MP Movie Club: "Shallow Hal"
Added 2021-08-30 08:00:04 +0000 UTCIt's August bonus episode time, dreamboats!
You know how good people are always hideous and hot people are always terrible? The Farrelly Brothers sure do, and they made a whole movie about it! This month we watched the "Citizen Kane" of anti-fatness, "Shallow Hal," and spent more than an hour talking about Hollywood representation, romantic comedy tropes, Jumbotron proposals and the uggos who work for nonprofits.
But despite all the ground we cover in this episode, you might notice something missing. We gathered up a bunch of quotes Gwyneth Paltrow has given about wearing the fat suit over the years ("every pretty girl should be forced to do that"), but we just couldn't fit them into this one.
So next month's bonus is going to be a Fat Suit Spectacular where we talk about the aftermath of this movie and the phenomenon of skinny actresses suiting up to play fat people. Let us know in the comments if you have suggestions for movies or TV shows we should include (and other movies, good or bad, we should watch for future Movie Clubs).
You can play today's episode directly through Patreon, or you can use our RSS feed to add it to your podcast app. Here are the instructions from Patreon.
Thanks for listening, for supporting and for not watching this godforsaken movie.
A&M
Comments
I think an interesting angle here is that Jack Black is -for Hollywood- fat. And I think that the way that fat men project their own issues with their bodies onto fat women is very much in evidence in this movie. The fat funny friend trope is not gender exclusive, it just has different manifestations. Cishet men refuse to believe that anyone can find fat men attractive and Jack Black is a key player in those conversations with people saying they find him very attractive and cishet men refusing to believe them.
Charlie
2025-09-07 05:32:08 +0000 UTCI thought the same thing haha.
Emily
2024-11-26 05:24:29 +0000 UTCThank you! I remember this movie coming out and having such a terrible gut reaction to the premise. I remember having so many arguments with dudes who loved jack black and anything he was in. I love when you ask “why is inner beauty a size 6?”
Beth
2024-07-10 16:54:22 +0000 UTCHiya- a super delayed update to this: Gwyneth’s body double came out a few years ago admitting suffering from extreme eating disorder which I believe was life threatening due to her participation in this film. And G. P. herself admitted that ‘she hated how the fat suit made her feel and when she was in it nobody was noticing her and her clothes were big and ugly and she found that extremely stressful’. So a big extra YIKES to this super gross film.
Eliz
2024-07-10 09:58:38 +0000 UTCPlease
Kirstine
2024-07-02 15:34:13 +0000 UTC100% Cause apparently you can’t be both
Nicola W
2024-06-21 13:45:39 +0000 UTC"I'll take my sainthood to go" needs to be on a t-shirt so badly
Bethan
2024-04-14 21:03:23 +0000 UTCI know this episode is super old but - when you guys mentioned towards the end how men fear reprisal for dating fat women it made me think of the British tv show My Mad Fat Diary. A show I really enjoyed, Would love to hear your thought on the show!!
Tash Bee
2024-04-08 23:40:37 +0000 UTCThis reminds me of this animated short film i saw. I thought it was gonna be really cute and i felt so betrayed. https://youtu.be/mrl3N31mde8?si=OGrVdnjCpqIH5T-y
Sarah W.
2024-03-28 21:03:24 +0000 UTCWhen I was a 911 dispatcher, I saw so many proposals on the cameras we monitored. It always made me uncomfortable. So when my husband and I started talking about marriage, I told him proposals had to happen where there's no cameras and no other people. He ended up proposing along a trail in a spot you couldn't see from the street at night. It was so dark, he couldn't find the correct finger lol public declarations are the worst
Stephanie Stewart
2023-10-27 15:07:36 +0000 UTCThis movie reeks of “you’re not fat, you’re beautiful!” and the idea that inside every fat person is their thin, “true self” (barf)
Sam Concklin
2023-09-09 20:22:41 +0000 UTCSO SO SO relatable no public proclamations for me
Ciara Maxwell
2023-07-10 20:13:45 +0000 UTCSo. Are we going to talk about the whale too
Roxy
2023-06-30 07:18:07 +0000 UTCWhen Michael said that the character with spina bifida could have had a personality my first thought was "ok hold on, why should he be the only character that is given a personality"
Darcie Blodgett
2023-06-17 15:07:11 +0000 UTCWhen ur mad at society’s treatment of fat people so u fix it by making a movie treating them terribly…mission accomplished bro
Alaina Uricheck
2023-06-09 01:33:54 +0000 UTCI just watched the trailer. What the actual fuck is this?
Alaina Uricheck
2023-06-09 01:31:47 +0000 UTCIt is so baffling that they chose two fat male actors to star in a movie that implies fat women only have interior beauty. I know it's misogyny, but the lack of awareness just blows my mind.
fig leaf
2023-02-26 15:08:07 +0000 UTCIt's very normal to 1) enjoy things that are popular at a given time + 2) not be harshly critical of every movie you watch. What's important is that you're here now, listening. Don't take it too hard, everyone has these moments. :)
fig leaf
2023-02-26 15:03:40 +0000 UTCI know I'm super late to the discussion, but I to share. I vividly remember being at a girl's night with college friends. We were drinking, eating ice cream, doing facials, and watching Shallow Hal. The scene where Gweneth's character jumps in the pool, drowning the BBQ and tidal waving the kid into the tree came on. One of my friends caught my eye, her face full of pitty. So I made myself laugh like it didn't bother me. It was excruciating. It was hard enough always being the fattest person in the room. Always being told how pretty my face is, how bubbly my personality is, etc... I felt like a dancing bear laughing at Shallow Hal so I didn't make my friends uncomfortable with their movie choice.
Heather
2022-10-24 16:00:12 +0000 UTCI'm about to post a screed about how horrible my own programming has been - the entitlement behind the privilege that I've learned is correct from every movie/song/book I consumed before my brain matured. I'm 53. None of this is news. Yet Aubrey and Michael help me get it in a much more profound way.
Teri Aitch
2022-09-30 17:03:06 +0000 UTCAubrey unpacking the sex scene unlocked a deep seated connection to my own feelings around my sexuality and appeal - fully illuminating.
Liz Wilhelm
2022-09-21 18:54:53 +0000 UTCHoly shit, am I glad that I am only learning now, in my 30’s, that Gwyneth’s character shares a relatively uncommon first name with me. Had I known this as a teenager it would absolutely have contributed to my already existing disordered eating and suicidal ideation. As it is, it was very jarring to hear you two say my name several times during this episode 😂
sleepyheathen
2022-09-05 14:59:35 +0000 UTCI had zero knowledge of the existence of that movie... I am beyond shocked XD Thank you for watching so we didn't have to (although, like you said, NO ONE has to watch this movie hahah)
Marie-Christine Loyer
2022-09-04 03:38:54 +0000 UTCI’m VERY late to this but you should do one of these for Brittney Runs a Marathon!
Kennedy Simpson
2022-09-02 19:22:01 +0000 UTCMichael and Aubrey really took one for the team, watching this fucking movie. I don't remember why I actually wasted my time watching the movie, I never would subject myself to this now in the bounty of this Netflix era (though it still somehow seems difficult to find something worth watching), but I did watch it when it came out, and revisiting it here I remember the lingering yucky garbage after taste it left. Nothing redemptive here
Emma Eklof
2022-08-27 20:20:47 +0000 UTCI am working on overcoming my fatphobia towards myself and others; and I right now am hurting and I feel nothing but deep, deep shame. I remember when this movie came out and I went to see it. I remember that I liked it. Ugh!! I can't believe that I liked it. I hate that I did. Lately I have been watching movies that I "enjoyed" from around the same time and I am stunned to see them in the lens of now. They are horrible and so problematic! Aubrey is right, Hollywood shits on fat people but they also shit on gay people and trans people and people of color and so on. Hollywood needs to get their shit together. Stop putting out movies of what they "think is right" and "their point of view". They need to not only allow but support and promote people of color, the LBGTQ+ and folks of all body sizes to make films that represent us all positively and properly!
Sandra Jowett
2022-08-09 20:33:16 +0000 UTCIt's because he did his own movie where he was once a fat guy! Just Friends with Amy Smart.
Sandra Jowett
2022-08-09 19:44:11 +0000 UTCCame here to say this! As Aubrey and Michael were saying, "Wouldn't it be great if someone made a movie where the guy defended dating a fat woman?" and I'm thinking, "Someone did!", but it was a play called "Fat Pig". Which upon refreshing my memory by reading it's Wiki page, is not such a great example. Also, and I can't remember if this was even known outside of the NY theater community, Jeremy Piven played the guy and he was terrible IRL to his co-star, the amazing Ashlie Atkinson. Keri Russell was also in the original cast and she apparently was having none of this and came to Ashlie's defense.
Cheryl-Lyn Miller
2022-07-21 16:27:33 +0000 UTCI 100% remembered this movie being with Ryan Renolds, not Jack Black. Weird.
Frances Mary
2022-06-26 07:07:57 +0000 UTCAnd then she put on a fat suite for "Pam"
tara s
2022-06-21 18:03:48 +0000 UTCYou know something's wrong if Shane Dawson is praising it. That's someone who built a career on hating fat people.
