General
- The town's schools are called Wagstaff and Huxley.
- Another Marx Brothers reference: the local horse track is called Hackenbush Downs.
- The two daughters are named Tina and Louise, after the actress Tina Louise. Linda's friend whom we never see is named Ginger, which is the name of Tina Louise's most famous character.
- Gene calls himself "The Squirrel Whisperer" in one episode, a shout out to "The Dog Whisperer".
Season 1
- Lampshaded in "Crawlspace", when Gene asks if his dad sees "a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe" while he's in the wall. Bob doesn't understand the reference at first. Then it dissolves into a Seinfeldian Conversation...
- Bob mocks Linda by calling her "Nagatha Christie"
- Linda's nightmare about Gayle's animal anus paintings in "Art Crawl" is a parody of "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo.
- In "Lobsterfest", Louise has a plush creature on her shelf that looks suspiciously Totoro-like.
- In "Crawl Space", one of the Burgers of the Day is called "Tunami".
- Considering "tunami" spells "I'm a nut" backwards, it could also reference The Shining with the whole "redrum"-"murder" thing.
- Not to mention the scene with Bob talking with the life-sized Kuchi-Kopi is pretty much directly based on the bar scene with Lloyd.
- Considering "tunami" spells "I'm a nut" backwards, it could also reference The Shining with the whole "redrum"-"murder" thing.
- Banjo, the spaghetti Western series Bob and Gene become obsessed with, has many similarities to Django, including the ridiculous number of sequels. Though Sabata is the one featuring a banjo-playing gunfighter.
Season 2
- "Hey, Jennifer Slow-Pez! Get the hell out of the road!"
- Dr. Yap attempts to follow advice from a pick-up artist named The Prince of Persuasia to woo Gayle.
- Before they let the "Moodie Foodie" go, Bob and the other restaurant owners argue over what to do with him. They eventually settle on giving him a wet willie. The sub shop owner is the one to administer it, dancing in front of the the restrained Foodie while "Stuck In The Middle With You" plays.
- One of Tina's 'erotic friend fiction' stories follows the theme of Footloose where butt-touching is outlawed in school (Buttloose). Tina heroically enters the scene in a parody of the Apple 1984 commercial.
- In "Beefsquatch" one of Gene's previous identities was Ziggy Stardust.
- In Jimmy Pesto's Restaurant: "Pasta La Vista Baby!"
Season 3
- "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal" has a ridiculous absinthe-fueled reference to My Neighbor Totoro.
- In the episode "Boys 4 Now," Louisa tries to bluff her way past a concert security guard with a fake Southern accent: "I'm Detective Brenda Lee Johnson and there's been a murder backstage."
Season 4
- "Christmas in a Car" has the Belchers being stalked by a candy-cane truck.
- Louise's story in "The Frond Files" is a parody of The Terminator, but it also includes a homage to the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park. Gene's story in the same episode spoofs Rock 'n' Roll High School, and before it got weirdly fetishized, Tina's was a spoof of The Walking Dead, down to Tina being a deputy sheriff (actually a hall monitor, but she reasons a hall monitor is the sheriff of the school).
- During "Slumber Party", Linda gets the girls to watch a movie called Twincinnati, a movie about two young, female, red-haired twins who are played by the same actress.
- Louise in "Slumber Party":Louise: Alright, you want a slumber party? Then say pil-low to my little friend! [strikes Jessica with pillow]
- The end credits sequence for "Wharf Horse" is done in the style of James Bond films.
- The scene in "Bob and Deliver", where the students stand on their desk and rip open bags of microwave popcorn, mimics both the beginning (where the students rip a chapter out of their textbooks) and the end (where the students salute the departing teacher by standing on their desks) of Dead Poets Society.
- The German chef in "The Kids Rob a Train" looks a lot like Burgermeister Meisterburger... which... makes a lot of sense, given this show...
Season 5
- As revealed in "Behind BOB'S BURGERS Live Episode 3", the political ads made in "The Millie-churian Candidate" are both highly referential.
- The first, featuring Jimmy Pesto dancing and singing, is inspired by Dr. Pepper commercials in the 70's.
- The other more hateful ad calls upon an attack ad for Hilary Clinton.
