Fat and Proud

The weightier members of our society include among their number some of its soundest and most grounded individuals. These are people who are comfortable in their weight; they fill out empty space; they have a presence, and they know it and like it. They like food, they like a lot of it, and they make no apologies. Their flab improves them; it betokens a sensual, epicurean approach to life, which is only to be commended. When Shakespeare's Julius Caesar said "Let me have men about me that are fat", these are the kind of people he meant.

—Stephen Bond, "Fat Whiners"

Dan: Whoah! You're a big, fat cow!

Lorenda: Why yes I am! It's so good to see all my efforts finally being noticed!

—Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures

In TV Land, most characters will freak over gaining a few pounds, and instantly pull out the carrots and celery. And those who are overweight will usually try to deny it. But not these guys. These are the few, the proud, the fat. They have no qualms about their size, and will complain when they lose weight. They may even try to gain more weight, although this is not seen as often. If female, this character is almost always a Big Beautiful Woman.

Examples of Fat and Proud include:

Anime and Manga

• Chouji from Naruto. Getting called "fat" is his Berserk Button, but he takes it really well when phrased any other way.
  • To be more precise, there's a specific derogatory term for "fat" ("debu") in the original Japanese that serves as his Berserk Button, but any of the more polite ways of calling attention to his weight (of which there are many, in that language) he takes in stride. Inconsistent translation in the various English versions have made it a little unclear what, exactly, sets him off.

Comic Books

• The Fat Slags comics are all about a pair of promiscuous, Fat and Proud women from the North of England. The almost-unrelated movie featured an impossibly rich media tycoon making BBWs the height of fashion, so that every woman in the Western world would either be Fat and Proud, or try to gain weight till they were.
• Obelix from Asterix, He doesn't consider himself fat, instead, he considers it unhealthy to be any less fat than his normal size.
  • He spends an entire album insisting that he is "low-chested" and eventually even a knocked out roman soldier puts an APB for a low-chested suspect.
• Wonder Woman's sidekick Etta Candy, before the reboot.
• Garfield. To quote one of his earliest strips:

"I'm fat, and I'm lazy, and I'm proud of it!"

• • Garfield even used to have yearly Fat Day strips.

Films

• In The Little Mermaid, Ursula laments that she's "wasted away" over the years, rather than complaining about her less-than-skinny physique.
  • When one sees her grown into a giant near the end of the movie, Fridge Horror sinks in; perhaps the reason why she complains about "wasting away", despite her ample girth, is because giant!Ursula is closer to her original stature!
• Po in Kung Fu Panda, towards the end.
• Arguably, the mayor in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Literature

• Winnie the Pooh. He even sings about it!

With a hefty, happy appetite,
I'm a hefty, happy Pooh!

• There's one character from Chuck Palahniuk 's novel Haunted who used to be chunky and happy, but made an effort to get in shape. Eventually she became super slim and sells an exercise tool, but feels stressed all the time, so much so that she holds onto a picture of herself from her bigger days just because seeing it makes her feel happier. (Until her future fiancé rips it up in front of her.)
• Queen Sollace from the Lyonesse novels by Jack Vance. Large, blonde and very pale, she compares herself favourably with her gamine granddaughter, who "can never have a truly fashionable figure."
• Being grossly overweight is actually a point of pride for Speck Great Ones in the Soldier Son trilogy, since they store magical power as fat.

Live Action TV

• Although Jason Segel isn't fat per se, just a bit overweight and very big-boned, in How I Met Your Mother, Marshall has a line of this while he's arguing with Barney over which one of them Ted would rather have sex with:

Barney: Look at me! Now look at you. A still-in-the-closet 80-year-old wouldn't be into that mess.
Marshall: Here's the thing, Barney. I'm snuggly. You're not. Who wouldn't want to snuggle up next to this business on a Sunday morning, wrapped in a comforter, and it's raining outside and there's muffins warming in the oven - I'm cuddly, bitch, deal with it!

