Line #46 Literature/Fat


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3	''Fat'' is a 2006 novel by [[Series/RedDwarf Rob Grant]]. Unlike his previous solo novels, this one is set closer to the present day. The novel follows three main characters and focuses on the Well Farm Project, a dieting camp to help the population lose weight.
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6	!!''Fat'' contains examples of:
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8	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Grenville considers the Well Farm staff posting an impromptu sign saying "Heinz Lodge" on his dorm to be this, as he considers it a sign that at least someone working there has some faint stirring of wits.
9	* AnAesop: The dubious science of scaremongering health warnings is [[ShownTheirWork explicitly noted]]. The book takes a stand against state interference in our personal lives; the bureaucratic corruption of Britain's National Health Service, and the "true cost of our obsession with how we look" -- which results in overweight Grenville losing his job, and anorexic Hayleigh hospitalized by calcium deficiency.
10	* TheAllegedCar:
11	** Grenville's hatchback, which he manages to destroy.
12	** The minibuses used to ferry Grenville and co. to the Well Farm are woefully ill equipped to deal with that many people of that mass. The first one they ride in breaks down.
13	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: The book jumps between the three main characters every chapter.
14	* AuthorAvatar: Grenville is a clear {{Expy}} of Grant himself with a hint of Gordon Ramsey. And it's not even subtle: '''Gr'''enville '''Rob'''erts.
15	* BerserkButton: Do not call Grenville fat if you want the local area to remain undamaged.
16	%%* BigEater: Grenville.%%ZeroContextExample
17	* BigFatFuture: {{Implied\|Trope}} by the prologue that the [[FatCamp Well Farms]] later become mandatory.
18	* BrickJoke:
19	** When firing him, the producers of ''Cook It, Change It, Dig It'' tell Grenville that his guide to boiling eggs is too long (ten pages) amongst the many other pathetic excuses they give him. Later on, when Jeremy briefly meets Grenville, he notes that he'd have been lost without Gren's guide.
20	** The requirement for hard hats in situations where they'd be of no use first comes up during Jeremy's visit to the Well Farm and is later brought up during Grenville's attending the official opening.
21	** The Group 4 security guard pulls Grenville's trousers up for him, which Gren finds humiliating. Later, the Prime Minister compares Jeremy stepping in at the last minute for the Well Farm's PR campaign to the Government being caught with their pants down and Jeremy pulling them up, metaphorically speaking. Jeremy finds the analogy disturbing.
22	** Hayleigh and her dad watch an unnamed Creator/JackBlack film together early on in the story. Later at the fat camp, Grenville comments that one of the films on show for the "guests" is ''Film/ShallowHal'', which stars Jack Black.
23	* BrokenPedestal: Jason Black starts out as the object of Hayleigh's affections. Until she actually meets him. He arrives at her hospital room dishevelled from several days of partying and high on cocaine. The experience is enough to snap her out of her depression.
24	* ButtMonkey: Grenville's story is one [[HumiliationConga disaster after another]]. In the space of a single day, where he decides to join the gym and get his life in shape, he manages to get into an argument with a woman, crash his car into an SUV (belonging to the woman in question), knock down the car park's bollards, destroy a barrier, wreck his car, get arrested, destroy his court-appointed lawyer's phone, get physically humiliated by a cop, destroy some furniture, have his trousers pulled up by an inept security guard and get fined for the whole ordeal on top of which he loses his job. No wonder he goes on another not-a-rampage at the Well Farm.
25	* CelebCrush: Hayleigh is utterly obsessed with Jason Black of Big Boys Cry. Throughout her eating disorder, she sees a possible romance with him as being her only hope, however unlikely that may seem. When she's in the hospital, Jeremy arranges for them to meet and Jason turns out to be a total dick. Rather than crushing her further, this actually snaps Hayleigh out of her depression and starts her on the road to recovery.
26	* DeadpanSnarker: Grenville, particularly towards the end. Jemma and Jeremy have elements of this too.
27	* DespairEventHorizon: Hayleigh gets so depressed in the hospital, she plans to commit suicide. Fortunately, she is not given the opportunity.
