“Actors make fun of the physical characteristics of their costars every single day.”

Actors make fun of the physical characteristics of their costars every single day. This wasn’t someone in an office setting making fun of the lady in the next cubicle for being fat this was the comedy writer of fictional characters suggesting dialogue well within the bounds of the same exact style humor already seen in…

If you have an alternative origin, I’d love to hear it. But from where I sit, it appears meant to evoke the same emotions as “homophobic” and “transphobic,” and those are two different universes. Along those same lines, we don’t say “racephobic” or “genderphobic” for racism and sexism. It’s just hateful words and…

Ruffin.

“Jim, you’re six eleven and you weigh ninety pounds, Gumby has a better body than you. Boom roasted. Dwight, you’re a kiss-ass. Boom roasted. Pam, you failed art school, boom roasted. Meredith, you’ve slept with so many guys you’re starting to look like one. Boom roasted. Kevin, I can’t decide between a fat joke or a…

I’m not being disingenuous at all. Homophobia is bred from “gay panic,” a prejudice-based fear that gay people would try to rape them or their children. It was even somehow a legal defense until just recently in most states (in some I’m pretty sure it still is). These idiots are literally scared of gay people, and…

The point of the show was, esp in Michael’s case, that these were real people with flaws and they said awful things to each other. We laughed and felt uncomfortable. An episode that Will Ferrell was in, he asks Michael “what’s that Native American girl’s name”. Referring to Kelly, because she had flirted with him.

“She needs to lose thirty pounds or gain sixty. Anything in between has no place in television.” - Jack Donaghy

Wait - if I understand correctly then the writer was suggesting that his character should tell Kaling’s character (i.e. Kelly Kapoor) that she (Kapoor) should lose 15 pounds. There are many characters on the Office for whom that would be a totally in character remark (Dwight, Michael, Ryan, Packer, Meridith). So…

It’s so bred into society that even people who have no business talking about dieting are concerned with losing weight.

“It’s bred into our society that to be fat is one of the worst things you can be”

Or, shocking, people find traditionally attractive people attractive and therefore want to look at them?

Apparently the writers of Dexter should got to prison for life because their completely fictional character murders.

Yes, Ryan is a dick, and yes, Ryan would (and did) say that. But the actors’ bodies don’t magically change when the cameras start. That episode about how fat Stanleyy was or any jokes about Phyllis’ weight can still reflect hurtful experiences or bring up insecurities those actors have.

It was a suggestion made about what a fictional character would say right? Are we attributing fictional character’s possible words and actions as reflective of the person who writes them? Like... WTF? I’m confused. So many comments here personally attacking BJ Novak.

It’s a joke that is right in line with countless Phyllis jokes or having Meredith say in her experience, guys prefer having sex in positions where they can’t see your face. They didn’t shy away from jokes that were flat out mean to the performers. 

so someone suggested that a character tell her character to lose 15 pounds? like i understand she plays the character and how that translates to her body, but what was the context? if it was BJ Novak, wouldn’t that fit with Ryan being an asshole? I am really at a loss here as to why this is a “thing.”

It’s gotta be Novak. Because it’s 100% something his character would say to hers. 

While many cast members did occasional punch ups, or guest writing, there were only a couple of cast members who were also writers in a regular capacity: Paul Lieberstein who played Toby, and BJ Novak as Ryan.

So weird to shade someone by not making them when like it has to either be BJ Novak or Paul Lieberstein since they were the two writers that were also characters.