- When the kids freeze the floor on the storage freezer in "Friends with Burger Fits", Linda dresses as Auntie Entity to referee their ice shoving matches, even calling the freezer "Freezerdome".
- "The Gayle Tales" has the "Gayle of Thrones" segment, which is a long parody of GoT. The ending is particularly based on Tyrion Lannister's trial in Lady Lysa's court.
- One episode had a Show Within a Show about a traveling samurai with his child called Hawk and Chick, with a few differences: Lone Wolf and Cub does have a series of movies like Hawk and Chick, but they're based on a manga. The "Wolf" is a wandering samurai, while "Hawk" is a barber who happens to be a samurai as well. "Chick" is also older than the "Cub", and female (while the "Cub" is male).
- In "Midday Run", Tina and Zeke's exchange whilst she is chasing him is a shout-out to infamous dam scene in The Fugitive.
- "The opener for Dawn of the Peck" is spoof of the opener for Jurassic Park.
Season 6
- Gene's version of what would've happened if Bob had met Linda without a mustache is RoboCop but with a cybernetic mustache instead.
- The Boyz 4 Now music video in "The Hauntening" is reminiscent of "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" by Backstreet Boys, what with the boys all dressed as monsters and dancing in a creepy mansion.
- Also in The Hauntening, Bob calls Linda Frankenstien, to which she quickly corrects him that her name is Frankenstein. Just like the Protagonist in Young Frankenstein does every time somebody mispronounces his name.
Season 7
- One of the songs in "The Quirk-ducers" rhymes "hotties" with "bodies" after a random explosion of violence, much like the American Psycho musical.
- Both Couch Gags in "Aquaticism" are references to King of the Hill. The building next door is Pro-Pain Accessories Dominatrix Supplies and the extermination business is "Dale's Dead Bug", the name of Dale Gribble's extermination company.
- The laser show Bob takes Gene to in "The Laser-inth" is based on a Concept Album titled General Inzanity. Judging from Bob's description of the plot - the titular General bans rock music, and a man named Rebel writes a song to convince the people to rise up and defeat him - it is loosely based on 2112 by Rush, with elements of Kilroy Was Here by Styx.
- In addition, "Special Girls," the store where Gretchen works in the same episode, heavily resembles an American Girl doll store.
Season 8
- "The Hurt Soccer" has a few nods to Home Movies, Loren Bouchard's previous show:
- The referee looks like Coach McGirk.
- Mara, the goalkeeper for the Golden Dragons, is a dead ringer for Melissa, and is even voiced by the same actor.
- The kid staying in the line for potty looks exactly like Brendon.
Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title and Opening Gags
- S01E11 - "Weekend at Mort's"
- S02E01 - "The Belchies"
- S02E02 - "Bob Day Afternoon"
- S03E01 - "Ear-sy Rider"
- S03E04 - "Mutiny on the Windbreaker"
- S03E05 - "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal"
- Pest Control: The Last of the Mousehicans
- S03E08 - "the Unbearable Like-Likeness of Gene"
- S03E12 - "Broadcast Wagstaff School's News"
- S03E15 - "O.T. - The Outside Toilet"
- S03E23 - "The Unnatural"
- S04E01 - "A River Runs Through Bob"
- S04E03 - "Seaplane!"
- S04E04 - "My Big Fat Greek Bob"
- S04E06 - "Purple Rain-Union"
- S04E07 - "Bob And Deliver"
- S04E14 - "Uncle Teddy"
- S04E16 - "I Get Psychic Out of You"
- S04E20 - "Gene It On"
- S04E21 - "Wharf Horse"
- S05E02 - "Tina and the Real Ghost"
- S05E03 - "Friends with Burger-fits"
- S05E04 - "Dawn of the Peck"
- S05E06 - "Father of the Bob"
- S05E07 - "Tina Tailor Soldier Spy"
- S05E08 - "Midday Run"
- S05E09 - "Speakeasy Rider"
- S05E10 - "Late Afternoon in the Garden of Bob and Louise"
- S05E11 - "Can't Buy Me Math"
- S05E12 - "The Millie-churian Candidate"
- S05E15 - "Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting"
- S05E16 - "The Runway Club"
- S05E18 - "Eat, Spray, Linda"
- S05E18 - "Housetrap"
- S05E20 - "Hawk & Chick"
- S05E21 - "The Oeder Games"
- S06E01 - "Sliding Bobs"
- S06E06 - "The Cook, The Steve, The Gayle and Her Lover"
- S06E11 - "House of 1000 Bounces"
- S06E12 - "Stand By Gene"
- S06E13 - "Wag The Hog"
- S06E16 - "Bye Bye Boo Boo"
- S06E17 - "The Horse Rider-er"
- S06E19 - "Glued, Where's My Bob?"