28	* DivorceAssetsConflict: Grenville notes that he got hit particularly hard financially by his divorce. His ex-wife got the house, the good car (TheAllegedCar Gren is stuck with was actually hers originally), and half the restaurant, the other half of which Grenville was forced to sell so he could afford a place to live. He bitterly notes that it's hugely unfair since she was the one who was unfaithful in the first place.
29	* DreadfulMusician: The bands Big Boys Cry and Gurlz Banned are clearly this. Jeremy figures that the singing on their albums is either the work of other talented singers or talented sound engineers.
30	* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Hayleigh. Fortunately, she botches it.]]
31	%%* FairCop: DC Redmond.%%ZeroContextExample
32	* FatCamp: The Well Farms. The accommodation is designed to be as uncomfortable as physically possible to prevent people from becoming couch potatoes. People attending the camp are woken up ridiculously early in the morning to get a full day's exercise. Food is distributed only when credits are earned (through weight loss). The only films shown are [[Film/ShallowHal ones that make jokes at the expense of fat people]]. Dorms are mixed sex to encourage sexual activity as a form of exercise, something which Grenville manages to prevent. Needless to say, a lot of people give up after a short time. The circumstances only succeed in aggravating Grenville further to the point of a [[InsistentTerminology not-a-rampage]].
33	* FatIdiot: [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Much of the humour lies in Grenville's [[DeadpanSnarker dry lamentation]] of the inhibitions of, and people's overreactions to, his weight. Rather than making fun of the overweight, the book satirises the media's misunderstanding and misrepresentation of obesity.
34	* FormulaBreakingEpisode: One of the chapters is an anger management guide by Dr. Alan Roth, who claims he is NotThatKindOfDoctor. Another is Grenville's recipe for boiling eggs.
35	* GenderScoff: Jemma refers to all men as bastards in one of her blog entries.
36	* HairTriggerTemper: Grenville's patience wears thinner and thinner as the book goes on. To be fair, he does go through ''a lot'' of crap.
37	* HumiliationConga: Grenville's entire story. All he wanted to do was join a gym and lose some weight. Instead, he gets blocked in by a woman in an SUV, goes on a not-a-rampage that wrecks his own car, gets arrested and humiliated, fined, forced to buy a new mobile phone for his court appointed attorney, loses his job, ends up at the Well Farm, and has his food credit at the farm cancelled, leading to another not-a-rampage.
38	* InsistentTerminology: Jeremy is a Conceptuologist, not a PR man. Also, Grenville's not-a-rampage.
39	* {{Jerkass}}:
40	** Jason Black, the lead singer of Big Boys Cry. Hayleigh has a crush on him throughout the book, but gets over it once she actually meets him.
41	** The woman who blocks Grenville in, while [[JerkassHasAPoint technically correct in pointing out that Gren has taken up a parent-and-child parking space]], is needlessly shrill and aggressive towards him, particularly when she unnecessarily calls him a FatBastard. This sets off Gren's BerserkButton, causing his infamous not-a-rampage.
42	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Jeremy, particularly once he falls for Jemma.
43	* LighterAndSofter: Compared to Grant's [[Literature/RedDwarf previous]] [[Literature/{{Colony}} couple]] [[Literature/{{Incompetence}} of books]], this one has no {{Gorn}}, nobody dies and each of the three protagonists gets a happy ending.
44	* MoodWhiplash: The difference between Hayleigh and Grenville's stories are astounding.
45	* NextSundayAD: Unlike Grant's previous books, this one takes place closer to the present day, albeit an unspecified year.
46	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
47	** [[Music/GirlsAloud Gurlz Banned]], anyone? Also, the Prime Minister is [[NoNameGiven nameless]].
48	** {{Averted\|Trope}} in the cases of Lucy Pinder, Music/{{Beyonce}} and Creator/ChadMichaelMurray, among others. However, they are only name-dropped.
49	* NoOSHACompliance: {{Inverted\|Trope}}. There's an [[ObstructiveBureaucrat overabundance of health and safety regulations]] and it leads to many problems at the launch of the Well Farm.
50	* NoPeriodsPeriod: Hayleigh's have stopped, due to her eating disorder. Worse still, she's faking them by cutting herself. Sadly, this can be TruthInTelevision.
51	* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: InUniverse -- Grenville's rampaging eventually gets him his own TV show. He even states this at one point.
