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Sinclair Community College

Creative Paper

Tina Belcher - Bob’s Burgers

Yoaira Victor-Suarez

Abnormal Psychology

Dr. Sara Bielek

9 December 2017
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Yoaira Victor-Suarez

Dr. Bielek

Abnormal Psychology

9 December 2017

Does Tina Belcher Have Asperger Syndrome?

Who does not love Bob’s Burgers these days? It is a television show of not only comedy,

but also family love and adventures. It mainly takes place at the Belcher family burger

restaurant and the family home, which is directly above the restaurant.

Bob, Linda and their three kids: Tina, Louise and Gene really go through it all. From

rivalries with the Italian place across the street to trying to get a cow down the apartment stairs.

The oldest daughter, Tina seems to be the oddest of the bunch. She acts extremely peculiar from

the beginning of her very first appearance in the pilot episode. Someone asked in the first

episode if she had Autism and her father denied it, but she clearly shows the symptoms.

Tina Belcher is an interesting thirteen-year-old girl. She is neither an extrovert nor an

introvert; she is right smack in the middle. She is extremely quirky and shows little to no

emotion throughout the show. There are sometimes where she is extremely anxious or stressed

and lashes out, but for the most part she has a bland personality.

Tina tends to fantasize about zombies, unicorns, horses and the love of her life, Jimmy

Pesto Jr. Erotic friend fiction is one of her many hobbies and she has no filter when conversing

with another person. This really brought me to the conclusion that she was living with some sort
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of disorder. Despite her father’s argument, Tina does indeed show signs of Asperger’s, the “high

functioning” side of the Autism spectrum.

Asperger Syndrome falls under the umbrella of the Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD.

Autism was recently changed to a type of spectrum disorder because of the numerous types and

severities of the disorders there are. People living with Asperger’s often show some signs of

speech barriers, inappropriate social interactions, abnormal obsessions, “robotic” speech, lack of

eye contact and very odd body movements.

During their early childhood, kids are not diagnosed until they start having trouble with

school. In adulthood, people typically mistaken this disease with depression and/or anxiety.

There is no specific treatment for Asperger Syndrome, but it is recommended to assist cognitive

behavior therapy sessions regularly.

Throughout Bob’s Burgers, Tina shows her awkward side countless of times. She is

widely known for her loud, nervous groaning and her inappropriate comments about boys’ butts.

Asperger’s first came to mind because I came to realize that she has very poor social skills. Tina

says whatever may be on her mind at that moment, inappropriate or not. I do not know if she

knows that what she says is not normal, but I do believe that is one of the symptoms.

Obsessions with unusual topics or objects is another sign, in one of the episodes she

decides to write erotic stories of everyone in her school which she proceeded to read them out

loud to the whole school during their lunch break. She also wrote an erotic horse story that she

later handed to her guidance counselor. Tina does not understand that her new found hobby is

not usually an everyday activity for a teenage girl to pursue. She may be an odd kid, but this is

just out of the ordinary.

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Tina Belcher speaks in such monotone that any emotion she tries to perceive sounds

exactly like each other. When anything does not go the way she wants she starts to have anxiety

attacks. She either drops to the ground, starts rocking back and forth, or groaning. I believe that

her disorder is often mistaken for just plain “awkwardness”. Yes, she passes the weird test with

flying colors, but she needs some family support.

Since the show started when Tina was twelve, it is unknown if the syndrome developed

when she was much younger or recently.

The Belchers seem to treat her like an outcast instead of helping Tina grow and deal with

her difficulties. She shows signs of depression throughout some episodes. In a certain scene,

she said that maybe she was not meant to be happy. Her love life never goes as planned and her

obsession with her dad’s rival’s son does not help one bit. Her dad prohibits her from seeing

Jimmy Jr. and that upsets Tina more than she ever knew. She begins to rock back and forth,

drifting into a panic attack.

Due to the restaurant, her family is very occupied. The kids are the only employees there

so it all falls on them. Tina has no social skills which lead her to say things that drive the

customers out of the burger shop. I think that Tina does not get enough attention and support on

a daily basis to be able to overcome this obstacle.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is my treatment for her. With the right guidance, she can be

on the right path to being able to control Asperger’s. She would also benefit from family

therapy. Family support and awareness is key to knowing how to live day to day instead of

suffering through it. Starting early with treatments can secure that she will be better off in her

future.
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Having the right understanding of this syndrome can help prevent many mishaps on a

daily basis. Knowing how to help the one’s close to you can allow them to open up and enjoy

life more freely. They will not have to hide what they are dealing with and I believe that that is

the main purpose for therapy. Without the right guidance, medication is useless to a certain

extent. By helping Tina learn and understand people skills she can excel at the restaurant like

her father desires her to do. I believe that the fact that Bob does not know what his oldest

daughter is going through is hurting him just as much. He always yells at the kids for drawing

customers out of the hamburger joint, but Tina really cannot help being so bland. Her way of

communicating with the customers is her way of speaking. She does not understand that she is

being abnormally inappropriate. Knowing this brought me to the conclusion that people living

with any type of Autism are often mistaken for being out of the ordinary and that is not right.

Some of them did not have a choice as to having this disorder or not.

Although thirteen-year-old, Tina Belcher, has impacted the face of American TV, she

has also brought some questions to the population. Was she truly perceived to have Asperger’s

or is she just an extremely anxious teenager going through raging hormones? Is this TV show a

way to open the people’s eyes towards what people with this disease go through every day?

Only the writer of Bob’s Burgers knows, but after all those questions I still believe it is true.

In conclusion, after gathering all my research and evidence from re-watching the show

repeatedly, I came to a realization that Tina Belcher indeed has Asperger Syndrome. With the

help of professionals and her family of course, she can live a life as close to someone not living

with this disease as possible. Taking this class was a fantastic idea and I have learned so much.

I feel privileged to be able to be taught by Dr. Bielek and if I had more time at Sinclair I would

not think twice about taking another course. Thank you!

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Works Cited

Asperger Syndrome. (2013, December 09). Retrieved December 09, 2017, from

https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/asperger-syndrome

Wikia. (n.d.). Tina Belcher. Retrieved December 09, 2017, from

http://bobsburgers.wikia.com/wiki/Tina_Belcher