John Dillermand

John Dillermand ("John Penisman",[1] "John Willieman" or "John Weenerman") is a Danish stop motion animated children's television series about a man and his very long penis. It premiered on 3 January 2021 on DR Ramasjang.

John Dillermand
Genre	Children's adventure
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	Five minutes per episode
Release
Original release	2 January 2021 – present
External links
Website

Premise

John Dillermand is a middle-aged man who wears a red-and-white striped bathing costume.[2] He has a penis that can extend to a length of dozens of meters. John uses his prehensile penis (which stretches through his clothes) as a tool, such as to tame lions or to fly about like a helicopter. But it also often acts independently of John, getting him into trouble.[3]

Development and broadcast

The series is aimed at four- to eight-year-olds and was developed by the Danish public broadcaster DR, in association with the sex education association Sex & Samfund.[4] It premiered on 3 January 2021 on DR's children's channel DR Ramasjang.[3] The first season, consisting of 13 five-minute episodes, was made available on the internet on 2 January 2021.[3]

Reception

John Dillermand was popular in Denmark upon release, with 250,000 children viewing the first episode in five days,[5] and went viral.[1] The series has found fans among Danish TV personalities and children;[5] according to a DR executive Children were making snowmen, drawings, dolls and songs about John Dillermand.[5] Catherine Bennett of The Guardian praised the series as something that British leaders could learn from and compared the cartoon's protagonist to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A gender studies professor of Roskilde University, Christian Groes, criticized the series for "perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalising ‘locker room culture’" which has been used to "excuse a lot of bad behaviour from men."[6][7]

The series' unusual premise was criticized by some viewers as normalizing rape culture,[4] as pandering to pedophiles,[3] or as making light of the #MeToo movement against sexual violence against women.[3] The DR executive said that the series was part of DR's ambition to make "children's content that dares to tackle embarrassing, difficult, quirky and funny topics", that it was about being true to oneself and one's flaws, and that it acknowledged children's curiosity about human bodies.[5] He said that the series was "as desexualized as it can possibly get", and that it was developed together with a child psychologist and other professionals who reviewed the scripts to ensure that children wouldn't misinterpret what they saw.[5]

References

1. Russell, Helen (2021-01-06). "Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
2. Keslassy, Elsa; Keslassy, Elsa (2021-01-08). "Danish Broadcaster Defends Kids Show About Man With Superhuman Penis: 'It's as Desexualized as It Can Possibly Get'". Variety. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
3. W, Christian (2021-01-05). "John's long schlong: new DR kid show under fire". The Copenhagen Post. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
4. Brown, Nancy (2021-01-06). "Kids' TV show accused of 'normalising rape culture' over character with giant unruly penis". Entertainment Daily. Retrieved 2021-01-06.
5. Keslassy, Elsa (January 8, 2021). "Danish Broadcaster Defends Kids Show About Man With Superhuman Penis: 'It's as Desexualized as It Can Possibly Get'". Variety. Archived from the original on January 11, 2021. Retrieved January 10, 2021.
6. Bennett, Catherine (January 10, 2021). "A cartoon fantasy about a man who can't control his penis? Sounds like reality TV". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
7. Russell, Helen (January 6, 2021). "Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 10, 2021. Retrieved January 11, 2021.

External links

• John Dillermand episodes on DR