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Throughout the summer I’ve been writing here about minor characters from Bob’s Burgers while the main characters have given us context on Sunday mornings. Minor and main, main and minor… I’m honestly not sure which category Teddy falls into. On the one hand, on a show about a family that runs a restaurant together, it makes sense that the main characters would be said family. Teddy, their most regular and loyal customer, has really become a part of that family, though. And if you were to visit his wiki page, his presence in the series is so consistent the editors chose to provide the much shorter list of episodes: the ones he doesn’t appear in. What I love about Teddy is how genuine he is. He lacks many social skills, struggles with his confidence, and could be the mascot for oversharing (although Teddy has a mascot phobia, so maybe don’t suggest that to him), but he is loving, appreciates nothing more than helping where he can, and is incredibly loyal. Not just as a customer, but more notably as a friend and surrogate uncle to the children. Teddy views Bob as his best friend. And maybe he doesn’t even know his real name – thinking it and the restaurant are “Bob Burgers” – and maybe the ways he shows it are at times a little awkward – promising to take over his duties caring for Linda and the children if something happens to Bob, or signing them up for a stuntman exercise weekend experience – but the friendship is true. Even Bob, who often denies the friendship goes beyond Teddy being a customer, has admitted that Teddy is in fact his closest friend. The craziness Teddy’s personality gets him into create opportunities for comedy, but part of what makes Teddy so wonderful is they also prove to be opportunities for his growth. Teddy learns, and while he seems to have a lack of self-awareness in many social situations, he has enough that he tries new things, puts himself out there in dating, and is seeing a therapist. Teddy may be desperate, divorced, and lonely at times, but he doesn’t wallow in it. He moves, works, grows. I don’t mean that if the series goes another ten years he’ll be a completely different person, but I do appreciate he isn’t left in his misery without hope, love, and joy, and those are a credit to his character. This is why Teddy is, to me, a part of the family. He’s goofy, gets them into messes, but he’s also kind, consistent, and loving. Linda, Bob, and Teddy make a trio that works well together, and though Louise has called him the “dangerous uncle we never had”, he is an uncle to them nonetheless. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus is noted to say, “you can choose your friends but you sho' can't choose your family.” In its original context, Jem is trying to excuse the family, while Aunt Alexandra is taking the opportunity to choose, excluding those she believes unworthy. But Teddy goes yet another direction, one of celebration for the choice of a friend that becomes family. So major or minor, friend, customer, acquaintance, family… We have people in our lives with labels that could separate, and not all of them have the dogged loyalty Teddy has. I pray he might open us up to seeing them differently, experiencing the ways they might become special to us. Rev. Ben Richards Ps. I hope you will join us for worship this Sunday – in person or online – as our series “The Gospel of Bob’s Burgers” concludes. If you’d like to watch the “extra credit” episode in advance as an introduction or refresher, it’s the delightful “The Plight Before Christmas”, which is season 13, episode 10.
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