Ilana Collins
2022-05-30 16:58:16 +0000 UTCSadly what I remember from the movie as a fat woman was not the visual gags but the fact that Jack Black stood up for her when a chair broke and thinking "oh, a guy could defend me like they would defend a thin woman" - it was such a novel concept to me
Annie Collier
2022-05-23 16:10:51 +0000 UTCPlease please please track down The Diets That Time Forgot. It was a British reality show where people went on diets from the 1880s, 1900s and 1920s
Jennifer Dorsey
2022-05-14 04:55:04 +0000 UTCAs the fat spouse of a very thin man, this gave me such intense secondhand anxiety but also catharsis
Ryn 🖤
2022-04-02 21:22:36 +0000 UTCLove love loooove this podcast. Super glad to be part of Patreon and these amazing bonus episodes. Kinda pissed that I now have to rewatch Shallow Hal but I’ll get over it. Maybe with some edibles! Bring on the full THC. How dare you.
Kelly Mace
2022-03-23 18:06:44 +0000 UTCI agree. I love very much about this show that they keep coming back to compassion and that they catch themselves sometimes and try to temper being judgy or offhandedly cruel in their humor . We are all human I suppose but still
Lise Dale
2022-03-12 01:42:39 +0000 UTCI really enjoy this podcast, quite a bit, as evidenced by being a patron. It is bizarre though how they have such nuanced and sensitive expectations about how people should be treating fat people (I don’t care for that term, but I will use their language), but make jokes about using drugs to deal with stress? What about people with substance use disorders? I suppose we will continue stigmatizing or alienating them? I was surprised how casually that was thrown in. If I had a podcast about awareness of substance use disorder stigmatizing language and societal norms (of which there is near endless amounts), and I made some joke about preferring to overeat to deal with stress, I imagine the Maintenance Phase folks would not approve of that choice. Just a thought, I am not particularly offended, I was just very surprised to hear that joke or casual reference being made from a woman who is SO intense about asking people to consider what they say and how it affects others.
Reid Dutchess
2022-03-09 14:13:23 +0000 UTCRichard Roeper included it on his 10 best movies of the year list for 2000...I just confirmed. It was #10 but still?
Kate Reynolds
2022-03-08 15:30:05 +0000 UTCThis episode reminded me of I think around the same time there was an episode of CSI where a guy had died after sleeping with a fat woman because she'd rolled on top of him in her sleep and crushed him with her weight. Does anyone else remember that?? I remember as a fat teenager feeling horrified and wondering if that was a thing that could really happen, but also how much the episode treated it as weird/shameful/like a kink that he "liked big women".
Laura Kajpust
2022-03-05 03:40:44 +0000 UTCI'm gonna go watch Dumplin' after this, to wash the taste of this movie out! I love how they didn't ignore the girls size in that one, AND she gets the hot guy who is so into her <3
Hannah Burtness
2022-03-05 01:39:06 +0000 UTCI too am having an edible after this. You are both hilarious and your podcast is the most honest and refreshing content I've ever heard. With love from New Zealand.
Dougo
2022-03-01 18:07:04 +0000 UTCI remember seeing this movie when I was young, probably around 13? Must have come on TV, maybe my parents put it on because they like Jack Black (and I do too, but he's been in WAY better movies...). I know it was before I realised I was trans, and I was thin at the time, I know if I had watched it NOW I would have had a different experience for sure. I don't remember exactly how I felt about it at the time? ...ok, this is gonna sound SUPER silly but when I was younger I thought all movies were supposed to be good so I always tried to rationalise it when I saw one I didn't really enjoy. So I think I just latched onto the "it's about internal beauty it's a good message so it's fine" and tried not to think about the horrible awful "comedy" around it all. Helped in large part by how the French title for it is like "Love XL" which focuses on the love aspect, and not the shallowness of the character, so like, positive vibes for my baby brain. Managed to completely erase it from my memory until now xD Very good conversation (... now I kinda wonder if parts of the movie are more palatable in the French dub. I DOUBT it and I am NOT going to watch this movie to do a comparison, it's just a curious thought since I'm always interested in how a translation can change (intentionally or not) the meaning of scenes sometimes)
Jaffre
2022-02-27 02:33:07 +0000 UTCI would love to hear a bonus episode about "I Feel Pretty". It's subtly problematic and I would appreciate an insightful take-down.
Jake Wood
2022-02-23 14:09:04 +0000 UTCthis is my favorite episode
Bryn Bachmann
2022-02-17 20:46:14 +0000 UTCHad to pause this at 13 minutes so I could go listen to Sandstorm LOL
Alyson R
2022-02-14 22:07:59 +0000 UTCPlease tell us about this date!!
Jessamy Klapper
2022-02-10 14:33:54 +0000 UTCMichael..I love you…but please say “fat woman” instead of “fat chick”
Krystal Hooper
2022-02-04 21:05:09 +0000 UTCAwe - I got engaged on the jumbo tron at a minor league hockey game with my family all there and I loved it.. but also I had already picked out the ring so he knew I would say yes lol
alli moulton
2022-02-02 14:21:56 +0000 UTCWhat you said about this being a rich text in the same way a complex structure can be built out of duplo bricks absolutely destroyed me
Izzy Snyder
2022-02-02 12:57:20 +0000 UTCThe Jack Black masterpiece "School of Rock" is better on fat acceptance in a 2m scene than this entire movie is at any point
Ellen
2022-02-02 11:34:45 +0000 UTCOh, man. This movie aired on TV here so regularly in my teens and they’d show ads for it all the time before airing it. I saw the worst scenes from this so many times, imprinted in my brain. I’m 100% sure it fucked me up.
Ingeborg
2022-01-29 12:52:14 +0000 UTCJust found this under top-rated movies on Amazon…. How?!? 🤦🏼♀️
Miranda Kafantaris
2022-01-16 15:12:04 +0000 UTCThis episode brought my Shallow Hal trauma out from behind the mental wall I had built. It actually reminds me of how much time and energy I spent performing for the people around me, ie being fat and laughing at fat jokes, and not doing anything that 'bad' fat people do like actually enjoy life.
Tstarr
2022-01-09 01:01:04 +0000 UTCI feel pretty was very entertaining. I was more about the character's self-image and confidence as opposed to the basic premise of Shallow Hal is that the joke is that anyone would fall in love with a fat person. It's awful.
tara s
2022-01-02 00:06:24 +0000 UTCI saw this movie as a fat, closeted gay, high school freshman. So you can imagine the number it did on me. Making matters worse the movie was filmed in Charlotte where I'm from, so everyone wanted to see it. So I, a closeted, gay, fat high school Freshman saw this with my thin friends. It was super fucking awkward. I believe that the movie reinforced the perception that all men desire thinness in a partner, regardless of gender or sexual orientation. I was fascinated by what men found attractive, and it reinforced my belief that if I was to ever be admired by a man I would need to be thin. And that I was not worthy of love, until I became thin. Because it took a supernatural force for Hal to find Rosemary attractive. I think the Farrelly Brothers should have to pay a portion of my therapy bills.
Reno Palombit
2021-12-30 21:35:47 +0000 UTCI've been saving this episode because Peter Farrelly is from my hometown and once in high school my mom's friend got her to go on a date with him. It went so badly that she has spent the last 40+ years telling everyone who brings him up how much he sucks 😂
Allie Fernandes
2021-12-26 21:02:04 +0000 UTCThis is absolutely wonderful! I would love to have more movie clubs in the future.
Alexander S
2021-12-23 11:02:37 +0000 UTCThis is only semi related to fat suits, but it always bugs me that when movies are made about Queen Victoria when she was young, it’s always some slender actress that plays her. Victoria was famously plump and I would love to see an actress of appropriate size get to play out the love story she had with Albert.
Amy Eagleburger
2021-12-22 17:48:03 +0000 UTCI know someone already mentioned it, but I just couldn't stop thinking about Jason Alexander and Jack Black being these picky dudes who only date thin/beautiful women. Really??? Who they fuck are they. Also, I don't think thin=hot and fat=ugly, which seems to be generalized a bit in the conversation.
Heidi
2021-12-10 19:51:06 +0000 UTCI completely disagree that bad guys must always get their comeuppance in media. Media doesn't always exist to be a morality tale. Sometimes bad guys don't suffer. The entire world is full of examples, over and over, of this not happening. You could argue that Shallow Hal in particular was supposed to be a morality tale, but in general, I do not think showing the realistic event that a bad guy doesn't get karma, is condoning what he did.
Alcor Drew Hilliard
2021-12-02 20:59:14 +0000 UTCI once attended a synagogue service at which the rabbi devoted a sermon to the beautiful message of Shallow Hal. I had been blissfully unaware of the premise of the movie until then.
The Chocolate Doctor
2021-12-02 16:42:12 +0000 UTCOMG I am listening to this now (was saving it for a special day LOL) and I literally had the same argument re: Isn't it Romantic for an article I wrote at Them.us. I feel so validated https://www.them.us/story/overwhelming-thinness-queer-rom-coms
Sadie Collins
2021-11-30 17:57:16 +0000 UTCWould love for y’all do to an episode on Dietland!!
Sage Orvis
2021-11-29 16:01:43 +0000 UTCI saw this movie at a formative age unfortunately and it just cemented the idea that men are supposed to treat women depending on their looks. I just assumed it was fated that men would never treat me as a human being.
Amanda W
2021-11-29 00:18:49 +0000 UTCThank you for this! I LOVED this movie as a teen and had it on VHS. Only now looking back I realize it was the peak of my anorexia and fat phobia. Thank you for making me look at it again more critically.
Jacqueline Farnworth
2021-11-23 02:48:08 +0000 UTCI listen to this podcast and just chant Neil Labute over and over.
Vivian
2021-11-17 08:47:55 +0000 UTC"Always grateful, always demure, always super self-deprecating, and always willing to give you a second chance. This is how we expect members of marginalized groups to behave towards members of the majority at all times." ~ Chef kiss.
Joe Zeranski
2021-11-10 18:35:24 +0000 UTCI was wondering when someone would mention that trash!
Sandy Stauffacher
2021-11-08 19:04:43 +0000 UTCThat makes me want to cry.
Theresa Bakker
2021-11-06 22:54:36 +0000 UTCI'd love to hear you guys talk about Dr. Oz's social experiment in a fat suit. There's probably not enough material for an entire episode but I hope you will make time to talk about it because Dr Oz deserves to be dragged by the best.
Theresa Bakker
2021-11-06 22:52:14 +0000 UTCI totally despised this movie when I saw it years ago. No one seems to address why anyone "hot" or not would be interested in dating an asshole like Hal and he is average looking which would not appeal to the typical model type. Also, the assumption that fat does not equal hot. Personally, I am fat and I am hot AF.
Lori
2021-11-02 02:35:47 +0000 UTCI really love you guys and I love the podcast (I mean that's why I'm here lol) but I kinda wish Mike would stop interchangably using the words 'thin' and 'hot' especially since I thought he was a thin person? It just makes me a bit uncomfortable.
Rinsuu
2021-10-28 14:42:00 +0000 UTCLet’s not even get started on Norbit….I’ve never seen it and I don’t have to. The trailer is straight up fat body jokes.
Moonbow Presents
2021-10-27 14:59:26 +0000 UTCMichael saying "They never discuss books!" in such an exasperated manner shows me that my expectations for relationships are not unreasonable.
Veronika Z
2021-10-26 13:20:50 +0000 UTCI am so happy I joined here. I would also like to thank you for making your paid subscription the “fun” stuff while the informative stuff is free and accessible to all audiences so that I can share it incessantly and everyone can have access to the important information. You both do such incredible things and I thank you
Madison
2021-10-21 14:31:26 +0000 UTCI was a 14-year-old baby fat when I saw this movie, and I am just realizing that I never fully processed the damage this specific garbage did to my self-esteem. (And ohhhh my god, I’m fairly sure now that the anxiety I used to feel whenever I sat on literally any chair originated from this movie too) I love this podcast so so so much. 💓
Bri Traquair
2021-10-16 20:12:57 +0000 UTCWhat you are doing on this podcast is important. You are changing our worlds for the better— keep it up, please. I will always look forward to the next episode. xo
Ashley W.
2021-10-14 19:58:44 +0000 UTCI think I want that final YouTube quote to be etched on my gravestone, absolutely incredible 😂😂😂 But also, I watched this movie against my will with someone close to me who thinks it's hilarious, and it was painful in so many different ways. 0/10, never recommend.
Erika
2021-10-14 07:07:48 +0000 UTCI still remember seeing an interview with Gwyneth Paltrow around that time and her reflecting on wearing the fat suit and everyone’s reactions to her “not being pretty”. About the time I started greatly disliking her.
Carmel Montgomery
2021-10-14 05:15:50 +0000 UTCThe message that stuck with me from this movie through growing up was that no matter what clothes I wore, and no matter how shabby and gross I felt in them - they’d look awesome on a size 6. 😭
Maxie
2021-10-09 02:27:58 +0000 UTCI saw Shallow Hal in the theater while I was in college and I was thin because I was suffering from disordered eating, I hated this movie at the time and HATE even remembering it. I remember crying in the theater because it basically solidified everything I felt about myself and my value in society. Thank you for tearing it to shreds!
Bailey Tighe
2021-10-08 20:38:46 +0000 UTCEbert gave a glowing review of this movie that makes no sense at all. I watched the trailer and my heart shrank 3 sizes under the force of my cringe.
Leigh K Schroeder
2021-10-07 01:06:40 +0000 UTCJust watched the trailer and it was somehow way worse than I imagine?? Then I turned to the comments and really thought they'd be people decrying the fatphobia (I mean, a lady jumping into the pool creates such a tidal wave it flings a child into a tree? How is that not making fun of fat people??), but of course not.
martymulder666
2021-10-06 19:28:13 +0000 UTCI am glad you did an episode about this film. The part about it that I thought was particularly insidious and problematic was the underlying theme that our true “inner” “beautiful” selves are thin and conform to Western standards of beauty. The underlying message of this film just serves to perpetuate biases in favor of physical attractiveness such as the halo effect. Also perpetuates the mythology that inside every fat person is this thin “beautiful” version of themselves just waiting to come out. Was a delight to hear your takes on such a horrendous and embarrassing film!
Azadeh
2021-10-04 19:46:09 +0000 UTCThroughout the episode I kept waiting for you guys to point out that Jack Black is not a thin or fit guy. People like him because he is charismatic, he’s not conventionally attractive and if he’s also mean then he extra doesn’t have any right to demand an attractive girlfriend. Jason Alexander is also horrible, mean, fat, bald, and short and he kept dating supermodels. If I remember correctly didn’t he have a weird “dog tail” that he was afraid to show people? Or many I’m mixing up Shallow Hal and another similar movie from the same time period. Thanks for all you do, I absolutely love your podcast!
Amanda Meriwether
2021-10-03 01:14:18 +0000 UTCI almost did but just watch a few clips on YouTube and you’ll see such ugly bits that you won’t want to
Michelle Keller
2021-10-02 20:36:23 +0000 UTCThis movie made me so sad for all of Xillennials - media really fucked with our heads
Michelle Keller
2021-10-02 20:22:08 +0000 UTCI watched this when it came out when I was in middle school. Around the time I started being self conscious of my weight. But back then I was obsessing over 15 lbs. fast forward I’m in a healthy and fulfilling relationship with an amazing guy who loves me no matter my size. I feel totally secure with him in private but in public I do wonder what other people around us think and if they are thinking “why is he with her?” I’m starting to think that seed inside me was planted by watching this movie in middle school
Cassandra Huete
2021-10-02 00:13:17 +0000 UTCThat underwear shop scene makes me gag. Even aside from the layers of horrible fatphobia, I imagine most ladies and non-binary people can relate to the feeling of just going about your business and some creepy guy sidling up to invade your space and hit on you without invitation.
Jenni McIlwrath Hurst
2021-10-01 12:59:52 +0000 UTCi know Tyra Banks did an episode where she wore a fat suit to get people's reactions
Eric Schmitt
2021-09-29 19:28:58 +0000 UTCPeople love to give out award nominations for actors who just make themselves look like different people, as if makeup, weight loss/gain, and/or fat suits are part of being good at acting.
Allie L.
2021-09-29 18:31:25 +0000 UTCFat Suits: The newest American Crime Story (Sarah paulson) and I believe Jared Leto wears one in House of Gucci? Why not cast actors in these body types, rather than putting fat suits on straight-sized actors who are undoubtedly going to receive accolades for portraying us normies.
Vanessa
2021-09-29 17:59:38 +0000 UTCMaybe not technically a movie, but I’d love an episode on the porn industry and fatphobia/fetishization
Adina Vee
2021-09-29 14:32:56 +0000 UTCPlease do rebel Wilson on the podcast next
Sarah S
2021-09-29 00:37:19 +0000 UTCI haven’t read all the comments, so this may have already been suggested as a movie club potential: Dodgeball (Ben Stiller’s character…)
Melissa Laister
2021-09-28 21:31:28 +0000 UTCI just want to know Michael's Tumblr url
Orion Spencer
2021-09-28 19:46:20 +0000 UTCI loved Shallow Hal as an early teenager. I was overweight and being bullied for it at the time. The movie definitely appealed to my internal fatphobia.
Zelph On The Shelf
2021-09-28 18:56:32 +0000 UTCWow, this movie sounds just awful. My introduction to Tony Robbins was discussion of him in, I think, The Dream podcast? Or something else talking about MLMs. Apparently he does a lot of appearances at their conferences now.
Beth Zyglowicz
2021-09-27 22:21:56 +0000 UTCis it weird that i just want to hate-watch this movie now?
Alicia Penney
2021-09-21 16:29:06 +0000 UTCI saw that one too! I was like, do I cut off a leg? A leg and an arm? I'm not sure because I don't weigh myself anymore but I'm pretty sure I'd have to at least commit one limb.
