Characters / Bob's Burgers - Bob Belcher

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The Belcher Family (Bob Belcher | Linda Belcher | Tina Belcher | Louise Belcher) | Belcher Family Friends | The Pesto Family | Wagstaff School | The Fischoeder Family | Antagonists | Others | One Shot Characters

Robert "Bob" Belcher Jr.

"Listen, you're my children and I love you, but you're all terrible at what you do here and I feel like I should tell you. I'd fire all of you if I could."

Voiced by: H. Jon Benjamin

"Oh my God."

The owner of Bob's Burgers, the husband of Linda, and father of Tina, Gene, and Louise. Bob is the resident Only Sane Man of the Belcher household (and arguably the rest of the town), and is constantly roped into the crazy situations wrought by his family. Regardless, his family remains one of the most important things in his life (alongside cooking burgers and coming up with punny names for specials), and he'll go to hell and back to support them. While he's often just an unwilling participant in the Belchers' chaos, he's just as prone to causing such chaos himself.

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A-G

• AB Negative: Bob's blood type is O-, making him a universal donor, which is why he actually tries giving blood in "Heartbreak Hotel-oween" despite his phobias (and probable hemophilia). Though even then, the phlebotomists have to guilt trip him into doing it (and it's obvious that Bob is only going along with it so they stop pestering him).
• Absurd Phobia: Bob had a fear of pigeons stemming from him being attacked by a flock of them in the attic of an old house. Or so he thought...
  Teddy: Bob, you're describing an exact scene in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. They call it "shot-for-shot".
  Linda: Bob, you think you're Tippi Hedren, honey.
  Bob: I don't think I'm Tippi Hedren. I'm describing a event from my life!
  (cut to the three of them watching The Birds)
  Bob: Oh my God, I'm Tippi Hedren.
  Teddy: You wish.
• Accidental Murder: He accidentally squishes Teddy's guinea pig in "Full Bars". It's so accidental that even after the body is found, Bob doesn't realize he's the culprit until Linda spots guinea pig fur on his Halloween costume.
• Acrofatic: He is slightly overweight but can run surprisingly quickly when angry or agitated, as shown in "Burgerboss".
• Actually Pretty Funny: While he's mostly annoyed by his family's antics, sometimes they do or say something that's just so out there he can't help but chuckle a little.
• Afraid of Blood: In "The Kids Run The Restaurant" it's revealed that Bob passes out at the sight of blood. Like, even a single drop. It's arguably justified; the fact that he bleeds so much (to the point of gushing blood) from such a minor cut implies that he has hemophilia. It's never outright named as such, but it's to the point that Linda claims he can't clot, so the implications are there.
  Louise: Why can't you bleed like a normal dad?!
• Afraid of Needles: As revealed in "Heartbreak Hotel-oween". Given the circumstances (donating blood), Bob has to deal with his two biggest fears at the same time.
• Affectionate Nickname: Usually called Bobby by Linda or Teddy, with Mort even doing so on one occasion. Big Bob's customers regularly called him Little Bob as a kid, and Big Bob himself tends to refer to him as Junior.
• Alliterative Name: It applies to his name (well, his universally-used nickname), his restaurant, and the title of the show.
• All Take and No Give: He's on the giving end. Bob sacrifices a lot for his family, even if it costs him his dignity, an opportunity for his restaurant, something he enjoys, or a combination of the three. He almost always puts his family first, but unfortunately gets very little (other than affection) in return. Fortunately, while he'd like to have a lot more, seeing his family happy makes him happy.
• Ambiguously Bi: Has more than once shown attraction to men. That said, considering he's already Happily Married to Linda, it's clear he's not too interested in acting on anything if he really is bi.
  • While not the first chronologically, the most notable implication towards Bob's potential bisexuality is in "Turkey in a Can". What seems to be leading up to a Mistaken for Gay gag goes a completely different direction as Bob implies he wouldn't necessarily be opposed to going on a date with the deli guy who's flirting with him:
    Deli Guy: Hey, what do you want to do?
    Bob:Uh... nothing.
    Deli Guy: Wanna go to the beach?
    Bob: No... maybe... wait, I'm straight—I mean, I'm mostly straight.
    (A few lines later)
    Bob: Also, I'm married, but if I wasn't... Who am I kidding? You're out of my league, it would never work.
    Deli Guy: What are you talking about?
    Bob: I really gotta go.
    Deli Guy: I'm gonna see you tomorrow!
    Bob: Probably not. (beat) I'll call you!
  • In a dream sequence in "Sacred Cow", Bob also had a dream in which he made out with a talking steer. It was his subconscious telling him he wanted to, and he seems to remember the dream fondly by the end.
  • At the end of "Mutiny on the Windbreaker", when Duval wanted a kiss from Bob, Bob's only objection was that there was a crowd of people nearby.
    Duval: Kiss me!
    Bob: Not now. Not a good time.
    Duval: Then when?!
  • When Louise insinuated that Bob wanted to marry Sandy Frye in "Easy Com-mercial, Easy Go-mercial", his only objection was that he wouldn't take Sandy's name.
  • He and Teddy discuss the attractiveness of a rival handyman in "Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street".
  • He mentions The Rock having a great body in "All That Gene".
  • An interesting thing to note is that all of the times Bob rejects a guy or demonstrates interest but cops out at the last moment are never because the other person in question is a guy, but because of other reasons (he's already married, the other person is too good for him, he's simply uninterested, etc.).
• Awesome, but Impractical: His Burgers of the Day. On paper, they're an amazing idea, creating a different burger with a unique ingredient and demonstrating Bob's skills in cooking. In practice, it's not a very financially sound idea to do every day, mostly because Bob will need to buy a new ingredient every morning and the fact he never repeats them means if one person liked that specific burger but doesn't like the next one will be out of luck. He also has to come up with a pun name for them, rather than calling something simple, like calling it the "Glory Glory Jalapeno Burger" instead of something like "The Jalapeno Burger". One episode showed him having a creative block that prevented him from making such a burger as well as a name for it. Another episode revealed Bob barely sold any such burgers a whole month, meaning he spent a lot of money on ingredients for nothing. It should be noted though that Teddy is the only person who unironically likes it, most people are just indifferent to the names or the burgers themselves.
• Beard of Sorrow: Downplayed; he's never actually seen with a full beard, but whenever particularly exhausted, tired, or even drunk, Bob grows stubble all around his mouth and neck. Considering everything he goes through, this happens a lot, and it's to the point that he spends a majority of both "Turkey in a Can" and "Secret Admiral-irer" with this.
• Big Eater: Reveals to Gene that he was one in "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid", which he uses to relate to his son. He indicates that this is part of why he started to cook.
• Big "OMG!": Sometimes, if a situation is just that wacky, his usual subdued "Oh, my God" will become a rather loud one.
• Birds of a Feather: With Louise; the two are quite close due to their common interests and habits.
• Book Dumb: Generally, this is subverted; Bob is a rather intelligent man, especially when it comes to practical wisdom, and he's easily one of the smartest members of his family (besides maybe Louise). Although it's mentioned in "My Big Fat Greek Bob" that he never attended college, besides that he seems to be generally uninterested in (personal — the kids have college funds) continuing his post-high school education. He lacks some knowledge of more sophisticated things, but he has a decent baseline intelligence and is also extremely creative with his burgers. He also seems to be good with math, as evidenced by how there's quite a bit of it in the overly-complicated Meatsiah recipe.
  • This might be biting him in the ass, as while it's not really brought up on the show, he has a tendency to keep trying to branch out and away from his core competencies (or rather, he's good at cooking burgers, but keeps trying to bring in more money by doing other things), with varying degrees of success.
  • When he gets down to it, he can apparently absorb a lot of information in a hurry. In "The Equestranauts" he seems to have learned a fandom's worth of info about that show inside the time frame of a single convention (2-4 days in a weekend, usually). And it's not just passive information—he can recall enough of it at a moment's notice to fool die-hard fans, and the only thing that does him in is that he learned too much (namely regarding Tina's fan-made work).
• Boring, but Practical: Whenever it comes to problem-solving, he will almost always want to take the simple and quick solution, contrasting his wife's tendency to think up a grand scheme.
• Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting: His father wasn't the best to him, so Bob actively strives to be a better parent to his own kids, with a loose parenting style that serves as a near-opposite of his father's more controlling parenting style. In "Bob Fires the Kids", he has a freak-out when he tells his kids to get back to work and realizes he sounds just like his father.
