All 88 “Bob’s Burgers” Episodes Ranked – Part 1

85. “Human Flesh”
(Season 1, Episode 1)

When I went to see Bob’s Burgers Live in Detroit, creator Loren Bouchard said during the Q&A that when he first pitched the show to FOX, he presented it as a show about a family that runs a restaurant, and they’re all cannibals. His biggest challenge in creating the show was moving away from the edgier humor of Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil and back into the sweeter, more sentimental style of Home Movies.

Series premiere “Human Flesh” shows that transition still in motion. The episode is more mean-spirited than the show would eventually become, with jokes about pedophilia, autism, and weight in full bloom, not to mention the cannibalism plot—remains from the original pitch, perhaps? Bob forgetting his and Linda’s anniversary is also quite cliché compared to storylines featured in later seasons.

And yet it’s still a fairly enjoyable episode, as we see the characters already developing into the icons they would eventually become and the actors having a lot of fun with their roles. It’s far from a perfect pilot, and it’s certainly one of the weakest episodes. But it’s definitely laying the groundwork for what would become one of the funniest and most likable animated shows of all time.

Best moment: When Gene calls his parents out on their shit.