Recap / Bob's Burgers S8E16 "Are You There, Bob? Its Me Birthday"

"This is the saddest surprise party ever."

"I forgot your father's birthday! No! Why?!"

—Linda

Bob is forced to accompany Hugo on a health inspection, so Linda can prepare a surprise party for him.

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Are You There, Bob? It's Me, Tropes:

• Blatant Lies: Mr. Fischoeder's reason for not going to Bob's party is that a dog is biting his leg. Linda tells him to bring the dog, but Fischoeder just says the dog doesn't want to come.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The episode takes a middle ground between what Linda and what Bob would want. Hugo tells Bob that he should appreciate the fact that his family loves him enough to set up a party for him, and that his birthday is not only about him, but also about his loved ones celebrating him. Linda's side of the story shows Pesto telling her that planning a party that Bob clearly would dislike is not the way to celebrate his birthday either.
• Broken Aesop: While Bob ultimately accepts Hugo's job as being Necessarily Evil, this lesson loses its merit when one remembers that Hugo absolutely abuses his power solely to harass Bob, to the point that "Speakeasy Rider" reveals his job has been threatened solely because he keeps harassing Bob. If anything, Hugo's lesson doesn't make him look better—it makes him look even worse, because he's a thousand times more professional with the wrap restaurant than he is with Bob's Burgers. His logic comes across less like "my job is necessary because of people like Sam" and more like "it's okay to harass Bob because there are people who I don't harass".
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • Teddy and his mother attend a Silent Retreat and he seems to forget the purpose of a Silent Retreat is to be silent and people won't respond to him because they are being silent.
  • When she realizes that yesterday was Bob's birthday, Linda thinks back if there were any hints. One was Bob mentioning he has to renew his license (as they expire during the user's birthday), the next was a lot of letters were addressed to him (likely birthday cards) and last was Speedo Guy saying that Facebook let him know it was his special day (as Facebook will send you a notification on a friend's birthday). She still doesn't realize how obvious these hints were, thinking that there were none.
• Continuity Nod: To complete Bob's ideal birthday, Linda and the kids put Banjo on the TV.
• Cue O'Clock: Hugo tells Bob that it's "health inspection o'clock".
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After being dragged along with Hugo and Ron's inspection of one of the worst restaurants out there and being forced to eat a meal that gives him food poisoning, Bob expects he'll have to go home and force himself to enjoy whatever surprise party the family has for him despite how much he hates parties. Instead, he comes back to find Linda and the kids cooked him a steak dinner (although the kids took some bites out of it), prepped the DVD player with one of his Western movies, warmed his favorite sweatpants in the dryer, and got him the bacon weight he wanted. Capping it off is Bob getting to watch Jimmy Pesto get punched in the groin by a random cyclist, making this Bob's best birthday ever.
• Epic Fail: It becomes readily apparent that Linda's attempt at party planning is not going well. She eventually resorts to begging random strangers to stay at the restaurant and yell "SURPRISE" in exchange for free ice cream, which one customer outright calls incredibly sad. Thankfully Linda scraps the party idea.
• Everyone Has Standards: Hugo only agrees to take Bob with him if Linda calls Hugo's parents while pretending to cry and asking if he's still available and if he'll take her back. Linda and Ron are both shocked and disappointed by how pathetic he's being.
• Forgotten Birthday: With the twist that Bob doesn't really mind.
• Gag Haircut: Linda messes up Gene's haircut, cutting his bangs too much. Louise attempts to fix it by filling the gap with black marker.
• Groin Attack: While teasing Bob, Jimmy Pesto gets accidentally hit in the groin by a passing cyclist. This makes Bob declare it his best birthday ever.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: As a segue to how Mort can't make it to Bob's belated birthday celebration, he has to prepare a funeral for a man who suffered this.
  Mort: Linda, I wish I could, but I have a funeral tonight. Can't be in two places at once... which, by the way, is how this guy died.
• Ignored Expert: Bob tries to tell Sam he needs to take cooking lessons for his restaurant to work. He doesn't listen and even thinks he'll just open a sushi place instead, thinking it'll be easier.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Hugo tells Bob he doesn't have to worry about renewing his food handling license today (which he himself tore up as an excuse to get Bob out of the restaurant) and that Hugo will deal with it himself as a birthday present—except Bob never mentioned anything about his birthday. Hugo tries to claim Ron already knew, but Bob quickly catches on to Linda's involvement.
• Instant Expert: Averted; Sam assumed he'd be able to start a wrap restaurant without issue. There are many issues. Even Bob, who has more experience than most due to his upbringing in his father's diner, acknowledges that starting a restaurant takes a lot more effort than the mere basics.