Kate McDonald
2021-09-17 18:54:03 +0000 UTCI feel gross just listening to this. I officially never have to see this movie. Also, I had an ex seek out my new apartment and "proclaim" his love for me and I nearly called the cops. No. Just no.
Shanda Wells
2021-09-15 16:58:37 +0000 UTCI look forward to every episode! This was great and no regrets from never watching this train-wreck of a movie. Also, not that you asked for suggestions, but I'd love to see an episode on women's magazines. I was in a CVS a few days ago (mid September) and the cover of some magazine literally said "lose 100lbs by Thanksgiving". I don't think the article was about ditching a shitty spouse, though kudos if so. If not I feel like y'all would do a great job debunking all this nonsense ❤️ Much love to you both xx Annie
Annie Blake
2021-09-15 05:13:25 +0000 UTCYou deserved so much better than that from the world.
Laura
2021-09-14 20:22:07 +0000 UTCMan I am so glad I didn’t see this show when it came out. 🤢
Laura
2021-09-14 20:21:25 +0000 UTCThe saddest part about Shallow Hal for me is that when I was a young teen I was so desperate to see fat women on screen that I watched this over and over again because at least the "fat" girl got the guy and was the hero.
Leah Kaiser
2021-09-13 23:31:22 +0000 UTCPlease please please consider doing an episode on the media's fixation on Monica Lewinsky's "heavy" body size during the whole Clinton-Lewinsky scandal!! Seeing all the commercials for "Impeachment" on FX made me remember how much they all talked about her body size during the whole thing. Btw, congrats on being #19 on Apple podcasts!
Wendy Giangiorgi
2021-09-13 16:41:39 +0000 UTCI love You Must Remember This! Great episode too.
Lydia Mizon
2021-09-13 09:04:56 +0000 UTCI am sure you will, and I’m sure there’s already comments about it, but please please discuss “Fat Monica” in Friends. I looked back on it and it’s just horrible. Horrible horrible.
Lydia Mizon
2021-09-13 09:03:25 +0000 UTCDid anyone else see that Maintenance Phase is #19 of top shows in apple podcasts?! 🎉
Kaitlin
2021-09-11 13:21:18 +0000 UTCI was like, 11 when I saw this movie. After listening to this episode, I realised it might have fucked me up more than I realised.
Amy
2021-09-10 15:40:34 +0000 UTCThis is the only movie I ever walked out on - and I've seen some doozies. I was actually at someone's home, although it was kind of just a gathering with no planned start or end time and no one was offended but still. I got so annoyed that at the swimming pool scene I just got up and walked out and went home. I have stopped movies and not finished them (Jurassic Park recently) but that was because I decided it was late and I we tired and crucially, they're on Netflix and I can finish whenever I'm ready. Shallow Hal is the only movie I've ever just walked out in protest and refused to finish.
Deborah Bell
2021-09-08 21:33:59 +0000 UTCThank you for this episode. So grateful for your incisive commentary and all of the Patreons reflections. I am now curious of other media ostensibly about “inner” beauty, relationships, and fatness, eg the sitcom Mike & Molly.
Katie Jane Fernelius
2021-09-08 18:19:26 +0000 UTCWatching this in my late teens had a ridiculously huge effect on me. The anxiety about chairs for decades - so so real. The underwear scene echoed an experience in HS where someone held up my gym shorts to make similar jokes - and no one came to ask if I was ok. To see it on screen twisted the knife of that trauma. When I went into the Peace Corps I still had this stupid ass movie in the back of my head mulling over my choice. I hate this movie, but I especially hate how I felt like I deserved this movie as penance for the sin (eye roll) of being fat and let it into my psyche. FUCK THIS MOVIE.
Chris Wilkerson
2021-09-08 18:03:20 +0000 UTCThis movie totally traumatized me as a young fat kid. Every time I buy underwear I think of that nasty parachute scene.
Alexandra Kahn
2021-09-08 06:02:01 +0000 UTCFinished listening to all your existing podcasts and joined to hear this. Looking forward to all the other bonus material.
Zardogs! Zardogs!
2021-09-06 21:30:33 +0000 UTCThanks for another great episode. Would love to hear your thoughts on an old episode of House - Que Sera Sera
Bastilledeb
2021-09-06 21:28:07 +0000 UTCThe way that you guys finish each episode laughing just brings me so much joy every time, thank you!!!
Kelsie Rolls
2021-09-06 17:15:17 +0000 UTCAlso I would love to hear y’all break down more movies!!
Frances Fritz
2021-09-06 06:00:27 +0000 UTCThank you for prefacing the episode with “DONT GO SEE THIS” because otherwise I would have. And after listening I’m so so glad I didn’t.
Frances Fritz
2021-09-06 06:00:08 +0000 UTCalso how the one person he sees as being "ugly" on the inside is the nurse but she's just old, not ugly. they didn't even alter their appearance - the nurse was just played by a 74-year-old actress.
Michelle DeCourcey
2021-09-06 01:04:55 +0000 UTCJack Black is fat🤔
Linda
2021-09-06 00:46:06 +0000 UTCI was also wondering if Jack Black has ever said anything about his role! I think it’s super interesting that both Jack and Gwyneth have weight as a central part of their public image right now. Jack is seen as a body positive icon, while Gwyneth, with Goop, has been a big part of the growth of the wellness (where wellness = thinness) industry.
Marissa Lariviere
2021-09-05 23:45:52 +0000 UTCI saw this movie in middle school, around the time I was starting to realize that I was fat. And I watched it in a way that made me feel good at the time, I kind of bought into the “inner beauty” thing and let myself believe I would find love despite my size. But listening to this episode I realize how much of my adult love life has had big and small moments of me trying as hard as possible to not be seen as fat as this woman in the movie. Especially the sex scene which M & A give proper time and space for thankfully because I definitely do not and have never had a healthy relationship to my own sexuality (did not mean to be sayin’ a whole lotta deep dark feelings here in this comment section lol). But the one easily visual cue of this issue for me is the size of her underwear, an image i have never forgotten and can still see as clear as day now and I have always hid my undergarments from whoever I was with. Always, always, always. Even now as a married lady to a thin man, I still feel the need to hide them occasionally. Which is so very sad. I’m so happy this episode exists! And I need further fat suit studies on Friends and New Girl most urgently. Plus, I saw someone mention Thor in Endgame… I have mixed feelings about this one but I’d be interested in a discussion about it!
Amy Rio
2021-09-03 20:36:09 +0000 UTC“Fat Thor” in Avengers:Endgame was my entry point into engaging with Fat studies, after a fat friend had openly expressed how uncomfortable & disappointed she was with Marvel’s choice and got me reading more.
Mary
2021-09-03 11:58:10 +0000 UTCIn the last couple episodes of Dr Death where Joshua Jackson is in a fat suit was such a record scratch for me when I was watching it. It was so distracting and unnecessary regardless of what the real life Dr Duntsch looked like.
Wendy
2021-09-03 04:22:09 +0000 UTCugh i watched this as a very young kid with my dad. i didnt realize how awful it was until so much later
Carly Gove
2021-09-03 03:18:22 +0000 UTCOooooooooooooooooof this entire movie 😣😣😣
Alisa Marie
2021-09-03 00:35:34 +0000 UTCOh, god, and also the god damned cringy fat suit they used on Neil Patrick Harris in HIMYM. Why did I waste so many years of my life caring about that show??!?
Phoebe Keleman
2021-09-03 00:32:14 +0000 UTCThrowing Simon Pegg's gut suit from Run Fatboy Run into the mix. Plus just the title of the movie. And the fact Thandiwe Newton always deserves better.
Phoebe Keleman
2021-09-03 00:23:57 +0000 UTCi remember reading articles about how as Friends went on, the male actors all gained weight and the female actors all lost weight, and that seems relevant to this discussion too.
Alicia Penney
2021-09-02 21:39:49 +0000 UTCI remember my friend's dad putting on this movie for us to watch because it had "good morals". We were ten 😣
Kylie Hudson
2021-09-02 19:46:41 +0000 UTCI remember when Gwyneth was promoting this movie on Late Night she described herself as a “skinny fat person” because she was lazy and didn’t exercise or watch what she ate. Feed that nugget to a teen brain.
Molly
2021-09-02 11:41:49 +0000 UTCI watched this on dvd in 2001 and all I could remember about it before this episode was that it gave me bad feelings and at the end Jason Alexander basically says “I’m a dick to everyone because I have a tail” ?!? Which he then shows to jack black. The whole thing needs to get in the bin.
Christy Barlow
2021-09-02 10:32:55 +0000 UTCPlease do heavy weights next!!
Abigail
2021-09-01 23:59:42 +0000 UTCThis fucking movie, I swear to god. I vividly remember being a fat teenager watching this movie (and other movies/shows with fat characters constantly being humiliated) and trying to not let it show just how much it hurt me in my soul.
Annika
2021-09-01 23:57:37 +0000 UTCEverything you said resonates so deeply with me. Thank you for sharing. Growing up fat in a fat-hating society really does a number on you. It shaped me in ways I can't even begin to articulate.
