Peepoodo: Understanding Through Sex (NSFW)

For nearly two years, I've been writing for the animation blog Cartoon Milk. It's been very enjoyable trying to look at cartoons from all manner of different angles, and attempting to express thoughts and ideas I can't really do elsewhere. One of these ended up a rejected article for the cartoon Peepoodo & The Super F*** Friends, as it was a bit too explicit for the blog. So I've decided to put the article on here for people to read.

Read it below the break!

(WARNING: The cartoon discussed in this article is extremely NSFW, featuring tons of explicit sexual imagery and discussion. There are no images accompanying the article, but if you are under the age of 18 or you have a weak constitution, please don't read this.)

At the end of 2021, I wrote this long-winded article discussing my favourite cartoons from that year, but there was one cartoon I left out. Partially because I felt weird about introducing a very-NSFW cartoon into the article, but I mainly wanted to write about the cartoon in its own article. I hope I can do this justice, despite it being my weirdest and most alienating piece by far.

Peepoodo & The Super Fuck Friends is a French series directed by Yves "Balak" Bigerel and produced by Bobbypills, and I can only describe it as a sex comedy. There are many cartoons that feature sexual humour, but Peepoodo goes much further down that road. It features many graphically animated episodes with characters exploring their sexual kinks, from the banal to the scatological. One of the main characters is a doctor/porn actress who explains in vivid detail how to stimulate the body. There's even an episode where the cast sings about their venereal diseases (perhaps the only other song in history on the subject).

It is a comedy completely and utterly about sex. And I genuinely love it. A bunch of that comes from how well put-together it is. The character designs are goofy parodies of the designs you'd see in pre-school kids' shows, but they lend themselves to expressive animation that makes the comedy funnier and makes the scenes with more action superb. Whether it's sex or fighting (especially as the show goes on), this isn't a show that uses its crass subject matter as an excuse to look bad. It's a great cartoon to watch, whether you're looking for laughs or otherwise.

However, the main reason I love this show is that it uses the sex as a medium to explore the characters and help them to understand each other. Sex, as a concept in fiction, is often dismissed as a cheap gimmick used to attract and arouse people, or the sole attraction in works where it's prominently featured. The idea of "plot in porn" is considered the set-up and the punchline by your average person. But I completely disagree with that idea.

Sex is a part of human behaviour, and all stories are an observation of human behaviour in some shape or form. I think sex is a perfectly valid way of telling stories, of exploring the people in them, and driving the plot or themes. Sure, you'll have a hard time selling the concept because that expectation isn't commonly accepted in the same way it is for heist movies, professional wrestling, or sports stories. But those are also stories where characters' struggles are reflected and played out through "action", so why shouldn't the same apply for sex?

For me, Peepoodo is an excellent way of demonstrating that idea, with most of its episodes showing the characters coming to terms with themselves, understanding their friends, and becoming happier people entirely through the medium of sexual kinks, bodily functions and horny impulses. You could tell the same type of stories in other ways, but it wouldn't be the same. And no episode gets that across like the second series episode "Body Swap".

In the second series, Peepoodo and his friends - Evelyn, Tuffalo, and Dr Pussycat - find themselves lost in space following the destruction of their home planet, and wander through the stars in search of a new home. With only four characters stuck in a spaceship, trying and failing in their journey, tensions are bound to rise. And they come to a head in "Body Swap", between Tuffalo and Dr Pussycat.

These two have never gotten on. They've spent a decent chunk of the series getting on each other's nerves, and this episode starts with them having a massive row. To chill out, they hide away in their own rooms to masturbate while Peepoodo and Evelyn go off shopping. Tuffalo and Dr Pussycat both reach a climax at the same time, but the energy of a nearby magnetic storm combines with their energy and forces them to swap bodies.

The only way they can swap back is to fly through the storm and simultaneously climax again, which is very hard to do when their kinks are so alien to the other. Tuffalo doesn't know how to pleasure a woman so he can't masturbate the vagina, and Dr Pussychat can't fathom the idea of sticking pine cones up the urethra for arousal. (Yes, that is Tuffalo's kink. It is his main kink, and the very thing they're arguing about at the beginning of the episode. I told you this series was graphic.)

At the risk of sounding like a new age therapist, your body and soul need to be one, because you are the only one who can truly understand yourself and your own pleasures. But when they're swapped with somebody else, suddenly everything feels so alien, so wrong. The only thing you can do is to try and communicate with the other, so that you can understand their body - and hopefully understand that person. That point is very important with Tuffalo and Dr Pussycat, as they've spent the entire series being unable to understand each other. They're two very different people.

Tuffalo is a doofus. He doesn't take the time to think, he just says the first thing that comes to mind - something that has repeatedly gotten him and his friends into trouble loads of times. He's not actively malicious, but he is a loud and abrasive moron. He can't really communicate or explain himself to other people, and he can't seem to understand how they might think. At best, he gets it for a few seconds and then gets derailed again by his selfish mindset.

Dr Pussycat is the opposite. She has a great deal of empathy for others, often coming up with many of the solutions by simply taking the time to understand their kinks and approaching those conversations with patience and tact. As a qualified doctor (and porn actress on the side), she knows the ins and outs of the human body, and is easily able to explain the aspects and anatomy that result in sexual reactions. She even helped Evelyn through her gender dysphoria during the first series, so it's clear how well she's able to communicate and empathize.

But that goes right out the window when she's with Tuffalo. She can tolerate being around him, but she's so put-off by how self-centered and brash he is that things soon break down. Even in the "Sexo Dingo" episode, where Pussycat guides Tuffalo to inducing an orgasm from her without using his penis, he only briefly gets what she's saying before he goes back to his old ways. He can't communicate effectively with her, and she can't find a way to understand him. It's the old irresistible force paradox, where the only solutions are A: talk to each other or B: get as far away from each other as possible.

And when you're suddenly in each other's bodies, stuck in the middle of space, getting away from the other person is a literal cosmic impossibility. So they have to talk, and they finally reach an understanding. Dr Pussycat guides Tuffalo through vaginal masturbation, and Tuffalo explains the pleasure brought by sticking pine cones up the urethra. They bring each other to climax, and swap back to their original bodies. All tension is lifted, and the two even give each other tips or ideas for new ways of masturbation.

The bodyswap plot is a pretty standard plot in how it forces the characters to understand each other and their lives, but Peepoodo finds a new spin on it by tackling the concept of sexual understanding. Sex is a part of human behaviour, and is just as valid and important to learning what makes others tick, empathizing with them, and even growing to better understand yourself.

Sex can be a throwaway bit of fluff to arouse people and nothing more in the world of fiction, but it doesn't have to be. With this episode, Peepoodo gives an excellent example of how sex as a medium can be used to tell stories that can uniquely resonate with people through the use of sex.

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-Jim/Dougal/Apollo (21st March 2022, listening to - fly around [piano dub, Finn Only], arranged and performed by Finn M-K: