Bloopers That Make Us Love The Boys Even More
Amazon Prime's adaptation of Garth Ennis's comic book series The Boys has a sense of humor, but it's more of an edgy, dark humor. You know the kind — where someone accidentally getting exploded from the inside out is played for comedy. It's the kind of show that takes the guy who uses harassment as a form of initiation and turns it around on him in the meanest way possible. The Boys, in short, is less funny ha-ha and more funny maniacal laugh.
In fact, check that — The Boys is pretty dark, no humor required. Whether it's about turning superhero origins into frightfully brutal backstories, delving into the super hero equivalent of drug addiction, or simply taking a Superman-like figure and making him a full-blown psychopath, The Boys is grim.
But that doesn't mean there's no playful joy to be found. Even the most serious of shows has the chance for humorous redemption in at least one way: The blooper reel. On July 1, 2020, Amazon Prime dropped a blooper reel for The Boys's first season, and it is exactly the jubilant goofy chaser everyone can use in between very dark seasons.
The best The Boys bloopers
There's a lot to love from that video, obviously, but let's break down a few parts and talk about what makes them such stand-outs.
First off, right at the opening of the reel, just watching Jack Quaid and Simon Pegg quietly chewing is a hoot. What makes it great isn't just the serious expressions on their faces before they break into laughter, but also the subtle shout-out to Pegg eating humorously in other work. It's hard not to see Pegg chewing and think of Shaun of the Dead and that moment, in the Winchester pub, in which Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Ed (Nick Forst) are chewing on pig snacks while the world ends via zombie apocalypse.
There's also the peak perfection that is Karl Urban asking his fellow actors to give him some De Niro, before doing his best Robert De Niro face. Karl Urban is a man committed to his craft, and, by "committed to his craft," we mean "committed to looking like Bobby D."
Nathan Mitchell, who play Black Noir, doesn't always get a lot to do beyond be a serious, brooding, Batman type, but the beauty of a blooper reel is you get to see the man behind the mask ... kind of. Mitchell's face is still entirely shrouded in cloth (and mystery), but he does have two great moments here — one in which he's too busy doodling to realize what's happening in the scene, and another in which he accidentally covers himself in green powder.
But if there's one hero who rises above the others, it's absolutely Homelander (Antony Starr). Sure, on The Boys proper, Homelander kills indiscriminately and has weird, baby-like fetishes, but in a blooper reel he's just a big, old goof! Whether it's accidentally knocking down a door, calling The Deep (Chase Crawford) "Deep-a-rino," slamming into light fixtures, or getting whacked in the face with random bits of paper, nobody bloopers better than Antony Starr. Starr even admits at the end that he, "Cares more about getting a good blooper reel than having a good show." Fortunately for Starr, he has both.