Annika
2021-09-01 23:28:05 +0000 UTCDoes anyone remember the 80s cartoon Fat Albert with Bill Cosby? I can't remember if it was body positive or shaming, but I remember fat kids at school being teased as being called "Fat Albert"
VL
2021-09-01 19:02:53 +0000 UTCAlso, this episode should have had a bonus photo of Mike sulk-rage watching the movie after losing his phone privileges
lone_alien
2021-09-01 18:32:41 +0000 UTCWould love an episode on fat suits in movies. Just finished reading Sarah Paulson's watered down apology and this lesson will never be learned.
lone_alien
2021-09-01 18:32:05 +0000 UTCThis is a bit off the mark, but related -- the Jan. 21, 2020 episode of the podcast "You Must Remember This" is about a promising ingenue actress in the late 1920's, a 19-year-old, who was so bullied by the media and the studios that she underwent one of the first liposuctions with "fat" carved from her body, all with the aim of retaining her budding career. Didn't work -- she ended with scars all over and her career went down the tubes. An entertainment-related fat-shaming casualty!
Elizabeth
2021-09-01 16:27:45 +0000 UTCWeird Al's fat suit in the Fat music video (and live performances, can confirm) might belong in this conversation.
Laura Perna
2021-09-01 15:37:29 +0000 UTCMy mother is a lot like Michael's mom (tries every fad diet and has done so my entire life) and she LOVES this movie so much. I've seen this movie like 100 times over the course of my life. I'm so invested in this conversation about it. lol.
Courtney O
2021-09-01 15:21:14 +0000 UTCAnd Norbit which is just disgusting
Lola Anthony
2021-09-01 15:14:19 +0000 UTCI have vague memories of a Fresh Prince episode? Didn't they put Will Smith in a fat suit?
Laura Hayes
2021-09-01 13:04:57 +0000 UTCI can't believe no one has mentioned Monica in Friends yet! I love Friends but always felt uncomfortable that 'Fat Monica' was a laughing stock and her binge eating disorder was used for jokes. Before we saw the flashbacks we were led to believe that 'Fat Monica' was like an out of control monster.. she was just a curvy girl. It's a very weird part of the show
Helen Cooke
2021-09-01 11:10:18 +0000 UTCStories from the City, Stories from the Sea freaking bangs and "Where the f*** was I looking when all those horses came in?" is still a phrase I use from time to time - love your name, btw!
Caitlin Fry
2021-09-01 03:52:16 +0000 UTCI remember distinctly that Naomi Campbell said in some Seventeen or Cosmo or something "I have cellulite, my ass perpetually looks like someone's grabbed it and put fingerprints in it" or something to that effect. I was simultaneously horrified that even she was subject to this impossible standard and made to feel better that the "perfect" models are human beings with bodies, too.
Bridey
2021-09-01 00:43:22 +0000 UTCYes!!! I came here to say the same thing!
Kristi Yingling
2021-08-31 22:44:15 +0000 UTCI’m curious about the reaction to Thor (Chris Hemsworth) in Avengers: Endgame. The fat suit (and side comments) felt not only cruel, but like lazy writing that cheapened what could have been a touching, interesting take on coping with loss/failure. My mom appreciated that he stayed that size and didn’t have a “glow up,” but it feels hollow when there were jokes about it and you know he’ll just show up with six pack again next time.
Magda F.
2021-08-31 22:43:32 +0000 UTCSarah Paulson's in the news right now for defending herself for wearing a fat suit to play Linda Trip. 🙄
Kristi Yingling
2021-08-31 22:43:04 +0000 UTCI tried to watch the movie in preparation AND I COULDN’T - but I loved your podcast so much, as always. But that movie was too painful. $3 lost forever.
lisa gironda
2021-08-31 20:41:12 +0000 UTCSeriously looking forward to your conversation in the Fat Suit Spectacular episode! Please don't make us wait too long for it!
Erin Huie Mizell
2021-08-31 20:37:09 +0000 UTCSo interesting listening to this right after listening to You Are Good cover Heavyweights, a super fat-friendly kids movie from the 90s
Ariel Cummins
2021-08-31 18:38:46 +0000 UTCThis also happens in Mad Men with Betty! It’s so weird
Danielle
2021-08-31 17:29:08 +0000 UTCI distinctly remember having a fight with my mom because she had watched the movie and refused to let me watch it before she returned it to the video rental store. She had had no idea what she was renting and after sitting through it she said it was, “a disgusting movie she wouldn’t have playing in her house again.” Haha I was so pissed but upon ereflection I am SO grateful to have missed this one. I was struggling enough as it was.
Heidi W
2021-08-31 16:25:16 +0000 UTCUgh I’m so sorry you had to sit through this film. But thank you Aubrey for reminding me of my teenage PJ Harvey obsession!!
Rose
2021-08-31 15:45:54 +0000 UTCI think adjacent to "fat suit" episodes of sitcoms is the weird thing where pregnant actresses have their characters written as suddenly having eating issues - in Frasier the character Daphne suddenly started overeating and had to go away to a "spa for fat people" in order to explain the actress gaining weight and then having to spend time away from set (even though the character was in a relationship and a pregnancy could have very easily been worked into the plot) - it was so shitty because her size was played for laughs (such as having her fall over and not be able to get up, which is a shitty thing to do to a pregnant actress) and her "issues" with eating were written as a psychological problem that had to be brought out into the open. In 'King of Queens' when Leah Remini was pregnant the character of Carrie was written as having lost her job and sitting around the house binge eating - again even though the character could have easily been pregnant (apparently in sitcom law a couple shouldn't get pregnant until the end) - and even though the "big props" move done to hide pregnant stomachs on sitcoms can be really clunky, at least the actress and audience aren't getting these messages about how weight gain can't just be a normal thing that happens to people without it being played for laughs.
Caitlin Fry
2021-08-31 13:30:27 +0000 UTCThis film seemed totally acceptable to me as a young teenager. I was thin at that point in my life and my dad was extremely obsessed with hating fat people for some reason (including my mum who was only slightly bigger). This film was designed for middle aged men like my dad who were in some way intimidated by women who didn’t lead their lives trying to be attractive to him.
Danielle
2021-08-31 08:16:49 +0000 UTCThere are fat actresses! I love Sarah Paulsen, she's a great actress, but it's so hard for fat actresses to get decent roles. It's so messed up that they're just putting her in a fat suit. The role should absolutely go to a middle aged fat actress.
Sara Wolovick
2021-08-31 06:53:43 +0000 UTCI remember a one-season TV show called "Huge" about kids at a fat camp. I remember it being a rare good example of representation, but I don't know if my memory lies or if it holds up to today's standards. It was 2010, 10 episodes. Might be interesting to check out now.
Tami Anderson
2021-08-31 06:30:41 +0000 UTCMe too! I genuinely almost cried this am when I got the alert.
Erin
2021-08-31 05:55:55 +0000 UTCYeah, it’s even mentioned in the movie that they’re not thin or conventionally attractive. A comment is made about Gwyneth Paltrow’s character weight and Jack Black’s character thought it was directed at him and I think there was another comment made that people didn’t understand how he pulled the women he did.. i feel like it was a part of the storyline.
India Myers
2021-08-31 05:36:24 +0000 UTCI watched this movie as a kid, more than a few times. I got told from a young age that I would never find a partner because I was fat, and as horrid as this movie was to people who were fat, I found a hint of solace in the thought that maybe, just maybe, someone could eventually love me and think I'm beautiful, even if they had to be hypnotized to do so. This was a harmful message for anyone, let alone a child, to absorb. Looking back at the years of dieting and self-hatred, and, today, remembering the ways this movie made me feel back then, it hurts. I did love this episode, though. I'm sorry you both had to go through this for our enjoyment.
Oddity
2021-08-31 05:24:27 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/jC14CUQemPE
Julianna Kotiaho
2021-08-31 03:12:45 +0000 UTCI love this podcast. More movies please. My recommendation is any vintage Lifetime movie starring Susanne Somers.
Amanda
2021-08-31 02:52:41 +0000 UTCShallow Hal!!! I haven't thought about that movie since I was an impressionable pre teen! Its outrageous how much I remembered about that movie just from your conversation and how it subconsciously influenced my current perceptions of myself. The only movie of the early 2000's that I remember having a body positive reaction to was, "Phat Girlz" (2006), with the ever amazing Mo'Nique. Looking at clips online of it now it DOES and definitely DOES NOT hold up through time and quality. But the underlying theme of you can be sexy no matter your or anyones size or shape is still one of the main takeaways.
S kenton
2021-08-31 02:47:11 +0000 UTCI watched it and didn't actually read it that way. She has a lot of internalised fatphobia, and there were moments in the movie where she actually has to confront that. I think it was marketed that way to catch people who would buy into that way of thinking.
