Linda Belcher

Linda Belcher (née Genarro) is the happy-go-lucky, eccentric wife of Bob Belcher and the mother of Tina, Gene, and Louise Belcher. Linda has a broad sense of humor, constantly joking with her family and friends. She is wise and kind to her family and loves them very much. She co-owns Bob's Burgers with her husband and helps run the restaurant for him when he's busy or away.
She is voiced by John Roberts.
==Profile==
===Appearance===
Like the rest of the family, Linda has tan skin and black hair. She wears a red-orange long-sleeved shirt. Until "The Runway Club," Linda's top was a Henley shirt with two buttons, but now, it's a v-neck. In addition, she wears red cat glasses (inspired by Sally Jessy Raphael'shttps://twitter.com/SirronN/status/1525863244656562176), blue jeans, and yellow shoes with socks. When working in the restaurant, she often wears a waist apron with a pen in the pocket on the right.
In bed, she wears a white and pink nightgown. Sometimes, she wears light pink slippers and a richer pink bathrobe. In "Slumber Party," she wears a pink top and pink pants as her pajamas. In the same episode, she styles her hair into two large pigtails. 
In cold weather, Linda may wear a light sandy-colored bolero jacket over her regular outfit. She could also wear a heavy brown coat, which she fastened all the buttons. Linda could wear either of these outfits during the fall or the winter, but when she wears her overcoat for winter, she wears darker pants and black shoes that don't expose her legs.
Linda has many different dresses for formal occasions, but she commonly wears her red-violet v-neck sheath dress. She wears a unique overcoat each time she wears this dress. In "Worms of In-Rear-ment," she wears a gray bolero, but in "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl," it's indigo. She wears heels with the outfit that match her dress.
In The Bob's Burgers Movie, Linda wears her everyday outfit but also switches to Gene's burger suit to advertise the restaurant. However, she adds a red bikini over it with white polka dots.
===Personality===
Happy-go-lucky, enthusiastic, funny, and friendly, Linda supports her husband Bob's dream through thick and thin. She has a joyful enthusiasm for whatever she undertakes, from dinner theater ("Hamburger Dinner Theater") to synchronized swimming ("Synchronized Swimming") to road rage ("Food Truckin'").
Linda is incredibly outgoing, flamboyant, and feminine and has absurd obsessions with performing arts and dramatic tradition. She occasionally takes extreme measures to pursue these and encourages her family/bystanders to join her in enacting them. In "Nice-Capades," Linda helps Tina, Gene, and Louise with a scheme since it lets her make costumes for them and see them sing. She is also very extroverted and is often rambling or very talkative. Linda sings most of all the characters and can break into song at any moment. In "Hamburger Dinner Theater," she lies to Bob, telling him she is going to Pickles while going to see a pirate-themed dinner theater show. Linda may have seen the show before, as she sang along with the actors. Linda also loves chanting, especially in picketing, because she can chant in public like that.
Sometimes, her passion for performance arts and drama can irritate her husband and children. In "All That Gene," she kept bugging Gene when she found out he became a cheerleader, upsetting Gene enough to yell at her. In "Hawk & Chick," Linda brags to Tina about the number of roles in a movie their family is dubbing since she has four while Tina only has three. But after Linda finds out Tina has a significant role in the film (therefore, having more lines), Linda keeps trying to speak over Tina and take over her role, even at the showing for the movie. It can also annoy other people. In "Carpe Museum," protests chase Linda away after she tries to make them take off their pants for a chant.
She is lenient and supportive toward her whole family while still garnering their love and respect. She is incredibly kind to her emotionally unstable sister, Gayle, encouraging Bob to have a pretend affair with her to raise her self-esteem ("Dr. Yap") and allowing Gayle to hang many anus-themed paintings in the restaurant ("Art Crawl").