• Brutal Honesty: While Bob loves his family, he also doesn't sugarcoat his words when it comes to their antics or bad decisions while trying not to upset anyone. This stems from his father, who was brutally honest to Bob himself.
  • In the first episode, he even tells the kids, to their faces, that they're terrible at their jobs and he'd fire them if he could. He says it again in the 200th episode, albeit with less brutality behind it than the first time.
  • When Gene makes a joke identical to one Tina said mere seconds before, Bob tells Tina with no hesitation that it was funnier when Gene said it.
  • In the Season 4 finale he admits that he loves all of his family, but he makes it clear that he prioritizes the kids over Linda.
  • In "What About Job?", when Louise worries that she won't grow up to have a special job, Bob bluntly admits that's very likely going to be the case. That said, he manages to turn it around by explaining how even boring jobs have their merits.
  • In "Comet-y of Errors", he gets fed up with Teddy blaming the past 30 years of his life on signs from the universe and tells him that his crappy life is because of both poor luck and his own poor decisions.
  • Bob is very forward regarding his utter contempt for Linda's family, between outright telling Linda he hates Gayle or exclaiming he'd rather kill himself than visit Gloria.
  • Bob loves his wife very much, but isn't afraid to voice concerns with her bad decisions or lack of common sense. In "Tina Tailor Soldier Spy", when Linda thinks dying her hair blonde has made her dumb, he tells her (albeit in a semi-joking tone) she's already kind of dumb.
  • As a prime candidate for invoking This Is Gonna Suck, Bob doesn't mince words when telling someone else that something is going to be unpleasant.
• Bumbling Dad: Averted, especially noticeable considering the saturation of the trope in modern years. Although he never attended college and doesn't always make the best decisions, he's the Only Sane Man in his family, is very creative and skilled at making burgers (even gaining the praise of a celebrity chef), a caring and Open-Minded Parent to his kids, and generally has a good head on his shoulders.
• Butt-Monkey: By Season 3, this borders on Born Unlucky. With constant money problems and multiple people eager to sabotage his life at any opportunity, Bob just can't win.
  • Subverted triumphantly in "Bob and Deliver", where even though he's unjustly fired from his substitute teaching job, Bob and the class are able to pull off a final Home Ec-staurant for the school in defiance of Mr. Frond and Caf-Co, and Bob even earns the respect of all the students (including his normally-mischievous kids). The episode ends with Bob and Tina enjoying lunch together.
  • Season 5 as a whole seems to be going out of its way to subvert this with Bob pulling off decisive victories in "Best Burger"^note Bob doesn't win the titular competition, but he arguably gets the most out of it, with Jimmy Pesto humiliated and his restaurant receiving a ton of business, "Father of the Bob", "Hawk & Chick", and "The Oeder Games".
  • In "Glued, Where's My Bob?", he reveals that he's well aware of his status as this. Day after day of humiliation tends to wear on a person, and after one last day of things going wrong he hits his Rage Breaking Point.
• Calling the Old Man Out: About 20 years before the start of the show, he gave his father a "The Reason You Suck" Speech about him being impossible to work with when Big Bob proposed that they become business partners. That he did it in front of an audience is a bit of a sore spot for Big Bob, and while Bob doesn't regret calling him out he does admit he could've had a better sense of timing.
• Can't Hold His Liquor: Bob tends to get totally wrecked when it comes to liquor. And it doesn't take a lot to do it, either.
• Carpet of Virility: Bob is a very hairy man.
• Centipede's Dilemma: "The Fresh Princi-pal" explores how Bob's brain isn't built for consciously directing very technical motor functions, most of which he does without thinking. Once Linda asked him how to tie a tie, and as a reult he wasn't able to do so for five whole years. When Teddy innocently asked about his burger-flipping technique, things got really bad.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • A very deadpan "Oh my God" or "Oh God", which sometimes gets upgraded to a Big "OMG!". You can see every instance from the first four seasons here. The first time he used it was within a minute of the series premiere.
  • He mutters or yells "Gene" every time his son says or does something clearly annoying or inappropriate. As seen in "Mazel-Tina", this habit is hard-wired into his brain to the point that he's got it prepared even when Gene says something completely innocent (which leads to a quick Verbal Backspace when Bob realizes it).
• Character Development:
  • In the pilot episode, much of the conflict comes from Bob forgetting his and Linda's wedding anniversary, and a recurring element is Bob being bad at remembering the dates every year. By the Season 10 premiere, Bob not only remembered their anniversary, but he remembered far enough in advance to plan a surprise for Linda.
  • Befriending the trio of prostitutes in "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" is implied to have given Bob a much more progressive outlook on life. When he first meets them he's clearly mildly uncomfortable, even if only because he realizes he's effectively become a pimp. By the end of the episode, he's grown comfortable enough to treat them as if he's known them for years, greeting Marshmallow casually as if she were an old friend.
• Characterization Marches On:
  • The pilot indicates that Bob's restaurant is generally not good; Hugo fills a list of violations before learning Bob is married to Linda (in other words, before Hugo had a reason to hate Bob)—granted, quite a few of them were because of the kids, but still. Nowadays it's clear that Bob is a genuinely skilled cook and his restaurant is much tidier than before, with Hugo struggling to find any genuine violations even with his constant nitpicking.
  • The pilot episode shows Bob believing his kids are failures. Later episodes show that even at his Darkest Hour, Bob will never view his kids as genuine disappointments, much less failures, even if they tend to get in the way more than help.
  • Bob is shown to be much more vindictive and assertive in earlier seasons, with his directly instigating or escalating the main conflicts in episodes like "Crawl Space", "Sexy Dance Fighting", "Art Crawl", and "Lobsterfest" out of sheer stubbornness. In later seasons, he's depicted as more of a passive, milquetoast Straight Man who more often than not ends up on the receiving end of a conflict through either bad luck or other people's actions (be it their poor thinking or outright malice).
• Character Tics: Bob's eyes cross a little when he's lying. Only seems to show up in "Burgerboss", though.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Majorly downplayed compared to everybody else in the Belcher family, but see Companion Cube below.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: Plays this role to his entire family, but to Linda in particular. He also plays the role to Teddy, which is especially prevalent whenever the two are largely on their own.
• Companion Cube: Deconstructed. His lonely childhood and overbearing father left him socially crippled, so that he outright hates interacting with humans but becomes positively giddy when interacting with utensils, produce, and appliances. This becomes more pronounced when he is under stress or narcotics. This presents a huge roadblock to his goals since he is in the hospitality business but has a lot of trouble networking and appealing to customers. To the sympathetic viewer, Bob’s talking to objects appears adorkable but in-universe other characters are visibly creeped out by a fully grown and rather unattractive man talking to himself in high pitched voices. All three of his children inherited this habit to some extent and it affects them socially. Louise is strongly attached to her nightlight and struggles to relate to girls her own age. Tina often falls head over heels for objects! And Gene still has an imaginary friend and often talks to his food.
• The Complainer Is Always Wrong: Bob is frequently the recipient of this since his family tends to drag him into their crazy schemes; the lesson of the episode is often him realizing he shouldn't be such a stick in the mud even when his complaining has some merits. That said, a few instances (such as "Dawn of the Peck") make it clear that his family really should've listened to him, and that they recognize this.
  • This comes to a peak in "The Unnatural". Bob attempts to get a refund for an obvious scam Linda fell for, and although he's in the right considering Linda pawned his equipment to pay for it without his knowledge or consent (not to mention it's a scam), Linda acts like he's in the wrong for supposedly impeding on Gene's baseball training (even going so far as to call him a dick), and the episode itself treats Bob's eventual failure (and subsequent loss of 500 dollars) as a triumphant moment.
  • Bob lampshades it in "Loft in Bedslation". When he asks Linda to stay in the restaurant instead of spending all day working on a loft bed, Linda is appalled that he would dare prioritize paying rent instead of building a complicated bed without any idea of what to do, and acts like he's absolutely crazy.
    Bob: I have a crazy idea. We wait till next weekend, Teddy builds the loft bed, and this weekend we all work in the restaurant so we can pay our rent.
    Linda: Ugh. You and your rent.
    Bob: I'm sorry to be so hung up on it.
