Pam & Tommy is a story about the sexist double standards that female celebrities face at the hands of the media, and the sickening level of entitlement the public holds over their private lives. It is also, for a few strange and slightly upsetting minutes, a story about Tommy Lee’s talking penis.
It happens around the halfway point of the second episode. In the halcyon days before a leaked sex tape plunges their lives into chaos, the Mötley Crüe drummer (played by Sebastian Stan) rescues Pamela Anderson (Lily James) from a boring work commitment in Las Vegas, where she was forced to make small talk with gawping TV execs, and the ensuing night of pinger-fuelled partying leads them to a swish hotel suite. She undresses first, and after gaining some composure, Tommy Lee asks the fateful question: “Would you like to meet him?”
Hulu/Erin Simkin
It's directed at the audience too, as the camera pans down to reveal a prosthetic approximation of what is, it’s safe to say, the most famous penis of the 1990s. “He’s beautiful,” Pam replies. No actual sex occurs on the night, and as Tommy Lee sneaks off to the bathroom in the morning to conduct a dick-based debrief, it becomes apparent that the tearaway musician has fallen head over heels.
“I’m in love. I think she’s the one.”
“Urrgh, you really think so?” replies his penis, voiced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Jason Mantzoukas. “Oh fuuuck. Well, we’ve been down this road before, and it never ends well.”
They go back and forth, Tommy Lee the picture of contentment as his CGI hog flails around in disapproval. (We asked Mantzoukas’s reps if he could provide some insight about the role, but they told us that he was “letting the work speak for itself on this one”). It’s an unexpected gear shift for a show that sticks fairly faithfully to real life events/the laws of nature, so where did the idea for the scene come from?
Tommyland
The answer is: Tommy Lee himself – or rather, the first few pages of his 2004 autobiography, 'Tommy Land'. In the opening chapter, entitled ‘Introduction: a State of Mind, a.k.a. Straight From the Dome’, he argues with his infamous appendage (“This is insane. My own dick is busting my balls. Dude!”) but Pamela Anderson is barely mentioned. Instead, Tommy Lee’s sentient penis reasons that it should be writing the book – that the musician should merely be taking "dicktation" – because the only reason people were reading it in the first place was to "find out how long I really am." It goes on like that for a while.
Does Tommy Lee have a talking penis? We'll go out on a limb and say that he does not. But at least the scene isn't quite as random as it appears, even if it does feel like a silly idea crowbarred into a show that deals with some pretty serious subject matter. As for the rest of the story around the stolen sex tape, that was drawn from this Rolling Stone piece from 2014.
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