#horsin’ around

[danandfuckingjonlmao]

you know how bojack horseman’s whole personality is built around his 90s tv show horsin’ around and it’s the only thing he ever accomplished that he was proud of and the way he made a name for himself and he rides that high for the rest of his life, refusing to move on and trying desperately to convince himself that he mattered, that his show mattered, even though the world has continued without him?

that’s me with ‘my partner jon’. it’s been 3 years and i’m still like “yeeeah i kinda pioneered this one phannie meme no biggie. you know ‘my partner jon’? yeah, the meme that lasted for 5 days. that was me. i’m something of a celebrity i guess you could say.”

anyway if ‘my partner jon’ was my horsin’ around, i think ‘dan looking sad during ads’ is my the bojack horseman show.

[captainclickycat]

On today’s installment of forgotten gems, the horse and the chimp are going head to head!

Got to admit I barely remember these myself besides the odd clip (something about a kid hiding under a table? lol) and I’m really curious to see if they’ve survived in the public consciousness to any extent because it’s really difficult to find any footage of either. Seriously, did something happen? I feel like at least one of these got cancelled because of some sort of beef between cast members… I remember hearing something about bad blood.

[bahbahhh]

Is something “blooming” between our driver and the crew chief? – loz nascar au – Zelink Week 2024 @zelinkcommunity

[ratatatastic]

happy to see it was in fact ekky and matthew who caused benny to topple over into the sea, practically drown and almost lose the 131 year old tincan to the beloved domain of poseidon where he might reclaim it as a shiny new toy not unlike a crow might

great going lads keep it up 👍

WPLG Local 10 | 6.25.24 (x)

[lewdlemage]

just gals bein pals

[dongslinger--420]

Escape From LA: How BoJack Horseman deconstructs the sitcom

A LOT of BoJack's characterisation is based on the fact that he sees life as a sitcom. You can't separate BoJack the show nor BoJack the character from sitcoms. So much of the show is based on deconstructing sitcom tropes, and that BoJack thinks that the sitcom solution will work in his life. Take that episode in season 1 where Diane and PB are getting married: BoJack keeps trying to create increasingly complicated situations to sabotage their marriage because he has a crush on Diane, because that's what would happen in a sitcom. But none of them actually work. Diane and PB get married anyway because, why wouldn't they? And the episode ends with Todd telling BoJack that he should just give up.

The sitcom thing is played for laughs to varying degrees throughout the show, with Escape From LA being one example that is exclusively played for drama. The entire episode is set up like an episode of a 90s sitcom: BoJack is extremely close with Penny and involved in her life, there are characters with quirks and catchphrases, BoJack does his stupid BoJack dance at the dance, BoJack acts as the "cool grown up friend" to all of Penny's friends, the New Mexico leitmotif plays throughout the episode as a scene transition, the bjhm theme song is replaced by an 80s sitcom parody of a theme called "Kyle And The Kids".

But the thing about all of this is that the show isn't a sitcom, and everything I just listed has a real life consequence.

Much like bjhm itself does, at the start of the episode the show plays this sitcom subversion for laughs. Pete Repeat has an extremely stupid character quirk both in and out of the context of the story, and he never fucking says anything twice! Because that's stupid! BoJack's stupid dance gets him boo'd off the dance floor because realistically why would a group of teenagers do a 51yo man dance. Kyle And The Kids is immediately followed by a joke about Penny's younger brother Trip having an unprompted erection, which would crucially never happen in an 80s sitcom because, although normal, is not family friendly by any stretch of the imagination.

The rest of my points, however, are subverted in a darker way. BoJack's closeness with Penny means that he knows a lot about her life, and the scene where they go through their plan on what to do also has Charlotte in the room, who has no idea what they're talking about, showing us that this is not a normal level of what an adult knows (there's more to say about this one but I'll get to it later). BoJack acting as the "cool grown up friend" involves giving teenagers bourbon (bearing in mind these kids have only ever drunk beer), and eventually one of them gets alcohol poisoning and ends up going to the hospital. And every time the New Mexico leitmotif is used in the following seasons (i.e. every time New Mexico is mentioned), it is used as something to haunt BoJack. It's the equivalent of having an extremely dirty and terrible association with the Hannah Montana music.