While usually open-minded and accepting of others, she has strong opinions and expectations that she will force onto others regardless of their feelings, such as renting Louise's room to Teddy without talking to her. The only things that waver her are online parent blogs ("Mother Daughter Laser Razor") and her parents. In "Fight at the Not Okay Chore-ral," Linda has a phone call with her, and Gloria expresses disappointment at Linda for not making her children do chores at home. The same day of the call, she tries to make her children do chores. Her servility to her parents lessens after this episode, however. In a conversation with Louise, Linda decides she should be the only one to determine how to raise her children.  
Despite this, Linda is a pushover, always easily convinced by her kids to do all the work on their school projects, but she doesn't think she's a pushover ("Synchronized Swimming"). Louise, in particular, can make Linda do whatever she wants. For example, she has her get the family together for a family meeting ("The Kids Run the Restaurant"), to get her to be the kid's swimming coach ("Synchronized Swimming"), and to sell Bob's espresso machine ("The Unnatural").
While Linda is usually fairly laid-back regarding how she raises her kids, she is not above punishing them when they act disrespectfully or push her too far. She has sent both Tina and Louise to their rooms for talking back to her ("Bad Tina" & "Mother Daughter Laser Razor") and threatened to give Louise a large number of chores if she ruined Gayle's dinner party date with Phillip Frond ("The Cook, the Steve, the Gayle, & Her Lover"). Linda can sometimes be petty for these punishments, such as grounding all three of her kids after they caused her to have an embarrassing experience at the supermarket ("The Gayle Tales"). Sometimes, she acts condescendingly to her family members to prevent them from realizing her grudges or seeing something wrong, but they often do. An example is when she asks Jen to babysit her kids in "Purple Rain-Union" while she and Bob go to her high school reunion rather than Tina, claiming that it was because of the long hours they'd be gone. However, Tina surmises and quickly accuses her mom of not trusting her to babysit because she let Gene eat all the Chunky Chocolate Shim Shams in the apartment and throw up in her bed, which leads to Linda throwing out her lie and bluntly admitting her daughter's right. Linda also acts this way to Gayle, like how she tries to make her sister's vandalized paintings seem less of a big deal by claiming "all the best artists get censored" ("Art Crawl").
Occasionally, Linda's beliefs will cause her to act irrationally, including around Tina, Gene, and Louise. She usually ends up feeling guilty and thinks she may be a bad mother after her plans fail and her kids react negatively. However, Bob often insists that she tries her best and knows how much she loves their kids ("All That Gene" & "Worms of In-Rear-ment").
She also has an alcohol problem, specifically wine. Linda brings alcohol everywhere, even when it's not appropriate, even when she's chaperoning at the school, like her children's field trips ("Carpe Museum") or school dances ("Two for Tina"). According to her, however, she "doesn't get drunk. She just has fun ("Bad Tina")." 
Linda is obsessed with baby-related things, so much so that they may even jeopardize her, her family, and others. She buys miniature water bottles in "Dawn of the Peck," and Linda still has the ornaments Tina, Gene, and Louise made as babies ("The Bleakening"). When Linda loses the trinkets, Bob suggests their kids could make new ones. However, she says, "I don't want new ornaments, Bob. The ornaments from when they were young and cute, not from now."
In "Burgerboss," Linda reminds Bob about how he had to take their credit card away from her because she kept buying a bunch of porcelain baby dolls. She babysits Sidecar, Critter, and Mudflap's baby in "Wag the Hog" and passes him off as her child. Linda didn't even know if anyone would pay her: the previous babysitter had just put Linda in charge since they came to Critter and Mudflap's house, and the mother of three agreed. The last babysitter warned Linda about Sidecar, who proved to be a dangerous beast to Linda, other children, and other mothers at a baby center Linda took him to. She also buys a Dutch baby pancake at a diner in "Christmas in the Car," despite being with her family in the middle of the night, not to mention a winter storm.
