# John Dillermand

John Dillermand ("John Penisman", "John Willieman" or "John Dongman") is a Danish stop motion animated children's television series about a man and his very long penis. It premiered on 3 January 2021 on DR Ramasjang.

## Premise

John Dillermand is a middle-aged man who wears a red-and-white striped bathing costume. He has a penis that can extend to a length of dozens of meters. John uses his prehensile penis (which stretches within his clothes) as a tool, such as to tame lions or to fly about like a helicopter. But it also often acts independently of John, getting him into trouble.

## Episodes

The series premiered on DRTV on 2 January 2021. The second season came out 14 October 2022.

### Season 1

| Episode | Danish title | Literal translation | Plot |
| 1 | John lufter hunde | John Walks Dogs | John becomes the neighborhood dog walker using his penis as a dog leash. |
| 2 | John Dillermand | John Penisman | John has the world's longest penis. Instead of feeling embarrassed for being different, he realizes his penis can be a superpower. |
| 3 | John tjener penge | John Earns Money | John accidentally knocks over his grandmother's vase with his large penis and must find a job so that he can afford to buy her a new one. |
| 4 | John vil vinde | John Will Win | When John's grandmother sends him outside to play games with the neighbors, he becomes so competitive that he cheats using his penis. |
| 5 | John tager på jagt | John Goes Hunting | John's grandmother gives him a gun and asks him to shoot a pheasant for dinner. |
| 6 | John ordner have | John Fixes the Garden | While helping his grandmother in the garden, John has trouble with his penis and ends up hitting a neighbor and cutting down the apple tree with it. |
| 7 | John i Zoologisk have | John at the Zoo | At the zoo, John accidentally steals ice cream using his penis and fights an escaped lion. |
| 8 | John i skovskole | John at the Forest School | John's penis gets in the way of forest activities such as carving wood, pitching a tent, and tying knots. |
| 9 | John på fisketur | John Goes on a Fishing Trip | John uses his penis as a fishing rod and is teased by other fishers for catching old trash, not fish. |
| 10 | John fejrer Oldemors fødselsdag | John Celebrates Grandma's Birthday | John accidentally forgets his grandmother's birthday. |
| 11 | John redder Julen | John Saves Christmas | John meets Santa Claus on Christmas Eve and saves the day. |
| 12 | John er postbud | John the Postman | John accidentally knocks the mailman off his bike and has to deliver the mail himself. |
| 13 | John tager skraldet | John Takes the Trash | John is able to pick out the garbage faster than the garbage truck, but then must find a place to put it. |

### Season 2

| Episode | Danish title | Literal translation | Plot |
| 1 | John skal tisse | John Needs to Pee | |
| 2 | Dilleren på månen | The Penis on the Moon | |
| 3 | Buller bliver væk | Noise Disappears | |
| 4 | John kagemand | John the Cake Man | |
| 5 | John handler ind | John is Shopping | |
| 6 | John til hest | John on Horseback | |
| 7 | John og tidsmaskinen | John and the Time Machine | |
| 8 | John elsker mus | John Loves Mice | |
| 9 | John spiller fløjte | John Plays the Flute | |
| 10 | Betjent Dillerman | Officer Dillermand | |
| 11 | John alene hjemme | John Home Alone | |
| 12 | John klæder sig ud | John Dresses Up | |
| 13 | John bussemand | John the Bus Driver | John is the bus driver but his penis begins to control the bus, creating problems for the city. |
| 14 | Slik eller ballade | Trick or Treat | |
| 15 | John laver pølser | John Makes Sausages | |
| 16 | John i Tivoli | John in Tivoli | |
| 17 | John i sneen | John in the Snow | John goes skiing and his penis causes fear and chaos involving a giant snowball. |
| 18 | John får en storebror | John Gets a Big Brother | |
| 19 | Godt Nytår John | Happy New Year John | |

## Development and broadcast

The series is aimed at four- to eight-year-olds and was developed by the Danish public broadcaster DR, in association with the sex education association Sex & Samfund. It premiered on 3 January 2021 on DR's children's channel DR Ramasjang. The first season, consisting of 13 five-minute episodes, was made available on the internet on 2 January 2021.

## Reception

   Whether John Dillermand is funny or flat is a matter of taste, but it is exactly this kind of free thinking that DR must stick to. The children's universes on Netflix, Disney+, Viaplay and all the other streaming services are so scrubbed and gender stereotyped that half of them could be enough.
John Dillermand was popular in Denmark upon release, with 250,000 children viewing the first episode in five days, and went viral. The series has found fans among Danish TV personalities and children; according to a DR executive, children were making snowmen, drawings, dolls and songs about John Dillermand. At the 2021 Fastelavn festivities, John Dillermand was a popular choice of costume.
Catherine Bennett of The Guardian praised the series as something that British leaders could learn from. But the series' unusual premise was also criticized as pandering to pedophiles, or as making light of the #MeToo movement against sexual violence against women. A gender studies professor of Roskilde University, Christian Groes, criticized the series for "perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalising ‘locker room culture’" which has been used to "excuse a lot of bad behaviour from men."
The DR executive said that the series was part of DR's ambition to make "children's content that dares to tackle embarrassing, difficult, quirky and funny topics", that it was about being true to oneself and one's flaws, and that it acknowledged children's curiosity about human bodies. He said that the series was "as desexualized as it can possibly get", and that it was developed together with a child psychologist and other professionals who reviewed the scripts to ensure that children would not misinterpret what they saw.