Such Fun —

UPDATED: I changed the title to reflect Peggy’s favorite phrase.

I’m starting to feel like I’m contributing nothing but a Summer of Fluff! But that’s okay… sometimes we need a break from the hardships and frustrations of being a fatty, and simply enjoy the small victories.

A few weeks back, I gushed over a BBC Sci Fi show, “Hyperdrive,” which featured fatties as the male and female leads. At the time, I said there wasn’t a single fat joke, but the second to last episode broke that streak with a few minor swipes at Miranda Hart (at one point, Nick Frost refers to her as Womanzilla, which, honestly made me chuckle).

But in the episode that followed (the series finale), Miranda’s character (Teal) encounters an old flame who proceeds to woo her (to her bashful chagrin) and in the end, she must choose between the man she loves or the shipmates she’s loyal to. I won’t tell you how it ends.

This was enough to solidify my opinion that British producers are (for the most part) passing the Bechdel Test for fatties (at least two fatties who aren’t spending the entire show talking about their weight, weight loss or playing cliche fatty roles).

However, this was before I saw “Miranda.”

Holy crap, people, “Miranda” is what we’ve been waiting for.

Miranda Hart plays an exaggerated version of herself in this show about a non-traditionally attractive woman (who gets called “sir” a lot) who invests her money in a joke shop, only to find her old flame, Gary (the traditionally attractive Tom Ellis) working in the restaurant next door.

Each show begins with Miranda addressing us about her past, including insights into her beloved single life, which includes wearing a velcro suit for catching fabric balls and creating fruit friends and having them conduct an orchestra.

Miranda definitely has some sort of social anxiety disorder, which, when panicked, causes her to tell bizarre, over-the-top lies. But despite seeming sheepish and shy, Miranda is a strong character, who cannot be swayed when her mind is made up. Although she’s never been on a date, she’s never so desperate as to forsake her principles. When she finally connects with the man of her dreams, she discovers that he’s already married. He explains that it was a green card favor for a friend, but the lie becomes too formidable for their relationship and, despite being obviously heartbroken, she holds firm to her position.

Although there are some cliches (during a psychiatric session with her mother, Peggy (the delightful Patricia Hodge), Miranda whips out a picnic from her ginormous bag and they discuss the time Peggy sent her to Overeaters Anonymous. They never say whether Miranda is or is not an “overeater” (whatever that means), but the message is still there, regardless.

There are fat jokes, but typically they aren’t standalones… particularly when Miranda trades jabs with the joke shop’s petite manager, Stevie (Sarah Hadland). For every giantess joke Stevie fires, Miranda returns fire with a wee, baby Stevie joke that levels the playing field. Although we discourage body snarking in general, this kind of good-natured ribbing is the kind of thing friends do. In other words, Miranda shows the relationship between fat and skinny friends as they are, not as we would want them to be. And because the jabs aren’t mean-spirited or one-sided, they seem to work.

The other refreshing aspect of the show is that Miranda plays the romantic lead, not the romantic lead’s sidekick. The sidekick is Stevie, who is petite and traditionally attractive (well… more traditionally attractive, anyway).

In the second series, Gary is replaced by an American chef who immediately takes a liking to Miranda. Then a second suitor arrives and Miranda must choose between the two. In another episode, she’s pursued by her friend’s fiance, a bizarre little man her mom chose for her, and the second suitor. How often have we seen a fat lead female character be portrayed as sexually desirable by one man, let alone three at once?

Can you say never?

But in my opinion, the best part of the show is how Miranda repeatedly shatters the fourth wall in the midst of her escapades. We are invited into her world to share in her discomfort at the bizarre men who “seduce” her, the uneasy conversations her mother foists upon her, and the general mayhem that seems to follow her.

My love for the show is not alone. “Miranda” has won numerous awards in its short run, including the BAFTA (the British Emmys) Best Female Performance two years running, Best Situation Comedy (2010) and Best Direction (2011), as well as the 2010 British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Actress, Best New TV Comedy, and Best TV Sitcom.

And the best indication that Miranda is here to stay: after two seasons on BBC Two, the third season of the show will air on BBC One, the BBC’s flagship station.

All of this is great news for Miranda Hart, an unlikely star in today’s thin-centric culture. What’s even greater news is that Miranda Hart herself deserves every ounce of the accolades. In the interviews I’ve seen with her, Hart is modest, warm and witty, and she has a positive message for body positivity:

It’s a vicious circle. If you feel hideous, you convey it to people. A couple of male friends from university have said, ‘I quite fancied you, but I wouldn’t have dared…’ and I was like, oh really? I was completely amazed that anyone had ever fancied me, and also that I’d obviously given an impression of ‘Don’t touch me’.

All of this is awesome, and yet I haven’t even shared the best news of all… every episode of “Miranda” is available for free on YouTube. That’s right… in fact, I’m going to post the first episode (divided into two parts) right here for you to enjoy right now:

You can find the rest of the episodes here.

You’re welcome!

And while we’re discussing interesting entertainment, I also wanted to share a movie we recently watched on Netflix called “Mary and Max.” I ran across it on Netflix and the description drew me in:

Mary Dinkle, a chubby 8-year-old Australian girl, and Max Horovitz, an obese, middle-aged New Yorker with Asperger’s syndrome, are a pair of unlikely pen pals in this quirky clay animation feature from writer-director Adam Elliot. Corresponding for two decades, the friends delve into a variety of topics, including sex, kleptomania, psychiatry, taxidermy and more.

Don’t mistake claymation for a child’s movie, because “Mary and Max” is most definitely not for kids. The film is dark and brooding, with humor interspersed like the bits of color mixed into the film’s primary palette of brown, black and white.

The weights of the characters stem from Mary’s restricted childhood with her alcoholic mother and non-entity father, while Max binges on chocolate hot dogs (chocolate bars on a hot dog bun) as a coping mechanism for his Asperberger’s syndrome. While not overtly judgmental, you can’t help but feel the shame the director must feel for these two characters.

But their mutual eating disorders form part of the unlikely bond between Mary and Max, as they send each other treats with their penpal packages.

As the film progresses, the subject matter darkens. Rather than spend the money she’s been saving for a plane ticket to visit Max in New York, an older Mary ends up paying for surgery to remove the “poo-colored” birthmark on her forehead. Later she regrets this decision as her life begins spiraling out of control.

The film ends on a note of redemption and hope, and while the subject matter can be frequently dark, the characters are ultimately lovable in their flaws.

An eye-opening film on the unlikely (yet based on a true story) relationship between a young, lonely girl and an old, man with AS, “Mary and Max” is a touching and beautiful film.