11x14 Mr. Lonely Farts

[7.0/10] This one was OK. It’s a Gene-heavy episode, which is rarely my jam. In large doses, he quickly gets kind of annoying, and this was no exception. I do appreciate the throughline that he doesn’t like to be alone and then, through Macaulay Culkin-like circumstances, ends up at the house all by himself. But there’s not much to it. There’s some hints that it’s the explanation for the existence of his previously-mentioned imaginary friend, Ken. But there’s not much of an arc to it. He’s just left alone, ends up forced to confront the privacy of his own thoughts, and ends up being fine. It’s not much of a revelation, and there’s a wash of so-so Gene material between point A and point B.

But the other two stories in the episode are fun. Linda dn Tina trying on shoes in the non-clearance part of the store is a cute diversion. The two of them taking a walk on the wild side leads to plenty of amusing lines from the two of them. And while the 20% discount on Tina’s sneakers from an understanding clerk comes out of nowhere, the subplot is a good gag machine.

But my favorite story in the episode sees Bob, Louise, and Teddy going to pick up a refurbished hood from a seller Bob found on the internet. It’s a pretty prosaic setup, but there’s lots of fun to be had from Louise and eventually Teddy convincing Bob that the seller, nicknamed “Adam Appliances” is probably a murderer. The wrong gets plenty of good laughs out of the trio spinning out on this wild theory, and I like the resolution that in the end, Adam was worried they were the insane killers (which, hey, he’s half right).

Overall, the Bob story is superb, the Gene story is meh, and the Linda/Tina story is cute but a little glancing. Not one of Bob’s Burgers’ finest hours, but still not a bad half hour of comedy.