Do you ever get that moment where you fall asleep and have that dream where you fly around on a giant eagle and soaring through the clear, blue sky and land on the ground and enter a buffet with endless possibilities with the back of the building showing a very nice view of the landscape and about to watch an episode of Bob’s Burgers, or any show, ready to have the night of your life...only for shit to hit the fan and things going downhill. Everything burst into flames. Asteroids coming down and nuking everything the fuck out of existence. The sky turning red with fire and depression. And all because...of that one scene from the show that has everyone, no matter of race, gender, orientation, political views, religion, or how you put dip your fries, coming together and sense something is wrong and noticed the change, not knowing that it already happened like it’s Palpatine playing 5-D chess with the galaxy in the Clone Wars leading up to the Republic’s rebrand to the Empire. No, wait...that almost sums up “Some Kind of Fender Benderful”.
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, it’s a game of cat and mouse for the kids after ending up being accused of taking the magazines from the office of the dentist with Dr. Yap breathing on their necks and knowing that they have something to do with it as Bob, Linda, and Teddy are on cleaning duty when dealing with a giant splash of bird poop on the window in my spoilerific review of the twentieth episode of Season 11 of Bob’s Burgers, “Steal Magazine-olias”.
Though I think that y’all should probably ignore that analogy in the introduction of the review and saved it in the box for when we get another bad episode in the future. This week ain’t it apparently. I had some concerns with the episode from the press release to the moments before the airing and it looks like it may have exceeded my expectations. Much like with “Bridge Over Troubled Rudy” last week, this was an average episode. Hit or miss on this one regarding the direction of where the episode was heading. Just be thankful that there’s no corny ass song came into the picture because I had my pillow on standby to let my emotions on if that happened. Yeah. But again, this episode is pretty much hit or miss much a grin to last week’s episode, though, unlike last week, while it did showcase in the press release that it has both a subplot and the main plot, you’d think that it would go separately. But instead, it pretty much treats it as one big plot to fit into the episode. The writers’ way of having the bird poop subplot intertwine with the main plot with the kids make sure Dr. Yap doesn’t find out about the stolen magazine. Using the cleaning machine that Teddy brought later on to clean the window as a distraction for the kids to go for the kill to get them a clean slate. Other than that, dodged a bullet from what might have been a worst-case scenario coming true. But it’s best to wrap up the introduction and head on over to break the episode down piece-by-piece and hopefully doesn’t get me suffering through the anger monkeys attached to my back, this is “Steal Magazine-olias”.
The episode begins with Linda ready to get her teeth clean at the dentist's office with Dr. Yap doing the cleaning as Linda talks about her day to pass the time before doing the deep cleaning. Of course, different from what Bob had to endure when visiting the dentist because with Linda in this episode, and of course the kids in “The Kids Run Away” from Season 4, it’s mostly them having a check-up and having their teeth cleaned. Of course, Louise had to get her cavity filled, but other than that, deep cleaning. Whereas Bob had to get his wisdom tooth removed and had to be put in anesthesia to perform the surgery. That and also accidentally kissing your sister-in-law and thinks that it’s your wife. Also having your wisdom tooth removed...yeah, it can hurt like a bitch, especially after the surgery was performed. While Linda is getting her teeth cleaned by Dr. Yap over at his office...
We have the kids fooling around with the magazines over at the waiting room as they wait for their mother to come out with Louise and Gene playing a game of squares in one of the magazines to pass the time. Mostly with who can fill the most squares in a single page. But that’s not the concern for this scene with the kids while waiting for their mom to finish up with her dental checkup. That attention goes to Tina, while looking at the magazine page with Louise and Gene somewhat messing around with, you have the other page...with a scientist fox...that she somehow become attracted to it. So Tina’s a furry now. She’s now a furry and becomes attracted to a fox dressed up as a scientist...but why? But why? But why? Can someone please explain to me in the comments or in the DMs why that has to be a thing?! You have a 13-year-old girl who has somewhat of a sex drive, puberty can be a bitch, who had, and still is, obsessed with butts and stuff, mostly with Jimmy Jr, to somewhat became attracted to ankles when looking at Duncan’s in “What About Blob”...all the way to right here in this episode, let’s not forget the zombie obsession to the point where you could call her a necrophile, obsessed with a fox in a scientist outfit. What is even this season? Why this? Is this our punishment? Is this our punishment for the fandom winning the championship back in December? Tina becoming a furry? I mean, while it would bring back her horse obsession because we kinda missed that on the show where she talks about horse nonstop...making her into a furry? Is this your idea of a joke, writers? Is this your idea of a joke?
