort of a condescending, lazy jerk, and the wives exhibit some form of sarcastic tolerance for the atrocious behavior. Bob and Linda Belcher, on the other hand, have a healthy and equitable marriage filled with compassion, patience, and understanding. When Bob and Linda are at odds with one another, they are able to find compromise and understanding that strengthens their relationship in the long term. Everyone in the Belcher family feels like they are on the same team. Bob genuinely enjoys working hard to provide for his family as well. Operating a restaurant certainly comes with its own set of struggles, but the act of never at the forefront of Bob Belcher's list of grievances. In fact, there's an absence of negativity and cynicism with Bob. He's just genuinely a good person, trying his best for his family. Bob Belcher is a reminder that it is easier to exist in a positive world rather than a negative one. For the longest time, it felt like writers and producers of these shows needed to create extreme internal conflict to drive narrative. But Bob's burger shows us that the complete opposite can also be true. Because the Belchers get along so well, the writers can delve deeper into who they are as people, who they interact with in the world, and what they learn from it. Studios are largely risk-averse when it comes time to greenlight shows. They want the sure thing, and sometimes this means following previous success models to the letter. In regards to the sitcom, they've been following the same model since the 50s. The American family has changed dramatically since the time of Ralph Cramden and Fred Flintstone. These tired tropes of the languishing, neglectful father just don't reflect who we are anymore. Bob Belcher is an animated father like no other, and that's largely because he doesn't feel like an animated father. He feels like a real one. There's an authenticity to him that sings to us as viewers, and it's through this authenticity that the writers are able to take Bob's burgers into territory that has been left relatively unexplored by animation writers for decades. Hey, what if our characters liked each other? Seems like a question writers should be asking themselves from time to time, because it yields a much more rewarding result. Bob Belcher speaks to the goodness and humanity in us all. Deep down inside, we all want to do the right thing. We all want to honor our families in the struggle to balance work and home. And hopefully, we're all trying our best to get there. And hey, that's it for this one. Don't forget to like and subscribe if you didn't do that already. You might see a couple of links floating in the player window here. Feel free to click on any of those if you'd like to stick around. And thanks for watching Nerdstalgic.