He loves voicing Jimmy Pesto Jr., Bob’s teenage daughter’s lisping, spasmodic love interest. He thinks for a second. “I probably have the most fun with Ms. LaBonz, who's like a heavy-set, very jaded teacher who smokes.” Ms. LaBonz is inspired by former NPR host Diane Rehm, who’s notorious for her incredibly drawn-out questioning style.

“I'm always unhappy when Loren [Bouchard, creator of Bob’s Burgers] casts me in a role. I don't consider myself very good at doing voices,” says Benjamin. (He has been in every show Bouchard has made.) “There are some really good impressionists and really good character voices, like Larry Murphy [Teddy] and Dave Herman [Mr. Frond]. I just come up with some kind of easy way to change the nature of my voice.”

When Benjamin began practicing comedy in the early ’90s, he wasn’t fulfilling a lifelong dream. His roommate at the time, Sam Seder, was doing stand-up in and around Boston, but it wasn’t going well. So in the spirit of Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, they banded together and formed a duo act.

“I was kind of like what do you call those... a lamprey,” says Benjamin—a clingy eel with teeth. “I just sort of latched onto his passion, and it worked out pretty well because the duo act was better than his stand-up.”

From there, Benjamin and Seder got involved with David Cross’s comedy team, the aptly-named Cross Comedy, which eventually led to an opportunity to audition for a part in an animated show Bouchard was producing, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. Jon auditioned for the role of Dr. Katz’s son, along with his girlfriend at the time, actress Laura Silverman, who auditioned to be the doctor’s receptionist. They both got their respective parts. “It was a ‘no brainer’ audition,” Bouchard recalls. “They were both perfect. That they were boyfriend and girlfriend at the time was both adorable and also irrelevant—they ‘had chemistry,’ but I bet they probably would have if they met for the first time on the audition.”

Even then, Benjamin didn’t have a clear sense of where he wanted his now-ubiquitous voice to take him. After Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Bouchard had the opportunity to create his own show, Home Movies. Jon acted in that, too.

“Jon is my muse,” Bouchard says. “Once you know you have a muse it’s very simple: work with them.”

For a lot of people, myself included, Bob’s Burgers has become a security blanket. “When we do fan events,” Jon says, “it's the most common thing people say.”

Comfort TV is not a new phenomenon. But particularly in an era of streaming, where there’s overwhelming choice, there’s an efficiency in defaulting to something reliable, rather than spending 20 minutes searching for something new. But reverence for Bob seems to be spurred by something different, and deeper, than simple familiarity.

“I think it's primarily because it tries very hard to not go cynical, and even sometimes when pitfalls occur within the family, there's always sort of a positive outcome, because the people in the family support each other in that way,” Benjamin posits. “So I think it's hopefully reflective of a lot of families, [and] for families who don't have that, it's probably a nice thing to watch.”

Bob’s Burgers shares a canon with The Simpsons and King of the Hill, animated shows with zany storylines (and in Bob’s case, raucous musical ensembles) that manage to still feel like authentic family sitcoms because they get the details right.