• Cool Teacher: Becomes one in "Bob and Deliver", earning the praise of pretty much every student in the school—including students who aren't even in the class he's subbing for. Even Gene and Louise eventually grow to respect him.
• Cowardly Lion: Bob is an overall anxious man who struggles with mundane stressful tasks and getting him to leave his comfort zone is like pulling teeth. However, in situations requiring genuine bravery Bob is shown to fling himself into far more stressful and dangerous situations to help other people. Notable examples include "Seaplane!", where he volunteers to climb untethered out onto the wing of an airborne seaplane to cut through a rope, and "Into the Mild" where he climbs up a rock wall without a harness to smash a window to escape a locked warehouse. This is the same man who is too afraid to use the restroom in public and agonizes for days over a group chat.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Played With:
  • Bob's specialty as a burger cook has occasionally been mocked on the show, such as in "Bob and Deliver" and "Broadcast Wagstaff School News". He knows enough about cooking to teach a home economics class, but outside of burgers his cooking abilities aren't really touched upon. Seems he can cook normal meals just fine, though.
  • Averted in the Thanksgiving and Christmas episodes, where he is very neurotic about the holiday meals he is preparing. "Christmas in the Car" has his primary concern being about the ham drying out and overcooking (before the candy cane truck tries to kill him and his family). "Turkey in a Can" has him trying to prepare a special three-day brined turkey that he's immensely proud of, and becoming increasingly unhinged when it keeps ending up in the toilet. Additionally, "Thanks-hoarding" and "Now We're Not Cooking With Gas" make it clear that his holiday meals are actually quite good (at least, when not tampered with).
• Deadpan Snarker: While he normally puts up with others with some degree of passive patience, he is quite capable of throwing out quips, particularly when dealing with Linda. Louise had to get it from somewhere.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Bob is an example of someone who decides to go with a Start My Own mindset, but lacking all the required knowledge needed to do more than start it. Instead of becoming his father's business partner, Bob chooses to leave so that he can run his own restaurant his way. While he's an ideal chef whose cooking earns the respect of even people who go out of their way to demean him, he has no skills away from the grill. While prioritizing fresh ingredients is important, Bob does little to make his restaurant look any more unique, to the point where he says the theme of his restaurant is "restaurant". In addition, he doesn't even handle finances, allowing his wife to do controlled bounces for the checks. Bob's No Social Skills also make it clear he doesn't go out to connect with others for networking, feedback or even to advertise, relying on his kids who frequently do a poor job by not really trying. And because he runs the business his way, it plays a big part in the Perpetual Poverty his family suffers from, as he mostly cooks burgers but doesn't offer much variety and refuses to cook things like sweet potato fries due to a dislike of them. He also rejects things like a plaque or investments that involve decorations due to wanting things done his way. Overall, while Bob had the right idea to make a restaurant, he's very ill-equipped and ill-prepared for anything about running one outside of actually cooking.
• Demoted to Extra: In the Dynamite Comics adaptations, Bob gets very little focus and is sidelined in favor of Tina, Gene and Louise's various antics.
• Depending on the Writer: Exactly how willing Bob is to embrace new ideas sometimes depends on the episode. "Synchronized Swimming" and "The Unnatural" have him serving ice cream and espresso with no notable complaints (to the point where the ice cream machine is still present multiple seasons later, and the espresso machine is only gone because Linda pawned it and Bob can't afford another), while "Crawl Space" has him lose his mind from the concept of a non-beef burger (albeit primarily because it's Gloria introducing the concept) and "Long Time Listener, First Time Bob" depicts him as stubbornly refusing to serve sweet potato fries because they're "trendy" (though this seems to primarily stem from his own personal dislike of sweet potato fries).
• The Drag-Along: Bob would like nothing more than to run his restaurant in peace, but he keeps getting dragged into various misadventures by the kids, Linda, Teddy and everyone else in Seymour's Bay.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Despite all the well-meaning speeches he gives to people, they think his way is either boring or unnecessary. Even his children belittle his honest ways.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Once had to change schools as a kid because someone came up with the nickname "Bobby Belchbottoms".
• Embarrassing Tattoo: In "The Equestranauts", he ends up getting what basically amounts to a tramp stamp of his own nose and mustache. Unfortunately for Bob, Negative Continuity is averted hard, as from this point onward any episode that shows Bob's back will also show the tattoo.
• Enraged by Idiocy: Bob has a limit to how much of the zaniness (or in some cases stupidity) he's willing to tolerate from the people in his life before he's had enough. While that limit is more flexible in regards to his wife and kids and he'll almost never get angry at them (just exasperated and occasionally annoyed), people like Gayle and especially Teddy are very likely to get Bob to reach his Rage Breaking Point with their poorly-planned actions.
• Entertainment Above Their Age: Despite being the more level-headed parent, Bob being the Unabashed B-Movie Fan he is means he's more likely to allow the kids to indulge in this. He let Tina watch Night of the Living Dead when she was eight, he lets all three kids continue watching The Deepening 3 in "The Deepening" even after realizing how much nudity it contains (although he does at least try to fast-forward through the worst of it), and he lets all three kids stay up to watch the first half of Blade Runner in "Some Like It Bot Part 1." It's no wonder Louise thinks they have his tacit approval to watch "Again with the Living Dead?" in "The Trouble with Doubles".
• Even Nerds Have Standards: Bob is an Unabashed B-Movie Fan (The Deepening, Banjo, Hawk and Chick, Vampire Disco Death Dance, etc.), many of which are rip-offs of iconic movies (Banjo and Hawk and Chick are just about the only ones that stand out on their own, and even those are light parodies at the very least). However, "Mommy Boy" shows that even a nerd like him has his limits regarding such niche films—namely, he loathes the Ham and Egger series that both of his less-than-enlightened daughters (and Teddy) love so much, openly claiming that it's a complete and blatant rip off of Rocky (which it is). When he's not spending the episode teaching his daughters how to box, he's trying to teach them how there's a much better boxing series out there (which they ignore).
• Every Man Has His Price: The Season 4 finale sees Bob demand thousands of dollars from Calvin in order to not send Felix to prison for his attempted double murder of the two (and endangering the other Belchers in the process). While we don't see the end result and Calvin is last seen trying to avoid paying anything, between Felix walking free in future episodes and Bob never acknowledging his near-murder again it's implied he and Calvin did in fact come to an agreement offscreen.
• Everyone Has Standards: As much as he loves bad puns, using them in pretty much every Burger of the Day he makes and basing his skit in "Beefsquatch" around them, "Tina & the Real Ghost" indicates he considers other businesses' borderline-obsession with them (to the point that nearly all local businesses use them in their names) to be excessive.
• Extreme Doormat: Bob's rather spineless, particularly in later seasons. No matter how little he wants to do something and how much he protests about it, if his family or anyone else wants him to do something, he will eventually get dragged into doing it without fail. "Sacred Couch" is one such example: he's adamant about replacing the family's broken couch for most of the episode, but is ultimately guilt-tripped by Linda and the kids into retrieving it and meekly giving up his brand-new couch to be burned instead. That said, where he and Linda differ is that Bob will at least try to stand his ground, while Linda has just let people walk all over her.
• Fan Boy: Of the Spaghetti Western franchise Banjo and the Jidaigeki franchise Hawk And Chick.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: Defied; as a result of how his father raised him, Bob is desperate to make sure his kids have more freedom than he ever did. He even fires his kids at one point so they can have fun rather than work... which backfires precisely because he was never one of these.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His hatred of Jimmy Pesto always brings out the worst in Bob.
  • Bob in general tends to have a vindictive streak as well as a desire to prove himself right. For instance, in "Art Crawl" he deliberately keeps Gayle's paintings on the wall as a way to spite the Cranwinkles. Part of this stems from his Only Sane Man mentality where he just doesn't want to deal with crazy ideas.
  • Stubbornness, a trait he shares with his wife and father. On multiple occasions Bob has the opportunity to make his business more profitable or successful, but either turns it down or sabotages his own success because it wouldn't be in a way he likes.
  • It's not generalized Pride, incidentally; unless something gets on his bad side, he'll trade off dignity for a solution as needed.
• Foil: Meta-wise, he is one for all of the Dads in the Fox Animated Lineup.
  • Homer Simpson: Homer is gullible, buffoonish, and works with a Bad Boss while Bob is smarter and more mature, and also his own boss.
