Recap / Bob's Burgers S9E1 "Just One Of The Boyz 4 Now"

The right number of boys
for you, is more
forever.

Tina: I'm not boycrazy. I'm boy-focused! I really think Damien can be the one.
Linda: One of many. Many ones.

As Boyz 4 Now looks for a replacement Boo-Boo, Tina infiltrates in disguise to find the boy of her dreams, only to realize her family might be right about her being boy crazy. Meanwhile, the rest of the Belchers look after Teddy's baby rat.

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• Actor Allusion:
  • The Imagine Spot song by Jesse - voiced by Daveed Diggs - takes a detour to France, where he raps about stereotypical French culture. Diggs originated the role of Marquis De Lafayette in Hamilton, a role that made use of Gratuitous French and rather rapid-fire rapping.
  • Josh Gad and Andrew Rannells play best friends and share a duet, alluding to their breakout roles co-starring in The Book of Mormon.
• Adoring the Pests: Teddy brings in a baby rat. Bob, understandably, wants it out of the restaurant, but Linda falls in love with it and insists on keeping it. Eventually, even Bob ends up fawning over it.
• Air-Vent Passageway: One fan of Boyz 4 Now tried to sneak into one of the auditions through the air ducts. However, she got stuck in there and had to be rescued by emergency services. While the auditions were already having trouble with rabid fans, this incident is what prompted girls being banned from the audition area.
  Security Guard on TV: Not safe, girls. Don't do it.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Tina's "Dino" disguise results in her being cheered by Boyz 4 Now fans outside the convention center, letting her know it's convincing enough to get her into the auditions.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Jesse's song is about him and Tina being fierce rival co-workers at a corporation who fall in love during a business trip to Paris.
• Blatant Lies: When Hugo hears the baby rat squeak when he's about to leave and decides to investigate, Linda tries to pass off Bob standing there with a spatula in his hand while hiding the baby rat in his pants as him having gone insane and cooking an imaginary patty, and the kids pass off the cardboard box the baby rat was in as a dollhouse where they play with tomato dolls because they're so poor.
• Brick Joke: The news report on the auditions mentions a girl trying to sneak in through the air vents. Later, when Tina and several other girls are found out, a girl falls from a vent.
• City with No Name: The creators' nickname for the town (Seymour's Bay) is made canon here, finally averting the trope.
• Continuity Cavalcade: Tina's Imagine Spot for the final song (which plays into the end credits) features cameos from every boy she's crushed on or flirted with in the series. Besides the obvious Jimmy Jr. cameo, the other boys include:
  • Nathan from "Beefsquatch"
  • Josh from "Lindapendent Woman" and "Two for Tina"
  • The zombie basketball team from "The Frond Files"
  • Justin from "Mazel-Tina"
  • Jonas from "Uncle Teddy"
  • Jeff from "Tina and the Real Ghost"
  • Darryl from "Can't Buy Me Math"
  • Jordan Cagan from "The Land Ship"
  • Joe Harrison from "Large Brother, Where Fart Thou?"
  • Duncan from "Ain't Miss Debatin'"
  • Brett from "Sleeping with the Frenemy"
  • Parker from "Boywatch"
  • Interestingly, neither Zeke nor Henry Haber appear, despite Tina having noticeable Ship Tease with Zeke throughout the series and having outright dated Henry in "Ain't Miss Debatin'".
• Continuity Nod: Boyz 4 Now are still looking for a replacement fourth member after Boo Boo left in "Bye Bye Boo Boo".
  • When Boo Boo makes his return, Louise grabs the ends of her bunny ears the same way she did when she first saw him in "Boyz 4 Now".
• Crash-Into Hello: Tina meets Damon when he crashes into her as she was carrying napkins.
• Cuteness Proximity: It takes one adorable squeak for the rat to win over everyone, including Bob, who was telling Teddy to Get Out! for bringing a pest animal to his restaurant just seconds earlier.
  Bob: I would die for this rat.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: The security guard refers to the entire audition as a publicity stunt and invites the Belchers to see the "winner" using air quotes, indicating that Boo Boo returning to the band was already negotiated.
• Flock of Wolves: When Tina is exposed as a girl and someone calls out "Look, a girl!", several of the "boys" in the crowd panic and end up exposing themselves thinking the shout was directed to them.
• Hidden Disdain Reveal: When Linda assures Tina it's great that she has so many crushes, she also admits her belief that Jimmy Jr.'s not good enough for her.
• Insistent Terminology: Tina insists that she's not boy crazy. She's boy focused.
• Musical Episode: In addition to the A-plot focusing on a recurring Boy Band, every time Tina falls for another boy she has an Imagine Spot that plays out like a complete Boy Band music video.
• Oh, Crap!: When Tina spots a fellow girl get caught in disguise, she makes a run for it, worried she's next.
• Polyamory: Discussed; when Hugo hears the rat squeak, Bob and Linda cover for it by claiming he got a text from his mistress.
• Putting the Band Back Together: After disbanding at the end of Season 6, all four members of Boyz 4 Now reunite.
• Seen It All: Hugo has seen people try to keep baby rats before, including putting little tables in their beds like Linda had done.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: The search for a fourth Boyz 4 Now member is resolved by Boo-Boo returning to group, rendering the days of auditions in different cities moot. It's heavily implied that it was all a marketing ploy and that Boo-Boo had already signed up to rejoin the band when the auditions began or never officially left it to begin with: one of the organizers makes air quotes with his fingers when he tells the Belchers that they're going to announce the "new" member of the band and calls the whole thing a publicity stunt, meaning the whole thing was just a waste of time for all the boys who didn't know and came out to audition.
• Shout-Out:
  • Chad's song about being in the friend zone is recreation of Pretty in Pink right down to the outfits he and Tina are wearing. The song also ends with it suddenly being Tina’s birthday, with the two kissing over a cake like the ending of Sixteen Candles.
  • The Burger of the Day is The Dragonfruit Me to Hell Burger.
  • Tina borrows Gene's Little Orphan Annie wig for her disguise.
  • Tina lies and tells Jesse she needs to cut in front of him to be next to her brother, Simon Garfunkel.
  • When Hugo attempts to find the baby rat, he says "Time for me to say hello to your little friend!"
• Shown Their Work: In Tina's fantasy with Jesse, he says "they pay a billion French monies" and money falls from the ceiling. On closer inspection, those are accurately designed €100 notes.
• Sobriquet Sex Switch: Tina goes by Dino (pronounced "Dee-no") while disguised as a boy.
• Squirrels in My Pants: Bob ends up hiding the baby rat in his underwear to keep Hugo from finding it.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: At least four other girls had the same idea Tina had of disguising themselves as boys to sneak into the auditions, and all assume that Tina being caught is actually them being caught.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The reason girls were banned from the auditions is because one girl tried to use an air vent to sneak in... and promptly got stuck, requiring emergency services to get her free.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: Tina disguises herself as a boy named Dino to get into the competition and track down Damon, the boy she met that morning who was going to the auditions.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Linda tells Tina that being boy-crazy is okay.
• You Dirty Rat!: Inverted: Teddy takes offense at being suggested that the baby rodent he brought into the restaurant for the Belchers to take care of for a few hours is a baby squirrel and tells them that it's obviously a rat. Bob plays this straight though, although for only a few seconds, as described above.

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