music, books, love and kindness

"Bob's Burgers" Fox TV

I love "Bob's Burgers." It's so much (much) funnier than "Family Guy" and has none of its nastiness. BB's writing is intelligent and there is a warmth (an adorably kooky warmth) to the Belcher dynamics that is completely missing in the Griffin family. It actually kind of stuns me that "Family Guy" is still on the air, any humor it once had is long gone and meanness is all that's left.

In a recent episode of "Bob's Burgers," Tina (the eldest of the Belcher children and one of the most lovelorn characters to ever appear in animation) is righteously upset when a friend of hers mentions the girl he likes is way "out of his league." The scene takes place in a bowling alley (again, the smart writing!) and Tina yells, "Damn it, there are no leagues!"

The intercom interrupts to call forth bowling leagues that are entered in a contest. Well, okay, Tina continues, there are bowling leagues, "but there should be no people leagues."

Oh, how I love that! Saying someone is out of our league (many of us do believe that no matter if it is a good thing to think or not) is one of the saddest things, I think, because everyone deserves love and it be a wonderful world if we could actually have a chance with someone we like. Maybe they are not so much out of our league as they are out of the realm of possibility, which I think is a different thing altogether and far less cruel to our self esteem and self-worth.

At the very end of the same episode, Tina has to attend extra school sessions to compensate for getting a D in one of her classes. "Remedial at math, remedial in love," she whispers to herself before she goes through the door and discovers a boy she likes is there.

"Maybe we can be bad at math together," she tells him before the end credits kick in and it's just another moment from a show that just gets it...and truly puts "Family Guy" to shame.