Fox, France, and fatties

[vovat]

This past week, I learned that Fox News has yet ANOTHER show trying to use the novel concept of "humor" to appeal to a less geriatric audience. Red Eye consists of the four youngest people they could find at the Fox News studio (which presumably means they're in their late forties or so) making jokes about current events. At least, that's presumably what it's SUPPOSED to be. But, well, I don't want to stereotype here, but I get the impression that many of the FNC employees and viewers grew up in households where every possible effort was made to squelch any possible signs of a sense of humor, along with their senses of decency and compassion, logical reasoning abilities, and libido (although that last one is hard to kill completely, so it often surfaces in weird and distrubing scandals). You know, TRADITIONAL families.

Hmm, what else do I have to report? Well, this past weekend, I put in some overtime at work, and watched the rest of Amelie with bethje. Since that was a French film, I'm sure that was un-American of me. Okay, you know how people don't like the French because they're a bunch of cheese-ending surrender monkeys, and we (meaning "the United States") had to save their sorry derrieres in World War II? And now we're mad at them because they didn't help out in the War on Terror? But, well, if they're such wusses, why would we WANT them helping us? It doesn't seem like the Freedom Fry eaters have really thought this one out.

But I'm getting way off topic here, the topic being that Amelie was one of the best movies I've seen in some time. But I'm sure everyone already knew that; I'm coming late to the party here. And since I don't really have anything specific to say about it, I'll move on to something else that I enjoyed, namely the most recent Simpsons episode.

Yes, perhaps surprisingly, I actually did like last night's show. Yeah, it was another "Homer gets a wacky new job" episode, with a plot that was sort of a mixture of "Guess Who's Coming To Criticize Dinner" and "When You Dish Upon a Star," but I thought it was funnier than either of those. The family trying to recreate the family photo album was great, particularly the Voyager farewell party and the Tracey Ullman Simpsons ringing in 1987. There were also some good gags involving Springfield's celebrities (the excesses at the club and Rainier Wolfcastle's rant about sushi come to mind), and we got to see Gabbo again.

I didn't think last night's Family Guy was that great, and Peter really seemed to be even more of a jerk than usual. I don't think that's WHY I didn't like the episode that much (the fact that FG is a few steps further removed from reality than The Simpsons means that Jerkass Peter can never really be the concern that Jerkass Homer was), but it was something I noticed. I was glad to see American Dad back, and while this episode wasn't one of the better ones, it was still pretty good.

There's also a new episode of Bullshit!, which is about how ridiculous the media's "obesity epidemic" hysteria is. Penn pointed out that the whole Body Mass Index thing was created by a nineteenth-century Belgian mathematician in an attempt to tie together sociology and statistics. Yet it's still published in modern health textbooks as if it's really relevant to anything. There was also some discussion on how a lot of studies on obesity are sponsored by the weight loss industry. There wasn't anything all that novel in it, but I'm glad it was made, because I find our society's obsession with skinniness to be really disturbing. The main point seemed to be that there isn't necessarily any direct correlation between weight and health, which I've pretty much figured for some time. And I think the basic attitude of the episode was more positive than that of some others they've done. I prefer it when they go after the exploiters rather than the exploited, you know?

Comments

[jenhime.livejournal.com]

I adored Amelie! :) It still ranks in my top favorite movies.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

>> but I thought it was funnier than either of those. The family trying to recreate the family photo album was great, particularly the Voyager farewell party and the Tracey Ullman Simpsons ringing in 1987.<<

Aw, I didn't get to see that part, I did however see Jon Lovitz and that made my shitty day a lot better.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I was amused by the concept of Lovitz playing an Italian guy (although I wouldn't be too surprised if he's done so at some point in the past as well).

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

I thought it was funny that the guy he voiced looked remarkably like Jon.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Some of his other Simpsons characters have looked quite a bit like him as well, haven't they? I liked the scene in "The Ziff Who Came to Dinner" where a bunch of Lovitz characters greet Artie Ziff when he comes into Moe's.

[kristenjarrod.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that, even Jay Sherman was there!

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Penn Gillette? 300 pound Penn Gillette? :)

The BMI is a new fad - before, they had height-weight tables, one for women, one for men, and for each gender, they had a column for body type- small meduim and large frame. Which kind of makes sense, because I have seen some people of the same weight and height, and one looks overweight, and the other doesn't. BMI doesn't take into account how wide-set or narrow some people are.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Penn Gillette? 300 pound Penn Gillette?

Yeah, he definitely had a personal stake in this episode, unlike in some of the others. Does that make the conclusions less valid? I don't know. Of course, someone being overweight doesn't necessarily exempt them from prejudice against other overweight people. I mean, how often do you see a chubby guy insist that he won't date fatties?

BMI doesn't take into account how wide-set or narrow some people are.

Yeah, it's not like you can lose bone (although I'm sure some people have tried).

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

I was just fascinated that he would do a piece on overweight, as a portly gentleman in the entertainment biz. Most Hollywood types talk about their weight with embarrassment, after they have lost it, or had their stomachs stapled or whatever. heh heh. Gillette certainly is a fly in the ointment! God, I love that in man.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

There was also a Bullshit! on body type in general, in which Penn referred to himself as a "contented endomorph."

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

It really amuses me, in a morbid way, that there is an obesity epidemic in this country AT THE SAME TIME as there is still rampant anorexia. This is probably why one of my favorite parts of Good Omens was reading about Famine at work in the United States (after realizing that the "Get Thin By Not Eating" campaign only worked on SOME people, Famine developed Fast Food so that people could eat as much as they wanted of stuff with No Nutritional Value Whatsoever!). I tell you what, one of my favorite things about pregnancy is the completely different kind of diet, the one that isn't about counting calories or cutting fat or carbs, it's the Stuff As Many Nutrients Into Every Bite As Possible diet. It's so totally the healthy way to go, since it's about nutrition instead of weight, and it's totally satisfying because there's so many FLAVORS involved! A small bowl of ice cream with bananas and berries and nuts is so much better than a large bowl of plain ice cream, and it's better for you too! I am such a proponent of that diet.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It really amuses me, in a morbid way, that there is an obesity epidemic in this country AT THE SAME TIME as there is still rampant anorexia.

I think it's likely that one helps lead to the other, though. When insecure people are constantly being told that Fat Is Bad and Americans Are Too Fat, many of them are going to take drastic steps to make sure THEY never become these dreaded overweight Americans.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

My mother-in-law, who you've heard plenty about, is into reading and reporting on EVERY BREAKING NEWS THING about what to do and not to do when raising a child, and she's brought up childhood obesity risks before, which I always have to laugh at, because this child is SO not at risk, particularly genetically on HER SIDE OF THE FAMILY, where everyone has Super High Metabolisms and can't gain weight if they try. Not to mention that he's already hyperactive so I can't imagine he'll be a couch potato. I'm actually more worried about him not getting ENOUGH to eat....

obesity epidemic

[bec-87rb.livejournal.com]

Oh, he'll probably be alright, then, especially if he avoids physical contact with fat folks, since everyone knows that's how obesity is spread, sort of like how you get The Gay? She should probably try to get him into a school where they screen for overweight, so he won't get it accidentally from one of his schoolmates.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I was skinny and kind of hyper when I was young, but I've put on some weight in the past few years. That has nothing to do with childhood obesity, though. {g}