History Film / SupersizeMe

* BigBad: (literally) [=McDonald's=]. Though other companies are criticized, the Golden Arches take the spotlight in the blame of the obesity epidemic.
* BigEater: Shows the consequences of such.

* EverythingIsBigInTexas: Present and discussed when Morgan goes to Texas, the fattest state of the Union in absolute numbers and the one where he is offered a "Super size" more often.

* SoundtrackDissonance: The "Blue Danube Waltz". [[spoiler: During scenes of gastric bypass surgery.]]

* DocumentaryOfLies:
** The idea of showing the food to be fattening is undermined by the imprecise methods. Spurlock's doctor states in the film he was eating about 5000 Calories a day (twice what he should be), but there's no exact log of the items and quantities he was eating. There's no way to tell how many of those Calories came from oversized portions in [=McDonald's=] available meals or ordering too many of them. If he was following the rules as stated it shouldn't be anywhere near that.
** Spurlock's physiological reaction to the diet--vomiting, headaches, mood swings, decreased sex drive, etc.--were likely as bad as they were because he had been vegan for years before started the experiment. Regardless of prior health, anyone going from that kind of diet to eating exclusively [=McDonald's=] is going to have a more extreme reaction than someone already accustomed to meat and fried foods. A [[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/214753/soso-so-good-interview number]] [[http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/meet_the_science_teacher_who_l.html of]] [[https://www.sott.net/article/126285-Supersize-me-revisited-under-lab-conditions people]] [[Film/FatHead have tried]] and failed to replicate the results of his experiment, suggesting that his weight gain and visceral reactions were simply the result of an abrupt lifestyle change.
** The liver damage that Spurlock's diet allegedly gave him seems a ''lot'' less damning after Spurlock later revealed that he's had very lengthy struggle with alcoholism since his teenage years.

** Spurlock's physiological reaction to the diet--vomiting, headaches, mood swings, decreased sex drive, etc.--were likely as bad as they were because he had been vegan for years before started the experiment. Regardless of prior health, anyone going from that kind of diet to eating exclusively [=McDonald's=] is going to have a more extreme reaction than someone already accustomed to meat and fried foods. A [[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/214753/soso-so-good-interview number]] [[http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/meet_the_science_teacher_who_l.html of]] [[https://www.sott.net/article/126285-Supersize-me-revisited-under-lab-conditions people]] [[FatHead have tried]] and failed to replicate the results of his experiment, suggesting that his weight gain and visceral reactions were simply the result of an abrupt lifestyle change.

''Super Size Me'' inspired a great deal of criticism from the scientific community, including several counter-documentaries (such as ''Film/FatHead'') which pointed out serious flaws with Spurlock's film.

* FanBoy: Spurlock visits renowned Big Mac fanboy Don Gorske, who achieved notoriety for eating at least one Big Mac a day for well over a decade. Unlike Spurlock during the film, Gorske's health has been unaffected because he only eats the Big Macs; he doesn't eat the french fries or drink the soda.

The film was generally well-received, and earned over $11 million dollars (against a $65,000 budget) at the box office. Soon after this documentary was released, [=McDonald's=] stopped offering the super-size option for their meals and introduced a 'Go Fit!' meal. Contrary to the popular belief that [=McDonal's=] instituted these changes to save face after the movie came out, they actually started phasing out the super-size in early 2004 (the film was released in May of that year) and had already been market-testing healthy alternatives. Unless [[UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories McDonald's was spying on Spurlock]] while he was filming the documentary, the release of this film was entirely coincidental.

* SuspiciouslySpecificDenial: Meta-Example. Sometime after the movie debuted nation wide, [=McDonald's=] got rid of their Super size option on the menu, stating that it was not this movie that influenced the decision.

The film was generally well-received, and earned over $11 million dollars (against a $65,000 budget) at the box office. Soon after this documentary was released, [=McDonald's=] stopped offering the super-size option for their meals and introduced a 'Go Fit!' meal. Contrary to the popular belief that [=McDonal's=] instituted these changes to save face after the movie came out, they actually started phasing out the super-size in early 2004 (the film was released in May of that year) and had already been market-testing healthy alternatives. Unless [[ConspiracyTheory McDonald's was spying on Spurlock]] while he was filming the documentary, the release of this film was entirely coincidental.

The film was generally well-received, and earned over $11 million dollars (against a $65,000 budget) at the box office. Soon after this documentary was released, [=McDonald's=] stopped offering the super-size option for their meals and introduced a 'Go Fit!' meal. [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial They claim that these changes were unrelated to the documentary's popularization]].