Linda is finally out of the dentist with a clean set of teeth, just gonna let the whole Yap hitting on the front desk worker which I hope it doesn’t turn into a possible PR nightmare. The family makes their return with Teddy coming in with Bob not even preparing the food for the lunch rush with Tina noticing the bird poop on the top of the window. Concerning everyone over the little mess the birds made. And at first, when thinking about birds and the restaurant, I thought it would be the birds, those two birds, from the ending of “The Ring (But Not Scary)” sitting on top of the sign of the building. You know, that one bird that took the ring that Bob was supposed to give it to Linda on their anniversary, only for the kids to fuck it up and lose it over at the water park? Yeah, thought that might be the case at first. But guess who also poops white and also flies? Pigeons. But then again, so do seagulls since it is a coastal community. So who knows. Maybe someone got attacked by a seagull over a piece of food that was accidentally dropped to the ground and picks it up and ate, only to find a place to poop and the restaurant ended up being the nearby place to take a dump. Guess that’s one way to put it.
Bob tries to clean the window up himself before anyone notices it, but unable to do the job. I mean, sure, the bird poop on the window could drive the customers away from the place and might as well be. Why else does Bob want to take things into his own hands to clean the mess up over the window? I mean, it’s not like something bad is gonna happen to make the situation even worse. Anything...Jimmy Pesto. Sure, he didn’t appear in the episode, but a mock from Jimmy Pesto would make things worse for Bob. Well, there’s also Ron and Hugo, who also didn’t appear in the episode but that would make things worse for him. So that leaves Teddy to do the job he was supposed to do and about to get the cleaning supplies as he heads out to get it. Of course, once Teddy exits out of the restaurant...
Dr. Yap enters the place with him questioning the kids in an unexpected visit to the restaurant over something that happened during Linda’s checkup over something that is missing from the waiting office. That something...a magazine. Yeah, a missing magazine from the waiting area of the building. That’s something that concerned Yap to the point where he accuses the Belcher kids of stealing. I mean...it’s a magazine, you know that you could get a new one. It’s pretty much easy as pie. Get a new magazine for the waiting area. Right now, it’s an accusation over the whole magazine issue, but that of course, causes the kids to call for an emergency kids meeting in the kitchen. Only to reveal...
Gene is the one responsible for stealing the magazine from Dr. Yap’s office. Y’know...gotta put this out there. Putting it out there now that the current season we’re in is about to come to a close in less than a few weeks. I think Season 11 did Gene dirty. Yeah, you heard me right. Season 11 of the show did the Gene Bean dirty where you have certain moments in certain episodes where is either responsible for something that didn’t even do or didn’t even know or have the writers kicking Gene to the curb like a trash bag with a dead body inside. This is pretty much this season in a nutshell with Gene since the start late last year. Giving 4/5th of the Belcher family pinworms on the night of the symphony. Eating a rotting chicken parmesan on the night before Thanksgiving and causing him to miss out despite Bob ordering him to not eat it. Made him cling to Linda to the point where it’s unhealthy and somewhat incestuous to some. Being left home alone for the whole morning while everyone is off doing their day and also being trapped inside the basement. Kept quiet over him snitching to Frond about the underground finger prancing show and hand 100% of the blame onto Tina. And now, he stole a magazine from the waiting area of the building.
Season 11 is treating Gene dirty. This season is treating him dirty. Would say fix this shit, but knowing that we’re only less than two episodes left in the season...well I guess we’ll find that out next season, huh? I mean, sure...the pinworm issue was mostly because of a tater tot dropped from Gene’s pocket with Peter Pescadero picked it up after coming out from the bathroom. The fire was mostly caused by Hugo due to him pulling out the greased covered rags that resulted in the fire. But still...Gene deserves better treatment next season.
So Gene reveals to be the one who stole the magazine, putting both Louise and Tina in panic mode over the idea of their brother taking something that isn’t even his. Just be thankful that there isn’t a corny ass song about “stealing is wrong” and thank god that didn’t happen. Putting the Belcher kids into a very tight situation, especially with Yap now knowing that it’s them who took the magazine, allegedly, to make sure there was no situation like it never happened and his eyes made for decoration. Cleaning up Gene’s mess by trying to lie their way to make sure Yap is out of their hairs for the day and pretend that the whole thing never happened. So while that is happening...
