Our verdict
Hustler goes back to 1974, and Larry Flynt didn’t build it to be the classy option, that was always Playboy’s job. Flynt started out running go-go bars after his time in the Army, launched a newsletter for his club, and eventually turned that into a full magazine that deliberately went further and rawer than Playboy or Penthouse ever dared, at its peak reportedly reaching something like 20 million readers, which is a wild number for something this explicit.
The guy also fought some genuinely landmark First Amendment battles because of this magazine, Hustler Magazine v. Falwell went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1988 and Flynt won unanimously, and that ruling is a big part of why parody and satire shows like South Park or the Daily Show can do what they do without getting sued into oblivion. Say what you want about the content, the guy fought for something that ended up protecting a lot more than just his own magazine.
These days the Hustler name covers video content too, not just the print stuff, and it’s still leaning into that rawer, less polished energy that made it stand out from the glossier competition in the first place. Worth checking out for the history alone, even before you get to the actual content.