Allison Tolman Calls for Elimination of ‘Jokes About Weight’ on TV: ‘I Promise They Aren’t Funny’
Allison Tolman is calling on the TV industry to put a permanent moratorium on making fun of people struggling with their weight.
The Fargo and Why Women Kill actress took to Twitter late Tuesday to urge “writers and showrunners” to “take the jokes about weight out of your scripts,” maintaining, “I promise they aren’t funny. And even if they were, they won’t hold up well. And even if they did, they’re unkind-either to your characters and actors or someone in your audience or crew. It’s not worth it.”
Elaborating further, Tolman — who most recently succeeded Mindy Cohn as Natalie Green in ABC’s Live in Front of a Studio Audience re-staging of The Facts of Life — added, “Jokes about weight don’t have to just be jokes about a characters body. They can also include making mention of: the numbers on a scale; what someone eats; what size their clothing is; [and] exercise and movement.”
Tolman also urged TV creatives to stop attaching size-related adjectives to character descriptions. “Please don’t say ‘Linda: the main character’s cousin, thin and witty’ unless there’s an actual reason Linda needs to be thin. And please don’t say ‘Fat Lady In Theater’ when you mean ‘Annoying Lady In Theater.'”
Tolman’s comments come on the heels of Yellowjackets co-star Melanie Lynskey’s revelation to our sister pub Rolling Stone that she was body-shamed on the set of the Showtime drama series by a member of production. “They were asking me, ‘What do you plan to do? I’m sure the producers will get you a trainer. They’d love to help you with this,'” she recounted.
According to Rolling Stone, Lynskey’s Yellowjackets co-stars, Christina Ricci, Juliette Lewis, and Tawny Cypress, stood up on her behalf, with Lewis even penning a letter to the producers about the incident.
Good for her and I love Juliet Lewis even more now!
It seems everything offends someone somewhere. How does this end. I mean ????
So making jokes about someone’s appearance is okay with you???
Oh stop it, that’s not what I said. But thank you for proving my comment correct.
Actually, when clicking on the article about an actress complaining of jokes about weight and then leaving a comment in there that only says: “It seems everything offends someone somewhere. How does this end. I mean ????”, it implies that you have a problem with the essence of the article, which is “don’t make fun of weight of people”. It might not be what you have intended, but that is definitely the context you have given us.
Excellent assessment, Jakub! Couldn’t agree more with what your comment here.
???But there are some people it’s alright to make fun of then???
Rodney Dangerfield making jokes about his fat wife decades ago was probably the last time it was….
You can’t determine what’s funny to other people, just as you can’t say what makes others happy, sad, concerned or anything else. You have no idea what is going on inside their head, where their mind is at, or what they’ve experienced. What if they are making jokes of their own appearance? Are you banning that too?
Very much so.
Saying mean things about people’s appearance has always been mean and unnecessary. It is not new. Someone finally standing up and asking for it to stop should be applauded. Comedy easily comes from poking fun at what we have in common. Maybe that’s how it ends. Stick to what is actually funny and not mean spirited.
Jens….perfectly said!!
Of course it isn’t knew and it seems to be that she isn’t the first and only person I’ve heard standing up for this but I’d have to go back into my archives to see for sure. But if I’ve learned anything from the last few years it’s that everyone will never agree on everything. I mean what you might find as mean spirited I might see as funny and vice versa. So yeah, I don’t see this ever ending.
excuse my spelling errors, ugh, typing too fast, lol.
By that logic though, jokes about race, gender and ethnicity would still be okay because someone might find those funny as well. I agree with her. If it doesn’t have anything to do with the character then body shape, weight, etc. shouldn’t be used as a descriptor unless it has some meaningful bearing on the story being told. Fat suits aren’t funny like Black Face isn’t funny.
I’m offended by people who are offended
Me too.
Me three!
I’m offended by people who offend but then claim it was a joke or they didn’t mean it that way. Just shut up!
Agree with time completely!
Why make *jokes* that offend people that are already bullied and treated poorly in their regular life? Why is that called humor?
Yes, let’s bully everyone. Stop confusing bully with “being offended”.
It is about time!!
Absolutely agree.
Perhaps the opening of this article shouldn’t refer to people “struggling with their weight” – not everyone who is fat is just a skinny person having trouble.
My thoughts exactly! Goes to show that fat jokes are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding how our language is laced with fat-phobia.
Thank you Sarah! I was looking for someone to have spoken on this. We know that weight does not equate to health. The individual’s body is not the problem; society’s unrealistic expectations are. For anyone compassionate or curious, lookup the health at every size movement.
I can agree to stop them but wouldn’t be told if not funny, funny to someone or wouldn’t be told.
I know not good to punch down but reason jokes are told is some do find them funny.
That being said I could see why to stop.
