What Chris Christie fat jokes teach your fat friend.
I can’t remember the first time I heard a fat joke about a public figure. From Al Sharpton to Rush Limbaugh, Kirstie Alley to Mo’nique, growing up in the nineties meant seeing bodies like mine ridiculed regularly and publicly. If a fat person did anything someone else found objectionable, the leading critique was likely to be one of their body — not their actions.
A lot has changed since then, but last week, it felt like so little had. New Jersey, in the midst of a legislative budget standoff, closed its public beaches as part of a state government shutdown. That’s when the state’s embattled governor, Chris Christie, took his family to a closed state-owned beach, then lied to media, insisting he hadn’t.
Shortly thereafter, local media caught him in the act. “That’s just the way it goes,” Christie quipped. “Run for governor, and you can have a residence.”
By any measure, his were brazen lies, unscrupulous acts by a politician who relished his privilege. But despite his unsavory actions, rather than facing an outcry over his ethics, Christie was met with a barrage of fat jokes. In many cases, the fat jokes were just as loud as the chorus calling for accountability. In some cases, they were louder.
