# Shallow Hal question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861 "2003-04-20T15:50:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sonicsink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@sonicsink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sonicsink)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/1 "2003-04-20T15:50:49Z")
This probably contains spoilers,so you know the drill My question is:Remember in the movie when Hal,Rosemary, his spina bifida friend and his date the nurse went on their little road trip?Well at one point they stopped at a gas station and Hal asked Rosemary if she wanted anything and she said chips and dip\>…then they show this scene where Rosemary is talking to the nurse and suddenly she is this super sexy brunette…where did that come from? Why was Hal seeing her as a nasty old lady?? The only thing I could think of is that if Hal was only seeing the inner beauty,maybe she didn’t have any??But she wasn’t portrayed as some evil bitch,damn this is bugging me…anyone know?? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/2 "2003-04-20T15:58:34Z")
You said it, she was a nasty woman, so Hal saw her as ugly. One of the examples of her nastyness was that she only dated Hals buddy cos he got rich. ---
**Author:** ![sonicsink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@sonicsink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sonicsink)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/3 "2003-04-20T16:11:10Z")
Well then why didn’t he see his friend Mauizio as ugly? He was just as much of a jerk… ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/4 "2003-04-20T16:46:08Z")
Because he already new him. The “charm” or whatever only worked on people that he met after it happened. ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/5 "2003-04-20T16:47:09Z")
Doh, “knew” of course. You could search CS for the shallow hal threads from when the movie came out, and when the dvds came out. ---
**Author:** ![bjohn13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@bjohn13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bjohn13)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2003, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/6 "2003-04-20T19:26:36Z")
I didn’t really get _Shallow Hal_ at all…it was about fat people who like to make fun of other fat people. Perhaps this belongs in the Irony thread… ---
**Author:** ![vandal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/858c86/32.png) [@vandal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vandal)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2003, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/7 "2003-04-21T04:57:14Z")
It was actually about fat people who enjoy making fun of _ugly_ people. Some of those ugly people happen to be fat though. ---
**Author:** ![Fluffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Fluffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fluffy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/8 "2003-04-22T00:35:14Z")
Actually, earlier in the movie before the road trip scene, that nurse was in the scene where Rosemary and Hal are visiting the kids in the burn unit. They were playing with the kids when the nurse came in and told them to put the kids back to bed and acted like a bitch. I think that’s where she is portrayed as such, which is why Hal saw her as a hag and not a beautiful brunette. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/9 "2003-04-22T01:08:32Z")
What **Shallow Hal** thread would be complete without a link to **tracer** ’s [**Shallow Hal** gushing fan page](http://pw1.netcom.com/~rogermw/ShallowHal.html)? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/10 "2003-04-22T01:56:57Z")
I have a Shallow Hal question. Okay, he saw the very fat woman as a very thin woman and dated her for some time before he realized she really was fat, right? So when he gave a hug to what he thought was a thin woman, wouldn’t he have actually been poking the hell out of her instead of putting his arms around her, since she really was fat? Yeah, I know, I know. My wife tells me I’m nitpicky and she’s probably right. I guess those are just the kinds of things I wonder about when I watch movies that don’t hold my attention. ---
**Author:** ![Razzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@Razzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Razzy)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shallow-hal-question/169861/11 "2003-04-22T06:11:15Z")
I wondered the same thing, til I watched the movie again. It’s explained when Maurizio (sp?) is talking to the psychic type guy. He tells him “the brain sees what it wants to see” or something like that, basically that Hal’s brain saw a knockout, so he felt a knockout as well. He thought he was holding a thin woman, so he didn’t even realize, or begin to think, that he was holding a much larger woman.