Season 3 of Amazon’s irreverent superhero series The Boys is still months away, but in the meantime the series creators have collaborated with several writers and artists on The Boys Presents: Diabolical, an adult animated anthology that features eight shorts set in the world of Vought International. And much like its source material, Diabolical is filled with raunchy humor, over-the-top violence, and pitch-black satire. One of the breakout shorts is “Boyd in 3D”, a sly send-up of social media written by Eliot Glazer and Ilana Glazer (Broad City). While the Glazer siblings worked together on Broad City, Eliot Glazer has written for shows like Younger and New Girl.
“Boyd in 3D” follows dog walker Boyd (Glazer) who pines for his cat-loving next door neighbor Cherry (SNL‘s Nasim Pedrad) but lacks the confidence to talk to her. When a scientist (Kumail Nanjiani) offers him a test serum (made of Compound V) that turns him handsome, Boyd quickly jumps at the chance to resemble a young Homelander. But the serum has unintended consequences, which sees Boyd and Cherry go from insta-famous it couple to disaster. We sat down with Eliot Glazer to discuss social media, self image, and the gap between our lives online and IRL.
The Mary Sue: So how did you and Ilana come up with the idea for “Boyd in 3D”?
Eliot Glazer: Ultimately we were really given room to play in the sandbox, and the directives were pretty far-reaching. My sister and I came up with the story together and I think both of us are just pretty fascinated with the double-edged sword of social media, how it has the ability to connect us but at the same time really disassociate us. I personally am fascinated by the performative nature of it now, and I think it happens to all of us, the best and the worst, it happens, so I think, you know, being able to play in The Boys universe was a chance to engage in that conversation but, you know, be able to do something really nutty and bananas with it, to go the extra mile and show what it would be like if social media could actually kill you, I guess! It was a pretty natural progression for us creatively and it was something we wanted to talk about, and the team was pretty on board right away, so it came very naturally.
TMS: Tell me about how you guys landed on the animation style, which feels like a very romantic, almost French inspired style of animation?
EG: To be completely honest with you, I don’t think we had much say in how it would look, that was a separate process, but at the same time, to get even to see the very early rough cuts was pretty awesome. It was the first time I got to see something I had written animated, and the style right away was really exciting to see. It actually reminds me a little bit more of Archie comics, and I loved Archie comics as a kid, so it was really a blast to see the story come to life because it lives so long in your head, and on the page, and to see it actually there moving with sound and music is just a really exciting thing for somebody like myself who has mostly written on single camera shows until now.
TMS: How excited are your parents that their children are working together? Are they psyched? Living the dream?
EG: They’re psyched! It’s funny because at this point we’ve collaborated on things since we were tiny little children, I think dozens if not hundreds of hours of sketch comedy from our camcorder, but it’s only been a natural progression for us to work together. We started doing improv together at the UCB (Upright Citizens Brigade) and now we’re here. I don’t think it surprises our parents, but it does excite them, and they don’t hold back their excitement.
TMS: Do you plan on pursuing more animated projects in the future?
EG: Yeah, this was the first one that I’ve done, and now I’m actually working on a project with Bento Box, that would be a sitcom that’s also based in reality, but also brings in fantastical elements as well, and so that was sort of a natural progression. I feel so much more confident in pursuing it having worked on Diabolical, it just makes sense, and just being able to spread your wings as a writer is always an exciting opportunity, and the ability to do so in an animated fantastical format is just gravy.
The Boys Presents: Diabolical is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.
(images: Amazon/Brad Barket/Getty Images for Comedy Central)
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
