# Thanks so much, Hollywood....I get your message loud and clear. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 30, 2001, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261 "2001-07-30T19:31:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/121 "2001-08-14T13:51:59Z")
I’m on board with the OP; I saw the trailer last weekend and was appalled. There’s no way around it, the theme of the movie and the source of its humor is “Haw haw! He doesn’t realize he’s dating a gross fat chick!” But besides that, here’s another way it fails: when we see the row of women at the bar, first as Jack Black sees them (inner beauty) and then as everyone else sees them (physical beauty), _all_ of the “pretty” women become “ugly” and vice-versa. As if to say that women with “inner beauty” _cannot_ have “outer beauty,” and the reverse. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/122 "2001-08-14T18:22:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Because some of us think that making fun of people because they are unattractive, by anyone’s definition, isn’t funny. I find amputees unattractive…would it be “funny” to use them in a movie to laugh at? The Farrelly Brothers have done this. The chief target of the jokes in “Kingpin” is a man who has lost one of his hands and had it replaced with a rubber hand. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2001, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/123 "2001-08-14T20:20:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MGibson \* > **One man’s comedy is another man’s tragedy. Face it, most humor seems to come at the expense of someone else.** I think it was Mel Brooks who said, “Tragedy is when you fall down a manhole. Comedy is when someone else does.” ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/124 "2001-08-15T03:07:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > **I seem to associate this time period with women in society strapping themselves into corsets to create an artificial wasp-waisted look, which would jibe pretty well with today’s obsession with being thin.** Corsets allowed a woman to conform to a particular shape, but that shape wasn’t necessarily Twiggy. Ever hear of a bustle? It was used to make the derriere look **bigger**. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2001, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/125 "2001-08-15T17:55:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Number Six \* > > **I seem to associate this time period with women in society strapping themselves into corsets to create an artificial wasp-waisted look, which would jibe pretty well with today’s obsession with being thin.** > > Corsets allowed a woman to conform to a particular shape, but that shape wasn’t necessarily Twiggy. Ever hear of a bustle? It was used to make the derriere look **bigger**. \*\* Good point. With the notable exception of Jennifer Lopez, prominent hips and backside are out of fashion. The ideal shape for the time seemed to be an exaggerated hourglass shape: large bosom, tiny waist, broad hips. Large breasts and a tiny waist seem to be the Hollywood ideal nowdays, which is part of the problem, as these two traits don’t often occur together naturally. ---
**Author:** ![LittleTigger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/58956e/32.png) [@LittleTigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LittleTigger)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/126 "2001-11-04T08:22:53Z")
Well I like big heavy girls, good thing there is no law against that. My buddies don’t see anything wrong with that, only one “friend” I lost, but he was not really a friend anyway was he, nope just a stupid old poopyhole. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2001, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/127 "2001-11-06T21:25:52Z")
I have a question for those who object to this upcoming movie: How would _you_ depict, visually, “inner beauty?” ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/128 "2001-12-02T22:05:34Z")
Jadis wrote, waaaaay back in the OP: > [@](#): > > Here’s the offensive part. The interpretation of this ability to see only “inner beauty” also extends to being able to see “inner ugliness”…and to illustrate this newfound skill, we’re treated to a scene of the camera panning across a group of beautiful women in a bar…except the camera cuts away, and when it cuts back, these “beautiful” women are now “ugly”. Exactly how are they ugly, you might ask? I’m glad you asked. Unilaterally and without exception, all of the “ugly” women are portrayed as fat. Because, as you know, there’s nothing uglier than a fat person. Just for the record, this is not true – neither in the movie nor in the scene you saw in the trailer. While “beautiful” is, indeed, always portrayed as slender in _Shallow Hal_, “ugly” is **not** always portrayed as fat. In the scene you described, of the three “ugly” women the camera panned back to, **only the first** was overweight. The other two were thin, but “ugly” for other reasons. And incidentally, the “pan back” which showed these 3 women as “ugly” was intended to be the superficial **real world** portrayal of what these 3 women actually looked like, **not** what they looked like to Hal’s magical “inner beauty” vision. It was the **first** shot of these 3 women, as gorgeous supermodels, that was supposed to be Hal’s perception of them (they had oodles of Inner Beauty, you see). In fact, only one woman in the entire movie was portrayed as having “inner ugliness,” and that was the bitchy nurse Tanya Peeler. And I should menthion, her inner ugliness was portrayed as an old, dried-up, **scrawny** woman. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/129 "2001-12-02T22:52:29Z")
There were at least one other: the spinabifeda guy’s gold-digger girlfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/130 "2001-12-03T01:13:38Z")
I have the perfect theme to this movie: “If you could see her though my eyes… _she wouldn’t look Jewish at all!_” Sorry if anyone has posted this already. I just saw the thread and I felt I must comment. Rent _Cabaret_ if you don’t get the reference. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2001, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261/131 "2001-12-04T00:42:23Z")
Number Six wrote: > [@](#): > > There were at least one other: the spinabifeda guy’s gold-digger girlfriend. She was the same nurse Tanya Peeler. (Which is why she said “What a surprise!” when she saw that Rosemary was going on the trip with them.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thanks-so-much-hollywood-i-get-your-message-loud-and-clear/74261.md?page=6)