It's looking pretty rough out there for those who class themselves as being inside the manosphere, and while it was all smiles and jokes about how many women you can bang in your 'one-way monogamy' relationships, the rug has arguably been pulled from under these male influencers in the aftermath of Louis Theroux's: Inside the Manosphere.
The shocking Netflix documentary has soared up the charts and shone a spotlight on this subculture of men who typically see women as subordinate, also known for speaking out with right-wing views and claiming the world has gone 'woke' as men are 'emasculated'.
While Louis Theroux is no stranger to interviewing polarizing characters and has recently branded Jimmy Savile the 'worst' person he's ever met, he's also not afraid to mince his words on those who appeared (or didn't appear) on Inside the Manosphere.
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You might've noticed several mentions of Andrew Tate during the 90-minute documentary, while his infamous matrix hand signal also pops up. Then again, the so-called 'Top G' is nowhere to be seen.
Theroux confirmed that talks to include Andrew and Tristan Tate fell through, telling Romesh Ranganathan how Andrew Tate is the biggest name in the manosphere.
Trying to get the Tates to appear, Theroux admitted: "He [Andrew Tate] was like, 'Maybe I'm gonna do it if you pay me', and I said, 'We're not gonna pay you'."
“He said, 'Well why would I talk to you, you're not relevant anymore'."
Tate apparently sent Theroux a Google Trends graph showing how much they'd been searched over the past five years, with the manfluencer branding himself as more 'relevant'.
Theroux chuckled: "I was barely registering, nobody’s been Googling me."
There's an ironic twist, as Theroux continued: "At the very end, through some weird glitch, my line went above his."
Screenshotting this and sending it to Tate, Theroux concluded: "I’m literally more relevant than you are..That felt pretty gangster."
Still, resurfaced clips from Theroux speaking on the Diary of a CEO podcast make it sound like there isn't any love lost there anyway.
Calling out Tate's mission statement and general personality, a no-nonsense Theroux explained how he's the anti-Tate and added: "He's that guy, who when reduced to its quintessence...is unapologetically troll-like, ostentatious displays of wealth and arrogance.
"So I'm the anti-Tate, you can put that on my gravestone. I'm like, I don't give a f**k about your Bugatti, I think it's embarrassing that you have one."
Theroux also warned that ostentatious humility can be its own 'poison', saying that we don't need to be wedded to the idea of having less as a potential clapback against those who boast about having more.
It doesn't seem like his feelings have mellowed since then, and speaking in the aftermath of Inside the Manosphere, Theroux gave some fascinating insight into why he thinks the movement has taken off so much. In an interview with Netflix, the documentarian mused: "I think a lot of boys and men are lost, and when they see easy answers — when they see a muscular guy who seems to be very rich, telling them it’s not their fault and here’s who’s to blame — then that’s massively appealing."
We can only imagine how Theroux would've put Tate through his paces if he'd appeared on Inside the Manosphere, and while the male-oriented influencer definitely has the gift of the gab, you only have to look at how the other participants are still reeling from the backlash to see that Tate might’ve been wise to steer clear of this one.