Claire Lenehan
2021-08-31 00:55:51 +0000 UTCWow this may be the root of my insane worry that my underwear looks really big if you hold it out by the waistline
MutinyontheBeagle
2021-08-30 23:55:08 +0000 UTCWasn't a movie, but I do remember an episode of Tyra Banks where she put on a fat suit and went out in public, followed by cameras, to see what it was like to be seen as a fat person for the fat women who were guests that ep. Once she was out of the suit she spent the rest of the episode crying, traumatized at the lack of attention, and the women she was supposed to learn to empathize with, ended up having to ignore their own needs to console *her*.
Vaughn Demont
2021-08-30 23:41:31 +0000 UTCPlease please please add a shirt to your shop that says “defend fat people as if they looked like Gwyneth Paltrow.”
Alison Knight
2021-08-30 23:22:17 +0000 UTCHi, hello! Love the pod. Listened to every epsidoe like twice... while I was off-grid in October and damn y'all had me howling. Okay so this episode. Y'all I have so many thoughts but I have GOT to jump in on the Tony Robbins convo bc I have a great story. My cousin who is let's say general counsel for a well-known corp casually dropped at a family function that he AND I QUOTE had "lost 20 pounds and was no longer eating chicken because he recently came back from a 3-DAY LONG TONY ROBBINS CONVENTION WHERE HE TOLD HIM THAT CHICKEN IS DIRTY." Y'ALL PLEASE!! You can't make this shit up. I'm sure my reaction was one that included needing to conceal a snort-laugh (my usual reaction when feeling both shock, horror and comical disbelief). So yeah. Not only did he pay what I can only imagine was thousands and thousands of dollars for he and his family to attend said convention in Las Vegas or some shit, but he also came home blasting from his bugle about chicken being fucking dirty.
d'auria + sean
2021-08-30 21:44:14 +0000 UTCJees, watching this as a chubby 8 year old this engrained in me that I'd be only quasi lovable by a boring little jerk if I was fat, and only under partially magical circumstances. I'm a jack black stan, but MAN did this movie mess me up about being lovable for a while
Sarah Ippen
2021-08-30 21:40:30 +0000 UTCCan we also talk about the fact that both lead dudes in the movie are also not conventionally attractive? Jason Alexander, short and bald. And Jack Black is a chubby to fat guy, no? Why is it played as if he's a stud, and why are we even talking about him as "a thin white man dating a fat girl"? He's not a thin white man!
IrisKS
2021-08-30 21:36:57 +0000 UTC@Roseybeeme has an entire series of reels on instagram highlighting tons of these - actresses and actors in fat suits, people who were portrayed in pop culture as fat, but aren't really fat. Highly recommend checking them out.
Alyssa Klein
2021-08-30 21:13:56 +0000 UTCI saw this movie when I was about 12-13 and I deeply internalized the fat-phobic messages they claimed not to be sending. I watched it with a bunch of thin people, so I had to pretend to find it funny while inside my brain was going, "Okay, cool, I will never be able to find love or happiness. And I also can't sit down in public. Or eat. Or buy clothes." I didn't have a serious relationship until I was in my late 20s because I didn't think as a fat person I deserved love. I'm engaged now and still have a part of me that thinks he will come home one day and say it's all been a joke or a dare. It didn't start with this movie, but this was definitely a big part of it. Every time they put an actor in a fat suit, I want to die. I can't help but think of the time Tyra Banks put on a fat suit for her show and was appalled at how she was treated. Really, you had to pretend to be over 300 pounds to see fat people as real people? It's like when dudes have daughters and all of a sudden become feminist. We've been people all along, asshole.
Victoria Eden
2021-08-30 21:07:10 +0000 UTCHave a skinny mom and had a similar experience! I'm so sorry this happened to you too!
Deming Elysia Cassity
2021-08-30 21:00:49 +0000 UTCI'm not sure if this is quite what you're looking for, but one traumatic fat-suit image I've never been able to get out of my head is Mike Myers' Fat Bastard character in Austin Powers. I was a self-conscious fat kid in high school when that movie came out in 1999 and it felt like every stereotype of fat people as disgusting gluttons was being shouted around me as friends would quote the movie at each other. Needless to say, it didn't do anything positive for my self esteem.
Milo Grammer
2021-08-30 20:59:24 +0000 UTCThere is a VERY RECENT fatphobic movie- Brittany Runs a Marathon. I never watched it but the trailer alone is sad. Aka all fat ppl are lazy, unmotivated and deeply unhappy.
Rebecca Taylor
2021-08-30 20:52:47 +0000 UTCI think about this movie whenever I fold my underwear.... which sounds super weird and is awfully troubling.
Keysha
2021-08-30 20:38:36 +0000 UTCA movie suggestion would be "Just Friends" where Ryan Reynolds starts off in a fat suit and is rejected by his love interest, only to lose all the weight, return to his hometown ten years later and pursue her again. That movie is extra problematic because it is not just harmful to fat people, but it also perpetuates the toxic "nice guy" mentality that if a guy is nice to girl she has to be willing to date him, and if she wants to just be friends that's somehow a character flaw in her.
Emily
2021-08-30 20:31:34 +0000 UTCAs I understand it, that wasn't in the original script. I heard an interview with Patton Oswalt recently where he mentioned that this script had been sent to him to be punched up and he added the whole storyline about the tail.
Emily
2021-08-30 20:27:13 +0000 UTCYes! The one that immediately came to mind when she mentioned the trend was Road Trip. To be fair, that was just a nonstop dumpster fire of a movie, but it had the running "joke" of the super skinny guy in love with a much heavier woman.
Emily
2021-08-30 20:25:49 +0000 UTCY'all need give this crit to film schools for the screen writing class. Oh the shit we culturally swim in...
Sam Murphy
2021-08-30 19:57:41 +0000 UTCOne of the most potent and resonant quotes from this bonus episode: "This movie accidentally creates a portrait of what the world expects fat people to be—always grateful, always demure, always super deprecating, and always willing to give you a second chance. This is how we expect members of marginalized groups to behave towards members of the majority at all times. Take me in good faith, even if I've treated you shitty. If you treat me as if I will treat you shitty again, you're the aggressor."
Kimberley Wong
2021-08-30 19:53:07 +0000 UTCAubrey deserves every edible in the world after this episode.
Madeleine Jubilee Saito
2021-08-30 19:49:41 +0000 UTCI would have liked to hear your opinions on how it turned out the Jason Alexander character had a tail?? I think that was the filmmakers' way of trying to excuse his gross behavior -- he was "insecure" because of his tail, so he took it out on others. Or something like that.
IrisKS
2021-08-30 19:44:06 +0000 UTCMonica's fat arc on Friends deserves a mini-episode of its own
Ren Wednesday
2021-08-30 19:43:23 +0000 UTCThis episode was SO GOOD, and I have flashbacks to seeing the trailer in theaters and feeling traumatized by them. I'm curious since you mentioned Gwenyth Paltrow regretting the role. I admire Jack Black a lot today as an unapologetically fat, positive comedian, who has done some work with much better messages. While you were researching, did you find any quotes from him about regretting the role?
singjunebug
2021-08-30 19:22:54 +0000 UTCI remember MY MOM showing me this movie when I around 10 or 11 years old, right around the same time she told me I was going to get diabetes and die if I didn't lose weight. What a GOD AWFUL film. This episode was so cathartic to listen to.
Morag
2021-08-30 19:00:11 +0000 UTCLet’s not forget the 2 episode (or so) arc of Fat Lee Adama in Battlestar Galactica. That one actually cracks me up because it REALLY looks like he’s just got a pillow in his shirt 😂
Sally Hunter
2021-08-30 18:58:58 +0000 UTCI would never have known that about Neville had you not told me. Interesting
AskJeeves
2021-08-30 18:55:33 +0000 UTCYeah, I overall have a really positive impression of Jack Black. It makes me sad to think he was mean enough to do this.
AskJeeves
2021-08-30 18:53:35 +0000 UTChttps://youtu.be/yfuxnx163qU My Mad Fat Diary turns the fat suit bit on its head; the main character Rae is fat but there's a scene where she imagines unzipping and burning the 'fat suit' that is her actual body. extremely trigger warning but this scene has always stuck with me and I tear up just thinking about it.
kelsey
2021-08-30 18:15:26 +0000 UTCOmg what a stupid movie. I did see it years ago because I am an elderly millenial, ha. Early 2000s thin obsessed culture was such nonsense and a shit time for teen girls. This definitely wasn’t the only movie with the giant underwear sex scene gag.
Julie Scanlon
2021-08-30 18:14:01 +0000 UTCYes the Tyra fat suit is infamous. Like she couldn't have just interviewed fat people about their experiences. She had to go "Fat like Me."
Elizabeth Anderson
2021-08-30 17:53:15 +0000 UTCGod, I hate this movie.
Heather Gardiner
2021-08-30 17:46:16 +0000 UTCCannot wait to yell out loud when you talk about Sarah Paulson's fat suit in Impeachment next month
Cate Young
2021-08-30 17:39:55 +0000 UTCCan we talk about how the main men in this movie aren't especially thin or conventionally attractive?
