Phallic Fantasies from Amazon's 'The Boys'

In the oversaturated Superhero content market, it is rare for heroes to go against the epitomized image of squeaky-clean role models with godlike powers who save us from menacing villains justin the nick of time. Enter "The Boys." Amazon's hit show takes this notion and turns it on its head. In the series, Vought International presents to the world, "The Seven." These corporate Supes(short for superheroes), polished tip to toe are not dissimilar from carefully designed happy meals that conformists consume on a nice platter. Unlike Marvel Studio's "The Avengers," these Supes are radically damaged characters created in secret labs, pumped with illicit Vought chemicals to achieve unbelievable abilities. The audience appreciates the struggles facing these characters and we get to see inner demons come to life within each of their psyches; a funky-fresh take on the modern superhero genre.

True fans of "The Boys" are quick to point out the show's comic book origin and Amazon's authentic live action adaptation. The show fearlessly presents us with explicit scenes of a man getting violently choked by an evil stretchable penis, a woman accidently squeezing and exploding a man's head while receiving oral sex, and gill fingering. Oddly enough, public masturbation is where Amazon draws the line. Rebecca Shepherd in a recent article sheds light on "one of the most disturbing moments" where the main antagonist, Homelander, is feverishly pleasuring himself atop a building, his bare buttocks gleaming in the moonlight. Shepherd mentions how co-creator Erik Kripke couldn't quite understand how Amazon was OK with most of the show but said "F**K NO, you have to cut" the Homelander scene and that "it wasn't necessary in season 1."

This is nota show you casually pop on and watch with your parents, who just finished a 1978 "Incredible Hulk" marathon they proudly recorded on Betamax. Most sane people would opt for a more family friendly experience on Disney+. In the season 2 finale of "The Boys," Amazon asked Kripke to bring "more punch" to the last episode. Kripke quickly got back to them with just the right idea; he reused the infamous Homelander masturbation scene they had originally asked him to cut from season 1. In a separate interview , Jessica Andrews mentions how Kripke thanked Amazon for its lack of censorship. "We put it all into the show," Kripke said. "If there's something totally crazy and it works for the characters, we put it in. Amazon's been amazing about never really censoring that, so there kinda is no line."

If our modern culture were to jump back to 1956 to watch Elvis Presley's debut performance on The Ed Sullivan show, viewers would be unable to recognize acts of lewd behavior. However, at that time, fearing exposure to young impressionable teenagers, network executives responded quickly to censor Elvis' bodacious gyrating hips, switching to close-up shots of his face whenever he was dancing. This live debut performance could be considered one of the earliest forms of censorship from a national television network. Teenagers in 2020 would have a hard time understanding what all the fuss was about. The King's chaotic twists and turns look chaste compared to the twerking in most mainstream MTV videos. And remember when Madonna kissed Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera live onstage at the 2003 VMAs? At the time it was the most infamous kiss witnessed around the world. Then there was " Nipplegate ," Janet Jackson's infamous wardrobe malfunction that aired on live TV during the 2004 Superbowl halftime show. According to TiVo , "Nipplegate" was one of the most paused televised moments ever recorded in history. Clearly, American audiences are pushing the threshold of what they consider lewd content.

The current trend of streaming services is to cut their umbilical-like ties to the network overlords who essentially gave birth to them. It's like teenagers going through that classic "parents just don't understand" phase and refusing to comply with strict standards and practices because the cool kids at Amazon get to produce audacious unrated commercial free content. This direction allows "The Boys'" showrunner Kripke full artistic license to display his wickedly warped creativity without impediment. It is like that line from "Wayne's World 2" when Jim Morrison tells Wayne Campbell "If you build it, they will come."

Related Insights

Spherex Classification Tool Now Approved for Home Entertainment Content in Australia

Spherex

Regulation

Classification

The Albanese Government has updated the Spherex Classification Tool approval to include ratings for theatrical releases, home entertainment, and streaming content in Australia. Spherex was previously approved to classify online films.