Bob still cleaning up the bird poop on the window still into his own hands by grabbing a sponge attached to the handle part of the broom and a bucket to wipe it away. Because apparently, a mop isn’t a good use to clean up stuff like bird poop for Bob and also would become somewhat of a liability. And well...so does the broom with the sponge attached to it because it doesn’t get rid of the poop from the window but instead, it smudged all over it and making things even worse. The poop is now spread out and covered like 10% of the window and garner some people’s attention as they go on their day. Of course, this may probably not going to make Teddy happy if he finds out about what Bob was doing while getting the cleaning machine for the window.
The kids, trying to make sure they’re not the imposter like it’s freaking Among Us, pretty sure that trend should die down by now, with the Belcher kids, all carrying one glass of water, onto Yap’s table while the iron is hot, metaphorically. Just as they’re about to sneak back into the kitchen, they got stopped by Dr. Yap and questions about the whole situation at hand and telling them about the whole thing with the magazines over at the waiting room because every time a patient leaves the building, he reorganizes the magazines. You usually think that the assistant would do the work, but Yap pretty much does the job well. But when he noticed recently that the magazine that Gene stole was missing from his arsenal, that’s where he became concerned over the missing book and the Belcher kids were the last people who used the book, hence...they’re the suspects. Bit of an OCD you got there, Yap. Especially when organizing the magazines. Though who read magazines nowadays while waiting for your name to be called for the doctor’s office? Now, while waiting for your name to be called, everyone just sticks to their phones to pass the time. Looking up on social media, watching YouTube...playing Raid: Shadow Legen...nah, nah. Not that shit. But you get the idea. And even with the missing magazine, you’d think that he would like to go and get a new one to replace it. It just that easy to get and replace. But nope, be worried over a missing magazine of yesteryear with Yap ready to pull out the ultimate card of his deck to use against the Belcher kids.
And this goes back to earlier in the episode with Linda, as she prepares to have her mouth cleaned by Yap, telling him about the kids behaving well enough for them to have their bedtime extended to a later time. And something bad like...oh I don’t know...a missing magazine that Gene stole from the waiting room over at the Dentist’s and them confessing would reverse the notion. And that’s really putting the kids in a really difficult situation when it comes to the whole magazine issue. Causing them to host yet another emergency kids-only meeting to talk about what to do to make sure they don’t get find out about the magazine and not lose their extended bedtime that they just recently got from their parents. But it looks like not all hope is somewhat lost for the three because...
As Bob tries to get rid of the bird poop, now making things going from bad to worse with the scrape now covering 25% of the window with Linda spotting Yap’s car on parked at the opposite side of the street and telling him to move it to their side, which to be fair...that’s honestly fair. You probably don’t want to park there in front of Jimmy Pesto’s restaurant. Not because he’s a Capitol Insurrectionist and all, but mostly because you really don’t want to park there, even though you went down from that side of the street.
And that of course led to Louise coming up with a plan to make sure that Yap is out of their hair for the day. And that is pointing towards his car that is now parking in front of the restaurant. Sneak out from the restaurant, make sure that neither Yap nor their parents find out what they’re doing, slide the magazine into the car, and then it’s home sweet home for them for the day with their extended bedtime being safe and secured. Of course, they need a distraction for that to happen to serve as the bat signal for the kids to make a move. Two to be exact with Tina trying to make some small talk with Yap as the first distraction, though almost fell apart with Yap adding a lot of pressure onto Tina like she was about to break. And Tina did say that there’s no way they’re going to get the magazine into the car without getting noticed. That where’s the second distraction comes into play and a risk worth trying to go fast like their name is Sonic.
Enter Teddy with the cleaning machine at the back of his pickup truck and being upset over what Bob is doing to get rid of the poop and making things even worse. Mostly over why letting Bob doing the job in his own hands before the lunch rush and don’t want anyone to be turned off is considered a bad idea. Didn’t even bother waiting for Teddy to comes in, but knowing the plot, that would also put somewhat of a dent in the kids’ plan to slip the magazine into Yap’s car so they can get into the clear. Gene and Louise did sneak past through in the background as Tina, back inside, continues to distract Yap, though adding in the pressure and trying not to break into confessing out of the blue. I mean, you hand the job of distraction junction to someone who is bad at lying or can’t even keep a lie.
Gene and Louise finally slid the magazine into Yap’s car as Teddy turns on the pressurized cleaning machine that feels like something you see coming from a hose firefighters use from a fire hydrant with him having some trouble getting ahold of the hose as Louise and Gene ran past them while the adults are distracted with the hose from the machine. Surprising because knowing that machine that has a lot of pressure built into it, the areas surrounding it, being buildings and vehicles, being badly damaged from the hose because...well...a lot of pressure. That would’ve caused some problems. I mean, that’s like experiencing a hailstorm, only instead of the ice that formed the hailstone, it’s in the form of rubber balls you’d seen at the toy aisle, only for the rubber to not hit you and it feels like you’ve been hit by pancake batter. But still, kinda surprising that each of the buildings or vehicles didn’t sustain any damage from the pressurized hose to get rid of the poop smidge all over the window.
