Chris Farley is probably not someone you think about often. He was momentarily famous as a comedian on Saturday Night Live and some films in the mid 90’s. He was also fat. 

That last aspect was an inseparable aspect of his personality and his comedy, and most of his characters played into his size and awkwardness. We may not think of it often, but that kind of thing lives in the experience of performers in ways that most people don’t have to navigate their identities. For Chris Farley, doing what he loved to do entailed his being a certain size, and also making jokes about it. Since he died so young –– he was 33 when he died –– he’s become one of those people who are famous and notable, but who were effectively abused by viewers in their laughter, which always seemed to be aimed AT him.

So, when I read that this new book was coming out from Bob Odenkirk––who wrote for SNL during Farley’s tenure there––and that he addressed one of Farley’s most self-degrading sketches (the one, if you know it, where he and Patrick Swayze audition to be Chippendales dancers––both skilled, but one inappropriately shaped for the role), I was relieved to know that I’m not the only one who has feelings about this kind of thing. 

Odenkirk writes:

“It was a huge bummer to me to see that scene get on the air and get such attention. I know it confirmed Chris’s worst instincts about being funny, which was how he proved his worth — that getting laughed at was as good as getting a laugh. Writers I knew and respected defended this sketch because it had a funnyish idea buried in it: the Chippendales judges prefer Swayze’s dancing over Chris’s but can’t put a finger on why. But that idea is not what produced the gales of cackling (and gasps) from the live audience. Chris flopping his overstuffed body around did that. I feel like I can see it on his face in the moment when he rips his shirt off. Shame and laughter are synthesized in the worst way. F— that sketch.”

Bob Odenkirk, exerpt from Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama as published in Yahoo News

Harm carries through our world in ways that we cannot always track. But the marks that it leaves are clear enough. In this case, harm came by helping to snuff out a light just for being bright and larger than life. I think of laughter as sacred and special. But its important to be reminded that even it can be the cause of harm.

Allan T. Georgia, M.Div., M.T.S., PhD

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**