I like a good fat joke as much as anybody. Making fun of the lame, the dim-witted--surely there's a place for it in comedy"
Anthony Bourdain- Ruhlman.com 2007
I have to tell you honestly I've been disillusioned before but this one hit me a bit harder then most. It's probably been particularly upsetting because I have really both liked Bourdain, and been like him. I have also line cooked, we like many of the same people, the same music, we go to the same places and we both come from the same place.
I have bought every book he's written, I own every season of his show purchased through Itunes
I have to say for a guy who is a self-described recovering heroin addict and alcoholic and a smoker who also made a comment about seeing an emphysema doctor. I think you're a little fast to lay blame there eh big guy?
What gets me even more is that when he and Nugent filmed the segment together and this part ended up on the cutting room floor. In order for this thing to end up as a vodcast (video podcast), Bourdain had to have said to someone
“That part of the interview… when I dehumanized fat people...when I encouraged a day when we go back to making it OK to physically abuse overweight children, the part where I say people who are overweight are not good Americans. The part where I rather stupidly say that while I don’t support government oversight into the way people choose to eat and then yet in almost the same breath say that I admire the people who want to put the fat tax into law. I really want to go out of my way to make sure that message gets out there”. It's so important to me to dehumanize overweight people that I want to set aside time just to make sure that part got heard. "
I mean something like that had to have happened because I really do not think that his producers wanted that out or thought it would lead anywhere good. He says that he has a great deal of creative control and apparently this is how he wanted to use that control...To say that.
I also know that it’s probably useless to point out that the fat tax actually is government oversight of peoples food. The very same thing he said in the sentance before that he did not support. How can you firmly ( three time I think) say that you don't support goverment oversite on food choices but then say the fat tax is a good idea. What about a thing that is also commonly called the Twinkie tax is in anyway not goverment oversite? Does the word tax not tip you off Tony? It was last debated not in even as a theory, some guy down south created a bill andsubmitted to congress.
Not to get that deeply into it man . But from a purely ..something standpoint. It's not like discontinuity doesnt happen, but popping one off in a three minute video is pretty lame, most authors or movie directors are at least on their second book or a sequal to a movie before they even have one.
I find it particularly ironic that a guy whose show is essentially high end and exotic Food Porn with side kinks in gluttony and weird AND a pork fat fetish, is also the same guy who thinks he should have something to say to people who overeat. Or that it's a good idea. I know alott of us would hate to admit it. Even at under 200 lbs now I wouldnt want anyone outside my house catching me watching a food porn show, but I watch them. You gotta think it must have been vital for him to do this. Who does Food Porn and still wants to piss off people who like to eat?
Not to mention that he is also admittedly a recovering heroin addict, alcoholic and thief. Though he drinks enough that the recovering part is definitely in question A guy who talked about being afraid of losing his meds on a rafting show and who talked about how pissed off his emphysema doctor will be when he sees the episode where he’s smoking a hookah, that guy is for sure someone who should be lecturing the world on proper health and social conduct.
So he says he's recoved but I've also seen him drink on TV so many times it's not funny. Well actually it was pretty funny, but thats not the point.
Anyone want to count that out?
Oh man, his one is easy. He gave up smoking for his new kid, And then when bloggers variously took or in some cases reprinted pictures of him smoking on set, he got the resturant owners to intimidated them into removing the content . Is that Unamerican?
If fat people are un-American then why aren’t smokers unpatriotic as well? Don’t people with emphysema and people who are reliant on meds also drain the system? I'm just digging myself deeper and deeper in shit here, but you DO see where I'm going right? My point is not that I'm not fucked up. My point is I didn't go on TV and talk about fat people as less then human when I'm clearly a fuck up.
I tell you what really scares me, what scares me is not the fat people on the airplane. It’s the drunks with emphysema who are passed out in the isle "blocking egress" because their lungs can’t handle getting up and running for the door and their also too fucked up to find it.
It also seems like his fatphobia is a recurrent theme with him. Again with egress thing
Look in this 2006 article in Salon "
If you're blocking egress from a burning building or taking up half my seat on a plane that is not a lifestyle choice. That is a menace to society."
Man that’s bordering on a obsession. The strongest thing I can't stop from thinking is that calling overweight people a Menace to Society always only makes me thing of this scene except with everyone over 400 lbs driving scooters and topless. You know you didn't even talk about that and I'm pissed at you for it. Shit that's disturbing.
So fat people are selfish and they are worthy of ridicule, abuse and financial penalties.
So says the guy who wrote books talking about how he spent his time shooting dope into his veins, hiring his friends and taking the lifetime investments that the owners of the restaurants that he worked for had made in him when he knew they were failing, when he knew sometimes before the job they were going to fail.
