The Genius Absurdity Of Bojack Horseman

Exploring Moral Ambiguity through Absurdity

To the casual observer, we live in a world that celebrates individuality. The nine to five lifestyle has been relegated to an unenviable curse, where only the drabbest individuals are found, sipping on budget wine and conversing in hush tones about fixed deposits and down-payments on conformist luxuries. We pensively look down from our ivory tower onto the thatched roof of the common man, committing the 21st century’s cardinal sin - Conforming.

Of course there may be the possibility that individualism is capitalism’s answer to the deification of the free spirit. When you look around, it is hard not to notice that even in those circles that thrive on the tenant of freedom of thought and self, there exists an ironic uniformity, not of man, but of society. We drift towards other people who share the same desires, the same outlook, the same morality, and in a manner of sociological symmetry, form a society.

The lines of morality for man are, and may always have been, blurred, as seemingly evident in the United States Presidential election this year. For centuries, people have devoted much of their lives to the pursuit of morality, which is a luxury not afforded to people of this century. Perhaps that is why film is such an integral part of our societies. As passive observers, we willingly submit to participating in developing not just an opinion on the movie or yourself, but in developing a public conscience. As an audience we are often shaped by the ninety minute realities we choose to submerge ourselves in. Film seems to be a powerful lens through which we view each other, and by extension, view ourselves.

There is something alluring in the ambiguity of morality. This is apparent from shows like Breaking Bad, Sherlock, Dexter, and Game of Thrones. The troubled, morally bankrupt anti-hero has been the talking point of most modern pop culture. One director that seems to exemplify this theme is Anurag Kashyap. He has found widespread acclaim for his style. Krakowiak, an associate professor of communication at the University of Colorado, and Tsay-Vogel explored the concept of ‘moral disengagement’ in a study published in the journal Human Communication Research in 2015. Moral disengagement is a concept within the realm of social psychology, which deals in the way people distance themselves from their actions and the moral implications of them. It shifts the emphasis of morality from right and wrong to a matter of context. In a way, movies like Gangs of Wasseypur directed by Anurag Kashyap, and The Hateful Eight - the latest production of Quentin Tarantino - do more than just entertain. They make us feel better about the choices we make, however dubious they may be.

This ideology in cinema has been gaining traction in the mainstream over the last decade or so. It has been practiced time and time again in film and television, but only recently has it been perfected by the Netflix original show ‘Bojack Horseman’. An animated series, it disregards every convention of the medium and carves out its own route of passage in the genre of adult animated sitcoms. Bojack Horseman is a show about a world defined by anthropomorphic animals with very human complications. It weaves together politics, humanity, morality, and love, all with threads of absurdity.

The success of the show can be attributed to the ease with which the show’s creator’s tread the fine line between the hilariously absurd and the dark, soul shattering realities of life. The show has run for 3 seasons, and while Bojack (the aforementioned horse-man), a washed up sitcom celebrity, shows growth and development, the writers never allow him to truly become the version of himself that he wants to be. As an audience we feed into the fallacy of character rebirth, believing that Bojack, at the moment of his enlightenment, will surface from his own self loathing, self pity, and self aggrandising stupor, and attain - in whatever way - redemption.

We wait and wait and wait…… but it never comes. The range of emotions elicited by this show’s absurd realism guarantees that people will come back for the next season. However, I believe that there exists another reason for its popularity. I believe that as a viewer, you are naturally separated from the story by the sheer strangeness of its premise and the steady diet of easy laugh animal puns. It is disarming to watch Bojack sleep his way through a drug addled life. which makes the moments of honesty cut through our emotional shields with ease. In a black and white world, it is easy to take sides. Issues are cleanly defined within specific contexts, where moral compasses always point true north. Maybe this shift stems from the evolution of the mainstream film market, from entertainment to introspection. It is easy to disregard the merits of the morally superior and hide behind a facade of edgy individualism, but when you’re faced with the harsh realities of characters like Bojack - who major in morally ambiguous decisions, and minor in self destructive anxiety, the barrier between art and life becomes blurry. The absurdity of the world you are watching starts to mirror your own, and the television screen suddenly becomes reflective. Where can you hide then?