Bojack Horseman

Bojack F. Horseman is the titular main character of BoJack Horseman animated series.

Bojack was born and raised in San Francisco, California, and grew up in a dysfunctional family.

His mother, Beatrice Horseman, was a housewife and the heiress of the Sugarman Sugarcube fortune, while his father Butterscotch Horseman was a failed novelist from a working-class background.

He resented his wife's financial independence, and worked at a fish cannery until BoJack was six, which after that point he begrudgingly took a well-paying job for Beatrice's father'scompany.

Butterscotch was an alcoholic and regularly verbally abused, and sometimes even physically abused, BoJack while he was young. He was also often seen yelling nonsensical ultra-conservative hyperbole, usually to cover up his failures, and "easy comings" in the world, typically blaming it on Democrats, Jews, or Communists.

His mother, Beatrice, resented and hated BoJack for everything he had "done" to her, including being born, saying that she was beautiful before she got pregnant. To her, BoJack was a reminder of all of her bad decisions, and her own traumatic childhood did not help this fact.

Her smoking habits, forceful will, addictions, and constant bickering with Butterscotch made BoJack's formative years difficult, and eventually shaped how he turned out as a grownup.

To escape from his terrible home life, young BoJack reveled in the fame of Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. BoJack grew fond of Secretariat and wanted to be just like him.

As BoJack became older he turned to comedy for solace after the 1973 suicide of Secretariat. In the mid-80s, BoJack left home and headed to Los Angeles and started working on his career as a comedian.

In 1985, while trying hole-in-the-wall comedy clubs, BoJack met Herb Kazzaz, and later Charlotte Moore, Herb's girlfriend. The three became good friends while BoJack and Herb tried to become big stars, with Herb mentoring BoJack on how to better his comedy.

Herb finally lands a show called Horsin' Around and confides in BoJack that he is to be the star of the show. Charlotte eventually moves to Maine, but before she does, she tells BoJack LA is a tar pit, and she doesn't think she's the person Herb's looking for.

Appearance
BoJack is an adult, male, grade/thoroughbred cross horse weighing at 1,200 pounds as revealed in the pilot episode. He is around 6'7" feet (15.2 hands at the withers, 19.75 at the ears) tall and he has a fat belly.

He has brown (medium bay) fur and a black mane, with a white snippet on his snout that begins at his upper lip and ends underneath his eyes, a white diamond-shaped mark on his forehead, and bags under his eyes.

He also has a pink spot on his nose and pointy ears near his mane. Despite being a horse, BoJack, like other animals in the BoJack Horseman series, is designed with human feet and hands and does not have a tail.

BoJack is typically seen wearing an unbuttoned gray sports jacket with a blue sweater underneath, cyan blue jeans, and red and white sneakers.

During his twenties-early thirties, he was much slimmer and he had a thicker mane that somewhat resembled a mullet. His fur also appeared lighter. On Horsin' Around, he wore an orange sweater with pink apples along the middle and a pink collar and cuffs, along with light blue jeans and red sneakers.

In the 80s, he wore a grey collared shirt with a white plaid design with a white tie, a light blue opened jacket, light blue jeans with a white belt, and red sneakers.

Personality
A curmudgeon described by his ex-girlfriend as a "self-pitying masochist," BoJack Horseman is bitter, depressed, self-loathing, narcissistic, and sometimes self-destructive.

BoJack is often bad-tempered and irritable, with little patience for a lot of people around him (notably Mr. Peanutbutter or Todd), who although give BoJack plenty of attention, are constantly insulted and looked down upon by BoJack's very bitter nature.

Although being annoyed by his surroundings, BoJack ironically has a nasty habit of driving some of his closest friends like Princess Carolyn to distraction. Most commonly through his numerous schemes to get his own way, which usually ends up in a disaster. Despite these struggles and insecurities that he has, BoJack really does care about others. He does care about his friends, can even be insightful, doesn't really want to hurt anybody and has proven to be more tender-hearted than he seems to be.

BoJack is plagued by his utter self-loathing and struggle to accept himself, this depressed side to his nature often comes out when he is with Diane. However, his sentimental moods have been more common recently, even with people like Mr. Peanutbutter, most notably in season 2.

In addition, BoJack finds himself haunted by his past, on a regular basis, flashbacks are often seen of BoJack remembering his corrupted relationships - especially his mother and ex-best friend.

