Danish TV show John Dillermand is about a man with a very long penis, photo via DR TV
The Danes sure do it differently — sex education, that is. Last Saturday, Denmark’s national broadcasting company premiered a new children’s TV show about a man with an extraordinarily long and uncontrollable penis.
Created by DR, the country’s equivalent of the BBC, in collaboration with actual sex educators, the animated series follows John Dillermand, said to be the world’s most well endowed man. The titular character often uses his record-breaking phallus as a helpful tool to overcome various challenges (taming lions), as well as complete everyday tasks (outdoor BBQing, as seen above). However, there are certain instances when his penis, acting completely independently of Dillermand, gets him in trouble.
Not surprisingly, many parents are outraged over the thought of their little ones watching a grown man swing his striped long dong all over town. Others have also criticized the depiction of a man who can’t seem to keep it in his pants — especially when aired against the backdrop of the #MeToo movement, which has only recently swept through Denmark.
“Is this really the message we want to send to children while we are in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?” remarked Danish author Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen, as The Guardian reports.
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However, there are also people who believe these critics are simply reading too much into the TV show. “John Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking – and kids do find genitals funny,” one clinical psychologist, Erla Heinesen Højsted, said in defense of the DR program.
“The show depicts a man who is impulsive and not always in control, who makes mistakes – like kids do, but crucially, Dillermand always makes it right,” she continued. “He takes responsibility for his actions.”
Replying to the wave of backlash, DR said that they could have just as well created a TV show “about a woman with no control over her vagina,” and that the company is happy so long as children enjoy John Dillermand.
As The Guardian notes, Denmark actually has a long history of producing unconventional content for children. One classic program, Onkel Reje, stars a character who tosses out curse words, regularly smokes a pipe, and refuses to practice basic hygiene.