A still from the 'starring' section of The Matrix Honest Trailer (published in 2013), showing the running gag "bewbs."
Bewbs was a running joke in the Honest Trailers, Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime comedy series. The joke involved narrator Epic Voice Guy commenting on the presence (or absence) of breasts in films. Sometimes the purpose of the comment was to call out gratuitous shots of breasts in movies (such as the shot of Alice Eve in her underwear in the Star Trek Into Darkness Honest Trailer), but sometimes the purpose of the comment was voyeuristic (for example in the Fantastic Four (2005) Honest Trailer refers to actress Jessica Alba as "Jessica Albewbs").
Usage[]
Etc Montage
A video montage of Epic Voice Guy saying boobs, abs, balls, stares and other recurring phrases.
The "bewbs" joke originated with the first voice of Honest Trailers, Gannon Nickell in the Titanic Honest Trailer. The joke continued with voice artist Jon Bailey, who has a distinctive, humorous way of pronouncing "boobs" with an elongated vowel. His delivery of the word was so funny, the writers began including the word and other rhyming words in their scripts, such as 'tubes' and 'cubes.'
In addition, the Honest Trailers series also began pointing out objectifying shots of the male body in films using the same exaggerated pronunciation, most notably "abs" and "balls." For examples, see the Honest Trailers for Magic Mike and 300.
From the Magic Mike Honest Trailer, which pointed out the many objectifying shots of males.
In total, over 30 episodes of Honest Trailers refer to breasts. Virtually all the references were made in the series' first 4 years of production, from 2012 to early-2016. The joke was gradually phased out as the writers moved away from that style of Sophomoric humor.
The bewbs joke was also used frequently in Honest Game Trailers and Honest Trailers Anime. In fact, more Honest Game Trailers use the joke than the original series!
Meta references[]
In 2018, Honest Trailers made a meta-humor reference to the joke in the Honest Trailer for Deadpool 2, where the character of Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds) calls attention to the series' frequent, past references to breasts:
Deadpool: Revisit all the classic Honest Trailer tropes, like the part where they just say "bewbs" for no reason.
Epic Voice Guy: Actually, we kinda moved away from that.
Deadpool: Smart choice.
During the commentary for this Honest Trailer, the writers also commented on the retirement of the joke:
Spencer Gilbert: It’s run its course.
Dan Murrell: It’s more than run its course.
Slashfilm praised Screen Junkies for the self-aware jab at "their old obsession with “bewbs” back when they were much more bro-focused."
Another meta-humor reference was made to the joke in the 2019 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Honest Trailer, when the character of "Australian Voice Guy" proved that he really was Epic Voice Guy's alter ego from an alternate dimension by saying "boobs" in a broad Aussie accent.