Louis Theroux explains why incels are barely mentioned in Netflix’s Inside the Manosphere

Louis Theroux’s new documentary Inside the Manosphere has been everywhere this week, and people have a lot to say about it. Alongside Netflix’s 2025 drama Adolescence, it’s basically kicked off a whole new wave of conversation about what the “manosphere” actually is and why it’s suddenly such a big deal to incels.

The whole thing borrows from The Matrix. “Taking the red pill” basically means you’ve “woken up” to this supposed reality. From there, it pushes ideas about traditional masculinity, male dominance, and distrust of women. Unsurprisingly, it often spirals into pretty blatant misogyny.

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Then there’s incels, who sit even deeper in this world. They’re often described as being “black pilled”, meaning they’ve taken these beliefs even further. Louis’s documentary does briefly mention incels, but it doesn’t really go into detail about them.

“Incel” is short for “involuntary celibate”, referring to an online subculture of individuals, mostly heterosexual men, who cannot find romantic or sexual partners despite desiring them.

While not all incels support violence, the culture can normalise misogyny and reinforce the idea that they’re victims of an unfair system, instead of encouraging any kind of personal growth or change.

So why didn’t Louis Theroux focus more on incels?

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On Heart Radio, Louis discussed adolescence, and how he wanted to “move the conversation onwards to what is actually driving the manosphere”.

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He said he didn’t want to “focus on the people that are seeking them out”, (aka the incels), but rather “the people who are feeding them it”, aka the manosphere influencers like HSTikkyTokky. He wanted to see what really drives the manosphere, focusing on “the platforms which are amplifying and disseminating the stuff”.

Basically, instead of zooming in on incels themselves, Louis is more interested in the bigger picture: The content creators, influencers, and algorithms pushing this stuff in the first place.

The logic is that incels don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re often the end point of a pipeline that starts with more mainstream manosphere content, which gradually pulls people deeper in.

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Featured image credit: Netflix