52	* RagingStiffie: After Jemma leaves Jeremy's flat after they almost have sex, Jeremy is left hanging, so to speak. When he goes to check his email, he is amused that one of the messages is a spam advertisement trying to sell him Viagra.
53	* [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Roaring Not-A-Rampage Of Revenge]]: Grenville's ending. When his credit card malfunctions at the Well Farm and the staff won't serve him food, he destroys half the camp.
54	* RotatingProtagonist: Each chapter switches between the three main characters. Their stories aren't even connected, apart from Jeremy meeting Grenville at the Well Farm launch and Jeremy's visit to Hayleigh, though this event is significant for both of them.
55	* SealedWithAKiss: {{Averted\|Trope}} at first when Jeremy kisses Jemma and she ends up running away, having thought he was her boyfriend and the whole thing descending into drama and heartache. Then played straight [[spoiler:at the end when Jeremy kisses Jemma again and comments 'Now that was a proper kiss']].
56	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: The party Jeremy attends after the Well Farm launch. Because he's falling for Jemma, he actually doesn't care much for it, despite being tongued by a member of Gurlz Banned. It's also noted that he'd tried cocaine once before and [[TheLoinsSleepTonight it had rendered him temporarily impotent]].
57	* ShoutOut:
58	** Jeremy's [[RagingStiffie state]] on waking up inspires him to a brief [[Characters/DoctorWhoDaleks Dalek]] impression.
59	** Unexpectedly [[AnythingButThat caught in her own reflection]], Hayleigh miserably compares herself to ''Literature/AnimalFarm'''s Napoleon.
60	** In police custody, Grenville forlornly hopes his lawyer will turn out to be a latter-day [[Literature/ToKillAMockingbird Atticus Finch]]. He later inwardly bemoans being handled like "[[Franchise/HannibalLecter Hannibal]] fucking [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Lecter]]", and drily wonders if the police expect him of a [[Film/TheTerminator T-800]]-style assault.
61	** Waking up in hospital with an attached tube, Hayleigh wonders if she's being turned into some sort of [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Borg]].
62	** At the Well Farm launch, on sight of the overweight celebrity guests, the unnamed Prime Minister spitefully hums "[[WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}} Pink Elephants on Parade]]".
63	* ShownTheirWork: Jemma's opinions on dieting, salt intake and cholesterol levels were actually topics Grant looked into before writing the book. He provides a bibliography at the end.
64	* SlidingScaleOfSeriousnessVersusSilliness: Grenville's story is hilarious, whereas Hayleigh's is a heartbreakingly serious tale of a young girl suffering from an eating disorder. Jeremy's story falls somewhere in between.
65	* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Nothing ever seems to go right for Grenville in the book, until the end, when he gets a new television show on the BBC and (sort of) public recognition, as well as no charges put against him for his final moments (and a good not-rampage too without repercussions). Hayleigh, suffering from anorexia and seemingly doomed to be 'a fierce girl trapped in the body of a weak one' gets cured of her eating disorder thanks to meeting her idol and realizing what a {{Jerkass}} he really is.]]
66	* TrueCraftsman: Grenville, a Michelin star chef, is fascinated by food preparation. His cookery chapter in ''Cook It, Change It, Dig It!'' includes an informative discourse on eggs.
67	* UnreliableNarrator:
68	** Hayleigh is not actually fat, but is in fact dangerously underweight. The reader gets no clue as to this until Jeremy meets her in one of his chapters. However it is mentioned that her periods have stopped, which is our first clue that she isn't telling the truth.
69	** Upon seeing the CCTV footage of his not-a-rampage, Grenville realizes that he comes across as having been far more aggressive than he remembers.
70	* WeightWoe: Both Grenville and Hayleigh have worries about their weight. Grenville is well aware that he's morbidly obese and decides to do something about it, [[CosmicPlaything but events conspire against him when he joins a gym]]. Hayleigh, on the other hand, is actually dangerously underweight and refuses to eat. She's even faking her meals by disposing of them in a manner which makes it look like she's eaten. She's referred to as fat in her own narration, but when we meet her from Jeremy's perspective, she's finally revealed to be anorexic.

Context Literature / Fat