11 of Louise Belcher’s Best Moments on Bob’s Burgers
Amidst the memes and analyses revolving around Bob’s Burgers, Louise Belcher often falls in the shadow of her big sister, Tina. Where the oldest Belcher kid has become a symbol of teen awkwardness and feminism as she stresses over leg hair and maintains her book of “erotic friend fiction,” little Louise shouts, jumps and wreaks all sorts of havoc and still doesn’t get the same amount of attention. Yet, Louise is frequently the hero of the show. Well, sort of. She’s stubborn, devious and sometimes mean – definitely not the kid you want to babysit – but those qualities, more often than not, work to her advantage.
This quick-witted, supremely confident little girl is the person you want on your side when you need to get out of a jam or when you really want to exact revenge. Sometimes her schemes fail. Often, however, they don’t. Even if Tina and their brother Gene don’t admit it, the Belcher kids would probably fare a lot worse if Louise didn’t have that kind of evil, definitely genius spark in her. The youngest Belcher deserves a tribute, and we’re just the ones to give it to her.
11. “The Belchies”
Even a genius has to fail and, in “The Belchies,” Louise fails a lot. Usually, the youngest Belcher’s self-assured nature works to her advantage, but, when the kids get trapped in a taffy factory, her over-confidence ends up being her downfall.
In the end, Tina, who all-too-easily goes along with her sister’s super-terrible-awesome idea, ends up saving the day. It’s a role-reversal from what we often see in the Louise-centric episodes, but you can’t always be a winner. Sometimes, you do have to rely on the people closest to you get you out of a jam. “The Belchies” is a good example of that.
10. “Mother Daughter Laser Razor”
Easily swayed by mommy blogs, Linda forces Louise to go to a mother-daughter bonding workshop. This leads to some great lines from Louise, like when she refers to a treacherous session as the “Momgina Monologues.”
This episode is an over-the-top satire of blogger culture, where anyone reading the Internet can put their faith in someone with virtual no credentials. It’s also a story about the lengths to which moms will go to try and bond with their kids. Sometimes, kids of a certain just want to do their thing, and that usually doesn’t involve getting locked up in a womb-like room where Freaky Friday is playing on the TV set.
9. “Slumber Party”
A lot of little kids would beg their parents for a slumber party. Louise is not one of those kids. She’s a loner who doesn’t connect with her sticker-obsessed classmates and isn’t cool with her mom trying to force friendships on her. Linda, though, is convinced that Louise will come to like slumber parties and will make new friends.
When Louise does get a slumber party, she schemes to drive everyone away from it. Getting the girl who hates germs to leave is easy. The motormouth and braid-obsessed girl are a little tougher, but Louise manages to get them to go home too. The problem kid is the girl who everyone writes off as boring. Sometimes, the quiet kid ends up being the coolest one and that’s what Louise learns in this episode. “Slumber Party” starts off as a schemer-comedy, but it becomes a story about making friends and not making snap judgments about people.
8. “Full Bars”
If you ever needed a reminder to lock your phone and keep it away from grade schoolers, it’s this. When the Belcher kids’ Halloween quest for full sized candy bars lands them in bully country, Louise finds a new way to torment the tormentors.
Louise seems to be the only kid in the group who realizes that the greatest weapon against teenage boys is teenage girls. Still, even she is shocked by the power she wields when she starts sending text messages from the cell phone of a particularly attractive high school girl; “This thing is like a remote control; they’ll do whatever I say,” she says. As Louise tries to get revenge against the bullies, she observes how the dynamics between boys and girls will change once puberty strikes. Fortunately, she figures out how to take advantage of this.
7. “Ear-sy Rider”
Even a kid with some serious meanie tendencies can have moments where she feels hurt. If the kid is Louise, though, the perpetrators can expect serious revenge. Fearless Louise has no problem standing up to the local bullies, but when one steals her bunny ears, she’s distraught. Suddenly, we see that our tough kid is a sensitive one too.
Bullies should know better than to try and battle Louise. They can’t win. Even though she’s half the size of her tormentor, she will stop at nothing to get those damn bunny ears back in her possession. She’s unafraid and knows that cunning trumps brawn. She also know the secret of the playground: When you can’t outsmart your enemy, you make friends with people much larger and scarier than the dude who has your bunny ears.