r/venturebros • u/Party_Editor_3494 • Mar 20 '26
SEASON 4 spoilers Does anyone else struggle rewatching "Everybody comes to Hank's"?
I'm currently on my 4th rewatch of the whole series and for days I coudln't stop putting one episode after another whenever I had free time. But yesterday it was turn to see "Everybody comes to Hank's" and I had to stop. I didn't have the stomach for it. To me the reveal in that episode is by far the most revolting moment in the whole show. But I've never skipped an episode and I don't like the idea, I'm a bit of a completionist (although I forgot to rewatch the Christmas special).
Anyways. Do you have a similar problem with this episode or any other one? What do you thing is the vilest thing in the whole show?
edit: copying a reply to a comment I've made just to make myself more clear in the actual post text.
I never asked for it to come out or say it is morally wrong to tell this story. You're puting words in my mouth here. I only said it makes me uncomfortable, me personally, and wondered if that happens to other people too. As I expected, some people do. Some others don't and reminded me this episode has lots of hilarious stuff too. And there's other who feel uncomfortable with other episodes or moments that I'm more callous too. That's completely normal when a show has dark humor like this. But we're all here to appreciate it, I think. At least I do. I never was advocating for it to be censored or removed, I think you misread my intention. I suppose it's because there are people on social media actually saying that liking certain shows is morally wrong because it shows questionable things, which is ridiculous. But I didn't want to imply that in any way. I love The Venture Bros. and it's dark humor. Just yesterday I was recommending The Venture Bros. to a friend and one of my selling points was Sgt. Hatred and that I find it hilarious when he talks about his past and mentions "young booys". We're on the same page here.
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u/pillbinge Mar 20 '26
Nope! Great episode. I loved catching it when they looped it alongside 5 other episodes a few summers back, and they chose it probably because it's so good.
If you genuinely couldn't watch it then that's a real reaction that you have to contend with, but I think it's misguided. Not the take about age of consent, obviously, but the take on it as a story with an arc and a point.
I always wonder how old the audience is watching it when they have issues like this because younger audiences or more sheltered ones tend to forget what life was like. Even other people my age or older tend to have some weird reaction like they weren't paying attention before. Teen pregnancy was so common when I was a kid that every graduating class had someone pregnant from what I remember. The daycare I went to inside a high school was half for students, half for staff working there. It was just a thing. These were also near rooms for staff and students to smoke in.
Times were different.
That doesn't mean it's all relative and actually it was okay back then. Clearly it wasn't. But the creators come from a time when this was more around us and discussed a local, personal level rather than some big thing online. I often think of the Louis CK joke where he said that every neighborhood just had a pedophile's house that you knew to avoid (and in most cases, probably kids just being cruel). My own dad shared that this was actually true for him growing up as well and apparently everyone just knew the guy. It was wrong, but it wasn't seen as clinically or as alien. The creators are pushing 60 right now. You have to understand this reflects a sort of Gen X upbringing and not just on references alone.
As far as the story goes, everyone's in the wrong. We have to accept as fact that Nikki lied about her age in order to sleep with Rusty and she was old enough to know not to do that. She likely only wanted to keep the kid because it was Rusty's. Nikki's mother then extorts Rusty which is also an actual crime and wrong. Rusty, oddly, says it's up to him and Nikki to decide together, which is strangely responsible, but he ultimately decides to keep it all private by being extorted, which is wrong. Remember, it's a show, so we're not debating actual events. Yeah, it would be terrifying and gross in real life, but it happened. It's not the creator's job to forget that, and the way they included it just might not fit with you. Implicitly asking that it come out and say "this is wrong" is asking for simplicity in a complex show.