Does Weight Loss Kill the Careers of Fat Comedians?

She isn't a comedian, but I know Star Jones career just seemed to flat line when she went from jovial fat lady with interesting things to say to thin, and almost deflated looking lady. She just isn't as pretty thin as opposed to fat, her face radically changing to the extreme. One would hope that weight wouldn't influence so much, that it would change your career, because one's mind, brain and humor would remain the same but in Hollywood, isn't "your look" sad to say, what is most banked upon?

The title here is horrible:

"Do Fat Comedians Lose Some Giggles When They Lose the Jiggles?"

However, the article has lots of interesting questions about Drew Carey and other comedians who have lost weight. Why do their careers fail?

"But there are situations when shedding excess poundage can ruin one’s career, like if you are an overweight comedian who has built a career making others laugh at, or at least in part because of, your overweight state.

“Losing weight can be the ultimate comedic curse if you have established yourself as a fat comedian. Once we create our images of famous people and actors, we don’t like those images to change or to be challenged,” human behavior expert and celebrity life coach Patrick Wanis Ph.D. told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “John Goodman and Drew Carey lost weight and lost our attention because we had already embedded in our mind, our association with their old image as the funny fat guy. John Candy and the character he portrays in the movie ‘Uncle Buck’ is the epitome – so warm and funny that you want to run up and hug him.”

See my other blog entry: "The Troubles of Fat Comedians: John Belushi and Chris Farley"


I have to admit when some comedians I used to watch like Roseanne Barr lost weight, it was like they became less approachable. I even felt that way, and I'm fat! With some of these people like Drew Carey, see picture at top, they start looking like everyone else, there is little distinction, I could have ran across that guy at the grocery store, and not recognized him. Alton Brown while never obese, looks terminally ill, from his weight loss. John Goodman lost weight too? I wonder why I haven't seen him around lately.

Anyone remember Sylvia?

This was a comic from the 80s, I always preferred it to Cathy. While I didn't agree with everything, she seemed sharp and with it... the weight jokes were funnier...I guess I'm showing my age here. Soon to come, I am planning to do a blog entry on Fat Women in Comics.

Fat People: Escape the Mental Prison They Have Built for You

One thing about me, that people find out, is I do not fit any cookie cutter mold. I know this society sells its own manufactured rebellion, picture here the pierced nose and tattoo crowd convincing us how very different they are, as they form clones of each other at the local hipster hangout. One thing I worry about in this society is true individuals are getting rarer and rarer, via an over homogenized media and conformity. Being fat, there is a negative mold waiting and ready for you, a role they want you to play as forever inferior to the "thin" and "broken down" and "apologetic" for your very existence. I remember when I was young, having achieved at least a college degree and some professional work even before my weight gain as I was still in the midsized category, being told in endless ways, I was no good just based on my body size. For me facing my own mortality when I was young, I had to wake up fast. It was stand up for myself time or die.

I look at people even 300lbs thinner then me, their lives a stress out hamster wheel of enforced self-improvement. Even people, especially women, with 20 extra pounds feel the pressure. Lose weight if you can--God go with you and if you want, but do not expect everyone's body to operate like your own, or that everyone should match you. No one ever questions, "hey maybe its not all about the food, but messed up lives with less leisure, social activity, wholesome food and meaningful movement?". Realizing the majority of researchers are being herded [mostly] in the profit off fat pool instead of real answers, was another wake up call for me. This told me something else I suspected but really hadn't checked out.

But then this country is asleep about so much not just obesity, drugged out, trance induced, brainwashed by the media, which forms their likes, dislikes, thoughts and behaviors, rather then thinking for themselves. This relates to why the economy is collapsing and why the powers that be have succeeded in getting Americans to embrace their own demise. The destruction of unions is one example. Yes they grew corrupt and bloated but dumbed down America, forgot what people fought for in the early part of the 20th century when it came to worker's rights. But why expect rational thought when the media tells so many "WHAT" to think. It applies to obesity by the way. They make money off of the fat people, they make money off the diet failures, They make money off the cheap food processed to death with sugar and fat poured in. So forth and so on.

