Dead Weight

Boom, baby.

"The first rule of Zombieland: Cardio. When the zombie outbreak first hit, the first to go, for obvious reasons... were the fatties. Poor fat bastard."

— Columbus, Zombieland

As if zombies weren't trouble enough, sometimes life (or undeath) throws fat zombies into the mix.

Since zombies are reanimated corpses, and since there'd likely be obese people amongst the casualties in a zombie outbreak (if not for their reduced ability to outrun the zombies, then for the simple reason that there's no reason they should be any less susceptible to undeath), this is sensible. It's often used, though, to combine the disgusting factor of extreme corpulence with the hideousness of zombification. Also, from a practical film making standpoint, "fat" zombies allow the stuntman to wear padded clothing and take a beating from the heroes.

For whatever reason, fat zombies tend often to be kamikaze attackers in video games, usually detonating in a shower of gibs and toxic fluids upon termination; as if, rather than having had an actual excess of adipose tissue in life, the zombie in question was just so overinflated with said toxic fluids that they looked fat. Somewhat Truth in Television, as a decaying corpse is bound to look at least a little bloated considering the gasses that are released during decomposition. Alternately, they may be prone to vomiting nasty substances onto the hero; this may be a further use of Villainous Glutton, ala the (false) belief that ancient Romans at a feast would deliberately make themselves puke to make room for more food, or it may be attributed to their rotting digestive tract.

Other times in video games, they tend to fill the role of bullet sponges or battering rams, somehow more durable than even "regular" zombies, due to their extra mass meaning they need more effort to shoot or chop up.

In non-video game media, though, they tend to not be too much different from other zombies.

See also Fat Bastard, Kevlard. For another way zombies can stand out in a crowd, see Incongruously-Dressed Zombie.

Not to be confused with The Load, who's only dead weight from a figurative/narrative standpoint. See Weight Loss Horror for other ways in which weight can be played for horror.

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Examples

Comic Books

• In Marvel Zombies, The Blob becomes infected, turning into possibly the fattest zombie ever.

Film — Animated

• Hotel Transylvania features a fat mummy named Murray.

Film — Live Action

• There was an obese man in a bathing suit in the original Dawn of the Dead (1978).
• An obese undead woman in the Dawn of the Dead (2004) remake.
• The first zombie the protagonists fight hand-to-hand in Dead Heat is a chunky one dressed like a biker.
• Onionhead / Slimer in Ghostbusters (1984). In the second one, doubly so.
• Tor Johnson in Plan 9 from Outer Space. Well, technically...
• Lampshaded in Zombieland, where Columbus notes that the fat ones were the first to go for not being able to outrun zombies. He makes "Cardio" his number one rule. Unlike most other examples though, these aren't really any different from a regular zombie, aside from their weight.

Mythology & Religion

• The Vrykolakas, a vampire from Greek folklore, is consistently described as bloated (which isn't surprising consider they prefer eating people, especially their livers, to drinking their blood like a conventional vampire).

Pinball

• Stern Pinball's The Walking Dead has the Well Walker, who is hideously fat, with folds of flabby skin and a body covered with open sores. On the Limited Edition table, hitting him will cause him to topple over at the midsection, revealing his guts.

Tabletop Games

• In Dungeons & Dragons:
  • 3^rd Edition has the Famine Spirit: the reanimated body and spirit of an individual who died of starvation returned to eat in undeath what they couldn't eat in life. About the only thing this creature doesn't eat are other undead. It even comes complete with a vorpal bite to sever its victims' heads.
  • White Wolf's Scarred Lands supplements had the "carcass," a giant fat zombie that has been hollowed out and can spawn broodlings.
  • The Dark Sun setting has undead monsters called faels, who exist only to eat and who demand food from anyone who encounters them, violently lashing out at anyone who denies them food or interrupts their feasting. On Athas, where even water is a precious commodity and conservation of food can mean the difference between life or death, these things are menaces.
  • The Ravenloft setting has sea zombies, disgustingly bloated undead created from the corpses of drowned sailors. While slow and clumsy on land, they are hard to hurt.
  • The Weathermay-Foxgrove twins recount their hunt for an obese Big Eater animated corpse in Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead.
  • In Forgotten Realms, Aumvor the Undying is an ancient lich archmage; though stocky in life, in undeath he somehow bloated into a hugely obese, slimy form rather than decay into a skeleton.
• Magic: The Gathering has Gluttonous Zombie, a 3/3 creature with the Fear ability ("Greed and gluttony led him to death. Now they are his greatest assets.") and Corpulent Corpse, a Continuity Nod from the Nostalgia Set.
• Pathfinder's Golarion setting has Zutha, the Runelord of Gluttony: an obese Hedonist, he maintained his undead body with secret magics so that he could continue to experience mortal pleasures.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! has the Plaguespreader Zombie, a blob-like Body of Bodies; Il-Blud, which has a giant, disfigured Belly Mouth on its paunch; the Three-Legged Zombies, a Fat and Skinny pair; the Clown Zombie; and a great many others.
• Zombicide's Fatty Zombies are Mighty Glaciers whose extra weight acts as Kevlard, making them immune to light weapons.

