Bob’s Burgers, Season 3, Episode 8: The Unbearable Like-Likeness of Gene, Review

If you've never watched Bob's Burgers, this is a perfect time to jump in, because this episode is F_U_N_N_Y.

Look out everyone…GENE GETS A GIRLFRIEND! The problem? She’s super annoying.

Of course, he starts to get to know her after playing “Stanky Doodle Dandy,” created when he records his fart on the keyboard and plays it back for Tina and Louise. Courtney and her two friends show up, with Courtney bugging him to play “Happy Birthday” for her. She has a congenital heart problem; as soon as the bell rings, Gene says, “We gotta get our congenitals to class!” Heh, heh… Gretchen shows up at Bob’s restaurant, and everyone comments on how great she looks after losing weight. Linda gets jealous and pushes her out, then decides to go on a fruit and vegetable skin diet to lose weight. Back at school, Gene finds out that someone “like likes” him (in the confusing vernacular of middle schoolers) while they are all in the lunch line. As Gene and Tina talk, Louise complains, “Puberty puberty puberty…that’s all I hear you guys say when you talk!” Tina and Louise create a very complicated bulletin board of pictures to try to narrow down who likes Gene and to their horror, discover that it’s Courtney. Courtney has already cornered Gene by his locker and he is pressured into dating her. Here’s the thing: Courtney is annoying. She sucks on her necklace. She’s loud. At first, Bob and Linda are happy for Gene, until the kids clue them in. At school the next day, Courtney demands that she and Gene hold hands when they walk inside. When Gene warns her about where his hands have been, Courtney says, “I don’t care if they’re sticky..it makes them harder to pull apart.” Her friends think it’s sweet. Tina and Louise think it’s gross. I guess both sides are right? Linda is going nuts on her diet…she has kiwi fuzz one morning and says “it’s like licking your father’s back.” Louise prepares Bob for meeting Courtney, since he is driving four of the kids on a double date to the movies. During the ride, Bob realizes Courtney really is annoying when she keeps kicking his seat. Gene knows he has to break up with her, but doesn’t know how, so Tina and Louise make him practice. For about three hours. It’s one of the most hysterically funny scenes in the show and I can’t even describe it in detail…you just have to watch it, trust me. When Gene goes to Courtney’s house, he ends up meeting her dad and going into his media room…and decides he can’t dump Courtney after all, since her dad writes jingles and might be able to give him a “record deal.” The family tries to convince him that he’s wrong to date someone just because of her dad, but he can’t do it…until they all go to Courtney’s birthday party. Linda (who has been talking to her grumbling stomach) starts licking icing off a piece of cake, calling it “cake skin.” Gene goes onstage to sing a jingle he wrote for Courtney, called “Silent Love.” But when Courtney tries to make it into a duet, Gene goes off, giving her heart palpitations and sending her off in an ambulance. When he goes to officially break up with her in the hospital, she flatlines…but it turns out it was all a joke, and she’s fine. In fact, she wants him to hook her up with Peter.  “Peter’s got partial hearing loss,” Gene says, “It’s a perfect match!” He turns his love to the bedpan, since he will never have to use a normal bathroom again. Final review:  My husband hates this show, but he and I BOTH laughed our butts off tonight.  Like the episode of The Simpsons right before this, there was so much funny stuff there’s no way I could have gotten it all in a short review. If you’ve never seen this show before, this is one of the funniest episodes so far. Best of the rest: Louise asking Tina to hit her on the back of the head to erase the memory of Gene and Courtney holding hands. Gene as an angel (with keyboard wings) in “gear heaven.” Louise telling Linda that Gene is at Courtney’s, “hitting on her dad.” Linda eating Tina’s hair just to taste the cocoa butter shampoo. Gene writing a jingle for the mortician, which says, “Take your corpse to Mort’s!” Courtney going off in the ambulance and Gene asking if he ruined her birthday. Linda chasing after someone with mashed potatoes in the hospital.   Too…much…FUNNY!