No one does Thanksgiving episodes like Bob’s Burgers. And each year they seem to get funnier and more heartfelt than the year before.
Thank goodness we’ve got 10 seasons of this show, though only eight of the seasons have a Thanksgiving-themed episode. Below we’re sharing our definitive ranking of these episodes, from our least favorite to our favorite.
8. Season 6, Episode 4: “Gayle Makin’ Bob Sled”
Surprisingly, this is the only Thanksgiving episode that features Linda’s sister, Gayle.
As usual, Gayle is her special kind of crazy in this episode, resulting in Bob pulling her through the snow in a kiddie pool.
Along her cat, Mister Business, who ends up escaping.
Meanwhile, Linda and the kids are left cooking the Thanksgiving dinner, much to everyone’s horror.
And what they come up with, especially the sides, makes this more of a scare than a heartwarming moment.
Overall, this is my least favorite episode, probably because the family is split up. And partly because Gayle is kind of annoying sometimes and she was a real chump this episode faking that foot injury.
7. Season 10, Episode 8: “Now We’re Not Cooking with Gas”
I know what you’re thinking – the newest episode coming in at the dead last position? Well, it’s true, so hear me out.
I enjoyed this episode, though I wish we’d seen a bit more of some of the other main characters.
Where were all the other characters? Sure, we saw the neighbor across the alleyway, we got the firefighters, and even Teddy made an appearance on a phone call.
One of the best things in this episode was catching a peak at that half-finished tattoo on Bob’s back.
6. Season 9, Episode 7: “I Bob Your Pardon”
This Thanksgiving, the Belchers plan to start their Turkey Day festivities by attending the town’s turkey pardoning ceremony.
Bob just want to get back to cooking, but then the family insists they save the turkey that’s actually heading to the slaughterhouse instead of the farm.
Though this episode isn’t the sort of chaos you’d expect, the turkey rescue mission does lead the family on quite the adventure. And we do get the reappearance of the two-butted goat.
One of the best moment’s of this episode is when Louise has her moment and saves the turkey from the coyotes.
5. Season 8, Episode 5: “Thanks-Hoarding”
In this episode, the family ends up at Teddy’s home because he’s freaking out about having to put on Thanksgiving for his family.
Louise’s gets started early on with a ton of zingers in this episode, starting with her telling Teddy “Show us exactly where you want your guests to be underwhelmed.” It just gets better from there.
But I think the best line from this episode is deliver a little earlier from Gene.
Classic Gene.
Early on Linda and the kids discover that Teddy is a hoarder. Of course, Linda decides that they should help him clean out his apartment.
Unlike most of the Thanksgiving episodes, this one gets a little sad with Teddy having a bit of a breakdown and Linda realizing that he’s a fixer as a result of his bad childhood. But it’s still got that heart that we all know and love from this show.
4. Season 7, Episode 6: “The Quirk-ducers”
The great thing about this Thanksgiving episode is that we get all of Bob’s typical turkey shenanigans mixed in with Linda’s weirdness, and Louise’s penchant for anarchy.
While Linda finds a potato that looks like her dead grandfather, who she wants to introduce the kids to, Louise and Gene set off to cause total chaos with the school’s Thanksgiving play.
And poor Tina, there she is getting taken advantage of by Louise and Gene with her erotic fan fiction turned school play – The Quirky Turkey.
The only thing this episode is missing is Bob talking sweetly to this year’s turkey.
3. Season 3, Episode 5: “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal”
So many good one-liners in this episode from Tina’s “You look like an elegant sausage” to Louise’s “You lost me at love but brought me back with sharp-shooter.”
This episode is so good, it’s hard to believe that it was the first Thanksgiving episode the show did.
With Linda and the kids pretending to be Mr. Fischoeder’s family, Bob is relegated to the kitchen where he ends up drunk off his balls on absinthe. As expected, that makes for some fun times in this episode.
The episode ends the way all good Thanksgiving dinners do – with a rifle chase through the mansion.
2. Season 5, Episode 4: “Dawn of the Peck”
Feeling butt hurt cause the family is going to the Wonder Wharf’s Turk-tacular Turkey Town Festival and Turkey Trot, Bob stays at home as he is boycotting Thanksgiving.
Sadly, he does not turn the home into a brothel, as suggested by the kids on their way out.
Probably the funniest part of this episode is when Bob gets drunk and starts singing along to Donna Summer music.
But the chaos of this episode, caused by the crazed turkeys, is so ridiculous that it’s damn funny as well.
The best part of this chaos is when Linda becomes the alpha turkey, which is exactly what you expect of this family.
1. Season 4, Episode 5: “Turkey in a Can”
From the moment that turkey first appears in the toilet, you just knew that this was going to be an amazing episode – and it was.
The repeated imagery of the raw turkey in the toilet is hysterical every single time it happens on screen.
And as if that isn’t funny enough, we get another running gag of the guy working the meat counter at the grocery store thinking Bob keeps buying turkeys cause he’s interested in dating him.
When we finally discover how that turkey keeps ending up in the toilet, we get that moment of heart that we’ve come to expect from an episode of this show.