Skip to main content

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
Also blogging at:
Julie Pippert REVIEWS: Get a real opinion about BOOKS, MUSIC and MORE
Julie Pippert RECOMMENDS: A real opinion about HELPFUL and TIME-SAVING products
Moms Speak Up: Talking about the environment, dangerous imports, health care, food safety, media and marketing, education, politics and many other hot topics of concern.
MOMocrats

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.

Popular posts from this blog

Cancer's Calling Card

Foreword: I'm not a medical person, or any kind of expert. This post shouldn't be taken as God's word carved in stone by Moses. In other words, don't consider it to be any kind of authority or use it to treat, diagnose, or select medications. Do your own research and talk to your doctor, an actual expert, who, you know, went to medical school and stuff. This post is merely my best understanding of cancer and cancer treatment and prevention, as related to our situation, based on what I've learned from reading and talking to doctors. Author's Note: If you aren't interested in the cancer discussion and the things I learned, and only want to know the outcome of our appointment with the oncologist yesterday, skip to the end. I've divvied this up by sections, so go to the last section. What would you do if one day a postcard arrived in the mail to warn you that sometime in the next three years you would be diagnosed with cancer? Would you believe it? Change an...

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Quorum

After being confronted with written evidence, Julie admits that she is a total attention whore. In some things, in some ways, sometimes I look outward for validation of my worth and existence. I admit it. It's my weak spot, my vanity spot . If you say I am clever, comment on a post, offer me an award, mention me on your blog, reply to a comment I left on your blog, or in any way flatter me as a writer...I am hopelessly, slavishly devoted to you. I will probably even add you to my blogroll just so everyone can see the list of all the cool kids who actually like me . The girl, she knows she is vain in this regard , but after much vanity discussion and navel-gazing , she has decided to love herself anyway, as she is (ironically) and will keep searching for (1) internal validation and (2) her first person . Until I reach a better point of self-actualization, though, may I just say that this week you people have been better than prozac and chocolate (together, with a side of white choc...

In defense of vanity...I think

Do you have one of those issues where you argue with yourself? Where you just aren't sure what you actually think because there are so many messages and opinions on the topic around you? I have more than one like this. However, there is one topic that has been struggling to the top of my mind recently: vanity and perceived vanity. Can vanity be a good thing? Vanity has historically been truly reviled. Vanity is number seven of the Seven Deadly Sins. It's the doppleganger of number seven on the Seven Holy Virtues list: humility. There are many moralistic tales of how vanity makes you evil and brings about a spectacular downfall. Consider the lady who bathed in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth. Google Borgia+vanity and find plenty. The Brothers Grimm and Disney got in on the act too. The Disney message seems to be: the truly beautiful don't need to be vain. They are just naturally eye-catchingly gorgeous. And they are all gorgeous. Show me the Reubenesque Princess. ...