But the kids, mostly Gene and Louise, successfully got rid of the magazine by putting it into Yap’s car as Yap is preparing to head out and snitch on Linda over the whole thing, only for them to tell him that he hasn’t checked the last place Yap would ever check to find the magazine. Which is, of course, the car. Cutting from one scene to another with Yap now found out that the magazine is in the car. Meaning that the whole thing is all for nothing, the kids are now clear from any crime that they committed, and it looks like their extended bedtime will remain to be in effc-
Yeah, the kids aren’t in the clear just yet. Or never because just as Yap is about to exit out from the restaurant, he noticed a page missing from the magazine that he just now reclaimed. That page being the squares that both Louise and Gene messed around with during the visit. And that now garner the attention of both Bob and Linda, coming out from dealing with the bird poop issue and leave the whole mess to Teddy, who is now perfectly holding on to the hose as he begins to wash away the shit on the glass. With Yap hoping for one of them, or all of them, to straight-up confess so they can get their punishment in losing their extended bedtime. And knowing that Gene was the one who took the magazine, with Louise, you think that Gene needs to lie his way to make sure he’s getting into the clear despite being the one responsible for taking the magazine.
Nope. Just confess right away. Just confess right away knowing that we’re now only...less than 5 minutes in the episode. Huh. Kinda went a little fast there. But yeah, Gene confessed to the crime, so for the kids, it’s sayonara to their extended bedtime because of him being a little bastard in taking the magazine and ripped a page out from it. It’s surprising because expect Louise to be the one who took the magazine, but nope, it was Gene and he straight up confesses to the crime. Again, Season 11 really treats the guy dirty to the core. Of course, Bob and Linda are not pleased with the idea of their son ripping the page out of a magazine that he took from the office but have a good reason why he took the page in the first place. The reason being that earlier in the episode, while waiting for their mother to come out from the checkup, Gene beats Louise in a game of filling the squares. Finding out that this was the only time he finally got a win for once in his life and he wants to keep it as a memento for scoring his first win. Even though...
Yeah, “Y Tu Ga-Ga Tambien”...from Season 8...he made it to the finals in the Ga-Ga ball tournament over at the playground of the school and defeated Rudy at his own game, though that was mostly of Rudy letting his ego become his downfall. But that was a win for him? Are we not going to bring that up? Feel like we’re not going to. But other than that, Gene took the page because he won the game of squares and want to keep it as an achievement, the first time that he ever won at anything. I mean, the guy took L after L after L in his entire life, case in point...going somewhat in between on-topic and off-topic, the 2019 Battle of the Week Voting Tournament back when Gene was the candidate. Take a look at his first match against Gary Goodspeed and the Final Space fandom...
First loss in the group stages. Somehow survived the group stages in taking the 1 seed, though a very hard fight to get that spot. Defeating Eileen Roberts and the Regular Show fandom in the quarterfinals to send the burger fandom back to the final four since the championship run in 2015. Only to lose to...you guessed it...Gary Goodspeed.
And in heartbreaking fashion in the semifinals. And he and the fanbase went on to win their first championship later in that year. Took a year later with your running mate and best friend doing the work and win the fandom their second championship and had to endure the punishments since December of last year. But yeah, other than that, Gene never got a win in his life, and to be fair, yeah...I think we all know how that feels not to get a win for once in our lives. It’s like no matter what happened, no matter the changes in the process, always end up short from the goal line. And ripping the page out of the magazine that he stole, that resulted in causing some problems for the whole day, Gene had to do all that, just because he won a game of filling squares. And against Louise of all people. He beat Louise in a game of squares. You’d be surprised that Louise isn’t the one who stole the magazine because she lost and doesn’t want to accept the loss. You know, go all Donald Trump on this shit and become delusional and keeps on wasting time in trying to overturn the results. But no, Gene stole the magazine and ripped a page out because he finally got a win for once and want to keep the page like it’s a trophy. You know, like in that Spongebob episode where you have Patrick wanting a trophy for once in his life and had to try anything to get it until he finally got it in the end. That almost pretty much sums up Gene in the episode, though he had to steal a magazine and putting him and his sisters in hot water by Yap.
