Holiday Hangover
I ask you: how is it possible that a mere week ago I was sitting on my father’s couch watching It’s a Wonderful Life? There I sat, resplendent in holiday cheer, quietly weeping over my favorite Christmas movie and enjoying the peace and quiet of a holiday vacation. And now, only seven short days later, I find myself back in the normal swing of things, figuring out how to maximize the rest of the tiny little weekend so that I go into next week with the energy to be somewhat productive until next weekend comes around.
How sad that we go so quickly from quietly enjoying the company of our loved ones back to the annoying pace and pressure of regular life.
How equally sad that regular life isn’t more fun.
Every year at this time I feel emotionally hungover, on a definite downswing after enjoying the Christmas season. Although I know I will recover before long, the first couple weeks of January are always a bummer. I spend the majority of my time lamenting the loss of the lazy days, Christmas celebrations, cozy nights, and eating with reckless holiday abandon. At times like these I have to find something that brings me joy and access it with regularity.
This year that something is a show called Bob’s Burgers.
When I first heard about this show I thought it was just another animated show that would be kind of stupid and kind of raunchy while also being kind of funny. In my head I lumped it together with Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Ren and Stimpy.
Bob’s Burgers is not raunchy, it is minimally stupid, and it is extremely funny. I put it on one day last year when I needed some background noise expecting to mostly ignore it, but after a couple of episodes I was hooked. This show on the surface is about Bob and Linda running a mostly struggling burger restaurant while raising three extremely unique children somewhere along the Jersey Shore. But the more episodes I watched the more I found I was touched by the portrayal of this family.
The Belchers (yes, their last name is Belcher, which I swear took me about three seasons of the show to realize was also a joke) are a family that loves each other. They are quite the collection of stone cold weirdos in the very best way possible. My favorite thing about them is how they are a cohesive unit: everyone in the family knows everyone else’s quirks and issues, and they love and support each other through them. Sure, there is teasing between the kids, but when it comes down to it they will defend each other to the hilt. Tina is a teenager fighting that puberty monster every day of the week. Gene is a loud and proud mama’s boy who loves to eat and is a less than talented but deeply passionate musician. And Louise is, well, Louise. She wears bunny ears at all times, has a vivid imagination, and a strong sense of right and wrong often resulting in plots of revenge. Linda, the mother, loves her family without ceasing and is herself a party looking for a place to happen. And finally, Bob, the father, is a talented and creative cook who often has conversations with the food he is cooking or the new kitchen toy he is using. Bob is also an active parent who obviously loves his family and tries every day to be better than his father was to him.
The show itself is so well written. It is funny, often laugh out loud funny, and clever to boot. Each episode contains at least three puns, if not more, seen through the opening credits and on the menu board in the restaurant. Most of the time there is a song that accompanies the episode…an original song! For almost every episode!! That is no easy task to say the least. There are often cameos - celebrities voicing a random character. It is fun to play Why Do I Recognize That Voice? and I am regularly driven to the internet to figure out who is playing which character.
Best of all for those of us in our holiday hangovers, Bob’s Burgers has a ton of holiday themed episodes. They do Halloween and Christmas, but the best ones are the Thanksgiving episodes because Bob is so obsessed with cooking and Thanksgiving is his favorite holiday. When I feel truly low and am missing the company of loved ones and the spirit of holiday cheer, a Thanksgiving Bob’s Burgers is sure to cheer me up. I am eleven seasons into the show (which is currently on it’s fourteenth season) and every time I watch it I feel enveloped into the loving arms of the Belcher family. It’s just the best thing for an emotional hangover.
Today after I post this I need to do some work on a couple craft projects which are long overdue presents. Once it stops snowing I need to clean off my car so I can drive in to work tomorrow. I need to shower, figure out something to eat for lunch and dinner, and in general prepare my brain to hit the ground running tomorrow morning because there is lots of work to be done. But when I lay my head upon the pillow this evening, I’m sure I will watch at least one episode of Bob’s Burgers before I go to sleep, clinging desperately to that happy-family-holiday vibe that the show provides.
My cure for a holiday hangover: be gentle with yourself, snuggle with a pet or a cozy blanket, read a nice book, drink lots of delicious coffee, and watch Bob’s Burgers. It has curative powers, a balm for the soul that is down in the regular life dumps.