  • Hank Hill: Hank works hard and is viewed as a great asset to his job, while Bob works hard but hardly gets rewarded and is generally looked down upon. At the same time, Hank was very controlling of Bobby in later seasons and constantly looked down upon his unusual interests, while Bob is more laid-back with his kids and doesn't do anything worse than raise an eyebrow at their unusual interests or make sure said interests aren't causing issues. Hank would learn to be more open minded in most of these plots, however, and Hank is much more repressed than Bob which probably has to do with their childhoods. Hank is a more repressed Designated Hero in a lot of episodes, while Bob is not but does the best he can.
  • Peter Griffin: Peter is an Abusive Parent and generally causes trouble wherever he goes while Bob is a Good Parent and has a lot more common sense.
  • Stan Smith: Stan is a paranoid Control Freak while Bob is more rational and isn't too worked up on not getting control.
• Follow in My Footsteps:
  • Heavily downplayed; he doesn't want to pressure his kids to take over the restaurant, and "What About Job?" indicates he's accepted they likely won't, but he's nonetheless over the moon when he realizes Louise has thought about it in "Carpe Museum", and "Tappy Tappy Tappy Tap Tap Tap" has him fantasize about the idea of his kids taking over. The one time he actually addresses the topic with the kids, he makes it clear that they should only take over if they want to and not out of obligation.
  • He's also on the other end; his father Big Bob wanted him to inherit his diner. While Bob did want to become a restauranteur, he instead broke off to start his own restaurant, which has been a point of contention between the pair ever since (especially over how Bob broke the news to him). Though it takes years, Big Bob eventually admits that he understands why Bob left.
• Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: In an inversion, Bob is the Responsible Husband to Linda's Foolish Wife. Bob is pragmatic in regards to difficult situations, can cook burgers quite well, and usually objects to whatever shenanigans Linda's got planned. Linda, however, is recklessly enthusiastic, tends to be smothering regarding the kids, and is often a Horrible Judge of Character.
• Former Teen Rebel: "Carpe Museum" reveals that teenage Bob was a lot more wild. While the extent of his actions was unknown, he has ditched school during a field trip to hang out and smoke (well, not-smoke in Bob's case) with a friend. Louise outright refers to this period as Bob's "fun past", and exploits Bob's status as this in order to convince him to ditch the current school field trip with her.
• Freudian Excuse: A lot of how Bob is can easily be explained by how his father raised him.
  • Bob knows that his kids have weird interests, but he doesn't try to discourage them. Bob himself has No Social Skills, which is one of the reasons his restaurant is always lacking customers. Bob has a repeating habit of speaking for inanimate objects when he needs someone to speak to as opposed to an actual person. This makes more sense when seeing how his father raised him; strictly and without being allowed to make any friends or have real toys.
  • Bob's pride in being a cook, his obsession with his Burger of the Day ideas and lack of skills in actual business management, is likely to have originated from his father's constant criticism. Bob loved making special burgers, but his first ever was thrown away by his father before anyone could try it. In addition, Bob Sr. made his lack of interest or respect in Bob's "gimmick" burgers apparent. When Bob Sr. decided he wanted to make his son his business partner, one of Bob's many arguments on rejecting it is that his father was always saying he was doing things wrong. As such, Bob is very determined to make his restaurant work, but his way, with his burgers and his skills in cooking, despite that he has no real competency in running his business in ways even his father would.
• Good Parents: Bob doesn't always understand what his kids are doing, but he still loves them and tries to do the best he can while supporting their awkward tendencies—his only worries are how other people would react to them (like when Tina attempted to read her erotic friend fiction to the entire school) or if something they do would put them in physical/emotional danger or interfere with anything important (like when Gene's addiction to a Virtual Pet game causes him to neglect a school project that's due in less than a week and requires too much prep to do last-minute). He'll also go out of his comfort zone and even endure humiliation just for them, and his entire parenting style is based off his desire to give them a better childhood than he had. Bob is always there for his kids, no matter what.

H-Z

• Happily Married: With Linda—no matter the crazy things that happen in their lives, they both will always support one another.
• Has a Type: Prior to Linda, both of his known love interests (Barbara Bunkley from "My Fuzzy Valentine" and Becky from "Two For Tina") were blonde.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: While "heterosexual" is a loose way of putting it for both of them, Bob and Teddy fill this role. Though it takes a while for Bob to admit it, Teddy is the closest thing he has to a best friend; the two hang out almost every day (courtesy of Teddy's daily routine) and they have helped each other out on multiple occasions.
• Hidden Depths:
  • For his supposed lack of business skill, he does a great job at managing the Home Ec-staurant in "Bob & Deliver" (getting so many customers the school cafeteria is pretty much empty), showing that when push comes to shove Bob is capable of taking the reins of a large operation.
  • Bob has a genuine liking for gardening.
  • As seen in "Better Off Sled", Bob is surprisingly good at knitting, to the point that the kids assume he and Linda bought his hand-knitted scarves from a store.
  • It's all but stated that Bob is a movie buff. He has a large knowledge of movies, from classic Japanese monster movies to Cult Classic westerns. Several episodes' plotlines have been sparked by Bob's love of movies (the A-plot of "Spaghetti Western & Meatballs" starts because he finds an old western film he liked on TV and watches it with Gene; "The Deepening" starts when Bob mentions The Deepening: 3-Deepening was filmed in town, causing the kids to look it up and finding the shark prop for sale online; "Hawk & Chick" starts because he and Louise recognize an old man as one of the lead actors of the titular series; and the A-plot of "Vampire Disco Death Dance" revolves around him and Tina going to see a vampire-themed musical he saw in theaters as a teen).
  • When he's put on the spot, he's shown to be an alright storyteller, as shown in "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid" and "What About Job?".
  • "Putts-giving" shows that he's actually quite talented at golf.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Ironically, for all the crap Bob suffers, one of the biggest and most consistent threats to his business is actually himself.
  • While an excellent chef, Bob's business sense is extremely poor to the point of being self-defeating; he's turned down numerous opportunities for profit (such as an investor's tiki theme or a plaque indicating his restaurant was the location of a criminal's death) and tends not to follow ongoing trends out of the misguided belief that he only needs his burgers to attract customers, resulting in his restaurant and family being constantly stuck in Perpetual Poverty. Though because of the lighthearted nature of the series, as well as the fact that Status Quo Is God, this hasn't had too much of a negative impact, and overall these moments of potential profit are fleeting.
  • Bob prefers talking to objects rather than actual people, and it's shown his skills in speaking with people isn't very good. He only ever seems to speak with people if he has to and it's clear Bob doesn't really like coming out of his comfort zone, even with regulars like Teddy. The problem is that as a restaurateur, Bob is supposed to speak with people—but chooses not to get to know his customers, network with people, or get feedback on improving his restaurant. Bob clearly prefers remaining behind the grill, which is a place that someone who runs a restaurant should not be.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: While him Breaking the Cycle of Bad Parenting is very admirable, his method of doing so has resulted in there being next-to-no parental discipline in the Belcher home. Bob has given his kids more freedom than he normally would or perhaps should, partially due to him not wanting to get as involved in their antics. Because of this, his kids tend to get in trouble a lot, show very little respect, are actively lazy when it comes to anything like sports or academics and range from doing nothing to help out or making things ten times worse.
• Honor Before Reason: Bob takes great pride in his cooking skills, which he has every right to, but seems to think it's the only thing he needs to run his business. Anything that could help, from a plaque showcasing the death of a criminal that could attract customers, to a tropical motif by an investor, and even serving something very trendy like sweet potato fries, is something he doesn't want despite clearly needing all the money he can. While his food is considered good, his skills in running his business are clearly lacking.
• Hopeless with Tech: Bob's not very good with modern tech. In "Uncle Teddy", he angered other members of a burger forum because he didn't know how typing works, as he left some messages in all caps, making them think he was being a jerk. In "Hawk & Chick", he just discovers spellcheck and acts as if he's found something revolutionary. In "Boywatch", the wi-fi is named by the kids as KidsTrappedSendHelp and Bob doesn't know how to change the name.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In "Bob & Deliver", he outright tells Mr. Frond that kids are horrible, and asks why people keep making them. This is coming from the father of arguably the three most disruptive kids at Wagstaff (though if you think about it, this arguably means he knows where he's coming from).
