A reader from Scotland sent this link to an upcoming survivor type reality show called “Fat Men Can’t Hunt”.

We can only hope that this UK show, like Millionaire and Weakest Link, will find its way to our shores. I would love to see how this cadre of heavy humans fares, not to mention how much of their avoir du pois they shed tromping alongside the Bushmen across the sands of the Kalahari, eating their Stone Aged hunter-gatherer diet.

Leave it to the clever Brits to come up with this concept. Why didn’t I think of it?

4 Comments

  1. Mrs Hola..its kinda pitiful…really. Doubly so as i adore the Kal.
    I canny find it for you but saw a website this past week with small blogs writen by either all or a few of the contestants (after seeing the first programme) and even though they lost weight..at least 2 of the folks have gone back to eating shite and tonnes of it.
    What was kinda intersting was watching them go through carb withdrawal and get really very nasty with one another.
    Talk about animals out of the environ. of evol. adaptedness

    COMMENT from MD EADES: Probably they were suffering not only carb withdrawal, but caffeine withdrawal and reality tv withdrawal as well! Might make a man (or a woman) testy.

  2. I’m reminded of the 70s world hit movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy. It’s a South African movie, I think, dubbed into English and available from Netflix. A glass Coke bottle is tossed out of a passing small aircraft into the Kalahari, and found by a Bushman. What happens is because of this “alien object” that delights the Bushmen community as well as divides them is both hilarious and tragic.

    TGMBG is a mock documentary, and after a re-viewing of the movie last year, we also watched a second dvd from Netflix, that follows up on TGMBC years later, visiting the “star” Bushman back in his Kalahari community (at the height of the movie’s popularity he became a world celebrity for a time). This dvd make clear that the movie director had taken used artistic license to paint the Bushmen in a certain, innocent way, for the film’s story, but overall I still think it showed a certain way of life that was so alien to ours and how we screw it up for people who are doing just fine without any interference from outsiders.

    When the followup DVD was made, this same Bushman community now was getting some kind of “support” from the govt and eating Western foods, which had changed everything. It showed, too, in the missing teeth and change in appearance of the older people and activities of the younger people. It was really sad to see how “civilization” had spoiled their lives. Ciao, Anna, San Diego, CA

    COMMENT from MD EADES; As we’ve long said, the shift to agriculture (ie Western diet) was good for civilization, but not for the individual civilians. I saw TGMBC years ago; it’s all you said. Would that we’d have a chance to see the obverse (ie, the overweight cadre of Westerners trying to make it on the Kalahari).

  3. Now that’s my idea of “Survivor!” I’ve been waiting for this type of show for years. Let’s hope America steals this good idea too.

    Dave

    COMMENT from MD EADES; My sentiments exactly.

  4. I’m a few days behind, my apologies. Did you see the links to some of the other shows? One is about body image, and the last installment is by an overweight British comic who is “getting sick of the way fat people are treated.” Obviously I don’t know the conclusion, but it seems as if he’s willing to accept the “spread” if you will, and advocates that society should change to accommodate the overweight instead of something else. While I wouldn’t mind a few extra inches in my plane seat (even though I fit just fine as they are!), I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to be healthier. It’s a complicated issue for some, I guess, but that mentality boggles my mind.

    COMMENT from MD EADES; Mine, too.

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