We’re counting down the days to Thanksgiving by looking at a variety of Thanksgiving-themed TV episodes. Thanksgiving episodes are all different, but they have lots of tropes in common. Today we’re looking at the Bob’s Burgers episode “Turkey in a Can.”
Basic Info
Directed by: Boohwan Lim and Kyounghee Lim
Written by: Lizzie Molyneaux and Wendy Molyneaux
Episode Number: Season 4, Episode 5
Where to Watch It: Netflix
Found Family
This episode mostly focuses on actual relatives. Tina has been asking to sit at the adult table and wear make up. Bob isn’t ready to see her grow up and is sleepwalking to deal with his feelings about his baby becoming a teenager.
But, we do see the Belcher family joined by their friends Mort and Teddy for Thanksgiving.
Food
Bob loves Thanksgiving and cooking turkeys. In fact, when Gene accuses him of loving the turkey more than he loves his family, Bob says, “That’s right. I do. I love turkeys.”
This year he plans to go on all out with a 3-day salt rub. But, he ends up having to buy a new turkey every day when he continually wakes up to find a turkey in the toilet. He’s not sure who the culprit could be. The natural suspect is Louise, so she becomes determined to prove everyone wrong for assuming she did it. Eventually, Bob realizes that he’s been sleepwalking and dreaming that the turkey is baby Tina and he’s potty training her again.
The fact that he keeps returning to the store to buy new turkeys leads to increasingly awkward encounters with the guy working at the grocery store, who assumes Bob must be into him. (“You want to go to the beach?” “No. Maybe. Wait, I’m straight. I mean, I’m mostly straight.”)
Football
There’s no football in this episode.
History
This episode doesn’t mention the history of Thanksgiving.
