I have a confession to make... I don't have TV. I haven't had it for almost 10 years now. Well, I have a TV to watch movies, but I couldn't even tell you right now if it would work if you were to turn it on. When I first became a cop in the NYPD in 2003 the starting salary was so low I had to get rid of every conceivable bill I could get rid of, cable was the first bill to go. Now as I started working two jobs, sometimes three, and my salary climbed up from time on the job and with the eventual switch to firefighter, then I had the money to get cable again, but I thought, well, I've gone this long without cable, lets see how far I can go. That was a decade ago, now since I am in the fire department and live in Arizona my cost of living is almost nothing compared to the NYPD days, and cable would be an easy bill to take on. But I don't want it, I don't miss TV at all, and feel like I get dumber every time I see some of these reality shows or dramas. Don't get me wrong, there are certainly good programs out there, but with the
growing obesity rate in my country and the world, the time has definitely come to watch less TV and hit the gym more.
So lets take a look at my top 10 picks of TV shows over the years that have promoted being over weight!
10.) Garfield
Garfield was an animated TV show, he is shown in the picture above at the typical weight he was all season round. Instead of snacking on healthy cat food, Garfield typically pounded down tons of bad carbs, pizza, and lasagna. For a cat, they have 9 lives, and that may mean they will live an adequate life, but human beings do not have that luxury, if you were to eat like Garfield, you most likely would not survive the next 5 years.
9.) Roseanne
Remember Roseanne from the 80's? I don't remember much about the show, I may have though Darlene was cute when I was a kid but I have higher standards now. The show had some emphasis on family life, but Roseanne never addressed her growing weight problem, not surprisingly the actress who played Roseanne has the same name and is still overweight.
8.) Rosie
While we are on the R's, lets cover the Rosie O'Donnell show, I'm not even sure if that was the name of it, but you know what I am talking about, while the show touched on a bunch of social issues, Rosie should've touched more on her widening pants size,
she suffered a heart attack in 2012 and said it was a miracle that she survived... I thought it would be more miraculous if she hit the gym more and learned proper diet.
7.) Dancing with the Stars (at least this season)
I remember when I was a kid and watched Cheers I thought that Kirstie Alley was amazing, even her name, Kirstie. I hoped one day I could be Sam Malone and ask her on a date when we got off shift... But low and behold the American obesity epidemic got a hold of her, dancing with the stars will not get your weight lowered, while dance is a great art form, and beautiful in so many ways, the style of dancing she practiced was in no way an adequate training form to lose weight (as you can tell from the picture).
6.) The Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest
That's Joey Chestnut up there, research I did claims his weight to be around 218 pounds, which is probably true. He's a genetic machine and somehow doesn't become wheel chair bound or have his stomach and intestines explode from eating competitions, this would kill normal people, and in a round about way it does daily. Every year on the 4th of July to celebrate independence from the Britts, some wackjob decided that we should have a competition to see how many hot dogs someone can eat in 12 minutes. It's televised all over the country. I don't know who laughs more, us Americans who can eat hot dogs now that we are no longer under British opression, or the English, who watch us destroy our freedom with health suicide. In reality, neither should be laughing, we both ranked in the
top 3 fattest countries on this survey.
(side note, I hate this show even more because whenever I am overseas people think that Americans live on hot dogs)
5.) Man Vs. Food
This one goes right along with the hot dog eating, this guy eats huge meals, and sometimes if he finishes they are free. No one should ever, ever, ever... eat meals this big, I don't care if it's free afterwards. The health care costs of the ER trip for your first MI is going to be much more than a 64 ounce steak will ever cost.
4.) King of Queens
Kevin James is a great actor! But that aside, come on? They own a house in Queens? I have friends that are making 6 figures that can't buy in that neighborhood, but off the financial note, I just don't see the girl on the left marrying Doug, his weight would be a huge issue in their romance life.
3.) Fat Albert
It's bad enough we try to influence our children to eat bad food with toy rewards or kid menu's with superhero or comic character names for a grilled cheese sandwich, but Fat Albert? He was a fat kid in an animated series that was the hero of the show. While the show was written to be amusing, there is nothing amusing about Albert's weight, he would not have been able to engage in half the activities if he was a real person as opposed to an animated character.
2.) South Park
How could we leave them out!? The characters are all drawn as circles! Cartman will likely not make it to his twenties secondary to health issues. It also likely that Kenny's death could be related to preventable childhood diseases. All in all these kids need to spend less time talking about society, and more time doing cardio.
1.) The Honey Mooners
Ralph and Alice were always fighting! They were struggling to get by as he grew bigger and bigger while she starved instead of evenly distributing the food. Meanwhile Norton and Trixie got along pretty well as they likely knew diet better.
So notice what didn't make the list... The Biggest Loser, when I first heard of this show I was disgusted because of how popular it was, and I knew that when I was out of the country all the foreigners would associate the TV show with American's being over weight. But when I finally watched an episode I thought it was good, it takes people who have every excuse in the book on their weight and brings them down hundreds of pounds tackling medical, fitness, and psychological issues of weight loss. It's a great TV show, but you know what's even better? Going to gym in real life! I'm off to do chest.
Support This Site and check out our online store
Some of the views and writings in this article are opinion of the writer, consult your doctor or a medical professional before beginning any diet or fitness program. This article has been written for entertainment purposes only, these are the opinions of the writer.
