Dear Bill Maher

Dear Bill Maher,

I’m sad to say it’s officially over Bill.  I’ve been a fan of yours for since “Politically Correct”.  I have “Real Time with Bill Maher” set to record every Friday night on my DVR and I’m always a little bummed out when you go on break and happy when you return.  I always enjoy your specials and your documentary “Religulous”.    I agree with most you have to say most of the time politically and have always thought you were a pretty smart guy.  Until today.

You’re a comedian and you make fun of people.  I get it, no one is safe.  But on your 9/20/13 New Rules your little fat joke really cut me to the core.   Yes, you usually can’t help yourself and can’t let one show go by without making a fat joke.  I usually cringe or shake my head.  I get it.  It’s really obvious that you have hate for fat people.  I roll my eyes when you make fun of Governor Chis Christie.  I’m not aligned with him politically, but I feel for him when the only thing you can say about him is that he is fat, haha, look at him that’s so funny.  Like Governor Christie,   I am fat too.  I’m what doctors like to call morbidly obese or what I call death fat.  I’ve struggled my whole life with obesity, going to my first Weight Watchers meeting when I was 8 years old.  I’m not going to make any excuses about why I am obese.  I am and every waking moment I am aware of it.

On your “New Rules” segment you started off with a picture of a very ugly blob fish saying that a “British biologist declared that the blob fish is the ugliest animal on the planet”.  The punch line was “He must admit he’s never been to Walmart” then you showed a picture of the back side of a morbidly obese woman dressed in jeans and a tank top shopping at Walmart.  I have to admit I immediately choked up, feeling sadness for this poor, unaware woman who was just shopping at Walmart and then feeling wow, that very well could have been me.  I have no idea if one of your staff took the photo, or if was just some random stock photo, irregardless it was just a vicious and cruel joke to make.  Your panel and the audience thought it was hilarious, and for that brief moment I took that joke personally and thought maybe everyone in whole world really thought that I and all fat people were truly the ugliest things on the planet. 

I tell you Bill, at that moment it didn’t make me feel like going outside for a run.  All it did was made me hurt and angry.  Then you continued on to the end of your “New Rules” talking about how mean Americans are on Twitter, and gee I wonder how they got that way.  You were really knee deep in the very hypocrisy that you hate in politics and religion.   I hate that you are feeding people this crap and making them think its ok to shame fat people.  It’s not ok Bill.  It’s not ok to make people feel sad and worthless.  Fat people are humans too.  You are going to have to live on earth with fat people, we are not going away.   How can you be so quick to judge, just because of the way someone looks?   You may not find us attractive, but why not treat us with dignity instead of making us feel like we are no better then an ugly blow fish.

The good thing is Bill,  I know deep down inside I’m not the ugliest thing ever.  I have a husband and children who think I am beautiful  I  like many other obese people work hard (I have two part time jobs and take good care of my family) and contribute to society.  Sure there are lazy, obese people out there, but there are lazy skinny and in between people too. Governor Christie didn’t get where he is by being stereotypically lazy because he’s fat.

I’ve unsubscribed “Real Time with Bill Maher” off my DVR.  I’m sure you could probably care less, but I would hope maybe that if you or your staff would read this it would at least make you think about changing the way you treat fat people. 

Good bye Bill. 

Marianne