‘Bluey’ Minisodes Raise the Question: What the Heck Is a Burger Dog?

Bluey is a show about a lovable family of anthropomorphic dogs that aims to teach life lessons to kids and their parents through humor and heart. So what the heck is a Burger Dog? What kind of show teaches cannibalism to young minds? Is it really a dog-eat-dog world?

What is a Burger Dog?

Burger Dog is not actually the result of dog-on-dog cannibalism, despite what the name would have you believe. Burger Dog is not even a food whatsoever. Burger Dog is a person. A musical artist, to be specific. Burger Dog also just so happens to be the title of the very first Bluey minisode.

In this minisode, Bluey and Bingo ask their dad Bandit if he wants to listen to Burger Dog with them. Sure he will! He’s still hip! You gotta stay young, and what better way than to surrender your ears to the dulcet tones of youth music culture? Bluey and Bingo press play on the track. And it sucks. Total trash. Pitchfork would eviscerate Burger Dog worse than the infamous career hit job they did on that band Jet in the early ’00s. Bluey’s dad takes it a little better than that, and manages to brave the sonic assault with stoicism, betraying nothing more than a twitch of the eye.

After a few agonizing minutes comparable to what Christ must have felt in his last moments on the cross, Bluey asks for his phone back. These hellspawn children had the nerve to play that hot garbage off of his phone in the first place. Not wanting to hurt their feelings, Bandit pretends that the phone is doing a software update and that he can’t play it. In reality, he won’t play it. He’d rather drink dumpster water than listen to Burger Dog for another moment of his mortal existence.

And then his wife messes it all up.

Bandit’s wife Chili spoils his clever ruse by calling him on the phone, thus revealing that the device was not in fact getting a software update. She then asks him if he was lying to his children, to which he sheepishly responds in the affirmative. But despite what this minisode would have you believe, Bandit is not the villain. Bandit is the hero Bluey deserves, but not the one it needs right now. If there’s anyone who should bear the whips and scorns of shame and derision, it is Burger Dog, and Burger Dog alone.