Bad comedians get really weird when we talk about offensiveness. We don”™t want to freak them
out or hurt their feelings. It might cause them to start using their brains and develop some actual
talent.
We dance around bad comedy as if it”™s a mystery. It could be that those intellectual, size acceptance activist
types in the reading audience have no sense of humor. You know, the ones who study actual
data and get annoyed when you make statements that are just plain false. Maybe it”™s that nobody
appreciates witless cruelty anymore. Or it could be that audiences are just too picky. What
happened to the good old days when you could get a laugh with a completely unoriginal
stereotype?
It”™s time to demystify why some comedians aren”™t funny. It”™s what and how much bitter,
transparently insecure drivel they think they can pass off as humor.
Size acceptance activist? Well, yawl aren’t half as cranky as the Jesus people I normally piss off.
Jim
Great comment, Jeanne! Hope you got the rest of that custard donut out of the keyboard. Sorry about your body image!
Jackie
Witty, Jim. Very witty. Soon you may qualify as a standup comic yourself. How do you know Jeanne was eating a custard donut? She could have been eating a raw carrot. All fat people are not compulsive eaters and all compulsive eaters are not fat. Or are you breathing air so rarefied you haven’t noticed? Jim, Jim. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Please try not to make snap judgments. You might get along better.
SharonC
You wrote:
“It is time to de-mystify why we are fat.”
Yes let’s. But let’s have the truth shall we, not this tired old stereotype you’re trotting out of:
“It is what and how much we eat. ”
This doesn’t make any more sense than saying that people with swollen ankles drink too much . You were much closer to the mark when you said
“We dance around the reasons for obesity as if it’s a mystery, a phenomenon that modern science may someday unravel. It could be hormonal or glandular or genetic or — even worse — contagious!”
It *is* a mystery. Scientists don’t know how two people with the same eating habits can end up with different weights. They don’t know how in one experiment where you force-feed prisoners, they find it very difficult to gain a lot of weight, and they lose the weight easily once the experiment ends. They don’t know how in another experiment, you starve people, they find it difficult and don’t manage to lose much weight and put the weight back on easily once the experiment ends. Scientists don’t know why, when you take a bunch of people and measure with a calorimeter how much energy they need to maintain their weight, you get a bunch of different answers for people at the same weight.
The only thing you can reasonably deduce from all this is that some people’s bodily systems are naturally set to “thin”, and some people’s bodily systems are naturally set to “fat”. All the snack taxes in the world aren’t going to change that. You might have a small effect, a pound or two maybe at the most. You’re not going to change people’s body sizes.
Carol
You’ll get my Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
Great article, Tina. You aren’t unfunny. And your drivel isn’t bitter and transparently insecure. It’s very cogent drivel.
Jim
Actually, Jackie, I am breathing rarefied air, if you must ask. I’m not being immodest to say that I’m smarter than most people I know. And perhaps it’s my imagination, but did I touch a nerve somewhere? Resentful and overly defensive responses like Jeanne’s (and yours, perhaps?) usually indicate that the writer has had unpleasant personal experience with the topic, which leads him or her to react angrily to anyone who does not share the same opinion. This is what we refer to as “narrow-minded.”
Forget smokers, tax bad comedians
Bad comedians get really weird when we talk about offensiveness. We don”™t want to freak them
out or hurt their feelings. It might cause them to start using their brains and develop some actual
talent.
We dance around bad comedy as if it”™s a mystery. It could be that those intellectual, size acceptance activist
types in the reading audience have no sense of humor. You know, the ones who study actual
data and get annoyed when you make statements that are just plain false. Maybe it”™s that nobody
appreciates witless cruelty anymore. Or it could be that audiences are just too picky. What
happened to the good old days when you could get a laugh with a completely unoriginal
stereotype?
It”™s time to demystify why some comedians aren”™t funny. It”™s what and how much bitter,
transparently insecure drivel they think they can pass off as humor.
Size acceptance activist? Well, yawl aren’t half as cranky as the Jesus people I normally piss off.
Great comment, Jeanne! Hope you got the rest of that custard donut out of the keyboard. Sorry about your body image!
Witty, Jim. Very witty. Soon you may qualify as a standup comic yourself. How do you know Jeanne was eating a custard donut? She could have been eating a raw carrot. All fat people are not compulsive eaters and all compulsive eaters are not fat. Or are you breathing air so rarefied you haven’t noticed? Jim, Jim. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Please try not to make snap judgments. You might get along better.
You wrote:
“It is time to de-mystify why we are fat.”
Yes let’s. But let’s have the truth shall we, not this tired old stereotype you’re trotting out of:
“It is what and how much we eat. ”
This doesn’t make any more sense than saying that people with swollen ankles drink too much . You were much closer to the mark when you said
“We dance around the reasons for obesity as if it’s a mystery, a phenomenon that modern science may someday unravel. It could be hormonal or glandular or genetic or — even worse — contagious!”
It *is* a mystery. Scientists don’t know how two people with the same eating habits can end up with different weights. They don’t know how in one experiment where you force-feed prisoners, they find it very difficult to gain a lot of weight, and they lose the weight easily once the experiment ends. They don’t know how in another experiment, you starve people, they find it difficult and don’t manage to lose much weight and put the weight back on easily once the experiment ends. Scientists don’t know why, when you take a bunch of people and measure with a calorimeter how much energy they need to maintain their weight, you get a bunch of different answers for people at the same weight.
The only thing you can reasonably deduce from all this is that some people’s bodily systems are naturally set to “thin”, and some people’s bodily systems are naturally set to “fat”. All the snack taxes in the world aren’t going to change that. You might have a small effect, a pound or two maybe at the most. You’re not going to change people’s body sizes.
You’ll get my Little Debbie Swiss Cake Roll when you pry it from my cold dead hands.
Great article, Tina. You aren’t unfunny. And your drivel isn’t bitter and transparently insecure. It’s very cogent drivel.
Actually, Jackie, I am breathing rarefied air, if you must ask. I’m not being immodest to say that I’m smarter than most people I know. And perhaps it’s my imagination, but did I touch a nerve somewhere? Resentful and overly defensive responses like Jeanne’s (and yours, perhaps?) usually indicate that the writer has had unpleasant personal experience with the topic, which leads him or her to react angrily to anyone who does not share the same opinion. This is what we refer to as “narrow-minded.”