History Main / AWeightyAesop

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Some younger teenage tropers may remember watching Series/LazyTown as a kid, a show BASED on this trope.

Compare IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou, WeightWoe, and NutritionalNightmare.

* ''WesternAnimation/SevenLittleMonsters'': "You Are What You Eat" has the moral revolve around the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and to never overeat. After hearing about a pie-eating contest, Four gets the idea to train his brother Five by having him eat only pie, while Four eats Five's meals in the interim of the training so that none of Five's food goes to waste while he focuses on eating pie. The consequences of this exercise are that Five becomes severely addicted to pie and Four becomes very fat, with their siblings the other five monsters helping them get back into shape by feeding them the gigantic vegetables they recently grew and having them exercise.

* ''WesternAnimation/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketville'': Episode "[[Recap/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketvilleE10FoodForThought Food for Thought]]" has Molly, a girl who refuses to eat anything but sweets despite her parents convincing her to eat healthier foods. Kate and Magic go to Pocketville to find a pet who could teach her to eat healthy foods, and they find Goldie, a hamster chef known for cooking healthy foods that smell like sweet treats at the Bear Inn. After Goldie is sent to Molly through the Friendship Ceremony, she takes a bite out of an apple at a market to get Molly to do the same. This works, with Molly saying that an apple tastes better than a cake.

* ''WesternAnimation/PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketville'': Episode "[[PuppyInMyPocketAdventuresInPocketvilleE10FoodForThought Food for Thought]]" has Molly, a girl who refuses to eat anything but sweets despite her parents convincing her to eat healthier foods. Kate and Magic go to Pocketville to find a pet who could teach her to eat healthy foods, and they find Goldie, a hamster chef known for cooking healthy foods that smell like sweet treats at the Bear Inn. After Goldie is sent to Molly through the Friendship Ceremony, she takes a bite out of an apple at a market to get Molly to do the same. This works, with Molly saying that an apple tastes better than a cake.

* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' subverts this trope in "The American Dad After School Special". After it's pointed out that he's put on some weight, Stan takes it to extremes and tries to get as skinny as possible. At first it looks like Haley and Francine are trying to sabotage him by putting fat in his diet food as payback for banning Steve from seeing his fat girlfriend Debbie, but in a twist, it's revealed they're trying to get him to put on weight because he's suffering from anorexia and is actually so thin, you can see his skeleton.
* "WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} Weighs In" is about Arthur freaking out over becoming "husky" ([[InformedDeformity despite not looking any fatter than usual]]).
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' had the episode "Just Desserts!" in which Timmy wishes that it was dessert all the time. By day 28 of the wish everyone is severely obese and gets to the point of rolling around. The extra weight causes the Earth to tilt on its axis and spin towards the sun. [[ArtisticLicensePhysics Somehow]].
* ''WesternAnimation/JoJosCircus'' has characters called the Spudinskis who were anthropomorphic ''potatoes''. In one installment, they became ''literal'' couch potatoes, stuck to their couch, and had to be encouraged to exercise.
* ExecutiveMeddling forced this upon the writers of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', and that's how we got [[ShoutOut "Grande Size Me"]] (complete with not so subtle LampshadeHanging).
* The [[MonsterOfTheWeek Germ of the Week]] on one episode of ''WesternAnimation/OzzyAndDrix'' kidnapped fat cells to Hector's heart to try and give him a heart attack. Hector throws a SpannerInTheWorks when he goes for a run.

