"A true Luchador knows that size does not matter; weight does!"
— Rikochet, ¡Mucha Lucha!
Fat tropes can be socially complicated to explain. Depending on the social context, fat can often be scorned or ridiculed as Acceptable Targets, or praised for its voluptuousness. And though there might be various Unfortunate Implications for any of these, obesity continues to have a controversially rich existence in tropes as an increasing percentage of the population of the industrialized world fall into the category currently labeled clinically overweight — especially in The United States and Australia where obesity rates are the highest. So for better or for worse, here fat tropes are indexed.
Tropes:
General/miscellaneous tropes
- Big, Fat Future: Everybody is fat in The Future.
- Does This Make Me Look Fat?: Someone wants to know if their clothes make them look fat.
- Fast-Food Nation: The prevalence of junk food in America and the resulting obesity rates.
- Fat Flex: A fat person tries to make themself look more muscular.
- Fat Suit: A costume designed to make the wearer look fat.
- Hollywood Pudgy: A character played by an average-sized actor is treated in-story as if they are grossly overweight.
- I Am Big Boned: Denying being fat by using an excuse.
- Nutritional Nightmare: Food that's even unhealthier than it's supposed to be.
- Popping Buttons: Something doesn't fit, so the buttons come off or won't button.
- Real Women Have Curves: Weight Woe equals Audience Surrogate.
- Sleep Squashing: A big (usually fat) character ends up rolling on and squashing someone smaller while sleeping.
- A Weighty Aesop: An Aesop about how to lose weight.
- You Are Fat: Fat jokes and insults.
Gaining (or losing) weight
- Balloon Belly: A gag where someone's belly grows impossibly huge from eating too much food.
- Big Eater: Overeating tends to make one overweight.
- Post-Stress Overeating: Someone eats too much and gains weight from emotional stress.
- Fat Camp: A summer camp where overweight children are sent to lose weight. Often the camp is mean to them.
- Fattening the Victim: Someone tries to fatten up an animal (or another person), usually to eat them.
- Formerly Fat: Someone who used to be chubby, but has now lost a lot of weight.
- Formerly Fit: Someone who used to be skinny, but has now gained a lot of weight.
- Never Gets Fat: No matter how much unhealthy food and calories this person consumes, their powerful metabolism keeps them looking slim.
- Temporary Bulk Change: Someone temporarily gains and/or loses a significant amount of weight, often in an improbably short span of time.
- The Fat Episode: An episode revolves around one or more characters suddenly becoming really fat.
- Weight Loss Horror: Weight loss, voluntary or not, goes horribly wrong.
Physical attributes
- Acrofatic: A fat person is surprisingly agile for their size.
- Big Beautiful Man: An overweight man who's perceived as being beautiful.
- Big Beautiful Woman: An overweight woman who's perceived as being beautiful.
- Gasshole: People who eat too much food too quickly, especially certain types of greasy fatty foods, can make themselves very gassy.
- Gonk: A comically ugly character, often (though not always) portrayed as being obese.
- Gonky Femme: A comically ugly female character, who is probably obese.
- Heavy Voice: Fatter characters often have deeper voices.
- Kevlard: Someone's body fat protects them from harm.
- Mistaken for Pregnant: This can happen to women with excess abdominal fat.
- Stout Strength: Someone is overweight, yet also quite strong and muscular underneath the fat.
- Weight Taller: Gaining weight makes you taller.
Fat (and thin) people
- Adipose Rex: Fat kings and rotund royalty.
- Big Fun: Cool, affable fat person who is likable.
- Chubby Chaser: Someone who is attracted to fat people.
- Chubby Chef: A fat cook who has clearly eaten a lot of the food they make.
- Dead Weight: Fat zombies.
- Donut Mess with a Cop: The stereotype of police officers favoring donuts as their snack of choice, and thus are often overweight as a result.
- Fat and Proud: Someone who actually likes being fat.
- Fat and Skinny: Two characters: one is fat, one is thin.
- Chubby Mama, Skinny Papa: A couple consisting of a plump woman married to a skinny man.
- Fat Bastard: An overweight jerk or villain.
- Fat, Sweaty Southerner in a White Suit: A big, fat corrupt hick from the Deep South.
- Villainous Glutton: Expect to see fat villains greedily devouring lots of food.
- Fat Best Friend: The protagonist's Best Friend is chubby.
- Fat Comic Relief: The Plucky Comic Relief is overweight.
- Fat Idiot: The Ditz is a fat fool.
- Fat Slob: Someone who's plump, dirty and gross.
- Jabba Table Manners: Expect them to always make a big mess whenever they're eating.
- Geek Physiques: Nerds are either very thin or very fat.
- Mammy: Fat, female (ex-)slave.
- Weight Woe: Someone obsessively worries about their weight.
Fat animals
- Angry, Angry Hippos: Hippos are big, bulky, and hotheaded killing machines.
- Huggy, Huggy Hippos: Hippos are portrayed as lovable, helped by their chubby appearances.
- Gluttonous Pig: Swine are rotund animals known for being very greedy eaters; hence why "pig" is used as an insult for (fat) people who display similar gluttony for food (or greed for money).
- Sinister Swine: Evil, scary hogs whose voracious appetites are rivaled only by their malicious cruelty.
- Sluggish Seal: A lazy seal, sea lion, or walrus. Being fat and blubbery comes with the territory.
- Warm-Hearted Walrus: A friendly walrus.
- Wily Walrus: An evil walrus.