The update underscores the Australian Classification Board’s confidence in Spherex as a tool to help Australian viewers make informed choices about the content they consume. This means Australians can now access a range of new films sooner than they might across all formats and windows.

Spherex has a longstanding relationship with the Australian Classification Board. Since 2020, Spherex has collaborated closely with the Australian Government to ensure its technology reliably generates classification decisions that meet Australian standards and viewers' expectations.

As the world’s only commercial provider of local age ratings, Spherex has successfully produced classification decisions for high volumes of online content in over 100 countries. Since 2018, Spherex has issued over one million age ratings for digital content, including films, TV shows, and trailers, distributed by its clients worldwide.

Spherex customers, including Umbrella Entertainment, Madman Entertainment, and Sugoi Co., rely on its AI-based platform to obtain local age ratings in Australia and significantly improve efficiency, cost reduction, and market reach.

Discover how Spherex's cutting-edge AI-based platform can streamline your content classification process and enhance your market reach while reducing costs.

Visit spherex.com today and see how we can support your content distribution needs.

Read Now

nScreenNoise - Interview Spherex: Avoiding the cultural dead zone

Spherex

Culture

One of the conundrums of streaming is that although a service can deliver content globally, it is not guaranteed to be acceptable in a particular local market. Netflix found this out when it announced global availability in 2016 at CES and was quickly banned in markets like Indonesia, where some of the content was deemed too violent or sexual. In 2016, without boots on the ground in a local market, it wasn’t easy to assess whether a show or movie would be culturally acceptable.

Today, global media companies are acutely aware of the importance of their content’s cultural fit. Moreover, they have a company like Spherex to help them prepare their content to ensure it fits with any country of interest. I interviewed Teresa Phillips, the Co-Founder and CEO of Spherex, at the recent OTT.X Summit in Los Angeles. She explained how the company is leveraging AI and its massive cultural profiling database to help companies prepare content for target markets. She also explained how, in the near future, AI would aid the company in measuring a movie or show’s cultural distance from a regional market and help it avoid falling into the failure zone between cultural fit and novelty interest.

Listen to the full interview here.

Read Now

Spherex Featured in the DPP's IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report

Spherex

Industry

Spherex was featured in the DPP’s IBC 2024: Demand versus Supply Report, a comprehensive look at how the M&E industry is meeting key customer demands. The report focuses on the topics of empowering creators, understanding audiences, engaging users, and innovating the newsroom. It also highlights many of the technical innovations seen at the recent IBC Show.

An article by Spherex’s CEO Teresa Phillips titled "Navigating Cultural Resonance in Global Media: The Art and Science of Culture Mixing" was featured in the report, exploring how Spherex is pioneering the future of culturally informed content.

Teresa shares how cultural mixing has become a critical strategy for creating content that appeals to diverse audiences in today's global media landscape. This phenomenon involves blending elements from different cultures to craft films and television shows that resonate globally while adhering to local regulations.

However, the process of culture mixing is fraught with risks. Superficial or stereotypical representations can lead to accusations of cultural appropriation or insensitivity, alienating audiences and damaging a company's reputation. For example, imposing Western concepts on Eastern content without proper context can feel inauthentic and jarring to local viewers. These missteps highlight the need for a nuanced understanding of cultural elements to ensure that content is respectful and engaging.

To address these challenges, M&E companies are increasingly turning to data-driven solutions. Platforms like SpherexAI utilize artificial intelligence to analyze visual, audio, and textual elements, providing insights into how well content aligns with cultural and regulatory standards across over 200 countries and territories. This approach helps media companies understand the "cultural distance" between a title's origin and its target market, enabling them to make informed decisions about global distribution.

By leveraging these advanced tools, M&E companies can go beyond traditional content localization. They can create media that actively engages and resonates with diverse audiences. As the industry continues to evolve, those companies that embrace culturally informed, data-driven approaches will be better positioned to succeed, fostering cross-cultural understanding and trust while delivering globally appealing content.

Download the report here.

Read Now