Since its early days, Tina's erotic friend-fiction has been one of the longest ongoing jokes of Bob's Burgers. Her creativity never ceases to amaze and confuse characters and audiences, as her writing has covered a wide array of properties, including Lord of the Rings, The Simpsons, E.R. and many other titles. However, it seems like the upcoming Season 12 of Bob's Burgers will have its largest exploration into her friend-fiction.
Announced during the Bob's Burgers Comic-Con@Home panel, there will be a two-part episode toward the end of the season dedicated to Tina's friend-fiction. This unnamed episode is still in the early stages of development, but some details about it were dropped, including how it would have a Blade Runner feel to it.
From what can be gathered from the online panel, this two-part episode is about the Belcher family trying to figure out what is going on with Tina, so they dive into her friend-fiction in hopes of an answer. Like other episodes of Bob's Burgers that have featured extended cutaways and film references, it's highly likely this will be the case here, with a significant amount of the episode taking place in Tina's friend-fiction.
As is common for Bob's Burgers, there will be plenty of pop culture references beyond Blade Runner, with showrunner Loren Bouchard also dropping titles like Ex Machina and Westworld. It appears that Tina wants to write about androids to deal with her issues at school, leading to friend-fiction that leans heavily into "sexy robot movies," according to Bouchard. This will also go against Gene's views of robots, as he is a classic robot guy, leading to more humor between the two siblings.
Showrunner Nora Smith adds that this episode will go beyond the sci-fi genre. The family will be going through Tina's past works as well, and her other friend-fiction has influences from Grease, Fast and Furious, Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park.
Along with this being a huge episode, the showrunners are debating whether this episode should have extended minutes without dialogue, relying predominantly on music, sound and action for the storytelling. This in turn would feel like a classic cartoon or arthouse film, depending on how it's executed.
Whether this will happen or not has yet to be confirmed, but if it does occur, then this could be the longest sequence in Bob's Burgers to not have dialogue. This is a huge departure from one of Bob's Burgers' strongest elements, as Bouchard praises the show for being something you can listen to without necessarily needing to see, similar to a podcast. Without the dialogue, these sequences require the audience to actively watch what is happening to know exactly what is going on.
It'll be some time before audiences can see if this approach plays out, as Season 12 is set to premiere Sept. 26, 2021. While everything is not set in stone, the fact that this two-part episode is going to be a blend of friend-fiction and film references bodes well, especially because of Bob's Burgers' track record.