BoJack's Most HATED Episode: CHICKENS

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BoJack Horseman is unique for a lot of reasons, but highest among them is the fact that the show so adeptly balances between relatable and profound existential stories, and some of the wackiest hijinx you can possibly imagine. Somehow the show manages to feel deeply realistic, while also acknowledging that it exists in a world filled with animal people. It’s nearly a contradiction. There is ONE wackier episode, however, that I see get more hate than any others, and THAT episode is Chickens. Season 2 episode 5’s Todd focused misadventure that does its damndest to explain how eating animals works in a world where animals are people. But WHY is Chickens so hated? Is it specifically the subject matter? Did the humor just miss the mark? Is it the wrong kind of deep for its audience? I have a lot of thoughts! Let’s talk Chickens!
Edited by Joe Murphy ‪@nazchoz798‬
Thumbnail by Ravioli!
Check out his work here: / ravioli_510
Music:
Johnny 2 Cellos Theme Music - Norman Marston
Johnny 2 Cellos Theme Remix- ‪@BlackTyeChi‬
Video Used:
BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted.
"Fair Use" guidelines: www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

[@Johnny2Cellos]

Honestly loving how many people are SHOCKED that this episode is disliked. It's really the only episode I ever see singled out with "I hate that one" or "It's probably my least favorite"- but I'm glad to know so many love it!

[@Arymakesmusic]

You’re videos make my day thank you for doing what you do 😊

[@Digitarch]

True it's mid in an ocean of peak, but it's hardly *bad*, I had no idea people hated it.

[@goldensloth7]

yeah i kind of loved it!

[@AdaminTranzit]

I never hated it, i simply forgot about it as soon as i watched it xDD

[@sebv8607]

@@Arymakesmusicpp😊

[@killerbeanmachine]

I told my bf that the reason everyone is so depressed in bojack horsemen is because there's no pets to cheer them up

[@d.phantomfan1216]

I hadn’t even thought about that and it’s so sad now that I have to think about it.

[@killerbeanmachine]

@@d.phantomfan1216 im sorry?

[@peggleblastlover]

@@killerbeanmachinei think they mean like this never occurred to them but it makes sense

[@killerbeanmachine]

​@@peggleblastlover oh I thought I like ruined the show for them lol

[@d.phantomfan1216]

⁠@@killerbeanmachine no it’s not your fault. I just mean it never occurred to me until you pointed it out. It’s cool.

[@WobblesandBean]

Not gonna lie, the revelation that cannibalism is canon makes the show unbelievably macabre...and then it's never mentioned again.

[@alexvaughan1013]

We do see a couple eating a pig's head, and a pig sitting by them looking incredibly disturbed,l.

[@thirdpedalnirvana]

Don't ask questions, just keep eating!

[@thirdpedalnirvana]

I think it's brilliant, but I don't think cannibalism is the point. If they were eating fully realized chicken people, that would be one thing. I think the point is that we already eat animals that are dumber than us. So the show asks, what if your friend and your food were the same species, but your food was still dumb and your friend was as intelligent as you, would you still be ok eating the dumb one?

[@iceluvndiva21]

I think that was a choice in hindsight.

[@gypsywoman9140]

It actually makes sense, tho, since the setting is in Hollywoo. Idk if it's a dark humor site or not (I hope it is, but I fail to see the humor) but there's allegedly a Cannibal Club restaurant in LA that serves "young, healthy meat" (their words) in their lasagna. Their staff page talks about one staff member with the "difficult task of procuring our meat" Yeah, it's really not funny. It's sick and disturbing. And after everything with Armie Hammer, it's really not hard to believe that Cannibal Club website might be fr fr. Some people with too much money get into some really whack and sick things. Even just their humor can be depraved. Have you ever watched the Bob Saget roast? Wtf were those "jokes"?

[@Oliviagarry69420]

Ok but as someone in their 20s diane saying that being in your 20s is just wacky misadventures kinda helps. Cause I have no idea what I’m doing so this helped

[@aela5521]

LITERALLY

[@zjackshot]

I can't upvote this enough

[@soaphope3398]

I was thinking the same thing lol

[@nothingposted9056]

In my 30s and it's still a series of wacky misadventures

[@SpookySal13]

Sameeee. Especially having gone through a stroke at 21

[@EternalYorkieMom]

No one mentions the fact that the cow waitress serves Pc milk from her teet and has a running gag that she judges anyone ordering a steak. Like it’s canon and shows up more than once

[@Iker-m6z]

Lmao didn't notice that

[@thirdpedalnirvana]

This? Oh, this... is.... my wife! {Bock-caw} Becca! Becca Chavez! {Book-Book} yep, she loves her books. Big reader, kind of a nerd. (Oh, well if you are such a nerd, who is your favorite Baroque Composer?) ..... {Bock} (Bach?? Not Vivaldi??? You're Insane! She's a Charmer!) This moment in the show lives rent free in my head forever.

[@goldensloth7]

same!!

[@nerdygem8620]

This show would not be the same without Todd

[@Delcat42]

Book Beck??

[@BwooHuraca]

@@Delcat42 Fine. You also book Beck.

[@Delcat42]

@@BwooHuraca BIC!!!

[@JesusMartinez-rr2ry]

I never hated this episode, and I never even had an idea it was hated that much. I just saw it as the Bojack Horseman crew answering about the elephant in the room. That is, about the existence of a meat industry in a world with all the animals being people.

[@iamastrangeloop9204]

I don’t hate it either

[@tortoiseoflegends4466]

Yeah, if I had to pick one episode of Bojack that's the worst it would probably be the first episode. I wonder how many people stopped watching because they thought it would just be another mediocre adult comedy? Same deal with Prickley Muffin in season 1.

[@classarank7youtubeherokeyb63]

Same here. It had some great laughs and it felt way too wacky to be preachy. Also I like how Bojack told the director lady that he knew bad mothers and she wasn't a bad mother.

[@usuallyangry]

I feel like something else uncomfortable about this premise is there are other meat animals in this world that are clearly more sapient than the chickens: The cow waitress, the geese, the fish people, and the deer. BoJack himself could even appear on a plate.

