"Big As A" House (The TV Show)
The new TWoP editorial team is at it again; this time with “overweight versions of our favorite shows.” Including Gross Anatomy and Large and Obese. Oh, how clever. Jennie in the comments pointed out an especially dumb one:
My least favorite? “Gained (Lost),†described thusly:
“On their way to a fat camp in Australia, a plane overloaded with overweight Americans crashes on a remote island, which is a hint that they all probably should have paid for two tickets. Once there, they find out that the island has strange properties — none of them can lose any weight, no matter how hard they try… although that might have something to do with the giant crate of mayonnaise and candy bars that gets airdropped in once a week. â€
Here are the comments at Bitter but Brilliant:
Is this TWoP’s idea of humor?
Yeah, that wasn’t funny at all.
My suggestion for TWoP: fire Zach Oat. Not only is he not funny, not only is he painfully less funny the more he tries to be funny, now he’s just working his way toward offensive with his latest drivel about “Fat Versions” of popular shows. I’m glad that he’s realized that the only things a show could possibly be about if it features fat people are food or a struggle to lose weight and be thin like all the “regular” people. And extra glad that he thought, somehow, this was hilariously funny.
Sign me up for that Fat Band show; at least it’s not about losing weight or eating food.
Posted by mo pie
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My least favorite? “Gained (Lost),” described thusly:
“On their way to a fat camp in Australia, a plane overloaded with overweight Americans crashes on a remote island, which is a hint that they all probably should have paid for two tickets. Once there, they find out that the island has strange properties — none of them can lose any weight, no matter how hard they try… although that might have something to do with the giant crate of mayonnaise and candy bars that gets airdropped in once a week. ”
REALLY? Really. I knew I kind of disliked TWoP but I’m not sure I realized how much until, you know, now.
See, I didn’t even get that far into reading them. That is not even remotely approaching funny. As Michael Scott would say, “That’s offensive and lame. So, double offensive.”
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen fat hate this stupid and uncreative.
TWOP is such a mixed bag. They have some recappers who I’d argue are pretty fat-positive – Miss Alli who recaps Amazing Race, for instance. Then they have pretty uncreative fat haters. See Potes, who writes America’s Next Top Model recaps and has a Tyra Banks fat joke in every other sentence. I had to stop reading her stuff.
The site began as a Dawson’s Creek hate site, as far as I can remember, and there was a lot of fat-hating commentary back then already, so I doubt they’re going to stop with it. I do think the quality of the articles has gone down with these new features though.
Miss Alli (aka Linda Holmes) is great, but she’s left the site and now writes the pop culture blog for NPR. I do agree they have some great recappers left, like M Giant and Sara M and Kim. It’s their editorial staff that sucks. I’ve never known Sars (who was a founder of the site but is now gone) to be in any way fat-hating, though.
Sars wrote some of the original Dawson’s Creek recaps, and I always thought there were bits that were a bit offensive.
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/dawsons_creek/pilot_11.php?page=3
If you look at the last paragraph on that page, there’s some commentary on Michelle Williams who wasn’t even fat. It’s borderline, I suppose, but I seem to recall them calling her “pig” in some of the recaps.
I liked Sars’ own website more than her TWOP recaps, actually. She seemed fun and intelligent, but got a bit too “snarky” in her recaps for my liking.
I haven’t commented on the site for, gosh, I think two years because of the very high tolerance for misogyny. Now I’ve asked to close my account, because they don’t tell you how to do that anywhere. It won’t make any difference, I suppose, but I just wanted to register how very tired I am of them, their hipster snark, and their unexamined privilege.
If I was in seventh grade and had a mean-spirited sense of humor, I’d totally find that hilarious.
i read the title and got a sentence in and thought… ‘oh how great! someone thought to fantasy cast popular tv shows w/their fantasy fat cast!’ i was all excited. but no, instead it was offensive asshats making fun of the fatties again. full of fail.
more fun? my idea! what show would i star in? i would re-cast king of queens w/ the opposites! instead of fat guy and thin gal (not that i have anything against kevin james or leah remini) you have fat gal and thin guy. i am a plucky brunette with a dry sense of humor. and my hubby actually used to work for ups. perfect! :D
Not only is this offensive but I don’t recognize more than half the original programs. I’m so out of the loop but glad I watch little commercial television.
Sara M is losing me with her More to Love recaps. Yes, it’s a show about fat people, but taking the cheap, easy fatty joke over and over as she does is just plain lazy. I’m terribly disappointed in her.
TWoP used to be my fave website ever. Now it fully and totally sucks. Plus, while they have some of the strictest moderation on the boards (at least among no holds barred entertainment boards), there is zero moderation of sexist, sizeist or misogynistic commenting. On the very first page of the Mad Men discussion board I went to after the premiere, there were several comments in a row that talked about how “huge” Joan looked.
I skedaddled to the Jezebel discussion instead. It’s so depressing what TWoP has become!