Recap / Bob's Burgers S9E3 "Tweentrepreneurs"

"What's up with all those partitions?"

Louise: There's only one thing to do: half-ass it.
Gene: That still sounds like a lot of ass.
Louise: Then quarter-ass it is.

Tina tries to be the bridge between workers and leaders on a school business venture but soon begins to lose herself in the role. Back at the restaurant, Bob and Linda deal with a Dine and Dasher.

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Tropes:

• Adults Are Useless: Invoked; Frond doesn't intervene with the kids' business. Although given he's Frond, he probably wouldn't have been much help if he had intervened.
  • Lampshaded at the beginning; when Frond declares the kids in charge, Louise remarks that it's just like usual.
• Affably Evil: The Dine-and-Dasher is a genuinely neat guy who eventually becomes a legitimate customer. He's also, well, a Dine-and-Dasher.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Tina finally gets to hang with the higher-ups (read: the other eighth-graders)... which means that when the business begins to falter, Tina (as one of the primary decision-makers) is the first one saddled with the blame.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs:
  Tina: What's it gonna take to get more work out of you guys? I've tried the carrot, I've tried the stick.
  Gene: And you even tried carrot sticks.
• Break the Cutie: Poor Rudy gets it worse than the others as part of the Wood Chuck production line. His job is to sand the blocks, which aggravates his asthma, and his request for a mask goes ignored. In the end, he starts hallucinating Wood Chucks, prompting Louise (who had previously put on a brave face) to finally launch a strike.
• Cats Love Laser Pointers: Parodied when Louise borrows Tina's laser pointer to play with Gene. Linda scolds her, saying "Your brother's not a cat," though Gene is quite eager to chase the dot around the kitchen.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Being made a middle-manager goes to Tina's head rather quickly. The kids and Bob accuse her of being a "Business Monster" for how ruthless and greedy she's become.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Seems to be the case with Tina, who gets brought over to the non-workers by Tammy when she raises some grievances and starts to cut corners on the product, but the beginning of the opposite implies there was already this side to her; after Bob gave a passionate statement about never sacrificing quality control, Tina doesn't seem interest in bringing him in to the class to talk about business running. Since this trope is pretty much subverted, Tina's issues from her corner-cutting can be seen as Laser-Guided Karma and it's not until the episode end she's properly The Cutie again by realizing what her father meant.
• Dine and Dash: The B-plot has Bob dealing with a serial Dine-and-Dasher.
• Disney Owns This Trope: Mr. Frond mentions selling Doctor Who scarfs on Esty until he got a cease-and-desist. He also mentions a Melrose Place mat business that got busted for similar reasons.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Tina seeing googly eyes stuck to the seat of Gene's pants gives her the idea of selling the eyes so customers can make their own Chucks out of anything they want.
• Eye Am Watching You: Edith does it to Tina after she agreed to buy an entire box of 5000 googly eyes on debt, first with her eyes, then with googly eyes.
• Fake Twin Gambit: The third time the Dine-and-Dasher comes to Bob's he pretends to be his own twin apologizing for his brother's actions, which Bob (obviously) doesn't buy. When he tricks Bob into giving all his money back while making change, Linda thinks both twins are evil.
• Female Gaze: Discussed; Gene claims he's used to eyes on his butt.
• Funny Background Event: The Dine-and-Dasher takes off one last time during the closing credits, with Bob exiting the kitchen to chase him (it's likely non-canon, as that defeats the fact he paid all the money he owed for his past Dine-and-Dashes).
• Heel–Face Turn: The Dine-and-Dasher becomes a legitimate customer and repays Bob all the money he owes.
• Hypocritical Humor: While he and Louise spy on the other Tweenpreteneurs, Gene criticizes them for using an exercise ball for an office chair; turns out he's standing on poor Rudy.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: Louise refuses to help Tina save the company, but in telling her so she accidentally gives her the idea of having someone invest money in it. She then accidentally gives her the idea of getting Teddy to do that.
• Insult Backfire: When Tina crashes the Wood Chuck company to the ground, Gene sarcastically asks where she went to school. He quickly realizes the flaw in his insult.
  Gene: Oh... Where we do.
• I Think You Broke Him: Louise yells at Tina that she broke Rudy after he starts hallucinating Wood Chucks everywhere.
