The Cut Spider-Ham Joke That Took Things Too Far in ‘Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse’

Sony’s Oscar nominated animated feature film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse found that lovely balance between just enough comedy (the right kind of comedy, too), and lots of heart. Turns out, there was almost a very different joke included in the film that would have changed the tone, especially where John Mulaney‘s Spider-Ham character is concerned.

Rodney Rothman (one of three co-writers and co-directors for the film) recently stopped by Jeff Smith‘s The Q&A podcast, and revealed the one joke that would have taken Spider-Ham a bit too far that was cut shortly before the film was released in theaters.

“The way that scene [originally] went is Noir said he lost his Uncle Benjamin, Peter lost Uncle Ben, and Gwen lost Peter,” Rothman said. “We went through everyone. Spider-Ham said he lost his Uncle Frankfurter. And then he said, ‘He was electrocuted, and it smelled so good.’

Spider-Man is a real person with real feelings, and we wanted people to get that.”

Yeaaaaaah, that was probably a good idea to cut that joke, considering the level of humor throughout the rest of the film. We agree with Rothman, it would have been a “bad laugh”.

Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse is still in some select theaters, and we’re expecting word of a home release soon.