Is Tucker Carlson Promoting This New ‘Bromeotherapy’ Now?

When you think of FOX News host Tucker Carlson, “testicle tanning” may not be the first words that come to your mind. Well, not the word “tanning” at least. So, it may have come as a surprise to hear Carlson bring up “testicle tanning” not just in one conversation but in a pair of them. In fact, the new promotional trailer for the Tucker Carlson Originals special “The End of Men” included footage of a naked man standing spread eagle with a red light shining right at his crotch. Not exactly something that you see every day. Or every week. Or perhaps ever.

The first conversation was with Andrew McGovern as part of this TV special, seen in the video accompanying the following tweet from Florida-based attorney Ron Filipkowski:

Who is McGovern? Well, the video lists him as a “Fitness Professional,” which is a little more specific than “Human Being” but doesn’t provide much info about his qualifications. McGovern did describe himself as an expert in “bromeotherapy,” which apparently is therapy for bros.

The video began with McGovern saying, “You saw in the clip there, if you want to optimize and take it to another level, expose yourself to red light therapy and the Joovv that we were using in the documentary.” That’s when Carlson chimed in with, “Yes, which is testicle tanning.”

Now, it’s not typical to bring up testicles in a conversation seemingly out of the blue. After all, “testicles” is not a filler word like “um”, “uh”, “like”, or “you know.” Nevertheless, McGovern seemed on the ball with what Carlson had said and responded, “It’s testicle tanning. But it’s also full body red light therapy, which has a massive amount of benefits. And there’s so much data out there, that isn’t being picked up on or covered.”

Of course, saying that “there’s so much data out there” is not the same as actually showing real data. And even having data doesn’t necessarily mean that its good or even relevant data. For example, there may be data that humans can walk on walls and shoot webs from their wrists but most of the data may be from movies like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home and therefore not legitimate scientific data.

There is some data that red light therapy, which is exposing different parts of the body to low levels of red or near-infrared light, could have some beneficial effects. Some anecdotal reports and small studies have suggested that red light therapy may potentially help promote wound healing, relieve pain and stiffness in those with conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, smooth out wrinkles, scars, and other types of skin damage, stimulate hair growth in those with alopecia, and alleviate depression among other possibilities. However, take all of this with a sack full of salt. More studies are needed to confirm such findings. Plus, where’s the evidence that shining red light on your balls has any benefits, assuming that you don’t want to smooth any wrinkles on them? A search of “testicle tanning” on PubMed returns only seven studies, none of which appear that relevant to human testicle tanning.

However, rather than saying, “can you show us that data,” Carlson instead replied with, “So, obviously, half the viewers right now are like ‘What?! Testicle tanning, that’s crazy!’ But my view is, OK, testosterone levels have crashed and nobody says anything about it, that’s crazy, so why is it crazy to seek solutions?” Really? Testosterone levels have crashed? More on that later.

As you can see in the Filipkowski tweet, the second conversation that Carlson brought up “testicle tanning” was with musical performer Kid Rock, who’s birth name is Robert Ritchie. The word “Rock” may be in his name, but Ritchie apparently didn’t want the stones turned when Carlson mentioned “testicle tanning” to him. Rock responded with “Dude, stop! Testicle tanning? Come on. I haven’t heard anything like that in a long time.”

Carlson then urged, “Open your mind, Bobby!” Carlson added, “Don’t you think at this point when so many of the therapies, the paths they’ve told us to take, have turned out to be dead ends that really hurt people, why wouldn’t open minded people seek new solutions?” To this Rock said: “I don’t know what the hell is going on in this world. I’m not even sure if I understood that question. But some days you just want to stop this planet and let me off.” Rock didn’t specify where he should be left off, though.

Speaking of off this planet, what was with the promotional trailer for “The End of Men,” which accompanies this tweet from Nikki McCann Ramírez, an Associate Research Director at Media Matters:

Just your typical montage of shirtless men doing push ups, firing guns at bottles, milking a cow, wrestling, doing push-ups, lifting a tire, swinging an axe, and drinking eggs, right? And, of course, a man standing naked with a red light shining at his genitals. Did the budget for the trailer not include money for shirts?

The “End of Men” title seems to stem at least in part from Carlson’s assertions that testosterone levels have crashed. Perhaps Carlson was referring to studies that have shown that average testosterone levels among men in the U.S. have been not crashing but decreasing over the years. For example, a study published in the journal European Urology Focus found that the average testosterone levels among samples of adolescent and young adult men in the U.S. was lower in 2011 to 2016 than 1999 to 2000.

Why might this be happening? Researchers have postulated that factors such as increasing obesity and overweight prevalence, additives in food, and pollutants in the environment as well as decreases in physical activity may have contributed to decreases in average testosterone levels. More studies are needed to determine what may be happening. Nevertheless, to date, no peer-reviewed studies published in reputable scientific journals have suggested that the lack of light on your balls has played a role. After all, it’s not as if pants and underwear were invented less than a couple decades ago.

Ultimately, where’s the data to suggest that shining a red light on your balls will have any benefit? Oh, and “testicular tanning” is not even an accurate term. It would be akin to calling a day on the beach something like intestinal tanning. Your testicles sit within your scrotum. If you can actually see your testicles, call your doctor immediately. Therefore, a more appropriate term instead would be scrotal tanning.

Regardless, before you try shining different types of light on your crotch, ask for real scientific evidence and talk to real reputable medical doctors first. There doesn’t seem to be enough groin evidence for use of red light therapy in this manner yet. After all, your balls are not disco balls. At least, they shouldn’t be.