I have accepted that some "magic" thin day is never coming for me unless God wills otherwise. I've lost 150lbs even and said goodbye to it forever, and have lost at least officially according to my endocrinologists scale, 50 over the last 3 years, but there is a point, where the weight, doesn't matter anymore. I had to get to a point when it came to emotional survival, in saying, God knows the truth about me and what my life has been like and why my body came to be the way it was. My whole life, so many on the outside sought to define me wholly by the body size. I see it as a mental prison, the body is imprisoning enough where you cannot do many things you miss but do not let them imprison you mentally. That is worse. Walk with your head up high. And understand God defines what is important not the status quo and their endless requirements for Step-forded skinny-minnie bodies and empty minds.

Who Decided Mucus was FAT?

Doesn't mucus come out thin and stringy most of the time? Don't mean to gross anyone out there but WHO ON EARTH DECIDED THAT MUCUS WAS FAT? I could see it maybe with boogers which are round, but MUCUS? So here fat people are equated to the villian of MUCUS, as these commercials show:



I don't know, just something to think about....

The Stigma is More Dangerous then the Actual Fat

Sometimes I think the stigma is more dangerous to the health of fat people then the actual fat itself. Looks like a researcher agrees:

"Obesity Problem – Negative Reactions Against Obese People Affect Their Physical Health Says Study"

“Obesity is a physiological issue, but when people have negative interactions in their social world—including a sense of being discriminated against—it can make matters worse and contribute to a person’s declining physical health,” said Markus H. Schafer, the doctoral student in sociology and gerontology who led the study. “We found that around a third of the severely obese people in the United States report facing some form of discriminatory experience, and the experience of weight discrimination plays into people’s own perspective about their weight. It seems that many people are internalizing the prejudice and stigma they feel, and it contributes to stress, which ultimately affects their health.

Maybe if they stopped beating up on fat people mentally, the stress would go down and their health would improve. I see the definition of insanity in full blown action when it comes to obesity, doing the same things OVER AND OVER that have never worked. Like all the campaigns to get the supposedly "lazy" fat kids moving and doing the "push away from the table" drumbeat. The "conspiracy theorist" in me says they are all fattening us up on purpose. Sometimes I believe this more and more watching the total stupidity at play.

Oh one thing I wonder if it takes a toll on the fat, is being told you will drop dead over and over. I am stubborn and believe one reason I am still alive, is because I depend on God to determine how long I will last. The researchers also point out the odd discrepancy, how even though obesity is growing far more vast, the stigma is not being reduced.

My Digestion System Has Checked Out

Normal people lose weight with Crohn's, colitis or whatever has affected me. Not me. Today I can eat OK. Other days, this isn't so true. The very idea of food brings nothing but heartache. It is scary when projectile vomiting and intense abdominal pain is pre-diagnosed as a "spastic colon/mucous colitis" but could be possible Crohn's. I have to consider a colonoscopy, but am holding off for now. As people know my trust of the medical world and it's procedures is not the highest, I find myself thinking will being this overweight put me at greater risk, where they could puncture a bowel unused to a patient of my size? I may try all holistic health endeavors first. I am in shock I haven't lost weight, from puking up at least 2 days worth of food a week, and having my appetite diminished. By the way dry heaves are very unpleasant.

The intermittent attacks make no sense either, I find myself flipping through the Merck Manual to figure out what the problem is. Bentyl works and kills all the pain, so the gallbladder via that and a scan is ruled out. Could it be stress derived? Going from normal some days [today is a normal day and I've eaten a normal breakfast and lunch], to throwing up even water and pills is scary. Every meal is a science project, will this make me sick? Will I be able to handle a dry sirloin roast beef sandwich? Is this ground turkey too greasy? Even apple sauce made me hurl the other day.

I'm running a 3/7 ratio on sick vs. well days. All spicy stuff, dairy, oils, MSG has been removed from the diet as much as possible. I've noticed when I eat organic food I feel better when I can afford it. What scares me is doctors probably will not believe what I eat AGAIN, which in this case could endanger my life once more.

I'm having other symptoms too, extreme fatigue, and my mind feels like pudding on the day before and after the attacks. The abdominal pain is like a horse kicking me in the middle. Thank God relief comes with pills and time. I try to enjoy the days, I feel half way normal on. Today is one. I need to find out what is going on.

By the way, I had these attacks sort of like this about 12 years ago without the vomiting and for a far shorter time, I stopped them, figuring out by trial and error, I was allergic to eggs and removing all eggs from the diet. This is why I had to remove dairy too acouple years ago. Sometimes medically one has to solve their own problems but this one may be moving beyond me.

Please Leave Our Stomachs Alone

Obesity isn't just a process of the stomach.

"Stomach Pacemaker May Curb Obesity"