While he can seem hostile on the outside, BoJack does have a caring, and melancholic side to him, but rarely shows this side of himself to others, partly because of his insecurities to show any weakness others. Fearing that others will catch on that he dislikes himself, he feigns narcissistic behavior like having sex as he sees footage of himself and masturbating to his own image, or at least he says he does.

As a foal, he was inquisitive and keen to earn his father's trust, making him a card which his father referred to as "shoddy craftsmanship".

As a younger horse, he was polite, cheerful, charming but also a lightweight, who consciously avoided all alcohol, in stark contrast to his current boozhound self. His attitude only soured in his forties.

Added to this, he is not very mannerly - on a date with Princess Carolyn in the first episode he preoccupies himself with eating the bread (nine baskets) and later on he belches while drinking beer and watching old episodes of his show.

In the third season, he belches again after raiding Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter's fridge. These episodes of gluttony can be seen as yet more failed attempts to handle his inner turmoil resulting in his appearing inconsiderate and repulsive to others.

In contrast to his perceived ineptitude at being responsible (in one context, for his own breakfast), BoJack has repeatedly demonstrated a masterful command over philosophy, political science, and history. Also, judging by the way his current home is decorated he also has good taste in horse-themed fine art.

This is ironic, considering that one of the main commentaries of the series is that Hollywood (or Hollywoo as it is known in the show) is a town of shallow, nihilistic people who would be completely incapable in any other industry or lifestyle. For example, in the episode, Let's Find Out, Bojack receives the question "To what extent was Feudalism a cause of the French Revolution?"

Even though he is distracted by Princess Carolyn to properly answer the question, what he actually wrote was quite competent. "A continent ravaged by war, coupled with the retreat of the church from secular life..." BoJack is also very principled about his perspectives, too; on one occasion, he sets off a media flame war to defend his critique of the public's automatic treatment of veterans as heroic without regard for their individual characters.

On another, when Ana Spanakopita explains to BoJack that the French are still annoyed with him for what he "said about them in the press," he states he stands by his criticism of revered French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Elaborating, he states, "His philosophical arguments helped many tyrannical regimes justify overt cruelty," a reference to Sartre's idea that "humans are condemned to be free," and his stated admiration for Stalinists and Maoists.

As the series progresses, BoJack clings onto the people who even remotely comfort him and goes out of his way to keep them around so he isn't completely alone. Ultimately, most characters avoid or even completely cut ties with him for his toxic domineer.

This seems to change slightly when he meets his half-sister Hollyhock Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack. He is very protective of her and she shows concern for him. The two agree to try to form a loving sibling relationship at the end of Season 4.

Trivia

 * According to the BoJack Horseman art blog on Tumblr (BojartHorseblog), BoJack is 15.2 hands at the withers, and is close to 19.75 hands tall if he is being measured to the top of his ears, which BoJack prefers
 * BoJack's house contains animal parodies of art
 * In his bedroom, he has three horse show paintings that references Andy Warhol's work
 * The horse paining to the right of his front door references Blue Horse by Franz Marc.
 * Bojack's hair in the 80s and on Horsin' Around is reminiscent of the character Uncle Jesse from Full House, which Horsin' Around parodies.
 * BoJack is very similar to the character Duckman from the early 1990s show of the same name, both are alcoholics, had neglectful/abusive parents, smoke cigarettes, self-loathe and are narcissistic, politically incorrect and sexually deviant.
 * BoJack made 30K an episode on Horsin' Around.


 * The only episode BoJack has not appeared in is “See Mr. Peanutbutter Run”
 * Based on its views of Downtown LA's skyline and close proximity to the Hollywood Sign (as demonstrated in Our A-Story is a "D" Story among other episodes), Bojack's house seems to be located just east of Hollywood Reservoir perched above Bronson Canyon. Incidentally the neighborhood is home to Sunset Ranch, which is well-known for horseback riding. It's also quite close to Griffith Observatory, which was of great sentimental significance to Bojack and Herb Kazzaz as well as the location of Sarah Lynn's overdose.
 * BoJack is neighbors with Channing Tatum and Felicity Hoffman, as revealed in “Hooray! Todd Episode” and “Stupid Piece of Sh*t”, respectively.


