For a show that launched the careers of John Belushi, Horatio Sanz and Chris Farley - men known for being as large in size as they were in humor - it has long seemed strange that Saturday Night Live only finds skinny attractive women funny. Even the legendary Tina Fey talks about how she lost 35 pounds before getting hired on the show.
If weight can keep a girl from getting from getting hired, could it also get her fired? Casey Wilson, one of the new cast members last season, was just fired under suspicious circumstances. Wilson, while not a Hollywood Barbie type, certainly isn't fat and yet the rumor going 'round is that she was fired for not losing 30 lbs over the summer break as commanded by studio execs. The inimitable Ted Casablanca of E! says it all, "Whether Wilson just couldn't drop the weight or she just only wanted to give her middle finger some exercise, she didn't drop a damn pound. And that's when she was axed, we're told."
To my knowledge (which admittedly isn't much seeing as the closest I've ever gotten to a celeb was when I swore Pamela Anderson was seated in front of me on a Southwest flight - until I realized that the only way Pammy would fly coach in Southwest was if Samuel L. Jackson and the snakes were already on board.) while plenty of men have been fired from SNL, weight has never been the reason. In fact, the fat-n-funny man stereotype has gotten more play than Jon Gosselin post-Kate. Fat-n-funny women on TV are pretty much limited to Roseanne and she's questionable on one of those qualifications.
The counter argument, of course, is that Wilson was just not funny. In fact, she was criticized through the entire season for not developing a memorable signature character and for drawing a lot of irate Internet chatter (not that the latter is hard to do, just ask Britney Spears). And it wasn't just Wilson that got the axe but also her fellow-newbie (and quite thin) cast mate Michaela Watkins.
And yet I think it says a lot whom they chose to replace Wilson and Watkins: two more very pretty, very thin white girls. Let's hope the new girls learn their lesson and stay active in their Weight Watchers meetings.
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