We need to subvert and undermine the man who might be our next president – and as a master of playing insecure egomaniacs, Arnett is uniquely suited to do it

Much like Bojack Horseman himself, Will Arnett is finally back on top. After Arrested Development made him a star, Arnett spent years trying to establish a follow-up. He wallowed in failed network sitcoms with names you probably won’t recognize such as Running Wilde, Up All Night and The Millers. He had a few moments in the spotlight, like his Emmy-nominated guest-starring role in 30 Rock as Jack Donaghy’s arch-nemesis. But Arnett struggled to find another role that traded on his unique combination of macho confidence and wounded sensitivity that made him the standout of Arrested Development, a show that was composed almost entirely of standouts.

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What exactly makes a successful Will Arnett performance? Let’s revisit what he brought to Gob Bluth. On paper, Gob could have been the least sympathetic character on the show. He was a failed magician who consistently undermined his younger brother’s efforts to save the family business with his ill-conceived schemes and general selfishness. But Arnett imbued him with real pathos. Arnett’s Gob is an egomaniac, but his boastfulness is only a cover for his deep feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. His parade of one-night stands displays both his need for and fear of real connection. He longs for validation and recognition by his colleagues in the Magicians’ Alliance, going to absurd lengths to prove his worth to them. He hires prostitutes but spends his hour crying to them about his failures. And every time his brother Michael offers him a small piece of kindness, Gob tramples on him. To do otherwise would be to acknowledge his vulnerability.

It has been a decade since Arrested Development was canceled (not counting its mostly forgotten revival on Netflix), but Arnett’s rare ability to forge those distinct personal qualities into a compelling (and comedic) whole are now finally being utilized both on both the small and silver screens. The title character on Bojack Horseman, whose critically acclaimed third season premiered last week on Netflix, is a washed-up sitcom star who has masked his shame and humiliation over being famous for a subpar show with years of drinking, drugging and casual sex. Over the course of three seasons, Bojack gets in touch with those painful feelings. He emerges as a figure filled with pain and regret, and his celebrity-driven world is revealed as empty. Similarly, his role as Batman in The Lego Movie and its upcoming, Batman-centric sequel, the trailer of which premiered at Comic-Con over the weekend, subverts the seriousness of recent Batman iterations to reveal a pouty, emotionally stunted man-child who uses his superhero status to puff himself up.

To be fair, these roles aren’t outliers in his career. Arnett has never veered too far from these strengths. His characters in those mainstream sitcoms listed above weren’t so different from his recent, more successful ones. In Running Wilde, for example, he was the selfish son of an oil tycoon, which seems almost like a carbon copy of Gob Bluth. Those shows failed for reasons that had nothing to do with Arnett. In addition to being well suited to Arnett’s talents, Bojack and The Lego Movie are exceedingly well written and masterfully executed.

And yet maybe the reason that Arnett’s particular brand of boastful idiot is so popular right now isn’t just because he finally found some good writers. Pop culture has a tendency to produce heroes that reflect the public mood, whether it is through some sharp-minded writer’s intent or a more mysterious, subconscious process. Right now, we need to subvert and undermine the man who might be our next president, and Arnett is uniquely suited to do that.

Let me explain: Arrested Development is often perceived as a criticism of the Bush family. In addition to the pointed subplots about the Iraq war (especially in season three), the Bluth family was generally symbolic of the cronyism, entitlement and incompetence that defined the Bush administration and its corporate arms such as Enron. No one character embodied that entitlement more than Gob. Just like the older Bluth brother, George W Bush survived (for a while) on pure confidence and showmanship. Bush put up a “mission accomplished” sign when the Iraq war was far from over (which AD actually spoofed in one episode); Gob held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a model home that had no structural foundation. Neither one ended well.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Will Arnett with Lego Batman at Comic-Con. Photograph: Christy Radecic/Invision for Lego

And so, with Bush out of the White House, maybe Arnett’s persona just wasn’t relevant for all those years. Cockiness didn’t need subverting, but in America, it’s never far away. Bojack and The Lego Movie franchise launched in 2014, when Trump was dropping hints about his impending presidential campaign. He had already spent months claiming Obama had been born in Kenya and had been proven false. That didn’t stop him, and it wouldn’t have stopped Gob. Trump’s campaign is in fact doubling down on the brash cockiness that Bush pioneered in the early 21st century. We know his MO at this point: he lies and, when caught in a lie, refuses to admit it. He insults his enemies in the coarsest way possible, and he brags about having more money than he does.

But unlike Gob, Trump’s bluster works. While liberal Americans sit back and scoff at his juvenile, unpolished demeanor, he just keeps winning. And that’s why we need Will Arnett more than ever before. We need him to remind us – through Bojack and Batman – that underneath the boastfulness and flat-out cruelty is a weak, wounded man. Those who shout about their greatness are actually the ones least convinced of it.

To be perfectly clear, none of this is going to make a difference in the real world. Arnett is not going to swing this election. First of all, not enough people watch Bojack Horseman for his portrayal to have a big enough impact on the electorate, and The Lego Batman Movie doesn’t come out until next year, well after our next president is chosen. Finally, there’s no evidence that Arnett’s persona was designed with political intent. But sometimes, pop culture gives us the hero we need, even if it’s not the one we deserve. Americans may yet wake up on 9 November thinking they have made a huge mistake, but Arnett’s performances will still be there to subvert and poke holes in those symbols that, for better or worse, may come to define our political era.