The Boys‘ new season doubles down on the shock factor with more ultraviolence and gratuitous nudity. Showrunner Eric Kripke confirms they pulled a vulgar prank on Claudia Doumit to sell a shockingly explicit scene.

Season 4 of The Boys premiered with three episodes out of the gate and it’s chock full of vulgarity; the show has yet to come up with something wilder than Herogasm but it did pay homage to The Human Centipede. Those unaware that the film even existed were in for a rude awakening with a recreation of its culminating scene in “Life Among the Septics”, but at least the episode didn’t go into the dirty details. Some were relieved they were spared from the horror after witnessing Episode 1’s closing scene (which had Victoria Neuman opening a Butcher’s “innocuous” email). Showrunner Eric Kripke took to X to confirm that Claudia Doumit was totally unprepared for that moment’s jumpscare reveal.

“This was Claudia’s real reaction at seeing the picture for the first time,” Kripke wrote. “All authentic.” The scene in question involved Neuman receiving an email that contained all the damning information Hughie had on her. Apparently, Butcher deleted the data and attached the only copy to Neuman. For a brief moment, the scene revealed Doumit struggling not to break character after the attachment revealed a close-up photo of Butcher’s unshaved caboose. Kripke’s X post clipped that moment on an indefinite loop and it’s evident Doumit’s initial disgust broke into laughter. Such pranks were usually reserved for blooper reels so the deliberate nature of the scene made it more hilarious.

The Boys Relentless With Pop Culture References

The Boys is admittedly a shameless satire with irreverent pop culture references. Even the premise of the show and its characters are parodies of DC and Marvel comics. Kripke confirmed that The Boys and Gen V explicitly examine and lampoon real-world events; the shows depict Vought and its supes heavily involved in counterterrorism, celebrity culture, and politics. Some of the homages are evident while others are deep cuts: obvious parodies include the supe Termite, who demonstrated what Ant-Man could’ve done to Thanos to prevent the snap; even Homelander himself is The Boys‘ version of an unhinged and psychopath Superman.

Audiences can expect events to escalate now that The Boys is confirmed to end after Season 5. The show thankfully hasn’t adapted many unspeakable scenes from the comics (so far), as some sequences are also best left to the imagination like the Beetlejuice reference in “Department of Dirty Tricks.”

The Boys is streaming on Prime Video.