Allison Tolman is fed up with jokes about weight.
On Tuesday, the “Fargo” and “Why Women Kill” star tweeted out a call for TV and film writers to drop the common practice of including jokes about people’s weight, adding, “I promise they aren’t funny.”
READ MORE: Lili Reinhart Opens Up About ‘Struggling With Obsessive Thoughts’ About Her Body Image
She illustrated the ways jokes about weight appear in shows and other media.
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
– exercise and movement— Allison Tolman (@Allison_Tolman) January 18, 2022
Tolman’s criticism also included elements that don’t necessarily end up on the screen, like character names and descriptions in screenplays that reduce characters down to their weight, like “Fat Lady In Theater,” as opposed to “Annoying Lady In Theater.”
I’m not saying you shouldn’t use adjectives. But 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”.
— Allison Tolman (@Allison_Tolman) January 18, 2022
The audience only knows the values you assign to different body types if you have characters saying lines about them. But the rest of your script? That’s your crew, writers room, everyone in the office, executives, creative partners- all the people helping you make your show.
— Allison Tolman (@Allison_Tolman) January 18, 2022
READ MORE: Melanie Lynskey’s ‘Yellowjackets’ Co-Stars Rallied To Her Support When She Was Body-Shamed On Set
Many on Twitter applauded Tolman’s thread, echoing her complaints and calling on Hollywood writers to do better by people of all body types.
The jokes do not hold up well at all. Watching old sitcoms have shown me just how much the collective humor of our society is based on being mean. https://t.co/8PO0PEAlVZ
— Farrah Rochon (@FarrahRochon) January 19, 2022
All of this and let's also get rid of the "fat guy gotta die" trope in nearly every genre show. https://t.co/CylUEImioH
— LarBear (@RiderConvoy) January 19, 2022
