"Don't do that BoJack thing where you go offscript and get a lot of people mad at you."
When Diane mentions a past scandal about Hank Hippopopalous at a book signing, the message goes viral and she becomes a target.— Princess Carolyn
Tropes:
- Arab–Israeli Conflict: BoJack is asked a question about this at his book signing... and immediately notices two customers who are on opposing sides of the issue. Nevertheless he answers in a way that satisfies the audience.
- The Bad Guy Wins: It is 100% obvious to the viewers that Hank is guilty of the allegations made against him. At the end of the episode, he has gotten away with it, as he continues to be adored by both the media and the public and everyone stops caring about the scandal.
- Country Matters: Implied with one of the hate letters Diane receives.Diane: (reading the letter) "You can't, you stupid ugly can't."
Mr. Peanutbutter: That doesn't say "can't." - Crawl: During Diane's interview on MSNBsea, the news ticker reveals Todd's side of the Prince and Pauper B-plot.
- Distant Prologue: The prologue is set in the past, at the height of Horsin' Around, to introduce Hank Hippopopalous.
- Downer Ending: In the end, despite all her efforts, Diane doesn't get to expose Hank for his misdeeds.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Mr. Peanutbutter opens up the website "Titpuncher"; if you pause to read the article he pulls up about Diane, you can see it's not exactly flattering. There's also a harsh Take That!: After a full screen of raging misogyny, its final line is "Fight Club is a good and important movie."
- The Crawl in the scene of Diane's interview.
- Hidden Depths: When asked a question obviously intended to provoke a controversial response BoJack gives a surprisingly nuanced and diplomatic answer
right off the cuff with minimal umming and erring, showing he knows enough about Middle Eastern politics to intellectually shoot from the hip on that topic, so he must follow world events to some degree. - Innocently Insensitive: The man that tells Diane to smile while she's waiting for her plane to Cordovia.
- Kick the Dog: While waiting in the airport to go to Cordovia and watching everything she worked so hard to uncover about Hank be brushed aside, a man looks over at Diane and says "Hey, smile!"
- Non-Answer: When asked about his opinions about Israel and Palestine, Bojack answer is effectively fence-sitting but articulate enough to placate the audience.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We're never actually told what exactly Hank did, but it was apparently heinous and he gets away with it.
- Out of Focus: Todd's side of the Prince and Pauper exchange occurs almost entirely off-camera.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis Failure: Due to Todd being relatively young, he is unfamiliar with Hank Hippopopalous's work outside of "I Think You Can Dance". What gets the plot going is that Diane thought the accusations against Hank were common knowledge when they actually weren't, leading people to interpret her referencing them as her slamming Hank out of nowhere.
- Prince and Pauper: The B-plot of the episode is about Todd and the Prince of Cordovia switching places.
- Ripped from the Headlines: The allegations against Hank already existed, but didn't become well-known until Diane mentioned it on a book tour. Considering this season aired in 2015, this is reminiscent of Hannibal Buress's remarks about the similarly public but obscure allegations against Bill Cosby in 2014, which went viral.
- Sacred Cow: Hank is an In-Universe 'Sacred Hippo' example as a lot of people start reviling Diane for simply mentioning these allegations.
- The Scapegoat: Diane didn't originate the accusations against Hank, but all of the backlash came onto her simply because she was the most visible target after the news cycle latched onto her mentioning it as an old scandal.
- Serious Business: Kanye West hating thin mints is serious enough to make the news.
