The sixth episode of the third season of The Boys finally lit the fuse on the much-anticipated Herogasm ‘storyline’ leading to a warning having to be put at the start; “some scenes may not be suitable for all viewers.” But that wasn’t the only special gift that the episode brought, as there was also a brilliant parody of the celebrities singing ‘Imagine’ video that was made – checks notes – six days into the pandemic in 2020.
The Boys version of the video starts with Chace Crawford‘s The Deep saying; “these super-villain attacks, they’ve affected everyone, it doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from. We’re all in this together and together we can imagine a better world.” He begins singing the beautiful John Lennon track *sob* and is joined by Patton Oswalt, Jessie T. Usher, Josh Gad, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Elizabeth Banks, Kumail Nanjiani, Aisha Tyler, and Rose Byrne.
To be honest, however funny The Boys version is, it can never be as funny or cringy as the original video. Released on March 18, 2020, the video features many mournful-looking celebs including Kristen Wiig, Jimmy Fallon, Natalie Portman, Zoe Kravitz, Amy Adams, Leslie Odom Jr, Pedro Pascal, Will Ferrell, Mark Ruffalo and Maya Rudolph.
The ‘highlight’ of the original video has to be a fresh-out-of-the-shower Jamie Dornan. The backlash on social media began as soon as the video was released, but it did cheer people up from laughing at it – so in a roundabout way, kind of worked?
Of course, this is far from the only parody featured in The Boys. Season three also took the mickey out of the Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial, in which she steps into a vague and generic ‘protest’ and calms things down by giving a can of pop to the cops…or something? Season two of The Boys also poked fun at Marvel (and other high-profile properties) shoe-horning glib ‘Girlboss’ moments into their movies (the Endgame battle being the most glaring example) with the slogan “girls get it done.”
If you’ve been enjoying The Boys, check out our guide to the best sci-fi series.