  • He also criticizes Linda for being unable to keep a secret. While she's way worse about it than he ever could be, he's still not exactly good at keeping secrets himself.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Downplayed — he has a vindictive streak that comes out sometimes — but he's still the Belcher who most reliably stays on the straight and narrow.
• Informed Deformity: He's frequently called fat by others, even by himself. However, while he's not exactly fit-looking, he's not out of shape enough to warrant half of these comments. Worth noting is that many of the people calling him fat are in even worse shape than him (such as Hugo and Sergeant Bosco).
• Ignored Expert: In "Two For Tina", he knows from experience what it's like to be strung along by a girl only to be dumped for another boy, and warns Tina to choose either Josh or Jimmy Jr. as soon as she can, or else it will not end well for her. Tina ignores his warning, but sure enough Bob's words are proven right as both Josh and Jimmy Jr. lose interest in her and eventually move on when she tries to compromise.
• Instant Expert: Zigzagged according to Rule of Funny. When he is the Butt-Monkey he will fail at whatever he desires, such as playing the banjo, flying drones, or tying even the simplest of knots. However, if the joke is at Linda’s expense then Bob will instantly pick up whatever Linda is struggling at, such as knitting or mini golf.
• In-Universe Catharsis: Implies in "Sea Me Now" that yelling at Teddy when he's being particularly oblivious/annoying is a form of stress relief.
• Irony:
  • Despite Linda being the more "fun" parent overall, the kids actually consider Bob the cool one^note as evidenced by "Mother Daughter Laser Razor", where they prefer to play their made-up games with him instead of Linda and are implied to do it regularly, as well as "Fort Night", where Bob reveals they let him into the titular fort but told him not to tell Linda. Actually having a spine when it comes to certain things might have a hand in it ("Synchronized Swimming" shows the kids don't respect Linda that much because they think she's a pushover, whereas Bob will actually stand his ground even if he rarely ever succeeds), as does the fact that he generally doesn't force the kids into activities only he likes (at least, not nearly as often as Linda). Linda also frequently falls into My Beloved Smother and Amazingly Embarrassing Parents territory whereas Bob, while less outwardly affectionate, also has a better grasp of where the boundaries are with his kids and where not to push things.
  • Despite Bob loving puns, Bob's Burgers is one of the few businesses in town whose name isn't a pun of some kind. If not for its alliteration, it wouldn't involve any wordplay at all.
• Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films: Bob was traumatized by watching The Birds as a child and ended up terrified of pigeons due to misremembering the scene where Tippi Hedrin is attacked as something that happened to him.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Despite the hardships he faces running his restaurant, and in general being worn down by life on a regular basis, Bob still maintains a strong sense of integrity.
• Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Bob has the bad habit of claiming knowledge of things he really has no idea about such as cooking paella or boxing, then becoming flustered when he’s called out on it (by his own children). Deconstructed since it's implied he does it out of low self-esteem^note Though it's worth mentioning that he does know how to make paella and just seemed to forget when confronted on it.
• Lampshade Hanging: As the Only Sane Man, Bob does this a lot, probably the most out of any character and just about Once an Episode at least.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Goes both ways.
  • To his father: Big Bob (Bob Sr.) is a stern, controlling workaholic who disregarded his son's creativity and made him work away from his childhood, causing him to never have real toys or make friends. Bob (Bob Jr.) is a laid-back, open-minded guy who loves his kids and lets them be who they are even if they tend to make things difficult for him.
  • To his kids: Bob is a very dedicated restaurateur who tries to be a nice guy and deals with having a bad childhood where he had little freedom. His kids are very odd and uncontrollable troublemakers who have a little more freedom than most parents would allow and don't share his work ethic.
• Living Emotional Crutch: It's clear that Bob is one of the few consistent pillars in Teddy's life. Whenever Bob spends time with someone who isn't Teddy (and sometimes if Bob even thinks about spending time with someone besides Teddy), Teddy becomes extremely distraught.
• Look-Alike Lovers: At first glance, you'd think he and Linda were related (and in fact, Gene once thought they were siblings). Bob himself had to clarify in "The Gayle Tales" (where Tina wrote a story about them being Kissing Cousins) that they aren't biologically related... as far as they know.
• Loose Lips: "Loose lips, wide hips, large nips," as Mr. Fischoeder puts it. Bob will always blab exactly what he shouldn't.
• Luck-Based Search Technique: In the Season 12 finale, he accidentally finds the notebooks containing Tina's erotic friend-fiction when he sits down on them (Tina hid them in the seat of her chair). He does this within a minute of walking into Tina's room, after the rest of his family spent much longer actively searching for it (and tearing apart Tina's room in the process) with no luck. He spends the rest of the episode lording this over his family's heads every chance he gets.
• Manchild: Played with; Bob for the most part is a mature adult and in fact the Straight Man of the series. But when it comes to certain things, especially if Jimmy Pesto is involved, he can behave rather childishly. Season 1 had this at a common rate before later seasons heavily dialed it down.
• Missing Mom: Bob's mom is not shown until a flashback in Season 12 or given a name until Season 13. Bob states in Season 3's "Bob Fires the Kids" that his mother "wasn't around". "Father of the Bob" heavily implies that she died when Bob was young, which "The Last Gingerbread House on the Left" confirms. "Show Mama from the Grave" has Bob give a rough estimate of her death as being around 32-33 years ago (when Bob was 12-13), and "Interview with a Pop-pop-pire" suggests he doesn't remember much about her. The movie has him lament the fact that his kids never got to meet their paternal grandmother.
• Mistaken for Gay: In "Turkey in a Can", by the man Bob goes to get turkeys from. It's heavily implied that he wasn't too far off.
• Momma's Boy: While we don't learn much about Bob's short time with his mother, what little is given implies that Bob and his mother were fairly close, a contrast to his strained relationship with his father. The movie not only further indicates this via flashback but also reveals that this formed the origin of Louise's bunny ears; Bob got the idea for them based on a hat his mother wore, and ever since then he's always seen the bunny ears as a remnant of his mother.
• Morality Pet:
  • While the entire family is this to Mr. Fischoeder, Bob is this especially. He's the only one Calvin consistently calls by name, and it's made clear that Calvin holds genuine admiration for Bob and his passion for working (as well as the fact that Bob, while not successful, is actually good at what he does). Bob is the one person shown to consistently appeal to Calvin's good side.
  • Much like Tina, Bob is also this to Louise. Although it almost always takes the two being alone, Bob manages to bring out a side of Louise that is almost never seen elsewhere.
• Naked People Are Funny: Never outright naked (unless you count the striptease scene in "Can't Buy Me Math"), but much like Gene he's occasionally put in situations that leave him in his underwear, which are always played for comedy.
• Nice Guy: While he's a definite introvert and dislikes having to spend time with pretty much anyone, he's actually a pretty compassionate and understanding guy who's quick to make friends with most people he meets regardless of their eccentricities (see his friendships with Marshmallow, the three hookers whom he may have tried crack with while sharing a drink with, or members of The Equestranauts's adult fanbase).
• Nice Mean And In Between: On a meta-note, for the three main Fox dads, he is the Nice to Peter Griffin's Mean and Homer Simpson's In-Between.
• Non-Action Guy: Although there's not a lot of fighting on the show to begin with, Bob tends to lose any physical encounter he gets into whether it be Jairo, Hugo, or even a fellow burger joint owner (though to be fair, Jairo is much more physically fit, and being thrown through a window tends to knock the wind out of anyone).
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: Due to the Lethal Chef tendencies of most of his fellow restauranteurs, he is likely the best chef in Seymour's Bay or close to it. However, while he earns very high praise from nearly everyone who tries his food (even people who otherwise would be biased against him), it's evident that there are professional chefs out there who are still better than him.
  • Maybe overall, but no one beats him at his specialty - burgers. He once made a cheeseburger so delicious it made a food critic he had held hostage change his mind about calling the police to have him arrested. That's a damn good cheeseburger.
• No Social Skills: He tries to go out of his way to avoid having to spend significant amounts of time with anyone, his family included, but this is more out of his own social phobias than an inherent dislike of people. He'll go out of his way to make sure to bond with his kids, but at the end of the day, he's the guy on the grill in the back and he's happy with that.
  • "Driving Big Dummy" really emphasizes this aspect of Bob, showing that during a road trip he just wants to get to the destination and back while Teddy (who is much more extroverted) makes several stops to engage in small talk, something that baffles Bob (and eventually infuriates him when Teddy starts making too many stops). Bob outright admits that he's not good with people, though he does decide to make an effort at the end of the episode.
