So I tried watching SNL with host Melissa McCarthy on HULU

[LynneSin]

Really?

The best you could do was skits where McCarthy, a plus size actress, plays a woman who is either homely, obnoxious or desperately horny? Really, that's the best you can do because you just assume that us plus size women must either be homely, obnoxious or desperately horny. And shame on Melissa McCarthy for not stepping up and saying something about all those skits where she fit that bill. I would think an actress on a very successful primetime sitcom she would have enough pull to say 'Hey,I may be a plus size actress but I'm not homely, obnoxious or desperately horny.'

McCarthy represents most women in the USA and yet once again a TV show claims if you are 'plus' size (which is normal for most women) then there must be something wrong with you.

*** steps off my soapbox ***

[sarge43]

1. To be fair, the same thing is usually done to 'plus' size men, too. n/t

[nolabear]

5. I don't think so. Belushi didn't get that treatment. Candy did sometimes but often not.

John Lovitz played Tommy the Liar and the Master Thespian. Kenan Thompson is a large man and plays many many roles. In fact, has there ever been a plus size woman on SNL?

And other than that show there are many larger than "average" men in tv and movies, but it's not particularly noticed, I think in part because they are there. When a woman who's bigger than a size four is even on she's singled out.

Hell, these days Kathy Bates is my hero for being brilliant and fierce and smart and funny and just for existing, but she and Margo Martindale are damn near it as far as playing parts that aren't fat jokes.

[LynneSin]

6. It's one thing if they made one skit that played upon her weight

But by the time I watched the 4th skit it was just overwhelmingly wretched. In that time period she played:

* An grosstec overweight singer (who to be fair was playing with one of Kristin Wiig's staple characters the singer with the creepy small hands and large forehead)
* An oversexed employee who couldn't get the hint that the guy was not interested
* An overweight obnoxious geek trying to get attention at a food tasting for Hidden Valley Ranch - not only did she have bad hair but they put a Spock sweatshirt on her to make her look really geeky)
* An overweight, oversexed actress who I guess was to be like Mae West but she kept tripping everywhere.

I didn't bother with the rest. Maybe there were other skits where she played normal but wasn't worth me watching.

And what's worse is when they played off her weight, they couldn't show how pretty she is but instead had to make her fugly. I mean McCarthy is an attractive women but for SNL they couldn't really find a skit to work with that I guess.

[nolabear]

9. I don't think there were any others. Even the opener was about her dance tease.

I agree that playing the weight in some things is just playing the weight. But not everything. It's insulting.

[sarge43]

2. Dupe. Self deleted. n/t

[nolabear]

3. I was saddened too. The Emmys were a lovely salute to a big and attractive woman.

SNL was creepily stereotypical. It reminded me that when Gabby Sidobe did Precious there were copious things written (and some horrible, horrible comments sections) about how she really can't work in parts that aren't about being fat. She's not only a regular on The Big C, where her weight is part of it but mostly she's a student that Laura Linney wants to mentor and who's smart, in-your-face and highly resistent to being changed, but is featued in the new movie with Alan Alda, Ben Stein and Eddie Murphy (name escapes) where she's a hotel maid who becomes part of a gang determined to rip off a callous investor who lost their money in bad investments. Those are parts for actresses, not bullshit targets for derision or pity.

From my soapbox your soapbox looks good.

[LynneSin]

4. I hate to say it, that's one reason why I haven't bothered to watch "Bridesmaids"

Because once again they make the plus size actress some desperately horny, obnoxious person.

[nolabear]

7. I know. I wouldn't mind if it was just one of the characters. Here's a favorite poem!

One reason I like opera
by
Marge Piercy


In movies, you can tell the heroine
because she is blonder and thinner
than her sidekick. The villainess
is darkest. If a woman is fat,
she is a joke and will probably die.

In movies, the blondest are the best
and in bleaching lies not only purity
but victory. If two people are both
extra pretty, they will end up
in the final clinch.

Only the flawless in face and body
win. That is why I treat
movies as less interesting
than comic books. The camera
is stupid. It sucks surfaces.

Let's go to the opera instead.
The heroine is fifty and weighs
as much as a '65 Chevy with fins.
She could crack your jaw in her fist.
She can hit high C lying down.

The tenor the women scream for
wolfs down an eight course meal daily.
He resembles a bull on hind legs.
His thighs are the size of beer kegs.
His chest is a redwood with hair.

Their voices twine, golden serpents.
Their voices rise like the best
fireworks and hang and hang
then drift slowly down descending
in brilliant and still fiery sparks.

The hippopotamus baritone (the villain)
has a voice that could give you
an orgasm right in your seat.
His voice smokes with passion.
He is hot as lava. He erupts nightly.

The contralto is, however, svelte.
She is supposed to be the soprano's
mother, but is ten years younger,
beautiful and Black. Nobody cares.
She sings you into her womb where you rock.

What you see is work like digging a ditch,
hard physical labor. What you hear
is magic as tricky as knife throwing.
What you see is strength like any
great athlete's. What you hear

is still rendered precisely as the best
Swiss watchmaker. The body is
resonance. The body is the cello case.
The body just is. The voice loud
as hunger remagnetizes your bones.

From Colors Passing Through Us (Knopf, 2003).
Used with the author's permission.

Purchase a framed print of this poem.

[nadine_mn]

18. I did watch Bridesmaids and she made the movie for me

her scenes were the best

[Bake]

8. I thought it was kinda sad, actually.

She's very funny, but how many "fat girl" sketches can you cram into one show????

I felt bad for her -- not becuase of her size, but because of the material she was given to work with.

:hi:

Bake

[dawg]

10. Thanks DU ... for bursting all my illusions.

Yesterday, I saw a thread about how there was no Santa Claus.

Today, you're telling me that all women who are a little chubbier than average are not desperately horny.

What kind of world is this I'm living in?

I hope you're all happy this Christmas.

Meanwhile, I'll be sadly sitting beneath my empty Christmas tree, reflecting on how I'm going to have to develop an actual personality in order to ever attract another woman.

:(

[LynneSin]

11. You have a wonderful personality - just be yourself

and you'll get lucky :D

[dawg]

12. Maybe.

But I'll still have to buy all the Christmas presents. :)

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

13. I felt the same way after the Betty White appearance

it seemed like they could only write horny, old lady jokes for her.

[LynneSin]

15. But they at least created 1-2 skits that really just made Betty White shine...

so that you could overlook the rest of the 'she's old let's make it about how fricking old she is' skits.

[Shagbark Hickory]

14. Those were my thoughts exactly. I wasn't impressed. n/t

[Enrique]

16. who?

what's she in? :shrug:

[Maccagirl]

17. "Mike and Molly"-a CBS sitcom.

She just won the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy.