Bad Taste: The Cartoon Or Flint Water?

I know. We’re not supposed to make fun of fat people. It’s the latest PC taboo, one that I gleefully ignore today.

What is this thing about large, obese folks that alarms us so? I think it’s because we know it’s unhealthy and there are people in our lives we love, whether we know them personally or not, that we care for. Friends, family and media folks.

Take Melissa McCarthy, for instance. She’s a great comic actor and funny as hell. I saw “The Heat” three times. I worried about her health when she was large but she’s lost 50 pounds with an ultimate goal of losing 100 and looks fantastic. I’m not worried about her anymore. Her health certainly has only improved and she should be around for a long time making us laugh.

America has always had a place in her heart for a funny fat person, most often a guy. John Candy and Chris Farley had filled that bill until they both died at a young age. That’s a pretty high price to pay for stardom.

People like to talk about body shaming. Look, shame comes from the inside. We have to feel shame and nobody can thrust it on us unless we co-operate. Too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny, whatever.

I read a story in New Yorker about people who have a physical problem, that they can’t feel sated. They eat and eat and never feel full. It’s a rare condition, but most people are fat for reasons they can control. For the sake of people who love them, I wish they would.