Fox animated series Bob’s Burgers is in its fourth season and has many-a viewers and critics smitten. If you haven’t seen it yet (for SHAME), it’s about a family named the Belchers who run a hamburger restaurant, and in the process participate in a slew of hilarious hijinks. From crashing bat mitzvahs to finding their Thanksgiving turkey in a toilet, the family dynamics are just the right amount of heartfelt and dysfunctional.
The show has been praised for having “some of the sharpest storytelling on the program guide”, combined with just the right amount of pop culture references and bathroom humor. TV Mix asked Bob’s Burgers writer Lizzie Molynuex what it’s like to be funny all the time — and bring Bob, Linda, Tina, Gene and Louise to life every week.
Q: If you had to pick a character to be in the show, who would you be and why?
A: I would absolutely want to be Linda. I feel like I already have a lot in common with her. I’m loud. I enjoy my wine. I love tosiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn
Q: What’s it like to work with about 14 other writers?
A: It’s ridiculously fun. Everyone on our staff is so incredibly funny and also just so incredibly nice. It’s cliche to say, but we really are like a family. It’s hard not to become one when you spend everyday with a group of people for over four years. At first, I was very scared of the idea of working with so many other people. I write with my sister, Wendy, which is great, but the idea of having all of these other people around made me very nervous. Luckily, working with everyone here has been completely not scary. I think a lot of that stems from not having a competitive atmosphere.
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We all just love the show, love our jobs, and want it to be the best it can be. The spirit is always just to let the best idea or the best joke win. When you stop worrying about always getting your own ideas in and you really work with other people it makes you a much better writer. I was pretty young when I started here and easily the least experienced writer and I have learned so much from working with such talented people. I can’t be grateful enough. It’s made me a better writer and I am happy for that. Plus it’s fun and we throw things at each other a lot! We used to have a game that revolved around throwing wadded up paper at people’s faces and trying to get them not to flinch. We called it, Chicken Face Ball, and it was perfect.
Q: Even your Facebook posts are hilarious. Is being funny for a living ever exhausting?
A: There are some days when I am just not funny. Where every joke I pitch seems to fall flat and I find myself saying, “So this is a really bad joke but just stay with me…” quite a bit. At first those days worried me and made me feel insecure. But I think as time went on I just realized and accepted that no one can be the funniest, best writer everyday. So you just do the best you can and try not to worry about it too much. It’s such a great job, so even if I do feel tired or not funny I try not to complain because other people have to perform surgery or practice law or fly planes for a living, so I’d sound like a real dick if I was complaining about my long day of not thinking of great fart jokes.
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Q: I hear there may be a Bob’s Burgers album coming out? Details please.
A: I don’t know much. All I can say is that discussions are underway and hopefully something will be coming out in the fall.
Q: Your sister is also a writer on the show. When did you start working together and what’s that like?
A: We actually started writing together when I was in my last year of college. We wrote a movie script together, which I’m pretty sure we’ve buried somewhere in Mexico so that no one will/can ever read it again. But it was a really fun experience and we realized that we liked working together so we just kept doing it for the next few years. She was much more experienced than I was, so at first it was more of a learning experience for me than a straight up partnership. But if you can find someone you can write with and not constantly want to murder it’s a pretty great thing! We work well together and it also gives us the opportunity to make a lot of jokes about how we still live at home and have our mom write all of our scripts for us.
There were always about 14-15 writers on staff. It sounds like a lot, but since the process of producing an episode takes so long, about eight to nine months from script to air, we are always rewriting. It’s incredibly helpful to have a lot of people available to pitch in.
Q: Any sneak peeks you can give everyone for this upcoming season?
A: Here are a few things to look forward to: Bob in a pony outfit, trains, pom poms, mopeds, psychics. The return of Aunt Gayle, Dr. Yap, Mickey, Mr. Ambrose, Sergeant Bosco and Regular Sized Rudy. Voices by Paul F. Thompkins, Jordan Peele, Keegan-Michael Key, and Zach Galifianakis. And our first ever two part finale! If that doesn’t excite you, then please still watch anyways!
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SOURCE: TVMix.com
