People Won't Stop Treating Jonah Hill Like Sh*t
Jonah Hill deserves better.
Now I know it can be a little offputting to be told "you should feel bad for this rich, famous comedian", but honestly - you should feel bad for Jonah Hill. Because no matter what he does, no matter how much work he puts in, it makes no difference to audiences or even his fellow celebrities and friends - he's the gross fat funny guy. Forever. And Youtuber NeonFlareify has put together this incredibly revealing and depressing video compilation of some of the most disheartening, hurtful things Hill has experienced ON CAMERA in recent years:
Note that a lot of these were meant as jokes (Hot Fuzz director Edgar Wright is the faux-interviewer in the Superbad interview clip!), but the video is meant to focus on Hill's deadpan, hurt reactions to these kind of jokes, and the relentlessness / meanness of them as they've built up over the years.
Clearly his body image has taken a major toll on his mind over the years - he hit the scene in films like Accepted and The 40 Year Old Virgin mostly on the strength that he could squeeze laughs out of his "fat guy" image, and so that's what stuck with people for so long: his whole deal is that he's fat and awkward, and we should laugh at that. After all, if he's okay being the butt of jokes in his movies for his weight, why wouldn't he be okay with that in real life?
It sure doesn't help that the general public and the media are typically only reading or writing about Jonah Hill in the context of his weight - that would give ANYONE a complex. Seriously - when you type "Jonah Hill w" into Google, the FIRST suggestion is "Jonah Hill weight." Note that Jonah Hill has starred in some VERY SUCCESSFUL MOVIES that start with "W" (The Wolf of Wall Street and War Dogs, namely), but they come well after searches for his weight:
Imagine an entire media world constantly focusing and commenting on your weight - imagine the toll that would take on your self-worth and how it would affect your day-to-day thought processes. And then imagine getting healthier, losing weight, and people STILL commenting all the time about how you're a "fat smelly guy." Hell, there is an actual website called IsJonahHillFat.com, that constantly tracks Jonah Hill's weight status. Your body being under constant judgment by the world takes a toll:
i'm convinced there are multiple clones of Jonah Hill in all shapes and sizes, all roaming the world at one time https://t.co/2sxJxyP5oG
-- fingers in your throat (@toldbydumbass) June 20, 2017
His history of being the "dumb fat guy" in comedies has had a waterfall effect beyond just constant inappropriate comments and references to his weight and hygiene, though - no one takes Jonah Hill seriously as an actor. To this day, he gets brushed aside as the guy in Superbad who draws dicks all the time and things like that, but I think people forget that he is a TWO TIME OSCAR NOMINEE. That's more nominations than Jim Broadbent, Alan Alda, or Lauren Bacall ever received in their extremely long, highly-respected acting careers.
And it doesn't matter.
Jonah Hill is a great actor, and he wants to be taken seriously. In a better world, his incredible comedic work would have already won him respect and accolades, but for whatever reason, very few institutions actually give that much credit to the art of comedy. So, in his quest for validation and acceptance, Hill started taking more and more dramatic roles and turning down comedies (including The Hangover). The result was some truly incredible work - in Cyrus, Moneyball, and The Wolf of Wall Street in particular.
Oh, one kinda weird thing about that last one:
Now on H100 @jonahhill tells @howardstern that he did the 7 month 'Wolf of Wall Street' shoot for $60,000 because he wanted the role so bad
-- Stern Show (@sternshow) January 21, 2014
Jonah Hill earning less than Leonardo DiCaprio for Wolf of Wall Street makes sense, obviously. DiCaprio is a legitimate superstar whose name alone brings people into the theater - plus he was the lead role and has a much longer and more successful career than Hill. But still, at the time he was hired for Wolf of Wall Street, Jonah Hill had already been nominated for an Oscar for his role in Moneyball. He was a legitimate Oscar-nominated actor, and he had to literally BEG Martin Scorsese for a supporting role in this film and agree to a MASSIVE paycut. Now, $60k is nothing to shake your head at (I'd take it), but compared to the $10m DiCaprio was paid, it begins to look MORE than a little insulting. But the truth was - even after an Oscar nomination - no one took Jonah Hill seriously.
Paramount Pictures
So, consider this a plea. Leave Jonah Hill alone about his weight (leave EVERYONE alone about their weight, for that matter). Remember he's an actual, serious actor who does incredible work (he SHOULD have won for Wolf of Wall Street). And - for the love of god - don't neg him (OR ANYONE) by saying you're surprised they don't smell like shit.
Or maybe expecting basic deceny is too much. Fuck me, right?
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