To what extent is Weird Al's "Fat" body-shaming? Personally, I like the video.

[xiphias]

Over the past couple days, as Weird Al was releasing his new stuff, Lis and I were going back and watching his videos back-to-back with the things they were parodying. He stopped doing as many direct parodies after MTV stopped playing videos: during MTV's heyday, everybody would be familiar with every source video shot-for-shot, so people would appreciate a shot-for-shot parody; since then, he'll riff off of images in the original -- the flaming Pac-Man in "White and Nerdy", the "Weird Al Has a Big Dictionary" balloons in "Word Crimes" -- but there's not as much point in trying to re-create the original as there used to be.

So we've been watching his earlier stuff. I'd actually never seen the video for "Living With a Hernia", especially not back-to-back with "Living in America"; I highly recommend it. I hadn't realized just how much Al looks like James Brown. (Hint: not very much. But he makes it work anyway.)

As far as we can tell, his closest parodies are "Living With a Hernia", "Smells Like Nirvana", "Eat It", and "Fat".

And so, that brings me to my question. Is "Fat" an example of body-shaming?

Because, to me, it doesn't really feel like it. Nowhere near as much as I expected it to. Yes, there are bits where they have all the dancers getting out of breath. Yes, there's the bit where they get stuck trying to jump over the turnstiles. But, I dunno. They don't feel mean to me. It doesn't feel like the same kind of "laughing at the fat person" that really bothers me. Emotionally, the message of "The whole world knows I'm fat and I'm proud/And I tell you once again -- Who's Fat?" actually feels like the real message.

But I'm not as fat as some of my other friends, and I'm male. We males don't tend to get as much body-shame thrown at us. So I'm curious as to what other people's experience of the song is.

Comments

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I am of course speaking for myself only and not all fat girls, but, well, you know my issues around being fat better than most. And Ive always loved the song and the video: it's a bunch of fat guys dancing around and enjoying themselves, and Weird Al being ridiculous! I don't feel shamed by it at all.

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's just nostalgia, but it doesn't feel fat-shamey to me (and I've been paying more attention to that sort of thing lately, especially in things I liked when I was younger)...

[firecat]

Yes the video is fat-shaming. Anything that relies on a fat suit for humor is fat-shaming.

You still get to enjoy it and think it's funny.

I'm probably preaching to the choir here... Personal feelings about a work aren't a solid place to start an analysis of whether the work adds to societal oppression, even if you are part of the oppressed group in question.

I don't feel upset about the lyrics of "Blurred Lines." But that's almost entirely irrelevant to whether the song is sexist or promotes rape culture.

(I've read interviews with Weird Al where he expresses fatphobia, but that's not what I'm basing this comment on.)

[horizonchaser.livejournal.com]

It's a silly satire of another song. Probably decided to mash up the original song with the perceived American love of Fast Food and Food in general. I don't think it was written or performed with any ill intent, but we do change our views on things over time.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not asking about intent. I KNOW Weird Al had no intent of upsetting anybody. He's one of the gentlest parodists who has ever lived.

[jazzfish]

Way off topic:

As far as we can tell, his closest parodies are "Living With a Hernia", "Smells Like Nirvana", "Eat It", and "Fat".

I refer you to his pitch-perfect parody of that one scene from American Psycho with Huey Lewis.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Absolutely, a work can be funny, fat affirming, uncomfortable making, and fat shaming, all at the same time. In fact, I'd say much generally fat-positive stuff has fat-shaming aspects--a prime example is *Mike & Molly*.

In this case, the pure visuals are better than the lyrics. I do like the chorus! But the verses include standard anti-fat tropes such as our clothes being too tight & ripping, ordinary movements causing hyperbolic damage to the environment, taking up space that rightly belongs to others, unrealistic physical incapacity, and most of all being obsessed with food. Not good.

The visuals of fat people in those clothes and swaggering are cool, but even then, as you say, there's being out of breath played for laughs.

The intent doesn't have to be at all mean to perpetuate harmful stereotypes. And a mixture of enlightened views and following stereotypes seems more the rule than the exception. I think Weird Al just knows what our culture thinks is funny & is riffing from that. But I'm left with the fact that our culture thinks a lot of offensive things are funny.

Based on this song and "Eat It," I'd bet $50 that Weird Al has his own issues with food & is actually more obsessed with it than most post-dieting fat people. But that's separate, in a way, from what the song says.

Most of us have a hard skin & can take what little is affirming out of the mess it's ensconced in, or we'd be seething with anger all the time.

Personally, I don't avoid the song but--unlike his Lady GaGa parody or "White and Nerdy"--it isn't something I seek out.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Al invented the Twinkie Weiner -- cut a twinkie in half, put a perfectly-cooked Ball Park frank in it and top it with spray cheese.

And, after he became vegetarian, he's been known to make it with tofu dogs.

So, yeah. He's got a weird relationship with food.

[fatpie42.livejournal.com]

Hang on, that's something he actually eats in real life? I always thought it was just a gag for the UHF movie.

Another food gag being when he starts doing the whole 'sculpting an image of that weird-shaped mountain' thing with his mashed potatoes, referencing "Close Encounters".

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

It's something that he really did and does that was so weird that they decided to put it in the movie.

[metaphortunate.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the video very well, but I find the song fat cheerleading, myself!