  • "The Spider House Rules" also explores this aspect of Bob. While his family pushes him to have a friend outside of his customers, Bob seems content with the set-up he currently has, and states at the end of the episode that he's content with only having a few close relationships.
• No Sympathy: Often a victim of this whenever his restaurant or his way of life is endangered, especially (and mostly) by his family.
• Not So Above It All: The secondary source of humor from Bob is that despite being the Only Sane Man, he can be just as crazy as his family. A Running Gag with him usually involves Bob getting hooked on stuff, like pain medication or absinthe. Not to mention his penchant for puns. His feud with Jimmy Pesto also has a tendency to bring out his less sane side. And there's that time he tricked Teddy into eating a sponge and seemed outright giddy over it.
• Not So Stoic: He is perfectly capable of showing emotion despite his normally calm demeanor.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: During the family's near-death experience in the movie, Bob sees that Linda is losing hope and realizes how exhausted Linda must be from always playing the optimist to his pessimist. This leads to Bob finding enough optimism deep within to convince himself that, as dire as things seem, there is a way out.
• No, You: Sometimes uses this as a comeback. This has occasionally resulted in him saying things to his family/friends that he otherwise wouldn't, like in "UFO No You Didn't" when Tina called his purchase of five miniature coatracks dumb and he retorted "You're dumb". He almost immediately apologizes for these mini-outbursts.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: He does not like Linda's family. At all. While this initially seems like stereotypical sitcom dislike of a husband loathing his in-laws, the dislike is later proven to be more than justified because Linda's parents and sister are legitimately awful people who tend to suck the life out of the room.
  • Gayle's the one Bob comes into conflict with the most due to how neurotic and self-centered she can be which Linda constantly downplays or indulges out of a well-meaning but misguided effort to shield her fragile sister. While he begrudgingly admits he does love Gayle because she's family, Bob never goes out of his way to associate with her and hates whenever Linda gets too involved in Gayle's mess of a life. It's also important to note the only reason why he does say he loves Gayle is simply because she's Linda's sister and thus Linda expects him to love Gayle.
    Bob: Oh, Lin, I hate your sister.
    Linda: No you don't. You love her. She's family, Bob.
    Bob: She's your family, Lin.
    Linda: You married me. That makes her your family whether you like it or not.
    Bob: I do not... like it.
  • Gloria tends to be overly demanding and shrill with rarely a kind word to say to Bob when she's not making huge demands of Linda. To that end, Bob rarely has anything nice to say about Gloria, like commenting that she serves canned cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving because "She doesn't care about anything" and mentioning to Teddy that they blame Gloria for a lot of things. Though he saves these comments for when she's not around. Whenever he's in close proximity of Gloria, Bob tries to do whatever he can to avoid her. It's to the point that Bob has implied he wouldn't exactly be mourning if she happened to die within a couple years.
  • To Al's credit, it's rarely anything he actually does that gets on Bob's nerves, and Al's actually a friendly if meek guy. Unlike Gloria and Gayle, Bob's frustration with Al is focused more on Al's sickliness and general oblivious demeanor, not on anything Al ever does. It's worth noting that Bob seems to recognize this; he rarely ever shows genuine contempt towards Al (unlike Gayle and Gloria, both of whom he very clearly detests), is at the very least slightly more patient towards him, and is able to hold a genuine conversation with him (or at least try to) without clearly hating every bit of it.
• Occidental Otaku: Not nearly to the extent that Louise is, but if his interest in Hawk and Chick is any indication he has at least some interest in Japanese media.
• One-Note Cook: Downplayed. He's noted to be exceptionally excellent at making burgers, with even his biggest critics (such as Jimmy Pesto) admitting their great taste, but his skill at cooking all other kinds of food varies from "really good" to "decent but nothing to write home about".
• Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name is Robert Jr., but only Nat regularly calls him Robert (due to the fact that she Prefers Proper Names), and only his father refers to him with the suffix "Junior". Every other time he's called Bob or Bobby (or Little Bob by his father's regulars).
• Only Sane Employee: As his employees consist of his incredibly bizarre and wacky wife and kids, he is this by default.
• Only Sane Man: To his family, and often to the rest of the cast as well. As Alasdair Wilkins notes in an AV Club episode review, "Bob's place on his show has often been to be the one character who will respond to the latest over-the-top mess like an actual person would."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While he's usually relatively patient and calm when dealing with his kids, as well as being a Pushover Parent who isn't given much respect by them, whenever he's actually mad his kids know they've messed up.
  • In "The Ring (But Not Scary)", when he finds out the kids stole the ring he planned to give Linda for their anniversary and lost it at the water park, he's the most furious he's been with them so far to the point of stating he'd disown them and ban them from his funeral.
  • In "Bob Belcher and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Bad Kids" he remains a hair away from snapping at them at all times, and has to repeatedly restrain himself from getting too mad. It's a sign that leads the kids to realize just how dire things are, and just how badly they messed up by seemingly causing the restaurant to catch fire.
• Open-Minded Parent: Bob is pretty supportive of his kids. Gene becomes a cheerleader? He personally thinks cheerleading is stupid, but if Gene wants to do it then he's alright with it. Tina writes erotic friend-fiction? He doesn't judge her, but only moves to stop her from revealing it to less tolerant peers. Louise wants to sneak off during a boring school trip? He's easily convinced into joining her to make things fun^note though in this particular case there was the added benefit of keeping a direct eye on the most rebellious kid in school.... Also, quite notably, Bob is one of the few sitcom dads to not go through Gay Panic or be intolerant of those who are different from him.
  • In general, Bob only tends to oppose something his kids are doing if he has a good reason. He was originally against Tina taking capoeira lessons in "Sexy Dance Fighting" but only because it was cutting into her work at the restaurant and because he missed the father-daughter bonding during said work. He does however support her in the end despite his dislike towards the instructor and he's very annoyed when he flunks her (especially because it wasn't for any valid reason but rather out of spite). Being from an early episode, this could just be an example of Character Development for Bob. He was also against Gene taking baseball lessons in "The Unnatural" because the instructor was an incompetent con-man and Linda stole and pawned his new espresso machine to pay for it. Also, he refuses to let Gene go to school naked for PJ day (Gene slept naked the previous night so he was counting his birthday suit as P Js) because he knows that Gene would get in serious trouble if he does so. However, he does accept Gene's compromise to let him eat his breakfast naked before putting on his P Js.
• Opposites Attract: He and Linda couldn't be more different if they tried, but they love each other anyway.
• Papa Wolf: Do not mess with or tease his kids.
  • Jimmy Pesto's insults already anger Bob, but when Jimmy takes it a step further and calls Bob's kids "freaky"...
    Bob: What did you say about my kids?
  • Watch how he reacted to the grill catching on fire in "Tina-rannosaurus Wrecks"; he was the first to drop everything and save Tina, who was frozen in panic, and he immediately tries to back out of Chase's schemes when he sees how it's negatively affecting Tina.
  • When he thinks Shinji Kojima is about to attack him and Louise in "Hawk & Chick", Bob places his arms around his daughter almost out of sheer instinct, and holds onto her tightly until it's clear Koji was just trolling them.
  • He takes the time out of his day to pick Louise up from the aquarium when she calls for him, and tells her that no matter how old she is or what she's doing, he'll always be there for her if she needs him.
  • He also seems to have a subdued version of this concerning Linda and her relationship with Gayle and their parents. Bob repeatedly demonstrates he's not entirely fond of his in-laws, which is usually interpreted as typical sitcom formula when it comes to a father character and his wife's family. The more Bob's seen interacting with Gayle, Gloria and Al, it becomes clear one of the main reasons he can't stand any of them is because of how they treat Linda, Gloria specifically. Linda's frequently shown going above and beyond for her sister and parents, but they never show that much appreciation or gratitude. Gayle especially is a needy, whiny, and neurotic woman whom Linda can never be honest with and who frequently "borrows" money from Linda with no intention of ever paying it back. It's no wonder Bob seems to really hate Linda's family.
  • It's a mixture of a lot of things to do with the situation, but his blowing up at Teddy over Tina's capoeira "exchanging the strands" ceremony is at least partly because he reacts badly to Teddy's poorly-worded interpretation of the symbolic nature of the event as Tina "becoming a woman".