[@hambone.fakenamington]

the whole point is that the chickens are just as sapient as everyone else (until the hormones), the fully “normal people” animals that farm them are literally also chickens. The horrific implication is that these food chickens are exactly the same as the farmer chickens, except they’ve been hormonally stunted, implying that any Meat Cow animal people and Meat Pig animal people and all food made from meat are also just normal Animal People stunted by hormones so everyone else feels okay eating them.

[@usuallyangry]

@@hambone.fakenamington After spending the series with BoJack, it's creepy to think of a version of him with deliberately stunted growth destined for the meat counter.

[@hambone.fakenamington]

@@usuallyangry 2:08 i agree with you that is a disturbing mental image but i also am getting the impression you missed a bit of the plot of what happens in the episode. they aren’t stunted growth wise, if you watch the video, you see that the Meat Chickens are the same physically as People Animals, the hormones stunt them mentally. As that is, like, the premise of the episode. “Becca” looks normal enough, but she can only make chicken sounds because she’s mentally stunted through hormonal intervention. That is the only thing making them meat, and the only thing differentiating them from People Animals. Like. that’s the whole joke. the whole plot of the episode and why it’s disturbing. they make them stupid so people can eat giant buckets of giant chicken wings.

[@mh56487]

Yea that's kinda the point. The chickens in this universe are equally intelligent as the other animals. It's just that they're pumped with hormones. It's even Canon that the same happens to cows. Remember when the waitress is serving a steak to someone and gets annoyed at them? That confirms that cows are also eaten in this show.

[@allendepacheco3419]

Now I'm curious if human cannibalism is okay too in Bojack world. Since a lot of animals are being used as food despite having the same intelligence, does that mean there's a farm of humans who are stunted and harvested for food just like everyone else?

[@Redflier3]

I think Beastars have the best depiction of meat consumption in a world where animals are intelligent beings: 1. Carnivores have a higher desire to eat meat than herbivores 2. Meat are sold in black markets 3. Most meat are harvested from deceased animals obtained from hospitals and morgues 4. There's underlying racism issues between carnivores and herbivores 5. Animal-based products like milk and unfertilized eggs are freely produced and sold with no moral issues 6. Sea creatures are more nonchalant about death and view being eaten by ppl they trust as respecting the dead 7. Bugs and mollusks are not sentient and are harvested as sources of protein

[@jessadelix7415]

Could you explain number 6 a little more? I understand the others but not that one :)

[@Redflier3]

@jessadelix7415 Due to different cultures, sea creatures just have a carefree view of life. Like even if a family member gets eaten by a shark or something, they'd just shrug and go "Oh well, that's life." Tho if they have to die, sea creatures prefer to at least be eaten by someone they trust as a form of closure/respect. Kind of like how some human cannibal tribes would eat dead loved ones as a sign of respect and be "close" to them

[@royceroyce7715]

​@Redflier3 if I was in some sort of horrifying cosmic game show where it was GUARANTEED I would be eaten as my transition into the death process... yeah, I'd rather it be someone I know, trust, or love well enough to know they're not enjoying my suffering. And maybe they deserve to benefit from all these years of healthy living, it's probably not bad meat. I would hate and curse whatever showrunners existed that they couldn't let my character get cooked getting too close to a thermal vent or unmarked smoker, but it makes a certain kind of sense. If I was a sea creature and had to worry even less about prionic diseases or issues that could come from the consumption? I can see it a buuuunch easier. Still glad I'm not an octopus or stone fish yet though.

[@EllaAngeli]

​@@Redflier3kinda reminds me of martians from a stranger in a strange land.

[@zab416]

The school needs better basic safety stuff though. Not the dramatic plots but the small mouse girls almost being stepped on by bumbling larger students lol. Very creative show with the accommodations for the animal people that work well though! Like how giraffes can have a milkshake 😂

[@botanicalitus4194]

To me I love this episode because it forces people to contend with the fact that just like how the difference between the "friend chicken" and "food chicken" is arbitrary, so too is how we as a society divide animals into "friend animaIs" and "food animaIs". People will act like eating a cat or pup is the same as first degreehomicide, but then go to the grocery store and buy lamb chops. The discomfort felt by the subject matter of this episode exists because we see ourselves in the chicken for days and farmer chicken people.

[@goldensloth7]

yep. cognitive dissonance rules our brains.

[@ewetwentythree]

I think this is the best comment I've read on this video. Kinda nails it

[@sino3318]

this!

[@kathrineici9811]

We made cats and dogs to be our friends. We have been partners as a species for thousands of years. No one ever tried to be friends with pigs until recently, we are not friends, we just took the animals we hunted and put them in a pen.

[@commonviewer2488]

​@@kathrineici9811 We've domesticated goats, cows, pigs, chickens, donkeys, horses, mostly for the sake of easy access to food and labor. People are selective with what should or shouldn't be food based on how friendly they are towards certain animals. I don't have room to judge people for eating dogs/cats, especially in impoverished areas, just because I'm from a land of plenty where beef is so readily available to me. It's all edible, we just make justifications to not have to think about it very often.

[@ander_1O1]

People hated this episode?

[@Froggiethatguy]

That's what I was gonna saay

[@Rcc-OMEN69]

@@Froggiethatguy yh i know i thought the episode was ok not my favorite one but i still enjoyed it

[@mythcat1273]

Honestly it's not even what it implies for the worldbuilding I just hate the "character(s) grow attached to an animal and have to save said animal from being slaughtered" episodes

[@honey-bagder3451]

I actually liked. Not my favorite, but it was solid.

[@honey-bagder3451]

​@@mythcat1273 I thought it was a fun deconstruction of that story line and a commentary on animal rights using the show's premise of "animals are people".

[@thirdpedalnirvana]

I always thought the realest and most uncomfortable moment in the show was when Mr. Peanutbutter is explaining to Diane what "all bark and no bite" means by translating it into human terms: "All talk and no shooting you with an assualt rifle"

[@gardeninthevoid]

that's one of the jokes from this show that i remember constantly and lose my shit over

[@royceroyce7715]

This line lives rent free in my head, and is the only thing I feel compelled to say in place of "all bark, no bite."

