Bob's Burgers does great episodes for pretty much any holiday it chooses to focus on, but there's no question this show has become Thanksgiving's television king, delivering classic after classic every November.
It's a match that makes a lot of sense, and not just because Bob Belcher (H. Jon Benjamin) is a cook and therefore naturally loves the holiday most focused on a perfect dinner. Bob's Burgers is a show about a family, and without the candy haul of Halloween or the present haul of Christmas, that family element takes center stage, and even expands to include the community around the Belchers. The results are hilarious, often heartwarming, and always unforgettable.
So, for the second installment in our trilogy of Bob's Burgers Holiday episode features, let's take a look at every Thanksgiving episode in the show's history, ranked from worst to best.
11. "Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid" (11x07)
Gene (Eugene Mirman), the family's champion eater, has a stomach bug on Thanksgiving! It's the worst, and it makes things more complicated for the whole family as Bob and Linda (John Roberts) lock their only son in the family bathroom to keep him from spreading germs. Under quarantine and bummed that he can't eat his favorite meal of the year, Gene asks his family to tell him stories to pass the time, launching one of Bob's Burgers' many anthology episodes, which take the family off into flights of fancy.
There's nothing wrong with these fantasies, but they do detract from the Thanksgiving setting. That puts it on the low end of our list — but this episode, packed with pop culture references and parody, is still a whole lot of fun.
10. "Puttsgiving" (13x08)
Linda finds a coupon for a mini golf session that expires on Thanksgiving Day, and she's determined to use it so it doesn't go to waste. Despite Bob's complaints, the family heads out for a morning of putt-putt, and the kids get into mischief while Linda tries her hardest to sink a putt. While it's technically a Thanksgiving episode, it's easy to forget for big chunks of the story that we're looking in on the Belchers during a holiday, because they're just playing putt-putt. Still, the cryptid-inspired golf course is incredible, and the focus on family over the trappings of the holiday makes for a nice dose of warmth.
9. "The Quirk-ducers" (7x06)
Annoyed that they have to sit through a school play rather than get a half-day off before Thanksgiving, the Belcher kids decide they'll get to go home early if they just sabotage the production. Fortunately, Tina (Dan Mintz) is hard at work on "The Quirky Turkey," a story about a turkey who doesn't fit in because she has skinny legs and glasses. (It's complete fiction, don't worry about it.) While the kids are off doing a Producers parody, though, Bob and Linda indulge in the best part of the episode, which is what happens when Linda finds a potato that looks just like her grandfather. It's delightful, even if it can't quite touch on the Thanksgiving glory of other episodes.
8. "Stuck in the Kitchen With You" (12x08)
The Belchers volunteer at a local nursing home on Thanksgiving morning, and Bob impulsively agrees to cook Thanksgiving dinner for the entire facility when the regular cook leaves. Tina and Gene are doing their best to put on a "Thanksgiving parade" because the TV is broken; Louise (Kristen Schaal) draws the short straw and has to deal with helping Bob in the kitchen; and Linda tries to help an old friend get his grumpy mother out of her holiday slump. It's one of those classic scenarios that spreads the Belcher family thin, but their discomfort is actually overcome by a sincere desire to help other people, making it a heart-warmer even if some storylines are weaker than others.
7. "I Bob Your Pardon" (9x07)
The mayor's office has decided to institute a turkey-pardoning ceremony, but when the Belcher kids overhear that the "pardoned" turkey is actually going to be slaughtered by the end of the day, they launch into action. Meanwhile, Bob's just looking for cranberries so he can make homemade cranberry sauce, and no one in town seems to know that fresh cranberries are a thing you can buy. Like the excellent "Christmas in the Car" (more on that next month), this is an on-the-road episode with some lovely Planes, Trains and Automobiles hijinks, and the ending pays off delightfully.
6. "Dawn of the Peck" (5x04)
Bob decides to sit out Thanksgiving, but Linda enthusiastically goes out to participate in the town's first-ever Turkey festival with the kids. But when the festival is derailed by a flock of angry turkeys who will leave no one unpecked, Wonder Wharf briefly turns into an apocalypse zone, and Linda fights to save her kids — meanwhile, Bob is back at home, completely oblivious, getting drunk and listening to Donna Summer. Drunk Bob episodes are always a delight, but watching Linda try to play Super Mom and fend off a horde of killer turkeys is the real gem of this particular episode.
