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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Well, I'd love to stay but I must be going. As a modern American man, I am woefully unprepared to manage a woman's emotions. I was never taught, and I will not learn. Take care you two! | „ |
| ~ Joseph after Honey's breakdown. |
| “ | Come on now, be strong. You can't let your womanly emotions consume you. You don't wanna end up like your mother now, do you? I promise. One day this will all be a pleasant memory. | „ |
| ~ Joseph's most infamous qoute. |
Joseph Sugarman is the overarching antagonist of BoJack Horseman. He is the father of Crackerjack Sugarman and Beatrice Horseman, husband of Honey and grandfather of BoJack himself.
He was portrayed by Matthew Broderick.
His Evil Ranking[]
His Villainous Deeds[]
- He was deeply xenophobic, misogynistic, antisocial, and emotionally abusive to his family, even by the standards of his own decade. He would teach them to “act womanly” by suppressing their emotions and staying skinny. Overall, he treats them more like trophies to keep up public appearance rather than actual living beings.
- It is strongly implied he would cheat on his wife regularly.
- And given his misogynistic attitude, it's also strongly implied that he does so by willingly entering forceful relationships with other women, which means that he might have raped most of them by blackmailing them into having sex with him.
- What's worse is that it's also heavily implied that he raped Honey, too.
- It's also implied that he only married Honey out of greed instead of love.
- Refusing to let Honey’s trauma over Crackerjack’s death get in the way of her company, he was okay with her getting a lobotomy to destroy her emotions.
- Is strongly implied to actually favor Nazism over the U.S., which possibly makes him a traitor to his own nation.
- After she became sick with Scarlett fever, he burned all of Beatrice’s toys even as she cried out for him not too. While this was arguably the right thing to do, instead of comforting Beatrice, he cruelly told her she shouldn’t cry or she could end up like her mother.
- He outright said he refuses to take any responsibility or remorse for his actions and became a Karma Houdini.
- He also said he this while leaving his family to fend for themselves, making this family abandonment.
- His actions would permanently traumatize Beatrice for her entire life, turning her once optimistic and joyful self into a hollow emotionless woman who is terribly abusive to her son, BoJack. This makes him indirectly responsible for BoJack's tragic life as well.
- While he is treated slightly comedically a few times, this isn’t a disqualifying factor because his jokes are brief compared to his actions which are taken dead seriously in the show. Furthermore, all of his jokes are misogynistic and only add to his jerkish behavior.
- He does have what seems to be a Pet the Dog moment where he hands Crackerjack’s friend money to buy ice pops and tells him to keep the change as thanks for bringing Crackerjack back, but this might be a way to keep up appearances rather than out of kindness.
Why Doesn’t He Stand Out?[]
- His abuse of his wife is enough to put him past the general baseline, but he still fails the series high heinous standards.
- While him causing a death of personality could be enough to stand out, it relies too much on Fridge Horror as it's not ever explicitly clarified if he forced Honey to have the procedure performed or if both of them were told it was a good thing due to medical misinformation in the time period.
- While extremely abusive, he does seem to care about his kids to an extent. He was sad over Crackerjack's death and told Honey not to blame herself for him dying, and was genuinely upset when Honey almost accidentally killed Beatrice. Granted, he seems to care more about them for the sake of his image and business, but these moments aren't directly subverted.
Trivia[]
- He was originally considered NPE until it was realized that he’s too standard for his time and relies on Fridge Horror.
External Links[]
- Joseph Sugarman on the Villains Wiki
- Joseph Sugarman on the Hate Sink Wiki
[]
 Villainous Benchmarks
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Animated Television Anime Live-Action Television See Also | ||