It was late summer 2017 when Men.com went mega-viral and nothing has been quite the same for the notable all-male studio. A fairly anodyne erotic romp in a kitchen featuring apron-clad Jaxton Wheeler and Jake Porter was enlivened and elevated to internet stardom by the ad-libbed reaction of an extra, actress Nikki V, hired for the day: “Are you guys fucking? Are you serious?” she declared. “Right in front of my salad?”
That outraged improv birthed thousands of emoji-filled tweets and snarky memes and entered the gay lexicon as an all-purpose retort appropriate for virtually any occasion. “Never did I expect this — ever,” a bemused Nikki V revealed last August when the studio invited her to revisit the moment for an episode of its series, “Watch With Us.”
Comic scenarios remain a staple of the studio’s prodigious output and Men.com celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout 2021 by getting creative with how to incorporate a comedic twist into its sexplay.
Creative and Product Development Manager Alexandre St-Georges told XBIZ the company remains pleased, if somewhat nonplussed, by its viral fame.
“We were as surprised as anyone else,” he recalled. “It completely blew up for obvious reasons. It’s just really, really funny … It became an iconic meme and we’ll be forever grateful for that.”
Comic scenarios remain a staple of the studio’s prodigious output and Men.com celebrated its 10th anniversary throughout 2021 by getting creative with how to incorporate a comedic twist into its sexplay. The wink-and-a-nudge template — replete with a shocked and outraged participant who has been caught off-guard — has been part of Men.com’s repertoire for some time, but the virality of “Right in front of my salad?” proved the market had a healthy appetite for comedy.
“Comedy works for us. It’s part of our legacy,” St-Georges said, citing “Chef at Home,” starring William Seed and Ashton Summers, as “a major success for us.”
That scenario features Summers as a frisky private chef who manages to have sex with Seed in a variety of clever ways during a romantic date with the latter’s clueless girlfriend. Camera angles and editing heighten the comic tension; the gag isn’t simply a woman running out of the room in shock.
“Everything we do is carefully planned porn is always changing and evolving, so for us it is really important to try different things and explore new avenues and introduce new models and fresh faces,” St-Georges said.
Some of those newer models include Malik Delgaty, Finn Harding and Felix Fox, whose fresh fame earned him a 2022 XBIZ Awards nod as “Best New Performer,” the first time a model in gay adult has broken into the category.
“He’s such a trooper,” St-Georges enthused. “He’s been great all year and we’re really, really glad to have him as an exclusive model.”
In fact, Men.com elected to close out its yearlong 10th anniversary festivities with an epic 10-man gangbang with Fox at its center.
“It’s been a good year for us in terms of introducing new guys,” St- Georges noted. “We started the year with a bang with Malik Delgaty. People love him on the site. All of his scenes have a lot of views and people are really enjoying him.”
Delgaty’s rapidly growing popularity, in fact, led Men.com to sign an equally eye-catching friend of the musclebound stud, who decided to take his buddy’s name — Clark Delgaty, no relation.
“We’re already thinking about potential names for next year,” St- Georges noted with a grin.
William Seed is a notable Men.com exclusive whose popularity reached new heights in 2021. He was given a number of meaty roles, such as the Halloween-themed “Stripper Clown,” that showcase a range of previously untapped talents.
“He is someone who has really, really evolved over the past few years,” St-Georges said. “Every single time he shows up on set, he’s down to do anything. He’s been showing off his personality more and more.”
St-Georges explained that the ideal Men.com stud needs “a great personality” for comedic, plot-driven acting, like last summer’s “Wedding Balls,” a romantic comedy with a twist, featuring Alex Mecum. He also needs the ability to pivot to high-end glamorous scenes that are sex-focused, such as “The Cock Stop” starring Dante Colle and Lucas Leon, among others, which is “all about a really colorful aesthetic, not a lot of dialogue — and showing off the hot guys. That was a really great series.”
“The Cock Stop” demonstrates how Men.com regularly takes note of cultural trends in contemporary art and photography to give its high-end shoots a fresh, current look. The introductory artwork of Clark Delgaty featured the square-jawed muscle hunk awash in sensual, moody blues. That look, and the sleek aesthetic of “Cock Stop,” serve as “really good examples” of the company’s vision for the coming year, according to St-Georges.
Alongside the comic and glamcore scenarios, he also teased a third type of content to be introduced during the first quarter of 2022, designed to introduce more variety for members.
“We’re always trying to break new ground. So that’s going to be a very interesting test. I’m really hoping our members will love it,” he said. “All I can say is that it’s going to be a departure from what we’re currently doing.”
Men.com “always tries to have something really, really exciting every quarter, something exciting for people,” he added.
Although the studio was known for a number of years for its superhero adaptations, there aren’t any current plans to return to that particular subgenre even as multiverses have become all the rage in mainstream pop culture. The company is known for superhero parodies, but “we don’t want to be too predictable,” he said.
Nevertheless, he admitted the concept of a Men. com “Extended Cinematic Universe” has its appeal. “All right, I’ll think about it,” he said with a grin. “Never say never.”
“I think what’s great about Men.com is that it’s constantly evolving,” he mused. “It’s never the same, every single year. We try not to repeat ourselves as best we can. We try not to redo the same storylines. We always try to stay on top and inject new life into the site. And to stay on top, you have to evolve.”
