Pop Culture's Greatest Fat Guy

Much like the Over/Under Waistline debate, Pop Culture's Greatest Fat Guy will become a running debate each guest will have to weigh in on when they stop by the Fat Guy Report. For me, this was no easy task. The Godfather, Homer Simpson, Fred Flinstone, and Minnesota Fats were all possibilities. 

However my final selection seemed to be staring me in the face from the very beginning. When I was a young fat guy — a fat guy in training if you will — there was one character on one of my father's favorite shows that always made me feel better about the giant man I was to become.

Norm Peterson from Cheers.

Now, it's a dated reference I know. There are plenty of fat guys I could have selected who are more developed in our collective conscious, but no fat guy has ever been revered in my household like Norm.

There was something splendid about a man being welcomed by an illustrious roar whenever he entered a room. (Remember when this show was on. I was very young and didn't really get the concept of a bar. It was just a place all his friends were at all the time.)

The shout of "NORM!" which rang through the grandiose tavern every time that perfectly shaped fat guy waltzed through the door made me comfortable in my own increasingly lose-fitting skin.

Looking back on those moment all these years later, it was probably the first instance of me being alright with me. Once I was in high school, and especially in college, I was able to surround myself with people who no longer used fat jokes as elementary slights, but as innocent gestures amongst friends.

Well, as a tiny little round ball, fat jokes were never friendly. But I saw the self-deprecating humor of Norm. He was having fun with his weight and his shape.

He was truly the ideal fat guy. He was big, and in no way could hide that fact. Instead of feeling down, he just made jokes and never let anyone get the better of him. As I watched the show on reruns later in life, he also made fun of his job, wife and the fact he was, by all accounts, an unabashed alcoholic. 

In many ways he was just a normal guy. Yes, he was a fat guy, but he faced more troubles associated with men of any size and was undeterred in his own pursuits. He was — and in many ways still is — a model for what a fat guy should be.

He was nothing much more than a regular man who happened to be a fat guy. He loved being a fat guy and would never think of being anything different. 

His ideals are the same as the cornerstones of the Fat Guy Report. As we are a place where fat guys can be who we are, Norm was unapologetic in his own life.

He truly was a fat guy for the ages.

I (heart) pie.