[@samthegoblin8907]

is it bad that i never thought of this as a "deal with the animals as food vs people" episode but a "todd shenanigans that ended up being the main plot" kind of episode

[@Johnny2Cellos]

it's both!

[@shady8045]

The funny thing is that I did, I distinctly remember googling how it worked, but despite that this episode is still weird and gross.

[@peteryanes3413]

​@Johnny2Cellos just came here to ask you are you doing Futurama new sessions 12 how u did last year

[@CobaltContrast]

Yeah I would worry you never connect with the suffering your food experiences.

[@margareeta1369]

Yeah I never really had any feelings about the "cannibalism" because I'm always secretly sorry when I have to buy meat

[@YouTubeaccoubr]

One other reason why I think that this episodes uncomfortable topic feels more uncomfortable than drug abuse, sexual abuse, depression, suicide, death in general etc is because most people don't contribute to those. Whereas with the meat industry, most people DO contribute directly to the meat industry, making them so much more defensive about it than the other episodes

[@CheziahKatt]

idk, there's a lot of people with depression, and suicidal ideation, and people who smoke weed, etc etc. that seems like an over generalization. especially when youre also discounting all vegetarians who dont eat meat at least, even if they contribute to the dairy industry

[@jazzyqueen4980]

I'm pretty sure people contribute to sex abuse, i.e. Bojack

[@rainbow_doglover8301]

I think they’re trying to say that most people don’t feel like they’re being guilted in other episodes because they haven’t done morally bad things related to those topics - having depressing or experiencing suicidal ideation isn’t a bad thing you DO, it’s something you experience. It’s not a crime and you haven’t done something wrong. But with this episode, people feel like they themselves are being told they are bad people so they get defensive. I don’t think the other commenter meant that people don’t relate to the other episodes, but that this one is unique in that it’s about a bad thing that most of the audience actively participates in every day.

[@stobie9063]

But this episode doesn't guilt you about anything. Like at all. It even implies at the end that everything the characters did was pointless because they made a neglible, one time difference compared to the full scale of harm done. This episode wasn't trying to say that much honestly, it was moreso silly Todd shenanigans than having a higher message.

[@CobaltContrast]

Unless you're vegan. Then you love this episode.

[@LauraGrrrr5370]

I love that they a) explained where meat comes from in this universe b) just leaned into how absolutely horrifying the whole concept is.

[@curiouskelpie2822]

Right? I thought it was really interesting. Most stories with anthropomorphic animals either ignore it or say that have some there’s another food source. Or it’s a Goofy and Pluto type thing

[@CobaltContrast]

Like reality.

[@crownoffyre894]

I feel like the funniest part is they never make a light of this again

[@giornogiovannax4124]

dang . you re right

[@talilopez1806]

I really like the part about animals being categorized as friends or food since I'm a bunny owner in a country where rabbits are so frequently eaten that you can find their meat in any supermarket. I got a lot of backlash from it, from people constantly joking about wanting to eat my baby (wich stops being funny when you heard it hundreds of time) to straight up not understanding how I could want food as a pet instead of a "real pet". I also got called a hypocrite for refusing to eat rabbits even tho I eat other animals but hey, I don't want to get reminded of what my baby tastes like! But yeah, here bunnies are treated like lesser animals and I hear things like "why do you care so much about it? It's just a rabbit" tho they will never ask the same thing for a cat or a dog

[@lucyandecember2843]

What country?👀

[@talilopez1806]

@@lucyandecember2843 France!

[@McFlingleson]

2 thoughts about animals being people in this world: 1.) I always kind of wanted to see a biologists take on a world where every animal species evolved sapience. 2.) I always felt like the show really dropped the ball by not having it mentioned in passing a couple of times that people in this world eat human meat.

[@edgeribble]

That would be so funny

[@genericname2747]

The chickens are just humans in disguise

[@soupharper5233]

I mean in one scene where bj is in the hospital there’s some sort of leech/parasite sucking the shoulder of a human

[@limediamond4595]

I’m not a biologist, I’m just a furry, but I do have a take on the first thing. My idea has always been that the humanoid animals split off into a sperate but adjacent species, similar to a human’s split from the apes they’re related to. This means that the humanoid animals are the people, and there’s still wild versions of these animals that are eaten and kept as pets

[@edgeribble]

@@limediamond4595 u can’t be admitting ur a furry

[@KILROY94]

„now we know the chicken crossed the road… but the real question is: why?“ gotta love officer meow meow fuzzyface😂

[@thirdpedalnirvana]

Considering that not a single character in the world changes from eating meat to not eating meat as a result of the events of the episode, I don't think the point was to try to convince anyone that eating meat is intrinsically wrong. I think the point was more to take aim at the way modern food production works, were companies who sell you food try as hard as possible to keep you from thinking about how the food got to your plate.

[@emilyisreading_]

Or maybe it’s just to show that people are hypocrites. The creator of bojack horseman is vegan

[@SiRenfield]

Hell if you look closely at the final scene, those burritos even have meat in them. Love when this show does subtle touches like that

[@yjohnson3678]

Whether intentional or not I think it also speaks to a bias in western countries that eating animals like dogs or cats is immoral when there’s actually no legit reason to say one is more edible than the other despite “intelligence” and what if we viewed “people like us” in this way.

[@LKing-ue2jl]

"The characters in the show didnt learn anything so I don't have to" type logic

[@Amambivertednerdwhocantdraw]

Guess they didn’t book beck…

[@zoeb3573]

I would have never questioned the fact that people eat animals despite animals being people if they didn't bring it up, and then it's never mentioned again. Wild. The worst (best?) part of that episode is the chicken farmer's wife being horrified the entire time and then begging them to take her with them... and then they don't.

[@Zhao328]

Her face is uncomfortable in the Gentle Farms advertisement, too. You can see that she's scared of her line of work :(

[@TheCommenterDragon]

When I see the part with the Gentle Farms commercial, I love how the rooster guys wife isn't trying to hide the fact that she's actually terrified, I mean her face says it all in fact I even remember the part of this episode where the roosters wife begged Todd and Diane to take her with them because for that hen that farm and that family was a prison. Not only that. It also would've been even more demented if it was revealed that the rooster had sex with those food bred hens before he slaughtered them.

