When Gene becomes obsessed with an old handheld game, Bob offers to help with a school project, in hopes of steering his son towards more "interesting" pursuits. Meanwhile, Louise and Tina take over a grocery store kiddie ride.
A-Trope a Boy:
- Big "NO!": Gene lets out a pretty big one when Purrbo dies.
- Bland-Name Product: Purrbo, the virtual pet game Gene is addicted to, is basically just Tamagotchi.
- Call-Back: Bob's love of gardening shows up again.
- Gilligan Cut: Bob tells Gene that they're not going to drive around looking for the bun delivery truck to get Purrbo back. Cut to them doing just that.
- Here We Go Again!: Linda spends the entire episode waiting for a delivery of Alaskan Salmon that Teddy ordered, having to watch out for it during a very specific timeframe. When the salmon finally arrives, Teddy reveals he ordered ribs to thank the Belchers for helping him... ribs that Linda is going to have to spend even more time watching out for, as well as a shipment of vinegar to marinate them in. Linda is not happy about it.
- Just One More Level!: Gene has become so addicted to Purrbo that he spends pretty much every available second playing it.
- Meaningful Background Event: At one point, a woman trips on the sidewalk and looks at the ground in front of the restaurant before walking away. This is foreshadowing for the sinkhole that forms in The Bob's Burgers Movie.
- Noodle Incident: Bob once took up soap carving, to the point that pretty much every soap bar in the Belcher home was carved into a duck.
- Not So Above It All: While Linda normally encourages Bob to tough things out with Teddy, when he asks if they should just not be friends with him Linda actually says "maybe" before amending her answer.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Bob realizes that he had Purrbo in his hands when he went to pick up his order of buns and left it in the truck.
- Linda has to step out to the bathroom, and when she comes back there is a notice on the door saying that she missed a delivery, which she assumes was Teddy's salmon. Thankfully, the salmon arrives just as she's about to confess to Teddy, and the missed delivery was for Bob's insoles.
- Parents as People: Bob's parenting in this episode can be chalked up to well-meaning if not perfect. While his attempts to push Gene to take up interests Bob himself likes would normally be considered a borderline Out-of-Character Moment, he does have a very good reason for it (given Purrbo is starting to dominate Gene's life to the point that he can't even go more than a few seconds without it), and eventually he backs off and lets Gene enjoy the game (albeit within reason).
- Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: On the novel and film About a Boy, whose title is itself a reference to both the Nirvana song "About a Girl" and the Patti Smith song about Kurt Cobain named after the novel.
- Pushover Parents: Bob, who once again lacks the back bone to force Gene to focus on his work and put Purrbo away. While his love of gardening partially explains his desire to do the work himself, he once again finds himself forced into doing a ridiculous thing for his children, in this case driving through town while Gene yells into his bullhorn.
- Reset Button: Pretty much literally; after Purrbo dies, Bob and Gene find a forum post that reveals any progress made with the deceased Purrbo can be recovered by sticking a pin into a tiny hole at the top of the handheld and pressing the game's buttons, and do this to recover Gene's Purrbo.
- Shout-Out:
- The episode's title is a reference to the film About a Boy.
- The Exterminator Van is "Let's Make a Squeal".
- The second Burger of the Day is the "Little Sprouts on The Prairie Burger".
- Take That!:
- Purrbo is a parody of Tamagotchi, which Louise describes as something that was all the rage a decade ago when there was "almost nothing to do."
- Bob finds Purrbo annoying because it makes noises whenever it wants attention, and then he says it's just like children.
Louise: Father!Bob: It's true.- Linda deals with the annoyance that is missing package delivery time that is constantly changing because of random delays even when she tries to focus on waiting but just happens to miss it when she doesn't keep an eye out. And then Teddy sends several deliveries her way as thank you for getting his salmon, all of them at different times.
- Totally Radical: Teddy's mom has taken to saying "tubular" regularly. Teddy tries as well, though he doesn't get the hang of it.Teddy: Thank you, thank you! That's so... tubular of you.
Bob & Linda: No... no...
Teddy: Doh... I know...