As a fat person, i know and accept im fat and i can change it anytime i want, fat jokes are funny, gay jokes are funny, racist jokes are funny.
congrats on the low self-esteem but interesting that you are okay with fat jokes because you could change that at anytime but love jokes that mock people for things they can’t change like race and sexuality.
Whether joke is funny depends less on the subject matter than on the joke. Some jokes about weight are funny. This was true when I was morbidly obese and it remains true now. What usually isn’t true… is a blanket assertion that something is or is not a quality.
Yeah, it is worse to tell an unfunny joke than it is to joke about a ‘protected’ group.
if fat jokes were actually funny i’d be defending the right to comedy and tell people to stop being so sensitive. but as it happens i’ve never heard a funny fat joke. it’s low hanging fruit. writers who make weight jokes/write in fat suits need to take a creative writing class and get better jokes
But then why do a lot of people laugh at them, funny is subjective.
i think it’s a generational thing, like classic Boomer humor that doesn’t hold up. it’s an old joke that’s gotten tired
But deriding older “boomers” is apparently perfectly acceptable
People laugh at them because some people find humor in being cruel to people who are different. There can be a weird relief in laughing at something that applies to someone else, but not to you. (and even if you are overweight, it’s easy think that the person being made fun of is even more so)
I’m just glad they stopped with the fat-suits.
As an actress who is about the same size as both of these actresses, I say THANK YOU! You wouldn’t believe the comments and memes from my appearance in “Sunny in Philly” Just do a search for “lie back down meme” you’ll see what I mean. Not to mention the breakdowns for roles like “Big Stupid-looking woman” There are just BETTER WAYS to say that. This change happens in the WRITER’S ROOMS.
I enjoyed that sunny scene… Never imagined how it might affect you or others. Sorry to hear.
I think we need to stop making blanket statements about what we can and can’t do in regards to comedy. It’s up to the actor’s comfort level with the material. There are certain comedians whose whole shtick is their weight. If Awkwafina wants to make a joke about Asians because it’s reflective of her culture and experience, then that’s okay. If an overweight person wants to make a joke about their experience, that’s okay too. This actress needs to take a chill pill.
This isn’t what occurred here at all though. She is giving her opinion. What would you like her to say? She also didn’t say that people can’t mock their own appearance or individual circumstance.
.
She qualified with examples what she meant so it’s hardly a blanket statement. And, it’s also about the actors who have to speak the lines or embody the joke. What is so wrong about being kinder? The world will survive without mean-spirited jokes about people’s size. It costs nothing to be kind.
.
I say this as someone who has never struggled with his weight and likely never will…though I have heard I’m too thin and/or eat more.
To say to writers and show runners to take jokes about weight out of their script basically invalidates any writer who may be writing from a place of experience. We can find comedy in pain.
Doubtful that those who experienced “pain” at being the brunt of fat jokes are the ones she’s referring to. Clearly, if it serves a purpose or is someone’s experience that’s a different class than fat jokes for the sake of fat jokes-which there’s too much of and which she is calling out.
Even if it weren’t also offensive, making fun of someone’s appearance is the lowest, laziest form of comedy. If you can’t do better, you don’t deserve to be called a comedy writer.
This is the reason why television is so boring nowadays everybody all up in their feelings now, it’s like people don’t know how to laugh at themselves anymore. It’s just devastating. #EndCancelCulture
Wait, didn’t she just do a live episode of Facts of Life where they made a joke about Natalie’s weight?
Yellowjackets would have been a lot less good if Melanie Lynskey had the typical Hollywood yoga body. I mean there’s nothing wrong with that body, but when every cast member has it, well, then it’s unrealistic. The show already had to convince us that somebody who looks like Christina Ricci would have trouble getting a man to come home with her. Like, I don’t care how crazy you are, and I don’t care how terrible our dinner date went, if you look like Christina Ricci, I’m going home with you, ya know? I mean, come on.
.
Anyway, I’m not down with banning fat jokes. I’m not down with banning jokes about anything, if they’re good jokes. The thing is . . . I really can’t think of a single fat joke that was funny. But there are no bad ideas, only bad execution.
.
Okay. Monty Python’s Life of Brian, when the guy orders the entire menu and a puke bucket, and then he eats the mint at the end of the meal and explodes all over all the other guests in the restaurant? That’s a fat joke (I guess). And THAT’S funny.
Nah, normal Christina Ricci is one thing but Misty? Not attractive and weird.
Some of these comments. It’s not about being offended. Bullying is not offending someone. It’s tacky, gross and shows your lack of EQ.
I find calling someone tacky, gross and lacking EQ worse than fat. I thought you opposed bullying.
I’m guessing she wasn’t a fan of Married With Children. A lot of fat jokes in that show.
That show should be shown to everyone who’s about to work customer service.
The fast food and processed food industries are achieving their goal of convincing us that obesity, the #1 reason people get sick, is “healthy”.
Nothing is really off limits in comedy get over yourself
Stop being so sensitive Murica! And yes they are funny