Social media culture has a bizarre way of making everything timeless; all it takes is the right post, clip, or meme going viral for forgotten pieces of content to get a whole new moment in the spotlight. Today’s latest example of this phenomenon is Stan Lee’s Stripperella, the adult, animated superhero series that Marvel creator Stan Lee launched back in 2003. The series starred Baywatch star Pamela Anderson in the lead vocal role of Erotica Jones/Stripperella, and only lasted one season — but now, thanks to social media, Marvel fans are having some renewed curiosity about how this series is even a thing.
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The Crazy History of Stan Lee’s Stripperella Explained
In 2001, Stan Lee broke away from Marvel to launch his own media production company called POW! Entertainment Inc./LLC, alongside co-founders Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman. Lee was the creative head of the Entertainment branch, and began to pitch a variety of multi-media superhero-themed content. Stripperella was one of the first projects that Lee got off the ground; the series was picked up by Paramount network TNN — which then became the male-focused network Spike TV. Stripperella was a flagship piece of content for that new brand, generating hype through the pitch of an animated Pam Anderson, as well as Stan Lee venturing into more adult-themed territory.
In fact, Lee only provided the initial pitch and character designs for Stripperella, before the series was handed off to a different writing and production team. However, Lee was clear in his view that the series — despite its salacious title and premise — was supposed to be more of a comedy satire than titillating adult entertainment. If you watch the clip below, you can tell that the spirit of Lee’s vision is very much intact in the show.
WATCH: CLIP FROM STAN LEE’S STRIPPERELLA
The clip shows Stipperella trying to get rid of a bomb that’s set to explode, and having trouble doing so, as every potential disposal site has some cute and/or innocent bystander in the way. Luckily, Stripperella happens upon a caved-in mine where some orphans and their puppies are trapped — perfect place for a bomb! Stripperella saves the day, while keeping everyone on the edge of their collective seats about whether her skimpy costume will stay in place during the action.
The entire sequence is a satirical riff on the iconic Batman movie starring Adam West, which featured a sequence of Batman finding a big bomb with an impossibly long fuse. Batman runs all over the docks trying to dispose of the bomb, only to have nuns, lovers in a boat, ducklings, and even an entire marching band get in the way. The sequence coined the famous line from Batman that “some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb.” Clearly the makers of Stripperella were Batman ’66 fans, and want to give ode to that iconic film — in their own twisted way.
It’s not hard to imagine why Stripperella only lasted for one 13-episode season: It’s a show doesn’t really appeal to any main demographic. Not really gratuitous enough for what a lot of the male fans were hoping for when tuning in, not “superhero” enough for that fanbase, and premiering at a time when adult-themed animation was still in a pioneering phase. Now, with series like DC’s Harley Quinn and Invincible being breakout hits, the Marvel Cinematic Universe cementing Stan Lee’s legacy, and even Pam Anderson once again becoming a pop-culture icon (with a buzzworthy film on the way), suddenly, Stripperella looks like a rare undiscovered gem in the eyes of the TikTok generation.
The series stars Pamela Anderson, along with Mark Hamill (Star Wars), Dee Bradley Baker (Adventure Time, Avatar the Last Airbender), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), Thomas F. Wilson (Back to the Future), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), and also featured Kid Rock, as well as the now-cringe casting of Vince McMahon as “Dirk McMahon,” a sleazy rival strip club owner thirsting after Erotica Jones.
Stripperella Season 1 is available for purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
