My Big Fat Greek Bob

Plot

Gretchen recruits Linda to co-host parties where she sells marital aids to groups of women. For each gathering, they tailor their approach, sometimes inventing tales about Bob’s inadequate sexual performance to loosen the crowd and move more product. Meanwhile, Bob reluctantly steps in to cook for a college fraternity, Beta Upsilon Pi, filling in for a friend. To his surprise, the brothers—Pud, Hefty Jeff, and Turd—are down-to-earth, awkward, and kind.

Pud, the president, explains that the Betas are unpopular and constantly pranked by the snooty rival fraternity, the Alphas. They enlist Bob’s help for retaliation: he drives them to the Alpha house, where they shove a rotting fish into the outdoor unit of the central air conditioner. To celebrate, the Betas make Bob drink from their treasured artifact, Beta—a hollowed-out, taxidermied iguana that was once the house mascot. Bob spends the night partying with them, using a karaoke machine donated by an old alumnus nicknamed “Slowhand.”

When Hefty Jeff gripes that Slowhand is always hanging around trying to relive his glory days, Pud scolds him, reminding everyone that Slowhand has always been supportive and generous. Bob grows fond of the Betas and brings his kids to visit the house. There, they are shocked to find Dr. Yap, and even more shocked to learn he is Slowhand. Dr. Yap aggressively tries to push the Betas into partying and escalating their rivalry with the Alphas, making the members uncomfortable.

Though annoyed that the Betas clearly prefer Bob, Yap grudgingly accepts him into the fold and gives Bob and the kids a tour of the house, excluding the “Room of Secrets” in the basement, which is reserved for official Betas only.

Reception

Pilot Viruet from The A.V. Club rated the episode a B+, noting that the fraternity plot has a strange quality. Slowhands is actually Dr. Yap, the Belcher family dentist voiced by Ken Jeong, which fits because he plays a character who has worn out his welcome in the frat house. Viruet likes Dr. Yap, though not as much as Tina does, but finds the context of his return odd. It works because Dr. Yap was already established as unhinged, so his fake kidnapping of the iguana to steal attention back from Bob makes sense.

Viruet adds that Dr. Yap is ridiculous and gross enough—especially the spit keg—to keep the episode funny. Robert Ham of Paste gave the episode an 8.7 out of 10, saying the subtext is not necessary to enjoy it. Like good subtext, it only appears if you look for it. There is plenty of silliness on the surface, and viewers can skim or dig deep and still be satisfied.

The episode had a 1.5 rating and was watched by 3.17 million people. It was the fourth most watched show on Animation Domination that night, behind American Dad!, Family Guy, and The Simpsons, which had 4.20 million viewers.