Meredith Zolty
2021-08-30 17:38:46 +0000 UTCOh no I googled shallow Hal and the movie has 49% on rotten tomatoes! And 5.9 on IMDB! And a 4.7/5 on Amazon prime 🤦♀️
Sally Fox
2021-08-30 17:16:54 +0000 UTCI appreciated this so much and I very much would love to hear you all compare this with the Amy Schumer movie I Feel Pretty. It's more or less the same premise altho this time it's the pretty averaged sized woman who gets hexed or whatever to see herself as thin. It's...not good.
Baba Corva
2021-08-30 17:16:50 +0000 UTCOh goddamnit! I have been looking forward to this show and I love Sarah Paulson, but nothing pisses me off more than a fat suit. So disappointed
Sally Hunter
2021-08-30 16:52:05 +0000 UTCOoo can't wait to listen to this. I remember liking this movie as a teen and thinking it had an overall positive message ??? Oof lol how we've grown since then. Also - Tyra Banks had an infamous 'undercover fat suit' episode on her talk show. I feel like she donned one a couple of times but apparently it was just the once? She was doing a lot of clumsy attempts at body positivity at the time with very mixed results lol...
Kaittttt 🥯✨
2021-08-30 16:50:44 +0000 UTCEvery time I rewatch Bridget Jones I’m always struck by how young and thin she is. Like, this character was presented as a “fat” spinster and high school me was so concerned for her.
Sally MacKenzie
2021-08-30 16:23:59 +0000 UTCThe thing that kills me is focusing on one personality flaw of a character and making a whole movie about that flaw, and rather than that person working on themselves to be a better person in general, they just don’t.
Emilia Gurga
2021-08-30 16:19:05 +0000 UTCWould love to see a Bridget Jones episode. I think that movie is objectively a much more charming and entertaining movie, but Bridget’s body dysmorphia is hard to palate 20 years later
Sarah Gallo
2021-08-30 16:17:46 +0000 UTCSo, in addition to the fact the IMbB has a list of actors that have worn fat suits, two that are not as well known are the Matthew Lewis as Neville Longbottom and Kenneth McMillian as Baron Harkkonnen in Dune ( and Stellen Skarsgard will wear a fat suit for the upcoming version).
Mary Oswell
2021-08-30 16:16:49 +0000 UTCI really do like Tina Fey but a lot of problematic fat jokes got through on 30 Rock under her watch. In Bossy Pants she talked about a time when she was “a little bit fat” and while it tried to convey how people treated her differently, it also contained enough fat generalizations (it’s super gluttonous to eat fast food, btw) to be problematic and also it was clear that her definition of “a little bit fat” was actually not fat at all.
Danielle Marcus
2021-08-30 16:09:34 +0000 UTCThe movie Death Becomes Her is an even more horrific film than Shallow Hal. I would love if you did a show on that one.
Maria
2021-08-30 16:01:57 +0000 UTCNot a movie or TV show, but David Sedaris has an essay in “Me Talk Pretty One Day” (and read in episode #99 of This American Life) about his sister Amy wearing a fat suit home for the holidays and their fathers horrified reaction to it
Ellen F.
2021-08-30 15:48:40 +0000 UTCI was - and remain! - bummed out by when 30 Rock puts Jane Krakowski in a fat suit, both as a sketch on TGS (about a fat woman who is ‘overly confident’ in... I think the first episode? Her character is called Pam) and then the joke is kind of recycled later when Jenna gains weight and they make a bunch of sketches about it and she achieves a different kind of attention for it. It’s grim all round.
Roisin Muldoon
2021-08-30 15:43:42 +0000 UTCI'm sure there are so many, but a recent one I've seen a lot is anyone who plays Winston Churchill and wears awful fat suits and bad bad bald caps (recently saw it in S5 of Peaky Blinders)
singjunebug
2021-08-30 15:40:57 +0000 UTCThere has been a but of a ruckus about Sarah Paulson wearing a fat suit to play Linda Tripp in the upcoming Lewinsky movie.
Elizabeth Anderson
2021-08-30 15:18:00 +0000 UTCThe fat suit I always think about is Goldie Hawn in Death Becomes Her. I’m not fully sure why but it’s the only fat suit I’ve never been mad at. Maybe because the whole movie is just poking fun at body image issues overall. It was such a short part of the movie too, but I think of it often.
Ewan Hunnicutt
2021-08-30 15:14:55 +0000 UTCIt is really strange to see Jack Black portray this character because I grew up with him in School of Rock with that genuinely nice scene between him and the young singer.
Savannah Brock
2021-08-30 15:13:29 +0000 UTCYeah what’s up with that?? By Hollywood standards Jack black and Jason Alexander are both fat guys!
Savannah Brock
2021-08-30 15:10:09 +0000 UTCI think this the massively misogynistic idea that a man’s value is in his personality, smarts, wealth, etc. & a woman’s is solely in her looks & her ability to be seen as a high status object in full colour. So, Jack Black isn’t conventionally Hollywood attractive, but his ability to be an interesting, funny, rounded person grants him narrative permission to be pursuing “hot girls”, while at the same time working with the societal message that ‘all men are entitled to hot girls.’ Jack Black doesn’t have to be Ryan Reynolds in the same way as Gwyneth has to be Gwyneth, because we fundamentally hold men & women to different standards of value. All Hal has to do to be the hero of this film is to see Rosemary’s “inner beauty”. If this was gender flipped, all Rosemary would have to do is lose weight, & we’ve all seen that a billion times before. Jack Black isn’t unattractive, not classic romantic lead by any means, but he’s got charisma, he’s funny, charming & energetic, & time & again stories show these qualities in men counting to level them up in what is a fundamentally a repulsive means of reducing people (mostly women) to a series of desirable traits that can be shown off.
Kore_R
2021-08-30 15:09:28 +0000 UTCI had to rewind about 4 times to get through the underwear clip because I just kept zoning out. It’s literally not even interesting enough to keep my outrage.
Nicole F.
2021-08-30 14:59:03 +0000 UTCI wanted to second the overcoming trope typified by Monica. There's also a fascinating K-Drama called Oh My Venus that does some of this. And the show Insatiable on Netflix I think references it but maybe doesn't show it outright?
Liz Kane
2021-08-30 14:39:38 +0000 UTCDifferent scenario, but Chrissy Metz wore a fat suit in American Horror Story: Freakshow to make her bigger for the role as the fat lady.
Inna Spivak
2021-08-30 14:26:33 +0000 UTCIt only gets WORSE. Truly ruined that whole show for me.
Elizabeth Enas
2021-08-30 14:19:37 +0000 UTCVanessa Minnillo did a similar “undercover experiment”
Ann
2021-08-30 14:12:32 +0000 UTCAlso Alyson Hannigan in the really awful Date Movie
Ann
2021-08-30 14:10:47 +0000 UTCElizabeth Moss AND January Jones wore a fat suit in Mad Men
Ann
2021-08-30 14:06:22 +0000 UTCI was so proud at one point when I found out this movie was filmed in my hometown Charlotte NC…and now I am soooo embarrassed by that fact 😬 I so remember this movie, and I remember laughing at these bad jokes. Ugh, I need a shower now.
Kaiti Vannoy
2021-08-30 14:05:24 +0000 UTCI had no idea!
Ann
2021-08-30 14:02:08 +0000 UTCJust friends with Ryan Reynolds! Ugh..
Ashlee Robbins
2021-08-30 13:57:27 +0000 UTCRene Kirby (the disabled actor with spina bifida) is actually my third-cousin! I don't know him well, but I can give a little context for the character he played in Shallow Hal: Rene is a boomer (now 66yo) who grew up in small-town Vermont. From what I've heard, he faced a lot of ridicule growing up with his disability, but he's always been kind-hearted and jovial despite it. He's always been known for self-depricating humor, and "laughing it off" when people made nasty comments to him. He's definitely quieter/calmer than his Shallow Hal character, but that type of humor about his disability is very much part of his real-life personality, and I've been told by family members that he was absolutely THRILLED to be part of the movie! (I recognize the many problems with this movie, including Rene's character. Just wanted to share that at the least, he didn't feel exploited by the role. ❤️)
Mina K
2021-08-30 13:47:56 +0000 UTCI’ve been rewatching New Girl and it’s my first rewatch since I read Aubrey’s book and listened to the pod, and wOw does the Fat Schmidt stuff be hittin different now 😬😬😬 (Also sidenote I can’t even begin to explain to you how horrified I am that I remember watching Shallow Hal as a kid and LIKING IT. Now even just the trailer makes me cringe into the sun. My mom actually just recently rewatched it and she was like “oh it has such a good message!” And I was like !!!! Keep reading that book I gave you mom!!!!!!! Cuz she’s reading Aubrey’s book atm at my request)
Nicki Richards
2021-08-30 13:43:06 +0000 UTCPlease discuss Emma Thompson’s fat suit in Love Actually! This one is taken very *~seriously~* by the film.
