Existential Nihilism in Bojack Horseman


            Bojack Horseman is a show about a man that was in a famous TV show in the 90’s called Horsin’ Around. This show made him an incredible amount of money but he quickly faded from the public eye after the show was cancelled. He has no close family or friends and is severely depressed because he has no purpose in life. He adopts a philosophy of existential nihilism, which is essentially the idea that nothing in life has any real meaning. Another character named Mr. Peanutbutter also shares this philosophy but he has a much more optimistic take on it. Bojack uses the idea that everything is meaningless to delegitimize all of the good events that do actually happen to him. In one episode he is even nominated for an Oscar and cannot let himself be happy about it because he views it as all being hollow and meaningless in the end. Mr. Peanutbutter, in contrast, typically only uses this philosophy to make light of any struggles that he is going through. In one situation, he gets in a lot of trouble for an error he makes as the announcer at the Oscars and his immediate reaction is along the lines of “but there’s good news! None of this matters!” It is interesting how this same philosophy of a meaningless existence can be used either to suck the meaning out of all of the beautiful moments in life or to take the stress out of bad situations.

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