If you're wondering what the most-watched pundit on cable news is thinking about, the answer is apparently men. More specifically, "The End of Men," as Fox News host Tucker Carlson titled an upcoming Tucker Carlson Originals episode he previewed over the weekend. Men are in danger, Carlson's argument goes, because of declining testosterone levels and dropping sperm counts. And one of the people he brings on to offer solutions, "fitness expert" Andrew McGovern, suggests "testicle tanning."
Actually, McGovern called it "red light therapy," a type of "bromeopathy"; Carlson came up with the "testicle tanning" phrase, though McGovern agreed with the description. "Half the viewers right now are like, 'What?! Testicle tanning, that's crazy!'" Carlson acknowledged, "but my view is: Okay, testosterone levels have crashed and nobody says anything about it, that's crazy, so why is it crazy to seek solutions?"
"It would be remarkable if a whole generation of Tucker Carlson viewers unwittingly sterilized themselves this way," mused liberal commentator Elizabeth Spiers, speaking for a lot of Twitter users. Ken "PopeHat" White suggests that would at least make for good TV.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Carlson again defended "testicle tanning" to a skeptical Kid Rock, who declined to agree that "open-minded people" should at least consider solutions like exposing your genitals to "red light."
And Carlson not only repeatedly brings up "testicle tanning" in his interviews, it's also featured in the teaser for "The End of Men," a promo most notable for its "striking homoerotic nature," as HuffPost's Mary Papenfuss writes. "Tucker would get arrested if he showed this video in a Florida classroom," The Daily Beast's Justin Baragona agreed.
-
The ‘menopause gold rush’Under the Radar Women vulnerable to misinformation and marketing of ‘unregulated’ products
-
Voting Rights Act: SCOTUS’s pivotal decisionFeature A Supreme Court ruling against the Voting Rights Act could allow Republicans to redraw districts and solidify control of the House
-
No Kings rally: What did it achieve?Feature The latest ‘No Kings’ march has become the largest protest in U.S. history
-
FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the rightSpeed Read The drug in question is a generic version of mifepristone, used to carry out two-thirds of US abortions
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shotSpeed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
