I am a comedy geek. I love comedy! I often think it’s my own odd version of therapy in some ways. I mean, I love The Walking Dead and American Horror Story, but for me those are more fantasy than straight up drama. I like a good drama, mind you, but on television I tend to stick to the funnies.

Having spent most of my life watching my fair share of sit-coms, I’m used to the formulaic plotlines, often cheesy dialogue and sometimes groan-worthy jokes and gags. I feel that I watch a decent variety of sit-coms, but there are certain ones I don’t expect the kind of low-blow lay up that I saw last night on Blackish. I love that show!

I was watching Blackish last night and enjoying the smart-mouthed kids talking trash about their uninvited house guest smelling bad and being lazy and messy, but then said guest woke up from his nap. This very large man, I mean at least as large and broad as Suge Knight, stands up and says their comfy couch swallowed him up with it’s softness, “It felt like sleeping on Precious!” Um…What?!

Another show I used to love but have come to only half enjoy and mostly distrust because of this very topic, 2 Broke Girls, last year had an episode where an unexpected house guest was to arrive and Caroline (thin, blond, young, formerly rich) is putting a fitted sheet on their couch for their guest to sleep says to no one, “This is harder than trying to get a prom dress on Precious!” and the studio audience didn’t laugh! They booed, some of them. I was so upset by that shitty remark (I refuse to call it a joke, especially when no one fucking laughed!) and honestly in shock because that show very rarely goes the body shaming route.

I do not expect mainstream or network shows to be as radically accepting and awesome as my own beliefs and lifestyle, but these were particularly out of place and just odd and again no one laughed! It didn’t add anything to the scene, the character or the story line. So why bother?

And how is Precious still a punchline?! Gabourey Sidibe as nominated for an Academy Award (An Oscar!) for playing the role of Precious in the film of the same name. That film was heart wrenching, difficult to watch but a must watch at the same time. There was no punchline to be had in or about this film or that character. And Gabourey Sidibe is a confident, happy and proud woman who has excelled in every direction of her career! What is to make fun of? Oh! Right! FAAAAAAT!!!! I forget that the people who write these shows are a bunch of immature white dudes who view women as singularly purposeful/useful in their lives and society itself. Except 2 Broke Girls is also mostly created and written by Whitney Cummings, stand up comedian and a thin, white woman (whose self titled show flopped after one season, yeah I watched it, the dialogue was painful).

Lazy comedy is lazy comedy, period. Making fun of fat people, especially out of context and with no reason or explanation is still super fucking lazy comedy. And if no one even laughs at your sad attempt at a low-blow punchline, well, the joke is truly on you, sir, writer, who obviously needs more sleep.

I stopped watching How I Met Your Mother because the fat shaming was just too constant. I ended up not watching the last two seasons. No regrets! I still have a lot of issues with one of my all time faves The Big Bang Theory, but there are too many things for me to like and relate to in that show for me to bail on it. No network show is going to be perfect, I get that, but I don’t see the point of these wannabe punchlines that go nowhere.

Gabourey Sidibe is an icon! She doesn’t want to be the face of fat acceptance, but she is definitely a role model for accepting and loving yourself no matter what happens in the world and in your life…

Rad Fatty Love,
<3
S

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