Ryan Reynolds is under fire after making a joke about a vasectomy in relation to his son. The Deadpool star’s comment has drawn major backlash on social media, with many calling it “disturbing” and “inappropriate.”
Ryan Reynolds faces backlash for his vasectomy comment
During Thursday’s Late Night with Seth Meyers, Ryan Reynolds was promoting the John Candy documentary John Candy: I Like Me when he shared an anecdote about life after the birth of his youngest child, son Olin, who recently turned two. The actor, who shares four children with wife Blake Lively — daughters James, 10, Inez, 9, Betty, six, and Olin — joked about how differently their household might have looked if Olin had been born first.
Reynolds said, “We live in a very… like there’s nothing violent in our home. There’s nothing creepy. [But Olin] came out with three things on his mind. It was violence, breasts, and engines.” He further added, “If I had like three boys at first, I would never… there’s no way. I would give myself a punching vasectomy. Like, there’s no way I would allow that to happen.”
The “punching vasectomy” comment did not land well with a portion of the online audience. Reddit users criticized it, with one Redditor asking, “Shouldn’t he be so grateful to have FINALLY had a boy? It certainly sounds like he didn’t want to stop having children until he had one.” Another wrote, “When you’re so insecure that you feel threatened by your own baby son…” Others argued that Reynolds was unfairly stereotyping male children, reminding him that all babies have unique personalities.
However, the reaction was not entirely one-sided, with one stating, “Ryan Reynolds has essentially been making the same kinds of jokes for years, but before everybody thought he was so ‘quirky.’ Now, he makes the exact same joke but suddenly everyone thinks he’s cringe.”
Reynolds hasn’t yet commented on the backlash.
