What are Rasputia's feelings for Norbit, after all? Did she really fall in love with him in childhood, and did the years of marriage destroy all the pleasure and happiness she had with him, making her more abusive than she already was? Or did she always see him only as her slave? When Rasputia realizes that Norbit is falling in love with Kate and becomes jealous, is she just interested in keeping her husband a slave, or does she really realize that she loves Norbit (in her distorted way)?
Also, why did Rasputia specifically choose Norbit as her boyfriend and husband? Did she really feel a special attraction to him, or did she know that Norbit was the only inhabitant of the city who was cowardly and with low self-esteem enough to make him not refuse her?
Did Norbit really fall in love for Rasputia at some point in his life, or did he always resign himself to having a life with her because he was afraid of her?
Audience-Alienating Premise: Watching two hours of a man being physically, psychologically, and sexually abused by his wife is not exactly what most people find funny. The poster became instantly infamous for unappealingly showing this off to audiences.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: After literally being thrown out of the house by Rasputia, Norbit imagines Lloyd (voiced by Eddie Murphy's late brother Charlie Murphy), the dog, talking to him, telling him to kill Rasputia.
Catharsis Factor: Seeing Norbit finally stand up to Rasputia at the end in front of the entire town, and utterly destroying the Lattimores and Deion’s plot after looking like he failed, is very satisfying.
The sex montage, consisting of Rasputia, wearing embarassing sexual costumes, jumping on Norbit (who is clearly doing so against his will), breaking the bed and smashing her husband, who reacts with screams of pain. The fact that the final time it happens, the only reason they don’t break the bed is because they put giant cinderblocks underneath their bed. It should be disturbing, but the way these scenes are filmed and written is so exaggerated that it makes everything hilarious.
Wong defeats Rasputia by hurling a harpoon into her ass. This is actually a pretty grisly injury (especially for someone as fat as Rasputia), but it being the pay-off to Wong’s passion for whaling during the film and his one-liner afterwards, as well as how she cartoonishly runs off chased by the dog she cruelly injured, makes it a hysterical defeat of such a vile antagonist.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Eddie Griffin and Katt Williams steal the whole movie as pimps Pope Sweet Jesus and Lord Have Mercy, and are generally regarded as its one entertaining factor.
Moral Event Horizon: If running over Lloyd wasn't that for the viewer, Rasputia forcing Norbit to break Kate's heart, threatening to kill them both and helping her brothers in their plans to get the orphanage ends any chance of the viewer even feeling the slightest sympathy for her.
The scene where Norbit gets home from his date with Kate and a very angry Rasputia is sitting on a couch in the dark, waiting for him. Meanwhile, Norbit is nervously calling for her and both he and the audience knows This Is Gonna Suck, big time. Her later threat of violence against Kate by pouring acid on a potato doll of Kate is also pretty unnerving.
The whole premise of the movie: a weak, shy, insecure man being forced to marry a crazy, monstrous woman who can kill him if he refuses. She constantly humiliates him, brutally beats him, publicly and privately, and even forces him to have sex with her against his will. It's all Played for Laughs because of the concept of a man being dominated by a woman, but it is nonetheless disturbing and even depressing after a while. And if the genders were reversed...
The montage of Norbit and Rasputia having sex loses all the fun it could have when you remember that Norbit was forced to marry Rasputia and is being forced to have sex with her and use these sexual fantasies. Norbit is being raped. It also doesn't help the disgusted expressions he makes when he sees Rasputia in lingerie and the screams of pain as she jumps on him, smashing him and even breaking the bed.
Rasputia having a harpoon successfully thrown into her ass, and going by Wong’s words right into her literal asshole. It’s a pretty horrifying injury when you think about it.
Rooting for the Empire: Kate is a sweet and friendly woman played by Thandiwe Newton, but Rasputia is a cartoonish villain who devours all her scenes.
Rasputia lies to Norbit that she's pregnant with him to force him to stay married to her... and then, exactly five minutes into the movie, she reveals to him that it was all a lie. The brief existence of this plot is made even more inexplicable by the fact that Norbit continues to live with Rasputia after learning the truth.
Some viewers think that the premise about an abusive marriage where the wife is the villain and the husband is the victim could have yielded an interesting horror movie instead of a ridiculous comedy, to the point that several people edited fake trailers on Youtube, selling it as a horror movie.
In his review, Richard Roeper speculated that Norbit might have been a better film if the two main female characters had switched places, with Thandiwe Newton playing Kate as the evil, abusive wife, and then Rasputia would have been the sweet childhood friend .
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: Norbit's life is hell: abandoned as a baby by his parents in an orphanage, forced to see his great love leave the city, and then he is forced to marry a monstrous woman who abuses him physically, psychologically and even sexually. And the movie tries to portray it all as a comedy. For many viewers, it's more depressing and disturbing than funny.
The Woobie: Norbit. He is unceremoniously dropped off at an orphanage by his birth parents as a baby, he is forced to date and marry Rasputia and become a part of her criminal family, and is basically treated like a slave from then on. His happy ending was ENTIRELY earned.
