Are fat people funnier?

[Dags90]

Like 'em or not (and I don't particularly care for them), two of the biggest comedic actors in Hollywood right now, Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan, have gotten a little less big. Because they went on diets and exercised and all that happy crap. And the reaction has been decidedly mixed, with fans saying it'll make them less funny[footnote]http://www.salon.com/2011/09/23/jonah_hill_slims_down/[/footnote], and the actors/comedians themselves talking about it.

So is being fat inherently funny? Certain bits of comedy are obviously built around the comedian being fat, like Chris Farley's Chippendales gag. But are other, otherwise unrelated jokes and scenarios funnier when the person is fat? Is it funnier when slapstick happens to fat people?

Spoiler: Por ejemplo, would this video be as funny (or funny at all) if the kid wasn't fat?

I obviously expect a thoughtful and sensitive discussion.

 

[Dags90]

When they fall over, yes.

Case in point.

Have any explanation or reasons as to why you think that might be? Is it because they jiggle like Jell-O?

 

[darlarosa]

...people thought Seth Rogan was actually really funny for long periods of time? (He could be funny...for the first movie you saw him playing the same character in)

What a world.

Truth be told the fact is it's not that they were hefty(I don't really recall Seth Rogan being "fat" fat). They were just funny guys. Look at the roles they have played, in the beginning those roles relied on their being the average guy(Seth) and the overweight geek(Jonah). Besides the archtypes of people under Hollywood standards of beauty being useless if they weren't funny, well... those characters were considered so "unattractive" that their humor had to be the reason the audience liked them. Beyond that the two represented the ever yman the chubby guys you see around town or they were the joke character.

 

[Thespian]

I obviously expect a thoughtful and sensitive discussion.

Hmm. Cool topic.

I don't know about them being funnier... I think it is easier to exploit cheap comedy out of them, which might be superficially hilarious. Personally I think that kind of thing gets old, and in the end, good humour doesn't rely on it.

Fat characters need to stop only existing in Comic Relief roles though. That's laaame.

 

[Hazy992]

They are when you play a tuba to fat people walking

 

[CODE-D]

In order for that correlation to be accurate Jonah Hill and Seth Rogan would have to have been funny at some point.......they never were.


But just could be hollywood typecasting


Or it could be they were never funny.....Ill go with they were never funny.

 

[Andrewtheeviscerator]

Well yeah kinda, I mean some of the best comedians I've seen have been fat and their routine usually revolves around it. Case in point:

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

When they fall over, yes.

Case in point.

That is just terrible...ly hilarious.

CAPTCHA: Have an inkling
I refuse, you're not the real inglip!!!

 

[EeveeElectro]

I think people find it funnier when fat people are put in an embarrassing situation. Whether it's because of society's apparent hate of fat people or it just looks funnier with all that mass flying around, I don't know.
I don't really, unless they're being a dick and get what's coming to them ("This thin piece of plastic over a roof can certainly hold my 500Ibs weight if I dance on it!")

Speaking from experience, fat people tend to have the ability to laugh at themselves. I usually make the fat joke about myself before anyone else has the chance to, then it's me that funny and making people laugh rather than people laughing at me.

Look at fat comedians. What is most of their material about? Them being fat. Sometimes it's funny but it's not something they should just constantly talk about.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Fat people are often used as targets of humour, so if their humour is aimed at themselves, makes sense, I guess.

 

[Luna]

Some of the brand of humour that these two celebrities subscribed to was assisted by their fatness if only slightly.

It generally makes little difference IMO.