Video Games

• ANNIE: Last Hope has overweight, giant zombies who can soak up plenty of bullets before falling apart.
• Arrogation: Unlight of Day throws a huge, obese zombie in the warehouse after you, and like every other monster your best hope of escaping is running like hell from it. Said zombie is comparatively slower than others because of it's size though.
• The Undead faction in Battle for Wesnoth features Ghoul units, which appear as horribly bloated monstrousities that eat the flesh of their enemies. If a Ghoul is upgraded to a Necrophage or a Ghast, it becomes even more bloated.
• Blood: Bloated Butchers are heavy, fat, slow zombies with ranged attacks (a cleaver throw and a gob of vomit). They're tough and can take a lot of damage from most weapons, but anything that burns will handily dispatch them, in particular the Aerosol Flamethrower.
• Blood West has overweight zombies armed with axes in a few areas, where their kevlard makes them rather durable opponents.
• Bloody Zombies: Fat zombies appears in several areas, and their weight is due to the infections causing their bodies to bloat uncontrollably until they're unstable; a soft punch will make them explode into a pile of toxic pus.
• Corridor Z has the lunch lady zombie, who's as husky in death as she was in life.
• Dunwich in Cthulhu Saves the World features fat zombies described by their blurb as "suffering from a bad case of gastrophageal reflux disease". Their main method of attacking is through poisoning their enemies.
• Dandy Dungeon 2 has the fat otaku zombies in Akihabara. Not only they have a ton of hit points, they also use a punch that lowers Dandy's strength, making them even more of a damage sponge.
• One of the enemies in Dark Watch called Oozers.
• Dead Frontier has variants of fat zombies, all of which tend to have more health than non-fat counterparts.
  • One of the early game zombie types are male and female versions of fat zombies, they have more health than the regular ones but are slower.
  • The Bloat and its smaller variant are these, due to a buildup of methane gas inside them, which causes them to explode when killed.
  • The Brute is an obese zombie who attacks via vomiting and has a great amount of health thanks to a protective layer of fat.
• Fat zombies appear frequently in Dead Nation. They are typically faster than most normal zombies, and will take any opportunity to charge at you to try to take you out.
• Fat zombies exist in Dead Rising, which take slightly more hits to die. They all resemble Ronald, a notable scrappy fat survivor.
• Dead Space has the Pregnant, a swollen Necromorph that carries a hoard of mini-Necromorphs called Swarmers in its stomach. Shooting it in the center of mass results in the Swarmers getting loose and attacking Isaac.
• Fat zombies in Doom³ can predictably take more lead before going down. Surprisingly enough, a great number of them carry wrenches to use as clubs. Also, they are the only type that is found being chewed on by other mooks.
• Dragon's Dogma gives us Stout Undead. They are larger than regular undead, and when struck with fire they swell up and explode.
• One of the Ancient's zombies fit this mold in Eternal Darkness. In this case it's stated to be due to internal gasses, as described in the Real Life section below.
• Going into the Unknown has regular zombies as recurring enemies, and a huge overweight zombie as an Implacable Man foe in the deserted streets. Said zombie tanks plenty of shotgun rounds thanks to it's Kevlard and you'll more likely flee from it into a nearby building rather than actually killing it.
• In Guild Wars 2, the Bloated Creepers that spawn during the Tequatl fight are depicted as large male Risen norn. They explode on contact.
• The masked, chainsaw-wielding and green-tinted slime-spitting zombies in GunGirl 2.
• The Flood Carriers in Halo are walking gasbags that explode when they're either shot or near an enemy, releasing more Infection forms.
• The recruitable zombies in Heroes of Might and Magic V are drawn as being quite corpulent.
• Hollow Knight has the Gluttonous Husk, a former member of Hallownest's upper class that became obese from a life of luxury and comfort. Notably, it is the toughest of the common enemies styled as undead aristocrats (Husk Dandies try to hit you by wildly flailing its arms at you with very short range, and Cowardly Husks have a random chance of just running away), and it attacks by throwing it's massive body at you. In a similar fashion, some enemies are described as being "swollen with infection", and are almost always larger and stronger variants of other creatures.
• House of the Dead:
  • The fat zombies are of the Stone Wall, bullet-sponge variety. Frequently chuck barrels at you and hold open gates for their rotting, angry friends.
  • House of the Dead 4 also features the massive boss enemy ironically called Temperance.
  • Overkill also has the Lobber, the boss of level 5 ("The Fetid Waters"), who is not only fat but covered in swollen, pustulant boil-tumors. Though thankfully not shown, it's implied his projectiles are pus-filled boils he's tearing off of his body and throwing at you.
• Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death: Some of the zombies are necrotized obese citizens.
• Killing Floor has the Bloat, which walks up slowly, vomits acid as a close-range attack, and explodes when killed. They do soak up a few shots before dying, however.
• The Flash game series The Last Stand has lots of fat zombies, of the Kevlard variety. Since the only thing that separates them from regular zeds is their health (some can sprint just as easily as the thin ones), they fill in the role of Elite Mooks along with the ones in riot gear.
• Last Rites have overweight zombie-women who's more durable than regular zombies.
