God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins

"God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" is the ninth episode of the third season of the animated comedy series Bob's Burgers and the overall 31st episode, and is written by Kit Boss and directed by Anthony Chun. It aired on Fox in the United States on December 16, 2012.

Plot

When Bob inherits a storage unit around Christmas, the family hope that they will contain riches, but instead they find a squatter named Chet who claims he was previously a display mannequin. The family take him in, only to discover that he has a talent for creating seasonal window displays out of mannequins, in which he also poses. As Christmas approaches Chet becomes increasingly unstable, eventually claiming that he is in love with another mannequin (Nadine) from whom he has become separated. Bob says Chet was never a mannequin and that Nadine is in a dump somewhere. In his misery, Chet creates a macabre and terrifying display, and the desperate family track Nadine down to a sex store. Liberating the mannequin, they reunite her with Chet and convince him to create a more appropriate display in time for Christmas.

Reception

Rowan Kaiser of The A.V. Club gave the episode a A–, saying "The entire episode hits that sweet spot between sweet and weird. Even the moment where Chet goes a little crazy and makes a horrifying window display is oddly endearing, thanks to the ketchup bottle squirting 'blood.' That’s clever, weird, but also impressive. That’s Bob’s Burgers, and I’m happy that the show is getting a chance to apply its impressive clever weirdness to the holidays."^[1] Ross Bonaime of Paste gave the episode a 8.5 out of 10, saying "God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins" is essentially everything you could want from a holiday episode of Bob’s Burgers. Chet’s story of finding mannequin love with Nadine is so ridiculous, yet everyone in the family except Bob finds it to be beautiful. Tina even proclaims it to be the greatest love story ever told. That may not be accurate, but it’s definitely the weirdest love story you’re going to find in a holiday TV special."^[2]

The episode received a 1.5 rating and was watched by a total of 3.09 million people. This made it the fourth most watched show of Fox's Animation Domination block that night, beating The Cleveland Show but losing to The Simpsons with 3.77 million.^[3]

References