Why Tina of Bob's Burgers Can't Be Ignored

[RA92]

Did anybody else get the feeling that in True Detective the fact that Audrey was engaging in a threesome said less about her and more about the way in which Hart viewed girls who have threesomes? Audrey is repeatedly told by her parents that something must be worng with her, or with the situation she's put herself in, but in the end there... isn't. She's just a girl who appears to have started thinking about sex early on, and that freaked the hell out of her parents.

It definitely was a commentary on Hart's hypocritical patriarchal views. As long as he has power over a woman's sexuality (having sex with Beth and Percy Jackson's girlfriend behind his wife's back) everything is alright in the spirit of male sexual conquest. But once that power is gone (Percy Jackson's girlfriend getting into an actual relationship, his daughter's deviancy and the whole idea of prostitution), he flips out under the guise of a conservative outlook.

 

[Gorrath]

I've watched the pilot that served as the show's pitch, and Tina's character was originally written as a boy. Presumably, he was going to play into all of those awkward teen male sexcapades that served all of the tropes Bob mentioned. I think it plays much, much better having Tina instead of her male counterpart. Bob's Burgers might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I find it to be quite humorous.

 

[Kahani]

Can't say I've ever heard of it. From Bob's description it doesn't sound like I'm missing much. Yet another Simpsons clone and, as others have already mentioned, Tina really doesn't sound particularly different from many other characters in other shows. Hell, even Lisa Simpson already covered a lot of the points he brings up. She may technically only be six, but that never stopped the writers covering things like teenage crushes, first kisses, and so on if they happened to feel like it.

 

[LisaB1138]

We love Bob's Burgers, and Tina is my favorite character. She *is* awkward and odd, but as you pointed out, there's no effort to "fix" her. She's fine just the way she is.

 

[keniakittykat]

She isn't as original as you'd think she is. MTV did the same thing in the 90's, this would be Daria.
Only was Daria more interesting and had a better personality. Mtv did it first, and did it better.

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Interesting, I noticed that about the character with the few episodes I've seen. Not a regular watcher because I honestly don't "get" the humor, but it's a decent original show. While most TV shows don't seem to feature good female characters experiencing puberty in original or relate-able ways, some films can definitely surprise.

One of my favorite horror movies, Ginger snaps, I think has an interesting exploration. The two leads are sisters who pride themselves in being "different", and are thoroughly disgusted by the idea of puberty. When Ginger begins her "time", her and her sister are unfortunately attacked by a werewollf resulting in Ginger being infected. What follows is a werewolf transformation process metaphor for a cautionary of sexual awakening that, at least to me, seems to suggest that repressing puberty is impossible and not horrifying unless you don't learn to control your urges.

Quick aside, any self respecting horror fan needs to see this movie. Seriously, it has just practical effects, body-horror, and balances its' dark comedy with the atmospheric and horrifying elements very well.

Ginger Snaps is good stuff. Very entertaining, charged with the energy of adolescent anxiety to an extent very few films can match.

Also you might want to check out Marebito. Then move on to other exceptional Jap and Korean horror (avoid the ring, go deeper, stranger).

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

I always did think Tina was a surprisingly interesting character, but the fact that there's a teen girl at all is surprising. In spite of being long out of my teens, and male, I found myself identifying with her more than most characters in most animations, just from what I remember of my own teens.
So in my opinion, pretty well written if she can do that. Also, her voice actor is brilliant, like an animated Leslie Nielsen.

Crawling into vents to spy on the boy's locker room?

"Snake, what are you doing?"

 

[Elf Defiler Korgan]

Do people actually watch this show? I mean does it actually have any sort of ratings success? Because I tried to watch it once but it was too painfully shite for me to get more than maybe twelve minutes into an episode.

Seriously the animation, the voice acting, the writing... all were just terrible and unfunny.

It does have an especially hideous appearance and animation decades old. Trying to jump from the cleanest most vibrant stuff out of Japan to this is like a time warp, speaking on animation and design complexity.

 

[SNCommand]

Do people actually watch this show? I mean does it actually have any sort of ratings success? Because I tried to watch it once but it was too painfully shite for me to get more than maybe twelve minutes into an episode.

Seriously the animation, the voice acting, the writing... all were just terrible and unfunny.

It does have an especially hideous appearance and animation decades old. Trying to jump from the cleanest most vibrant stuff out of Japan to this is like a time warp, speaking on animation and design complexity.

I think it has its place, I don't personally watch it as I found it uninteresting, but just because you have incredibly beautiful animation doesn't mean it can't coexist with more crude animation as well

 

[bunnielovekins]

Crawling into vents to spy on the boy's locker room?

"Snake, what are you doing?"

Swap the genders and you've got my adolescent fantasies right there.

 

[skylog]

Wait, isn't Meg written as Family Guy's garbage dump because the show's writers don't know how to write female teen characters?

 

[Darmani]

So she's a female character that is written to be going through puberty like a male character would, and that's brilliant or honest?

And this is supposed to be progressive in some way? Yea, sure, if you say so.

Yeah I don't get Bob's Burgers period but Tina is a particular brand of uninteresting because the entire output of Disney and Nick have plenty of outgoing teen girls dealing with adolescence. The only difference I can tell is this is puberty in the sense its very physical and gross but even there it seems the focus is "look at ugly girl try to be sexy" which Meg Griffin, by inverting the princess obsession at the time of conception, beat her to.

Also there is a real sense of go nowhere and I don't get her or the other kids characters. Even the who "creativity" deal.

And did we all forget Daria too?

 

[Darth_Payn]

Bob seems to be reading too much into Tina. Of course she's an oddball and her awkwardness is played for laughs. It's one thing to write "Erotic Friend-Fiction" starring your classmates and teachers, but it's another to read it aloud in the cafeteria during lunch, where everyone is rightly grossed out. At first, I thought this article would say she had Asperger's Syndrome or something. That's why, among the Belcher kids, I find Gene and Louise way funnier.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Do people actually watch this show?

It's easily the best animated comedy of the last decade. Perhaps you don't understand the humour? There are so many subtle jokes.

Unlike Family Guy or South Park, it doesn't point out all the jokes and beat you over the head with them. It has a lot of originality, and a real chemistry in the cast.

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Yet another Simpsons clone...

What in the world would make you call it a "Simpsons clone"? Because it's animated?

You might want to watch it before making such claims.

 

[Dimitriov]

Do people actually watch this show?

It's easily the best animated comedy of the last decade. Perhaps you don't understand the humour? There are so many subtle jokes.

Unlike Family Guy or South Park, it doesn't point out all the jokes and beat you over the head with them. It has a lot of originality, and a real chemistry in the cast.

Perhaps you could provide an example? I freely admit that I watched virtually none of it because I found it so off putting, but it may perhaps have improved.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Archer? Pfft. H. Jon Benjamin will always be Coach Mcguirk first and foremost.

Yeah no, he is and always shall be Ben Katz.

Touché. Well played.

She isn't as original as you'd think she is. MTV did the same thing in the 90's, this would be Daria.
Only was Daria more interesting and had a better personality. Mtv did it first, and did it better.

Ehhh, not so much. Daria was already well past the blossoming sexuality of pre-early teenage years. Extremely different characters, too. They weren't really exploring the same areas.