Thank you McFarland for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Mr. Book just finished The Genius of Bob’s Burgers: Comedy, Culture and Onion-Tended Consequences, by Margaret France.

Bob’s Burgers is an excellent animated cartoon featuring Bob Belcher, an owner of a hamburger restaurant, and his family. This book is a series of essays about the show.

The best chapters were the ones on Gene’s genders and Bob and Marshmallow’s relationship, while the ones on the children acting as the stereotypes for birth order, the voice actors and the characters and the impact of COVID on the show’s production were also big strengths.

The one chapter that I did not enjoy was the one about the references to Spielberg movies as a theme for the show. But, that had to be a result of my lack of interest in movies and may not have been a failure on the author’s point. I can easily see that chapter appealing to a much broader audience than just myself. All I can say about Bob’s Burgers and Spielberg is it is very easy to watch all of the episodes that alluded to, or were based on, his movies, or any movies at all, without having any idea that was the case and not have lack of knowledge of the movies have any impact on my enjoyment of the episode.

I give this book a B+. Goodreads and NetGalley require grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, a B+ equates to 4 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at NetGalley, Goodreads and my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews

Mr. Book originally finished reading this on July 4, 2024.