* ''WesternAnimation/BigCityGreens'' did this with the episode "Fast Foodie". A new Burger Clown opens where Big Coffee stood and Cricket makes a wager with Bill he and Tilly can eat there all the time for every meal with no side effects. He ends up becoming a massive roly-poly while Tilly becomes violently ill; despite this, he won't stop eating the burgers until he gets stuck in the play place slide and Bill reminds him if he should be there the rest of his life. It is that point he learns his lesson and vows never to eat Burger Clown food all the time again, but Bill gets stuck as well, causing the restaurant to be closed down. Cricket is not sad, however, as not having his favorite restaurant next door is for the best.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' did this twice.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/HomeMovies'' in which Brandon and Jason become overweight from overindulgence in junk food and decide they've become "fat enablers"; when they're apart they [[FormerlyFat drop the weight just fine]], but when they spend time together they revert to their old overindulging ways. {{Subverted}} because at the end of the episode they decide that their friendship is more important to them than their weight, they rope Melissa into joining them to become morbidly obese, and they make a series of movie parodies like "Fat Club." [[SnapBack Then they're back to normal in the next episode.]]
* {{Defied|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Super Mario World|1991}}''. King Koopa opens a fast food restaurant and the cave people become hooked on their food. Only Mario, Luigi and Yoshi are shown to have gained weight, then the episode turns into a SpaceWhaleAesop where the victims of Koopa's food turn into Chickadactyls.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "[[Recap/TheBoondocksS1E10TheItis The Itis]]" is about [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ed Wuncler I]] helping Robert Freeman with starting a new restaurant called The Itis. The Itis, which serves extremely unhealthy and [[ICantBelieveItsNotHeroin addictive]] soul food, causes the surrounding neighborhood to turn into a slum plagued by obesity, poverty, and crime. Besides eating habits themselves, it's a more general satire of following your heritage [[CultureJustifiesAnything even at the expense of your health]].

** One episode has the town declared as the fattest town in America. This greatly concerns Marge and she manages to convince other people to enforce a ban on sugar so that everyone can start eating healthier. Naturally, people resist to the point of smuggling sugar prohibition style. StatusQuoIsGod kicks in at the end where Marge eventually gives up and lets people indulge in their sugar cravings.
** Zig-zagged in "King-Sized Homer" where Homer purposely gains weight to the point of weighing over 300 pounds because it would make him legally disabled, thus he can work from home and never have to physically go to work. A moment later, he gets a warning from the power plant that there will be a meltdown if the problem is not taken care of right now. Homer races to the source and winds up plugging up the hole with his enlarged rear, which somehow stops the threat. Homer realizes that if had he not gained excessive weight, he would have fallen to his death, which Lisa ironically remarks as well. Homer then decides he has to lose weight so Marge would not be turned off by his body anymore. Mr. Burns tries to get Homer to exercise, but gives up after seeing Homer is too fat to do a proper sit up and decides to just get him liposuction.
** In "The Heartbroke Kid", after Principal Skinner signs a contract with a vending machine company sponsored by hip-hop artists to allow them to sell their products at the school, Bart becomes greatly hooked on the [[NutritionalNightmare excessively unhealthy snacks]] and consumes them frequently, which results in him growing considerably obese and developing a serious addiction toward junk food. One day, he suffers a heart attack and is taken to the hospital, where an X-ray scan reveals there are ''three malted milk balls clogging his arteries and a wad of Laffy Taffy stuck on his liver''. Bart is put on a diet, but, when his addiction is too severe, the entire family and a few Springfieldians stage an intervention and send the boy to Serenity Ranch, a rather expensive weight-loss camp led by Tab Spangler, a fitness guru voiced by Creator/AlbertBrooks. Bart ultimately overcomes his addiction after Tab shows him the sacrifices his family is making to afford the camp's bills (namely turning the house into a youth hostel for a bunch of rude German students), whereupon he goes back to the school, smashes the vending machines apart and recovers the money he spent on them to bring it back to his family.
** In "Walking Big & Tall", the characters learn that there is no such thing as a perfect body image, being obese and underweight carry health problems that can turn fatal. Albert was right about protesting a shop that promoted impossible and anorexic body images but he still died of a heart attack caused by overeating. You shouldn't promote or shame either body type but you still need to consider either yours or their health.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'': In "Girlie Boys", Caitlin gets a job at a candy store where she's allowed to gorge on free chocolate as much as she wants, and quickly does so despite having heard of someone else gaining 25 lbs from the same job. She later learns the hard way what her snacking is doing to her waist when she can't fit in a new pair of jeans.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'': "Candace's Big Day" has the Doof and Perry plot involving Doof creating an inator that adds high amounts of grease to food, because he is trying to remain healthy. Unfortunately, he dips all his broccoli in the inator and immediately gains a BalloonBelly and develops acne.
* The episode "Junk Food" of ''WesternAnimation/FatAlbertAndTheCosbyKids'' sees Albert and Slim, after a serious junk-food binge, meet up with a dentist who tells them the value of diet and exercise. Albert takes the advice seriously, while Slim blows it off. In a change from this trope's usual trappings, Albert doesn't suddenly lose a lot of weight (it's kind of impossible when "Fat" is in your character's ''name''); what ''does'' happen is that he finds himself doing a lot better at sports due to being in better shape and having more energy. Slim, on the other hand, ends up suffering a ''serious'' sugar crash and a number of stomach issues. The episode seems rather far-seeing in its Aesop not of "Thin is better" but of "Better nutrition means better health regardless of size".