[@erirausa7841]

Very Borrasca-esque take on this episode lol.

[@sallythechaos3991]

Omg my brain went to Borrasca too lol.

[@mistersomebody.4724]

​@@erirausa7841At least they bothered to post a comment of that nature. l don't see you posting comments like that, So what's your excuse?

[@caitlinb1657]

Looking back, this episode does a really good job setting up how taking care of Ruthie, and then the daycare, gives Todd's life purpose and makes sense for him as a character

[@pantaloney]

THIS episode is hated?? I love this episode!

[@nealmiles9070]

Same

[@goldensloth7]

right?

[@Salemiscool]

I'm surprised we never saw a group of Polar Bears having a nice human dinner in the show, just to get a little extra discomfort in there. You know, it's been a while since I've watched the series, that could have happened as a background joke somewhere, but I figured we'd all remember that if it did.

[@Nightswarmer]

Well.. There are no longer any animals that naturally eats humans.. The only cases are either accidents, desperation or humans just getting in the way.. If there's anything, there should be an underground criminal empire of human blood trade, run by mosquitos and ticks..

[@T0B3573R]

I wish in the last episode, we saw Becca at Princess Carolyn’s wedding, and she’d be a reformed member of society. Like she’d be wearing glasses and have a PHD in biology. That would be amazing.

[@ThereIsTooMuchButter]

I love this idea!

[@AngryPug76]

Well, she was at the reception. 🍗

[@cookiestrong8757]

That would imply that all the animals that are bred for meat are capable of being just as sentient and intelligent as the talking characters. Which would make the whole show a lot darker and more disturbing

[@T0B3573R]

@@cookiestrong8757 Very Bojack

[@yucol5661]

⁠@@cookiestrong8757very human and real world tough. Millions of people are mistreated or oppressed or disenfranchised even if we know that logically they are just as good if not better as many of the more respected, better paid, better protected people People today still push the whole “it’s okay for them to die in a war, all of those people are evil/violent/dumb due to their blood/culture” you know how much easier we could sell every day modern people into slavery if the slaves were medically dumbed down and we where told their thoughts and feelings are not as real as our own? We basically use gender, race, caste, nationality and other traits as a “this person is born inferior, they should do this job and be treated worse”. And on top of that we even blame it on them as a moral failure or as “it’s just the way the world is”.

[@xoltacueponi]

that's probably why i liked this episode so much. it didn't feel preachy or "for the shock factor". it's a natural consequence of this world. IT'S GOOD WORLD BUILDING!!! It's interesting, clever, dark, witty, hilarious, it's just damn good writing.

[@esueijae8352]

Honestly what I didn't like was just the ending, I sometimes feel like the show makes the point many times that activism efforts are worthless because they come from individuals, when it's suppose that we have to work together in order to make that happen instead of giving up, it has happened before I think, in general Diane gets that treatment in most part of the show making her sound crazy for caring for things that are important. And seeing as a win when she decides to not care

[@TheArcantosDraconian]

Just something to add, even chickens eat chickens, chickens are omnivores and show canibalistic tendencies, they are not hunters but if a chicken dies in a henhouse is very likely that the other chickens will eat the body, and not out of necessity. Some people think that this tendencies only happen in industrial farms but truth be told, it happens everywhere, the difference is that while a chicken would only prey on a dead chicken in a comfortable environment, a chikcen would actually kill another for food in a stressful environment. Besides that, as a fun fact, cows sometimes eat snakes.

[@benign_canine3423]

I'm surprised people hated this episode! It's actually a solitary episode that I showed a friend because we talked about how very few worlds with anthropomorphized animal characters deal with the "meat" issue, like the only other piece of media I can think of off the top of my head is Beastars! It's an interesting thought and I was happy to see it explored in Bojack, even if it was really dark conceptually

[@harmonlanager2670]

I feel like this would have been better if it was just a throwaway gag. Like chicken farmers (who are chicken people) look at their flocks and go “You think it’s kinda fucked up that these animals kinda look like us?” “I try not to think about it.”

[@mlweditss]

I’d argue that Prickly Muffin is the worst. I don’t really get the hate for this one

[@honey-bagder3451]

Ditto. Its a detriment to the show that Prickly Muffin happens so early on in it. It makes the show seem dumber and raunchier than it really is.

[@goldensloth7]

oof yeah

[@Zitronen_]

can someone remind me what prickly muffin was abt

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

​@@Zitronen_ It's when Sarah Lynn crashes at Bojack's after getting dumped by Andrew Garfield. Ends with her saying she would surround herself with sycophants and enablers until she dies tragically young. If I am remembering correctly.

[@SpringTigress1]

Prickly Muffin is my least favorite episode of the show. I recently rewatched the show and I forgot how bad it was. This episode is fine

[@goobrious7505]

I would have never guessed that this was one of the lowest ranking episodes of the show for so many people, since I've always loved it personally. Out of curiosity, I went ahead and checked the episode rankings on IMDB and Chickens is ranked #65 out of the total 77 episodes in the show. That's 14th least best according to that specific website anyway. If you're curious, the episodes that are ranked lower than Chickens on IMDB are: 66, One Trick Pony 67, Bojack Hates The Troops 68, Commence Fracking 69, Higher Love 70, See Mr Peanutbutter Run 71, Zoës and Zeldas 72, Bojack Kills 73, The Judge 74, Live Fast Diane Nguyen 75, Prickly Muffin 76, Bojack Horseman: The Bojack Horseman Story, Chapter One 77, Bojack Horseman Christmas Special: Sabrina's Special Wish Again, this is just from the averages on IMDB, but it surprised me to see Chickens and a few of these other episodes in the bottom 20 for the series. EDIT: It is also worth noting that every single one of these episodes is sitting above a 7/10 with the lowest ranked episode averaging at 7.1/10. So it's not like any of these episodes are particularly HATED on that platform

[@saranohmusic57]

OMG "Bojack Hates the Troops" is an iconic, hilarious episode... I feel like people who aren't fans are going there to rate it badly because they're pro army ahahaha

[@didiercollard]

This isn't a Todd episode, or a Diane episode, really. It's a Meow Meow Fuzzyface episode. He may be a loose cannon, but he gets results!