5. "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal" (3x05)
It's the first Thanksgiving episode of the series!
Bob is excited to cook on his favorite holiday — at least until his landlord, Mr. Fischoeder (Kevin Kline), drops in with an offer the family can't refuse: If Bob loans out his wife and kids for one Thanksgiving dinner, and he pretends to be Mr. Fischoeder's cook, the family gets free rent. Why does Mr. Fischoeder want a fake family? To get laid, of course!
Meanwhile, Bob's stuck in the kitchen of the Fischoeder mansion bonding with the turkey, which he's named Lance, and he's getting absolutely plastered on absinthe. It's a tough episode to top, but — believe it or not — the Thanksgiving episodes do actually get better than this one. Plus, it's the origin of Linda Belcher's all-time great Thanksgiving song.
4. "Gayle Makin' Bob Sled" (6x04)
Bob's happily making Thanksgiving dinner at home when Linda tells him to go pick up her sister Gayle (Megan Mullally) before a huge snowstorm blows in. Gayle is, predictably, not ready for any of this, and when the car gets snowed in, Bob has to try to pull his injured sister-in-law (she hurt her ankle) and her cat Mr. Business — Mr. Jim Business to you — all the way back to the Belcher house. It does not go well, but he still seems to be having a better day than Linda, who has to supervise dinner while her perfectionist husband is away. It's an episode about accepting your family no matter how crazy they are, and isn't that what Thanksgiving is all about? (I won't spoil the line that did it, but this is the hardest my wife has ever laughed at a Bob's Burgers episode.)
3. "Thanks-hoarding" (8x05)
The Bechers' handyman and best customer Teddy (Larry Murphy) is panicked because he's supposed to host Thanksgiving for his family, so he calls Bob and Linda for help. While Bob gets dinner sorted in the kitchen, Linda and the kids go looking for a dining table and find an entire room full of junk that Teddy's hoarded over the years. It's a glimpse into a side of Teddy that the family's never seen, and as the Belchers unpack the room, they also get to the heart of Teddy's particular fears and help him get past them. It's an entire episode about how, in their own way, the Belchers are extraordinarily caring people, and one of the all-time best "Help a Friend Out" Thanksgiving stories ever put on TV.
2. "Now We're Not Cooking With Gas" (10x08)
In case you haven't noticed by now, Bob Belcher loves Thanksgiving. It's his favorite holiday, because it's a chance for him to be appreciated by his family through food in a way that doesn't happen any other day of the year. He takes tremendous pride in getting it right, so when he gets his hands on a rare heritage turkey, he's determined to make the best Thanksgiving ever. The problem? The gas goes out on Thanksgiving day, leaving Bob without a way to cook this prized bird. The lengths to which he's willing to go, and the lesson he ultimately learns about the true meaning of the holiday, might be somewhat predictable, but it's all executed so well that you barely notice the emotional beats coming before they've hit you right in the heart.
1. "Turkey in a Can" (4x05)
There is so much going on in "Turkey in a Can" that it almost feels like it won't fit in a 22-minute sitcom episode. Gayle's staying at the Belchers' house for Thanksgiving, Bob's trying a new turkey recipe, Gene's writing a new Thanksgiving song, and Tina's trying her best to make it to the adults' table. When Bob's raw, still-brining turkey ends up in the toilet, it launches a mad whodunit mixed with one man's desperate attempt to actually get Thanksgiving dinner on the table, and on top of all of that, it introduces us to the wonders of Bisexual Bob. The ultimate message? You can't halt the march of the time as your family grows and changes, but you can still be there for them, and that's the true perfect Thanksgiving. This one's not just the best Bob's Burgers Thanksgiving episode. It's up there with the best Thanksgiving episodes of any show ever, and it's great to watch with Bob's Burgers newbies too.
If you haven't already, consider supporting worker-owned media by subscribing to Pop Heist. We are ad-free and operating outside the algorithm, so all dollars go directly to paying the staff members and writers who make articles like this one possible.