* {{Defied|Trope}} in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld''. King Koopa opens a fast food restaurant and the cave people become hooked on their food. Only Mario, Luigi and Yoshi are shown to have gained weight, then the episode turns into a SpaceWhaleAesop where the victims of Koopa's food turn into Chickadactyls.

* "WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} Gets Fit" is about Arthur freaking out over becoming "husky" ([[InformedDeformity despite not looking any fatter than usual]]).

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic Overload'' had a chapter where Kaname was trying to get into shape for swimsuit season, but her methods included skipping meals and other unhealthy behaviors. Sosuke notices this and offers to help her, then turns into a DrillSergeantNasty until she finally realizes how dangerous it was and she adopts more reasonable exercise and diet measures.

* "The Greedy" from ''WesternAnimation/RaggedyAnnAndAndyAMusicalAdventure''. But, of course, he lives at the bottom of a dark pit and is actually ''[[ITasteDelicious made]]'' [[ITasteDelicious of desserts]], so what else is he supposed to eat?

Contrast BalloonBelly, TemporaryBulkChange, FatAndProud and FatComicRelief (which are about fat people PlayedForLaughs) and {{Acrofatic}} (which is about fat people that can achieve impressive physical feats despite their weight). Also contrast BeYourself if a character slimming down has a negative effect on their character or they're not doing so except to please someone who otherwise would value them less. See also DietEpisode. Compare DiseasePreventionAesop, MissedMealAesop, and SleepAesop for more health-related Aesops.

Compare IfItTastesBadItMustBeGoodForYou and NutritionalNightmare.

Contrast BalloonBelly, TemporaryBulkChange and FatComicRelief (which are about fat people PlayedForLaughs) and {{Acrofatic}} (which is about fat people that can achieve impressive physical feats despite their weight). Also contrast BeYourself if a character slimming down has a negative effect on their character or they're not doing so except to please someone who otherwise would value them less. See also DietEpisode. Compare DiseasePreventionAesop, MissedMealAesop, and SleepAesop for more health-related Aesops.

In comes this {{Stock Aesop|s}}, which does its damnedest to demonize [[NutritionalNightmare too much junk food]] and glorify exercise. Generally, it involves one or more characters getting hooked on some sort of junk food, making their health deteriorate badly and expanding their waistline. Usually, the rest of the group (if it's one person addicted) or the sole outlier (if the whole group's addicted) will have to get things back to normal.

* ''WebAnimation/MeatCanyon'': ''King of Mukbang'' has a take on this subject in [[SurrealHorror the typical MeatCanyon style]]. Nikocado spends so much of his time eating that everything he touches turns into a grey sludge, which consumes his house, friends, life, and eventually [[AutoCannibalism himself]].

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} Gets Fit'' is about Arthur freaking out over becoming "husky" ([[InformedDeformity despite not looking any fatter than usual]]).

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'': In "Girlie Boys", Caitlin gets a job at a candy store where she’s allowed to gorge on free chocolate as much as she wants, and quickly does so despite having heard of someone else gaining 25 lbs from the same job. She later learns the hard way what her snacking is doing to her waist when she can’t fit in a new pair of jeans.