• Mercedes in Glee
  • And Lauren Zizes, it seems, although Puck singing "Fat-Bottomed Girls" to her seemed to hurt her feelings. (Oddly, she was charmed by his original song, "Big-Ass Heart.")
  • Lauren is definitely this, since she matter-of-factly states that her size is the result of a combination of the "shoddy Zizes thyroid" and a "love of chips", accepts payment for AV Club services (and bribes for dates) in sweets, and is both a state champion wrestler and former infant beauty pageant queen whose talent was "baby pull-ups".
• On Just Shoot Me, an old friend of Nina's shows up, having gained weight since her modeling days. However, it turns out she's fine with this, and is concerned about Nina for still being worried about her looks after all these years.
• Will from Huge makes being proud of her fat a form of social rebellion, since the entire show takes place at a fat camp.
  • One could argue the show itself personifies this.
• Noah's Arc: Alex loves his big body.
• Corey and Chumlee in Pawn Stars make no bones about their equally large sizes. Chumlee especially, which draws concern for his health from Rick. Corey has since lost a considerable amount of weight, while Chumlee is still as fat as ever.

Music

• Truth in Television: Angus Young of AC/DC had at first, reluctant sex with a rather huge groupie, who later became the inspiration for the song "Whole Lotta Rosie".
  • When Angus Young met Rosie a few years later, she had slimmed down to waifish proportions. Angus replied that it "Just wasn't the same".
• The rock band Mammoth consisted of fat musicians, so obviously losing weight would have ruined their gimmick.
  • Another music one in the same vein: I recall someone showing me a website for the 'Misfats', "the fattest Misfits tribute band".
• Cherry from the animated band Studio Killers.
• ‘’Fat’’, by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
• "Rockin' the Beer Gut" by Trailer Choir sings the praise of a woman with a beer gut.
• Beth Ditto, lead singer of the queercore band Gossip.
• Jamie Madrox of Twiztid is rather proud of his girth, to the point that he has even released a solo album called "Phatso". His weight, much like his partner Monoxide Child's chain smoking, has become one of his signature features.

I'm ultra grande like a Luchador,
Pullin' aerial maneuvers at three hundred pounds or more!

• Referenced in "Beer Gut" by Da Yoopers, a polka singing praise to those with beer guts and asking them to "stand up if you can".
• Rap artists "Heavy D" and "Biggie Smalls".
• The Fat Boys.

Video Games

• Rufus in the Street Fighter IV games. His bulk is an integral part of his fighting style.
• Fat Larry in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, who wants you to know he is fat with a F-A-T cause he knows he's got a weight problem and he just doesn't give a fuck.

Webcomics

• Lorenda the Demon-Cow from DMFA. She's noticeably fat, and perfectly comfortable with it, as seen most clearly in the strip when Dan first meets her.

Web Original

• The Nostalgia Chick's BFF Nella is more than happy to stuff herself so that her friend will look better in comparison. She's also perfectly fine with her appearance and doesn't appreciate concern trolls.

Western Animation

• In one episode of Dragon Hunters, Jennyline, a BBW, goes with the eponymous hunters so she can cook a dragon immediately after they kill it. After the adventure, she tells them that she's never doing that again because it's "bad for her waistline"—she lost 20 pounds (not that she looks any different).
• Homer Simpson goes back and forth between this (for instance, the time he gained weight to go on workers' comp and proclaimed himself a "big fat dynamo") and I Am Big Boned.
• In Family Guy, when Lois first started gaining weight, Peter was upset but later began to really like it. So much so, that he tries fattening her up even more and even faster, which she is happy to do. When she had to have liposuction, he was found in the closet having sex with her removed fat.
  • In "The Fat Guy Strangler", Peter establishes the NAAFP: The National Association For The Advancement of Fat People. The members? All of them were fatter than Peter.
• On King of the Hill, Bobby gets his mom to accept her big feet by telling her how his being fat doesn't stop him from loving life and being liked (a nice quiet Crowning Moment of Awesome for him).
• Oleander, Villainous Glutton of Sushi Pack. At one point during a Villain Conference, she asks if they can order drinks, since she's losing her "water weight."
• To quote Coop from Megas XLR: "Chubby? Ladies, this is fat!"
  • "...And worst of all, made me skinny!" (Referring, of course, to his alternate reality evil twin. Of course.)
• Fat Albert

Real Life

• The FAs, fetishists, and so on...
• Comedienne Mo'Nique, herself a BBW, hosted the F. A. T. (Fabulous And Thick) Chance Beauty Pageant. Contestants had to be size 14 or higher to enter.
• Comedian Gabriel Iglasias has built his stand-up career on this, particularly with the "Six Levels of fatness."
  • He's not fat. He's fluffy!.
• Sumo wrestlers, of course!
• Australian media personality and former rugby league player Daryl Brohman lives up to this trope - he is known almost universally as "The Big Marn", features in ad campaigns for big men's clothing, and has a well documented fondness of meat pies and chocolate.