Comedy
English Teacher
Filled with profanity and LGBT content, FX’s English Teacher won’t be found on most families’ back-to-school shopping lists.
Every kid dreams of being a superhero. Well, every kid except Chuck, that is. He’s more of a supervillain guy—which may be a tad difficult, considering he doesn’t actually have any superpowers.
But that’s not enough to keep Chuck down. Armed with his trusty kite, he becomes the aptly-named “Kite Man,” wreaking very mild havoc alongside his ice-skating girlfriend, Golden Glider.
They might not have legions of goons at their disposal, but they’re rich where it counts: in fellow D-list villains to hang out with at Noonan’s, their favorite dive bar. At least until Kite Man botches a job for Superman’s nemesis, Lex Luthor, and Lex decides that, as punishment, Noonan’s should be wiped off the map.
Well, not on this mildly-incompetent villain’s watch!
Described by series creator Patrick Schumacker as “Cheers for supervillains,” Kite Man: H— Yeah! is pretty much exactly what you might expect from a show called Kite Man: H— Yeah!
As a spin-off of adult animated series Harley Quinn, it retains every bit of its predecessor’s irreverence, violence and raunchiness. People are killed left and right in increasingly gruesome ways (receiving little more than an “oh well” from our central characters). Constant references are made to sexual activity. And it’s almost hard to believe the writers could fit so much foul language into a 20-minute episode.
Plus, you know … there’s the issue of being asked to root for actual supervillains—the kind who will gladly murder dozens of peopleand steal millions of dollars just to save their local bar.
DC Comics and Warner Bros. seem to be on a mission to disrupt the superhero genre with the most crude and shocking animated content possible. If that’s their goal, it seems to be working, as Harley Quinn has been successful enough to earn five seasons and a spin-off show.
But perhaps the best way to stem this growing tide of crude adult animation is to skip them altogether. Trust us, with Kite Man, you won’t be missing much.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Kite Man and Golden Glider scramble to find the money necessary to save their favorite bar from Lex Luthor.
Animated violence persists throughout the episode. While attempting to rob Kite Man’s father, Kite Man and his crew fight through an army of security. Knives and bullets send animated blood flying; one goon is blown to pieces with a machine gun, causing his eyes to pop out of his head, while another’s skull is smashed in with a jar. Blood and brains are shown in the aftermath. Golden Glider slices faces, throats and limbs with her deadly ice skates before finally using her mysterious superpowers to melt the security officers into pools of blood.
Sexual references and dialogue are also frequent. Kite Man recounts a story from his teenage years in which his mother mistakenly thought he was masturbating. In the garden of a high-security house, statues of horses and cherub-like babies shoot missiles out of their genitals. Multiple other references are also made to male anatomy. One of Kite Man and Golden Glider’s friends suggests they do a “cam show” to raise money for the bar. The couple also reminisces about doing “hand stuff” on their first date. A man tells his girlfriend he’s aroused. When Kite Man finally receives the keys to the bar, they include a keychain in the shape of bare breasts. Kite Man and Golden Glider visit Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, two female supervillains in a committed relationship.
Since the bulk of the show revolves around saving and running Noonan’s bar, a heavy amount of drinking takes place. Gus the Goon, a member of the crew, has a drinking problem and is drunk during the raid on Kite Man’s father’s house.
During a funeral for the crew members who died in the raid, candles imprinted with images of Jesus and the Virgin Mary are lit.
The f-word is used nine times throughout the episode, and the s-word is used 17. “D–n” is heard four times, “a–,“ five, “d—k,” twice and “p-ss,” once. The Lord’s name is taken in vain five times, and “h—,” of course, is used eight times (Kite Man’s catchphrase, as indicated by the series title, is “h— yeah!”).
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
Filled with profanity and LGBT content, FX’s English Teacher won’t be found on most families’ back-to-school shopping lists.
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