Her foolhardiness stems from her childhood. As a kid, she burned many buildings and stole from many stores ("Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth"), and that's probably why her daughter Louise also has a passion for arson and stealing. She also acknowledges that she's dangerous. When Bob tells her that Louise got her 'crazy' from Linda's side of the family, Linda agrees and cackles ("The Kids Run Away"). Sometimes, she tries to teach her children about her old habits. In "Li'l Hard Dad," Linda tries to teach Tina how to cheat in a book report, admitting that she never read any books she was supposed to read in school. In the same episode, Linda also teaches Louise how to get out of a speeding ticket. Sometimes, she gives her 'advice' to other people, like Teddy. In "Frigate Me Knot," Linda tells Teddy that he should go to his navy reunion to show his teasers that they didn't win, but only because people also teased Linda as a kid. The only reason she got back at her bullies was because she "called them 2:00 in the morning every night for a year and pretended [she] was a killer."
==Story==
Linda Belcher (née Genarro) is the first daughter of Al and Gloria Genarro. Her younger sister is Gayle Genarro. She grew up in a tough but loving environment, like how her mother made her light her father's cigarettes whenever he wanted ("Fight at the Not Okay Chore-ral") or how her uncle Donny taught her prison hacks he learned while incarcerated ("Pig Trouble in Little Tina"). Linda cultivated a love for singing and performing when she was young, and as a teen, she always wanted to move to New York to become the next Madonna ("Local She-ro"). Despite this, she stays in New Jersey and eventually becomes Hugo Habercore's fiancée.
One night, Linda goes to the bar alone with her best friend, Ginger, but the Genarro comes face-to-mustache with Bob Belcher. She becomes smitten with Bob's mustache and eventually him. Linda gives Hugo his ring back and dumps him only four and a half days after their engagement ("Are You There Bob? It's Me, Birthday"), becoming committed to Bob. She falls in love with Bob's dream to open a restaurant and make clever burgers with different ingredients daily. Linda eventually became pregnant with their daughter Tina, and she and Bob established Bob's Burgers at Ocean Avenue. Linda and Bob marry each other on September 3rd ("Human Flesh"). About seven months after their marriage, Linda delivers Tina. Linda later gives birth to their son Gene and their youngest daughter Louise. The five of them work together to support their family restaurant.
==Relationships==
===Family===
====Bob Belcher====
Bob is the husband of Linda. They first met in a bar shortly after she engaged with Hugo Habercore. She knew he was "the one" on their second date ("Something Old, Something New, Something Bob Caters for You"). Linda fell in love with Bob, his "Tom Selleck-ian mustache" ("Sliding Bobs"), and his "dreamy" self, the person who had big dreams of opening up a restaurant with "cuckoo crazy burgers with wild ingredients" (The Bob's Burgers Movie). They depend on each other and complement each other well. Linda encourages Bob to loosen up like her while Bob helps ground Linda. He will always tell her when he thinks she is making a wrong decision and warn her of the impending consequences of her actions. With three kids, they know that raising them is a "two-adult, two-bottle-of-wine-a-night job ("World Wharf II: The Wharfening")." Without Linda, Bob can't run the restaurant. Linda makes it "fun to work at the restaurant" for Bob ("Lindapendent Woman").
They can be highly competitive with each other, especially regarding Tina, Gene, and Louise. In "Eggs for Days," the episode reveals that they each hide their own eggs around the apartment every year for their kids to find them, and whoever the last egg belongs to wins. Sometimes, it can take the whole afternoon. They also seem to have an ongoing competition with each other since at the end of "Li'l Hard Dad," Bob tells Linda, "You win best parent of the week," so it seems like they hold contests to see which of them can be the best parent of the week.
Sometimes, Linda can get frustrated at Bob, like how he fails to remember their wedding anniversary ("Human Flesh") or how he never wants to try anything new ("Seaplane!"). Linda doesn't also like how much her husband dislikes her grandparents. In "The Terminalator II: Terminals of Endearment," Bob confronts Gloria, Linda's mom, for stealing their charger, but Linda gets upset at Bob. Linda wants her husband to let her parents "be crappy" to her, but it drives Bob crazy when Linda's parents mistreat her because she's "the best daughter in the world." She loves Bob regardless of her frustrations.
