“The first place I learned to be funny was on the school playground, trying to release this weird tension around my body,” says Ian Karmel, who won a 2019 Emmy Award for his work on James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” special with Paul McCartney.
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Kenny McMillan/Penguin Random House
Comedy writer Ian Karmel has been making jokes about his weight for most of his life, starting at a young age.
“Being a kid is scary — and if you can be the funny fat kid, at least that's a role,” Karmel says. “For me, that was better than being the fat kid who wasn't funny, who sat in the corner being sad, even though that's how I felt most of the time.”
For Karmel, the jokes and insults didn’t stop with adolescence. He credits the humiliation he experienced as a child in gym class and the relentless barrage of fat jokes from friends and strangers alike with fueling his comedy.
For years, much of his stand-up comedy revolved around his body; he was determined to make fun of himself first — before anyone else could. “If we're going to destroy me, at least I'm participating in my own self-destruction so I can at least find a role for myself,” he says.
Carmel continued writing for The Late Late Show with James Corden. He has lost more than 200 pounds, but he feels like he will have a lifelong relationship with fatness. He has written his new memoir, T-Shirt Swim Club: Stories of being fat in a world of thin people, together with his sister Alisa, who converted her experience into a profession as a nutritional advisor.
“When we lost a lot of weight … we realized we had never had these conversations,” Karmel says. “If this book changes the way one person thinks about fat people, even if that fat person happens to be herself, then this book will succeed in every way I hoped it would.”
Interview highlights
On the use of the word “fat”
There are all these different terms. And, you know, when I was talking to Alisa about writing this book, we were like, “Are we going to say fat? I think we shouldn't say fat.” And we had a conversation about it. We came to the realization that it's not the word's fault that people treat fat people like dirt. And we tend to do this, where we bring in a new word, we load that word with all the sin of our behavior, throw that word out, bring in a new word, and then all of a sudden we let that word take on all the sin, and we never really change the way we treat people. …
I've been called fat, overweight, obese, muscular, big guy, chubby, a lot of words, all those words are full of poison. … We decided we were going to say “fat” because that's who we are. That's how I feel about myself. And I'm going back to basics.
About the title of his memoirs: T-shirt Swimming Club
T-shirt Swimming Club
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Thank goodness we learned about the damage the sun does to our bodies, because now all kinds of people wear T-shirts in the pool. But when we were growing up, I don't think that happened. It's absurd. We wear this T-shirt because we want to … protect ourselves from prying eyes — but I think it's actually this internalized body shame where I'm like, “Hey, I know my body is disgusting. I know I'm going to gross you out while you're just trying to have a good time in the pool, so let me put this T-shirt on.” And it's even more ridiculous because it doesn't change anything. It doesn't actually cover you up, it hugs every curve!
About how bullying made him paranoid
You think, if four or five people say this to my face, there must be a huge whispering campaign. They must be jostling for space. … Every time someone is giggling in the corner and you're in the same room, you get paranoid. There's a part of you that thinks, they must be laughing at me.
On how fat people are portrayed in pop culture
Fat people, I think, are still one of those groups that you can absolutely make fun of. That's absolutely true. … I'm part of this industry, and I did it to myself. … Maybe it's less of a punchline 1719947279 and more about the pity. You know, you've got Brendan Fraser playing the big fat guy in The whale. And that's at least somebody who's fat and who's had to deal with those issues. Maybe not to the extent of a 500- and 600-pound guy, but to some extent. And good for him. I mean, a great achievement, but still one where it's like, here's this big, fat, sad person.
About the verdict on slimming drugs and operations
It's this ridiculous moral purity. What it comes down to for me is that you [have] You have your loved ones, you have your friends. And whatever you do to spend more time on earth with those people, that’s gold to me. And that’s beautiful, because that’s what life is really about. And the more you can do that, the healthier and happier you are. So those people who are shaming Ozempic or Wegovy or things like that, or bariatric surgery, those people can pull the wool over your eyes. And it’s so hard in a world that’s built for normal-sized people, and in a world that’s simultaneously built to make you as fat as possible with the way we treat food. It’s like, yo, do your best!
Therese Madden and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper, and Beth Novey edited it for the web.