• It's All About Me: A more downplayed, innocent version comes from Linda when she realizes she's only throwing Bob a surprise party because SHE likes them, not him.
• Jerkass: Hugo is arguably at one of his worst points in the series. He attempts to make Linda beg Hugo's parents to make him take her back, something that disgusts both her and Ron (and no, the fact that he doesn't go through with it doesn't make it better). After that, he makes Bob eat a wrap that Hugo knows could make him violently ill or worse, openly admits he enjoyed Bob's suffering when he vomits extensively from the aforementioned wrap, then forces Bob into accepting that Hugo has a right to be so awful to him because he's not awful to everyone—all of which only happened as a result of Bob rightly calling Hugo out on being a nitpicky asshole.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • Played straight and subverted with Hugo on two accounts. Played straight when he calls out Sam the restaurant owner on what a completely unsanitary nightmare his establishment is. When Sam thinks he did everything right, Hugo screams at him "You did NOTHING right!" Subverted when he calls out Bob's attitude with birthday parties, saying that his family is putting the hard work into making it happen because they love him. As it's later pointed out, Linda forgot Bob doesn't like parties and was planning one because she likes them so instead she focuses on doing something she knows he'll enjoy. With that in mind, Hugo's argument comes across more as him trying to further make Bob miserable by guilt tripping him into doing something he hates.
  • As Linda and the kids are trying to arrange the party for Bob, Jimmy Pesto points out that not everybody likes surprise parties, because they involve coming home after a long day of work to a houseful of people who jump out and scream at you. This makes Linda realize planning a party for Bob is a mistake, so she and the kids arrange a peaceful evening for him and get the bacon weight Bob wanted.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Jimmy Pesto getting Groin Attacked after trying to tease Bob over the lack of guests at his party (even though there is no party because of Jimmy's own advice). He totally had it coming.
  Bob: This really is the best birthday ever.
• Lethal Chef:
  • The restaurant Hugo takes Bob to is run by a former stockbroker named Sam who never took a single cooking lesson in his life since he was so successful at making money in that job, he thought that owning a restaurant would be even easier and assumed that as long as he came up with a catchy name for it, everything else would sort itself out. Hugo finds violation after violation, each more disgusting that the last, then makes Bob eat one of the restaurant's wraps, which ends up making him violently ill.
    Sam: I don't understand. I did everything right.
    Hugo: You did almost nothing right!
  • For once, Linda and the kids avert it when making Bob's birthday dinner, coming up with a surprisingly appealing steak (albeit with a few bites out of it).
• Like Parent, Like Child: Bob's second attempt at faking a smile looks an awful lot like Tina's "Everything is Okay" face.
  • Earlier in the episode, Gene and Linda both say Linda's despondent "No, no, oh no!" catchphrase in sync, albeit for two different reasons.
• Necessarily Evil: A day with Hugo (and a metric ton of vomit from a filthy restaurant) makes Bob realize that as much of a biased, petty asshole he may be towards Bob, Hugo's job is necessary to prevent incompetent know-nothings like Sam from poisoning the entire town with their unsanitary and expired food.
• Noodle Incident: Gene once saw Bob flexing his legs in the mirror.
• Odd Friendship: Speedo Guy is apparently friends with Bob on Facebook, as he got a reminder about Bob's birthday there.
• Parental Favoritism: Bob doesn't actually play favorites, but Louise's Verbal Backspace about things Bob dislikes implies that she believes herself to be Bob's favorite child.
• Pet the Dog: It's very, very minor, but Hugo says he'll personally replace Bob's food-handling license as a birthday gift. Consider that without it, Bob would have to get it replaced himself or be forced to shut down, which has been Hugo's goal since the very beginning. He also decides not to make Linda follow through on begging Hugo's parents for him to take her back, but only because he thinks Bob's suffering was enough payment.
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: It's a Shout-Out to Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret..
• Rich in Dollars, Poor in Sense: Sam is a wealthy and successful financial worker but an incompetent restaurateur and chef who believed running a restaurant without any prior experience would be easy because of his success in finance.
• Twitchy Eye: Linda's eye starts twitching as it becomes increasingly clear that her surprise party is turning out to be a major failure.
• Verbal Backspace: When listing off things Bob doesn't like, Louise includes the kids. She then rephrases what she said to exclude herself.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Bob pukes up Sam's wrap, but his head is just low enough for all the action to be offscreen... at least until the next shot, where vomit can be seen on the curb.
• Wham Line: Although he's trying to be an asshole, Jimmy winds up contributing to Linda's big realization at the end of the episode with a single line:
  Jimmy: I bet [Bob] doesn't even like surprise parties!

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