How Cecily Strong's “Saturday Night Live” Clown Sketch Inspired an Important Storyline in “The Boys” Season 4

‘The Boys’ showrunner explains the inspiration behind one of the plotlines from the dramedy’s most recent episode

Inspiration sometimes comes from the unlikeliest of places, which was the case for the most recent, emotionally charged episode of The Boys.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, The Boys showrunner Eric Kripke discussed how a big revelation in this week’s episode around Starlight (Erin Moriarty), or Annie January, was influenced by two factors.

"The overturning of Roe v. Wade was happening in real time as we were writing, so it was definitely on everybody's mind," Kripke told the outlet. "But another inspiration for us was Cecily Strong."

Kripke was referring to a Saturday Night Live sketch during season 47 in which Strong, 40, starred as Goober the Clown, using “fun stuff” to make discussing the “rough subject” of the character’s abortion at age 23 “more palatable” for the audience.

“I wish I didn't have to do this, because the abortion I had at 23 is my personal clown business, but that's all some people in this country want to discuss all the time, even though clown abortion was legalized in Clown v. Wade in 1973,” Strong said in character.

Related: The Boys Cast: A Guide to All the Actors from Season 1 to Season 4

Kripke said the sketch “really moved” him. In this week’s episode of The Boys, Firecracker (Valorie Curry) revealed that Starlight had an abortion six months prior, even going so far as to show Starlight’s confidential medical records around the procedure. A triggered and infuriated Starlight beat Firecracker to a pulp on camera in front of viewers.

Following the event, Starlight found Hughie (Jack Quaid) and contended she shouldn’t have “lost it” the way she did.

“How could you not lose it? That was the most private thing between you and me, and to f------ broadcast it like that, that’s a f------ violation,” Hughie said.

Starlight — who “agonized” over getting the abortion — explained that moving forward, she’ll be judged for her decision now that it’s publicly known.

“Now when people look at me, whether they’re supportive or judging or angry, I have to relive it over and over and over again,” she said.

Kripke, for his part, said the show’s writers sought to make a point with the painful storyline.

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"What I think we were really trying to get across [on The Boys] is how common it [abortion] is, and yet so few women can talk about it,” he continued. “So we were like, 'Let's just throw it out there and deal with it.'"

To realistically and thoughtfully cover the topic, the show’s writers spoke to many women about their experiences.

“The main thing we wanted to get across was it's not a particularly massive, overdramatic thing,” he added. “It's a thing that thousands and thousands and thousands of women go through. We just wanted to normalize it a little bit.”

“If in a big genre show you can talk about it and not have it be the most earth-shattering, apocalyptic moment, but it's a difficult moment that a woman went through and then continued to live her life, we thought there was value in that perspective, which is a perspective that's almost never in TV or movies."

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The Boys airs Thursdays on Prime Video.

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