[@RamblinRichard]

I really like the point you made about what people have decided is acceptable to eat, i was watching a small youtuber the other day say that he thinks that aby culture that eats dog is "less evolved" which is so small minded in so many ways. I have a dog I love to death but completely understand it

[@RafaelHR17Arts]

Bojack Horseman might be the only tv show that i watched that has no bad episodes, seriously I can't tell a single episode that i hate or dislike and I'm surprised that people dislike this episode, i love how goofy it is!

[@maxsims1520]

I'm mostly on your side, but what do you think about the first few episodes? In my opinion, they don't really live up to what the show ends up becoming and kind of serve as classic wacky animated sitcomy episodes and not incredibly high quality ones.

[@RafaelHR17Arts]

@@maxsims1520 I get what you're saying but to me I still find them really funny, like I started watching Bojack because of some clips of the first episode, so I was already sold by the beginning and when the show started getting deeper I was locked in lol

[@z.t.500]

​@@maxsims1520 The first few episodes are not _bad_, they are _fine_.

[@pichugirl6]

The lore of Bojack is something that is both curious and at the same time something you don't want to overly think too much about how the world works. While that world has both Humans and anthropomorphic animals, you also have it where we constantly see them eating food on a regular basis. When food is often shown, eventually you're gonna have to question if the very meat is made by the same animal products that you see the very same type of animal walking around LA. Whats kinda hilarious is that Bojack Horseman, not a single person has a household pet which is very interesting to think on. No cat, dog, bird, or even a pet goldfish.

[@sneepsnoop9547]

Tbh when most shows featuring talking animals barely get into the worldbuilding implications, or just don't even acknowledge that the characters are animals at all (looking at you Regular Show), I found it extremely refreshing to see it so plainly addressed in BoJack. Sure, it's deeply grim and uncomfortable, but to me that always just felt par for the course for this show. It didn't feel out of place at all. And it really gets the wheels turning in your head, like what else about this world is deeply wrong due to the lack of theriomorphic animals? It makes you ask questions, and try to answer them for yourself, which I like, and feels in the spirit of the show. It reminds me of Beastars, which focused even more on disassembling the "talking animal people world" genre. Zootopia's attempt to me always felt a little too shallow and toothless, that's not to say I needed a Disney movie to be as gruesome as BoJack or Beastars but it just felt way too... safe. And easy. And didn't have much else to say beyond "Racism is bad. So uh. Don't do racism." So anyways all that is to say I loved Chickens, it was the perfect amount of worldbuilding to inject into an otherwise character-centric show. I understand maybe people are put off by how different it is from the usual formula but I consider it almost a necessary episode to the fabric of the show.

[@marioricomeza2839]

When I was 20 I loved the ending of this episode talking about how your 20s are a bunch of random things. It's not romanticising your 20s, but just saying it's a time to experiment

[@MrMegaManFan]

"Don't ask questions just keep... watching!" I personally love this episode.

[@theaddictofgaming9174]

How can people hate an episode where Cedric Yardborough says "Not Vivaldi?"

[@nidohime6233]

The ending of the episode can be seen as a gut punch to some because, yes, you sometimes heard stories about people saving a pig or a cow of being slaughtered and giving a new home in a sanctuary, but that didn´t stop millions of them still getting eaten every day. It also shows how easily we can "deshumanise" animals in our lives, you could watchTikTok videos about cute lambs while not shedding a tear for the beef hamburger you where eating at the time. I bet if Becka the chicken wasn´t part of the plot the average viewer wouldn´t have cared if human size chickens genetically modified to be dumb was an horrible idea, just wacky worldbuilding. Is a necessary reminder.

[@ScintillatingSusie]

I think another reason people are uncomfortable with this episode is because with how animals are also people it can feel like the chickens decided to be food are mentally ill and aren't seen as useful to society as anything other than food. Which could also be a metaphor but maybe I am looking too deeply into it

[@sarajanewebster5321]

Yeah I think that was an interesting point. How does sentience imply edibility in our culture- there are people in comas that are less sentient than the animals we eat, how do we feel about that, etc.

[@ScintillatingSusie]

@@sarajanewebster5321 They clearly aren't claiming that we should eat people. The point I was making is how the animals we don't typically eat are the ones that provide us with a valuable service while the ones we do eat don't do that. Dogs provide us with protection, cats take care of rodents, horses provide us with transportation. Chickens don't provide a valuable service so we eat them

[@scs998]

Finding out chickens is a hated episode is like when I found out people didn't like Dianne, I thought we all liked both of these things!!

[@SimonMester]

Diane is a good character because she feels real. Good character doesnt necessarily mean likeable. To me she is flip floppy, preachy and hypocritical. I dislike her. Still, good character and makes sense in the story.

[@vuivraalbastra]

@@SimonMester Exactly. I'm a lot like Diane, so I can say that she is a well written and realistic character, but that's also often what makes her hard for me to like since I often don't like myself. It can be interesting and useful to see her insecurities and flaws portrayed in the show (especially the episode "Good Damage", that one hits like a truck for me), but that doesn't make it fun.

[@0744401]

I LOVED that episode. It's SO funny. "In the end, I think we really changed something ... meanwhile +1 billion dead chicken" is my favorite joke in the entire series. It's HAUNTING. No one joke has had such a profound impact in my life and how I approach politics and activism.

[@Thatonegirl989]

I understand why it’s not everyone’s favorite but I love it. One of my favorites of the goofy bojack episodes.

[@RomElBlu]

Aaaah here it is! Also just wanted to mention Butterscotch "Those fish really hate being canned" later on in the show 💀

[@elizawebb5142]

thank you for still talking about this show. even though it ended a few years ago i still think about it most days and it has changed my outlook on life. the way you explain things has opened up topics and deeper aspects i hadn't seen myself which makes it all the more meaningful.

[@Frxggay]

I didn’t know this episode was hated I actually really liked it :(

[@NighttimeNubbs]

Tbh I never once thought about the vegan/vegitarian message because I was distracted by the southernism of the situation and made it feel more like slavery allegory with a Beastar/Zootopia twist.

