And no, not having Neflix isn’t a good enough answer. Besides, who doesn’t have Netflix?
Comedy is a very personal thing. What one person finds hilarious, another hates like it’s deep-fried tampons. At least, this what I tell myself when I see certain shows’ popularity (*cough* Miranda *cough*). At its heart, comedy is about finding something to surprise you with, a hilarious incongruity between what is expected and what happens, so recommending something as funny to another person is hard enough if you know them, let alone if they are as relatively-anonymous as you, dear reader, are to me.
That said, you should really be watching Bojack Horseman. Like, right now.
The premise of Bojack Horsemen is nothing brilliantly unique: the titular character was famous in the 80s and 90s for starring in a saccharin sweet Sit Com called Horsing Around, but his career has taken a plunge since the show was cancelled. Though still wealthy from all the money he earned, he is unknown and unemployed, something his ego can’t handle. So his agent suggests that he write an autobiography, and brings a writer, Diane Nguyen, on to write his story.
So far, so ordinary, right? Except that Bojack is literally a Horseman: he is an anthropomorphic horse. And his agent, and ex, Princess Caroline is a cat. Diane and his permanent house guest Todd – voiced by Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad fame – are both humans, as are many of the characters, but many more are these strange hybrids with human personalities and animal tendencies. This does allow for some obvious, and very subtle, jokes, but is not the main crux of the show.
More than this, Bojack Horseman has the smart writing of any modern TV classic, with every character, even the most ridiculous, being believably handled and rendered. Bojack himself is a fantastic character study of someone with a horrendous childhood suddenly gaining the fame and adoration he’s always desired, and then having that pulled out from him just as rapidly. The comedy is tempered with genuine drama and heart-wrenching writing, which allows a sharp contract to the ridiculous scenarios around these moments.
And boy is the series ridiculous. From Bojack stealing part of the Hollywood sign – and everyone just calling it ‘Hollywoo’ from then on – to Todd putting on a Rock Opera and Bojack publicly arguing with a veteran over some muffins, there are bizarre situations which keep the hilarity going in every episode. Even with the more believable scenarios, such as attending a funeral or visiting a dying friend, the writers do a brilliant job of balancing the mundane with the fantastical.
Speaking of the writers, these people have obviously grown up on comedy like Airplane and Naked Gun as they adore putting little background jokes into almost every scene. For Pete’s sake, Buzzfeed have done a 136 Hidden Jokes You Probably Missed on Bojack Horseman and it doesn’t even come close to covering every little detail. Watching the second season, I’ve had to pause or rewind scenes because I wasn’t listening to the dialogue and was instead reading background jokes. I’m looking at you, Brocus Pocus, the all-male remake of Hocus Pocus…
And the humour is dark as well as silly, attempting to cater to a complex range of senses of humour. Whether it’s truly thinking about the differences between the chickens people eat and the chickens people talk to, or wondering why Sarah Lynn knows what bear fur tastes like solely because her step-dad was a bear, there are evil and dark jokes woven alongside the daft ones, such as a bloodhound policeman or the airline Panda-Am.
Mostly, though, what makes the show stand out is the honesty which comes from the characters, particularly Bojack. The intelligent but lovable curmudgeon is a tried and tested idea, but the person who is fundamentally broken and tries to reconcile that as a functioning adult is not. The writers display in Bojack weakness and vulnerability which we don’t often see from television characters, genuine character flaws which don’t endear them to you but merely exist. We’ve all seen the washout do good, or turn things around, but we haven’t often seen the washout who actively sabotages themselves and everyone around them, and who doesn’t quite know how to change to prevent it from happening again. Complex characteristics which we know exist in one another, but don’t often see, show up in a daft cartoon where birds will replace airplanes for aerial advertising.
Bojack Horseman is the sort of genuine comedy hit which doesn’t come along very often. I can’t think of anything else like it. I’ve been shocked, felt awful, and laughed so hard it hurt, sometimes in the same episode. So, I ask you, why aren’t you watching it?
