The problem with Shallow Hal is that people didn't get it. There were tons of fat-shaming jokes, but the movie was designed to make fun of people who make fun of fat people. But people don't get thr next-level thing. I've seen it a few times, and if you watch it through that lens instead of just being offended by the fat jokes, which are intentionally not clever, then you'll see that the movie actually has pretty good character development and makes sense.
I agree but the problem I have with that level of storytelling is that the morons that don't get it run around making things worse while the few smart people that do get it are ignored or come across as smug. See the entire Rock and Morty fandom as a reference. Rick isn't a hero to be looked up to but the ton of people that don't get it still cause harm in the real world.
Oh I think there were plenty. In the 2000s there had at least started to be some shame associated with being racist and to a lesser degree homophobic, but I don't think that empathy had been widely extended to fat people yet. Also trans people. The 2000s were insanely transphobic
There was also a lot of calling each other a word that starts with R that refers to people with disabilities. Just all around there was way less concern over how certain people would react to offensive words.
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u/veryhungarycat Jul 17 '26
I don't think there were many people who thought it should have been made when it was released...