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Mon 22 Mar, 2004 04:36 pm
HE WEIGHS in at somewhere in excess of 17 stone, has suffered several heart attacks and undergone triple heart bypass surgery. With his protruding belly, addiction to doughnuts and Duff beer and his fear of any form of physical exercise, Homer Simpson is nobody's idea of a figure of good health. Unfortunately, the message appears to have gone over the heads of the health police. They want him to change, cut down on the fatty snacks and eat some pasta. It's not going to go down well with the Atkins people, but they appear to be serious.
A team of researchers from New Jersey's Rutgers University ploughed through 63 episodes of the hit cartoon show to analyse what sort of a health message it was sending out. Failing to see the joke, they were unimpressed.
I liked the episode where he was working on the toaster in the basement, and kept running upstairs to check out the alternate realities. In one, he asks Marge for a doughnut, and she gives him a blank look, and says: "Doughnut?" He runs back down into the basement, while Marge looks out the window and says: "Oh darn, it's raining again," as doughnuts fall from the sky . . .
NPR did a show on transfats once, and i heard of it in advance, and sent them an e-mail in which i regaled them with my love of trans-fat products. I then suggested that if they were really into fretting, they could do my share of the fretting for me. Not only did they not read the e-mail on air, i didn't even get the customary acknowledgement e-mail in return . . . the political rectitude gestapo seem to be running the health police operation . . .
this "study" has re-inforced my faith in the credentials of Rudgers University. (Is Duff beer as bad as Coors?)
Oh for crying out loud!
I hope tax dollars didn't pay for that bit of stupidity.
Keep in mind, Homer is a CARTOON! Cartoon characters can eat all they want and even undergo bypass surgery with ni ill effects. Some cartoon characters even have anvils fall on their heads or fall from tremendous heights without any lasting injury. Must be a genetic thing.
I like the one where he gains MORE weight so he can work from home on disability for being officially obese. I really hope this study goes nowhere. The message is quite clear actually, if the researchers could pull their heads out of their asses.
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