Love Hungry
Betsy Cowland (Sharon Madden), a work-from-home telemarketer with a rather hefty figure, learns that her high school sweetheart, Elmo Shroud (Larry Gelman), has come back to town. Desperate to drop her excess pounds so Elmo (who is notably short, stocky, and balding, yet doesn't care about how he looks) will find her attractive again, Betsy is suddenly contacted by a mysterious weight loss program known as "Weight Away", who sign her up for their program when she merely considers saying yes. The company sends her a pair of glasses and a hearing aid which make her see and hear all food as sentient beings that feel excruciating pain when eaten. To Betsy's horror, the items become fused to her head, so she gradually starves herself in order to keep her now self-aware food, especially the fruit she's started bonding with, alive for just a little longer.
Tropes:
- And I Must Scream: The act of being eaten, according to the living fruit Betsy talks to.
- Anthropomorphic Food: The episode plays the trope for horror. Weight Away, the "revolutionary weight loss system" Betsy orders, consists of a magical hearing aid and pair of glasses that fuse themselves to their customers' heads, causing anyone who wears them to perceive all food as living beings that desperately want to avoid being eaten. The second act has Betsy bonding with a trio of anthropomorphized fruit (a wise and knowledgeable apple, a rough-and-tough bruiser banana, and a sweet Southern belle pear), along with a nervous gelatin mold and an aggressive meatloaf in her refrigerator, and their cries of desperation in the face of her increasing hunger torture her into starving herself.
- Apple for Teacher: The apple is the most intelligent of the fruit trio Betsy talks to, alluding to his status as a favorite treat of scholars.
- Arc Words: "Your Weight is Over", which Weight Away has ingrained into their employees' minds and the company's properties.
- Big Eater: Betsy is a tried and true lover of food, having a fully-stocked fridge and a notable hefty build. She also ravenously munches on a chicken leg and a bag of chips as she tends to her extensive houseplant collection.
- Brooklyn Rage: The banana on Betsy's desk gains a Brooklyn accent and a feisty temper when it comes alive.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Before Weight Away calls her, Betsy is mocked by her fridge radio for her figure, and is unnerved by her television broadcasting Night of the Eating Dead.
- Commonality Connection: The pear shares to Betsy that humans and food are alike in the fact that they grow old, getting soft and wrinkled, covered in age spots, starting to smell, etc.
- Companion Cube: The plants Betsy keeps in her house, which she treats as pets and friends.
- Dirty Coward: When Betsy gets hungry and the food in her fridge aggressively urge her to reconsider, the fruit trio nervously attempts to persuade Betsy into eating one of the others and letting them go free.
- Downer Ending: Betsy starves herself to death by stitching her mouth shut. She did this in a desperate attempt to save the anthropomorphic fruit she spent the second act bonding with, but the fruit rots months after she keels over.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The fruity trio Betsy spends the second act talking to can be seen on her desk in the opening scene, having not been brought to life yet.
- Establishing Character Moment: Betsy entering her house with a bag full of groceries and telling the plants she treats as her friends that it's snack time, stocking her already filled-fridge as the radio appears to directly mock her and her TV is tuned to Night of the Eating Dead, which she watches as she ravenously snacks on a chicken leg. She turns the set off and goes for a bag of chips as she gives the plants she treats as her only friends some water.
- Evil, Inc.: Weight Away is a blatantly transparent example, as they randomly call up unsuspecting plus-sized people and give them dietary aids that result in them starving themselves to death to save their apparently living food.
- Faint in Shock: Betsy does this when she and Elmo are at the Mexican restaurant, overwhelmed by the agonized screaming of the food everyone around her is eating.
- Faux Affably Evil: The Weight Away representative who calls Betsy, just as she looks at the company's ad in the newspaper, does so as an ordinary phone tree operator would, despite the fact that their company is obviously setting her up to die. The deliveryman who brings her the dietary aids, which she never asked for, also has the same kind of nonchalant attitude.
- Forbidden Fruit: Taken literally with the trio of anthropomorphic fruit that Betsy meets in the second act, as she's horrified by their desperate pleas to stay alive even though she's starving.
- Friendless Background: Betsy's closest friends are the houseplants she keeps in her greenhouse. She also becomes desperate for Elmo to find her beautiful even though he himself is short and balding, and doesn't even care about how he or she looks, demonstrating that her confidence levels are at rock bottom.
- Fruit of the Loon: Played with. Betsy's new dietary aids make the fruit on her desk alive in her point of view, but no one else's.
- Growling Gut: Betsy’s stomach keeps growling furiously after she refuses to eat the now-living food, as well as when she tries to take her mind off her appetite.
- Heroic Self-Deprecation: Betsy starts having serious self-worth issues in regards to her figure and her behavior at her date with Elmo. The man himself tries to help her see that a change in appearance won't change the fact that he loves her for who she is, but her new dietary aids have already begun muffling this speech with the harrowing screams and visions of living food.