Speaking of Yap, he now stands down from the whole thing and realizes that both he and Gene may have something in common and also feeling bad over what happened since accusing the kids of taking the magazine from the office. And rather than take the magazine back into the office for him to reorganize, he decided to let Gene keep, not only the ripped out the page, but the whole magazine. The magazine that included...the fox that Tina gets a lady boner for. Okay, seriously...writers...is this your idea of a joke? Is this your idea? Because I’m pretty sure no one is laughing over that. To the point where during the live-tweeting session, the Bob’s Burgers Twitter page replied to one of the fans who tweet on the show getting a reply and shows some concern.
Please, no
— Bob's Burgers (@BobsBurgersFOX) May 10, 2021
Not kidding, that actually happened. Please be a one-time thing. Please, for the love of God, be a one-time thing. Never to be brought up again. Already dealt with that shit with Bruce the Goose back in Season 9. Don’t want to bring that up as a reminder. Oh yeah, and the window is now finally removed from all things bird poop courtesy of Teddy. Probably a reminder that you may need to leave this to the professionals like Teddy. Despite somehow the pressure from the hose didn’t cause any property damage during the first use. Otherwise, we could be here all week regarding the damage.
Closing out the episode with the kids struggling to stay awake past their original bedtime with Bob and Linda checking up on them, only for the three siblings to straight-up fallen asleep just moments later. Rookies. That’s what they are when trying to stay up late. I mean, sleeping? Never heard of her. This is what adult life is going to be like once y’all are about to endure later on in your lifespan...man, I have a fuck up sleeping scheduling to the point where I never sleep. And I don’t think that the summer humidity during the off-season isn’t going to help out either. Bet New Year’s Eve for them is going to be something with the extended bedtime. That’ll be something.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Well...we dodged a bullet, so that’s a first. I mean, I had some concerns with the episode leading up to the airing and thought that it could be a repeat to “Some Kind of Fender Benderful” with a plot looking like it’s going nowhere and fearing that we would have a song that doesn’t even belong there from the start about “stealing is wrong.” Thank god we didn’t get that in this week’s episode. That being said, this was an average episode. Hit or miss with some misses to some scenes in the episode. Might be leaning towards forgettable, to say the least. I mean, it’s not bad, but it’s not that great either. Hence, the call for it to be average.
Again, I feel like this season has been mistreating Gene and putting him with all the shit that he had to endure episode after episode and this one adds another one into the collection with him stealing the magazine. While yes, he did it because the guy never won something for once in his life, like we’re gonna pretend what happened in Season 8 with the Ga-Ga ball tournament didn’t exist regarding the whole Gene winning an achievement issue, but man this season is treating him bad. I mean, with the pinworms to the stomach bug to now this, next season better treat the guy right instead of treating him like some sort of punching bag.
Though when it comes to the episode itself when looking at the press release, I thought that it would be your normal episode where you have the main plot and the subplot doing their separate ways, doing their own way. You know, like splitting away from the main road in the beginning and meet up with that same road at the end. Instead, it intertwines and mostly used as some sort of plot device for the kids to make their way to sneak past the adults to slid the magazine into Yap’s car. Also can we not use any more mentions of poop for one season for almost every episode? I mean, one’s enough per season. Let’s make that the limit. One poop mention per season. Someone should probably make that into a rule now that studios are slowly reopening.
But other than that, final thoughts, this was an average episode with some moments being hit or miss on some scenes. Of course...again, to the crew on the show...stop making Tina into a furry. We dealt with enough shit from Season 9 regarding the whole thing with Bruce the Goose. We don’t need another reminder of what happened. But other than that, average episode. Hit or miss with some scenes. Of course, the rewatchability factor if you watched the episode for the first time, just to trying to understand the premise of it. So I’ll give “Steal Magazine-olias”...
A 6 out of 10. But that’s my opinion and take on the episode and now I wanna hear yours. Tell me what you think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Do you think that Gene deserves better treatment for next season? Do you want Tina to embrace the furry lifestyle? Have you ever won over something for the first time in your entire existence? All that and your mini-review in the comments down below. We’re down to two for the season with the penultimate episode of Season 11, of course, that episode is sus to the core, I can feel it, mostly with how the main plot would pan out, Bob looking at an online cucumber for...no ever reason, and of course...you have the return of Logan. I mean, there’s also Cynthia and she is a massive bitch. But Logan...with him coming in, especially this late in the season, here comes to the locus nest in the twenty-first episode of Season 11 in “Tell Me Dumb Thing Good”.
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