[@treysonmcgrady4750]

Is raising animals to be eaten not a form of slavery?

[@lucyandecember2843]

​@@treysonmcgrady4750 i think it would be, no?

[@Doggybudder]

This episode is actually one of my favorites because its so goofy. Everyone talks about the dramatic, depressing bits to the show so much I think we forget its still a comedy

[@MiLoAnne666]

I had no idea the creator was vegan! This episode is one of my favorites, and was one of the many reasons I ended up going vegan.

[@Artceps]

im convinced people who hate this episode arent fond of worldbuilding episodes in shows

[@bigaquafan]

Here is my theory on why most cultures don't eat dogs. I think it's the same reason we don't typically eat horses. We use them as tools, not food

[@whacky2547]

13:26 one reason why we eat pigs and not dogs is due to its just not efficient, dogs are carnivores, why spend so much resources feeding a dog when something like a pig eats much eater to get food Dogs are good hunters, not very good food animals

[@ryanhodin5014]

Yeah, overwhelmingly we tend to eat animals that are relatively easy to raise and that taste good. That, plus how useful they were historically in other roles - Pack animals, guardians, pest controllers (If you let a chicken live its life, turning insects into eggs, you get food from the eggs and food from the crops the insects didn't eat, and at the end of the chicken's life you also get to eat the chicken)... We eat, generally, the same animals our ancestors have been eating for thousands of years - The ancient people who domesticated these animals were like us, they might have thought about how much intelligence was behind those eyes just like modern farmers do, but at the end of the day I doubt they factored that into the calculation of which animal to keep around and eat later. That doesn't mean we can't, or shouldn't, think about it now - Frankly I don't have a strong position one way or the other on the question of intelligence in livestock specifically - But we do kind of do it from the luxurious position we hold, standing on the shoulders of the many people that came before us and gave us the world we have and the position we have where we have the time and resources to think about it.

[@psychoinferno4480]

Man that episode was long ago, never paid attention because i was distracted on the fact that meat is still a food and usually harvested from anthropomorphic people. and the checken farm is run by the chicken

[@rosenrot234]

Weird if people hate this one yet love the underwater episode. Since we see a bunch of fish get eaten at one point.

[@Blondegenius3]

I like that it addresses what other stories with talking animals usually brush off: the predator and prey relations. They show prey animals and predator animals being friends and we the audience end up wondering how that could happen. Not all these animals can be herbivores and they can't choose that or it would starve them slowly. Obligate carnivores in your cast of animals require meat. Meat cloning could be a game changer. Grow the tissues they need to keep the carnivores healthy and they don't need to make more Beccas. But there is another arbitrary line: Foe. (I wanted to keep alliteration). What animals are okay to kill because they are pests or are seen as enemies. In the BoJack universe this would be racist, but in Our World it's an arbitrary line as much as Friend and Food. In fairness, they can be dangerous to people or mess with our food storage and homes. But the fact that people can consider them friends or too weird to eat proves there is an arbitrary line. - Mice and Rats are common example. So many of us hate them or are scared of them but some people keep them as pets. - There was a time that it was open season for wolves and sharks and it threw off the balance of nature as consequence. Now, we have conservation efforts for them. - Spiders and snakes are here too. They keep the balance of nature, can be dangerous depending on species, have a lot of people that hate them but have people that keep them as pets and love them. - And there are some people that see monkeys as pests and hate them; but the rest of us see them cute and funny and don't want to see them killed like rats.

[@ewetwentythree]

I loved this episode. For a season you wonder how they're going to address the animals eating each other thing, and I assumed they never would. Then they do it so nonchalantly with a very F-ed up but funny explanation

[@fal6342]

this episode is my favorite. probably because my boyfriend finally started to watch bojack with me and we started to get inside jokes with each other about it. one of them is he asks me a series of questions and i answer them like becca. so i love my boyfriend and we love this episode

[@QuiteSincere]

If it wasn't an animal that IS sentient in the Bojack universe it might have worked better as a metaphor, the problem is a chicken selling us chickens they gave brain damage on purpose to turn into food, which means that it is objectively the same as raising and eating mentally challenged children. There should have just been a species of animal that for some reason everyone accepts is food if they wanted to make that comparison. As it is it just takes the edge off everything Bojack does throughout the show and makes it weird that someone as morally self conscious as Diane helps return a mentally challenged person to their death and then goes and eats human being.

[@kelliecarmichael2539]

As an autistic person, fucking THANK YOU. It's sick and wrong to eat those chickens because *lobotomies are bad*, not cultural bias. No one ever seems to address that in all this debate.

[@hazar6662]

I actually really loved the episode particularly because it highlights how humans in a culture categorize animals in "friend vs food animal". We, as a culture, dont find fascination in the intelligence of the animals we abuse on a large scale, because it would make us feel bad about abusing them. Its not very well known that pigs are as smart as 3 year old humans, that cows have great emotional intelligence and even "school-like" systems within a herd or that chickens have friends and family and can recognise themselves in a mirror. All of these things feats would be considered amazing within dogs or cats, but we still regularly deem farmed animals as stupid - going as far as some people calling them "non sapient meat sacks".

[@Iodizedhooman]

I also think that if our culture wants to maintain dogs and cats as friends we don’t want to feel bad for providing them sustenance.

[@EnigmaticGentleman]

Honestly I'm incredibly surprised that the most hated episode isn't the episode with Dianes cousins, Bojacks shittiness had already been established didn't need an entire episode of just that and backstory thats better being just implied.

[@sundaesunday8361]

I have a love hate relationship with this episode because I quote “No, Becca. You don’t need to book back” a lot and I just make myself laugh, yet I let out a sigh when this episode comes next whenever I rewatch

[@commonviewer2488]

I thought Prickly Muffin was the worst. So bad that I thought everyone collectively agreed (writers included) that it never happened. Until it came back to reopen and resalt some wounds.

[@parisdrowning]

Why did I think for a second that the thumbnail was an evil chicken version of beatrice? 😅

[@marinaramirez1959]

Every adult-ish show with anthropomorphic animals has a Disturbing chicken episode

[@oliviadurand2429]

I wish we had more Todd and Diane! Their dynamic is hilarious and it’s a really sweet brother, sister relationship!😊

[@Owlbundy5052]

People HATED that episode? It was very funny and witty; way more than some Season 1 episodes, even for a fan of that season.

