Postmodernism In The World Of Bob’s Burgers Fox’s critically acclaimed animated sitcom series, Bob’s Burgers, focuses on the life of a family who runs a hamburger restaurant. The Belcher family—which include parents Bob and Linda Belcher, alongside their children Tina, Gene and Louise—are the center of the show. The restaurant, conveniently named ‘Bob’s Burgers,’ is the center of where the majority of the episode plot occurs. Bob, who is the owner and chef of Bob’s Burgers, just wants to run his dream restaurant, however, family and life tends to get in his way. While this show appears to be just a silly sitcom, Bob’s Burgers has been able to successfully encapsulate postmodernist themes and aesthetics into the contemporary television
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Postmodernism incorporates the idea that we live in a world full of advertising, consumerism and monetization. Almost all the episodes of Bob’s Burgers involve the characters running the restaurant; an establishment in which the Belcher family contributes to the society of consumers. Throughout the series, Bob and Linda are concerned with how much money the restaurant is making and openly acknowledges they are poor. In the episode, ‘Bob Fires the Kids’, Bob comments that he cannot afford to hire outside help to run Bob’s Burgers, hence why he forces his children to help work the restaurant. Additionally, in the episode, ‘An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal’, the plot centers around how the Belchers could make additional money outside the restaurant business. Bob’s rent-hungry landlord, Mr. Fischoeder, enlist the Belchers in a chance to cut 5 months of the restaurants rent by helping him with his own Thanksgiving endeavors. The Belchers accept with Bob commenting, “Well, that’ll make a huge difference for us. That’s like real money.” According to Baudrillard, he claims that this postmodern theme of consumerism is “an extension of the hyper real” and that because we live in a ‘simulated reality’, the simulation is completed through consumer culture. Essentially, Baudrillard argues that consumerism is a “self-propelling system of which there seems to be no way out”. (Todd 48) This never-ending cycle of consumerism is reflected numerously throughout the
Postmodernism incorporates the idea that we live in a world full of advertising, consumerism and monetization. Almost all the episodes of Bob’s Burgers involve the characters running the restaurant; an establishment in which the Belcher family contributes to the society of consumers. Throughout the series, Bob and Linda are concerned with how much money the restaurant is making and openly acknowledges they are poor. In the episode, ‘Bob Fires the Kids’, Bob comments that he cannot afford to hire outside help to run Bob’s Burgers, hence why he forces his children to help work the restaurant. Additionally, in the episode, ‘An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal’, the plot centers around how the Belchers could make additional money outside the restaurant business. Bob’s rent-hungry landlord, Mr. Fischoeder, enlist the Belchers in a chance to cut 5 months of the restaurants rent by helping him with his own Thanksgiving endeavors. The Belchers accept with Bob commenting, “Well, that’ll make a huge difference for us. That’s like real money.” According to Baudrillard, he claims that this postmodern theme of consumerism is “an extension of the hyper real” and that because we live in a ‘simulated reality’, the simulation is completed through consumer culture. Essentially, Baudrillard argues that consumerism is a “self-propelling system of which there seems to be no way out”. (Todd 48) This never-ending cycle of consumerism is reflected numerously throughout the