Big Fun

Yeah Jesus Was Way Cool, but Budai? Fun incarnate.

"Geez, I thought you people were supposed to be jolly."

—Peter Griffin, Family Guy

The big, fun, lovable fat guy. May be a Boisterous Bruiser or The Big Guy of a Five-Man Band, depending on how much they like to fight and shout. Often a king or other aristocrat whose wealth and lifestyle lends itself to fabulous feasts, or in contrast a modern young man whose weight makes him more identifiable.

Almost Always Male it seems, probably because of the usual Double Standard about attractiveness and such. If female, though, she's likely to be a Big Beautiful Woman.

Contrast the Fat Bastard, which is when the fat person is, well... a bastard.

Examples of Big Fun include:

Anime & Manga

• Dr. Tokita of Paprika, who's as cheerful as he is plump.
• Junpei "J.P." Shibayama of Digimon Frontier. Bit of a Dogged Nice Guy. Known for his magic tricks and giving of chocolate.
• Cuba from Axis Powers Hetalia, specially in the Christmas 2010 Special.
• Naruto has Choji who is a Big Eater with a Big Heart who's willing to defend his friends with his life. But remember not to call him fat.
• The cheerful and perpetually hungry Officer Chiba from Detective Conan.
  • Also Professor Agasa, who is just as plump and as cheerful.
• Kurita of Eyeshield 21 is a more subdued version of this trope. He's gentle, friendly and fun, but hardly boisterous.

Comic Books

• Volstagg from The Mighty Thor, which is explicitly based on Falstaff.
• Obelix from Asterix [PUNCH] "It's all muscle, that's what it is!"
  • He's not fat, he's "low chested."
• Fat Cobra from The Immortal Iron Fist.

Films -- Animated

• Possible subversion: Po the Panda from Kung Fu Panda acts like this, to mask his insecurity at being the fat oaf at the Furious Five's kung-fu school. He gets more serious as the movie goes along, but is still the nicest guy in the movie.
• Shrek, in a Jerk with a Heart of Gold sense. He puts on a Fat Bastard facade because he doesn't like how "people judge me before they even get to know me."
• Jethro in The Prince of Egypt.
• Inversion: Manny the Mammoth in Ice Age is asumed to be jolly by pretty much anybody who meets him. Anybody who lampshades this trope is promptly informed that: "It's not fat, it's fur. It makes me look... poofy."

Films -- Live Action

• Bluto Blutarsky in Animal House.
• For simplicity's sake, Jack Black characters that aren't this trope:
  • The director in Peter Jackson's King Kong
• Chris Farley in Tommy Boy
  • Just about any role Chris Farley's in.
• A number of John Candy characters fit this trope including Del, Buck Russell, Barfomolew, and Ox from Stripes.
• Robe from Max Keeble's Big Move
• Conchata Ferrell played a rare female version in Mr. Deeds.
• Brian Blessed in all his many wonderful forms.
• Martha Dumptruck in Heathers is a subversion.
• As mentioned above, the movie version of Volstagg is just as fun as his comic counterpart.
• The Blob from Wolverine: Origins is a lot more fun than his villainous counterpart in the comic books.
• In Remember the Titans, Louie is the first to easily break racial tension, and can crack a joke or two: "I just gave your mamma a piggy-back ride, and she weighs twice as much as I do!". The actor himself may have been this before he lost 200 pounds.
• Tracy Turnblad in Hairspray is a rare young female example.

Folklore

• Santa Claus

Literature

• Captain Jack Aubrey has often been chided by Stephen Maturin over his weight. He weighs around 18 stone, which is roughly 250 pounds. Of course, he's also an excellent fighter, which puts him squarely in Stout Strength (and possibly Genius Bruiser, considering his tactical prowess) territory. He also loves to party when he has the chance, and he's been known to make an utter fool of himself in social occasions, which makes him a Boisterous Bruiser too. The ladies seem to appreciate it too: He's practically the James Bond of the Napoleonic War era.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: King Robert Baratheon. Also a slight deconstruction; as a Boisterous Bruiser put into the role of king and forced into a loveless political marriage after the woman he fought the war for in the first place died, Robert's been unable to exercise most of his appetites, which has led him to grow fat. The jovial humor masks a heavy accumulation of grief, rage, and utter disappointment.
• King Smoit, from the Prydain Chronicles, combined with Boisterous Bruiser and Stout Strength.
• King Lune of Archenland from The Chronicles of Narnia.
• Rhodar, king of Drasnia in The Belgariad.
• Most illustrators portray Old King Cole this way, making him fat and jolly.

Live Action TV

• Grossie (Officer Arthur Grossman) on CHiPs.
• Hurley on Lost.
• Sugar Daddy on Popular.
• Eli on Stargate Universe.
• Jerry's brother Kelbo on Wizards of Waverly Place.
• Cam on Modern Family.
• Noah's Arc: Alex in a nutshell (similar the the above Modern Family example).
• Gibby on iCarly.
• Bulk from the Power Rangers series started as The Bully and one of Those Two Guys, but Character Development resulted in his mellowing out and showing a nicer side. Best exemplified by his return to the franchise in Power Rangers Samurai, where he (tries) to be The Obi-Wan to his best friend's son.
• Gordon Crisp on Freaks and Geeks. At one point he and Harris even lampshade the trope.

Gordon: My whole family's big-boned. It's genetic.
Harris: Besides, the world loves jolly fat guys. Burl Ives. Jackie Gleason.
Gordon: Santa Claus. Curly. Raymond Burr.
Neal: No. Raymond Burr isn't jolly.
Gordon: Well he was extremely nice to me at last year's auto show.

