# Stereotype of the Jolly/Funny Fat Guy **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116 "2019-09-12T17:22:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2019, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/21 "2019-09-17T22:29:09Z")
> [@kirkrapine](#): > > But it was Laurel who wrote the scenes – see, I think, _Creators,_ by Paul Johnson, or possibly _Humorists_ by the same author. (He also goes into how hard Charlie Chaplin worked at his craft.) Paul Johnson’s Humorists may be the worst book on humor ever written. And that’s not even getting into its million inaccuracies. However, it is true that Laurel was the writer of the team. And also the funnier of the two. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/22 "2019-09-18T01:09:21Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, no. Check out [Daniel Lambert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lambert). Not rich or powerful, definitely teased and bullied. When he fell into poverty he needed to make a career of being on display. Yeah, I don’t think Daniel Lambert is the kind of fat we’re talking about in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/23 "2019-09-18T01:40:55Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Yeah, no. Check out [Daniel Lambert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lambert). Not rich or powerful, definitely teased and bullied. When he fell into poverty he needed to make a career of being on display. The article doesn’t say anything about him being teased or bullied, but it does say that he became rich and respected. > [@](#): > > Lambert shared his interests and knowledge of sports, dogs and animal husbandry with London’s middle and upper classes, and it soon became highly fashionable to visit him, or become his friend. Many called repeatedly; one banker made 20 visits, paying the admission fee on each occasion. During this period of English history no real stigma was attached to obesity, and Lambert was generally considered a wonder to be marvelled at, rather than a freak to be gawped or sneered at. His business venture was immediately successful, drawing around 400 paying visitors per day. His home was described as having the air of a fashionable resort, rather than that of an exhibition, and he was pleased to find that his customers generally treated him with courtesy, and not simply as a spectacle. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/24 "2019-09-18T01:55:46Z")
**Exapno Mapcase:**. And then there’s the title character of H.G Wells’s wonderful short story, “The Truth About Pyecraft.” An obese London clubman, desperate to drop pounds, implores the narrator to share one of his Indian great-grandmother’s magical “recipes.” Weeks later he gets a message “Worked only too well — loss of weight almost complete. COME. Pyecraft.” Narrator arrives at Pyecraft’s lodgings to find him bobbing about the ceiling “like a massive blowfly.” Also: PUNCH cartoon c. 1900: (Obese woman trying to enter a narrow streetcar door) “Sideways, madam! Sideways!” “Bless ye, sor, I ain’t GOT no zideways!” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2019, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/25 "2019-09-18T03:24:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_Bravo](#): > > The article doesn’t say anything about him being teased or bullied, You left out those parts. > [@](#): > > Stories of his bulk had by then begun to spread, and travellers visiting Leicester would use various pretexts to visit his home. One such visitor asked Lambert’s servant to allow him entry as he wished to ask Lambert’s advice about fighting cocks; Lambert leaned out of the window and told the servant to “tell the gentleman that I am a shy cock”.[22] On another occasion, he admitted into his house a Nottingham man who sought his advice about a mare’s pedigree; on realising the man was visiting only to look at him, Lambert told him that the horse in question was “by Impertinence out of Curiosity”.[16] > > Sensitive about his weight, Daniel Lambert refused to allow himself to be weighed… > > Despite his shyness, Lambert badly needed to earn money, and saw no alternative to putting himself on display, and charging his spectators. Also check out [this article](http://www.dead-interesting.com/daniel.html), which is somewhat gloomier. Some people were impressed with his weight and with Lambert, but that certainly doesn’t mean that everyone was. People then were no different than today. Some were good people and many were assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/26 "2019-09-20T14:55:02Z")
From the “somewhat gloomier” article: > [@](#): > > In addition, being obese in early 19th Century London was not an unforgivable sin. Rather than being seen as a freak of nature, Daniel was treated as a natural wonder, a fascinating phenomenon. He was generally treated with respect and courtesy. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/27 "2019-09-20T15:57:32Z")
From the post right above yours: > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > People then were no different than today. Some were good people and many were assholes. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/28 "2019-09-20T16:37:37Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’d say Falstaff is a direct descendant of Bacchus, made fat and jolly through drink. The original beer belly. Dionysus/Bacchus wasn’t depicted as fat or even beer-bellied. Usually, in fact, he was … quite cut. See the Ludovisi Dionysus, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/29 "2019-09-20T17:08:19Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Dionysus/Bacchus wasn’t depicted as fat or even beer-bellied. Usually, in fact, he was … quite cut. See the Ludovisi Dionysus, for instance. [Somewhat dependent on the era in question.](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/b/bf/Bacchus_%28Fantasia%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180601061257) ( 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/30 "2019-09-20T18:03:54Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Dionysus/Bacchus wasn’t depicted as fat or even beer-bellied. Usually, in fact, he was … quite cut. See the Ludovisi Dionysus, for instance. Or do an image search on Bacchus for some not-at-all cut depictions. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/31 "2019-09-20T18:12:39Z")
Stories of his bulk… lol ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/32 "2019-09-20T19:55:11Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > [Somewhat dependent on the era in question.](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/disney/images/b/bf/Bacchus_%28Fantasia%29.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180601061257) > > ( 😃 ) I mean the Classical depictions, not a modern one that owes \*much \*more to Silenus than Bacchus. > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Or do an image search on Bacchus for some not-at-all cut depictions. Link to some Classical ones, then. All the fat Bacchuses I see are either later, or sometimes mislabelled _sileni_. Or infants, sure. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116/33 "2019-09-20T20:33:29Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > The rich and powerful have pretty much always been sedentary. That’s not true of any culture where warriors gain wealth and power. Julius Caeser wouldn’t have been fat, nor William The Conqueror, nor any successful vikings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stereotype-of-the-jolly-funny-fat-guy/840116.md?page=1)