It’s the only remaining form of discrimination that you can still get away with, so apparently everybody and their brother feels it necessary to comment on Chris Christie’s unhealthy weight. You can’t make a joke about his religion, whatever it is. You can’t make a joke about his ethnic background, no matter what it is. You can’t make a joke about his skin color, no matter what it is. You can’t make a joke about a disability which may affect him, no matter what it is. You can’t make a joke about his sexual orientation, no matter what it is.
But being fat? Well, roll out the barrel!!!
Everybody from pea-brained social media friends of mine to national TV hosts like Jay Leno have made jokes about Christie’s weight. It’s such an easy target. Asked about his weight by some nooz dweeb a few weeks ago, Christie shot back “I eat too much. It’s not a mystery.”
Oh, and the fat puns – Christie tackles weighty issues; he’s not running for President so much as he’s waddling for President; he needs to fatten up his campaign chest – most of them aren’t even mildly creative.
We have TV shows that poke fun at fat people, like the now-popular “Mike and Molly Show”, about a couple who met at “Overeaters Anonymous”; like the old “Fat Albert Show” from Bill Cosby, who should be ashamed of himself for naming the big guy “Fat Albert”; and the perennially popular “Biggest Loser” shows, which have engendered local spinoffs. Some people argue that “Biggest Loser” is about success and confidence and transformation; but at its essence, it’s a show about fat people.
Try to imagine a show “Biggest Gainer”, about people with anorexia desperately trying to see their body as the rest of the world does, and GAIN weight.
Didn’t think so.
It’s the only remaining form of discrimination that you can still get away with
ReplyDeleteIn your dreams. Age, sex, color, and religion (if you're Catholic or Jewish) are still very popular.
I can name a prominent Wisconsin based company which hires ONLY 6'0"+ Nordic males for its sales force (and other high-viz spots.)
But we can pretend otherwise....
For anyone who would rather limit Chris Christie's political future, trading on the New Jersey governor's obvious corpulence is not just unfair, it is foolish flirtation with a sympathy backlash. It would be much more effective to weigh Mr. Christie on his actions and his merits.
ReplyDeleteThe governor, a darling of the Koch brothers, is a staunch advocate of cutting taxes for the rich. He once lambasted President Obama as "a bystander in the White House" whose proposal to have the ultra-wealthy pay something akin to their fair share "would diminish the success of others."
This shortly after Mr. Obama paid him a personal visit -- the president came to the governor -- to make sure New Jersey was receiving the help it needed to cope with widespread flood damage.
Mr. Christie's tin ear for public opinion is remarkable. He expressed surprise when he was criticized for using a state police helicopter to attend his son's baseball games, and posed as the aggrieved victim when he was asked to reimburse the state.
Mr. Christie has a habit of acting unilaterally and without consultation. His decision to pull out of an interstate railroad tunnel project, to which New Jersey had committed $271 million, was done without so much as a courtesy call to the other participants, even though his action effectively rendered their investment in the project worthless.
He is quick with an insult. Notwithstanding his high-handed treatment of the tunnel project, when New Jersey's Democratic senators came up with $38.5 million to replace a railroad bridge, the governor sneered that "obviously they failed" to come up with more.
Mr. Christie is an arrogant fellow, always the smartest guy in the room, and makes no effort to conceal his disdain for teachers. He thinks the state's education system is rife with "excess and greed"; and for public employee unions (when it comes to the good of the state, he says, they're only interested in "me first").
The governor is openly contemptuous of Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. When he was a federal prosecutor he tried to damage Mr. Menendez by opening, with much fanfare in the media, an investigation into the senator's alleged dealings with a community group Christie didn't like. The "investigation" proved groundless but took its sweet time going nowhere.
Of Sen. Lautenberg he said “All he knows how to do is blow hot air ... So I don’t really care what Frank Lautenberg has to say about much of anything.” He refuses to communicate directly with the senators and won't return their phone calls.
The Wall Street Journal reports Mr. Christie promised Meg Whitman, now CEO of Hewlett-Packard, he would stay out of the presidential race -- a promise that was a condition for her hosting a $15,000 (!) per head fundraiser. Mr. Christie is not known for keeping his promises, so it would be no surprise if he chooses to make a bid for the White House anyway.