It's Not Easy Being

It's Not Easy Being Fat Again by Alessandra Stanley is a review of a new reality show "Kirstie Alley’s Big Life." I posted this link without any commentary weeks ago in a bookmark for later sort of way. At the time, we did not yet have a clear picture of the tale/tail of Part II of the blog.  What interested me at the time was the sheer number of TV shows about obesity.

Gaining back lost pounds is every dieter’s nightmare, of course, and “Big Life” takes its place in a widening spectrum of obesity television. Ever more extreme seasons of “The Biggest Loser” are matched by myriad variations, which over the years have included “More to Love,” “Dance Your Ass Off,” “X-Weighted,” “Big Medicine,” “Honey We’re Killing the Kids,” “Bulging Brides” and “I Can Make You Thin.”

Stanley complains that Alley's second look at being fat is tragedy.  "The self-indulgence and denial that were hyped for laughs on “Fat Actress” are still in play, but without the same wit or satiric bite." She wants it to be comedy.


While there are plenty of problems with Stanley's positioning of the show (the stereotype of the jolly fat person that pokes fun at her own obesity to entertain us being just one), I think her desire for a more comedic flavor has much to do with wanting a show that is more hopeful than despairing. Laughing at and through your troubles, can be denial or well-disguised bitter self mockery, but often it shows resiliency, flexibility and an ability to tell a narrative about yourself that helps you keep on keeping on even with weighted down by things that are difficult to change or sustain.


Our creation of like-but-not-quite-joke-machines is a way to uncover the unthought rooted in the hopeful belief that it is possible to innovate. It is not that the comedic is truer than the tragic or that the comedic is inherently hopeful; much comedy is rather bleak about the human condition when we cut through its protective laugh layers. Yet the comedic attitude does offer a wider range of possibilities than the tragic. As we try to twist our thoughts out of shape to find new thoughts, we want the option that gives us the most flexibility.