May 27, 2013 Post #13 Too Sexy for My Fat

I remember a while ago that the news of a half-ton woman crushing her nephew made huge headlines across the nation. To me, the news of this obese women crushing her nephew was, and please don't judge, amusing. Just for a split second people, calm down. Haters gon hate. Think about it, a woman who was 1/4 the amount of the average car crushing her nephew under the sheer mass of her weight was so unbelievably bizarre that it was funny. But then I read more about it and saw pictures of this woman and it was not so funny anymore. Now it was sad and shocking and it made me mad that media outlets exploited this woman's painful story for the sake of advertisement. I mean, she's just going along trying to live her life, do her thing, and then people like TLC use her story to have high ratings.

Stewie Griffin from "Family Guy"

Like in this image, Family Guy character Stewie is just trying to enjoy his life. He's having his cake and eating it too. But what do we do when we see this? We laugh and call him fat. That's just wrong.

Now I'll admit that I laughed when I saw this picture because it was funny. BUT THAT DOESN'T MAKE IT RIGHT. Family Guy often uses crude humor, like obesity, to make the audience laugh. This clip below is an example of Family Guy and the crude humor they use so take caution before watching.

See? That kind of humor makes me laugh. I'd image it would make others laugh as well. This laughter, while wrong, sends the message to advertising companies that they can make fun of people's weight (which is a very sensitive issue for most) and use that as humor to advertise media outlets so they can garner more higher ratings, which will make advertisers want the more popular media outlets, creating a vicious cycle.

But it doesn't really stop there, does it? The majority of media (at least the ones I watch anyways, which says a lot about my personality/character) exploits the differences many people have and their quirks and odd characteristics. I think that is funny, but that doesn't make it okay or right. In fact, it can sometimes be downright offensive.

Saturday Night Live, an age-old tradition, is notorious for its nonsensical, judgmental humor and is displayed through many skits.

Above, SNL members Vanessa Bayer, Taran Killam and host Jamie Foxx make fun of J-Pop (Japanese pop, a musical mainstream in Japan since the 1990s) and more importantly, the people who listen and revolve their lives around J-Pop. I found it hilarious. I loved the way these white actors played white people speaking fake-Japanese because they are supposedly so absorbed with the culture within J-Pop. As  a Japanese-American, I could see how other people (J-Pop devotees or Japanese) could find this material offensive, which makes it wrong.


Below, we have a short SNL clip with host Anne Hathaway and SNL member Kate
McKinnon. In this short clip, we see Kate impersonating Ellen Degeneres and Anne is announced to be Katie Holmes in an upfront mean way. Kate then does Ellen's trademark dance moves when the guests come out and the music plays. But it's not the same kind of dancing. Here, Kate is mocking Ellen's dancing abilities (which are great by the way) and moves (equally great) and then they sit down. Now Anne full-on makes fun of Katie's appearance, voice and mannerisms all to the delight and laughter of the audience. Okay this can be seen as just plain cruel. If they were back in middle school or elementary school, the yard duty would send them straight to the teacher or principal. Obviously these kids are getting the message somewhere.

And I get it. It's funny. It makes people laugh. That's doesn't make it right. I believe there is a line somewhere, and I think that line should be made at advertising. Advertisers already have so many pieces of arsenal that do we really need to provide them with another? Let's leave this one behind and many think before we speak. Or did the big grown-ups already forget what they enforce to their children?