BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Fat Albert - Cartoon Obesity?

I was thinking about Fat Albert -



http://www.amazon.com/Alberts-Greatest-Ultimate-Collection-4-discs/dp/B00062IE9Q

I used to watch this, and it did have lots of great messages about "accept people" and "work together". But was it nice to always call the main character "Fat Albert"? What do you think?

I never had any problem with it. Still don't. The word I <i>hate</i> is obese.

I don't remember but were there ever any jokes about his weight?

Wasn't he always loved by everyone?

I just searched the web for quotes and I can only find quotes from the movie version. I'm afraid I don't remember that far back, I know the kids in the gang used to gently tease each other about things. I seem to recall they'd tease someone about being short or poor or such so it would seem like his size would have been fair game.

That's interesting, Moe - Obese is a medical term to me, but fat is a pejorative one. So if someone says Obese, to me it just means they fall into a given BMI category, like saying they have diabetes. Just like overweight means they are over the standard weight but isn't a "bad" thing to say.

What would you rather they call people who are in that higher BMI category?

Do you remember the sitcom What's Happening? their was a heavy kid named Rerun, every one excepted him, no one made fun of him

i don't think there were ever any fat jokes abot him. Like you MOE I HATE the word OBESE. I am Fat. I love who I am. I call myself playfully plump, curvalicious, and my friend calls me a thick madame (from the movie phat girls)

Actually Skyhaven I was going to mention that, I just looked up some quotes -

Fred 'Rerun' Stubbs: I can't help it if I'm fat! It runs in my family.
Dee Thomas: Nobody runs in your family... they all waddle!

-----------

Fred 'Rerun' Stubbs: [makes joke and laughs]
Dee Thomas: That's funny!
Fred 'Rerun' Stubbs: Of course it is!
Dee Thomas: No, I mean the way your belly shakes when you laugh!

Jase - I wonder if it has to do with how we've heard words used in our youth. To me calling someone fat is a very rude thing to do ...

I forgot about DEE's wise cracks, your right. shame on her

Hi Moe. I have always felt like Lisa, that obese is a medical term, and fat is just plain insulting. But I can't know this. I have not been either. I would tend to trust your judgment on this, since you write the Large & Lovely site.

At my heaviest times my mother called me "healthy looking", or "chunky." I didn't LIKE it, but it was true.

I do know that as i watch the contestants on Biggest Loser get smaller, that in my POV, they go from Morbidly Obese (not all of them start that way, but a few do), to just Obese/Fat, to Fat/Heavy, to Somewhat Overweight, to "Average Figured", to (in some cases) amazingly Thin. A rare few seem to also get Underweight, but I will assume it's just for the show and not for their lives.

Do my categories seem accurately perceived, or is Obese really a pejorative and I should adjust my thinking?

I still can't find actual dialogue from Fat Albert but it appears they did pick on him for his size -

"The Mundie-designed Fat Albert truly was obese. The Filmation version was a slimmed-down version. Fat Albert's size proved the crux of the special. Taunted by his friends because of his size, Fat Albert sat out of a football game against a rival neighborhood team. But he shrugged off the insults to play and win the game."

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