Similarly, Linda can generate immense frustrations for Bob, constantly making things quite difficult in multiple aspects of their lives, either behind his back, or strong-arming him into something. Sometimes, when Linda wants to do something, she gets "crazy eyes" terrifying Bob into obeying her wishes. Beyond that, Linda also frequently allows people to push Bob around, or makes him swallow his frustrations, even if his feelings are valid, as when Teddy had accidentally stranded the Belchers at sea ("Sea Me Now"), or even making Bob the butt of her jokes, frequently exposing humiliating facts about her husband.
How they express their love to each other might sometimes translate poorly. Before "My Fuzzy Valentine," Linda quietly let herself suffer because Bob never did much for Valentine's Day. In "Are You There Bob? It's Me, Birthday," Linda was going to plan a surprise birthday for Bob, even though Bob hates surprise birthdays. However, when they discover something isn't working, they fix it immediately. In "My Fuzzy Valentine," Bob does more to make Valentine's Day more romantic, and in "Are You There Bob? It's Me, Birthday," Linda decides to tone down and change her thing for Bob into something he'd enjoy.
They're still discovering new things about each other. Linda loves listening to Bob speak about his "sad stories," like how he told her about how he got two-timed at his prom ("Two for Tina"). Bob didn't know Linda had a life outside of the restaurant until "Eat, Spray, Linda," like how she goes to the Royal Oyster Hotel with Tina once or twice a week just to poop in their luxurious bathrooms. Bob is glad to learn about Linda's "little surprises" ("Eat, Spray, Linda").
====Tina Belcher====
Tina is Linda and Bob's first child. As their oldest child and a growing teenager, Linda feels she must worry about Tina the most. Linda always reads Tina's diary to confirm her daughter isn't doing drugs ("Sheesh! Cab, Bob?"). Still, the whole family reads Tina's journal, and Tina sometimes narrates her entries aloud to her family, too, so this is normal behavior. As a growing teenager, Tina is going through the same thoughts Linda went through. Like how Linda wanted to move to New York for an idyllic lifestyle, Tina had the same desire. In "Local She-ro," Linda teaches her eldest daughter to appreciate Ocean Avenue and the rest of Seymour's Bay by showing her the unique things around the town. However, things intensified when she tried trespassing into a gated community to meet a local celebrity.
Tina is the most intolerant and allergic to Linda's passion and intensity compared to the rest of Linda's children. In "The Grand Mama-pest Hotel," Linda pours a soap bottle into their hotel's fountain to try and impress Tina, proving to 'everyone' that they aren't growing apart. However, all it did was embarrass Tina. In "Li'l Hard Dad," Linda and Louise try to help Tina cheat on her book report when Tina doesn't even want to cheat in the first place.
Maybe it's because Linda grew up with Gayle, but Linda supports her daughter's eccentricities more than her husband. She gives Tina more independence, which is ironic because she fears Tina growing away from her. An example is when Tina got into capoeira, and Linda was the only parent supporting her daughter's new interest ("Sexy Dance Fighting"). Or when Tina dressed up as a boy to infiltrate a boys-only event, and Linda approved her daughter's rash decision ("Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now").
Linda supports most of Tina's boy crushes, except for Jimmy Jr. Linda doesn't like Jimmy Jr. for constantly hurting her daughter's feelings, but she puts up with Tina's passion. In "V for Valentine-detta," she tries cheering Tina up after Jimmy Jr. rejects Tina on Valentine's Day, but after hearing how Jimmy Jr. hurt her daughter, she, Louise, and Nat Kinkle get revenge on Jimmy Jr. While Tina approves of this retribution in this episode, she usually blows up at her mom if she tries suggesting something that'd ruin her relationship with Jimmy Jr. In "Ex Mach Tina," Tina's injury forces her to go to school via a remote-controlled robot. When Linda told her daughter to go back to school physically, Tina yelled at her mom because she believed Jimmy Jr. only liked her as a robot.