In "The nasty bits" he wrote that he knew that he people who were paying him we're going to fail. Road them like a viking death ship until it perished where he ran like a ship rat to his next victims. I'm sad to say both that i've taken jobs that sucked and I knew were not going to stay afloat too . You do what you can do put food on your table. Or maybe dope in your veins in this case .
But I really tried to make it work and if it was broken I tried to fix it, even if I couldn't I would still ask those same people,like how does this work logically. .
That this type of thing is now becoming more of a universal experiance sucks. But isn't earning money dishonestly also unamerican? I'm not saying I'm any less of a shitbag and though I'm an american I maybe have done the ulitimate unamerican thing and moved out of the country.. Hell I'm probably a commie fuck ( well actually I'm not) who belives in socialized medicine ( well actually I do).
Whatever it was though it still sounds like maybe he should be more humble. What's ethical about running people who trust you dry?
Bourdain says of his own drug use
“I only mention my junkie past in my books because I make a lot of bold, hyperbolic statements and so it's important to remind people who's talking. They need to know that I don't have an impeccable, or even respectable, background. “
And, hey speaking of misplaced trust include in that the woman he was married to for 30 years who had to put up with all his bullshit,
Is disloyalty for someone you were with during the hard times UnAmerican? 30 years, his ex wife who lived with him and loved him when he was a junkie and when he couldn’t hold down a steady job, couldn’t afford to pay the rent and after all that time...
You know after I wrote this I thought hard about how many fucked up relationships that I was in that have portrayed me as being the dickhole when I really wasn't...I don't want to edit it out. I want to say it looks shitty on paper. for him I meant. I look fine on paper. Depending on which version you get.
Lets look at some other pearls. Says no to stopping the production of Foie Gras but also says he is opposed to animal cruelty.
It's still fucking cruel and just because one farmer shows on scene. Oh fuck off, they probably get a mechanical blowjob or something that takes place just under the camera shot or their stoned or somthing.
Just because one french guy somehow gets one fucking goose to walk up to him on TV doesn't mean that their arent another eighty billion fucking Geese who hated everyday of their pathetic lives only to have it finished by having some dickhole french guy try and suck it's dick when he slipps it a mickey..Ok I don't even know what that was. But the Foie Gras thing is fucking cruel.
Yes I eat liver, yes i'm a dickhole , again the point isn't that I am, it's that he is. Don't look at me like that, BEATING KIDS IS STILL FUCKING A SHITTY THING TO TALK ABOUT. Dont judge me, judge him. I'm not writing this for you to judge me, so just stop ok?
Says Vegans are" Rude , motivated by fear and antisocial" and “That it's an insult to impoverished people everywhere if vegitarians refuse to eat meat when they travel and ignore the food choices in the countries their visiting . Visting a counry and not having the dim sum is not an insult ( it's stupidity if you really are talking dim sum though) “ More that Veganism has no benefits and in fact can’t be good at all for the planet"
When it's pointed out to him that countless peer reviewwed studies actually show it would be better for the planet and the impoverished countries if people did not eat meat, he then replies with
"What's so great about that? I'm a radical environmentalist; I think the sooner we asphyxiate in our own filth, the better. The world will do better without us, when the blight of humanity is removed. That would be my academic argument to that."
And an academic you are at that sir.
My last point before summation. This is the one I llike the best and feel most like a dickhole about but it has to be done. Here is Tony three years ago lean and trim
What is different? No, it couldn’t be that his face just looks like he put about 50 pounds of cream cheese up his ass, or perhaps that’s not it I'm being insensitive and it's actually the steroids he has to take for emphysema. Should we understand it butterface? If Tony gets really fat will he stick by his opinion's?
I would like to think that the difference between he and I is not that I'm also not weak, sometimes in many of the same ways but is more that I know and admit to my weaknesses, failings and ignorance.
And knowing how weak, how ignorant I can be …and how badly I can fail I do not ever go and make any sort of ignorant public statement condoning violence or mistreatment or second class status of any group and I especially make sure not to judge groups that I do not or can not for whatever reason understand. What it probably really is more then anything though is that I admired this man and I'm really fucking disappointed.
For those of you with no access to Youtube at work you can download a PDF of the transcript of this video here or you can watch a quicktime version or download the actual podcast from his site HERE * keep in mind that the podcasts get archived after a few months so hopefully the YouTube video will stay up . If it doesn't and you really need to see this to believe it then send me an email I have the orginal file .
6 comments:
In response to many things but mainly as a response to my friend Cats.
Cats: I appreciate what you said though IMHO he won't apologize and if he does get it on a Q&A and does say something ,he won't do it on TV .
