The Boys is quite easily the most consistently shocking show on TV right now, and season five has been no different so far.
Across its five seasons The Boys has consistently managed to include some pretty wild stuff, whether it be its bizarre sex scenes like Herogasm or its willingness to skewer contemporary politics, such as its 'unhinged' Charlie Kirk reference in the newest season.
Managing to get some of this on screen is not an easy feat for a TV show however, and creator of The Boys Eric Kripke revealed an odd trick the show uses.
Whilst nudity on screen is not impossible nowadays, particularly after Game of Thrones paved the way for mainstream shows having nude scenes, what is fairly rare is genatalia being shown on screen in major TV shows.
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Speaking about how they get around censors regarding this, Kripke revealed the surprising changes they often have to make in order to keep people happy.
In an interview with Awards Buzz, the showrunner explained the favourite part of his job, ‘arguing with standards and practices’.
This may be the tiniest bit tongue in cheek but Kripke explained that the negotiations they will have are ‘hilarious’.
He went on to add: “For example, they have a standard where you’re not allowed to show an erect penis.”
Kripke explained that, in the show’s third season, they have a character called Termite who, as part of an orgy scene, shrinks down and crawls inside another character’s penis.
Kripke said: “The notes [from standards and practices] are like, ‘that penis looks too erect, you need to add wrinkles’.”
He explained they will then ‘negotiate over the amount of wrinkles’, stating himself and their VXF supervisor will ask: “How about four wrinkles? And they’re like, we’d be a lot more comfortable with five.
“And you’re like, oh no, well, no I feel that five starts to make it a little more unclear, makes it look like a wrinkled dog. I think maybe four, three to four.
“The whole time, I’m like, I get paid for this. I get paid to argue over the amount of wrinkles on a penis.”
Scenes from the show have been subject to censorship before but not in the US, where Kripke has stated on multiple occasions that Prime Video let him do ‘whatever he wants’.
In season four however a ‘self Human Centipede’ was heavily censored in India, with most of the graphic nature of the scene being cut.
Speaking exclusively to LADbible earlier this year however, Kripke explained how this rarely happens because of a specific rule he adheres to.
He said: “You'd be surprised at how much self-censoring we do in the writers' room.
"As you can imagine, like the writers pitch crazy s**t all day, and we try really hard to say, ‘Well, how is it so important to the storytelling that we couldn't do it any other way?’”
He stated they avoid being ‘crazy to be crazy’, adding: “[That] is generally our rule. It's crazy, just to be crazy. I think the audience smells that it starts to feel exploitive.
"But if it actually tells us a little more about that world or that character, then it has a heft to it, a weight to it that I think helps, because people say ‘Oh, it kind of needed to be there."
He concluded: "I can't say we've always been successful at it, but we try every time."
The Boys season five streams on Prime Video every Wednesday.
Topics: The Boys, TV, TV and Film
Michael Slavin