====Gene Belcher====
Gene has a greater physical connection with Linda than the rest of his siblings. Linda's son loves receiving her hugs and kisses. He receives twice as much as Tina, mainly because Louise passes Linda's advances to her brother. Gene is a mama's boy, and they do everything together. They have 'Spaturdays' (Spa-days) on Saturday and secret mani-pedis on Sunday. They also occasionally sneak off to Devendorf's Bakery to eat the samples (until the store banned Linda), and they have afterschool "snacktivities" together when they eat snacks together when Gene gets home. They even had a lifetime dream together to make the restaurant a piano bar when Bob is away long enough, and in "The Hurt Soccer," they manage to make their wish come true. Aside from just a piano bar, they also share a broad love for music and performance. In "All That Gene," she 'helps' her son get a role in a play and is also a stagehand for the performance.
While Linda gets in trouble with her other children for giving too much love, her son gets upset at her for giving him too little. In "Mommy Boy," Linda joined a women's business seminar, which meets on Saturday, the day they have their Spaturdays. Gene tried to get her to quit the group by attending the women-only conference himself, causing a lot of trouble in general. Linda's son is almost too reliant on her. Every day, Linda writes the house's phone number on Gene's thigh in case he gets lost. When Linda gets a job at Fresh Feed, Gene claims her apron as his own, explaining, "because it smells like her and I'm eleven, and I still like mom" ("Lindapendent Woman"). Gene also brings his mother's Maxi Pads to school ("Cheer Up, Sleepy Gene"). The rest of the family usually jokes about their bond, like saying how they will end up married ("Every Which Way but Goose").
Like his siblings, Gene can get mad at Linda. In "Gene It On," her son became irritated at her for constantly inserting herself into his cheerleading life and lashed at her. In "All That Gene," Gene gets upset at Linda when he finds out she bribed the play's director to get him a role.
Linda always supports Gene, even if it's illogical. In "The Unnatural," she paid a coach to help teach her son how to play baseball, even though it was a scam and more than they could typically afford. Linda supports her son in other ways, like his antics. Or at least, she's the most patient. In "Gene's Christmas Break," Linda is the only one who doesn't explicitly tell Gene to stop playing his terrible Christmas vinyl. She also didn't stop Gene from imitating Bob for a few days and even encouraged it ("Broadcast Wagstaff School News").
====Louise Belcher====
Louise rejects most of Linda's hugs and kisses, so Linda shows her love in other ways by finding a middle ground with their interests. They like going to the pet store to pet the puppies. They visit it enough that even an employee knows their name, and a parrot at the store repeats Linda's signature catchphrase: "Alright!" Louise also gets her 'crazy' from Linda's side of the family ("The Kids Run Away"). They have a love for arson, and Linda's history with arson includes her setting a few small fires as a kid ("Stop! Or My Mom Will Sleuth"). Linda also 'borrowed stuff from stores' (stole), and Louise reignited Linda's passion for stealing when they looted the coffee machine from their own restaurant (without Bob's knowledge) and sold it at a pawn shop ("The Unnatural"). 
Despite both of them being so intense, they have strong morals. In "Thelma & Louise Except Thelma is Linda," Louise gets detention for pantsing one of the O'Brien brothers. While Linda doesn't stop Mr. Frond's decision to punish Louise, the mother praises her daughter for helping someone who needs it. Linda secretly takes Louise for ice cream together when she is supposed to be in school. They also wanted to solve a crime case to give justice to the victim ("Housetrap"). Louise especially loves helping her mom if it means committing a crime, like breaking and entering ("Housetrap") or stealing a package ("Have Yourself a Maily Linda Christmas").
