Hollywood puts the fat in "fat suit"

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When Hollywood runs out of sequels and remakes --- which should happen any day now --- it has at least one comic leg to fall back on: movie folks seem to find nothing funnier than a man in a fat suit and a dress. With the February 9 release of Eddie Murphy's new film, Norbit, it's time to ask: what is with Hollywood's strange fascination with men dressed up as obese women? And maybe more importantly, who is paying to see these films?
The fat suit can be found on film as early as Monty Python's Meaning of Life in 1983, and has increased in its realism and frequency ever since. Even with our growing tendency toward political correctness, it seems that obesity is still fair game for laughs. And men in drag are a Hollywood humor staple (Some Like It Hot, Tootsie, Mrs. Doubtfire, et al.) Stripping a man of his masculinity may never lose its hilarity. But the growing trend seems to be not just men playing big, fat women, but specifically African-American men playing big, fat women.
Martin Lawrence did it for Big Momma's House, which was popular enough to spawn a similar be-fat-suited sequel. Tyler Perry has done it several times, from Madea's Family Reunion to Diary of a Mad Black Woman. Even Eddie Murphy has dabbled with latex and lycra before, in The Nutty Professor movies. Dave Chappelle spoke out against the trend on Oprah last year and stated his outward refusal to wear a dress. "Why do they put every black man in a dress eventually?" he asked. Good question.
So here we go again with the stereotypical domineering fat woman, and the desexualized black male. In Norbit, Murphy plays the titular character, a shy, good guy who is engaged to a controlling, gi-normous woman named Rasputia (whom Murphy also plays). The previews show the same old fat jokes (honestly, how many 400-pound women wear bikinis and run amuck like Godzilla, breaking everything in their paths?) and Murphy, as Norbit, looks embarrassed by the whole thing. As well he should be, frankly.