Bob’s Burgers, Season 3, Episode 12: Broadcast Wagstaff School News, Review

As soon as I saw the preview for this episode and learned of the “Mad Pooper,” I had to snicker. Go on, say it: Mad Pooper!  You know you want to!

So, who is the Mad Pooper?  When Tina tries out for the school news channel and is relegated to the staff intern position, she creates her own news broadcast after discovering that someone is intentionally pooping in different areas of the school. She has to prove that she can deliver a real news story, not the drivel that bad girl and newly blonde Tammy spews while on the air. With Louise’s help, they film a segment about the serial pooper, whose latest target got diarrhea in her diorama.

Linda shows Gene a picture of Bob when he was a teenager and Gene is horrified. “You really let yourself go!” he laments to his dad and decides to make himself over to look just like Bob, complete with bald spot, moustache and comb-over. The result is a hilarious family argument in the bathroom. Gene does a dead-on impression of his father, who is insulted, but the rest of the family finds it incredibly amusing. Bob concedes at one point and uses “travel-size Gene” as a stand-in so he doesn’t have to listen to another of Teddy’s long, boring stories. Gene even carries his dad impression over into school, appearing on Tina’s video and going to the principal’s office when he hears she’s gotten in trouble. 

Tina’s story becomes such big news that there is crime scene tape around every “pooping” and Mr. Frond is interviewed as a profiler, claiming that the suspect wants to “get something out.” She steals Tammy’s thunder, but when Tammy tries to frame Tina and then catch her in the act of pooping off the catwalk during an assembly (ass-embly, maybe?), it turns out that Zeke is the real pooper. In fact, watching him poop on the big screen makes Gene want to drop his dad act and be a gross kid again.

Final review:  

First of all, I don’t believe I’ve ever written the word “poop” as many times in one sitting as I have tonight. I think I set a personal record. That aside, any episode of a show that centers around a serial pooper is bound to be a little strange. Gene stole the show as the mini version of his father, getting Bob’s mannerisms down to a T. I think seeing Zeke painfully squeeze out his last bowel movement at the end was a bit much, but Tina clears her name and gets her own talk show, “The Tina Table.”

Best of the rest:  

Tina keeps wearing blazers that match the TV background, so she looks like a floating head; the assembly features jugglers talking about the evils of smoking, reminiscent of the episode where Bob went to see the patty-cake performers; Tammy trash-talking with Tina, who keeps turning it into a normal, polite conversation. Oh, and not all of Zeke’s poops were made on purpose…some were accidents and the last few were to help Tina be a reporter.  Awww…are we seeing a crush come out of all this?