“A Lot of Fat People Just Aren’t Fat At All – They Just Get Called That So Often You Start to Believe It!”
When I first saw the ads for Bravo's "Great Things About" series, my immediate reaction on noting that one of the subjects was gonna be Being Fat was a very Rain-Mannish "Uh-oh!" Oh, goody, another Ironic Countdown Show! Ever since VH-1 began its "I Love The" series, these faux docs have been a fairly cheap 'n' easy way to fill the basic cable schedule: a coupla days in the video library; a few quick quips from vaguely famous celebs and a snarky-voiced narrator and – bam! – you've got the makin's for a tidy Ironic Countdown. Twenty Great Things About Being Fat, eh? Okay, Mainstream Media – show me . . .
Well, I've watched the show, and, to tell the truth, t'weren't half bad. From the twentieth item on the list ("There are so many ways to be fat!") to the top of the list ("It ain't over until you say so!"), "Great Things" worked overtime to maintain a tongue-in-cheek perspective. Where many of these shows feature a variety of different celebs and stand-up comedians delivering one-liners about the topic at hand, this 'un made a point of utilizing only plus-sized figures (actress Ashlie Atkinson, seen in the first season of Rescue Me; comedienne Janice Kirwan; Dom DeLuise; writer and Big Gay Commentator Frank DeCaro, and so on), few of whom engaged in the kind of self-demeaning jokes that used to be standard for fat comics (think: Totie Fields). It added an insider's perspective to the show that also, I suspect, kept the writers from indulging in some of the more offensive stereotypical fat jokes.
And, occasionally, the show's writers came up with a delightfully off-the-wall item that was just plain funny. Observing that fat people are "less likely to be kidnapped" and then supporting this assertion with a chart detailing how kidnappings in the U.S. have decreased while waistlines have gone up ("Elaborate charts don't lie!" narrator Rick Gomez reassured us) was a stroke of goofy faux doc genius, while the sequence devoted to the ever-present tele-news convention of only showing fat Americans from the neck down on-screen (with a hot dog in one hand, one commentator noted) was smarter than I know I expected. A bit where the sound of a tuba was utilized on the soundtrack to show how even an average-sized male looks portly once you've got that music cueing ya provided a sharp example of how subjective (and culturally specific) our ideas of fatness can be.
In addition, the show provided me with a new figure to look out for when I'm watching old movies: Grace Hayle, who played the Fat Woman in 152 films throughout the thirties and forties. The show ran a list of her roles from the cast list of each flick, and while her character rarely had a name, she definitely had a share of different titles: Fat Woman, Stout Lady, Fat Dowager, Overweight Patron. Like the list sez, there's so many ways to be fat . . .
Well, I've watched the show, and, to tell the truth, t'weren't half bad. From the twentieth item on the list ("There are so many ways to be fat!") to the top of the list ("It ain't over until you say so!"), "Great Things" worked overtime to maintain a tongue-in-cheek perspective. Where many of these shows feature a variety of different celebs and stand-up comedians delivering one-liners about the topic at hand, this 'un made a point of utilizing only plus-sized figures (actress Ashlie Atkinson, seen in the first season of Rescue Me; comedienne Janice Kirwan; Dom DeLuise; writer and Big Gay Commentator Frank DeCaro, and so on), few of whom engaged in the kind of self-demeaning jokes that used to be standard for fat comics (think: Totie Fields). It added an insider's perspective to the show that also, I suspect, kept the writers from indulging in some of the more offensive stereotypical fat jokes.
And, occasionally, the show's writers came up with a delightfully off-the-wall item that was just plain funny. Observing that fat people are "less likely to be kidnapped" and then supporting this assertion with a chart detailing how kidnappings in the U.S. have decreased while waistlines have gone up ("Elaborate charts don't lie!" narrator Rick Gomez reassured us) was a stroke of goofy faux doc genius, while the sequence devoted to the ever-present tele-news convention of only showing fat Americans from the neck down on-screen (with a hot dog in one hand, one commentator noted) was smarter than I know I expected. A bit where the sound of a tuba was utilized on the soundtrack to show how even an average-sized male looks portly once you've got that music cueing ya provided a sharp example of how subjective (and culturally specific) our ideas of fatness can be.
In addition, the show provided me with a new figure to look out for when I'm watching old movies: Grace Hayle, who played the Fat Woman in 152 films throughout the thirties and forties. The show ran a list of her roles from the cast list of each flick, and while her character rarely had a name, she definitely had a share of different titles: Fat Woman, Stout Lady, Fat Dowager, Overweight Patron. Like the list sez, there's so many ways to be fat . . .
posted by Wilson B. at 2:32 PM
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