Creator of ‘The Boys’ worries fans by calling sexual assault scene ‘hilarious’

It seems that the creator of “The Boys“” has the emotional maturity of a boy.

Last week, showrunner Eric Kripke to Variety that he found a scene in the latest episode of his superhero series “hilarious.” Fans of “The Boys” were disturbed by Kripke’s comments because the scene he was referring to involved a character being sexually assaulted.

In the sixth episode of the fourth season, titled “Dirty Business,” the character Hughie (Jack Quaid) is forced to endure a series of non-consensual sexual acts because he does not know a code word – a previously agreed and clear signal to end sexual activity.

“I love that it’s just such a perfect setup, that he doesn’t know his own code word,” Kripke told the entertainment magazine. “It’s just like a beautiful comedy setup that he’s trying to find all the time.”

In the series, Hughie is a regular guy without superpowers. In season 4, episode 6, he decides to go undercover as a superhero named Webweaver to get information from another superhero named Tek Knight (Derek Wilson).

In “The Boys,” Webweaver is the series’ version of Spider-Man. Tek Knight is similar to Batman in the series ((Below is a promo image of both characters, with Tek Night in Bruce Wayne-like evening wear and Webweaver in a skin-tight costume.)

Instead of a Batcave, however, Tek Knight has a different kind of secret hideout.

“The idea came up that he should have a Batcave — but let’s be honest, the Batcave would be a sex dungeon,” Kripke told Variety. “Even the real Batcave is just kind of a sex dungeon. It’s really dark and there are rubber suits everywhere. It’s not a big deal to add a couple of dildos and then a weird urinal that turns into a face mask.”

In the episode, Tek Knight invites Hughie, also known as Webweaver, to his sex dungeon to audition as his “buddy.” Hughie is unaware that Tek Knight actually wants a submissive sexual partner. This leads to Tek Knight restraining Hughie and performing sexual acts on him unless he uses the code word. Since Hughie doesn’t know the code word, he is forced to endure numerous sexual acts until his friends come to rescue him.

“The idea of ​​Spider-Man going down into the Batcave to be perversely tickled is just too good to pass up,” Kripke told Variety. “I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t let that go by the wayside.”

After Hughie is rescued, he learns that the code word was “Zendaya” – or the name of the actor who played Spider-Man’s lover in the latest film trilogy.

Kripke thanked “the brilliant writer of the episode” for coming up with the code word. “He just wrote it in the first draft. I don’t think we ever talked about it, and he just threw in that his code word was ‘Zendaya,’ and I laughed my head off,” Kripke said.

Some fans of The Boys expressed on X (formerly Twitter) that they were bothered by the comedic tone of the sexual assault scene – and said they were even more bothered by Kripke’s harping on about it in an interview with Variety.

There’s a scene later in the episode (see above) where it’s acknowledged that sexual harassment isn’t fun – but it’s brief. Hughie eventually breaks down in front of another character, tearfully telling her that he’s “not OK.”

At first, Hughie seems upset about the rape, but he quickly expresses that it makes him emotional because his father recently died.

In season 1 of The Boys, a female character named Starlight/Annie (Erin Moriarty) is sexually assaulted – but the scene is portrayed as tragic. Kripke told reporters at the time that he had put a lot of thought into that particular scene.

“I wanted to do it right,” Kripke said at the time of filming Starlight’s assault. “I had a lot of conversations with a lot of women, some of them very painful. And I did my best to get the f– out of the way and just let them talk without trying to steer it one way or the other.”

“I have never worked so hard or stressed so much about a scene before or since in my life. Because if I had done it wrong, it would not only have been a failure as a scene, it would have been hurtful. And I felt that pressure and responsibility the whole time.”

Need help? Visit RAINN’s National online hotline for sexual assault cases or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center website.