- Ignored Aesop: As Elmo tries to tell Betsy, she doesn't need to try and change how she looks to ensure that people will love her, and that she should remain true to herself. Since she's presently being overwhelmed by the screams and sights of the living food, she's unable to get the message and ultimately starves herself to death to protect the anthropomorphic fruit trio she's been bonding with.
- I Never Told You My Name: A representative of Weight Away manages to call Betsy's house (during which she notes that no one ever calls her) just as she reads their ad in the newspaper, illustrating how evil the company is and the implication that they have dark magic at their disposal, allowing them to spy on their victims.
- It Began with a Twist of Fate: It's pretty safe to say that if Betsy had never looked at Weight Away's ad in the paper and left well enough alone, she'd still be alive.
- Karma Houdini: Whoever or whatever is in charge of Weight Away, they receive no punishment for putting poor Betsy through hell and making her kill herself to save her (seemingly) living food, and they're also free to put millions more through the same agony.
- Laughing Mad: Betsy starts deliriously laughing as she talks to the fruit trio, figuring that she must be dreaming this whole thing. This prompts the fruits to take the time to sing her a lullaby to help her get to sleep, but she's greatly unnerved to see them when she wakes up.
- Lighter and Softer: The episode starts this way with its' hammy cast and goofy "living food" routine, complete with funny-looking food puppets, but it soon goes pretty far in the opposite direction.
- Long List: Betsy's list of weight loss and weight concealing fads and remedies she's tried over the years, which she gives to Elmo at the restaurant.
- Loser Protagonist: The gluttonous Betsy is put through the wringer constantly. No one ever calls her, so she spends all her time tending to the plants she calls her friends, is unsuccessful in her job as a telemarketer working from home, is traumatized by the screams and sights of self-aware food, and ultimately starves herself to death to save this food. The only reason she puts up with it is to try and get her high school lover (himself a short, balding, stocky man with thick glasses who doesn't mind his or her appearances) to find her beautiful again, and was too overcome by shock and self-loathing to get the message.
- Magitek: The hearing aid and glasses Betsy gets from Weight Away, which make her think that all the food she looks at and hears is alive.
- Meaningful Name: Betsy's last name of "Cowland" illustrates that she's a notably large woman who enjoys eating what she wants. Her first name is even derived from "Bessie", a common name used for cattle.
- Meet Cute: An awkward one ensues when Elmo and Betsy reunite after several years.
- Mouth Stitched Shut: The episode ends with the reveal that Betsy did this to herself to prevent her from eating her food (since her new diet aids made them appear and sound sentient to her), resulting in her starving to death.
- Mythology Gag: A parody of Night of the Living Dead (1968), directed by series producer George Romero, is seen on Betsy’s TV to illustrate her growing concerns with her appetite. The film is appropriately titled Night of the Eating Dead.
- Nice Guy: Elmo, Betsy's high school sweetheart, doesn't care about how either he or Betsy look in their adult years, and tries to help Betsy see that fact for herself.
- Oh, Crap!: The fruity trio shudder in fear when Betsy declares that she's hungry, but she assures them that she's going to check the fridge for anything she may like better.
- Sanity Slippage: Betsy goes mad with hunger as the episode nears its end, ultimately sewing her mouth shut and starving to death to give the fruit trio the chance to stay alive.
- Scary Black Man: The meatloaf in Betsy's fridge plays the part of one when it comes alive, threatening to give her indigestion if she comes looking for trouble.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Betsy's brother, who gives Elmo her phone number and address while he's back in town on business, and as such, pressures Betsy into putting the hearing aid in her ear before their date.
- Southern Belle: The pear that comes to life via Betsy's dietary aids acts as one.
- Stealth Pun: The banana that comes alive through Betsy's dietary aids acts like a tough guy who's aching to scrap with someone. If you couldn't tell, he's a bruiser.
- Straw Feminist: The living pear hints at being one, telling Betsy how girls like them have to stick together.
- Tempting Apple: An intelligent apple is one of the living fruit Betsy bonds with in the second act, and her ravenous appetite tempts her into nearly biting into him.
- Time Skip: As Betsy gets to work sewing her mouth shut, the episode cuts to two months in the future, where Elmo and Betsy's landlady come across her dead body and the rotten fruit.
- Too Dumb to Live: Betsy uses mysterious dietary aids from a blatantly sinister company she's never heard of, which causes her to see and hear all her food as sentient beings. Because she can't bring herself to eat anything out of fear of killing them, she resorts to sewing her mouth shut. In the end, the only thing this amounts to is Betsy starving to death and the fruit she's been bonding with rotting.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: If they don't do so for their own sadism, Weight Away helps unsuspecting fat people lose weight by giving them hearing aids and glasses that make them think food is alive, so they'll starve themselves by refusing to eat a living thing.
- Wham Line: It isn't much of a line at all, but when Betsy puts in her new hearing aid while Elmo is taking a phone call, she can hear agonizing, gut-wrenching screams emanating from the food that the diners around her are eating.
- Your Television Hates You: In the opening scene, Betsy's refrigerator radio appears to directly mock her and her figure after she returns from a grocery run. Her TV is then shown to be broadcasting Night of the Eating Dead, which unnerves her to the point of turning it off.
