All the art references in BoJack Horseman.
February 22, 2018 5:57 AM   Subscribe

The animated TV show BoJack Horseman (previously 1, 2) contains dozens of references to classic and contemporary art. Daily Art Magazine has scoured all four seasons and found them all.
posted by Room 641-A (17 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
That entire website is a delight. There's an entire section called "WTF Art History"!
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:44 AM on February 22, 2018


This is relevant to my interests.
posted by kyrademon at 7:02 AM on February 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


I love this! I don't watch the show inasmuch as I've seen episodes with people (I do like it, though). It's fun to try and guess what the painting is first. I recognized quite a few of them. Great post!
posted by FirstMateKate at 7:14 AM on February 22, 2018


oh wow, this is pretty cool. thanks!
posted by bigendian at 7:20 AM on February 22, 2018


I'm ashamed to say that even though I recognized most of the art references in the scenes, the next layer of jokes (Georgia O'Keefe in a gynecologist's office) escaped me. It took me too long to jump on the Bojack train, insofar as Netflix barely promotes it, and it superficially resembles a much crasser sort of animated comedy at first glance. But now that I'm on board I feel like it's one of the best sitcoms, as well as one of the best TV shows, period, of our current era.
posted by Strange Interlude at 7:34 AM on February 22, 2018 [11 favorites]


Good lord the care and craft that went into BoJack is astonishing.
posted by Gorgik at 7:54 AM on February 22, 2018 [11 favorites]


Every time I think I'm fully appreciating this show, it throws something else at me. Amazing.
posted by Gordafarin at 8:05 AM on February 22, 2018 [6 favorites]


Lisa Hanawalt is a genius and I look forward to her new show coming up, Tuca and Bertie.

She's also a very wise person.
posted by idiopath at 8:30 AM on February 22, 2018 [8 favorites]


They've done a thorough job here and I admire it, but it kind of spoils the joke to see them all listed out in one page.
posted by Nelson at 9:00 AM on February 22, 2018


I agree that BoJack is one of the best half hour comedies out there, and part of the reason is that the humor ranges so widely from highbrow (like this, or JD Salinger becoming a recurring character) to lowbrow (an albino rhino gyno [i know!]) to the just plain bizarre, but most importantly, how densely they pack every episode with humor, mashing the highbrow and lowbrow and bizarre together and moving on to the next joke before you’ve fully processed the last one.
posted by ejs at 9:49 AM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


Jumping off of my earlier comment regarding Netflix's advertising of its shows, it occurred to me that Arby's of all places went to more of an effort to visibly promote Bojack Season 4 than Netflix did.

It's insane how little advertising exposure Netflix properties have outside of the service itself. I think Stranger Things is literally the exception that proves the rule, in terms of merchandising and general awareness in the culture.
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:45 PM on February 22, 2018


Now somebody should do a post about Bojack Horseman's title sequence, which has the most perfect music for a title sequence ever.
posted by of strange foe at 1:55 PM on February 22, 2018 [6 favorites]


Song Exploder: Bojack Horseman.
The theme song for the show was created by Patrick Carney, who is one half of The Black Keys, and his uncle, Ralph Carney, a multi-instrumentalist who has worked artists like Tom Waits, St Vincent, The B-52s, Galaxie 500, and others. But the track wasn’t written for the show, originally; it was just something that Patrick and Ralph made without knowing what it was for.
posted by Nelson at 2:05 PM on February 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


There's so much more than the article shows, it bugs me that it even makes the weak claim of "All Art In BoJack Horseman We Could Find". Let alone "ALL OF THEM from ALL FOUR SEASONS for you."

Like... how do you miss the Venus de Milo with an elephant as Venus. Or the wonderful unicorn in captivity tapestry.

Also, does anyone here know what the dog catching the tennis ball in Mr. Peanutbutter's house is from? I love it so much.
posted by tychotesla at 2:08 PM on February 22, 2018 [4 favorites]


Now somebody should do a post about Bojack Horseman's title sequence, which has the most perfect music for a title sequence ever.

So true it hurts and I'm going to have to listen to it now.
posted by knapah at 2:32 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


This painting of a dog catching a tennisball, tychotesla? I don't recognize the source art but maybe it'll catch someone's eye.

I just realized that this abstract painting at Mr. Peanutbutter's house is stylized tennis balls (although who can say what color they are.) Also the painting above his bed is pretty goodboy.
posted by Nelson at 3:00 PM on February 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


That's the one! I was thinking maybe that NY artist that did photography or hyper real images of people jumping, but IDK.

This post on season 4 art references reminds me that the elephant-Venus I was thinking of was in Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, not the sculpted Venus de Milo. However Channing Tatum de Milo is in the show as well!
posted by tychotesla at 3:26 PM on February 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


« Older Let me talk about this post, which is probably a...   |   Scott Moir to Ref: "WAKE UP!" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments