Episode 196 Transcript

You're listening to the Fierce Fatty podcast, episode 196 - Fat Monica and Other Fat Tropes in Media. I'm your host, Vinny Welsby, pronounced they/them. Let's do it.

Hello. Welcome to this episode. So pleased to see see you. I can't see you, so please do your hair. Hey, listen now, if you like the show and you've listened to it before and got anything from it, then why don't you check out my Ko Fi page, Kofi Fierce Fatty, and you can make a donation there or you can even subscribe and get some free things. If you do that, if you want to, and if you don't, that's cool. If you just want to talk, talk about fat tropes and fat moniker, then that's cool. Let's. Let's do that. But if you do want to go to Ko Fi, the link is going to be in the show description. Before we start, I want to give a trigger warning because I'm going to be showing you actual clips from a few examples of anti fatness in media, one of them being from seven the Gluttony Scene. And so if you are not up for analyzing anti fat bias in media today, then I would say skip this episode or skip the bit when we get to the Gluttony scene, because I think that's particularly egregious. We're going to talk about fat Monica first, and then we're. Then we're going to go to the seven Gluttony thing and then we're going to talk about Fat Slags, which is a British, British cartoon thing. Yeah, I said fat Slags. That's what the British cartoon is. Yeah. So fucked up. So, yeah, you make the decision if you want to hear this stuff. I've just been spending the afternoon watching these things and I'm just, you know, eyeballs are rolling, head shaking, like, ugh, grossness. And also I'm feeling deep empathy for young Vinnie because these three specific characters that I'm showing are three things that I saw when I was young. And I so deeply internalize these mess that we're seeing from these specific characters. Right. That I was just like, I just cannot be like that. Because that is what fatness is. That is what we as a society think of. Fatness. Yeah. So just to start, I'm saying fat tropes in media. Just a definition on the word trope. Trope, a word or expression used in a figurative sense or a common or overused theme or device. And that's what we're talking about today a common or overused theme or device. So I've made this spreadsheet. I got on an ADHD kick, and I made a spreadsheet with 18 different fat tropes that I could think of. Just off the top of my head, what those fat tropes are saying and some examples, at least one example of the fat tropes. I want to continue filling it in and adding more examples of fat tropes. Thing is, I know more examples of fat tropes from earlier media. So media from the 2000s, from earlier before that, and maybe a little bit after that. Because I would watch things without thinking, is this going to be harmful? Whereas now if I saw something where someone was wearing a fat suit or there was some fat character in the trailer and they're all like, they're fat. I just wouldn't watch the thing. So I made a reel and put it on the Instagrams with four of these tropes. And people were sharing the comments being like, oh, yeah, what about this? What about this? What about this? So after this episode, I'm gonna make another, like, a robust post with examples of each of the. The main tropes that we see. But we're going to be talking about that today as well. I'm not just going to do it in the Instagram post, but if you're interested in being able to easily share this stuff. Also, by the way, it might be better if you can, to watch the video of this podcast on YouTube. I know YouTube might serve you adverts if you don't have the paid account. I don't have adverts on YouTube, but because we're going to be watching them, but I am going to just be scribing the. Describing the videos that we're watching as well. So you don't need to. So you'll just hear the audio from the video, and then I'll be talking about what's actually happening in the video. All right, all right. Okay. Let me, before we start going in, watching these examples, tell you some of the main tropes that I see in media. And again, tropes, stereotypes of fat people in media. So first is the fat person being unintelligent. So a lot of fat characters are unintelligent, incompetent, ignorant. They're going to get themselves killed or others injured or killed because of their unintelligence. And a number one example of this the whole character is based on it is the Simpsons, Homer Simpson. Homer Simpson is the just ultimate Unintelligent, greedy loser. Right. I don't know if you ever watched the Symptoms Simpsons, but I remember one episode where he, he got really fat and he was wearing a moomoo because obviously fat people just wear moo moos. And he left a. A pecking, like a pecking duck or something to do his job. Cause he was so lazy. And then there was some nuclear disaster. I need to go back and I need to go back and watch the episode. I don't want to, but, you know, I want to get my references right. But the idea that he's just so stupid his job can be automated by a pecking duck thing. And because he's just decided to be so fat and out of control, fatter than he normally is. Yeah. The next trope is the funny sidekick. Now this is so common, right? So that would be someone who. You don't see character development from them. They're just this happy. Go lucky. They're there for comic relief to support the main thing character. And if you think about Pitch Perfect and Fat Amy, that is like a funny sidekick. A lot of. What is her name, the actor? Fat Amy? Dee Dee. Her name is Rebel Wilson. A lot of Rebel Wilson's roles are fat, funny sidekick. Right. So the idea of a fat person has to be there to do something extra, to entertain in some way. They can't just be a boring bog standard character. Not always. But this is a trope, right? That you're the fat funny sidekick. You're there to make the main character's story more colourful and make their character more interesting. So next, the loser. The loser. The fat loser. They're a loser because they're fat. They don't have friends, They're a sad sack. Perhaps they've never been outside. Perfect example of this is the movie the Whale. I mean, it's just, you know, the whole idea that fatness is just an inherently depressing feature. You know, if you're fat, you're a loser. Next. Dirty. So we're going to look, by the way, we're going to look at these clips and then you're going to see how so many of these tropes are in these clips. Dirty. So they're going to be probably oblivious of their dirt and their smell. They're going to smell. They won't shower. They have food stains down their top. They're wearing clothes that are dirty or poor people's clothes. So like a vest, sweating trousers, track bottom, sweat pants, whatever they're called, they're going to be stained. They're going to be ripped or have holes in them. Definitely food stains and likely to have food somewhere. Maybe on their face, in their hair. They might have lost a food item in their flesh. They, if they have breasts, then they would have lost something huge down there. So it's not gonna be like, oh, I would a crumb fell down my top. It'll be like, oh, a whole chicken. Like the joke is that you're so fat, are you eating a chicken? You're eating multiple chickens. Cause you're so fat and you're so fat and dirty and you're not aware of your body that a chicken can fall under your tits. Yeah. An example of that is the gluttony guy from seven, the movie that we're gonna watch that. We're gonna watch that shortly. The next one, the food obsessed, constantly eating fat person. So this is so common, this is so common. How many times we see, we get introduced to the fat character. They're surrounded by food. They're eating a large quantity of food. And then the food that they're. They're eating in their eyes is a tiny quantity and they don't want to share that food. They're a food hoarder. They've probably got an eating disorder too. And the beating disorder is that they have binge eating disorder. Yeah. So an example of this was Fat Bastard from Austin Powers, I think Fat Bastard and other. I mean, even just the name, his name is Fat Bastard. And others can be multiples. Right. So Fat Bastard, he's also a villain. And so villain is another one of them. And a lot of times you'll see multiple tropes in just one character. Other ones never exercised, of course, the Biggest Loser, an example of framing fat people who've never exercised. Even if the fat people, fat contestants on the Biggest Loser have exercised, they make them do such extreme exercise that it makes them look like they're all incredibly out of shape and non athletic. But any person, I think even an athlete, a professional athlete, could go into the Biggest Loser house and be struggling and vomiting just as much as the fat people. Because that's what they want to see. Right. Next, rich and greedy. You know, there's two tropes when it comes to rich people. They're fat or they're Jewish. Both of them based in bias. And so Jewish will be. There'll be some nods to Jewishness, for example, a big nose. So they might not say out, this is a Jewish character, but there'll be nods to Jewish. Jewish type characteristics. And then with the fat People. If you just think about the tr. If you thought about two rich, greedy, hoarding type people, it would be a fat person. And then you'd have a thin person who looks Jewish with like a monocle or something like that. And the assumption is that it's by their nature that they hoard wealth, which is a trope about Jewish people. And the trope about fat people is that we hoard and we hoard things when we don't need them. And in this instance our body is evidence that we don't need any more. There's a clip if you're interested, which it just epitomizes this so disgustingly, which is Mr. Creosote or Creosote Monty Python. If you just look that up. It's a comedy sketch comedy in. In quotation marks where a rich person just keeps ordering more and more and more food and then he vomits. Like I don't know what the. Like that doesn't sound funny, right? But the joke is, haha. He's so rich and fat that he'd so out of control that he just eats so much food that he vomits. And he's just so disgusting. And I think he then vomits over the guests from my what? My memory serves me. Yeah. And it's really like laid on thick of how greedy and gross and disgusting this person is. Next we have the sexless frump. So the sexless front would be like, I'm 40 and I've never been kissed. Who would want to kiss me? And they would wear like only frumpy clothes and they have low self worth. An example of this is you remember the movie Shallow Hal with Jack Black and what's her face. Culty dickhead, wellness influencer Gwyneth Paltrow. Gwyneth Paltrow. A lot of these people are wearing these characters as well are wearing fat suits, right? Wearing a fat suit plays this sad sack, never been kissed type. I used to fucking love that movie. That movie. I would look at it and be like, maybe one day I can get someone like Jack Black who's been hypnotized by what's his name, the creepy giant guy that does Tony Robbins, who's a sexual predator. Maybe I'll be. Maybe I'll find a man who's been hypnotized by Tony Robbins in an elevator to see the real beauty in me.

Fuck. Oh, I used to be so scared that. So in Shallow Hal, one of the scenes is that Rosemary's in bed and she throws her underwear to Jack Black. Can't remember. His character's called Hal, I guess. She throws her underwear to Hal, and Hal picks it up and the underwear is so huge, you know, like he's picking it up and it's literally the size of a bathrobe, you know, like this thong or whatever. And he's like, what the heck? How did you do that? Because what he's seeing is the real Gwyneth Paltrow in bed. And the joke is that her underwear is so huge. It's. It's the. The size. It's just so like this. It looks like a bungee cord or something. And it's like, oh, that's so funny because she's fat and she wears big underwear. Oh, that's so funny. I used to be so frightened that a. A partner of mine would pick up my underwear and be like, what? You know, and they wouldn't have that hallucination of that. I was a thin person, but they'd pick up my underwear and be like, what the heck? This is so huge because of that scene from Shallow Hal. So I'd want to be hiding my underwear just in case that happened. So fucked up, man. You know, you think, are these things. Are we being too sensitive? Are we overreacting to these things? No. These portrayals of fat people in media are so harmful. So harmful. The next one is hyper sexualized predator. It's the like, come here, boys, Mama's gonna eat you up. You know, I don't need consent. And then you'll have a thin, attractive man being like, oh, my God, I need to run away from this fat predator. I felt this so much. I thought that I had to act like a hyper sexual predator in order to trick men into being interested in me, that I had to really come on thick, you know, just really, like, fill them up and kind of. Yeah, coerce. Coerce them into being with me. Because of representations in media of. Of. Of fat people being desperate, hypersexual predators. And on the other hand, you've got the sexless frump, just. And normally the sexual sexless front person is a little bit younger. And the hypersexualized predators, they're a bit older. They would be what people would say is like a cougar or something. That's another, you know, stereotype of an old, older woman can't get a date, so they turn into predators. Yeah. So the hypersexualized predator thing, we're going to see that in Fat Slags. Fat Slags are two characters that are in a comic book called Viz. Which was it's like a comic book for adults. But, you know, kids saw it as well. The other ones, we won't go into them in too much detail, but another one is a trope is the only character trait is their body size and they hate themselves. And so the whole character arc is I'm a fat loser and I hate myself. And my whole storyline is just about me hating my fat body. I didn't watch the end of the TV show this Is Us. The character Kate, when I first started it in season one, that was her story. And I was just like, nope. I was really excited to watch a fat character. I think she's like more medium large size fat character, an actual fat character in a TV show. And people were like, this is us is great when it came out. And it was just, just eye rolling, just boo hoo hoo, I'm fat. I'm fat and terrible. And of course, you know, many fat people are like, feel like that. But the issue is when this is all we're seeing, this is all we're seeing of fat people eating, hating themselves, having dysfunctions around sex, unintelligent dirty loser, no friends, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right? Then also the other thing is that a fat person might be on a diet redemption arc. So they are going to lose weight to become themselves and become worthy and dateable and lovely and stuff. Another one is the coward. Now Nedry from Jurassic park is a good example of this. And also sprinkling on that too is the super nerd. So like the it geek Nedry from Jurassic Park. This is from the original Jurassic Park. He was like a coward, a villain. He also used to eat a lot. He was just an unlikable character who caused the whole thing, right from my memories, he caused it all. And then he ran away. And eventually he met his fate with the dinosaurs. That movie fucked me up too. I remember watching that movie. My mom had a boyfriend at the time and he rented Jurassic park and we would never get to watch movies, you know, we'd never have like a rental movie or anything like that. And so it was a big deal. And he rented Jurassic Park. And within the first, like five seconds in the movie, like a man gets eaten by a dinosaur that they're trying to transport. And I was like, no. Just ruined my life. That movie is so scary, I couldn't even watch it now. Probably because it's too scary. I'm such a baby, honestly. Actually, no, no, I'm gonna, I'm gonna retract that I'm not a baby. I'm just a sensitive, sensitive, lovely human. So there you go. Other tropes. American tourist, who is obnoxious, unintelligent, but also cheerful. And likely they're from the South. A lot of these themes around fat people is that fat people are poor and unintelligent. And then they have all have a regional accent to denote that they're poor and unintelligent. And being poor and unintelligent and fat is bad according to these tropes, right? The villain. So Ursula is a great example of a villain. Even Ursula targets this young, thin, wonderful Ariel. Ariel. I don't know. I've not really watched it. Trying to take her voice, right? Trying to take something from her. Because Ursula is evil. Although, I mean, I haven't seen any of the. I won't know what. I won't watch a lot of Disney stuff. We didn't get to watch it as kids anyway because we were poor. But also, I won't watch a lot of Disney things because it's too sad. I can't handle it because I'm so sensitive. These Disney movies, I'll tell you what, if someone says, have you seen so and so? I'm like, no fucking way. I'm not watching it. Someone dies, a beloved character will die. I don't know, like a grandma, like a mother, like a dog, like a. I watched. The last time I watched a Disney or Pixar movie was the one with the feelings inside out. And what was it? Bingo Bongo died or whatever the name of that character destroyed me. How long ago was that? That was like 10 years ago. Never. No. Not doing it again. How do the kids watch these and not become traumatized like I am from watching the. The video? The film that I watched as a kid was Dumbo. That's fucked up, man. The amount of times I watched that scene where Dumbo is. Is. Is snuggling in his mother's trunk as she is caged up singing the song Baby, Be Mine. I need to go. I need to talk to my therapist about this. I'm fucked up by this stuff. Baby mine don't you cry. I think as well, because I was sad because I was abandoned by my mum. And so I'd watch it and cry. Oh, God. Anyway, so I think I definitely need to go to therapy and talk about Dumbo, how it ruined my life. Another trope is being the butt of fat jokes and being just, like, taking it. I've started watching Lost. I think a lot of people have started watching Loss because. Because Netflix has put it on their main page. I started watching Loss and there's a fat character in it. And he's a. He's a very fat guy. Amazing. Love it. What's his storyline? He's fat. And guess what his storyline is. I don't wanna. I don't wanna ruin it for anyone who's not seen it, but, I mean, come on, Lost came out like 20 years ago, so you haven't seen it. I'm gonna. I'm gonna tell you one of his stories, lines, one of his storylines. Okay, guess before I tell you what is one of the storylines of the fat character and the on Lost is he's stuck on a desert island. They're all stuck on a desert line island after a plane crash. Okay, have a little think. What's this storyline? Yep. Addicted to food and hoards food. Yep. How did you know? How did you know? Of course. And it's just. It's. It didn't. I didn't. I think that story cut line came up until the second season and I was like, oh, oh, are they gonna do it? They were still making fat jokes. But I thought maybe this might be a, you know, a character that food and fatness is not his whole character. Then they brought in this storyline of him hoarding food. And I was like, fuck's sake. Really? I haven't finished watching Lost, so I hope at the end it turns out that, you know, he gets some good stuff. Cause he just comes across as, you know, just the butt of the joke all the time. I want Hurley to be like, listen up, what's his name? Sawyer. Hey, Sawyer, why don't you go fuck yourself? Don't ever fucking talk to me again, you piece of shit. You antifat bigot. And then that's the. Sawyer is the main guy that makes the jokes about him. That's what I want. That's what I want Hurley to do. Let's see what happens. I think I'm on season four, so he's got two seasons to tell. What's his face to fuck off. Okay. And then we've got the mammy character. The mammy character is normally a black person. Could be a brown person, less likely to be a white person. But it is an older woman with big bosoms, wearing a dress, a frock, who is. Who is stern, but also then loving, and acts as a falling into the soft bosom of this caring character who has a bit of sass. And we've got the honorable mention to the thin Fat person. The thin fat person is a fat character who's played by a thin person. Think Bridget Jones's diary. When Bridget Jones's diary came out and we were all like, whoa, she's so fucking fat. And then we look back now and we're like, what? It's a straight sized, very attractive woman, like thinking that she's fat and all of us thinking that she's fat. Yeah. And the other thing someone else mentioned was the fat person who loses weight and becomes vapid. So the fatness is what made their personality great and then losing weight makes them vapid. So let's do some examinations of this stuff. And we're starting with fat Monica. Because I feel like fat Monica is the most recognizable for a lot of people depending on your age. Fat character. That fucked a lot of us up. So let's watch this video and I'm going to then describe it for those who are not. And I'm going to talk about analyze it as well.

Over here, dad. Wait, how do you zoom out?

There she is.

Some girl ate. Monica, shut up. The camera adds 10 pounds, huh? So how many cameras are actually on you? Oh, you look so great.

What are you so beautiful.

Oh, what? Shoot. I think I got mayonnaise on you.

Oh, that's okay. It's just the shoulder. It's not my dress. Everybody smile.

Oh, dad, turn it off.

It is off, dad. It is not.

What's with a red light?

Okay, so what we see here is that Monica comes into the shot and the camera is zoomed in on Monica's side stomach. And they have to zoom out because she's so allegedly gargantuan that she feels a whole frame. And when we zoom out, we see a small fat person. I remember seeing fat moniker and being like, wow, she's really fat. So when I watched this stuff when I was, I don't know, 15, 10, 20, however old, I was being like, wow, she was really fat. And now as a someone who is has been in fat liberation for 10 years, I'm like, no, she's a small fat person. What the. Obviously she's wearing a fat suit. And zoom out, she's eating a sandwich. So funny. Sandwich in her hand, which she then tucks into because what is the joke? Fat people are always eating. And then she goes and hugs Rachel and she gets mayonnaise on her shoulder. You know, the joke here is that fat people are food obsessed slobs. You know, they've got this, they're going for prom and they're in their nice Outfits. But fat Monica can't help but getting mayonnaise all over Rachel. And then later in this scene, which I'm not showing is Monica's date. Which it's surprising that she has a date. But Monica's date is a short, fat guy. You know, they're not gonna give Monica the handsome guy and Monica's, like the sidekick, right? To Rachel. So we're not gonna see that. Let's look at another video. This one is. There was. I think there was an episode where they reimagined their futures. Like, what if. I think this is. What if Monica never lost weight from my recollection. So let's. Let's watch that.

Tonight was. Was going to be my first time with Roger. Not just with Roger. Oh, my God. All right, relax, mister. I've had sex four times. Four different women. I've had sex way more times. How many? Nine. Just waiting for the perfect guy. Well, good. Good for you. You really think that Roger's the perfect guy? No, he's not a horrible guy. Hey, that's what I tell girls about me. Chandler, I'm gonna die a virgin. No, you are not. You are sweet and wonderful, and this is gonna happen for you. No, really Win. You wanna do it with me? Okay.

Okay. So they're at the dinner table with food. And Monica is fat. Therefore, she's never had sex. Right. Sex. Us, frump. And the guy that she's going to or she hopes to have sex with she describes as just okay. Because fat people are desperate and will have sex with anyone if they want to have sex with us. But, you know, it's been however old she is and she hasn't had sex. Fat people settle for what they can get. Let's watch the rest of this clip. Oh, yeah. Chandler. Yeah, that's the couch.

So Monica and Chandler decide to have sex and Monica turns off the lights. The implication is that she is ashamed of her body because she's fat. Of course she's not gonna have sex with the lights on. And, um. And then the punchline of this is that Chandler is feeling up the couch because a fat body is indistinguishable from soft furnishings. The other side of the joke is that Chandler is inexperienced and, you know, doesn't know. But that, again, feeds into the anti fat idea that fat people will just have sex with anyone. And so this clueless guy is who Monica decides to have sex with and a clueless guy who's been cruel to her in the past that we know about. So her body feels indistinguishable from the couch. And this is dehumanizing. Monica, dehumanizing is saying that people are objects. So she is not human anymore. She is a sofa. I really remember this. I remember watching this and I remember thinking, oh, God, is that going to happen to me? Is a man going to feel my body and be like, I cannot tell the difference between your body and the couch because your body feels so lumpy and, you know, unhuman. Ugh. It's so funny and funny. It's so sad how these jokes, they, they, you know, for many people, it manifests into fears and then, and then it kind of manifests into these stereotypes of sad, fat, loser, low self esteem. Because that's what we're seeing. We're seeing that this is how you should behave as a fat person. You shouldn't have self esteem because there's something wrong with you. You'd be lucky to have someone to have sex with, so you should take anything, even if they think that your body feels like a sofa. In the end, fat Monica and Chandler get together. He can overlook her flaws and wants to be with her. So it's shown as like this happy ending. But you know what the happy ending for me would be is that she'd be like, you're a real fucking loser, Chandler. You were a complete dick to me when we were younger. You've never addressed your anti fat bias. Go fuck yourself. See you later. Peace. I'm out. That would be the happy ending. Um, okay, let's go to the next video. Video 3.

Monica, I think Rachel's here. Okay. Happy Thanksgiving.

Not for me. Chip and I broke up.

What? Why? What happened? Well, you know how my parents are.

Out of town and Chips was gonna come over? Yeah.

Yeah. And you were gonna give him, you know, your flower. Monica, can you just call it sex? It really creeps me out when you call it that. Okay, by the way, while we're at it, a guy's thing is not called his tenderness.

Okay? So Monica is called by her mom and she runs in, she's out of breath, holding a can of Diet Coke. Because fat people, we're always eating, we're always consuming, and we're always meant to be on a diet. So she's, she's, you know, got the Diet Coke. And it's funny because clearly it's not working. Again, she's dressed in frumpy style clothing and she appears in her conversation with Rachel to be naive, playing into that sexless frump trope. Let's continue watching the Video.

Ross. Oh, this is Monica. Hi, I'm Ross's little sister. Okay.

So Monica, looking dorky, she's kind of got this dorky look on her face, asks to be introduced to Chandler. And in front of a whole family and her friend Rachel, Chandler looks her up and down and makes a fat joke. I'm Ross's little sister. Yeah. You know, the joke is she's not little. And she smiles and seems totally oblivious because she's unintelligent. She's unintelligent. She doesn't pick up on these cues. She's not sharp witted. And then she looks at him kind of, oh, I fancy you. Kind of hungrily, I want you. Which is the fat sexual predator joke. He's clearly saying, I don't like you. He's disgusted by her. She either doesn't notice or doesn't care. And she's like, mm, I'm gonna get him. That's a fat predator. Fat sexual predator. Okay, let's look at part three.

Hey, Chandler, did you like the macaroni and cheese? Oh, yeah, it was great. You should be a chef. Okay.

So Monica sits on the couch next to Chandler and he does this thing where he mocks that he's being bounced up and down and away from her due to the weight of her sitting next to him. Now this is like a, this doesn't actually happen. But he's, he's like either the joke is that it is happening to the character Chandler and he's mocking that the weight of this character, fat Monica is making him almost bounce off the couch. Or the joke is that she's so fat that I'm gonna make some body movements to show how fat she is. Almost like the action is almost. If you're sat on a bouncy castle and someone came sat next to you, you'd be like, oh, it'd be wobbly. Right? So that's what, what happens. And she's sitting next to him, eager, and he looks annoyed. Then she gets a small compliment. You should be a chef. And is totally overexcited and eager. Desperate. She's desperate.

I may be out with her all night. Dude, don't do that to me. Oh, no, it's cool. You can stay here. My parents won't mind. No, it's not that. I just don't want to be stuck here all night with your fat sister. Hey.

Monica, why don't you finish off these pies?

I don't have any more room in the fridge. No, no, thank you.

Well, Judy, you did it.

She's finally full.

So then we go to Chandler and Ross are drying the dishes after dinner and Ross says that he might be out all night with Rachel, who he fancies. And Chandler says he doesn't want to be stuck here all night with your fat sister. And it's only then that the audience says, ah. The audience reaction isn't, ha, ha, this is so funny. The audience says, ah. And I think that's because Monica has a sad face behind. And then Ross says, hey, all of the other fat jokes we were told to laugh because Monica was not aware that she was being mocked. But we were aware and the audience thought it was funny. But it was only when the. When Monica, all of a sudden, after all of these clues that Chandler thinks she's disgusting, finally picks up on it. Then the audience says, ah. So the audience is empathetic towards her. But just one second later, the audience laughs at another fat joke. Another fat joke where her mother says something really cruel to her. Her mother. So, you know, fuck this guy Chandler. She doesn't know him, she doesn't love him. But then, and then the audience says, aw, one minute late. Her mother makes an awful joke and it's ha, ha, ha again. So the mum shows her two large pies. So these are big pies. I think they're pumpkin pies that are only half eaten. So it's a one big pie. And she casually suggests that she finishes them off because clearly she's fat and she's greedy. And this is a normal comment to make. It's a normal thing. Like it's not like, hey, Monica, I know you don't usually eat like this, but there's some extra cake, do you want some? It's the idea that she always does this. She's fat, and so she eats a whole pie after eating, presumably a whole dinner. And then we assume that because she says no, although she momentarily looks like she's interested. And she's gonna be like, yeah, because she's been shamed by Chandler. She's inspired to lose weight. And I feel like that contributes to the idea of we should be cruel to be kind to fat folks. If Chandler didn't say that, then she wouldn't then be going on this weight loss journey that she goes on. Finally. Then she's then mocked by her dad. Her dad says, well, Judy, you did it. She's finally full. As if her whole life. And I don't know how old Monica's gonna be in this scene, but I think she's about 17. Her whole life 17 years. Her appetite up until this point has been uncontrollable. Judy has finally done it. She's made her full. But the joke is, it's not that Judy has made her full and that Monica is satiated. Cause she could never be satiated. She's fat. It's that she is shamed. And therefore she's now on the right path of weight loss. Okay, so let's go to this next and final clip with Monica so drunk.

That's weird. I had the same number of beers as you and I don't feel anything at all. So, you girls having fun? For your information, ask much. I've lost four pounds. Maybe even five with all the dancing. Somebody order a pizza? Oh, that's me.

Okay, so we have a party scene again. Monica is totally covered up, dressed, frumpy, and she's dancing with Rachel. And Rachel says, oh my God, I'm so drunk. And Monica says, that's weird. As they've both drunk the same and she isn't drunk. And the hilarious joke here is that it takes so much to make a fat person drunk. And Monica is too stupid to know this. Again, she's just clueless. She's clueless. So Chandler comes over and Monica brags about her small weight loss. And that really gives me fat people are so pathetic vibes. Like. Like the audience is meant to be like, huh. Poor Monica. She thinks 4 pounds weight loss is some big difference. But we can still see that she's really grossly fat. She doesn't know any better because she's not smart. That's a fat and pathetic vibe that I really got from that. Which then immediately, that idea that she's unintelligent, she's clueless, that is backed up with surprise, surprise. The fat person has ordered a pizza that's been delivered to the party. And that's so funny. Cause she's fat. Do you get it? It's so funny. Fat people eat pizzas. Oh my God. So she runs off to claim her pizza. She's so excited, right? Then Chandler gets with thin Rachel. Because Monica wouldn't be an object of affection. She was a sidekick to desirable Finn. Rachel. By the way, I've just realized I've done all of these Monica videos and I've not even told you the show. It's Friends. If, if you're not. If. If you're not familiar with it, right? Someone, someone out there is listening, being like, what the is this show? But who the is fat Monica? It's Friends. Friends, the show I used to Watch every Friday night at 9pm Then I grew out of it and I started watching a show called Bottom that was on Friday night at 9pm as well. Yeah. So let's move to 7. Skip this bit and go to the end of the show. If you don't want to hear about this seven, watch seven. This, the scene with gluttony. Okay, you do that now if that's you. But if you're staying. Seven is a movie from the 90s starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman. Brad Pitt used to always be like the example to me in my mind of the most gorgeous man. And now him watching these clips with Brad Pitt playing this detective and the things that he's saying, I'm like, how could I have found him attractive when he was saying the things that he's saying in these clips? And I know he's acting, but I saw that as he's being mean. And that's, you know, I want him because of that. Ugh. Just. Oh, young Vinny. Oh, I just want to give you a hug. Okay, so the idea, the premise of seven, it's a thriller, I wouldn't say it's a horror, but there's some horrific things, like disgusting things in it. But the idea is that Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are detectives and there's a serial killer that's killing people because they've committed the seven deadly sins. Let's see what they are. I can't remember what all of them are. Seven deadly sins. Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth. So gluttony, what we're gonna have, what we gonna have? We've gonna have a fat person. Because fat people are gluttonous obviously. Don't you know all fat people eat loads of food? Okay, so we're gonna watch this clip here where there's not that much, you can't hear that much audio. But I'm going to describe it. Where they are discovering, it's discovering the Gluttony man's body. So let's watch that and then I'm going to describe what happens.

Better home than gardens. You said this was murder or what.

Guys?

How it's got to be the size of a can of hand. This is in the coronary. I don't know. How about that? Made this case once. Got dead on the ground, knife in his back. Gotta be murdered, right? Fuck. Anyway, big insurance policy involved. Yeah. This guy took the tip of the brain stuck in his own shoulder blades. And he must have screwed up a few times cuz there was Multiples back there. Could you please be quiet? What? Got a bucket here. What's in it? Vomit. Any blood in it? I. I didn't see any. Help yourself. You think it's poison? Not wonderful. Very wonderful. Hody, you thinking it's poison? Somerset girls have got forensics waiting outside. I don't know if we'll all fit them. Whose room light's the problem? Hi. How are you? Hey. Detective Mills, would you go out the officers, question the neighbors. What? Send in, for instance, on your way out, please. He's dead. Thank you, Doctor. Seeing my files, right? Seeing the things I've done? Nope.

Okay, so what we've seen here is detectives walk into this dark, dirty poor person's apartment. There are two TVs, one on top of each other. And one TV is playing a talk show. Because fat people are losers who stay inside and just watch TV. And this person is so despicable that he's watching two TVs at the same time. They look around, the lights are off to make it spooky. And they look around and they see bugs. And Brad Pitt is like, oh, the smell. Brad Pitt says, somebody called Guinness. I think we have a record here. What he's referencing Guinness Book of Records. The record being the size of the decedent, the fat man. Then we go to a shot of the man, and it's from behind. And he's wearing a stained gray white vest. Should be white, but it's gray because he's fat and fat people are slobs. And he sat at a chair at the table, presumably in the kitchen or something like it. And the detective's flashlights skim over his body as the camera slowly zooms in. And it reminds me. This shot reminds me two things. One, that his body is kind of framed as this mountain, this huge mass. The man in real life is a large fat person. Could be a super sized fat person. I don't think that there was prosthetics added to this person. I think it's just a fat actor. Anyway, so the first thing is that he's so huge, he's like a mountain. And the other thing that it reminded me of, the flashlights kind of waving across his body. It reminds me of when you see big monsters in movies like Godzilla or King Kong. You know how it might flash? You got the light flashing. It's just his foot or it's just his eye. You know, that's what it was. It was saying that this person is monstrous. Then we go to a shop that Morgan Freeman shines A light into on the sides of the room and he sees 19 cans of spaghetti sauce stacked up. This greedy person who has 19 cans of spaghetti sauce, very gluttonous. I'm rolling my eyes. I'm like, he just went on a Costco trip. You know, these are like, look how fucking greedy. He's got all of this sauce. Yeah, he's poor. He's trying to save some money. Okay. Brad Pitt says, guy's heart has got to be the size of a canned ham. Which I thought, you know, obviously they're saying he's. Cause he's fat. He's got to be. He's got to have died from fatness. And as well, a size of a canned ham. Using a food reference, describe his beastly heart and that food being a pig. I thought that line was really violent. Then Brad says, if this isn't coronary, well, I don't know, because there's no way a fat person could be fat and alive. And then Freeman continues to serve the room and see more food stacked up. They eventually lift his head. And this is kind of the peak of the scene, the peak of the grotesqueness. It's that shot of his face. His eyes are whited over. And there you can see the dead man with food smeared over his face. And it's like a horror shot of. This is what happens. This is how you're gonna end up. If you're fat, you're gonna have eaten yourself to death. Because at this time they're like, we don't know if it's a murder. You're going to be alone. You're going to have no one. You're just going to be comforted by two TVs. Let's go to the next scene of this. And then this is where we have the autopsy.

He's been dead a long time, and I can tell you with not for poison. Oh, man. How does someone let them so go like that? Took four orderlies just to get him on the table. How'd a fat ever fit out his front door? Please. It's obvious. He must have shut in. Now look at this. See how big this stomach is? And the strange thing is it stretches here. Look at the size of the cardiac orifice. Where the foot. I see what you're pointing at, but that means nothing to me. Okay, he's got lines of distension across the duodenum. And the interior wall is ripped open. This man ate till he burst. He didn't really burst, not all the way. He was hemorrhaging internally. And there was a hematoma in the rectus and the transverse abdominis muscles. So he did die by eating. Yes and no. What about these bruises up here? Well, I haven't figured that out yet. Gun pressed against his head? Pressed hard enough, sure. Fuck, yeah. Marks from the front side, flush with the muzzle. Ladies and gentlemen, we have ourselves a homicide.

Okay, so we see the shot of him on a mortician's table. He's completely naked. It's gratuitous. We see this sometimes in autopsy scenes with beautiful women and seeing their breasts. Right? And seeing them completely naked. The. The reason why we see this is to leer at them, to gawk. And in this instance with the. With the man. It's a freak show type of viewing that we are viewing this man and it's. The man looks like no prosthetics. Let me Google it. Let me just make sure that he is. I can't see information about him, about the actor, but it looks like to me that the. The real actor, he is a fat man. And I've. What I remember from just in my remembering of this is that. I mean, it doesn't look like he's wearing any prosthetics anyway, so. So he's on the mortician's table completely naked, really gratuitous. And he's been hosed down. And the way that he's been hosed down is really reminiscent of a whale. Of a whale being transported and to be kept wet. And, you know, you'll have all those volunteers hosing down the whale. That's what it made me think of. So Brad Pitt says, the dehumanization of this whole fucking scene is disgusting. Brad Pitt says, oh, man, how does someone let themselves go like that? He's like, this man is a fucking murder. Murder victim. Go fuck yourself. And then the mortician, or whatever this person's job Sundays, it took four orderlies just to get him on the table. This scene. I remember watching this scene and just feeling like, what. What about when I die? Are they going to be talking about me like that? Are they going to be saying it's going to take four orderlies? Do you know, it reminds me of someone shared, you know, the healthcare survey that I'm doing? Someone shared in that healthcare survey that a healthcare provider said to them, it's gonna take three of us to lift you, love. It could have been two of us to lift you, love, but it was like it was gonna take two or three of us to lift you, love. And said that to their face. So what are they saying when we're dead or behind our backs? So anyway, then Brad Pitt says, how'd that fat fuck ever fit out his front door? So disgusting. And the man, like the way that he's, he's like a large fat or super sized fat. He was fitted out of his door. And even if he. Cousin, why, even if he couldn't fit out of his door, why is he calling him a fat fuck, talking about him like that? And then Morgan Freeman says, please, it's obvious he was a shut in. Why is it obvious that he was a shut in? Because he's fat. Because he had 19 cans of spaghetti or whatever it was, meat sauce. Because he had two TVs. Why, why was it unobvious that he's just shutting. Then the scene ends with the mortician holding up a large bloody bag saying, look at this, this is how big his stomach is. And then it turns out that he was murdered. I think that depiction of fatness is one of the most violent. One of the most violent because it's just really showing that fatness is this life ending like grotesque thing. Lonely, sad, pathetic, loser. Disgusting, smelly, filthy. Okay, so let's look at our last example. Fat Slags by Viz Lucasade adverts. So this was, this one came out in 1997. Let me just read the blurb from the YouTube channel that I found. This, the YouTube channel that I found. This is called hall of Advertising and it's, it's kind of like feels like hall of Fame adverts. And there, there a blurb says the fat slags go Roger Rabbit. So Roger Rabbit, remember Roger Rabbit, they had the mix of animation with real film. So they're doing the same here. So the fat slags are animated and then you have the real film underneath it. So the fat slags go Roger Rabbit and discover something rotten in their fridge. Low calorie leukosade. Leukoside, for those who don't know it is kind of like it's an energy drink. It came around before Red Bull but it has that same kind of vibes. Like you'd drink it if you were an athlete or something like that. Or my sister drank, used to drink it because she had type 1 diabetes and so she had to drink it if she was had low blood sugar. So anyway, the fat slags discovered discover something rotten in their fridge. Low calorie leukoside. This was the subject of 309 complaints to the ITC. I think ITC is like International Trade Commission, is that right? International BBC. Anyway, whatever it means, it's like, you know, I feel like it might have changed names to something else. Like it's a governing body that controls either advertising or products in the UK. Let's just say that. So we had 309 complaints to the ITC when children started uttering slag. I bet they weren't just saying slag. I bet they were saying fat slag like the ad suggested they could. So this version went by their real name. So the version that we're watching, they changed the opening card. There was an opening card where it says fat slags. Oh, mercy. It's a fat slags. And the fat Slags character is the fat sexual predator. Both of them are middle aged or older women who are desperate for sex and will, you know, grab these poor thin men and, you know, basically sexually assault them. And they're horrible. They're like despicable characters. Right, so let's watch the adverts. It's not long and I'll, I'll come and narrate it for you.

Right, Right, what's wrapped it?

Lucas Aid, low calorie with vitamins. Tracy, what on earth is this doing in our fridge? Actually, darling, it's mine.

When we want you to move your stuff in, we'll tell you.

New Lucozade, low calorie with vitamins.

Get it out of our fridge.

