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God love Tyra Banks for always giving me such ample fodder and fun

I don't watch Tyra Banks on any show, much less her talk show. I don't even really watch VH1 or I haven't since they quit actually playing music, or really, any music I like much. This is a matter of preference not snottiness. I roll in the gutter plenty so I don't cast aspersion (much).

However, I happened to catch a show on VH1 about the Tyra Banks show. She was featuring a topic called My Big Fat Ass.

I'm not sure whether to love it or hate it, but I was definitely horrified/fascinated when she opened her show by walking past four women prominently sticking out their allegedly junk-filled trunks...slapping each rear end as she went by, and squeezing the last one.

She asked Carnie Wilson on as a guest---you know, the self-described lead spokeswoman/advocate for Healthy Body Image for Plus Size. She used to sing? Her dad was a Beach Boy? Right-o.

So Carnie is on and she's talking about her life challenges or something and the conversation went roughly like this:

Carnie:...and so I've been sober for [insert right number] of years...
Tyra: (with sympathy) That's when you gave up food...
Carnie: Uh no Tyra, I'm talking about drugs and alcohol

Here the VH1 featured comedian/host broke in with this comment:
Tyra, Tyra, Tyra, I know you're from the fashion industry and all but in the real world we don't call giving up food getting sober...we call it ANOREXIA.

I am so demented I laughed until tears streamed from my eyes. Honestly, I did.

Maybe I should be outraged or analyze this to death or find some nugget of wisdom but I didn't. I just found myself laughing my ass off at Tyra's expense. God love her, truly.

There she is, trying so hard to promote healthy body image and esteem---even if somehow? the way she does it? sends chills up my neck and makes me think that the path to hell very well might be paved with good intentions---and probably just misspoke or something (I hope) but managed to totally miss the mark.

I suppose that gaffe might have been forgotten when she and Carnie ended the segment by re-enacting their favorite rap video.

But it wasn't.



Copyright 2008 Julie Pippert
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Comments

Lawyer Mama said…
Oh my. Oh my.

I would have laughed my ass off too, but how SAD is that!
thailandchani said…
Ugh! So glad I didn't have to see that one. :) Now I know the truth. I truly am getting old. Self-indulgent women who promote cruddy cultural values are simply boring. They're like gnats flying around.
MommyTime said…
That is so funny that I don't even have the room or energy in my brain to be indignant. Or maybe it's just that I have too much junk in my trunk to think straight. Note to self: try sobering up.
Amanda said…
Sometimes it feels as if our society has spent a bit too much time in the spin cycle and we need to be reset.
Anonymous said…
okay, and now I'm laughing so hard I'm crying. share the love.
Bon said…
oh my. yes, that's, erm, sober indeed. very, very sober.

Tyra, i gather, is not the sharpest knife in the drawer?

thanks for the laugh/sigh/laugh.
Anonymous said…
I must 'fess up - I saw the excerpts on "The Soup". I, too, was laughing maniacally. My family actually checked up on me, before calling the guys in white coats.

Maybe it was very un-PC, but it was funny as hell.

~EdT.
Julie Pippert said…
Ed, it was, no is, hilarious. I can't help myself. It still makes me laugh. LawyerMama, Mommytime and and Karen know what I mean, LOL.

But Amanda and Chani are right too.

Bon, Tyra can be sharp, I mean, she's very successful, so sharp in some way right? But err as far as you know belonging to the Intelligentsia Club...probably not.

P.S. I can't believe the lot of you let me get away with saying "aversion" instead of "aspersion." I plead lack of sleep due to 3 yo and also mindlessness due to having lost mind due to 3 y.o.
Anonymous said…
I also caught this on The Soup and was rolling on the ground laughing My Big Fat Ass off.

I'm thinking of taking up watching Tyra just for the humor.
You know, I used to have a total girl crush on Tyra, back in the day, but now? This? Nope. Now she's just blog and TV spoof fodder.
Robert said…
I have only seen her show because it was on at the doctor's office last summer, and I must say, it's ridiculous, so I would have laughed my big fat... well, you get the picture.

Somehow this post reminds me of the time I offered to take a friend out for her 21st birthday since she had taken me out for a lunch on mine, and her response was "Oh, I don't drink anymore." to which I said, "I didn't say anything about going drinking." She never really spoke to me much after that.

Anyway, good laughs, good times.
Kyla said…
I saw it on The Soup. HILARIOUS!
I LOVE The Soup......Tyra annoys the shite out of me!

If you have to refer to YOURSELF as fierce......doesn't that kind of negate the point?!
kat said…
The Soup rocks my world.
That IS funny, Julie. Sadly funny, if that makes any sense.

Heidi
Melissa said…
I agree. Sadly funny. And the anorexia line is classic.

Since I might be the only one here who DIDN'T watch The Soup, thanks for sharing that. :)
Jess Riley said…
I'm mad I missed this!! Very amusing.
Anonymous said…
Is Tyra Banks really a dumb girl? Or does she just play one on tv?
MommyTime said…
Unrelated to this post, but here's my HumpDay thoughts on your question from Friday. I loved working on this. Thanks for the great topic. (Sorry, didn't know whether to put this comment here or on the previous post.)
Kat said…
Oh dear. I guess that is all I can say. Oh dear.
Jennifer S said…
Julie, it's just that *sniff* I've been trying to, you know, get sober for years! *sniff* But that damn grocery story is right (sob) near (sob) my hou-ou-ouse! (wailing)

I think I need to find a meeting.

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