According to the voice of Tina, these are the 5 best episodes of Bob's Burgers

He also talks about his new YouTube stand-up special, Dan Mintz: Well Rounded Ente

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Dan Mintz is used to playing a cartoon character. For over 300 episodes of Bob’s Burgers spanning 16 seasons — and one theatrical film — Dan Mintz supplied the voice for Tina Belcher, the boy-crazy 13-year-old girl who cannot hide her raging hormones or her general discomfort in most social situations. Which is why, when it came time for Mintz to do his new stand-up comedy special, Dan Mintz: Well Rounded Entertainer, he figured having it animated would be the way to go.

“I wasn't necessarily sure I was gonna go that route when I first decided to do the special," Mintz tells Polygon via Zoom. "I was just trying to picture how it would be shot and what I would wear and the angles. I was having trouble figuring out a visual look for the special, so I felt like, I'm very comfortable with animation. I'm known much more for being a cartoon than for being a stand-up, so that makes a lot of sense.” Given that Mintz’s humor consists of, as he describes it, "absurd one-liners,” having his special be animated also allowed for jokes that lean into that medium, like his impression of a Ford Taurus.

Dan Mintz: Well Rounded Entertainer will be available on YouTube starting June 18 at 8pm ET. Ahead of its release, we asked Mintz to look back at his five favorite episodes of Bob's Burgers. Check out the list below.

5 Beefsquatch (Season 2, Episode 9)

The episode “Beefsquatch” sees Tina fall for a boy named Nathan, who seems to have the exact same look and personality as Tina. Nathan was played by, and named for, the similarly-deadpan comedian Nathan Fielder, and stands as one of Tina’s funniest romances to date.

“This was a favorite [because of] Nathan Fielder, who I’ve been friends with since he first came to America,” says Mintz. “It was fun to play opposite someone with such similar energy, because Tina tends to fall for people that are very different from her, and this character had kind of a similar vibe.”

4 Sheesh! Cab, Bob? (Season 1, Episode 6)

Coming early in the show’s first season, “Sheesh! Cab, Bob?” sees Bob Belcher (H. Jon Benjamin) working nights as a cab driver to throw Tina a big party for her 13th birthday. It was the first episode centered around Tina, which is why Mintz cites it as a favorite.

“I like that they gave her a win right out of the gate, when she got to have her first kiss,” says Mintz. “That’s when I started to realize that this character was not just going to be a punchline, she’s a multi-dimensional character that you could root for and relate to.”

3 The Plight Before Christmas (Season 13, Episode 10)

“This episode has come up a lot lately in comic con panels and stuff that we’ve done,” says Mintz of the heartfelt season 13 episode, which features Tina being the only family member to make it to a poetry reading done by her little sister Louise (Kristen Schaal).

“It was really cool for Louise to be vulnerable,” says Mintz. “That's what was unique about the show, and for Tina to realize what was happening, and that she couldn't let this moment happen without being there for Louise.”

2 Tina and the Real Ghost (Season 5, Episode 2)

“Tina and the Real Ghost” is another absurd episode where Tina believes the ghost of a 13-year-old boy is trapped in a showbox and she proceeds to fall in love with the ghost.

“There have been so many Tina dating episodes and somehow they keep doing it and it's always original and feels different,” says Mintz. “In that genre, this one is particularly funny.”

1 Topsy (Season 3, Episode 16)

“It's a great episode,” Mintz says of “Topsy,” the season 3 episode where Louise wrangles her older siblings Tina and Gene (Eugene Mirman) into helping her compete in a science fair.

To antagonize a Thomas Edison-obsessed science teacher, the trio put on a performance about the real-life story of Topsy, the elephant Tom Edison purposefully electrocuted as a marketing stunt. However, the Belcher kids end up losing the thread of the performance, and it turns into a love story between Topsy (played by Tina) and Edison (played by Gene).

The episode, which is also a fan-favorite, contains the absurd song “Electric Love,” which Mintz says “still gets stuck in my head in the best way ten years or so after that episode came out.” He also loves the ridiculous story, saying, “The writers are so good at making the story be kind of big and weird but still relatable. There are so many episodes where, in less capable hands, this would be the episode where they jump the shark.”