** Spurlock's physiological reaction to the diet--like the vomiting and headaches--were likely as bad as they were because, regardless of health, the change in food intake was so ''different'' to the vegan diet he had become accustomed to.
** A [[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/214753/soso-so-good-interview number]] [[http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2015/08/meet_the_science_teacher_who_l.html of]] [[https://www.sott.net/article/126285-Supersize-me-revisited-under-lab-conditions people]] [[FatHead have tried]] and failed to replicate the results of his experiment suggesting that his weight gain and visceral reactions were simply the result of a massive, rapid lifestyle change.

** The idea of showing the food to be fattening is undermined by the imprecise methods. Spurlock's doctor states in the film he was eating about 5000 Calories a day (twice what he should be), but there's no exact log of the items and quantities he was eating. There's no way to tell how many of those Calories came from oversized portions in [=McDonald's=] available meals or ordering too many of them.

* LastSupperSteal: One segment is a painting that shows grotesque caricatures of various fast food mascots set up like "The Last Supper".

* ShoutOut: [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Bugs Bunny and Sylvester make cameos in the parody art of "The Last Supper".

* IndestructibleEdible: One of the DVD extras had him put [=McDonald=]'s food products in jars and see how long it took them to go bad. The fish sandwich was the first to go, lasting only a couple of days, the various burgers lasted about two weeks before becoming moldy. The french fries on the other hand were completely unchanged (at least visibly) after ''ten weeks'', at which point they were accidentally thrown out by an intern.

* FanBoy: Spurlock visits renowned Big Mac fanboy Don Gorske, who achieved notoriety for eating at least one Big Mac a day for well over a decade. In contrast to the film's message, it shows that the Gorske is actually in perfect health because he only eats the Big Macs; he doesn't eat the french fries or drink the soda.

** Spurlock refused to release his food logs after receiving criticism about the scientific basis of the movie.
** If he was truly eating 5,000 calories of food per day and not exercising, it didn't matter what he was eating - he would gain weight and be unhealthy.

* FastFoodNation: Morgan Spurlock's documentary paints America as obsessed with [=McDonald's=] and the titular super-size option, to the point of health risk without care by the corporation. It has since been proven that (at least partially) it's a DocumentaryOfLies (Spurlock's challenge of living a whole month on super-sized combos wouldn't have given him such an accelerated health decline as the one that appears on film, as demonstrated by a university student that took the same challenge and kept precise track of his health).
* GranolaGirl: Spurlock's girlfriend.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** Morgan admits that he practically never ate out before making the documentary, and that he normally barely even eats meat in his evening meals because his girlfriend is a vegan chef. It's inevitable that somebody who goes from this kind of diet to eating nothing but [=McDonald's=] will have a much more extreme reaction than an average person who eats fast food in moderation. If eating a Super Size Combo made ''everyone'' vomit, do you really think they would keep offering it?
** He also went from working out regularly to an almost completely sedentary lifestyle. Spurlock defended it by pointing out that he was trying to emulate an average lifesyle (noting that Manhattan residents such as himself walk far more than most other Americans), but the results are still going to be exaggerated because of this.
** Morgan's side-project showing how long it takes fast food to spoil (where the [=McDonald's=] items barely change over the course of months) is ''very'' misleading. Mold requires moisture to grow, and the Mickey D burger and fries dried out too quickly to be a suitable environment. That has less to do with what they're made out of and more to do with how they're cut. The thin fries and patties simply didn't retain water long enough for the mold to take.
** More an artistic license to scientific studies in general. Spurlock refused to release his actual data from the "experiment". Most any experimental scientist will tell you that's a hallmark of bad science. Several individuals have made counter documentaries eating at [=McDonald=]'s for a month or longer while maintaining or losing weight.

** He also went from working out regularly to an almost completely sedentary lifestyle. Spurlock defended it by pointing that he was trying to emulate an average lifesyle (noting that Manhattan residents such as himself walk far more than most other Americans), but the results are still going to be exaggerated because of this.

** He also went from working out regularly to an almost completely sedentary lifestyle.

** More an artistic license to scientific studies in general. Spurlock refused to release his actual data from the "experiment". Most any experimental scientist will tell you that's a hallmark of bad science. Several individuals have made counter documentaries eating at McDonald's for a month or longer while maintaining or losing weight.

* ThinkOfTheChildren: One of Spurlock's interview subjects is an attorney building a case against the fast food industry. The attorney explains that his particular focus on [=McDonald's=] is because of their focus on children: the PlayPlace playgrounds, birthday parties, the Happy Meal, the advertising mascot Ronald [=McDonald=]...