[@Muffin420man6]

I read a thread and everyone was going back and forth on whether certain animals are ok to eat. I have always struggled with this on my own. Ive always had chicken, beef, pork, and tuna. I want to try everything i can but those are the only meats I’ve known so theyre comfy…. But if i could be vegetarian i would. I alr struggle with a host of dietary issues and i dont think itd be healthy for me. I dont have issue with people eating any type of meat, i just personally feel awful for eating meat but cant afford any type of alternative.. i think it matters and comes down to personal morals, preference and personal experience. If u have money to spend on vitamins, fresh produce, and time to make meals from scratch u can be healthy and vegan. If u can access the doctor u can make sure ur following ur bodys cues and staying safe. If u only have access to certain types of food and its all u got then u have no other choice. If u can make changes, little ones are better than nothing. Dont judge other people for how they eat and live, just change ur own life based on ur own morals and experiences.

[@ShadyRK9]

"CHICKEN 4 DAYS!" haha! I say that sometimes when getting KFC! 😂 Also this episode was hated? I kinda liked it. And it ALSO explained how eating meat works in the Bojack H-man universe. and also because ever since season one episode 4 with the scene where the cow waitress angrily gave a human a steak dinner and he was kinda embarrassed and guilty I kept asking "WAIT SO HOW DOES FOOD WORK IN THIS UNIVERSE?!" and I'm kinda glad I got my answer! (But that's probably just me. Idk...) 🍽️

[@JamesQPurcell]

I love this episode, because it goes in depth explaining an aspect of their world that A)absolutely does not need explaining. And, B)I did not ever expect it to addressed, let alone be acknowledged as being completing fucked up.

[@prageruwu69]

had no idea people hated this episode, i think it had a cool concept

[@frankstnable]

the difference between a dog and a pig is that one is a carnivore while the other an omnivore. It's not a random line between 'friends' and 'food', it's a very pragmatic line between 'what makes sense to cultivate for meat and what doesn't'. Pigs, chicken and cows turn things we can not eat into a thing we can eat. A dog doesn't. This really should not be that hard to grasp

[@chloedubisch7861]

As a lifelong vegetarian, I was never remotely surprised people hated this episode. I have alienated roomfuls of people by sharing my dietary preference.

[@youshengwang6176]

I think my main criticism of this, is not in that the episode is bad, but that they kind of opened a pandora's box of moral question, world building, and dark implications, and just never really address this ever again to a meaningful degree (to my memory). Which is a shame because this is some eldritch horror type of mind f-cker that could have been really interesting to explore and expand upon. Adimittedly, this could be way too sidetracky for bojack horseman which is mainly focused on hollywoo and personal drama, but chicken raises some questions that once asked, can't be just ignored. That would like peppa pig suddenly had an beastar episode on carnivores, but then just never addresses it again. Either don't make such lore in the first place, or give it all and actually explore it.

[@peachfang]

before the episode i always imagined the talkin' animals lived alongside normal animals, and that a chicken in the bojack universe saw normal chickens in the same way a human would look at other primates; as like a distant relative too removed from our own appearance and communication to consider peers. especially since a normal chicken has wings and talons and the people chickens have hands and feet, humanoid animals in this world really just come across as people with different heads and skin textures. they couldve gone with the idea that all the people animals at some point split in evolution the same way we did from other primates, and that its kinda only cannibalism as much as us eating lemur is cannibalism. then the episode came out and blew it all up. the goal being to highlight our arbitrary friend/food thing couldve been executed in a better way. i spent the whole episode going "if this is a critique on the meat industry idk how to tell them i dont eat disabled people." and it kinda made it hard to focus on the plot lmao. i can imagine a version of the episode existing where a truck full of chickens escapes and the people chickens adopt them as pets, prompting everyone else to get pets of their own distant relative and then todd adopting a monkey and trying to teach it like a brother or something for a few episodes until everyone decides "oh shit we should give all these animals back cause theres nothing on the menu and wed rather eat our new pets than go without meat" and that could be the, like, anti-meat moment or something that highlights both how some cultures eat animals other cultures consider pets and how theres nothing that makes your pet immune from the plate if they wanted to be dark about it. idk.

[@jesserivera2043]

Not going to lie, I'm now craving Nashville Hot Chicken for dinner. And I live in Florida

[@survivalanimations]

Did not even blink at this episode. Was like, okay Pokémon rules. I’d eat a magikarp and psyduck, but maybe not mister mine or or mew 2.

[@GlobalistHero]

This episode and halfway down are amazing. Chicken's is an amazing statement on othering and in group out group dynamics. It touches on the absurdities and horrors of our own ability to dehumanize over arbitrary concepts.

[@ff10fire666]

Wait people hate this episode? Becca is awesome and like most of Bojack its both a messed up episode and pretty sweet when it comes to both Todd and Kelsey trying to be a good mother.

[@Barakon]

I guess in is world, you can get consent for cannibalism in this universe.

[@ssunsspott5170]

Honestly, Becca's character made me uncomfortable because she was forced to be mentally disabled so she had no agency and no way to care for herself, for the purpose of eating her and chicken people like her. When she gains even a little bit of autonomy, it's hard to watch knowing her fate is still the fate of many other chicken people. Plus a lot of people around Becca treat her like she's not the fully grown anthropomorphic chicken person that she is. I don't really have a problem with the episode overall, that was just my personal reaction to its themes. Edit: it'd be different if the people and animals were differentiated, but since they're not in the Bojack universe, it forces them to make a population of people that are impaired and taken advantage of, and says it's the same as eating non-autonomous chickens in our world. I do like the things it brings up, it's just when you really look at the episode and compare it to our world - both with animals and people - it's pretty damn dark

[@biancaa.c]

That one scene where Todd falls off the tractor kills me everytime

[@matti.8465]

Bojack's worldbuilding is strange. This is a world where humanoid animals exist and behave differently from humans, but it's always just been a gag and not something you're supposed to think deeply about. This episode tries to make you think about the rules of this universe and raises many questions, but since we immediately go back to silly animal jokes those questions are never answered.

