Big Fun

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Yeah Jesus Was Way Cool, but Budai? Fun incarnate.

"Geez, I thought you people were supposed to be jolly."

Peter Griffin, Family Guy

The big, fun, lovable fat guy. May be a Boisterous Bruiser or The Big Guy of a Five-Man Band, depending on how much they like to fight and shout. Often a king or other aristocrat whose wealth and lifestyle lends itself to fabulous feasts, or in contrast a modern young man whose weight makes him more identifiable.

Almost Always Male it seems, probably because of the usual Double Standard about attractiveness and such. If female, though, she's likely to be a Big Beautiful Woman.

Contrast the Fat Bastard, which is when the fat person is, well... a bastard.

Examples of Big Fun include:

Anime and Manga


Comic Books

Films -- Animated

  • Possible subversion: Po the Panda from Kung Fu Panda acts like this, to mask his insecurity at being the fat oaf at the Furious Five's kung-fu school. He gets more serious as the movie goes along, but is still the nicest guy in the movie.
  • Shrek, in a Jerk with a Heart of Gold sense. He puts on a Fat Bastard facade because he doesn't like how "people judge me before they even get to know me."
  • Jethro in The Prince of Egypt.
  • Inversion: Manny the Mammoth in Ice Age is asumed to be jolly by pretty much anybody who meets him. Anybody who lampshades this trope is promptly informed that: "It's not fat, it's fur. It makes me look... poofy."


Films -- Live Action

Folklore


Literature

  • Captain Jack Aubrey has often been chided by Stephen Maturin over his weight. He weighs around 18 stone, which is roughly 250 pounds. Of course, he's also an excellent fighter, which puts him squarely in Stout Strength (and possibly Genius Bruiser, considering his tactical prowess) territory. He also loves to party when he has the chance, and he's been known to make an utter fool of himself in social occasions, which makes him a Boisterous Bruiser too. The ladies seem to appreciate it too: He's practically the James Bond of the Napoleonic War era.
  • A Song of Ice and Fire: King Robert Baratheon. Also a slight deconstruction; as a Boisterous Bruiser put into the role of king and forced into a loveless political marriage after the woman he fought the war for in the first place died, Robert's been unable to exercise most of his appetites, which has led him to grow fat. The jovial humor masks a heavy accumulation of grief, rage, and utter disappointment.
  • King Smoit, from the Prydain Chronicles, combined with Boisterous Bruiser and Stout Strength.
  • King Lune of Archenland from The Chronicles of Narnia.
  • Rhodar, king of Drasnia in The Belgariad.
  • Most illustrators portray Old King Cole this way, making him fat and jolly.

Live Action TV

Gordon: My whole family's big-boned. It's genetic.
Harris: Besides, the world loves jolly fat guys. Burl Ives. Jackie Gleason.
Gordon: Santa Claus. Curly. Raymond Burr.
Neal: No. Raymond Burr isn't jolly.
Gordon: Well he was extremely nice to me at last year's auto show.


Music


Newspaper Comics

  • Flash Gordon has Vultan of the Hawkmen. The dude can fly, too! Those are some strong wings!


Religion

  • As pictured, Budai, also known as Hotei. He fits into both Japanese Shinto and Buddhist traditions, as he's one of the Seven Gods of Fortune in Japanese belief, but also considered to be a bodhisattva (generally Maitreya). The popular label of "The Laughing Buddha", although it is true that he brings good luck if you rub his belly.
  • Ganesha.


Theater


Web Original

  • BFF Nella. She has issues, of course (mostly to do with being abused) but she's a lot happier than the more conventionally pretty, Jerkass, Broken Bird Nostalgia Chick.
  • Clara from The Guild. She's always ready to party.


Video Games

  • Zeke in In Famous. By all accounts, a friendly, easygoing kind of guy. Sadly, his urge to become a superhero results in him betraying Cole later in the game. Thankfully, he recovers in the sequel, becoming a much better friend to Cole in the process.
  • Big Smoke in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
    • Sadly, what applies to Zeke above also applies to Smoke.
  • E Honda in his various adaptations throughout Street Fighter seems to have many friends and allies. Probably due to exactly how seriously he's taking the tournament.
  • Gordo the Round in Skies of Arcadia starts off as a Fat Bastard, but he pulls a Heel Face Turn, opens up his own gourmet restaurant, and becomes the game's Big Fun after he is defeated.
  • Both Brom and his daughter Meg from Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn are rather upbeat, cheerful country folk. Brom explains that the girth itself is rather useful for managing farm equipment.
  • Fatman from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty would qualify, except for the detail that his idea of fun is blowing things up with bombs. Still great fun at parties if you check him for C-4 at the door.

Fatman: Laugh, and grow fat!

  • The Heavy, to his own team, at least. To everyone else, he's describable as "a big, shaved bear that hates people."
    • While on the topic of Valve, Gabe Newell himself.
  • Forrest Kaysen of Deadly Premonition is an enormous sapling salesman with an unfailingly jolly attitude and a friendly pet dalmatian. He's good with kids and becomes a steadfast ally in some of the game's later acts. Absolutely none of this means that he's nice. He isn't. He really, really isn't.
  • The Wii version of Punch-Out!! gives us returning challenger Bear Hugger, who, while easily one of the physically widest and most rotund boxers to get in Little Mac's way, is also an entertaining, goofy Boisterous Bruiser with a big laugh, whose lines are pure comic gold, usually playing into his Canada, Eh? stereotype for all it's worth. He also seems to be in it for fun rather than harboring any serious thoughts of contending or being outright Ax Crazy.
  • In World of Warcraft Pandarens who belong to your own faction are this - refer to Fat Bastard for ones Pandarans on the opposing faction.

Web Comics


Western Animation

Homer: Marge, the boy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
Marge: So?
Homer: There's only two kind of guys who wear those shirts: gay guys and big, fat party animals. And Bart doesn't look like a big, fat party animal to me...
Marge: So, if you wore a Hawaiian shirt, it wouldn't be gay?
Homer: Right. Thank you.

Real Life

  • Gabriel Iglesias is a perfect example. But he's not fat, he's "fluffy"!
  • Daniel Lambert. Despite having worked as a gaol keeper, he is best described as a nice guy and a loved local figure. It helped that morbidly obese people weren't viewed as harshly in 18th/19th century England as they are now, but are rather regarded as marvels to be seen.
  • Benjamin Franklin is the quintessential American example.
    • In late middle and old age (which is when he was famous), that is. As a young man, he was incredibly buff; as a junior printer, he was constantly carrying large cases of heavy lead type.
  • Andrew Zimmern, the bald and huge host of the show Bizarre Foods.
  • Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners
  • Peter Jackson was, for a long time, but recently lost a lot of weight. Still a fun guy, even if no longer big.
  • A lot of rappers seem to cultivate this image. Guys like The Notorious B.I.G.., Fat Joe, and Cee Lo Green (despite only being 5'5") are all pretty heavy and generally seeming like the type of people who knew how to party.
  • Chino Moreno of Deftones, though he lost weight during the period between Saturday Night Wrist and Diamond Eyes.