Okay, so we have the opening card and it says, oh, mercy. It's Tracy and Sandra in an image of them. And it's like the. Oh, mercy is like, oh, my God, here they come. So two fat white cartoon women, both wearing boob tubes which cut their breasts in half and their breasts are spilling out the top as the, the, the clothing is too small. And also they're portraying them as being slags. By the way, slags is a British word for slut. Um, so the bottom half, they appear to wear nothing. There's some sort of something there, but it looks like maybe it might be a swimsuit. But they were. So they were just wearing this tight, revealing clothing. Their legs are bare and then high heels. And they both have northern British accents to donate. They're poor and stupid. Remember I said about the, the regional accent? And so if an American tourist is being portrayed, then they're going to be portrayed as a southerner. Right? If a fat, unintelligent British person is being portrayed, they're being portrayed as a northerner or someone from a farmer, you know, farmer, like, oh, you know, I can't even. I was going to Try and do a farmer's accent. I won't. Like from Devonshire or something. Anyway, they're poor is the idea. Their accent is a poor accent. So they barge through the door, burst through and they're so huge, they knock down an ironing board and the floorboards creak. They ask, right, what's for aftrs and afters is dessert, right? So they obviously have had their food already, but they're not satiated. They need some dessert. They open the fridge, which is literally packed in. The fridge door is packed with multiple packets of lard. In the main body of the fridge, we have unwrapped cheese, sausages just hanging down, cakes unwrapped. Every inch is packed with food and food that is deemed as unhealthy. They then get mad as there is a bottle, a lowly bottle of low calorie leukosade with vitamins. Fat people don't want vitamins because we're just really committed to being unhealthy, right? And they say, what on earth is this doing in our fridge? Because fat people, we only want to have lard and cakes in our fridge. How dare something with vitamins that is low calorie be there? And then we cut to a young, conventionally attractive white man oiled in just a towel, looks like just got out of the shower. And that juxtaposition between him and these two older, slaggy, fat, brash women, he's like, cool. He is the opposite of those fat slacks. He is handsome, he is healthy, he is desirable, he is innocent. Then they take the leucoside out of the fridge. At the end of the advert, they take the leukocade and replace it with. With a squelch noise with a cake. Like, it's really visceral of disgust. And they say, get out of our fridge. That's the catchphrase. Get it out of our fridge. So if you want to be the opposite of the fat slags, you should drink glucosate and it's touted as a weight loss drink. There's like a little things where like a part of a balanced diet. Yeah. And so then kids were saying fat slags in the playground. I bet you wasn't just kids, but it was every. And this is, you know, that's just what the media was like at that time. And you know what I found really interesting is I went to look at the comments on the YouTube video, expecting people to be like, whoa, holy, this is up. People weren't saying that. They were like, oh, wow, this is the good old days. This is when people weren't so PC. This is so funny. Ah ha ha. I love the fat slags. To me, it's just outrageous. It's just so stigmatizing. Yeah. It's just unbelievable. So no, no wonder we've grown up being like, I don't want to be fat. And you know what? All of these fat media tropes, they're so fucking boring. It's so boring. Oh my God, it's just not even funny. My God, can we get over this? Yeah. People are fat. It's so fucking funny. Wow. Just. It just uses just no creativity or innovation or humor. Right. It's just stereotype after stereotype after stereotype after stereotype. Oh, man, oh man, man, man. Yeah. So anyway, I made the reel. The real the title was When Thin People Write Fat Characters. What you mean, you know, anyone of any size could be writing these characters because, you know, someone said something like, oh, this is. They don't know. People don't know fat people. So they write characters like this. I was thinking the ones that do know fat people and they like them. Bet you that's when they're writing the, the loser kind of sad sack or the, the, the mummer, the, the mummy type character. So people who, like, who love a fat person who is then writing a fat character, they're writing them as probably pitiful or serving them in some way, like the sidekick or the mama character. But they're still tropes. And fat people can be all these things, right? Fat people can be dirty and smelly and horrible. La la la la la. Right? Not saying that that doesn't exist, but it's a stereotype. Fat people are also super hygienic, generous and kind and sexually confident and not predators and wonderful characters with all the different facets and boring and smart and not funny and doesn't eat enough, having eating disorders. Athletes. And also they don't have to be those good things too to be worthy. They don't have. You don't have to be super intelligent and an athlete and eating a salad and la la la. You know, just fat people are just, just like straight sized people. We're nice and we're nasty and we're good and we're bad and we're everything in between. And I think that's where the interestingness comes from is the fact that we are these multidimensional characters. And when we are just seeing trope after trope after trope, it's so fucking boring because there's some wonderful, interesting, vibrant, scary, happy, thrilling, all sorts of fat stories to tell. And we're not seeing them. We're seeing the same stories over and over and over again. I mean, you know, they do exist. There are stories where fat people are not just all of these tropes, but it's really hard to find them. Series that I finished recently that just finished up, which is really sad because it's a really good series. Somebody somewhere. So there you go. There's a little recommendation. Somebody, somewhere, go watch that for some. It's a lovely, beautiful series. There is a little bit of tiny bit of bullshit in there, but it's coming from the other person. So you know what? I know Anyway, it's like 98% perfect. Which, I mean, if you are used to watching fat characters, then we know, you know, if they're not just like, hey, I'm fat and I'm greedy and evil and horrible and terrible, then we're like, oh, this is amazing. Okay, well, if you liked this episode and you want to support me, go to my KO Fi. I really appreciate it. If you don't want to, that's fine too. We're all good. We're friends. So we're friends though. Okay. Okay. Okay. I really appreciate you being here. Go check out my Instagram for a visual roundup of this stuff and for some videos reels and thank you for tuning in. Say it with me. Thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you. And here's to a world with wonderful multi dimensional fat characters. We can do it. Come on, writers out there. Come on, creators. If you're a fat creator, I bet you're already doing it, right? You were probably already doing it. All right. Anyway, Sunset here, Diggy wants to go out. So tatty. Bye. See you later. I'll go. Bye.