People Are Seriously Outraged After “The Boys'” Showrunner Eric Kripke Dismissed A Brutal Sexual Assault Scene As “Hilarious”

Based on the comic book of the same name, the show follows a group of vigilantes, known as The Boys, who try to combat people with superpowers, known as “Supes,” who are abusing their power for personal gain while manipulating public perception to look like superheroes. 

Over the years, The Boys has become renowned for its outlandish, no-holds-barred approach to storytelling, with the characters often finding themselves in ridiculous and hard-to-watch situations. 

Unbeknownst to Hughie and the rest of the gang, Webweaver was going to Tek’s headquarters to audition to be his sidekick, which involves going through a series of BDSM-inspired challenges. 

As a result, it is actually an unsuspecting Hughie who is subjected to brutal sexual activity from both Tek and Ashley, the CEO of Vought International.

Hughie is ultimately rescued by his friends, and his final scene in the episode shows him crying while Annie, played by Erin Moriarty, cradles him.

However, it is widely suggested that he is mostly emotional over the recent death of his father, not what he has just endured.

Needless to say, viewers were horrified and disturbed by the scene, and when Eric downplayed its severity in a subsequent interview with Variety, the horror turned to outrage.

“Well, that’s a dark way to look at it!” Eric replied. “We view it as hilarious. Obviously, Tek Knight is our version of Batman, and we wanted to really play around with that trope: Batman’s fascist underpinnings as a really wealthy dude who hunts poor people, and then profits of the incarceration. So that was one. Tek Knight was already set up to be a freak, so we were kind of already halfway there.”

“Then the notion came up of, he should have a Batcave — but let’s be honest, the Batcave would be a sex dungeon,” the showrunner continued. “Like, even the real Batcave is just this side of being a sex dungeon. It’s really dark, and there’s rubber suits everywhere. It’s not that much of a push to add a couple dildos and then a weird urinal that turns into a face mask.”

“In the comics, there’s a great storyline where Hughie goes undercover disguised as a superhero,” Eric went on. “That was a story that Jack had always asked us to do. So part of it is, always be careful what you ask the writers for. Then we finally had this Webweaver character and the idea of Spider-Man going down to be kink tickled in the Batcave is just too good to pass up. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t leave that on the table.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Eric added: “I love that it’s just such a perfect setup that he doesn’t know his own safe word. It’s just like a beautiful comedy setup that he’s trying to find it the whole time.”

“Sorry but what's funny about rape and sexual assault?? and sexual torture?” another user asked. 

Somebody else wrote: “How is Kripke so out of touch that he missed the point of his own scene? It's mind-boggling. His answer is awful and toxic…”

“This is repulsive. I know fiction is not reality, but how anyone could call a fictional SA scene ‘hilarious’ is absolutely beyond me,” one more added.

Eric praises Colby for her “world-class comedic performance” in the scene, adding: “One of the funniest comedic performances I’ve ever seen, period. Your ‘Tickled’ scene with [Hughie] is one of the craziest things we’ve ever done, and one of the funniest.”

“Holy shit. This is so tone deaf. I'm inclined to stop watching this show,” one fan wrote in response to the video. Somebody else echoed: “I did NOT laugh once during that scene, it was just gross and disturbing in a tone-deaf way.”

“Imagine being a actual SA victim and then watch this shit person explain how funny and hilarious it is,” one more agreed. Another wrote: “This is actually baffling. They went for comedy with this scene?”

Eric has not publicly acknowledged the backlash.