Homelander (Antony Starr) in season five of 'The Boys'
Amazon
Amazon’s superhero satire The Boys has hit a wall in its fifth and final season—reality has officially outmatched the show’s absurdity.
The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke told Polygon that reality keeps “reflecting the show before we get a chance to do it,” admitting that it’s “really hard to out-satire this world.”
The show’s Superman parody, Homelander (Antony Starr), functions as a caricature of President Donald Trump, but Kripke notes that Trump often beats them to the punchline.
Kripke was referring to a plot point in which Homelander compares himself to God, noting that Trump dulled the episode’s impact two days before release by posting an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ.
“A month ago when we were talking about marketing, I was like, Homelander saying he’s God is so out there,” Kripke said. “We have to be careful about how we even introduce the idea to the public because they’ll say he’s gone too far and here we are.”
After his AI Jesus image ignited backlash, Trump deleted the post, offering an explanation that many found amusing.
“I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross,” Trump claimed. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor making people better. And I do make people better.”
Online commentators mocked Trump’s response.
“I appreciate the marketing,” Kripke said. “I’m just like, can you just please give us a chance to put some absurd satire out there before you prove that it’s more realistic than we ever intended?”
The Boys faces the same conundrum that the creators of South Park grappled with—how to beat Trump at his own game?
Trump is a uniquely difficult political figure to parody, regularly delivering absurd quotes that resemble one-liners from a scripted comedy.
Trump is bafflingly unpredictable, but that doesn’t stop comedians from trying their best to caricature him—even Trump’s fiercest critics admit to finding him funny.
South Park tackled the Trump era by aiming low, dishing out crude schoolyard taunts, depicting Trump in a sexual relationship with Satan and burdened with an undersized, talking penis.
Season five of The Boys has leaned into crude humor too (even more so than usual) but the edgy approach has sparked criticism from fans.
A controversial scene from the latest episode sees Butcher’s bulldog, Terror, experience an erotic dream involving Homelander, sparking bewildered reactions from fans.
The Boys arrived on our screens in 2019, during the peak of the MCU, when it seemed like Avengers: Endgame was the start of another decade of box office dominance, rather than the beginning of the end.
At the time, The Boys’ cynicism stood in stark contrast to Marvel’s family friendly exploits, and Homelander was a great parody of Zack Snyder's Messiah-like vision of Superman.
We’re in the era of James Gunn’s self-aware Superman now, which isn’t as easy to mock. Plus, Invincible offers a more nuanced parody of Superman, exploring the character’s dark potential, while embracing his best qualities.
With no superhero monoculture to push back against, The Boys seems to have run out of things to say.
Season five even repeats a grisly, iconic moment from season one, which saw the speedster A-Train (Jessie T. Usher) burst through Hughie’s (Jack Quaid) girlfriend, sparking the conflict driving the story.
Season five brings back the gag with Mister Marathon (Jared Padalecki), who bursts through multiple bystanders, exploding them into meaty pulp—but viewers have seen it before.
Superhero satire feels overdone, and political satire demands an innovative approach, because the world feels like South Park now.
The heightened reality of The Boys seems normal in 2026, an age where the White House posts bizarre memes on social media, JD Vance believes UFOs are piloted by demons, and a top FEMA official says he was teleported to a Waffle House.
Reality has “mogged” The Boys—despite Antony Starr’s compelling performance, Homelander is just another guy now.
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