The Hazbin Hotel creator says BoJack Horseman showed her what adult animation could be

“When we got the original pilotit was like… I just want to make what I like and just put it out there,” says Vivienne Medrano, creator of Hazbin Hotel.

This was before Medrano released the first one Hazbin Hotel episode on her YouTube channel in 2019. She thought specific followers would enjoy the offbeat, sharp humor and energy of theater kids. But she had no idea how much it would blow up.

At the time of writing, the pilot episode has been viewed over 94 million times on YouTube. Hazbin Hotel has a huge, passionate fan base, a wonder for something with just one episode. The show follows Charlie, the princess of Hell, who decides to help rehabilitate demons to solve Hell’s overpopulation problem. The dark humor, quirky character designs and compelling Broadway-style musical numbers excited many fans.

“It appealed to so many different people, even people who don’t normally like musical theater or normally don’t like adult animation,” Medrano says.

American adult animation often evokes a specific type of show: a clunky half-hour comedy with a lot of male characters, probably on Adult Swim or Fox. There’s a time and a place for that, but for a while Medrano thought she had to stick to that kind of formula if she wanted to succeed. That wasn’t always a bad thing; she says South Park was a “huge turning point” for her when she was younger. But then came BoJack RiderNetflix’s critically acclaimed adult animated series, came at a “perfect time” in her career, according to Medrano, and changed the way she thought about her craft.

“Phenomenal show,” Medrano tells Polygon. “(BoJack Rider) showed me that adult animation can not only be a raunchy comedy, but that it can also be a story with intense character development. It can have incredibly flawed characters. It can make you cry. It can get really deep and dark.

“(BoJack Rider) had just started around the time I was actually making the (Hazbin Hotel) pilot and it made me go, Oh, wow, adult animation is starting to change, and it’s starting to evolve. I can tell a story in this (medium) – because there is always that concern, Oh, it should just be comedy (…) because that is what is expected. But for me, I’m a storyteller. And I like development. I like emotion. I feel like I’m the strongest at writing darker or more emotional scenes.

Image: Netflix

Since BoJack Rider was released in 2014, adult animation in America has begun to expand beyond the half-hour comedy box. There are science fiction dramas like Scavengers rule and that of Netflix Love, death and robots anthology series and serious dramas such as Blue-eyed samurai And Undone; even the raunchy comedies have started to embrace different types of characters and play with the genre a little more, like the bawdy women’s film Tuca & Bertie and Max’s Harley Quinn, which combines gross-out comedy with superhero antics. Like the last examples, Hazbin Hotel is a raunchy comedy, but it’s also a character-driven musical with an overarching story and plenty of in-depth world-building. It also features multiple female and queer leads, something that adult animated comedy is only just beginning to feature more of.

“Our society and our culture has changed somewhat and there are a lot more diverse stories being told, a lot more LGBT stories and things like that,” she says. “When those things just get thrown into the mix, stories naturally start to evolve and change. Different perspectives automatically open themselves up to different voices. The adult entertainment space has long been a space for predominantly white men: a very raunchy comedy, a kind of shock humor. That stuff definitely has its place, especially if it serves its purpose, but for me I think the shift comes from more different types of perspectives telling stories in the space.

Image: Primevideo

When one show successfully breaks the formula – or even mixes it up just a little bit – it proves that others can do it too. Medrano quotes Rick and Morty as an example of a recent show that is very crude and shocking, but also manages to go deeper. That prompted other shows to expand the scope of their stories as well.

“Even some of the classic primetime shows that I really love, like I’m a big fan of American father,” says Medrano. “Even a show like that has done more unique things because it has lasted so long. We are in a good time for adult entertainment.”

The first four episodes of Hazbin Hotel are available now on Prime Video, with new episodes on Fridays.