Bob’s Burgers recap: Ranking the retelling in Interview With a Pop-pop-pire

Despite being named Bob’s Burgers, we don’t know much about Bob Belcher. While we know the basics, the show doesn’t tackle much in terms of his life before becoming the owner of the titular restaurant.

Regardless, that’s why it’s nice when other characters within Bob’s life make a cameo. In particular, Bob’s father, Big Bob sometimes decides to drop by for a visit or the family decides to go visit him. While it’s a rarity, it is nice to see that glimpse at Bob from someone else’s point-of-view who isn’t a direct family member.

However, that’s not to say that Bob and his father get along. For the most part, they love each other but don’t really enjoy each other’s company. Even so, the two do put their differences aside for the sake of Bob’s family which is nice.

With that being said, let’s get into the episode, “Interview With a Pop-pop-pire.” If you haven’t watched, there will be spoilers from this point on.

Here’s what happened on Bob’s Burgers, “Interview With a Pop-pop-pire.”

The episode begins with the kids getting ready for Bob’s father, “Pop-Pop” to get there but Tina reminds them that she’s interviewing him for school. Bob tells Tina to not get too excited about his dad opening up but shares the story about a tree almost falling on his dad but doesn’t know many details.

Louise starts her story by explaining that Big Bob used to be a cop and he was hunting down a giant who grinding people’s bones. He goes up a beanstalk to find him and they talk where the giant tries to explain himself and Big Bob finds out he’s telling the truth and the actual culprit is the beanstalk. Upon figuring it out, the beanstalk traps Big Bob and the giant together and they get out after defeating his henchmen. The beanstalk eventually throws them to the ground and Big Bob finds a weed-whacker to kill it which is how the tree almost falls on him.

Moving onto Gene’s story, he explains that Big Bob is out in the woods, going camping and he gets scared, causing him to drop his float. When he retrieves his cup, he finds a pair of glittery binoculars that make everything black and white until he sees an alien tree monster. The tree eventually disappears and he finds the scientist who created the binoculars. They start talking and then running when the alien trees come after them and the scientist explains they need to destroy the trees, resulting in a double-cross by the park ranger. Big Bob decides to play his instrument, causing the trees to dance and eventually leave.

Finally, Linda tells her story in which Big Bob asks for something from the tree every day, eerily similar to “The Giving Tree.” It’s all good until the tree gets annoyed and decides to fall on him. At that point, Big Bob shows up and tells the real version of the story very simply by saying he went camping and a tree almost fell on him. Bob gets upset because his father won’t open up, resulting in them arguing.

Eventually, the episode ends with Big Bob telling the story. He explains that he was camping with Bob’s mother and she went out of the tent to pee thankfully as the tree fell on the tent. It just narrowly missed Big Bob and he explains that the incident prompted him to realize how much he loved Bob’s mom and gave him the courage to ask her to marry him. In the end, Bob and his father are able to bond with each other which was a great way to end the episode.

Which retold version of Big Bob’s story was the best from the episode?

While the retold versions were good, there’s no denying Bob’s Burgers went the emotional route with the actual story. It was such a sweet and heartwarming moment for Big Bob to share and it made him and Bob closer. Honestly, the moment in the end really touched my heart and made me even more excited for the movie.

However, we’re here to talk about the retellings so let’s get into the third pick and that’s Gene’s retelling. While Gene’s story was pretty magical and fun, it wasn’t really that good. It was clear he was using his own inspiration to come up with it. Plus a tree didn’t even get close to almost falling on Big Bob but it did have a nice song. Overall, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t the best of the bunch.

Coming in second place has to be Louise’s story. Louise’s story was a fun and unique take on a classic fairy tale, but it wasn’t actually focused on a tree. Louise took a lot of liberties with the story as Gene did. However, her story felt more cohesive and had a lot of funny moments so that’s why it ended up in second place.

That means that the number one spot goes to Linda’s retelling of “The Giving Tree.” While it was the shortest, it was the only story where Big Bob actually almost goes hit by a tree. Plus it had the coolest art style. While Big Bob interrupted her, it was such a fun take on the original story and just made for a delightful end before actually hearing Big Bob’s version.

As previously mentioned, we don’t hear much about Bob’s family but it was nice to see Bob’s Burgers feature Bob’s mom even if it was only for a few moments. Plus the story ended up being a lot better than anything Louise, Gene, or Linda came up with. As far as episodes go, this was one of the sweetest and most heartwarming ones the show has produced in a while.

Bob’s Burgers airs Sundays on Fox at 9/8c.

What did you think of “Interview With a Pop-pop-pire?” Be sure to let us know in the comments.