While Bob recognizes that Louise needs to have her space and be herself, Linda is often overbearing. Although Linda understands Louise needs her freedom, that doesn't stop her from trying to love Louise the way she loves Tina and Gene. The main reason why they clash is because Linda is trying to incorporate something new into their relationship. In "Mother Daughter Laser Razor," Linda takes Louise to a mother-daughter seminar at The Nurture Center to "repair" their relationship and to give Louise some more 'mommy time.' While the session was useless, they realized they must treat each other better. Louise treats her mom with more respect after this, and Linda gives Louise more space. They fight again when Linda tries to make Louise and her siblings do chores in "Fight at the Not Okay Chore-Ral." The conflict becomes worse enough to make Linda cry, so Louise apologizes to her. Linda also says sorry because she only wanted to do this because of the pressures of being a good mom from her mom, Gloria. Linda's daughter helps her become less servile to her mother, and they agree that Louise and her siblings will do their chores for candy.
====Gloria Genarro====
====Al Genarro====
====Gayle Genarro====
Linda's younger sister, the two have always been close. Linda recognizes Gayle's eccentricities and craziness but often indulges in her interests to avoid more of a hassle. Frequently giving her money, she tries to be careful about what she says around her sister as she knows Gayle can be fragile and gets upset easily. Despite her often giving in to Gayle's eccentric behavior, there are a few times where Linda will put her foot down and not comply, such as refusing to slice open her arm to use blood for paint at Gayle's request ("Yurty Rotten Scoundrels").
While she loves her sister, she does not want her to move in with her and her family as it would bring in too much chaos. Bob called her bluff on it once ("The Kids Run Away") and at one point warned her family to avoid upsetting her further as she was "one cat death away from moving in with [them]", in reference to her dating the kids' guidance counselor Mr. Frond ("The Cook, the Steve, the Gayle, & Her Lover").
===Other love interests===
====Hugo Habercore====
Linda was briefly engaged to Hugo before meeting Bob. She admitted that while he was a good kisser, he had no real dreams and she ultimately found him boring, only agreeing to marry him because her parents liked him ("Human Flesh").
In the present day, Linda is generally more cordial to Hugo than Bob is. It is evident that Hugo is still attracted to Linda, although Linda makes it known that she is not interested in him. While she is more friendly, she gets annoyed with Hugo's antics and nitpicking easily, recognizing that he is often trying to shut down Bob out of petty jealousy.
===Friends===
====Gretchen====
Linda's long-term hairdresser and friend. The two love to catch up on their lives and visiting when they can. Even though they are friends, Linda recognizes that Gretchen can be temperamental and gets jealous easily, usually causing rifts in their relationship briefly. She admits that at this point, she can't get her hair done anywhere else since Gretchen becomes territorial and aggressive towards her clients when they do this.
Linda likes to help Gretchen whenever she can, such as helping her find a date to a cousin's wedding or helping plan her sister Jestain's bachelorette party.
====Ginger====
Ginger is Linda's best friend and has been friends with Linda since before she met Bob. The two don't see each other very often as Ginger lives more than 80 miles away, but Linda loves any opportunity to spend time with her.
Despite the distance, the two frequently are chatting on the phone. Linda feels comfortable going on long rants with Ginger or will leave a long message when frustrated. Linda often likes to gossip with Ginger about anything going on, including the raccoons that live behind her alley.
====Teddy====
A long-time customer and friend to the Belchers, Linda is usually the most welcoming whenever Teddy is around. She recognizes that Teddy is lonely and is often willing to help him out, usually convincing Bob as well.
Teddy is attracted to Linda but she always brushes these off or doesn't notice his attraction. Despite that, she enjoys being his friend and likes to talk to him about the raccoons in the alley.
====Mort====
===Enemies===
====Colleen Caviello====
====Cynthia Bush====
==External links==
*Linda Belcher - Heroes Wiki
*Linda Belcher - Other Holiday Specials Wiki
*Linda Belcher - Christmas Specials Wiki
==References==
de:Linda Belcher
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Main Characters
Category:Belcher Family
Category:Characters introduced in Season 1
Category:Episode Title Characters
Category:Females with a Male Voice
Category:Characters voiced by John Roberts
Category:Protagonists
Category:Parents
Category:The Bob's Burgers Movie Characters