BoJack Horseman

BoJack Horseman: Off-Screen Scandals From Hollywood’s Saddest Horse

BoJack spent six seasons flaming out on-screen — but the real-world drama around the show could fill its own prestige limited series. From casting backlash and Netflix censorship to animators revolting and Harvey Weinstein lurking in the background, the BoJack-verse is messier than Todd’s career plan.

Scandals & Controversies

The Diane Casting Backlash

• Alison Brie publicly apologized in 2020 for voicing Diane, a Vietnamese-American character, saying, “In hindsight, I wish that I didn't voice the character of Diane Nguyen. I now understand that people of color should always voice people of color.” She called it a “missed… opportunity to represent the Vietnamese American community accurately and respectfully.”
• Around the same time, creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg admitted hiring a white actress and never having a Vietnamese writer for Diane was a “huge racist error,” saying the show failed in its representation choices .
• Fans and think pieces treated this as BoJack’s own little meta-arc: a show about accountability being forced to grapple with its own.

Banned in China (Of Course)

• BoJack was yanked from Chinese streaming platform iQiyi just two days after debuting, reportedly after running afoul of censors over its mix of sex, drugs, abortion jokes, and general “Hollywood moral decay” .
• Coverage noted it was removed for “adjustments,” which is the bureaucratic way of saying, “this horny, alcoholic horse is not socialist-core-values-approved.” ^[3]

Labor Drama: Animators vs. The Machine

The Mini-Revolution in the Storyboard Room

• In 2019, the real underdogs — the BoJack animators — revolted. Over 40 artists pushed to unionize, arguing they were being paid significantly less than unionized peers at other studios (reports cited differences of $400–$500 per week on comparable shows) .
• They staged a ten-minute walk-out in March and a larger demonstration in May, plastering their fight all over social media and Reddit ^[4].
• Voice actors Paul F. Tompkins and Patton Oswalt publicly backed the crew during negotiations, adding some celebrity pressure to the payroll battle ^[4].
• The result: the BoJack crew voted to unionize with The Animation Guild, winning wage minimums plus employer-paid health and retirement benefits — a rare happy ending in this universe ^[4].

Leaks, Cuts & Netflix Tea

The David Fincher Scene Netflix Didn’t Want You to See

• Bob-Waksberg revealed that Netflix asked him to cut a Season 1 David Fincher joke “because they were worried it might upset David Fincher.”
• Years later, amid the Dave Chappelle controversy, he decided to weaponize that history: he promised to release the script of the cut BoJack scene if at least 100 people donated to Trans Lifeline. Fans smashed the goal, raising over $2,000, and he released the “controversial” script — which he described as fairly tame, underscoring how silly the original censorship was ^[5].
• He used the whole thing to drag Netflix’s double standard: they’d protect Fincher’s feelings over a mild joke, but platform far more inflammatory content elsewhere ^[5].

Missing Sex Scene, Maximum Fan Outrage (Unconfirmed)

• On Reddit, fans flagged that an “important” sex scene between Diane and Mr. Peanutbutter — the one where he cheats on Pickles — appears to have been fully removed from a later version of the episode, leaving only context in flashbacks .
• This missing moment has become semi-mythic in the fandom. It’s not officially labeled censorship, so chalk it up as unconfirmed behind-the-scenes meddling — but it definitely fuels fan conspiracy boards ^[6].

Harvey Weinstein, Mel Gibson & the Dark Inspirations

When a Monster Becomes a “Fan”

• Bob-Waksberg has said he found out, via someone who worked with Will Arnett, that Harvey Weinstein was a fan of BoJack and had specifically praised the underwater episode “Fish Out of Water” .
• The “chilling compliment” pushed the creator to interrogate whether the show was accidentally flattering the very kind of abusive men it critiqued. This anxiety helped shape Season 5’s Philbert arc and its brutal look at Hollywood’s habit of protecting toxic male stars ^[7].

Vance Waggoner and the Mel Gibson Vibes

• Bob-Waksberg has openly confirmed that disgraced Hollywood figures like Mel Gibson and Harvey Weinstein were direct inspirations for Season 5’s Vance Waggoner and the show’s #MeToo storyline .
• He was especially disturbed when Gibson got re-signed by his old agency CAA, calling it “repugnant” — that real-world decision fed straight into BoJack’s fictional universe of comeback-hungry predators ^[8].

Wild Trivia & Off-Mic Weirdness

The Cast That… Never Met?

• In a revelation straight out of a meta-gag, a BoJack commentary track revealed that creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Amy Sedaris (Princess Carolyn) never met in person for the entire run of the show. They recorded commentary from different cities and joked about having never actually been in a room together .
• A Reddit summary adds that Will Arnett and Amy Sedaris also never saw each other during BoJack’s run, despite playing exes with electric chemistry; they had known each other before the show, but their BoJack-era interactions happened entirely via microphones and editors ^[9].
• Behind-the-scenes notes on the production confirm that most of the time, actors recorded separately; full-cast table reads were the exception, not the rule . So all that wounded, overlapping banter you love? Carefully stitched together in post.

Fan Theories Gone Off the Deep End

• BoJack’s finale triggered a wave of galaxy-brain fan theories so aggressive that Cracked ran a whole piece roasting them. The article called out fans who insisted the ending was secretly a “simulation” or dream, arguing that people were forcing a “bad ending” onto a finale that already clearly spelled out what happened .
• Another widely circulated theory (amplified by fan-theory sites) insists the main cast maps onto the five stages of grief — with different characters embodying denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance . Not canon, but very on-brand for the saddest cartoon on Netflix.