• Parental Favoritism: For the most part, Bob does a very good job of averting it. That said, it's shown repeatedly that he seems to have something special with Louise. He bonds with her much easier than he does with Gene or Tina, and is shown to have special activities with her that he doesn't with his other kids^note While this doesn't automatically equate to favoritism, and in fact he's shown to love his kids equally, it's arguably the closest he could get without actually playing favorites. Louise herself even thinks she's his favorite. Though, to be fair, it's probably helped by the fact that Louise openly favors him more than her siblings do, meaning she puts up the least resistance when he tries to bond with his kids.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: Inverted. While he's not mean enough to forbid her from doing anything, Bob is noticeably uncomfortable when Tina mentions her budding sexuality (specifically the "smart, strong, sensual woman" bit in "The Belchies" and her talk about kissing at the end of "Cheer Up, Sleepy Gene"). As shown in "The Hormone-iums", he is capable of overcoming this for Tina's sake.
• Parental Substitute: Felix says that Calvin sees Bob this way, due to reminding him of their father (in spite of Calvin being old enough to be Bob's father). Calvin himself has a few stray comments along these lines as well.
• Parent-Child Team: Several episodes highlight Bob's individual relationships with each of his kids, and show that in spite of their differences Bob is quite close to each of them.
• Parents as People: Bob is a well-meaning and loving father, easily the most realistic dad you will see in an animated family show. Any mistakes he makes are never out of malice, nor do they put anyone into extreme danger, and when he realizes that he's messed up he will do whatever he can to fix things. "All That Gene" reveals that this is actually Bob's philosophy as a parent—do the best he can while recognizing he can't do perfectly, and to not let the mistakes drag him down.
• Perpetual Frowner: Due to the stress he suffers on a daily basis, Bob usually has a neutral expression or frown on his face and rarely smiles.
• Person as Verb: Louise uses him as a verb that is heavily implied to mean something related to fun. Whatever it truly means, Louise claims that it's a positive verb, highlighting her strong relationship with Bob.
• The Pig-Pen: His personal hygiene is commented on several times to be lacking. Most notably a smell everyone seems to pick up on. It's also stated that he's unusually sweaty, mostly by Linda^note though spending many hours per day in front of a hot grill may at least contribute to the sweat part.
• Pinocchio Nose: The man cannot tell a lie with a straight face. In "Burgerboss" his eyes cross, nowadays he stutters and loses all confidence in his voice.
• Plot Allergy: Bob's hatred of Lobsterfest is driven by his severe allergy to shellfish.
• Potty Failure: Bob has a "4:30 meeting" every day. His fight with Jairo in "Sexy Dance Fighting" causes him to miss that meeting and makes him accidentally poop himself.
• Properly Paranoid: Whenever he says This Is Gonna Suck, he's often right, and sometimes he's able to predict not only what will go wrong but how.
• Protagonist Title: He puts the Bob in Bob's Burgers.
• Pungeon Master: Bob is incredibly fond of naming his burgers around puns, and becomes visibly upset when their quality is insulted. All three of his kids have inherited his pun-loving nature in some way.
• Pushover Parents: As a result of being raised mostly by his strict father who forced him to work for most of his childhood after his mother died, Bob takes the complete opposite approach, albeit too far. Gene and Louise openly mock, disobey and tell him no right to his face. Tina is more defiant with Linda, but has her moments with Bob too. It's no surprise they act rashly without fear of discipline, given neither he nor Linda punish them for pretty much anything.
  • Averted for a change in "Putts-giving". When the kids' antics result in an animatronic being damaged (forcing Bob to pay for repairs), Bob grounds all three of them, and even when Tina attempts to soften the blow Bob doesn't back down.
• Rage Breaking Point: He tends to restrain his anger for a long time, only letting it show through annoyance or occasionally Tranquil Fury, but eventually he reaches a point where all that anger is unleashed.
  • When dealing with someone like Gayle or Teddy, especially if he's on his own without Linda to help him, Bob is especially likely to snap at some point.
  • In "Glued, Where's My Bob?", when he has his chance for an interview cruelly revoked at the last second because of Louise's toilet-gluing shenanigans, he loses it, ranting about how this is just par for the course for a Butt-Monkey like him.
• Real Men Hate Affection: Subverted. He appears this way at first, but it's just because he's horribly introverted and not out of any belief in this trope. He's more than okay with showing affection to people he cares about, he just isn't prone to making the first move.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The quiet, reserved Blue Oni to Linda's boisterous and energetic Red. He also plays this role to Teddy, remaining the Blue Oni to Teddy's Red.
• The Resenter: Oh yeah. Bob is a Nice Guy, but this is one of his nastiest flaws. Aside from his resentment of Jimmy Pesto’s financial success, he can’t stand to hear any praise given to another another locale’s burger, he turns into the Incredible Sulk. (He doesn’t care much for sweet potato fries either).
• Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: As a result of being raised and put to work in his father's diner, Bob is an excellent chef (good enough to earn praise from world-class chefs and critics, and implied to be even better than his father), and good at improvising burger recipes within a short timespan (given he comes up with a brand new Burger of the Day every single day). However, because he spent so much time at the diner (not that his father gave him much of a choice), he also has No Social Skills and does little to be more involved with others (apart from his family), and isn't really able to perform any tasks related to socialization.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: He's the Savvy Guy to Linda's Energetic Girl. Linda rarely speaks in anything lower than a scream and frequently comes up with larger than life schemes, while Bob is calmer, more pragmatic, and generally more than satisfied simply with getting through the day without having anything bad happen.
• Second Love: Linda left her then-fiancé Hugo because she fell for Bob.
• Self-Deprecation: Bob's snarkiness combined with a low self-esteem means he's perfectly capable of doing this.
• Serious Business: When it comes to Thanksgiving, he does not tolerate any interruption or intrusion. It's his favorite holiday and almost every Thanksgiving Episode has something go amiss. While he's willing to tolerate his family pretending to be Mr. Fischoeder's family for free rent, he gets upset when they pretty much neglect him entirely, treat him like crap^note Bob, being the only unnecessary part of the charade, was pretty much confined to the kitchen by himself for hours, and overstep boundaries (Fischoeder insists on kissing Linda despite both Bob and Linda herself not wanting him to). He forgets to get fresh cranberries and expresses disapproval of his kids wanting to get canned cranberry sauce instead, with an implied threat to Tina. He manages to buy an expensive heritage turkey and, after the gas for their block is shut down, becomes determined to find a way to cook it fresh rather than freeze it and wait for the gas to come back.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: In "O.T.: The Outside Toilet," he wears a suit to contest a parking ticket. Said suit not only gets the ticket dismissed near-immediately despite his flimsy defense, but he also manages to attract the attention of several women, bring business to his restaurant, and get free drinks at a restaurant he and Linda go to. Of course, he loses the suit at the end of the episode... while still wearing it.
• Shipping Torpedo: Does not bother to hide his opinion on a prospective couple, even if that opinion is negative (and it often is).
  • When Doug Wheeler comments on how cute Gene and Courtney's relationship is in "The Unbearable Like-Likeness of Gene", Bob's response ("They certainly are standing next to each other") makes it pretty clear that he doesn't agree.
  • In "Two For Tina", he outright asks Tina why she's even considering going to the school dance with Jimmy Jr. and tells her to just go with Josh instead, given Josh has given her a straightforward answer.
  • During "Sea Me Now", he questions why Teddy is so eager to get his ex-wife Denise back, given how manipulative and cruel she was to him and how frequently she cheated on him. Teddy eventually realizes he's right and decides to move on.
  • Lampshaded in the Season 8 finale, which also happens to be the rare occasion he averts it. When Bob notices that Linda thinks the couple whose wedding the Belchers are catering won't last, Bob asks how he's optimistic about the couple's chances while Linda (normally a Shipper on Deck with an idealistic outlook on romance) isn't.
• Shy Bladder: Dislikes using public restrooms, something he has to grow out of when he learns Louise has followed his example.
• Skyward Scream: It's indicated in "Wharf Horse" that a very long one of these was his reaction to finding out Linda was pregnant with Louise. The "skyward" part was helped by him being at the top of a Ferris wheel at the time.
• Standard '50s Father: Bob is a modernized example of this trope. He works hard to support his family and usually acts as the voice of reason.