- S07E03 - "Teen-a Witch"
- Store Next Door: Sag Me To Hell - Bra Boutique
- S07E04 - "They Serve Horses, Don't They?"
- S07E05 - "Large Brother, Where Fart Thou"
- S07E06 - "The Quirk-ducers"
- S07E07 - "The Last Gingerbread House on the Left"
- S07E08 - "Ex Mach Tina"
- S07E09 - "Bob Actually"
- S07E10 - "There's No Business Like Mr. Business"
- S07E11 - "A Few Gurt Men"
- S07E12 - "Like Gene For Chocolate"
- Store Next Door: Brush It Again, Sam - Refurbished Toothbrushes
- Pest Control: No Country For Old Mice
- S07E13 - "The Grand Mama-pest Hotel"
- Pest Control: When A Stranger Crawls
- S07E15 - "Ain't Miss Debatin'"
- S07E17 - "Zero LARP Thirty"
- S07E18 - "The Laser-inth"
- S07E19 - "Thelma and Louise except Thelma is Linda"
- S07E21 - "Mom, Lies, and Videotapes"
- S07E21 - "Paraders of the Lost Float"
- S07E22 - "Into the Mild"
- S08E02 - "The Silence of the Louise"
- S08E03 - "The Wolf of Wharf Street"
- S08E04 - "Sit Me Baby One More Time"
- S08E06 - "The Bleakening"
- S08E07 - "V For Valentine-Detta"
- S08E08 - "Y Tu Ga-Ga Tambien"
- S08E11 - "Sleeping With the Frenemy"
- S08E12 - "The Hurt Soccer"
- S08E13 - "The Trouble With Doubles"
- S08E14 - "Go Tina On The Mountain"
- S08E15 - "Are You There, Bob? It's Me, Birthday"
- S08E16 - "Boywatch"
- S08E18 - "As I Walk Through the Alley of the Shadow of Ramps"
- S08E19 - "Mo Mommy, Mo Problems"
- S08E20 - "Mission Impos-slug-ble"
- S09E02 - "The Taking of Funtime 123"
- S09E04 - "Nightmare On Ocean Avenue Street"
- S09E05 - "Live and Let Fly"
- S09E06 - "Bobby Driver"
- S09E10 - "Better Off Sled"
- S09E11 - "Lorenzo's Oil? No, Linda's"
- S09E14 - "Every Which Way But Goose"
- S09E15 - "The Fresh Princ-ipal"
- S09E16 - "Roamin' Bob-iday"
- S09E17 - "What About Blob?"
- S09E20 - "The Gene Mile"
- S10E01 - "The Ring (But Not Scary)"
- S10E02 - "Boys Just Wanna Have Fungus"
- S10E03 - "Motor, She Boat"
- S10E04 - "Pig Trouble in Little Tina"
- S10E07 - "Land of the Loft"
- S10E09 - "All That Gene"
- S10E10 - "Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas"
- S10E11 - "Drumforgiven"
- S10E12 - "A Fish Called Tina"
- S10E13 - "Three Girls and a Little Wharfy"
- S10E14 - "Wag The Song"
- S10E15 - "Yurty Rotten Scoundrels"
- S10E19 - "The Handyman Can" *
- S10E20 - "Poops! I Didn't Do It Again!"
- S10E21 - "Local She-Ro"
- S10E22 - "Prank You For Being A Friend" *
- S11E02 - "Worms in the Rear-ment"
- S11E03 - "Copa-Bob-bana"
- S11E04 - "Heartbreak Hotel-oween"
- S11E05 - "Fast Time Capsules At Wagstaff School"
- S11E06 - "Bob Belcher and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Kids"
- S11E07 - "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid"