# Fat Albert: The Movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122 "2004-10-14T00:13:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JoeSki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b487fb/32.png) [@JoeSki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeSki)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122/21 "2004-10-15T05:58:46Z")
I on the other hand watched the entire thing, and fear that I may never be able to impregnate a woman now. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122/22 "2004-10-15T07:42:12Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > postmodern humor and the pervasiveness of pop culture meeting reality and a 21st century sensibility. I liked the in-jokes the Fat Albert makes about his own surreality (In a clothing store: “Let’s take off that sweater and see what!” “I can’t… I don’t don’t know what’s under here.”) Dumb Donald’s comment about him having no face under his hat was equally amusing… > [@rjung](#): > > The existential humor (“I don’t have a face!”) I think you guys are reading way too far into it. If you look at the trailer, the Cosby Kids seem to somehow come straight out of a TV as cartoons and into the “real world” as real people. Being cartoons who only recently got real bodies, they really don’t know what’s under their shirts or masks, because no one ever drew it. I don’t think it has anything to do with postmodernism, surrealism, or existentialism, and it sure as hell doesn’t have anything to do with _humor_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122/23 "2004-10-15T14:43:22Z")
**Cisco** wrote: > [@](#): > > I think you guys are reading way too far into it. If you look at the trailer, the Cosby Kids seem to somehow come straight out of a TV as cartoons and into the “real world” as real people. > > Being cartoons who only recently got real bodies, they really don’t know what’s under their shirts or masks, because no one ever drew it. I don’t think it has anything to do with postmodernism, surrealism, or existentialism, and it sure as hell doesn’t have anything to do with humor. How would you describe the critical and philosophical aparatus that leads us to speculate about the absurdity of a medium’s conventions when transported whole into another medium? This question has presented a challenge to people for nearly a century, and the best generally agreed on label available is _post modern_. It’s interesting that a post modernist outlook has become so quotidian that the phrase _post modern_ seems more suspect than actual examples of _post modernism_, such as the Fat Albert movie. Clearly you understand the notion of an existential crisis, because you describe one lucidly: > [@](#): > > Being cartoons who only recently got real bodies, they really don’t know what’s under their shirts or masks, because no one ever drew it. The word for this kind of dilemma and the anxienty it produces is _existential_. The concept goes deeper than that, but when somebody describes this gag as existential, they mean exactly what you have said. It’s not that fancy a word. Now, when somebody pulls _da-sein_ out of their asses, then you got a beef. What a world we’ve created, in which we make jokes based on the premise that a cartoon character’s internal awareness of self cannot exceed the audience’s external perspective, and that’s perfectly reasonable premise that anybody can understand. But then actually naming the mode of thought behind the gags is getting pretentious. Crazy. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2004, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122/24 "2004-10-15T15:47:46Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Yea bitch, school in summertime! Shit, open your %^&\* ears hoe! ^& ^&_(_& (\*&!!! “Boy, cartoons sure have gotten dirty!” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fat-albert-the-movie/269122.md?page=1)