• Start My Own: Bob's Burgers is not his first foray into the restaurant business—he spent the first half of his life working at his father's diner—but disagreements with his father about Bob getting to serve what he wants to serve led to Bob going solo.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Does it often, and is just as often ignored.
• The Stoic: Downplayed. While he's very capable of having a full-on freakout, his general demeanor is quite calm, and it takes a lot to shake him out of it.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: In-universe; he can delve into this at his worst and often in his quest to make the restaurant succeed or one up Jimmy Pesto. To his credit, he realizes this and tries to put a stop to it more often than not.
• Stout Strength: While Bob is normally a Non-Action Guy, in "Burger Wars" he is able to fight Jimmy Pesto (a guy in much better shape than him) to a draw. Considering Jimmy just insulted Bob's kids, it's clear Bob was in Papa Wolf mode.
• Straight Man: Bob himself plays this role to his somewhat crazy family and guest characters. Although cynically pragmatic, he still retains much of his family's quirkiness. However, this is still a very unusual role for a sitcom patriarch to play these days ^note In a lot of American sitcoms (particularly The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Married... with Children), fathers have often been depicted as bumbling simpletons who get into wacky schemes, only to have their loving, sane wives, sane friends, or wiser-than-their-years children bail them out. He's something of a return to the Philip Banks mold, just with a bluer collar..
• Strong Family Resemblance: He looked very similar to Gene as a young boy, and he currently looks like his father Big Bob did when he was Bob's age. When made up to look like an old man in "Secret Admiral-irer", the end result also looks a lot like present-day Big Bob.
• Suddenly Shouting: On the rare occasion that he does lose his shit, it's often punctuated by him going from a rather calm tone to yelling loudly within maybe a second.
• Supreme Chef: Downplayed. While his cooking is frequently commented on as being very good, with his burgers in particular earning high praise from even world-class critics, it's made equally clear that there are much better chefs out there. That said, it's suggested that he's the best local chef—the presence of Jimmy Pesto as well as the many restauranteurs in "Moody Foodie" suggest the town is populated with Lethal Chefs, making Bob a noteworthy exception.
  • Worth noting is that Bob's food is good enough that Jimmy Pesto and Hugo—two people who hate Bob—admit they genuinely think his food is good.
  • Outside of burgers, Bob's cooking skills, while still generally good, are much less noteworthy. However, his Thanksgiving meals (when not tampered with) are good enough to earn genuine, unsarcastic praise from his kids (who usually enjoy taking the piss out of Bob and his food).
• Surpassed the Teacher:
  • His father is the one who taught him how to cook and run a restaurant. While Bob's customer-base is lower than his father's, his food is suggested to be even better than his father's—when given a choice, one of Big Bob's regulars goes for Bob's food instead, and likes it so much he practically ignores his usual order from Big Bob.
  • In "Better Off Sled", Linda teaches him how to knit. Within two days, Bob is making better scarves than Linda could ever dream of making (although it's downplayed, as Linda wasn't that good to begin with).
• Sympathetic Adulterer: Discussed. While he and Linda never cheat on each other, Linda claims on two occasions that Bob has a free pass to sleep with another woman if it improves the family's lives (such as making Gayle happy or getting a plot in Cynthia Bush's garden). If anything, Linda's more enthusiastic about Bob sleeping with someone else than Bob himself is—when Bob fakes an affair with Gayle, he asks Linda what he should do if Gayle wants to have sex, and is mortified when Linda tells him to go through with it.
• Technician Versus Performer:
  • In terms of being a restaurant owner, he is the performer to Jimmy Pesto's technician. He knows next to nothing about business and almost always follows his heart over his brain when making decisions. The end result is that he's a great guy and a fantastic burger chef, but a terrible businessman whose restaurant is always on the verge of closing.
  • Was also the performer to his father's technician when they worked together. Bob wanted to change the menu and experiment more with food while Big Bob rigidly stuck to "the usuals" and has apparently run his restaurant the same way for thirty-odd years. Deconstructed, however, as this difference led to their falling out due to irreconcilable differences in work ethic.
• Technologically Blind Elders: Downplayed in that he's only middle-aged rather than elderly, but he has a flip phone for most of the series and only upgrades to a modern phone in Season 13 out of necessity (his old phone having been dropped into the ocean during the movie), doesn't understand internet lingo, and is absolutely floored when he discovers spell-check.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Bob doesn't always get what he wants. But often, he'll get a consolation prize that's good enough for him. And on rare occasions, he'll succeed entirely with no catches at all.
  • In the meta-sense, Bob is generally very unlucky in most aspects of his life, but he is a genuinely good at making burgers. Word of God states that his penchant for puns in naming burgers isn't just a quirk: it's meant to indicate how much he genuinely cares and isn't phoning in his cooking.
• Tragic Dream: Played With. Bob has the restaurant he always wanted, but his dream is for it to be a more beloved place while running it his way. The problem? He's an introvert who prioritized ingredients and the pun names he gives his burgers over decoration, advertisement, gathering criticism, or direct involvement with customers, the very things that he actually needs for his restaurant to have the success he constantly craves for. The only reason he even still has a restaurant is because Status Quo Is God.
• Unabashed B-Movie Fan: He loves all kinds of movies, ranging from niche to outright obscure.
• Unknown Rival: Prior to the pilot, he was this to Hugo. Hugo spent fifteen years (give or take) resenting Bob for "stealing" Linda from him. Meanwhile, Bob hadn't so much as heard of Hugo, only knowing Linda even had an ex because he was there when she dumped him via answering machine rap (also because her engagement ring is how they even met), and by the time the two meet Bob doesn't recognize him at all^note that said, Hugo doesn't realize the Bob he's talking to is Bob Belcher until he sees Linda as well. It's not until Hugo nearly ruins his life over it that Bob starts returning the animosity.
• Uptight Loves Wild: His relationship with Linda in a nutshell.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: A one-sided version with Teddy; Bob is frequently irritated by Teddy's stupidity and bizarre antics, but it's clear that he's still the closest thing to a Best Friend Bob has and the two have helped each other on numerous occasions.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: He left home to start his own business because he wanted to get away from his Control Freak father, who always criticized everything he did and made Bob think that he never felt appreciated. It took years later, but his father admits he went too far and is proud of who his son has become.
• Wet Blanket Wife: Gender-Inverted. Bob can be a fairly big party pooper. In "Paraders of the Lost Float", where he's arguably at his worst, this eventually leads to a Jerkass Realization.
  Bob: Lin, I'm sorry I was such a jerk today. I let Pesto get the best of me. But I love Bog to Beach now!
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Bob's not particularly outstanding in most areas of his business but his skill at making burgers makes up for it. In several instances, his burger-making skills have either saved the restaurant or given him catering opportunities.
  • In "Burger Wars", Mr. Fischoeder immediately extended his lease just after one bite of Bob's Meat-siah burger because it was that good.
  • In "Best Burger", Bob's cooking skills are enough to draw a massive line of customers after he participates in a burger contest and nearly wins against a celebrity chef (to the point that even the chef himself showed up to get a burger, and was later on record saying Bob made the best burger he ever had in his life). There were just that many people who wanted to try his food.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: "House of 1000 Bounces" reveals he has a crippling fear of pigeons, which supposedly resulted from being attacked by a flock of them as a kid. After learning that he was just misremembering The Birds, he gets over it.
• Workaholic: Has shades of this, particularly early on, but nowadays it's heavily downplayed. The kids and Linda are understanding of the need to keep the restaurant running, and Bob has some leeway in when and how to run it — as a rule, he will temporarily close the restaurant if his family needs him to. In general, and especially as a small business owner, he has an enviable work/life balance.
• Working-Class Hero: The main protagonist of the series (it is his name in the title, after all), and although he's not exactly swimming in money he still tries his hardest for his loved ones.
• Wound That Will Not Heal: In "The Kids Run the Restaurant", he gets a minor cut that winds up needing stitches and gushes blood whenever he so much as prods at it. Justified; he's all but stated to be a hemophiliac.
  Linda: He can't clot to save his life. He bleeds forever.
• Writer's Block: In "Sexy Dance Healing" he enters a slump of being unable to come up with any good Burger of the Day names; most of the names he comes up with during this time are by his own admission awful, and at Jairo's instruction he outright doesn't even try to come up with one for a day. He finally breaks out of it at the end, with some help from Linda.

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