Deadpool wants men to touch themselves, screen for testicular cancer

By Joe Blevins | January 29, 2016 | 6:00pm

Aux Features Film

Deadpool wants men to touch themselves, screen for testicular cancer

After more than two decades as one of the loopiest characters in the Marvel Comics canon, Deadpool is finally getting his own eponymous film, directed by first-time helmer Tim Miller and starring the one-time Green Lantern, Ryan Reynolds. The Deadpool movie, opening February 12, is definitive proof that the unpredictable, crimson-suited character has finally crawled his way up from cult favorite to headliner status. While the character temporarily has the whole world’s attention, he would like to do some good for the guys in the film’s target demographic. So now there is a public service announcement called “Touch Yourself Tonight,” in which Reynolds, in full costume as Deadpool, instructs men on how to screen themselves properly for testicular cancer.

Even in a PSA about a potentially deadly disease, Deadpool is still Deadpool, so this is quippy and irreverent rather than preachy and scare-inducing. Reynolds does the whole thing while sitting on a pool table and gently fondling the billiard balls thereupon, which pretty much sets the tone for the minute-long spot. In addition to being chock-full of valuable health information that could theoretically save someone’s life, the PSA is also educational when it comes to providing synonyms for the testicles and scrotum. Some examples: “happy sack,” “bag of beans,” “man berries,” “smooth criminals,” “bad boys,” and “tomatoes.” The reasoning behind this public service announcement is quite sound: If men won’t listen to responsible medical professionals about the dangers of testicular cancer, perhaps they will listen to a hyper-violent masked man in a fetishistic, red-and-black bodysuit with crisscrossed swords on his back.