The 5 Best Halloween Episodes of ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Ranked
Animated shows have a unique advantage when it comes to Halloween episodes. Where live-action sitcoms like Roseanne and the more contemporary Modern Family similarly structured entire character arcs around the titular season of frights—Julie Bowen’s Claire really loves Halloween—animated sitcoms have more flexibility with form and structure. They can bend credulity until it breaks. The nature of animation allows for more vibrant, absurd, and surreal manifestations of seasonal delicacies. Yes, The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” episodes are among the most famous, unspooling metatextual riffs on hot horror properties. But Fox’s other indomitable animated sitcom, Bob’s Burgers, is more akin to a warm cup of cocoa after a long, windy night going door-to-door for candy.
The series has excelled with its holiday episodes since the start of Season 3, its first full-season order. Thus, it was the show’s first opportunity to really explore the titular Bob and his family’s holiday traditions. They’re sweet and they’re remarkably accomplished. A potent brew of genuine frights and lighthearted antics, theoretically, they’re all the best. In fact, Bob’s Burgers alone is simply best. Narrowing it down to just five is no easy task. “Pig Trouble in Little Tina” is remarkably weird, featuring the cutest, nightmarish pig ever animated. “The Wolf of Wharf Street” is genuinely frightening at times, and features what might be Linda Belcher’s best costume yet—a Cher-iff. While they all merit entry, these five best encapsulate what a Bob’s Burgers Halloween can really be.
“Tina and the Real Ghost” (Season 5, Episode 2)
Tina Belcher matters a lot. Genuinely. She is so unabashedly weird and angsty in that inimitable teenage way, there’s nary a viewer who doesn’t see part of themselves in her sexy zombie fan-fiction or preeminent interest in butts. Better still, the show never makes fun of her. While Tina’s overeager, prepubescent interests often springboard into absurd comedy, it’s never cruel, and Tina is never once encouraged to change. In “Tina and the Real Ghost,” Linda and the kids screw around with a Ouija board, and the maniacal yet sweet Louise ostensibly contacts the spirit of teenage heartthrob Jeff.
Tina keeps Jeff in a shoe box, impressing her friends at school with her hottie ghost boyfriend. Everyone is super into it, and soon, they’re duking it out with messages scrawled on wet mirrors, all eager to see who Jeff really likes. Jeff isn’t real, of course, and Tina knows that, but it’s a remarkably sweet treat to see Tina simply being herself. Jeff, real or not, sees her for who she is. And truthfully, that’s all she or any of us want.
“Teen-a Witch” (Season 7, Episode 3)
Billy Eichner’s librarian Mr. Ambrose is one of Bob’s Burgers’ best ensemble players. His delivery is immaculate, as is his thinly veiled contempt for everything and everyone around him. Oh, and he’s also a witch. In “Teen-a Witch,” Tina is desperate to win the Wagstaff school costume contest after nemesis Tammy steals her costume idea. Even worse, a school crossing guard, Jackie (guest Jackie Sodaro) overhears Tina insulting her work. She curses Tina, and with nowhere else to go, she turns to Mr. Ambrose for help.
Jackie and Mr. Ambrose were in the same coven at one point (and now work at the same school, fun). He teaches Tina how to dabble in the dark arts, and soon, she’s casting spells for love and revenge. We’ve all been there once or twice. Wickedly funny with the best witchy crossing guard ever, “Teen-a Witch” sees Bob’s Burgers letting loose and simply having fun.
“Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street” (Season 9, Episode 5)
There’s a candy thief in Seymour’s Bay (yes, the Bob’s Burgers town has an actual name). While Tina, Louise, Gene, and company are out trick-or-treating, someone is snatching bags like a bonafide slasher villain. Sneaking up while masked to carry out the dirty deed. It’s a bonafide Bob’s Burgers slasher parody, capping at the Wonder Wharf’s Mutilation Mansion, an absolutely delightful haunted house. Plus, Teddy—one of the show’s hardest characters to make work—has a delightful B-plot where he squares off against another contractor to see whose Halloween decorations are best. That’s good stuff right there.
“The Hauntening” (Season 6, Episode 3)
Louise just wants to be scared. It’s an admittedly common sitcom trope—the precocious kid isn’t scared, later gets scared. But here, it’s done with zany, cartoonish aplomb. Bob and Linda have an annual tradition of taking the kids to a haunted house every year. Sure, it’s not annual—it’s never revested again—but it’s a wonderful springboard for an episode abounding with haunts and jolts.
As the Belchers visit the house, Louise is certain someone is looking to scare her. Those fears are confirmed as hooded figures appear and bonafide occult symbols catch fire in the yard out front. While everyone knows where it’s going—it is in fact planned by the whole family to scare Louise—it does feel genuinely dangerous at times. It’s Bob’s Burgers moving beyond homage into full-tilt genre mode. That’s miraculous stuff worth screaming about. And yes, that includes the “Boyz 4 Now” music video.
“Full Bars” (Season 3, Episode 2)
This is it, folks. The first (and best) of the Bob’s Burgers Halloween episode batch. We’ve got Francis, Teddy’s guinea pig who is savagely murdered at a Halloween party (not really, she was just really old and possibly inhaled some toxic paint fumes). Then, there’s the stellar A-plot that sees the three siblings take the ferry over to King’s Head Island, a wealthy division that mythically hands out the elusive full-sized candy bars.
Those full bars are everything. Any kid who has trick-or-treated remembers the full-throttle thrill of getting a convenience-store-sized Kit-Kit or bag of M&Ms. Unfortunately for the Belcher kids, they also must contend with Hell Hunt, a roving band of teenage misfits who torment any kid unfortunate enough to get caught. Louise does as Louise is wont to do, however, and quickly gets back at them. Resultantly, the inaugural Bob’s Burgers Halloween episode closes triumphantly as the best of the best.
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