There's allot of things people do to help their career . I don't really think Anthony Bourdain needs to create controversy to help his ..I think he's career is doing fine and I doubt that rationally he would want to be known for hate speech.
No, I have to say that by the way he said this and given his past comments of a similar nature . I believe he means this very much.
What I can't get honestly is that if it's no longer permissible to ridicule or openly deride an ethnicity or a handicap in todays society ,why is it still permissible and how is it not hate speech when someone makes a public statement advocating bullying or picking on or hurting physically or emotionally anyone.
I'm asking this rhetorically becuase I don't expect you to have an answer and you're certainly not guilty of anything but since we are on the subject I often wonder why is it still ok to make fun of fat people on TV or anywhere.
If I sat with all my white friend in a room with only white people and made a joke or an suggested violence at the expense of black people- none of my friends would talk to me ever again and I would expect to be and would have been thrown out of that room.
Why when we are alone then, or when we are speaking in public or when on a TV show is it ok as a society to say the same thing about large people and it's perfectly ok?
I don't expect peoples feelings to change. People hate fat folks..it's a fact,not everyone, but people have a real disgust about it and I don't even want to try and change that . I just want it not to be ok to talk about it on TV
Why is Amos and Andy no longer ok to show on TV , why is Song of the South the only movie never released by Disney even though collectors of Disney merchandise would pay dearly for it.
Because given todays standards it would be inappropriate and damaging to us as a society. All of us would be lessened by it.
So why is it ok to put Monica in the fat suit on Friends?
I just think that if the US can raise such a fury over a half second shot of Janet Jacksons nipple why the people over at the Travel Channel didn't say.
"You can't say that you advocate kids getting picked on for any reason."
If he had said that about an autistic kid or a kid born into drug abuse there would be national outrage.
Somehow we have given a pass to the people who spout hate speech or ridicule fat people .
I used to weigh near 400 lbs and now I weigh almost 180. I've been on both sides of the coin and i have to tell you that now that I'm a thin person I only hear it more often then I did when I was overweight. Probably becuase when I weighed 400 lbs they were terrified that I would hurt them.
I just wonder when does it go too far? Twice in the last year and as a thin man I have been on flights where they tried to evict an overweight person from a flight and I really do understand they they have that rule and why it really is unfair for someone to have to be squished during a long flight. But during both of those events I told the airline people that I had no problem at all with sitting next to them.
Once was a couple who were being asked to buy extra seats because they were seated in a row of three when I was the third . I told the airline people over and over that since it was me they were protecting I required no such protection and would be just as happy to sit there without compliant. These poor people were being asked to buy seats that they originally bought for $125 for the full price of $600 and they could not afford to buy them and were looking at having their trip ruined and the only way I could solve it was to upgrade myself to first class which was much more expensive.
The second time i had to buy a guy an extra seat. That time it was a two seat row and again I said over and over that there was no problem on my end.
I have to think that faced with that situation and given my response that it had to be more then for my protection if I said I needed no such protection.
When are we as a society going to give people of weight the same benefit of the doubt as we give people with any other medial problem or even addiction.
Guys...don't take it personally ...that's his style...everyone has a claim to fame. Tony's is his brusque, rude, dark humour, outrageous beliefs and actions. He is famous because he says such crap. And at every step, he keeps reminding people that they ought not take his crap seriously, if he didn't do that, I'd be with you cussing him. But because he admits his own lack of worth as easily as he dismisses the world in general, I admit, he's kinda cool.
Perhaps Bourdain touched a nerve? Your post does nothing to refute the points Bourdain and Nugent raised, you instead simply attack Bourdain. He may be a bit hypocritical, but that is no reason to justify the disgusting levels of obesity in this country.
What if as opposed to saying Fat kids should be picked on, he said something like. Kids who have learning disabilities should be picked on. Or we should pick on autistic kids. Or not just kids, but all people with MS, or congenital heart disease or sickle cell disease.
This guy wants us to be ok with him having a drug habit ( which I'm ok with) which he occasionally falls off the wagon on.
He wants us to be ok with him openly admitting to getting people to trust him and then burning them ( people make mistakes ..shit happens you grow up and learn).
Whats the difference from someone who overeats and lays on their ass and someone who shoots dope and lays on their ass? Is one less of a burdon on society as another?
Why to we mollycoddle people who have been in drug treament 3 times a year on the public dime and yet we as a society have no problems publiclally blasting someone who is overweight and may not even be using public funds. I have friends who have been to Hospital rehabs 3 times a year for over 10 years and the fall off the wagon. They do 10 day programs, 90 day programs, they spend their time im hospitals using state insurance and they don"t work..somehow thats's ok but a guy or gal has an eating disorder and now thats worse?
Kids who are raised by parents who don't teach them proper eating should be beaten?.. or kids that are just fat despite the effort?