• The Boomer from Left 4 Dead. His special attack is to vomit a strange bile on surviving humans, which summons a sizable swarm of the speedy regular Infected to attack the afflicted humans. The vomit also messes up the Survivor's vision temporarily. When destroyed, the Boomer explodes in a shower of bile with an effect essentially the same as its vomit for anyone too close to it. Ironically, it has the least health of any of the special Infected (the same as a Common Infected, meaning it dies in about two hits or less from any weapon) as the result of being an undead goo balloon. Notably, the Boomer appears to be stretched out and inflated, implying it wasn't so obese before it got infected. Oh, and its "outie" bellybutton is really just its guts bursting out.
• Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ has fat zombies that both live longer and explode into sludge.
• Bloated Butchers, the stronger of the two zombie enemies in the Blood series. They take a ton of damage and can attack at a range with two different attacks to drain two different armor types, but are particularly susceptible to fire.
• Lollipop Chainsaw features a few fat zombies, including one of the bosses, Killabilly.
• The Guard Zombies in MediEvil: Resurrection.
• Metal Slug 3 and 4 feature fat zombies among regular zombies. They usually take more hits to die than a regular zombie (although less than a soldier zombie, curiously).
• Myth: The Fallen Lords featured an enemy that was a bloated corpse that would explode when it got close enough or was killed and temporary paralyze everyone within it's radius. Using archers killing them at a distance you could avoid the nasty side effects while possibly setting off a chain reaction if there were more than one close enough together.
• Not Dying Today have the giant zombie bosses, the Butcher and the Warden, whose guts bulges out of their clothing even as they try roughing you up. Doesn't stop them from being Acrofatic though.
• Propagation: Paradise Hotel have two overweight zombie brutes, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who can tank plenty of shotgun shells thanks to their kevlard.
• Also present in the Resident Evil games. Resident Evil 5 has special Majini to impede your progress, as they block your shots and soak up more damage.
  • Only Resident Evil 3: Nemesis contained fat zombies previously, but they weren't any tougher than the rest. Resident Evil 2 would have also included them, but they were cut after Capcom scrapped the RE 1.5 build and started over.
  • Resident Evil 6 brings us Whoppers and the even bigger Whopper Supremes, both able to soak up massive amounts of damage, and can kill you by falling on top of you after re-killing them.
  • The "Fat Man" Molded from Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is incredibly durable and spits acidic bile, making it the only enemy to attack you at a range. What's worse is that attacking them makes them reflexively vomit, so melee weapons of any kind are pretty much a no-go to all but the most highly-skilled player. What's worst is that the hardest difficulty gives them a huge buff to their defense and speed, turning them into full-on Lightning Bruisers, and increasing the number of them you have to fight.
• Silent Hill 3 has the insane cancers, which look like mutated grotesque fat "things".
• Big Boo from the Super Mario Bros. series are giant ghosts, which could be considered to be another type of obese undead.
• Fat zombies are fairly common in State of Decay 2 and are no more dangerous than regular zombies. However, two of the "special" zombies introduced in the first game and carried over to the sequel exemplify this trope:
  • Bloaters are, as the name implies, zombies with grossly-distended stomachs filled with a noxious gas that is lethal to humans and harmless to zombies. Their threat is mitigated by the fact they can be killed with a single hit from a ranged weapon, but if a bloater manages to sneak up on you or if you accidentally run one over, your survivor is in for a world of pain.
  • Juggernauts are practically the king of this trope, being massively obese zombies weighing several hundred kilograms who shake the ground with their steps. They exhibit Super-Strength and are surprisingly fast given their massive girth. Downed survivors in the presence of a juggernaut are in considerable danger, as the juggernaut can perform a Finishing Move where they take a massive bite out of the survivor's neck before tearing them in half.
• Survival Crisis Z features particularly warped-looking fat zombies of the Action Bomb variety.
• The Abominations from the Warcraft franchise fit this description, although they are more similar in origin to the monster from Frankenstein (pieced together from multiple corpses). They are massive (definitely bigger than a human), hideous (putrid and decaying with internal organs visible), and misshapen (extra limbs abound), and fill a heavy infantry role for Undead forces. They also can emit poisonous fumes.
• Teenage Zombies: Invasion of the Alien Brain Thingys: Finnegan "Fins" MaGee is a fat, undead kid with tentacles sticking out of various parts of his body.
• Benjamin from Wick is the most heavyset of the Weaver children, and also the strongest.
• Valheim: The draugr are based on drowned corpses, and therefore look quite fat. Doesn't top them from being viciously hard to kill until you have the right gear to face them.
• In Zombidle, two of Bob the Necromancer's minions are this. The Big Plague is noticeably fatter than the other zombies, while the Giant Zombie is also largely built but appears to be more muscle than fat.
• The first boss of Zombie Infection is an overweight zombie chef with a visible bulging gut. It's a laughably slow Warm-Up Boss.

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