[@evanprince3875]

You've got the best outro on KZbin, literally never skip it.

[@leavemealone802]

As much as people dont want to talk about it, the meat industry is awful. I dont want to stop eating meat, nor i want anyonr to stop eating meat. But we need to be aware the conditions those animals are being put thought. It is barberic and sad. How do we resolve this? Preassure to the killing of these animals to not be as savage. To every part to be used and not wasted, to more alternatives of non meat products. Reducing the consume to a point we dont have to over saturate the meat production I personally try to eat only animals i wouldn't adopt, which is basically chicken and fish And i want to consume from farms that treat them better before eating them

[@norishimogawa6125]

Thing is, the way to pressure the companies is to not buy stuff from then, i.e. not eating meat. Im not trying to change your mind to be clear, im just stating that that is reality.

[@genericname2747]

I personally avoid animals I respect. Like, pigs and octopus are SMART, it feels weird eating one. (OK I mostly avoid pig meat, since octopus isn't really common in my area)

[@amy_ama]

In the friend vs food chicken the metaphor isn’t very far: with dogs (friends) we do exactly what showed - we nurture them like kids, send them to schools, we even treat them kinda like our human children.

[@crownoffyre894]

The fact one of the people writing this episode was vegan does completely make sense but it didn't feel pushy like what Peta does

[@Johnny2Cellos]

comparing this to peta is insane

[@crownoffyre894]

@Johnny2Cellos I didn't mean it in a bad way I just watched someone's review on All The Games Peeta has made along with that billboard that shows where do you draw the line, and I thought it was relivent

[@genericname2747]

Nobody can be as pushy as PETA lol

[@KhanhNguyen-yv6lx]

This guy seems to put content out of Bojack Horseman like ... forever. I love every bit of it.

[@Icedsobaka]

Fun Fact: I rewatched this series at least 5 times and this is the only episode i skip every single time I'm pretty sure I've only watched it in full once

[@Johnny2Cellos]

BOOOOO

[@oof5740]

COWARD

[@Zelkiiro]

I don't know how anyone could hate this episode. The Chicken 4 Dayz theme song lives rent-free in my head, and I quote "Don't ask questions, just keep eatin'!" all the time.

[@aaunyea4799]

I love how you brought up the weird society we have of "We can eat these animals, but it's awful of you eat these other animals" My brother tries to bring up the stereotypical "Oh, chinese food has cat/dog meat!" But I just think meat is meat, and if it tastes good, why should i care

[@goldensloth7]

rice? never heard that one.

[@Neku628]

Why doesn't Bojack just do what Arthur did and have actual animals in addition to animal people?

[@ArnLPs]

I hate how people who eat meet often defend themselves. Most often not even defend more offend. Like I do eat meat myself, for the same reasons that I still buy chocolate despite knowing the involvment of child slavery in it's creation. I got my own cross to bear and as long as society doesn't care I don't want to loose the little pleasures I give myself in life. But I often when possible pick vegetarian options and I get stink eyed for it by old boomer men. I also know plenty of vegeterians. But I never meet one that people would call "the annoying" type. But it'f frustraiting to see how some people take offense to them just existing. Like I'm so sick of the same jokes over and over again those people always start telling when they see someone refuse meat or just see a vegeterian option be offered on any menu. The braindead arguments they make and then start to talk about how much meat they eat like that isn't disgusting to hear. And yes, I do believ that if animals where people in our world those people would cannibalise them in our world too and get offended at anyone questioning that. There are a lot of horrors in our world people just learned to not think about.

[@luvii_hope9449]

Something that i think about in this episode, especially in the friend x food part that you didnt mention is that WE humans are animals too, and we devided this line between other animals and us, and i think this is showed in how in the series the chickens from the farm are seen as "dumb" and "not human like" while the chickens who are "friends" are shown getting diplomas, we are putting the animals we see as pets in the "friend" aspect but we also are putting ourselves in it, people talk about cannibalism in this episode bc there are chickens who are not food, but a horse eating chicken is not cannibalism, its the same as a human eating chicken, in our world they are sentient animals who have comunities, parental care, relationships etc, who are seen as "dumb" not knowing how to comunicate the same as us. Having said all of that, while i aknowlegde all of this about human culture, i do eat human meat, because i just do not see a future were we as a society would be able to stop or even make a significance in making this industry smaller, and i do like it and dont see the political aspect changing. And i didnt even mention the ecological aspects where the pecuary industry is extremely damaging to the enviroment. While i already said that i eat meat, i try to eat it in less quantity.

[@alexandra_the_great]

im sorry but in order to call an episode of a series "The Most Hated" it has to actually be hated by people. not disliked by a few fans. it just makes it look like you are reaching real bad.

[@alexandra_the_great]

agree with all your commentary and analysis tho

[@Johnny2Cellos]

This episode is without a doubt the most hated, and the comments I’ve received since posting have reaffirmed that.

[@abdaf8706]

Noooo! Chicken was one of the best episode IMO!! The joke was awesome, it touches the veganism philosophy and the resolution is okay. One of the worst in my opinion was the underground episode when the solution was Deus ex machina style😢

[@royceroyce7715]

I think the gut punch around "We really made a difference, didn't we?" wasn't so much that they only saved Becca (as the 5 is changed to a 6 in the millions/billions served). It's that they could have and WERE saving Becca, they were always going to... but they left the farmer's wife there. She begged them to take her away, to let her pursue a life outside of this terrible place where she kills people she recognizes as not being far from her (or has to hear her husband and employees do it). If they would have taken her, yes she probably would have folllwed through with the dream of designing games to help kids learn math. But she would have been an invaluable voice, an insider's set of eyes, an excellent whistleblower and activist that could have saved MORE Beccas. "We made a difference, right?" doesn't just hurt because they only saved one. It hurts bc they left behind one of the only chickens who could materially change people's perception of the flimsy line between friend and food. She wouldn't even need to appear again in the series; we just know that someone who WANTED IT TO END was the one person who was left in the one place where they could never change it. That was the only part I 'hated' about the episode, but it was a really good one overall