Most fat people don't go to rehab. They go to weight watchers and jenny Craig. Yes they get sick and die. So do dope addicts and so do alcoholics and so do people who like playing with guns to much.
I don't know any fat person who has gone into a 90 day program on the public dime once a year or more and yet I know plenty of dope addicts or pill takers or boozers who do and do it without insurance. Why don"t we hear stuff from Bourdain or Nugent for that matter about that or any other group who has a problem. My point is that fat people get socially outed becuase it's more socially acceptable to do so. And this guy who's career is at the moment if you watch his latest series 1001 ways to eat pork and fat happens to be lucky that his body processes fat in such a way that he doesn't gain. If he had a different set of parents and ate the way he does or would have us think he does then he would be 400 Lbs.. Why is one group who uses the system like dope addicts or Mentally ill people any worse of a perceived burden then people who have a weight problem which is often just another addiction or medical issue If you grow up around a family who drinks allot and then you as an adult drink allot and you cost society money or need disability or cause problems on airplains and I assure you that the drunks are by far much more of a problem then the fat people are ...how is that worse then people who have bad food habits.
Look watch the fucking TV man. Look at the fucking Angus burger from Burger King a 640 calorie 50% saturated fat sandwich. . Yet you can't put a booze or smoking commercial on TV but you can put something that is going to kill you just as easily as drugs or booze or any other addiction On TV and whats more you canb advocate beating kids without taking any slack.
whats the difference between someone who's a dope addict, a drunk, a kleptomaniac or overweight? Nothing other then each use a different drug.
If Tony Bordain wants us to understand and respect him despite his addiction, he's rather tough on people who have an addiction other then the ones he's had.
Worse, The advocating that America would be a better place if it were still ok to beat up on fat kids. Which would first of all have us believe his assumption that fat kids are not picked on now ..which is not true, is simply cruel and he or his producers should have known better.
Thinking like that could move right along to. I think America would be a better place if we could stone woman who were unfaithful. Or shoot gays on site.
It's an ignorant and petty world view for someone who claims to have been through the fire and come out the other side, and who claims to have a world view and an understanding of cultures that aren't his own.
And now it turns out this guy has sucked back so much smoke he's got COPD/emphysema. Just who is he to judge> He who will in just a few years time be dragging an 02 machine around with him?
Plus what"s more anti-American than intolerance to others?
If this guy had been a man living on public assistance and had been in and out of prison while using your tax money to treat the various medical issues that come as a result of shooting dope and having to be treated for smoking related illness would you stand by him so much? If he was saying that all protestant kids should be picked on. or Buddhists or Muslims or Jews or Roman Catholics or Atheists how about then?. Or if he said the days we put Jews in Concentration camps were the good old days, or when we put Japanese Americans into internment camps just because of their skin..
Would anybody be rushing to defend him? Would you be so quick to excuse him?
I like how you said Disgusting Obesity epidemic. Do you say the same thing about The Aids Epidemic or Sars or swine flu or Cancer? Are you an doctor. were you elected arbiter of what is and is not disgusting. Was Bourdain?
The difference between you and he is he said his thing on TV and put it out on YouTube sand you said yours on by blog which no one looks at.
Would you use just that phrase when talking about people who smoke or drink. We have epidemics a plenty in this country and throughout the world., Picking one and identifying it as more disgusting than another Epidemic.
If you find the obesity epidemic so disgusting have them close all the burger joints. Take the 640 calorie steak burger off the Burger King menu or have them put a warning label on it. I mean here you have a burger being pushed by the second largest fast food joint in the USA and if you eat one of them your actually consuming 51% of the recommended amount of fat for the whole day. 10 grams of sugar, 50% saturated fat,more then half your required caloric intake for the day if your trying to keep slim not to mention the ungody cholestrol. If it's that disgusting have making bad food just as much a crime as it is to give away trial packages of cigarettes or drugs to children and have them make fast food that"s healthy. Have the FDA not allow people to say a food is diet friendly at only 100 calories a serving while practically hiding the text that there is 600 servings per box.
Ahh but your going to say something about choice. Your choice to drink or eat. But overweight people they burden yoiu. If you drink to much and act like a dick are you a burden. Maybe not you lets say another guy. people try and moralize whats disgusting or wrong and it's always something they haven't ever had to deal with. You cannot judge wht it is like to suffer something until you have lived it...
And at the basic level of human decency he should be leaving children out of it? Growing up is hard enough without some ignorant asshole who supports taxation but says he is against government control telling people whose kids deserve a beating and who's don't
It's not just the pot calling the kettle black, It's the pot advocating giving a beating to the kettle's kids which as you say is hypocritical.
Post a Comment