Mac Gets Fat For Laughs

So, there's a bit of a buzz about Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia actor Rob MacElhenney gaining 50lbs in order to play a "fat Mac" in the next season of the show. First off, I should be upfront: I think Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia is one of the funniest shows on TV! So, if my love for the show is getting in my way of being appropriately critical of it, let me know in the comments. Some of his cast-mates expressed concern for the health implications of gaining 50lbs through eating tons of junk (and that's super valid), but why I think this will be okay artistically if not generally okay healthwise is that the writers of Sunny are super smart satirists and Mac is NOTORIOUSLY VAIN. I think they will explore several issues of weight, self-perception, self-esteem of men based on their physical appearance, prejudice and double standards of beauty in this up-coming season with this deliberate choice of weight gain. Now, this doesn't all happen in a vaccuum and fat men are often "the funny guy" as a defense mechanism in our culture. Fat men like Chris Farley and John Candy died prematurely due to their lifestyles, which in Farley's case at least, included lots and lots of drugs to keep him manic as well as funny. There's also the softer side of the fat man trope, the jolly fat man--think Santa. So, these are cultural touchstones Sunny will have to deal with, and maybe they'll just stick with the Big Mac theme of MacElhenney as the fool who doesn't know that he's fat. We'll see. But I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and see where they take this. If its all bad, I'll retract this post!

"Passing as Thin" Apparently is Invitation to Fat-Phobic To Share How They Really Feel

So, I went on an OkCupid date last night and it didn't go too well. There are a variety of reasons why I'm not going on a second date (and he's not TOO TOO awful), but one of those reasons is that he's fat-phobic and apparently I've reached a thin enough stage to "pass" as a (if not skinny person), not fat person. Maybe as a fat-identified person, I'm too sensitive, but he had to tell this elaborate story about the indignity of sitting next to a fat person on his last leg of a trip (in 1st class no less--and those seats are way bigger) from Japan. Add insult to injury, dude was not a skinny minny himself--he's probably about 40lbs overweight. It just seemed mean and unnecessary, but it is probably something I'll have to get used to (and at times will be compelled to call people out for and at other times, like a bad first date, just leave alone because I don't want to have to deal with a stranger on the defensive, who will probably just call me a fat bitch for standing up for the fatties...remember, even if I ever achieve "skinny minny" status, women are always great targets for the body-shame/bitch combo by angry dude-bros).

Some converts, like myself, might be compelled to anti-fat tirades because of self-loathing or self-righteousness (I lost weight, why can't everybody?), luckily I'm not one of those people. No matter my size, I'll always be fat-identified and body-diversity promoting. There are so many identity factors that "the man"/the kyriarchy use to divide natural allies, and body acceptance is one of the most powerful, whether its about weight, hair-texture, height, coloring, etc. Only the trim, white man is normative and everybody else is "other," which is bullshit.

So, no second date for dude-bro (he also appears to be a binge drinker and culturally incurious, so those are also valid reasons for not going on date two), but I have a feeling that in my dating life, this will probably just be the first of many "fat people suck" jokes/comments I'll have to get through on my journey to find Mr. Right.

Sarah Silverman: Making Fun of Fat Women Isn't Funny

So, Sarah Silverman was interview on CNN the other day and they asked her what category of jokes strikes her as offensive and unfair. She said:

"I don't really care for like fat jokes about women, specifically," she said.

"Because I feel that we live in a society where fat men deserve love, and fat women do not deserve love -- at least in white America. And so I feel like that's an ugly thing, and it doesn't make me laugh."

One thing that hit me about her answer was that she was trying to be culturally aware and own that she speaks for "white America" and not "American comedy" in general. This is good, to be aware that just because you are part of a dominate group, that's groups aesthetics and assumptions are not universal. Yet, I also think that when I see most fat jokes aimed toward women, they are women of color and that's not particularly funny either. If Tyler Perry or Edie Murphy is dressing like an fat black woman and making fun of her specifically because of some kind of fat black woman, ball busting stereotype (thinking back to Eddie Murphy's farting fat family in The Nutty Professor that was pretty unfunny and hateful), that's not funny--to the fat men and women, but especially the women.

I think that you rarely see depictions of fat white women as gross or crude; usually they are the best friend--often perky, like Gilmore Girls' Sookie. Gilmore Girls actually gave Sookie in the course of the show a husband and she went on to have three kids (all pregnancies depicted in the course of the seven year show). She had a rich life. This is rare for fat women on TV. Some of the WB's earlier fair showed positive black women of size and Monique has been both funny and fat, but that's because the jokes weren't on her, she made them. Among white-focused TV (read, mainstream) you have fat husbands and skinny wives, with the exception of Roseanne.

I think that Sarah is right, that fat jokes aimed at women in particular are not funny, but I don't think that its just a white community thing. Its especially unfunny when a skinny person dresses up like a fat person (see Perry and Murphy) and then depicts said fat person, man or woman, as an out of control slob and glutton. Tom Cruise also did this in Tropic Thunder.

When a fat person, however, puts it out there, particularly like Monique in a thoughtful, but funny way and talks about weight and body image, that's a whole different bag of party tricks (and certainly not what Silverman is referring to). Fat-drag is just mean spiritedness dressed up. So, reader, what are your thoughts on the matter?