Music

• "Fat Boy" from Max A Million is pretty much this trope.
• Spanish-speaking example: Juan y Juan's "Balada para un gordo" ("A Ballad for the fat guy")

Newspaper Comics

• Flash Gordon has Vultan of the Hawkmen. The dude can fly, too! Those are some strong wings!

Religion

• As pictured, Budai, also known as Hotei. He fits into both Japanese Shinto and Buddhist traditions, as he's one of the Seven Gods of Fortune in Japanese belief, but also considered to be a bodhisattva (generally Maitreya). The popular label of "The Laughing Buddha", although it is true that he brings good luck if you rub his belly.
• Ganesha.

Theater

• A few examples by Shakespeare:
  • Falstaff
  • Sir Toby Belch (Twelfth Night)
  • Julius Caesar was a firm believer in this trope.

Web Original

• BFF Nella. She has issues, of course (mostly to do with being abused) but she's a lot happier than the more conventionally pretty, Jerkass, Broken Bird Nostalgia Chick.
• Clara from The Guild. She's always ready to party.

Video Games

• Zeke in In Famous. By all accounts, a friendly, easygoing kind of guy. Sadly, his urge to become a superhero results in him betraying Cole later in the game. Thankfully, he recovers in the sequel, becoming a much better friend to Cole in the process.
• Big Smoke in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
  • Sadly, what applies to Zeke above also applies to Smoke.
• E Honda in his various adaptations throughout Street Fighter seems to have many friends and allies. Probably due to exactly how seriously he's taking the tournament.
• Gordo the Round in Skies of Arcadia starts off as a Fat Bastard, but he pulls a Heel Face Turn, opens up his own gourmet restaurant, and becomes the game's Big Fun after he is defeated.
• Both Brom and his daughter Meg from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn are rather upbeat, cheerful country folk. Brom explains that the girth itself is rather useful for managing farm equipment.
• Fatman from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty would qualify, except for the detail that his idea of fun is blowing things up with bombs. Still great fun at parties if you check him for C-4 at the door.

Fatman: Laugh, and grow fat!

• The Heavy, to his own team, at least. To everyone else, he's describable as "a big, shaved bear that hates people."
  • While on the topic of Valve, Gabe Newell himself.
• Forrest Kaysen of Deadly Premonition is an enormous sapling salesman with an unfailingly jolly attitude and a friendly pet dalmatian. He's good with kids and becomes a steadfast ally in some of the game's later acts. Absolutely none of this means that he's nice. He isn't. He really, really isn't.
• The Wii version of Punch-Out!! gives us returning challenger Bear Hugger, who, while easily one of the physically widest and most rotund boxers to get in Little Mac's way, is also an entertaining, goofy Boisterous Bruiser with a big laugh, whose lines are pure comic gold, usually playing into his Canada, Eh? stereotype for all it's worth. He also seems to be in it for fun rather than harboring any serious thoughts of contending or being outright Ax Crazy.

Web Comics

• Rare Female Example: Reagan from Templar, AZ. Besides being a BBW and resident Fetish Fuel Station Attendant (literally, being the owner of a porn shop), she's probably the funnest of all the cast to be around.
• Another female example is Jamie from Girls with Slingshots, a BBW who is as sweet, friendly, and helpful as she is... uh... boobs.

Western Animation

• Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • His successor in The Legend of Korra looks to be Bolin
• Homer Simpson, at least to himself.

Homer: Marge, the boy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Marge: So?
Homer: There's only two kind of guys who wear those shirts: gay guys and big, fat party animals. And Bart doesn't look like a big, fat party animal to me...
Marge: So, if you wore a Hawaiian shirt, it wouldn't be gay?
Homer: Right. Thank you.

• Baloo, from The Jungle Book and Tale Spin, is this, but in bear form.
• Owen on Total Drama Island.
• Fat Albert, of course! "Hey, Hey, HEY!"
• Coop on Megas XLR.
• Bulkhead from Transformers Animated is as close to this trope as you can get for a giant robot.
• Eddie Spenser, Filmations Ghostbusters.
• Ray Stantz, The Real Ghostbusters
• Bouncing Boy of the Legion of Super-Heroes is this.
• Hedonism Bot in Futurama.
  • Human Bender, from the What if Bender was a human? Tale of Interest.
• Beezy on Jimmy Two-Shoes.
• Mikey from Recess.
  • T.J.'s a bit plump and he's Fun Personified
• This was Spud's contribution to Titan Force Five, until his tragic fall down a 400-story building.
• Dave the skunk from Scaredy Squirrel.
• Jack Sprat is a Big Fun guy in the Mighty Mouse cartoon "Mother Goose's Birthday Party", big enough to dance with all three of the Three Little Kittens. (Clearly, the writer forgot that Jack was the one who "could eat no fat".)

Real Life

• Gabriel Iglesias is a perfect example. But he's not fat, he's "fluffy"!
• Daniel Lambert. Despite having worked as a gaol keeper, he is best described as a nice guy and a loved local figure. It helped that morbidly obese people weren't viewed as harshly in 18th/19th century England as they are now, but are rather regarded as marvels to be seen.
• Benjamin Franklin is the quintessential American example.
  • In late middle and old age (which is when he was famous), that is. As a young man, he was incredibly buff; as a junior printer, he was constantly carrying large cases of heavy lead type.
• Andrew Zimmern, the bald and huge host of the show Bizarre Foods.
• Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners
• Peter Jackson was, for a long time, but recently lost a lot of weight. Still a fun guy, even if no longer big.
• A lot of rappers seem to cultivate this image. Guys like The Notorious B.I.G.., Fat Joe, and Cee Lo Green (despite only being 5'5") are all pretty heavy and generally seeming like the type of people who knew how to party.
• Chino Moreno of Deftones, though he lost weight during the period between Saturday Night Wrist and Diamond Eyes.