Bob’s Burgers cooking up new episodes, but not about coronavirus

These wouldn’t be easy times for Bob’s Burgers, if the small burger joint in the animated Fox comedy was a real restaurant. Bob and Linda Belcher’s family-run eatery was barely making it before the coronavirus pandemic. It’s tough to imagine it staying in business now, no matter how many burgers-of-the-day family pal Teddy ordered. 

On Tuesday, show creator Loren Bouchard said the comedy is continuing to make new episodes during the outbreak, but he hopes to avoid writing the disease itself into any plots. Commenting on a Hidden Remote article speculating on how the Belchers might deal with the current situation, Belcher notes that he hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

“To clarify: we have episodes coming that we made DURING corona,” he tweeted. “But none about it. Hoping to avoid that.”

This is really sweet and sad but also hopeful. To clarify: we have episodes coming that we made DURING corona. But none about it. Hoping to avoid that. https://t.co/XTw1uVoFdH

— loren bouchard (@lorenbouchard) May 26, 2020

As an animated show, Bob’s Burgers has an advantage over live-action shows. Voice actors and animators can work from home, and no one has to risk spreading germs by working on the same set. The season 10 season finale aired May 17, and the show has been renewed for an 11th season, presumably debuting in the fall of 2020.

Fans on social media agreed Bob’s business would probably be doomed if the virus hit its animated world.

“I mean I love the show but in no way shape or form is the restaurant profitable by any hopeful measure,” wrote one Twitter user. “This is the kind of article that asks if strawberry shortcake drawn with crayon is the same as the real thing.”

I mean i love the show but in no way shape or form is the restaurant profitable by any hopeful measure. This is the kind of article that asks if strawberry shortcake drawn with crayon is the same as the real thing.

— Joshua Petre (@PetrePowder) May 26, 2020

However, the Belchers’ good attitudes would certainly help them in any crisis. “Kudos for keeping the show pandemic-free, but if anyone could handle COVID-19 with good humor and excellent tunes, it would be the Belcher family,” another fan wrote.

Kudos for keeping the show pandemic-free, but if anyone could handle covid 19 with good humour and excellent tunes, it would be the Belcher family

— Allan (@snarfledoof) May 26, 2020

The Belchers are still coming to the big screen, but the pandemic has changed the release date for Bob’s Burgers: The Movie. The film was originally scheduled for release in theaters on July 17, 2020, but with many theaters closed or planning to reopen at lower capacity, the Bob’s Burgers big-screen debut has now been moved to April 9, 2021. 

Bouchard says the film will explain a long-standing Belcher mystery, why youngest child Louise always wears pink bunny ears.