Comics Review: Bob’s Burgers Ongoing #3

Spoilers Below:

“Tina’s Erotic Friend Fiction Presents: The Spy Who Lived and Let Dance”

In this 007 parody, Tina appeared as James Bond (“Belcher, Tina Belcher”), Regular-Sized Rudy as Moneypenny (“Rudypenny”), Louise as M (“L”), Gene as Q (“G”), Zeke as Goldfinger (“Zekefeltfinger”), and Jimmy Jr. as Pussy Galore “Jimmy Galore Jr.”) The secret agent was tasked with stopping Zeke’s character from using an oversized laser to cave a butt on the moon. She succeeded, but Zeke got away in order to cause future mischief.

“Louise’s Unsolved Mysteries & Curious Curiosities”

In a continuation of the last issue’s story, the Belcher kids successfully stopped time on the Wonder Wharf ride, amassed enough tickets to win the Yellephant, and jumped back on the ride in order to return to the real world – with a few extra shenanigans thrown in.

“Gene’s Rhymey Rhymes That Could One Day Be Songs: Genederella”

In this gender-bending Cinderella spoof, Genederella (Gene), neglected by her step parent and step sisters, eventually set off for a grand ball in order to meet the potential love of her life – with a little help from her Fairy Bob Mother. It ended as a “to be continued” story.

Best Bits:

1) Tina, trying to be suave: “Good thing ‘Exclusive High-Stakes Card Game in Barcelona’ is my middle name.”

2) Two good milk jokes: Gene and the milk bomb confusion & Tina’s lack of preference for milkshake preparation.

3) 007 Tina to the evil Zeke: “You monster! Butts belong on people and boys, not in the sky! At least not until civilization is ready.”

4) Gene, apologizing to the Yellephant prior to using him as a cushion: “You don’t know what’s about to happen, but I just want to say I’m sorry.”

5) Louise answering Mickey’s question with a question: “Where didn’t he come from?”

6) A foreshadowing rhyme for Genederella: “At the end of the night Prince Leonard will choose a wife / No pressure or anything but this ball could change your life.”

7) We can always count on Linda for a jab: “More like Hairy Bob Mother.”

I guess I owe a slight apology to Bob’s Burgers Comics. I gave them a bit of a hard time after the last issue for suddenly cutting off the Louise story, when it’s now clear that it was meant to be continued in the following comic. However, in my defense, there was no “to be continued” and nothing that signified the end – or eventual continuation – of the plot. Can we share the blame?

So, was it worth the wait? Sort of. The story was a bit uneventful, but the characters were still funny, and the animation was adorable. I enjoyed Little Louise unsuccessfully trying to hoist the Yellephant over her head, Gene apologizing to the animal, and Tina’s general nervousness. Plus, Mickey – even on paper – is still a funny character, so as a whole this was an amusing story. I think it would have been better without the interruption though.

Going back to the first story, it was a decent Bond spoof. The roles were selected & assigned well, and Gene had a surprisingly good appearance considering the brevity. However, I wish the milk mix-up would have come back around somehow. Like Tina tries to use the milk bomb only to discover it’s just a regular carton of moo juice. Something to that effect.

The last two segments (including “Linda’s Attempt to Take a Nice Family Picture in Front of the Restaurant (And How it Always Goes Wrong) #123”) were solely good as bonus material – especially since I can’t properly rate the last story without seeing the conclusion. (We all know how that turned out last time.) I don’t particularly care for Gene’s Rhyming Rhymes in general, but the little corrections by Genederella were funny.

All in all, I’d say issue #3 was about on par with issue #2, taking into account that this one only had one complete story. The other two were either a continuation of a previous plot, or will be completed in a future one. I’m not really a fan of the continuity, and my score will reflect that.

Come on, Bob’s, pull it together. You’re so close!