Netflix’s Bojack Horseman has to be my favorite show of all time with its true grit, brutal honesty, candid explicit humor, and dark views of the world and life itself. As Bojack learns to deal with himself and his feelings in some very bad self-destructing ways, with drug and alcohol addiction and meaningless sex, you learn why he copes with life in these unhealthy ways. His depression and self-loathing exposes his nihilistic views of the world. He states many times throughout the show that life is meaningless and nothing matters, but he remains optimistic as he continues to find meaning and happiness in his life, filling it with drugs, booze, and girls. Bojack is a nihilist for sure but what kind? As he is aware that life is meaningless, he still tries to fill his life with meaning, he fights with himself constantly and becomes incredibly anxious any time he is forced to make a decision. Bojack is a prime example of an existential nihilist. Every day he is faced with the fact that no matter what he does his happiness does not last long and he ends his days feeling a sense of nothingness and regret. He is reminded that no matter what he does that happiness is fake and nothing lasts forever because nothing he does matters. With this in mind, he is in a constant state of self-destruction and the destruction of his world around him. Bojack being the washed-up 90’s sitcom actor he is, is trying to get his face back on the screen and succeeds when he is nominated for an oscar in season three. When he was announced as a nominee for the best actor he expected to feel happy that he had finally accomplished a goal, but instead of feeling happy and proud he claimed to have felt nothing at all. The nomination and even wining and oscar did not make him as happy as he thought, because in the end none of that matters and he knows it. Bojack is constantly in a state of disappointment. No matter how well something may go, Bojack is always left feeling regret and despair. It is up to Bojack to create meaning and happiness in his life and with the freedom to do whatever he wants, this task can be quite overwhelming and daunting. He abuses substances to try and create this meaning, he has meaningless sex to try and feel good and happy, but it’s meaningless, it all is. The older Bojack gets the more he realizes that.
The popular cartoon Rick and Morty share similar nihilistic views that Bojack has but in a more dark and unforgiving way. Rick has come to terms that life means nothing and doesn’t even try to find the meaning of life or happiness. Rick lives full throttle not caring about what happens or what could happen and just filling his life with daring and risky adventures through space dragging his grandson Morty with him. He doesn’t care what happens because there is no meaning anywhere and there’s no point in trying to find or create meaning. Rick is a perfect example of a cosmic nihilist. He spends his days doing science experiments and traveling through time and space, not necessarily because he believes in science and wants to improve his own life and the lives of others around him, but to fill his days with pointless things. Similar to Bojack, Rick too is an alcoholic and has no problem spending his days drinking himself into a daze and having orgies with random alien chicks. Nothing matters to Rick because everything that is happening here and now is happening in a distant reality infinite amount of times and in countless ways. Because of this belief, Rick lives without regret and feels despair very seldom. He even sees love as a “chemical reaction that causes animals to breathe.” and the rest of the human emotions are basically bullshit. In fact, he states that one of the main reasons why Morty is always present on his dangerous trips to outer space and different realities is because his stupidity cancels out the strong smarts and intelligence of Rick, not because he simply wants Morty’s company. In cosmic nihilism, there is basically no kind of ethics or morals. Rick has very little ethical views or morals, for example, he once sold a galactic gun to a hitman alien just to play at favorite his arcade then he turned a whole planet into monsters, committed suicide, abandoned his family and then ended his night by sitting on the couch and having a beer. Rick is not looking for meaning in anything anywhere because it doesn’t exist. This is nihilism at its finest.
