Why is watching fat people doing stupid things funny?

[Marona]

To me it's just an ordinary person doing something dumb.For example if you saw a fit rollerblader failing a trick,they just laugh or sometimes worry.However when it is a fat person they call them a failure and harass them.

Plus it's the same with anorexic people sometimes.They are so skinny because of mental problems and maybe physical problems.And yet they laugh...and even call them fat sometimes when you can actually see their bones?

I want to ask people but I only get opinions like "Because fat people are dumb" and "fat people can't do shit".Or "she's uglier than marylin manson" or "looks more like a corpse than a person."

I just don't get it...Am I just plain dumb myself or am I suppose to think the same as others?

[Zedie9]

People often make themselves feel superior or better about themselves by asserting themselves over others, whether that be by bullying, name-calling, gossiping, or the like. For many, the obese make easy targets.

You should think whatever you like to think, but here's my take on things: I've never met anyone that was perfect; everyone has at least one flaw, be it physical, emotional, intellectual, or just personality. Everyone would be well served to bear in mind that all people have feelings and tend to be most sensitive about those things they deem flaws. And while one might ridicule the flaw in another today, one might be ridiculed for one's own flaw tomorrow. :spin:

[Charon]

I'd laugh at anyone failing a trick on rollerblades, if they happen to be fat that's just their bad luck.

Fat people are dumb? I can't say I've heard that much, if anything I think the bullying works on the premise that being overweight is caused by laziness or overeating (which is often the case, but as we know, not always, just like not everyone stick thin is anorexic.)
If anything, it's the people who bully who are dumb.

Point in point. I shave my head, this is a well known fact. I like it, it feels great. Every so often as I'm going about my daily life I'll find some idiot shouting out something along the lines of "shine your head moby!" or some other such jibe. All it does is serve to prove their lack of logic. Surely the fact that I intentionally shaved my own head means I like being bald. :s Thus why would I give a fuck what they think?
Expanding on this. After catching a shoplifter at work he tried mouthing off and at one point, his parting shot (an instant classic among my colleagues) was:
"Yeah, well look at your haircut. You're a fucking man! Grow some hair!"
>_<
He looked confused when we all burst out laughing at him and then looked kinda sheepish when I replied.
"Basic rule of insulting someone is to pick on something they can't change idiot. I obviously shave my own head and am pleased with the result. You missed the fact that I'm thin and wear glasses. If you were trying to hurt my feelings, surely those would have been more obvious targets?"

And thus we come full circle as to why fat people are obvious targets. The bullies know a fat person probably struggles with their weight and comfort eats and that insulting someone's size is the best way of hurting them, which seems to be fun for some people. Sometimes you just gotta accept the fact that you are what you are and half the people you meet are gonna have a problem with that.

[Pezito]

It's the same old banana peel gag... We all think it's funny when someone falls (as long as there's no serious injury involved), yet it's all but funny when it happens to us ! :lol: xD

Fat people are by nature unable to do stuff that "physically fit" people can ; I guess it's like showing a perpetual image of that banana peel gag. It probably isn't funny not to see your toes, not to be able to run more than a few seconds, not to look sexy on the beach... But maybe people like to dislike the fat ones because it's comforting on your own physical "normality". Just like mocking the ugly ones makes some people feel they're pretty.

And maybe, on an even more subconscious level, fat people represent the excess of wealth, the abundance of food, which is something people tend to dispise as long as it's not theirs. ;)