Elisa Faison
2021-08-30 13:41:40 +0000 UTCI forgot about that. So much to unpack there
Kendall
2021-08-30 13:19:29 +0000 UTCI loved that movie as a kid but also desperately wanted to be sent to a fat camp. I’ve been too afraid to rewatch it
Kendall
2021-08-30 13:18:07 +0000 UTCRe: Jason Alexander’s character never getting comeuppance, I think it’s because in the end he’s revealed to have that tail, which animalizes him the way he constantly animalizes fat women. We see his bad behavior is all fear and insecurity driven so we aren’t allowed to hold him accountable, we have to understand that anti fatness is driven by insecurity. As if that’s the main driver rather than anti fatness perpetuated by thin people in media!!
Kendall
2021-08-30 13:17:04 +0000 UTCDid anyone else watch Heavyweights on Disney ad nauseum when they were a kid in the 90s? There are some positive elements, but also so many tropes that undermine its message.
Kaitlin Kitzrow
2021-08-30 13:08:59 +0000 UTC"The Golden Girls" had an episode in season 3 where the actress playing Blanche's daughter was quite obviously wearing a fat suit. For a show that was progressive for its time on a lot of issues, body positivity was NOT one of them. The comments about the character's weight were so cringe.
Emily Ahrens
2021-08-30 13:00:15 +0000 UTCPleeease an episode on TLC's "My 600 Pound Life" - this show has been on for what seems like decades... curious for your take on it 😳
Amy Stapleton
2021-08-30 12:26:11 +0000 UTCI must of been 9 or 10 when I first saw this movie.. so says a lot about my childhood
Ashleigh Taylor
2021-08-30 12:20:47 +0000 UTCSarah Paulson in a fat suit to play Linda Tripp is currently making headlines and seems to be this weird split of paying lip service to anti-fat bias being real and also “but don’t I deserve to play this character?”
Sionainn
2021-08-30 11:38:05 +0000 UTCSchmidt and Monica were the ones that hit me. Like… to demonstrate how hot they are now they have to show them having been fat. I don’t super mind John Travolta bc he was not super slim at that stage anyway so they sort of changed his proportions, it’s not in the same way they made Courtney Cox fat in friends where she’s extremely thin and then back in time she’s triple her actual size (and also her personality is worse!!). But people growing up to BECOME hot by losing all the weight hella enforced the idea that I had to do that in order to like… prove my bullies wrong or something. It enforces those negative ideas amongst young fat kids and it fucking sucks. (Also whatever that Netflix show was where she had her jaw wired shut to lose weight as revenge against her peers or something, same thing but I was too old to put up with it)
Ally
2021-08-30 11:37:58 +0000 UTCTyra Banks wore a fat suit for The Tyra Banks Show. If I remember it correctly, the discussion centered around the pain she felt from the experience.
Hernease Davis
2021-08-30 11:37:32 +0000 UTCAnother one from that general era is America’s Sweethearts. Julia Roberts in a fat suit.
Lisa Johnson
2021-08-30 11:36:35 +0000 UTCHave you seen @roseybeeme on Instagram? She has a whole series of videos on people the media called fat (who weren't really fat) and there are a few about the use of fat suits in movies.
Christina Hernandez
2021-08-30 11:33:53 +0000 UTCThe thing that I never got is that like, Jack Black is not like… typically attractive either? Like the films premise doesn’t make sense, he goes from dating girls out of his league to… women society would consider to be in his league?
Ally
2021-08-30 11:32:48 +0000 UTCSuch a great episode! I would love to listen to you all dissect terrible movies…new podcast idea? LOL Also, have you considered getting Lindy West as a guest sometime?
Ashley Maready
2021-08-30 11:25:31 +0000 UTCI just remember my mom saying Jack Black's character isn't even that thin or attractive.
Aimee Haase
2021-08-30 11:04:42 +0000 UTCThe fat suit roles that stick out to me from my childhood/adolescence are: Schmidt (New Girl), Monica (Friends), Edna Turnblad (Travolta in the Hairspray remake, which I know that particular fat suit use has its roots in the stage version), oddly enough Steve Carrell (the Get Smart remake), Tim Allen (the Santa Clause franchise), Terry Giffords (Brooklyn 99), and Kaley Cuoco (To Be Fat Like Me). One of the most disturbing things about when characters show up in fat suits, especially on tv, is that it is usually as a flashback of some sort, like they used to be fat and have since “overcome” being fat, and the flashback is other characters making fun of them or a nightmare they’re having, like being fat was the Worst Thing That Ever Happened To Them. As a fat kid/teen, whenever scenes like this came up, I would just cringe internally, and aloud laugh along with everyone else. My family are all fat, so we pretty much avoided media with this trope if we could.
Colleen Wilkes
2021-08-30 10:57:11 +0000 UTCLove this so much ❤ Never saw the movie but the trailer made it seem like such a trash piece.
Raphaella Weissgerber
2021-08-30 10:47:17 +0000 UTCThe classic of Monica from friends. So much about that show aged really badly, but one of the standout things for me was how Monica in a fat suit and Monica being fat was literally the entire joke
Zoe
2021-08-30 10:44:43 +0000 UTCI feel like so many of Eddie Murphys films are so bad for this
Zoe
2021-08-30 10:43:32 +0000 UTCJesus. That fits exactly with what A&M were saying in the podcast about how the approval of other men is so important (I wildly paraphrase, as I have terrible memory!)
Zoe
2021-08-30 10:42:59 +0000 UTCI just started watching New Girl and young Schmidt in a fat suit is making me so uncomfortable...
Aurélie Gandour
2021-08-30 09:59:48 +0000 UTCOoof it was a rough time for tween-age me when this shit was peak humour. See also: fat Monica being the butt of many a joke on Friends.
Stevie Sheer
2021-08-30 09:44:09 +0000 UTCThank you (sorry) for suffering through this for us! I only saw the trailer of this when it came out, and thought it was horrible, but the most damning thing was reading a review of it in a gossip magazine -- the kind that habitualy circled cellulite and belly rolls on celebrities -- where they were like 'this was very mean to fat people, actually'.
Ren Wednesday
2021-08-30 09:38:45 +0000 UTCMy mom LOVED this movie when I was a kid… She is a former mid-fat woman who has developed eating disorders & loves to shit on fat people (including me lol). I can’t tell you how many times I watched this movies as a kid at her behest
Emily Pryor
2021-08-30 09:37:36 +0000 UTCI'm so glad you guys did this episode cause it's the sort of movie I'd occasionally remember and then my mind would almost break trying to figure out why it existed. Somehow it was a regular watch at sleepovers when i was 13 (2004) which like... oh god
Lauren
2021-08-30 09:33:58 +0000 UTCI absolutely hated how they don't show the fat face of Goopwoman until 1 hour 20 minutes of the movie. And when they do, she's suddenly covered up. Until then, it was a fat person and she was only her "cankles" or rolls or flab. Nothing else. I wish this was atleast two hours long. But thank you.
Vismitha S
2021-08-30 09:29:52 +0000 UTCI'm a zoomer and I know this movie pretty well because it's one of my moms favorites and she used to watch it a lot when I was younger. So I was forced to know this movie
Aliyah
2021-08-30 09:19:21 +0000 UTCY'all should do Norbit next. It is honestly the worst movie that's ever existed and it is ten times worse than Shallow Hal. Or Eddie Murphy's The Nutty Professor. Hairspray (2007 or 1988) would also be a less offensive one
Aliyah
2021-08-30 09:17:50 +0000 UTCWhat about actresses who actually gained weight rather than suited up -- in addition to Bridget Jones, Charlize Theron in "Monster" (male actors seem to do this more frequently.) And, don't know if this "fits," but the fat man in the restaurant scene in Monty Python's "The Meaning of Life" is surely the grossest thing ever put on film.
Elizabeth
2021-08-30 09:06:27 +0000 UTCthis was on semi regular rotation on the VHS when i was a kid…the second i was old enough to think about things beyond face value something about the film just get very off
Amy
2021-08-30 08:53:09 +0000 UTCThis reminds of a memoir by a blind man I once read, Touching the Rock by John Hull, in which he wrote that even though he was fully blind he always asked his male colleagues how physically attractive his female colleagues were because it was still important to him. Have been haunted by that for years.
N.
2021-08-30 08:30:08 +0000 UTCThere’s a 2018 Amy Schumer film called “I feel pretty” where the main character takes a head injury and suddenly thinks she’s incredibly attractive. I haven’t seen this film or shallow Hal, but I wonder if they have similar vibes?
Zoe
2021-08-30 08:29:16 +0000 UTCNot only female actresses in fat suits, don't forget Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor, classic film about weightloss!
VL
2021-08-30 08:16:17 +0000 UTCThis movie literally could be pinpointed to the beginning of my disordered eating I cannot wait to hear you guys tear it to shreds!
Michelle Byrne
2021-08-30 08:14:04 +0000 UTCNot a fat suit, but Renee Zellweger put on a bunch of weight for Bridget Jones, though I'm sure that's already in your plan!
Kate McDonell
2021-08-30 08:08:14 +0000 UTCYay just what I needed right now, bonus MP
Kate McDonell
2021-08-30 08:07:33 +0000 UTCCan't wait to listen 🌟😁
Alana Muir
2021-08-30 08:01:53 +0000 UTC
