The new Hulu original series Pam & Tommy is now streaming, and one quirky character has already taken over the conversation on social media. The show is a biographical drama about the marriage between model and actress Pamela Anderson and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee. In the second episode, fans are introduced to the anthropomorphized “character” known as “Tommy’s Penis.”
Fair warning: there are spoilers for Pam & Tommy ahead. Hulu dropped the first three episodes of Pam & Tommy on Wednesday, Feb. 2, and within hours social media was buzzing about the scene where Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan) has a full-on conversation with his own penis. It happens shortly after Tommy and Pamela’s (Lily James) impulsive marriage, as they are about to consummate the relationship. In a drug-induced haze, Tommy stands alone in the bathroom and looks down in the mirror. The show spares no detail, though according to a report by Digital Spy, the penis shown is not real.
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The prop was reportedly an animatronic device strapped to Stan with invisible clear plastic straps, and it took four puppeteers to operate it for this scene. It was even voiced by actor Jason Mantzoukas, which makes some sense as Mantzoukas stars in the Netflix original series Big Mouth, which has plenty of anthropomorphized appendages and biological functions as well.
Fans pointed this out in the comments, although others countered that it was not a rip-off. Lee himself wrote about talking to his penis while high in his autobiography Tommyland. That doesn’t make it any less jarring for first-time viewers of the TV show, of course. Pam & Tommy is streaming now on Hulu. Scroll on for some of the top comments about that scene.
Authentic
By far the biggest topic on social media was whether or not the penis in this scene was real. Of course, people had vastly different reactions when they found out it was a prop.
Awards
Fans joked that this scene alone should qualify the series for some serious award buzz. They proposed new categories that it could fit into.
Crush
Fans with a celebrity crush on Stan had some of the strongest yet least articulate reactions to this scene. Many tweets and comments were just keyboard smashing screams of emotion.
Obvious
While many wondered whether the penis was real, some felt it was quite obviously fake just by looking at it. Again, their feelings about this observation were mixed.
Casting
Fans’ reactions to Mantzoukas playing the penis were determined by the show or movie they best remember the actor from.
Disney
Pam & Tommy is a Hulu original series, and Hulu is now owned by Disney. In some places overseas, the show actually aired on Disney+. This only added to the surreal hilarity of the scene for many viewers.
Nostalgia
Finally, the show gave some fans nostalgic revelations about their experience with Lee and Anderson’s real-life sex tape – especially if they saw it at a formative time in their lives.
