Recap / Bob's Burgers S2E5 "Food Truckin'"

The restaurant faces a threat when food trucks become popular in the city, so Bob decides to create their own food truck to compete against the others. Meanwhile, Tina creates a persona called "Dina", who is far more outgoing and pragmatic than her own self.

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Food Tropin':

• Accidental Misnaming: One of the customers calls Tina "Dina". Tina then decides to adopt a new persona under the name Dina.
• Blame Game: During the riot, everybody blames each other for starting the riot in the first place. They eventually settle on scapegoating Randy.
• Brick Joke: Early on, Gene remarks on Tabitha Johansson's "Oil Spill" and claims it's not subtle about its true meaning. Later, Bob gets treated to a live performance of "Oil Spill" and is horrified to find that Gene is right.
• Call-Back: Gene refers to the events of "Sacred Cow" when Randy appears.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The grease storage tank Teddy rigged up on Bob's food truck comes in handy when Bob uses it as a make-shift Oil Slick to dodge the rowdy hippies.
  • Teddy's warning not to start the grill when the motor is running ends up leading to the demise of the food truck when Randy turns it on.
• Dirty Coward: Randy tries to stand up for Bob, but when that doesn't work he tries to save himself by selling Bob out.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In-universe; a singer makes a song about oil, but Randy and Gene say that it's about her vagina and that it's not very subtle. When Tabitha performs live, Bob realizes that it really isn't subtle.
• Downer Ending: The Belchers' food truck is destroyed along with all the money they got from it, rendering the entire episode pointless.
• Drunk on Milk: Linda claims to be "high on bennies" by the time they get to the food truck festival, but Bob points out the pills she's been taking are just "non-drowsy antihistamines".
• Explosion Propulsion: The family is thrown out of the food truck when it explodes.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: You can catch the references on the food trucks by pausing or slowing down the video while watching the family walking around the festival.
• Given Name Reveal: It was already easily inferred, but this episode confirms that Bob's full name is Robert.
• Guile Hero: The kids lie their asses off to guarantee maximum sales. Tina goes around lying about the content of their burgers while Louise and Gene spread awful reviews of all other food trucks. Bob mentions that it's not a lie if they are lying to vegetarians.
• Hipster: Basically all food truck customers are this in some aspect. Randy seems to adopt their lifestyle to a certain degree.
• Hope Spot:
  • The Belchers get their truck right-side up after it's overturned. Everyone cheers but Bob says, "No, no!" when he notices it's tipping precariously over a hill. Sure enough, the truck rolls down it.
  • The Belchers manage to escape the crazed festival attendees, but then Randy accidentally blows up the food truck. The Belchers not only lost the truck and the money, but everyone was forced to walk back home.
• Hypocritical Humor: Linda yells at someone to use the crosswalk because he's gonna get himself killed... even though she's currently driving down the sidewalk.
• Lost Food Grievance: While the restaurant is closed, Teddy becomes so desperate he tries to break in.
• Manchild: Randy sometimes acts like a child.
• Must Not Die a Virgin: Tina and Randy don't want to die as virgins. Tina gets an idea to fix this, but Bob doesn't even let her say it before shutting it down.
• Never My Fault: During the riot, Linda scolds Louise for putting bad reviews on Chowster. Louise says the lying got them money and points out that Tina lied to hippies about the burgers. Tina says it was her persona "Dina" who did that. Then Gene and Louise blame Linda's road rage, saying it isn’t good and she was very reckless. Then they all decide to blame Randy because he's the one who told Bob to join Chowster and come to the festival.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Tabitha Johansen the "sexy pianist" is a parody of Tori Amos. Her "Oil Spill" song is based on Amos' "Icicle" which is a song about masturbation.
• Papa Wolf: When the food truck explodes, Bob can be seen grabbing onto Louise as he jumps out of harm's way.
• The Quiet Game: Bob proposes this game during the long walk back to civilization. Louise is very proud to be clever enough to win the game - and promptly exclaims as much.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The entire episode's events are for naught, since the Belchers' food truck is blown up and they lose all the money they got from it.
• Short-Distance Phone Call: Louise and Gene talk over their walkie-talkies when they're both in the truck.
• Shout-Out:
  • Several in the food trucks' names:
    • Sherlock Scones
    • Roastbusters
    • Total Eclipse of the Tart, referring to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"
    • Jeepers Crepers
  • While driving the truck, Linda calls someone "Jennifer Slow-pez".
  • As well as "Driving Miss Lazy".
• Sincerity Mode: Randy is legitimately suggesting Bob go get a food truck, but both he and Bob are fired up so he comes across as sarcastic. It takes significant effort for them to climb down from their intense energy.
  Randy: What happened there?
• Status Quo Is God: The Belchers lose their truck after Randy accidentally blows it up, destroying the money they earned from the food festival. Because they had to spend money to repair the food truck even before all this, they haven't made a profit.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Tina is lying about the burger samples, she just goes with whatever the customers ask, like if they're made from grass-fed beef or go well with IPA.
• Too Dumb to Live: Bob tells Randy not to activate the grill while driving. Randy sits there for a second... and then activates it anyway. Cue a massive explosion that everyone barely escapes.