# Fictional heroes who are overweight **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 13, 2021, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366 "2021-07-13T04:09:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/21 "2021-07-13T12:13:06Z")
Haviland Tuf, of George R.R. Martin’s [Tuf Voyaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging). ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/22 "2021-07-13T13:39:25Z")
Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) let himself get a little pudgy on occasion, though he was not always so, I guess it was a battle he constantly fought and occasionally fell behind on. In the “humorous hero” department, there’s the Blimp from [The Inferior Five](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_Five). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/23 "2021-07-13T13:54:43Z")
Paul Blart, Mall Cop ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/24 "2021-07-13T14:02:13Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Blue Beetle (Ted Kord) let himself get a little pudgy on occasion, though he was not always so, I guess it was a battle he constantly fought and occasionally fell behind on. I don’t know, he looks in decent shape here: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brs12-QSMQA) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/25 "2021-07-13T14:06:15Z")
Thanks, that brought a smile to my face. I remember the Electric Company quite fondly. That usage of the Blue Beetle name was entirely unconnected with any of the comic-book versions of the hero of that name. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/26 "2021-07-13T14:07:39Z")
Ten years ago, one of the first three replies would have been “Fat Albert”. ---
**Author:** ![YamatoTwinkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/cc9497/32.png) [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/27 "2021-07-13T14:13:13Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Haviland Tuf, of George R.R. Martin’s [Tuf Voyaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging). Also Abner Marsh in [Fevre Dream](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fevre_Dream) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/28 "2021-07-13T14:48:39Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Ten years ago, one of the first three replies would have been “Fat Albert”. Cosby’s RL issues aside, is Albert a hero? I would have thought of him as just a character. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/29 "2021-07-13T15:02:01Z")
There’s Pig God from One Punch-Man. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/30 "2021-07-13T15:23:14Z")
From G. R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards series, there’s Michelle Pond, aka The Amazing Bubbles who is an ace with the power to absorb and re-release energy, storing it temporarily as fat in the interim ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/31 "2021-07-13T15:26:09Z")
Based upon this I ordered the first book in the series- thanks! > [@solost](#): > > Not in the movie " Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World", but in the books Captain Jack Aubrey was described as overweight, and I seem to remember the book saying that sea captains tended to be overweight in general. I think it might have been a status thing-- showing you were prosperous enough to afford to eat and drink too much. Even Hornblower had a middle aged paunch. But in general, fats guys- or gals, are seen as the bad guy, or the comedy relief. 🙄 😧 ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/32 "2021-07-13T15:28:37Z")
In the new _Black Widow_ film, the character of Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian (who is essentially the Russian version of Captain America), played by David Harbour, is a few years past his prime, and has developed a “dad bod.” [![](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oJwWi8oDRN2ZE3BZwC5zf4.jpg) ](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oJwWi8oDRN2ZE3BZwC5zf4.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/33 "2021-07-13T15:30:07Z")
There’s always Dad-bod Thor. My kids saw End Game before we did, and teased my wife, saying “you get to see a lot more of Thor shirtless!” They weren’t lying. There was a lot more of Thor there. In the book “Ready Player One”, when we finally meet Percival in real life, she is described as “rubenesque”. It never comes up again. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/34 "2021-07-13T15:36:18Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > Never seemed to slow down Hercule Poirot, so far as I could tell. This is one of my pet peeves, the way they padded out David Suchet in the TV series, so much so that he reminded me of Danny DeVito’s The Penguin. He is only described once in the books, in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, and it was that he had an egg-shaped head (not an egg-shaped body) and a touch of embonpoint, which means he was a little pigeon-breasted. So not fat, also not athletic, just soft in his late middle age. This concludes my off-topic rant. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/35 "2021-07-13T15:38:25Z")
That’s a fair criticism. I watched a few of the series, but I was never a big Hercule Poirot fan and didn’t read much Agatha Christie. I defer to your superior knowledge on the subject. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/36 "2021-07-13T15:39:56Z")
Lewis Barnavelt, boy hero in a series of books by John Bellairs, is an overweight kid who’s bad at sports and gets mocked by nearly everybody at school. He’s an orphan, taken in by his uncle who is a magician. The best known book in the series is the first, _The House with the Clock in Its Walls_, which was made into a movie (Jack Black played the uncle). Lewis stayed a nerd in the movie, but he wasn’t overweight there. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.winston_oboogie/32/2945_2.png) [@Dr.Winston\_OBoogie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Winston_OBoogie)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/37 "2021-07-13T15:42:55Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > Lewis Barnavelt, boy hero in a series of books by John Bellairs, is an overweight kid who’s bad at sports and gets mocked by nearly everybody at school. He’s an orphan, taken in by his uncle who is a magician. The best known book in the series is the first, _The House with the Clock in Its Walls_ , which was made into a movie (Jack Black played the uncle). Lewis stayed a nerd in the movie, but he wasn’t overweight there. You see that a lot. See “Ready Player One” as an example. Heaven forbid we have a female protagonist who is overweight when it really doesn’t matter. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/38 "2021-07-13T15:44:02Z")
Dirk Gently (books) ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/39 "2021-07-13T15:47:27Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > The best known book in the series is the first, _The House with the Clock in Its Walls_ , which was made into a movie (Jack Black played the uncle). Ugh. Let’s just try to forget about that. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366/40 "2021-07-13T15:51:33Z")
Uncle Walt. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fictional-heroes-who-are-overweight/946366.md?page=3)