History Characters / BobsBurgersTheBelcherFamily

[[folder: Bob's Aunt]]

* NeverBareheaded: The only flashback we see of her features her with a pink hat, and then it even extends to drawings that the kids draw with their grandmother wearing a hat.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Despite dying when Bob was a child, Lily has had quite the influence on the Belcher family. Her death helped contribute to Bob and Big Bob's relationship becoming strained, and [[spoiler:a knit cap she wore eventually became the inspiration for Louise's bunny ears]].

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[[caption-width-right:350:Pauline (left) and Claudia (right)]]

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/claudia_believed_tony.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Claudia, who sided with Tony]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/paulina_believed_joey.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Pauline, who sided with Joey]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tonyvolpintesta.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Tony, he worked the docks]]
[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joeyvolpintesta.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Joey, who married a rich girl and brought the house]]

* GivenNameReveal: First mentioned in Season 3's "Bob Fires the Kids:, but her name is only revealed in later episodes. "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" (also in Season 3) reveals her maiden name to be Lombard, but her first name Lily wasn't revealed until "Show Mama from the Grave", all the way in Season ''13''.

Bob's maternal grandmother.

* PosthumousCharacter: Given she was an adult during World War II, it's practically certain she's been dead for a while.

* {{Foil}}: To Linda's parents Gloria and Al--''especially'' Gloria.
** Big Bob rarely sees Bob and they don't really like to be around each other that much; Gloria visits Linda frequently due to the fact that she is close to her daughter (albeit mainly because she can rely on Linda to do things for her).
** Big Bob is a widower and has been for over three decades--his wife died when Bob was still pretty young; Gloria and Al still have each other in their old age.
*** Relatedly, Big Bob always talks fondly about his late wife and clearly loved her very much; in contrast, Gloria is almost always annoyed by Al for some reason and their relationship hit quite a rough patch in the past.
** Big Bob is still working at his diner; Gloria and Al are both in a retirement home.
** Big Bob is hard to work with but is still capable of pulling his weight and working together with Bob (even if reluctantly); Gloria is outright impossible to work with as she has Linda do everything for her and does nothing to help whatsoever.
** Big Bob might be a ControlFreak, but is generally more tolerant of other's quirks and treats Linda pretty decently; Gloria nags to have all her demands met and disrespects Bob each time she comes around.
** Big Bob was harsh on Bob and was sometimes too critical and brutally honest with him, but it ultimately enabled Bob to pick up on his example of being an honest man as Bob is often uncomfortable with lying and prefers to be upfront with people; Linda implies that Gloria and Al lied to her and Gayle all the time (such as about Gayle's "immortal goldfish" that Gayle only realized was a lie in her 40's), and it enabled Linda to be okay with telling white lies and fibs to her entire family.
** Big Bob dotes on his grandchildren by giving them money and free reign to take whatever they want from his basement while expecting little in return; Gloria rarely gives her grandchildren anything and even more rarely gives them something thoughtful, yet according to Linda still expects the ''kids'' to give ''her'' better stuff.
** Big Bob is well-regarded by everyone except for his own child[[note]]and even then Bob starts to change his mind after "Father of the Bob"[[/note]]; Gloria is disliked by everyone except for one of her own children[[note]]and it's shown that Linda isn't really right to put her on a pedestal[[/note]].
** Big Bob at least ''tried'' to be a good parent even if he did a poor job, causing Bob to turn out decent enough; there's nothing that indicates Gloria has done anything but the bare minimum for her daughters, causing Gayle to become a neurotic mess and Linda to take the opposite extreme as her mother, going above and beyond for others (especially her family) even if it's to the detriment of herself or others--while Linda is otherwise a stable person, this is in spite of Gloria, not because of her.
** Big Bob is humble enough to swallow his pride, regretfully acknowledge how he drove Bob away, and own up about his faults; Gloria doesn't seem to care about how much she inconveniences Linda with her demands and never owns up to her own faults.
** Big Bob is hard to talk to, and while it was difficult for him and Bob to actually talk about their strained relationship, at least Big Bob was willing to communicate and to listen to his son's criticisms and made the effort to improve his relationship with Bob. By contrast, Gloria is pretty much incapable of communicating with Linda and Gayle, to the point where Linda tells Bob that he can't bring up any kind of incident with her parents. When Gayle brings up the past, Gloria refuses to listen and tells Gayle to "get over it". Gloria still has a bad relationship with Gayle and a parasitic relationship with Linda, and she doesn't seem willing to change or improve herself.
** Recent flashbacks indicate that Big Bob has always been a fairly decent person before starting a family, although it's implied that his wife made him a softer person and he really only became colder to Bob after her passing; Linda's stories about Gloria and a recent flashback only continue to highlight that Gloria's always been rotten to the core as she not only worsened a family feud for a petty reason, but that she was also never a good parent to neither Linda nor Gayle.

