Bojack Horseman Creator Claims Netflix Pushed Back On His Attempts To Criticize Bill Cosby

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 23, 2024 |

By Andrew Sanford | Celebrity | August 23, 2024 |

Bojack Horseman occupies rare space. The show was deeply comedic, delivering smart jokes while never shying away from overtly silly humor. It was also grounded and serious. The show would tackle serious issues like addiction and mental illness, and then, in the same breath, make a joke about paparazzi being vultures while having them portrayed as vultures. The show skewered Hollywood. It made references to plenty of real-world incidents, with some being more direct than others.

For instance, the show did a storyline about a character named Hank Hippopopalous. Hank is a TV host, loved by fans and, you guessed it, a Hippo. In one episode, Bojack’s assistant, Diane, makes a comment where she lists Hank among other celebrities who have committed heinous acts, like Mike Tyson and Woody Allen. When someone asks why she lumped Hank in with these ill-gotten dudes, she references allegations about him being a Google search away.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because a similar thing happened in real life! Hannibal Buress was performing stand-up comedy in 2014, made an offhanded comment about Bill Cosby’s known history of sexual assault, and the ensuing Google searches began a tidal wave of comeuppance that eventually saw Cosby’s reputation (mostly) ruined and him sent to jail (albeit for a relatively brief amount of time). The events shown in Bojack Horseman play out differently than the real-life scandal they are referencing.

In the show, Diane is the one who faces backlash because she spoke out. No one wants to bury the reputation of Hank Hippopopalous. To be fair, that’s how it played out with Cosby for decades. Regardless, Bojack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Wakksberg was happy they didn’t make the comparisons to Cosby too direct, even if that was Netflix’s doing.

“When we were developing it originally, it was much more sharp and satirically targeted at specifically Bill Cosby,” the creator explained recently to the AV Club. “I remember Netflix really pushed back on that. At the time, I was really annoyed with that note because I thought, ‘Oh, Netflix is developing something with Bill Cosby. They’re covering their asses. This is so obnoxious that we have to water this down and make it a more general pastiche.’” However, Bob-Wakksberg clarifies that things worked out in the show’s favor.

When Raphael and his crew were working on the Hank storyline, Hannibal Buress brought attention to Cosby’s somewhat known atrocities. By the time the episode aired, everything was common knowledge. “While we were developing the episode, all the Bill Cosby stuff came out and suddenly everyone was talking about it. It was no longer this thing that weirdly people don’t talk about. By the time the episode came out, we weren’t breaking any news,” Bob-Wakksberg explained. “Everyone’s talking about Cosby.”

While the show did make Hank into a more general character, the reaction to his monstrous behavior played out similarly to what happened in the show. Netflix didn’t want to produce criticism of Cosby. According to the Bojack Horseman creator, that ended up being good (for the show). “I was like, oh, thank God we made this a little more general because if this was just about Bill Cosby, people would be like, ‘What are they talking about, this guy that gets away with everything? (Cosby’s) about to go to jail,’” Bob-Waksberg told the outlet. “So, now I’m really grateful — that was a really good note. And the truth is there were other guys like that.”

People still drew their own comparisons to Cosby, as they should have. But, there are plenty of Cosbys out there. Some are better hidden, but they’re there. So, if the Hank character had to be a little bit more general, he is still likely to remind people of someone. That’s a bright side, I guess.