It's an Industry stereotype that fat and funny are a match made in comical-genius heaven, but some funny guys are saying, "Screw it! It's time to slim down!
Take the once-chubs Superbad star Jonah Hill, for example. He's shed some serious weight, and he's looking kinda good doing it, but we're worried that less chub will mean less humor on Hill's part.
Can going from chunk to hunk actually hurt Jonah's comic game?
Consensus says: umm, quite possibly, yes.
"If he gets too slim, he'll stop being the ‘fat, funny' guy and he'll need to do something else to set himself apart from the rest," surmised one of our comic experts (who has experience with stand-up herself and who also knows Hill).
The insider believes (as we, too, fear) that Jonah may be have been wrongly inspired by Seth Rogen's weight loss ahead of his big movie Green Hornet. Has Seth lost his big-boy sting?
When we asked Hill's publicist for comment on the shed weight, the rep replied, "Comment on being healthy?"
Apparently, we are to deduce, then, that Hill—who has about 262 movies in production—has morphed his body wholly for health reasons.
But just last year, lost pounds meant not-so-funny appearances by Drew Carey and John Goodman. Even, Ricky Gervais is dropping some pounds, but not at the expense of his funnyguy career, so that's good news.
"Pretty interesting that even the popular schlubby guys are feeling the heat to look better and hotter," our source added.
Looks like a trend to us! But Gervais was brilliantly funny at the Golden Globes, so it must really depend on how, and why, these dudes are trading in sugar cubes for water and celery sticks.
Maybe there's some correlation between a lack of food and an increase in mean-spirited, yet hilarious, comedic edge? That would be Ricky in a nutshell.
Don't get it twisted, though. We have faith that Hill cutting back on the calories could transform him into a Gervais-like mastermind. We just hope he's getting skinny for himself, not by way of some pressuring publicist, agent or manager.
If that's not the case—and this is your personal wish, J—we can dig it and are über proud of you!