* {{Foil}}: Just like her husband, she's one to Linda's parents Gloria and Al.
** Lily is deceased and has been since Bob was a child. Gloria and Al are still alive and well for the most part.
** Lily had a loving relationship with her husband Big Bob and he always thinks warmly of her when he mentions her. Gloria is always annoyed by her husband Al and Al doesn't have much to say about his own wife either.
** On the occasion Bob does mention his mother, he always speaks fondly of her and implies that they were very close. Everything Linda implies about Gloria from her childhood is that Gloria was unhelpful and neglectful and the only reason Linda is close to her at all is because she always does things for her, and then Gayle isn't close to their mother at all.
*** Additionally, Bob had nothing but happy memories with his mother. Linda's memories about Gloria are not very good ones to say the least.
** Although the kids never met their paternal grandmother, Bob's words about her have given them a good impression of her. The kids can barely withstand being in proximity of Gloria and Al and are never excited to see them.
*** Worth noting that even though the kids never met Lily, they put a lot of effort into hand-made cards in honor of their paternal grandmother and the cards looked rather nice, not to mention the kids didn't even have to be told to make these cards. In contrast, the kids rightfully have no desire to give Gloria and Al any kind of thoughtful gift because of how awful Gloria is and Linda had to tell them to at least try to make them gifts for her, and it was to the point where Louise was willing to find already made gifts for Gloria until Tina got her to reluctantly change her mind. And even then this was more out of guilt than out of a genuine desire to do something for Gloria.
** Lily was implied to be a kind woman who loved her child dearly. Gloria is a straight-up {{Jerkass}} to just about everyone and she is even ungrateful and rude to both of her daughters.
** Bob honors his late mother out of genuine love. Linda merely puts up with her mother out of obligational love.
** The kids admit that they ''wanted'' to visit Lily's grave and willingly put aside their own interests to do so; Linda makes the kids and Bob visit Gloria and Al, and it's obvious the kids don't ever want to visit them.
** According to Bob, Lily was an easygoing woman who didn't ask for much nor expected anyone to put any extra effort into gifts; Gloria outright demands to be given nice things, including from her own grandchildren and daughter.

** Might not be noticeable at first but Gene is something of a pacifist especially compared to his sisters and even his parents. Louise and Linda are often the first to seek out some sort of violent retribution and even Bob and Tina can be provoked into vengeance when riled up, but violence or revenge never cross Gene's mind once. Even when miffed, Gene never entertains the idea of getting back at someone, instead preferring to use a diplomatic approach and attempt to reason with the opposing party. In fact, most of his methods are considerably non-violent, i.e: merely trying to outshine Courtney's musical, challenging Dino to a drum-machine battle, trying (and failing) to stop Louise from provoking Logan any further, taking Logan's bullying without actually fighting back, just to name a few.

* FreudianExcuse: "Father of the Bob" suggests his distant attitude and the way he raised Bob both came from being unable to cope with his wife's death. "Interview with a Pop-pop-pire" further implies it.

* InkSuitActor: He's a kid version of his voice actor, Eugene Mirman.

* OedipusComplex: Various episodes imply that Gene is [[PrecociousCrush genuinely in love with Linda]], to the point where he outright admits he wants to ''marry'' her in "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid". The other Belchers have taken notice; Linda thinks it's sweet while Bob, Tina, and Louise are all very uncomfortable with it.
-->'''Gene:''' Mother, I've never been more attracted to you!

* PosthumousCharacter: She died of unknown causes approximately 32 or 33 years the events of the show, and her death greatly affected how Big Bob raised Bob to be the person he is today.

* QuirkyHousehold: And ''how''. They love each other dearly and are extremely close... and at the same time, they're all ''very'' strange individuals.

