Television

‘Bob’s Burgers’ looks for signs from the universe

Kirby’s Comet will tell me what to do.

February 28, 2023

Poor Teddy. Between losing his job, getting divorced, and stepping on a nail, the handyman and friend of of the titular culinary family in the animated sitcom Bob’s Burgers has had a run of seriously bad luck, lasting, oh, just about 30 years.

How does he know it’s been 30 years? That’s when Kirby’s Comet last came around.

“I mean, most of that is just aging, and marrying the wrong person, and not watching where you’re walking,” Bob says. But Teddy believes in signs. He knew the comet would tell him something big about his life back then, and the “curse” has been following him ever since. Of course, seeing the comet probably didn’t affect his life any more than the prevalence of Nicolas Cage movies has influenced drowning deaths. Correlation doesn’t always indicate causation.

“But hey, here’s hoping this comet turns it all around,” Teddy says, “and the next 30 years will be smooth sailing.”

You can forgive the guy, because episode 4 of Bob’s Burgers‘ season 13, “Comet-y of Errors,” isn’t the first time someone’s looked to a celestial visitor to learn of the future. Before we really knew what they were, comets could be seen as disturbances in the otherwise perfect celestial sphere, bringing news of bad things to come, whether that be floods, earthquakes, or the Black Death. And just like Teddy’s hope, comets can also be viewed as positive signs, even in the modern day. The Heaven’s Gate cult was thrilled to see the Hale-Bopp comet … even if their actions suggested otherwise.

Teddy looks for a sign

Teddy’s convinced that the universe sends us messages, and we just need to interpret them. “You’re telling me that when you’re driving and an Allman Brothers song is on the radio as you pass Allman Brothers Street, that doesn’t mean anything?” he asks. Linda concurs, and recounts the time she was telling her friend Gretchen on the phone that it was great to catch up, just as a bottle of ketchup fell over. “Explain that!” she says.

“I mean, can’t you, though?” Bob asks. “You work in a restaurant, and you’re on the phone with Gretchen all the time.”

And stranger-seeming coincidences than that are always occurring. As mathematician John Allen Paulos says, a day without coincidences would be the weirdest day of all. Something that happens to only one person in a billion every day still happens 2,000 times a year! Even winning the lottery twice is actually well within the bounds of probability. When a woman in New Jersey lived that dream, statisticians Stephen Samuels and George McCabe crunched the numbers and found that given the millions of lottery tickets sold every day, such a thing happening eventually was “practically a sure thing.”

Things have been looking up for Teddy, though. He’s been dating a woman named Kathleen who wants to hike Gullivan’s Gorge with him. It’s a big step for their new relationship, but he says he can’t decide until he sees “what the comet wants me to do.” It’s sad to think Teddy might miss out on something great because he needs higher approval, and it happens in the real world, too, when people look to their horoscopes or to “psychics” for advice. At least the comet isn’t draining Teddy of thousands of dollars.

Linda knows Bob doesn’t believe in signs from the universe, but she wants him to go with Teddy to the comet watch party at Scraggy Neck State Park, nevertheless. Since it’s clear they won’t immediately convince Teddy to not worry about signs, she wants Bob to make sure all the signs he sees tonight are positive ones, so he’ll take the leap and go hiking with Kathleen.

“It doesn’t matter what you think,” Linda says. “It matters what Teddy thinks.”

Bob obliges, but after coaching Teddy through swallowing a bug, tripping on a rock, and an incident when he messed up someone’s telescope, Bob’s had it. “There are no signs!” he says. “And the universe doesn’t talk. You have control over your life … We make decisions and they’re either good or bad and we have luck or we don’t. And we deal with it. ”

Teddy storms off, thinking Bob is saying all his bad luck is his fault, and Bob is eventually surprised when a seal appears in the ocean and starts to stare at him. “Is this what Teddy was talking about?” Bob says. Are you a sign or something? Hey, is Teddy gonna be okay? … If his next 30 years are gonna be good, keep, um, looking at me.” The seal continues to stare, and Bob is struck. Not only does he feel good about Teddy, but now he’s also less worried about the new countertops he bought for the restaurant.

They are nice countertops.

You might think Bob’s flip-flopping, but it’s easy for someone’s skepticism to be blunted when the seemingly weird thing is happening to them, especially when stressed. Standing in the ocean, wet, cold, and emotionally charged after an argument, a chance encounter with some wildlife could seem unduly significant. When Bob tells Teddy about it, and says maybe the sign was a seal because of the sealant on his new countertops, Teddy’s outside perspective makes him dubious.

“Eh, seems like kind of a stretch, Bob,” he says.

AIPT Science is co-presented by AIPT and the New York City Skeptics.