• Karma Houdini: Despite the fact that they also helped to tank the company (by using the profits on snacks for themselves and treating the woodchuck makers like crap, which is why Tina approached them in the first place) all of the other eighth-graders get away with being corrupt and selfish with Tina taking the blame from everyone. Although to be fair, it's only Tammy who blames Tina for it, and overall each of them was in hot water for their bad business roles and sinking their earnings into snacks.
• Literal Metaphor: Bob says that when the restaurant was opened, he didn't have two nickels to his name.
  Linda: The second one rolled under the fridge. You were so mad.
• Malaproper: Tammy thinks the Ivy League is called the Ivan League.
• My Eyes Are Up Here: Inverted by Gene, who puts googly eyes on his shirt so he can say "My eyes are down here."
• No Kill like Overkill: Bob's method of dealing with the dine-and-dasher, up to denying him the use of his hands to even eat.
• No Name Given: The Dine and Dasher is never named. During his "identical twin" disguise he claims the Dine-and-Dasher's name (read: his name) is Gary, but it's left unclear if this is just part of his facade.
• No OSHA Compliance: The working conditions for making the Wood Chucks are just a notch above a sweatshop. Asthmatic Rudy gets no mask to protect him from sawdust, there is no ventilation for varnish fumes, and management is more concerned with getting snacks than the well-being of their subordinates. It eventually gets to Rudy, who basically goes insane, and the others go on strike. Justified in that they're all grade-school students (with the ones running the show being in eighth grade), but Mr. Frond, who is teaching the class, offers no supervision whatsoever.
• Quality over Quantity:
  • When the Wood Chucks company is established, Tina gets promoted to manager and convinces the others to up production, which can only be achieved by cutting corners. The resulting product is shoddy and gives people splinters, so kids stop buying them. In desperation, Tina makes smaller versions and brand them as Wood Chucks 2, thinking that customers will be stupid enough to fall for it. They're not.
  • Early in the episode, Bob gives the kids a speech about not compromising quality, which he maintains when Tina tries to give him business suggestions that would involve doing this. The subplot with the Dine-and-Dasher, in a weird way, proves this, as he's only going back time and time again and ultimately decides to pay back all the money he owes and become a legitimate customer because of how incredibly good Bob's food is.
• Refuge in Audacity: A guy pulls a Dine and Dash in Bob's Burgers in full view of the only staff members, then comes back to do it again twice. He just liked the burgers that much (he's hit other places before, but Bob's Burgers is the only one he came back to). In the end, he finally pays them back for all the money he owes them and says he wants to become a legitimate customer, which Bob accepts, but not before taking some precautions:he has him sit on a specific bar stool away from the cash register and as far from the door as possible, Louise duct-tapes his hands and legs together, he can only manipulate his wallet with his nose, any change he'd normally receive is automatically converted to tips instead, and Tina will be feeding him like a baby.
  Tina: Hello, I'm Tina and I'll be your feeder today. Would you prefer your food to be a some kind of a plane or a train?
  Dine-and-Dasher: Train, please.
• Screwed by the Lawyers: In-Universe; Mr. Frond says that he once had an Etsy store selling hand-knitted Doctor Who scarves, until he got a cease-and-desist letter from PBS lawyers that "practically threatened to break [his] fingers."
• Shout-Out:
  • The Store Next Door is "Whole Lotta Shaker Furniture Going On".
  • The Exterminator Van is "The Weevil Dead".
  • The final Burger of the Day is the "Little Chop of Horseradish Burger".
• Supreme Chef: Turns out the Dine and Dasher repeatedly hit the restaurant because Bob's burgers are that good.
• Suspect Is Hatless: Teddy tries to draw a facial composite of the Dine and Dasher based on what he and Linda can remember about his looks. All they can remember is that he had two eyes and a nose.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Mr. Frond outright facepalms when Zeke presents a mix of nuts and spices he calls "Zeke's Hot Nutsack".
• Young Entrepreneur: As part of a class project, the kids have to come up with a business and then run it. Jimmy Jr. comes up with Wood Chucks, wood blocks with googly eyes. He, Tammy, Jocelyn, and Zeke name themselves management, leaving the Belchers and Regular-Sized Rudy as manufacturing. Tina goes to complain about the working conditions and is made a middle manager to shut her up. She ends up ruining the company by forcing the workers to double production, which leads to shoddy products that lose demand, then by owing Edith for buying too many googly eyes.