Good critical film essay proposes that fat-suits are the new blackface — cheap laughs can be garnered in any mindless flick by sticking a skinny, gym-toned, surgery-perfected actoid into a giant flabbery clabbery latex suit and pointing her/him cameraward.
Of course, no conversation about the fat suit could ever be complete without a mention of Fat Monica, inhabitant of several flashback and alternate-reality episodes of Friends. While I will refrain from airing my personal theories about Courteney Cox Arquette's body image and eating habits here, I do believe Fat Monica really takes the proverbial cake. She dresses badly, has no self-control, eats junk food, has poor hygiene, and is a virgin. She's the opposite of the control-freak Thin Monica, who has the husband, the job, and the adoring friends. Even worse than all that is the dance Courteney does in full fat drag to entertain the studio audience between takes. She calls it "the popcorn," and apparently folks watching find it quite comical. It involves her moving rhythmically in her latex suit. A fat person shaking her bod: mmmm, funny.
(via Plastic)