* SatelliteCharacter: See how many of these tropes apply to Gloria but not Al? Whenever the two factor into the plot, Al is almost always an afterthought compared to Gloria.

* BreakingTheCycleOfBadParenting: Linda's mother Gloria is emotionally abusive, Linda's father Al is complacent in his wife's actions, and Bob's father Big Bob was well-meaning but distant and controlling. Bob and Linda themselves, however, are perhaps the best parents in the entire series, being open-minded, self-sacrificing, and lenient. While Bob very much invokes this trope due to how poorly his father raised him, Linda doesn't seem to recognize that she's a part of this trope as well (because she genuinely doesn't recognize that her parents were and still are awful).

'''The Belcher Family''' ([[Characters/BobsBurgersBobBelcher Bob Belcher]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersLindaBelcher Linda Belcher]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersTinaBelcher Tina Belcher]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersLouiseBelcher Louise Belcher]]) | [[Characters/BobsBurgersBelcherFamilyFriends Belcher Family Friends]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersThePestoFamily The Pesto Family]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersWagstaffSchool Wagstaff School]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersAntagonists Antagonists]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersOthers Others]] | [[Characters/BobsBurgersOneShotCharacters One Shot Characters]]-]]]]]

** The family's surname of Belcher wasn't actually mentioned in the show proper until Season 2's "Synchronized Swimming", although it'd been used in supplementary material prior to then and the title of "The Belchies" (which predates the aforementioned episode) alludes to it.

** Tina is the most mature of the Belcher siblings at age 13, yet she apparently StillBelievesInSanta and other fantastical beings, no matter how outlandish they may sound, and watches ''The Equestranauts'', which is implied to be a show marketed towards girls much younger than 13.

* GrandmasRecipe: Claudia created a recipe for homemade Bolognese sauce. The Belcher kids try to track down said recipe, only to find out that nobody knows where it is--each side of the family thinks the other took it. Coupled with Claudia being long dead, that means the recipe is pretty much lost for good.

** Interestingly, quite a few of Gayle's other crushes avert this, even though it would arguably be very justified.

* LikeParentUnlikeChild: Her father Burt was implied to be a rational man who got caught up in the feud between his in-laws, while Gloria overreacted to an offense from her cousin Lorraine and halted any further attempts for reconciliation for fifty years. Burt was also implied to be a loving grandfather to Linda judging from how she only ever has nice things to say about him, whereas Gloria is a terrible grandmother who can't be bothered to remember how many kids Linda has unless she wants something from them. All in all, it appears Burt is the exact opposite of Gloria much like Gloria is the exact opposite of Linda.

* SatelliteCharacter: See how many of these tropes apply to Gloria but not Al?

** In "The Plight Before Christmas," Gene almost single-handedly turns a school pageant from "experimental torture" to genuinely moving, first by deducing they should limit what notes each student should play and then by figuring out ''which'' notes to remove from each xylophone (14 in total). That's a level of problem-solving most adults would struggle with, and Gene did it during an intermission.

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In the first few seasons, Gloria was obliviously obnoxious and a decent if annoying person, in contrast to her later appearances as a horrible person whose {{jerkass}}ery knows no limits, [[AbusiveParents not even to her own children]].

** In "Bob Fires the Kids" he's set up as a likely candidate for an AbusiveParent, not helped by mentions of alcoholism. In "Father of the Bob" he shows no signs of alcoholism, and it's made clear that he at least tried to be a good parent--his flaw wasn't abuse, he just couldn't get that stick out of his ass.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: His real name is Robert Sr., but he doesn't even go by Bob, going exclusively by Big Bob to differentiate him from his son.

* UselessBystanderParent: Al, even when Linda and Gayle were kids, did nothing to hold Gloria back and is implied to have not cared that much about being a parent.

*** Worth noting that even though the kids never met Lily, they put a lot of effort into hand-made cards in honor of their paternal grandmother and the cards looked rather nice, not to mention the kids didn't even have to be told to make these cards. In contrast, the kids rightfully have no desire to give Gloria and Al any kind of thoughtful gift because of Gloria's and Linda had to tell them to at least try to make them gifts for her, and it was to the point where Louise was willing to find already made gifts for Gloria until Tina got her to reluctantly change her mind. And even then this was more out of guilt than out of a genuine desire to do something for Gloria.