Fall Asleep To Every Pest Control Van Joke Explained

Every exterminator van joke in the Bob's Burgers opening credits, explained: what the pest control puns actually say and what they parody. The Bob's Burgers intro features a pest control van that drives past the Belcher family for about a second and a half, carrying a different punning company name in almost every episode since season two, more than 160 of them so far. This video reads those names out loud and sorts them by what they are parodying, covering the music puns, the movie puns, the literary puns, and the television puns. It also explains where the gag came from, why it stayed frozen for a full year, and how the writers actually generate the names. It is narrated slowly and calmly, with no payoff and nothing to keep track of, so it works as background listening or sleep content. What's covered in this video: The gag explained: the van appears between the rat infestation and the falling utility pole in the credits, so the exterminator is diegetically justified, arriving to kill the vermin you just watched. The van is modeled on a plain Ford Econoline on purpose, so your eye goes to the lettering, and fan accounts say its color changes episode to episode. An unaired demo pilot from before the 2011 premiere reportedly already had the van, meaning the gag predates Tina as the middle child. Fans claim that from season three onward, Jimmy Pesto's reflection appears in the van window, watching the whole opening from across the street. The entire first season used one fixed name, Rat's All Folks, a Looney Tunes pun that PhatMojo later immortalized as a 2018 San Diego Comic-Con collectible. Season three's Halloween episode Full Bars uses Bats All Folks, the gag referencing its own history. Writers Wendy Molyneux and Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin describe intensive room-wide pitching sessions, with Loren Bouchard choosing names, aiming for a pun so stupid it becomes a bad idea. The writers reportedly consult the fan-run Bob's Burgers Wiki to avoid repeating puns, which Wendy Molyneux joked deserves a brownie basket. Music puns covered include Rat Stevens, Working for the Squeak-end, Bohemian Rat-Squishy, Killing Fleas Softly, Ethel Vermin, and Frank's Zappas Bug Zapper Installation. Movie puns include Spray Anything with matching cover art, Silence Of The Ants, Termite-mare On Elm Street, How The Pest Was Won, and The Van That Rocks The Beetle. Literary puns include The Great Ratsby, Mouse Ado About Nothing, Stuart-A-Little-Less, If You Give A Mouse A Poison, The Mice Storm, and Bugshead Re-Squisheted. Television puns open with Murder She Roach, the fan favorite, and LaVermin Shirley from Tina-Rannosaurus Wrecks. Mentioned in this video: Bob's Burgers, Loren Bouchard, Wendy Molyneux, Lizzie Molyneux-Logelin, Jimmy Pesto, Tina Belcher, Gene Belcher, PhatMojo, San Diego Comic-Con, Bob's Burgers Wiki, Ford Econoline, Looney Tunes, Warner Brothers, Rat's All Folks, Bats All Folks, Full Bars, Stan Berman, RadioShack, Cat Stevens, Loverboy, Queen, Roberta Flack, Twisted Sister, The Commodores, The Beach Boys, Alice Cooper, Ethel Merman, Gypsy, Eddie Money, Ray Charles, Tom Petty, Frank Zappa, Say Anything, The Silence Of The Lambs, A Nightmare On Elm Street, Road To Perdition, Tom Hanks, Terms Of Endearment, How The West Was Won, Led Zeppelin, The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux, Harrison Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Stuart Little, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Judy Blume, Rick Moody, Ang Lee, Ira Levin, E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh, Murder She Wrote, Angela Lansbury, Laverne And Shirley