“Come on. It’s the thing you love the most”

…We hear Tek Knight say to Hughie, who is undercover as Web Weaver in the “Dirty Business” episode of “The Boys”, as he’s tortured in an underground sex dungeon, while Homelander parties with one percenters just above them.

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Tek Knight believes of course that Hughie is that universe’s Spiderman. The only thing is that in the world of “The Boys” Web Weaver is a drug addict that will do sexual favors to get high. And Hughie has no clue what this weirdo’s safe word is. Knight discovers this and prepares to cut a new hole in Hughie to satisfy himself with before he’s thankfully rescued by Starlight and Kimiko.

After Knight is killed by Elijah, his own “Alfred” who’s raised him since he was a child, he tells the group that the safe word was..

Zendaya.

The reason this joke is notable is because in real life the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Spiderman and his girlfriend, MJ, are played by Tom Holland and Zendaya.

The Boys riff off of other heroes all of the time. Homelander is Superman. Tek Knight was a Batman/Iron/Sherlock Holmes hybrid. A-Train is The Flash. The Deep is Aquaman. And there are many, many more examples.

But this joke was probably the biggest wink to the real world we’ve seen on the program up to this point.

Zendaya of course is on her own show business hot streak. In addition to the MCU and “Euphoria”, she’s starred in both the Dune series and “Challengers” in the last few months.

What did you think of the joke? Let me know in the comments.

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