When Princess Carolyn casts a disgraced celeb in "Philbert", BoJack inadvertently takes a stand. Mr. Peanutbutter tries to toughen up his image.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: Mr. Peanutbutter's attempts to be tough backfire in this sense. When he attempts to knock a cigarette out of a biker's mouth, the man picks him up and hugs him; he says that he had promised his daughter to quit smoking after he had lost his father to lung cancer but couldn't break the addiction. The two bird paparazzi find their medical problems cured by Mr. Peanutbutter growling at them, and thank him for his help.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Vance's targets of prejudice includes Jews, women, and Swedes.
- Bad Guy Bar: Subverted. Todd takes Mr. Peanutbutter to the meanest bar in town, and it does appear to populated by tough guys, but when he announces that there's a new sheriff in town, the patrons all thank him for keeping them informed on local news (there was indeed a newly-elected sheriff).
- The Bus Came Back: Ana Spanakopita comes back after being absent since the third season.
- Can't Get in Trouble for Nuthin': After Princess Carolyn says that Mr. Peanutbutter is too much of a nice guy to play the bad boy in a role, Mr. Peanutbutter decides to go around town and have Todd coach him on how to be tough. It backfires for the most part; his attempts to intimidate a biker lead to the guy hugging him in thanks for helping him honor a promise to his dead father, the paparazzi find their TMJ and eyesight fixed respectively, and the Bad Guy Bar cheers for him for keeping them informed on current events.
- Chekhov's Gun: The recording of BoJack admitting he nearly slept with Penny finally comes back into play two seasons later.
- Continuity Nod: Ana Spanakopita - BoJack's publicist from Season 3 - reappears, as does the recording of his confession about Penny that she confiscated from a Manatee Fair journalist in "Start Spreading The News".
- Danger Takes a Backseat: Ana Spanakopita breaks into Diane's car and waits for her in the back, to the latter's shock. The first time she tells Diane her doors weren't locked, but the second she broke a window.
- Deconstruction: Discussed. Diane mentions that the show "Philbert" tries to play itself off as a deconstruction of toxic masculinity, but it comes off as a shallow attempt at that actually uses this idea to fill the whole show with content of the type, which includes gratuitous sexual violence.
- Didn't Think This Through: After a string of revelations live on the air, Vance finally questions why he voluntarily appeared on a show called Gotcha.
- Foreshadowing: Pays off in this episode. Back in "The Dog Days Are Over", Diane claims to know everything about BoJack. He refutes this and starts to tell the story about what happened with Penny before Diane drifts off. In this episode, Diane finally learns the truth.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: While talking with Stefani, Diane is working on a listicle titled "13 Celebs Who Look Exactly Like Soup."
- Hard Truth Aesop: Ultimately, there is no right answer about how to handle predators or when you are friends with a "problematic" celebrity. As Diane tells Ana, defending someone who is a predator, even if you are just doing your job, makes you complicit. Ana admits that Diane is right, before warning her about BoJack and playing the confession tape for her. BoJack told Diane that she motivated him to improve for the better.
- Humiliation Conga: While Vance more or less deserved it, he's had to deal with several scandals in under a year. The episode makes this a Running Gag; every time Vance attracts negative media attention, it's for a new bit of scandalous behavior.
- Hypocritical Humor: Diane is very smug when Princess Carolyn tries to argue that Diane and BoJack can team up to take down Vance. She says that it's obviously not because Vance refused to do the Philbert and broke his contract and Princess Carolyn is petty.
- Internal Reveal: Diane finally learns what happened between BoJack and Penny two years prior.
- I Resemble That Remark!: When Princess Carolyn compares producers to lemmings, a group of nearby lemmings end up so offended that they all run off to a cliff.
Fridge Brilliance also kicks in when you realize that stereotype doesn't even have basis in reality due to the myth coming from a heavily edited Disney documentary. - Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When defending "Philbert", BoJack says that you're not supposed to idolize the protagonist because the show isn't meant to glamorize people who do the things he does but is instead a Deconstruction of them.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Vance Waggoner is a thinly veiled parody of Mel Gibson with a touch of Alec Baldwin.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Diane gives an annoyed, flat look when BoJack begs her to sign on as a story consultant for the show but Flip just wants her blank approval and for her to do nothing. She already went through that once with the Secretariat production.
- Sequel: To "Hank After Dark". While Hank hasn't appeared this season, we get his Foil Vance Waggoner who gets summarily canceled because he can't keep his racist and sexist antics off-camera. Diane also gets another opportunity to write about predators and take them down, but she considers having BoJack parrot her words since as a guy he's not subject to the same standards.
- Shown Their Work: The episode averts Animal Gender-Bender with a peahen that has the right coloration.
- Sincerity Mode: Mr. Peanutbutter calls Todd the bravest and toughest person he knows. Todd is flattered enough to help his friend.
- Suicidal Lemmings: Princess Carolyn remarks to Vance Waggoner that producers blindly follow each other like lemmings. A nearby lemming family gets offended, and remarks that they're going to go find the nearest cliff.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: No pun intended for the actual dog. After spending the whole episode trying to be a tough guy, Mr. Peanutbutter is despondent. Princess Carolyn casts Mr. Peanutbutter in Philbert as the title character's dead partner that may have killed Philbert's wife.