It's difficult to decipher exactly what stereotypical role BoJack is supposed to be taking in this hypothetical episode of Kyle And The Kids, or whatever you want to call it. I think he's supposed to be taking the role of "father". "Father" is the role that he played on Horsin Around. "Father" is what he (at least originally) wanted to be in relation to Penny. "Father" is something that he has one frame of reference for: The Horse.

There is a line in Sabrina's Christmas Wish where Olivia is complaining about the boy she's talking to, and The Horse offers to take her to the dance. The funny thing about this line is that it's not at all out of place in Horsin Around, because it's normal for sitcom parents to have that level of involvement with their children. In fact, they have to, in a narrative context, because it's a dom com, and you have to have the characters interact with each other because that's just how stories work. However, it is out of place in Escape From LA, purely because we have Charlotte as a frame of reference. Charlotte and Penny are very close, and are shown to be very close throughout all of their appearances. But Charlotte is reacting to the conversation with comments like "who are these people?" because she's still Penny's mother at the end of the day. I would say I'm close with my mum and I've never given her that much information about my crushes (it took me half of my one relationship to even tell her that I was in a relationship). And because of this distinction, Penny doesn't see BoJack as a parental figure. She sees him as a friend, which is why she falls in love with him later on.

The interesting thing about this episode is that because it's so sitcommy by design, it's extremely easy to root for BoJack on your first watch. Because the "father" or the "cool adult/uncle/whatever" role in a sitcom is one that's known, and the father in the sitcom would never do anything wrong. Especially considering the background information we have that Charlotte is the one who got away. We, at least to a degree, expect BoJack to actually end up with Charlotte at the end of the episode. When BoJack says things like "you look just like your mother", on our first watch of the episode we connect that to his want to be Penny's father, because that's also BoJack's intention. But then everything gets shattered, both in and out of universe, when Charlotte rejects BoJack. Because suddenly, both we and BoJack are supposed to deal with the fact that, actually, why would she have an affair with Kyle? What information do we have that she and Kyle are not happily married?* This is not a sitcom. So then, BoJack starts to panic. He starts to think irrationally, as this illusion he has been creating for himself for 3 months and/or 29 years starts to crumble. He starts to see Penny, not as a daughter, but as the next best option to being with Charlotte, the next best option to keep living this lie he keeps telling himself.

Sure, it seems like shock value the first time you watch it. Because it's a subversion. It's not what you expect by definition. But then after you rewatch the episode, you can't unsee it. Everything is recontextualised. It's no longer a sitcom.

Escape From LA is my second favourite penultimate episode in the entire show. Other than being one of the biggest parts of the show that wasn't spoilt for me, it's so beautifully constructed and subtle and genius that it remains gripping every time, and I love noticing a new thing about it every time.

*For this very reason, Kyle's lack of appearances and an active role in this episode is genius.

[mightilapia]

Boothill day 26. Boothonse

[snortoborto]

I found out my phone gallery has a little video editing feature. Check it.

[shadow0-1]

Tease

Insp

[vaampirebatt]

bojack horseshit

[thatgingerloser]

tumbling!!!!!!!

[heroesbydavidbowie]

[dreemurr-skelememer]

Maybe the real horses were the anons. I also get spooked when I see paper bags and I muchhc mcuh apples like passive

are you implying passive is a horse

[traumatoonz]

She spent her younger years wishing her sitcom dad was her real dad.

[cozycraftzbl]

A box of sad horses

[dongslinger--420]

I'm not a Bobutter shipper myself but I believe that there would have been so many Bobutter shippers in-universe. Like just imagine, there are two shows with extremely similar premises and some people probably grew up watching both shows and then they discover that the leads are very close AND fit the Zoe/Zelda paradigm AND have worked together on multiple projects afterwards? There's so much scope there in universe like people must've created compilation videos and/or rpf of them. Or at least Mr Peanutbutter x The Horse fanfic.