 * The writers have stated that they only have someone say the f word once per season, and it only happens when Bojack has permanently ruined a relationship.
 * In Season 1 it was Herb Kazzaz in “The Telescope”, when he was going to die soon from rectal cancer and he rejected BoJack’s apology for abandoning him in the 90s after the network executives fired him for being caught in a gay related scandal. Herb wasn’t upset about getting fired, but the fact that BoJack betrayed him, and he says “Now get the fuck out of my house!”
 * Season 2 was Charlotte Moore in “Escape from L.A.”, after she caught him in bed (on his boat) with Penny, with Penny about to undress him. This scene happens after BoJack and Charlotte kiss and he begs her to run away with him and confesses he’s loved her all this time, and she rejected him and tells him to leave because he makes her too sad. After Charlotte orders Penny to go to her room she tells BoJack to leave in 30 minuets or she’ll call the police, and “if you ever try to contact me or my family again, I will fucking kill you”.
 * Season 3 was Todd Chavez in “It's You”, after BoJack reveals that he slept with Emily, whom Todd had been trying to figure out his feelings for. BoJack tries to apologize, but Todd says feeling bad for the shitty things doesn’t make them ok (which is what BoJack keeps doing). He also tells BoJack “You are everything that is wrong with you. It’s not the drugs, or the alcohol, or the shitty things that happened to you in your career, or when you were a kid. It’s you.” He then says “Fuck, man. What else is there to say?”
 * Season 4 is actually BoJack’s himself, in “Thoughts and Prayers”. He takes Hollyhock to visits Beatrice at her nursing home and discovers she has dementia and no longer recognizes him. He cooks up a plan to get her to recognize him, and he says when she does, he’ll squeeze her hand, get real close, and say “Fuck You, Mom!”, in order to tell her off for being a horrible mother to him.
 * Season 5 was Gina Cazador in "The Showstopper ", after BoJack, after having mistaken his show Philbert and reality for each other for the entire episode under the influence of pills and alcohol despite her best efforts, almost strangles her to death while shooting a scene. After they are pulled apart by the crew, Gina ends their relationship with a simple question "What the fuck is wrong with you?"
 * BoJack bears a strong resemblance to his late uncle Crackerjack, his mom's brother. The two share similar facial features, dark brown fur, and a white snippet and pink spot on their noses and lips.
 * "One Trick Pony", which took place in 2014, has BoJack reveal he is 50 years old, which also indirectly reveals he was born in 1964.
 * His birthday is revealed to be January 2nd, 1964 in Stop the Presses.
 * Stop the Presses reveals several things about BoJack through his LA Gazette account
 * He was born January 2nd, 1964.
 * He is a Grade/thoroughbred cross horse with medium bay fur and a star and snip marking.
 * He weighs 1,200 lbs.
 * He is 19.75 hands tall.
 * He has a buck knee, splay foot, ewe neck, wall eye, pot belly, and sweet tooth.
 * His temperament is related 9/10, and is mentioned he is spooky, stubborn, unpredictable, and suffers from substance abuse.
 * He has had more than 100 sexual partners throughout his life.
 * One time, at a Christmas party, BoJack sneezed on Marisa Tomei. Embarrassed, he jumped off the balcony and ended up in a full body cast.
 * BoJack still has the sweater he wore on Horsin' Around, but now his stomach hangs out of it, due to him being much slimmer during those years.
 * In "Thoughts and Prayers", it revealed that BoJack played football when he was a teenager.
 * The episode also revealed that in 8th grade he was in choir. He describe his solo a bit "shakey", and his mother pretended not to know him and forces him to get a ride home from the pianist who according to BoJack, "liked to tickle more than just the ivories". When BoJack came home safe, his mother said "I guess nobody wants you."
 * This is why he is skeptical of her dementia at first.
 * Hooray! Todd Episode! reveals he has multiple strains of herpes.
 * He is currently in rehab.
 * Some of the medicine in BoJack’s medicine cabinet (as seen in "Stupid Piece of Sh*t" and "Lovin that cali lifestyle!!") includes:
 * Menoxidil: forehead reducer. This is used for certain types of baldness.
 * Heart Burn medicine.
 * Avanafil, a medicine used for erectile dysfunction.
 * Fluvastatin, a medicine that lowers high cholesterol.
 * Bupropion, a medicine used to help quit smoking and/or help prevent types of depression, namely seasonal affective disorder (SAD).
 * The blue pentagon shaped pills are likely a form of dexamethasone, which treats inflammation.
 * Pain Free, which is likely just ibuprofen (pain killers).