She’s in Super Bowl commercials, she’s acing Drunk History, she’s a best-selling author, P.T. Anderson wants to work with her, she will be presenting at the Oscars—ever since breaking out in Girls Trip, Tiffany Haddish is everywhere. And among the many projects she has in the offing, she can now add “animation” to her domination roster, as she is signed onto a Netflix cartoon called Tuca and Bertie, from Lisa Hanawalt, a producer on BoJack Horseman. BoJack’s creator, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, is executive producing. So basically, a key creative on BoJack Horseman, one of THE BEST shows on television, pitched her own project and her BoJack bosses are backing her. I like this as both a Lisa Hanawalt origin story and a Tiffany Haddish project, because BoJack is f*cking GREAT and I’m into anything BoJack-adjacent.
Don’t know BoJack? Well that’s on you. It’s been around for a few years now, and is easily accessible on Netflix, but BoJack Horseman is a bipedal talking horse who is also a washed-up sitcom star searching for a comeback, which is ridiculous. If the series was live-action and starred humans it would be unbearably depressing, but that bonkers cartoon edge renders it palatable. It’s simultaneously a scathing Hollywood satire—seriously, it’s BRUTALLY accurate most of the time—and a poignant show about family and depression (I think about the seahorse episode a lot).
Like BoJack, Tuca and Bertie features anthropomorphic animals, the question is whether or not it’s a spin-off happening in the same universe (and if it is, can we get a Suits-style show about Vincent Adultman: Business Doer?). Tiffany Haddish will voice Tuca, described as a “cocky, care-free toucan”, which I am very into. Also very into Haddish getting an executive producer credit on the show—less than a year after breaking out, she already has that kind of juice. Tiffany Haddish is an overnight sensation that took years to happen, and now that she’s here, she seems bent on total domination. The question for Tuca and Bertie is who do you cast as Bertie? Who can keep up with Tiffany Haddish?
